Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Kent Riddle on Building a Culture That Retains Talent and Expands Access to Rehabilitation Care

Transcript

Kent Riddle on Building a Culture That Retains Talent and Expands Access to Rehabilitation Care · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
• 0:02
  - helping you and improving health care for everyone.
• 0:05
  - That means building stronger teams and delivering sustainable
• 0:08
  - solutions that truly make a difference.
• 0:10
  - We offer a full spectrum of talent and
• 0:12
  - technical services and deliver cross industry expertise
• 0:15
  - to bring you innovative best practices to solve
• 0:18
  - the problems that we face in health care.
• 0:20
  - We're not just promising you results, we are
• 0:22
  - delivering them. Visit us at insightglobal.com.
• 0:26
  - This is Carly Beam with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:28
  - podcast.
• 0:29
  - I'm recording live today at our sixteenth annual
• 0:32
  - meeting here in Chicago, and I'm thrilled to
• 0:34
  - be joined by Kent Riddle, CEO of Mary
• 0:37
  - Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital.
• 0:39
  - Kent, thank you for being here today. Carly,
• 0:42
  - thanks for having me. So before we dive
• 0:44
  - into some questions, could you introduce yourself and
• 0:47
  - tell us more about the role and scope
• 0:49
  - of your organization?
• 0:51
  - What's really commanding most of your attention as
• 0:53
  - a leader?
• 0:54
  - You bet. I came to health care in
• 0:56
  - an odd kind of way. Twenty three years
• 0:59
  - ago, my wife was hit by a drunk
• 1:00
  - driver on a highway
• 1:02
  - head on and,
• 1:03
  - was in the ICU and in coma and
• 1:06
  - was taken over to Mary Free Bed. And
• 1:09
  - I didn't know anything about Mary Free Bed.
• 1:11
  - I was an engineer, owned a business, a
• 1:12
  - national business, developing real estate around the country
• 1:15
  - for Fortune 100 companies, and
• 1:18
  - I became enamored during her stay at Mary
• 1:21
  - Free Bed, nine weeks inpatient
• 1:23
  - and years of outpatient
• 1:25
  - and eventually driver's rehabilitation
• 1:27
  - at Merry Free Bed. I became enamored with
• 1:29
  - the culture and the people, so I became
• 1:31
  - a volunteer and and ended up chairing the
• 1:34
  - board, for a number of years. And then,
• 1:37
  - out of desperation, they asked me to take
• 1:39
  - over as CEO. I had sold a business
• 1:41
  - and had time on my hands, and I
• 1:43
  - said it's a terrible idea, but I'll do
• 1:45
  - it
• 1:45
  - for a few months. You don't have to
• 1:47
  - pay me. I said I'll just do it
• 1:49
  - and see if we can figure something out
• 1:51
  - for the organization, and we'll form a search
• 1:53
  - committee. And, well, anyway, that was fifteen years
• 1:56
  - ago, and I'm still CEO.
• 1:58
  - Wow. It's such an incredible story. Yeah. It's,
• 2:01
  - Mary Free Bed about the organization, Mary Free
• 2:03
  - Bed is,
• 2:04
  - 135
• 2:05
  - years old,
• 2:07
  - started by a group of women who raised
• 2:09
  - money for a free bed for the population
• 2:12
  - that couldn't pay for a bed in the
• 2:14
  - local hospital,
• 2:15
  - and, that bed is now 520.
• 2:18
  - They're not all free, but we always do
• 2:20
  - have a few Mhmm. That are because we're
• 2:22
  - nonprofit.
• 2:23
  - Yeah. But it's become the largest nonprofit
• 2:27
  - rehabilitation
• 2:27
  - hospital system in the country now. That's really
• 2:30
  - impressive.
• 2:31
  - And you talk about your what your top
• 2:34
  - priorities
• 2:35
  - are for this year as a leader?
• 2:38
  - Yeah. You know, I'm working on culture a
• 2:40
  - lot now,
• 2:42
  - probably mostly because of the talent gap. Yeah.
• 2:45
  - We are trying to be also become the
• 2:47
  - the best in the world. We're highly ranked
• 2:50
  - with US News and World Report, been in
• 2:51
  - the top 10 for a few years,
• 2:55
  - but that's not good enough. And so,
• 2:58
  - culturally, we're trying to get all of our
• 3:00
  - leaders,
• 3:01
  - a few 100 leaders,
• 3:03
  - to,
• 3:04
  - to care for their staff well enough that
• 3:07
  - their staff never leaves, and that's our answer
• 3:10
  - to the talent gap.
• 3:12
  - We're growing as well. We're in we're building
• 3:14
  - our thirteenth hospital. We're in five states, and
• 3:17
  - Incredible. So it's,
• 3:19
  - it's important
• 3:21
  - for me to spend time on culture and
• 3:22
  - leadership development just to try to get everybody
• 3:25
  - in the system to
• 3:27
  - to work the same. And Yeah. So so,
• 3:29
  - you know, growing workforce, growing a hospital base
• 3:33
  - as well. Yeah. Can you talk about you
• 3:35
  - know, are there any recent decisions
• 3:38
  - or pivots that, you know, really helped when
• 3:41
  - it came to
• 3:42
  - aligning people, resources, or capabilities?
• 3:46
  - Yeah. Great question. I,
• 3:50
  - I did,
• 3:51
  - had to make a change with, our HR
• 3:53
  - leadership
• 3:54
  - and leadership development
• 3:56
  - because,
• 3:58
  - we were seeing turnover and,
• 4:01
  - again, very concerned about the talent gap that
• 4:03
  - that,
• 4:04
  - the need for nurses. And as we grow,
• 4:06
  - having to hire more nurses, as an example,
• 4:09
  - more therapists, more physicians.
• 4:11
  - And,
• 4:12
  - so that was a pivot to make a
• 4:15
  - change. It took about a year,
• 4:17
  - to to sort of implement the whole change,
• 4:19
  - and now I think we're starting to reap
• 4:21
  - the benefits of that. Awesome. Can you can
• 4:24
  - you dive in just a little bit more
• 4:26
  - on how
• 4:27
  - that moment, that decision
• 4:29
  - really challenged your assumptions?
• 4:32
  - Yeah, Carly. I think I,
• 4:36
  - I think I was underestimating the
• 4:39
  - societal challenge that employees face,
• 4:43
  - and I think once we a lot of
• 4:45
  - that was brought to light, just the reason
• 4:47
  - that people were,
• 4:49
  - turning over and and leaving,
• 4:51
  - Oftentimes, it,
• 4:53
  - it, you know, wasn't wasn't because of pay,
• 4:56
  - wasn't sort of obvious things,
• 4:58
  - and I think that was enlightening to me.
• 5:01
  - I'm in a older you know, I'm a
• 5:03
  - baby boomer, and so sort of came from
• 5:06
  - a world where, you know, everybody worked full
• 5:08
  - time. We didn't have,
• 5:09
  - you know, part timers. And and so that
• 5:12
  - that flexibility, we've just had to really change
• 5:14
  - it up from an HR standpoint in order
• 5:17
  - to because we wanna retain all our staff.
• 5:19
  - Absolutely.
• 5:20
  - And when you think about the forces reshaping
• 5:23
  - health care right now,
• 5:25
  - where do you believe leaders
• 5:27
  - need to be more decisive?
• 5:30
  - Well, interesting. Probably,
• 5:33
  - maybe it's a different area. I see tremendous
• 5:36
  - waste still in health care, and I mean
• 5:39
  - across all health systems,
• 5:41
  - certainly between insurance companies, payers, and and providers,
• 5:45
  - providers like ourselves,
• 5:47
  - and the streamlining of that could be could
• 5:49
  - be really great. As a person who came
• 5:51
  - from business
• 5:52
  - and then into health care late in his
• 5:54
  - career after thirty some years, I saw tremendous
• 5:57
  - waste, and I still see it throughout.
• 5:59
  - Just
• 6:01
  - even
• 6:02
  - organizations that are trying to
• 6:04
  - become more efficient, and we went through a
• 6:07
  - long phase where we really worked on efficiency,
• 6:11
  - and that's
• 6:12
  - reaped a lot of benefit now,
• 6:15
  - and and so we're able to invest in
• 6:17
  - things. And so I I think continuing
• 6:19
  - to
• 6:20
  - I think the answer really is,
• 6:23
  - we really can come up with more efficiencies
• 6:25
  - in the way we deliver care, not just
• 6:27
  - Mary Free Bed, but, I mean, health care
• 6:29
  - in general. Yeah. And are there any other
• 6:32
  - big lessons that you took away from your
• 6:34
  - time working in business that, you know, still
• 6:38
  - is very relevant to what you're doing in
• 6:40
  - health care today? Oh, I love that question,
• 6:44
  - and don't often get asked it. I,
• 6:47
  - had developed real estate for a lot of
• 6:49
  - the Fortune 100 companies, as I mentioned, but
• 6:52
  - PayPal, eBay,
• 6:54
  - Google. We did projects for, Northrop Grumman,
• 6:58
  - leading and I got to meet their leadership
• 7:00
  - teams. And I guess what I I take
• 7:02
  - away from that was
• 7:04
  - anything is possible.
• 7:05
  - Anything is possible. I like that. So we
• 7:07
  - have a real yes If it make if
• 7:09
  - we can make it make sense, the answer
• 7:11
  - is yes. We're gonna go do it. Mhmm.
• 7:13
  - So, we've really expanded programs. We're 14
• 7:16
  - times the size we were fifteen years ago
• 7:18
  - now in number of patients served, serving over
• 7:21
  - a 130,000
• 7:23
  - people a year,
• 7:25
  - and that I think it's because the team,
• 7:27
  - the esprit de corps among
• 7:29
  - our thousands of employees is, yes,
• 7:32
  - we can make it make sense. Let's go
• 7:33
  - do it. And, so there's this and I
• 7:36
  - think that comes from
• 7:37
  - these
• 7:38
  - companies that I I used to work for.
• 7:40
  - I like that. It's like a a real
• 7:42
  - kind of can do, yes, we can mindset
• 7:45
  - and understand. We can. Yeah. Yeah. And then
• 7:48
  - the last question I have for you is,
• 7:49
  - you know, as uncertainty, it's becoming the norm,
• 7:52
  - obviously.
• 7:53
  - Are there any
• 7:54
  - big leadership habits besides the and mindsets besides
• 7:58
  - the the yes we can that's been really
• 8:01
  - critical for you, your organization
• 8:04
  - moving forward?
• 8:06
  - Yeah. We're,
• 8:07
  - I think,
• 8:08
  - continuing to push our mission. You know, we're
• 8:11
  - in this, we have this amazing honor of
• 8:13
  - taking care of human beings and bringing them
• 8:17
  - back into lives they want to have, you
• 8:19
  - know, to in the case of rehabilitation, it's
• 8:22
  - to return function so so they can live
• 8:24
  - the lives they want, so they can love
• 8:25
  - again,
• 8:26
  - you know, work again, play again, learn again,
• 8:29
  - all the things that they want to do,
• 8:30
  - and and people come to us in health
• 8:33
  - care wanting hope, looking for hope, and they
• 8:36
  - they're looking for freedom, for, independence so they
• 8:39
  - can live their lives, and it's a real
• 8:42
  - honor. And so, I think,
• 8:44
  - one thing, you know, with the efficiencies that
• 8:47
  - have been gained in healthcare,
• 8:50
  - we we really have to remind even clinicians
• 8:53
  - why they're doing what they're doing, and so
• 8:56
  - I do that all the time and love
• 8:58
  - doing it, is just reminding so I think
• 9:00
  - we need to remind ourselves. I finished a
• 9:02
  - panel yesterday
• 9:03
  - that I was, on as a speaker, and
• 9:06
  - I said and, you know, it was just
• 9:08
  - the last thought, and I said, we can
• 9:10
  - all feel really good. We are we are
• 9:11
  - doing a really wonderful job for human beings,
• 9:15
  - in in giving them back their lives.
• 9:18
  - The it's the sea of people that need
• 9:21
  - our help is bigger than the number of
• 9:24
  - people we can get to. And so it's
• 9:26
  - just it's an unending opportunity, I guess, to
• 9:28
  - serve. I love that. Seeing opportunity more than
• 9:31
  - anything else. Yeah. Well, Kent, thank you so
• 9:34
  - much for joining us on the podcast. I
• 9:36
  - hope you enjoy the rest of this conference,
• 9:38
  - and I look forward to connecting again in
• 9:39
  - the future. Thank you, Carly.