Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Bruce A. Bartoo, MPA, CFRE, President and Chief Gratitude Officer of Gratitude Health Group

Transcript

Bruce A. Bartoo, MPA, CFRE, President and Chief Gratitude Officer of Gratitude Health Group · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  This is where health care leadership comes together.
• 0:04
  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
• 0:07
  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
• 0:10
  speakers to Chicago April.
• 0:14
  This series event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
• 0:17
  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
• 0:20
  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
• 0:23
  visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:25
  and click on the events tab in the
• 0:26
  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
• 0:29
  in Chicago.
• 0:32
  This is Scott Becker
• 0:34
  with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast.
• 0:37
  We're thrilled today to be joined by Bruce
• 0:39
  Bartu.
• 0:41
  Bruce has a organization,
• 0:43
  He'll tell us more about it called the
• 0:45
  Gratitude Group, and we're thrilled to visit with
• 0:48
  Bruce and hear more about what he does
• 0:50
  and how he does it and how he
• 0:51
  got started.
• 0:52
  Bruce, can you take a moment to introduce
• 0:55
  yourself and tell us a little bit about
• 0:56
  what you do and your background?
• 0:58
  Thank you, Scott.
• 1:00
  Yes. My name is Bruce Bartou.
• 1:03
  I, run an organization called the Gratitude Health
• 1:07
  Group,
• 1:08
  which I launched three years ago after thirty
• 1:11
  plus years
• 1:13
  in the health care sector, mostly as a
• 1:15
  chief philanthropy officer.
• 1:18
  And working with so many grateful patients and
• 1:21
  families over the years, Scott,
• 1:23
  what I learned and really became inspired by
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  was the fact that
• 1:29
  gratitude
• 1:31
  was what motivated most people
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  to make significant philanthropic
• 1:35
  investments in health care.
• 1:37
  And so I was fortunate
• 1:39
  in a number of health systems
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  where I served as chief philanthropy officer
• 1:45
  to facilitate
• 1:47
  philanthropic investments
• 1:49
  that were used to advance the work of
• 1:51
  care teams
• 1:52
  for whom those pay
• 1:54
  patients and families were grateful.
• 1:57
  But I learned something else
• 2:00
  that really inspired me to launch the Gratitude
• 2:03
  Health Group, and that is
• 2:05
  before people even consider
• 2:07
  a philanthropic
• 2:08
  investment,
• 2:09
  they are so thrilled to have their gratitude
• 2:13
  accepted
• 2:14
  and shared with care teams.
• 2:16
  And what I learned through this process, Scott,
• 2:20
  is
• 2:21
  so often in health care, what patients and
• 2:23
  families
• 2:24
  who wish to express gratitude hear
• 2:27
  from humble care team members
• 2:30
  is,
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  that's nice, but it's my job. I do
• 2:34
  this every day. Don't worry about it.
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  And, unfortunately,
• 2:38
  people
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  feel dismissed
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  when they actually want to share their gratitude.
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  They feel deep passion
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  and often would love to share the entire
• 2:49
  story
• 2:50
  around why they're grateful.
• 2:52
  But we know our care team members
• 2:54
  don't necessarily have additional time to take
• 2:58
  to listen to stories
• 3:00
  about gratitude for care teams.
• 3:03
  So we facilitated
• 3:04
  in my career
• 3:06
  lots of partnerships with clinical teams
• 3:09
  where
• 3:10
  we inspired them to respond differently when someone
• 3:14
  expressed gratitude.
• 3:15
  Instead of saying, no big deal. I do
• 3:17
  this every day.
• 3:19
  What we inspired our colleagues in
• 3:22
  clinical world to say is thank you. That
• 3:25
  means a lot. May I introduce you to
• 3:27
  my colleague, Bruce?
• 3:29
  He works with patients and families who are
• 3:30
  grateful to make sure you've been able to
• 3:33
  share
• 3:34
  any gratitude story you might want to share.
• 3:37
  And people love that,
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  and they were so inspired
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  to be able to share their gratitude story.
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  So
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  I launched a mission three years ago, Scott,
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  to get our entire industry everywhere in the
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  world to respect gratitude,
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  allow people to share their stories,
• 3:56
  and
• 3:57
  to teach our colleagues who are nonclinical,
• 4:01
  like philanthropy colleagues, marketing, patient experience,
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  those sort of folks working and doing great
• 4:07
  work in health care to learn how to
• 4:10
  triage gratitude
• 4:12
  and allow people to share their thanks? Is
• 4:14
  it just a thank you, or is there
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  a very specific story
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  that they feel inspired to share?
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  So that's the mission I'm on.
• 4:24
  I mean, I mean, simply fascinating. And this
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  isn't in an education.
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  And how many people
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  get said thank you to
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  or or or somebody says, I'm so thankful
• 4:35
  for what you did. And and so many
• 4:38
  of us
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  or so many people, so many caregivers, providers,
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  physicians
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  are are so sort of
• 4:45
  it's hard for them to accept that because
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  they're so busy. They're so they feel sort
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  of humble in in saying you're welcome,
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  or they're just sort of they they don't
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  know how to handle somebody saying thank you
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  to them. Talk about that a little bit
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  because that's a fascinating, fascinating topic.
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  And, obviously, in the philanthropy world, just become
• 5:04
  a huge part of health care and so
• 5:05
  important to making health care work, that ability
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  to say thank you, to accept that thank
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  you, and say, hey, god. Would you like
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  to be involved more with the system or
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  or just or just being able to accept
• 5:17
  that gratitude in a nice way? What a
• 5:19
  fascinating topic, Bruce. Talk more about that.
• 5:23
  Yes, Scott. So what's fascinating,
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  and I learned over the years is
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  people end up reflecting on their experience as
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  a patient and
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  a family member in a much more positive
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  manner
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  if we inspire
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  clinical team members to accept their gratitude
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  in a kind way
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  instead of being dismissive, which is naturally
• 5:48
  what's happened forever in health care.
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  And,
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  but people reflected upon their experience in a
• 5:54
  more positive manner. They felt more respected.
• 5:58
  And, so that was great for patient experience
• 6:02
  and satisfaction
• 6:03
  scores.
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  But, also,
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  when we focus on having nonclinical
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  staff
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  triage that gratitude and capture the stories.
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  When we and I love doing this part
• 6:16
  of work as a chief philanthropy officer.
• 6:18
  When we would hear those stories and bring
• 6:21
  them back to the care team and share
• 6:23
  them,
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  absolutely made a difference in addressing burnout
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  because
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  you had the opportunity to go sit with
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  a group of clinicians and say, let me
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  tell you a specific story I learned today.
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  Something you did and your colleagues did
• 6:39
  that had a real impact.
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  And this patient and their family is so
• 6:44
  deeply grateful,
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  and they feel so honored by what you
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  did.
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  That made a world of difference
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  in addressing burnout.
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  And that pathway
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  created a much more natural and organic discussion
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  than if that family was philanthropic.
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  They would often say, well, I don't wanna
• 7:03
  just say thank you. I wanna help the
• 7:05
  team. What can I do? How can I
• 7:07
  help them? What do they need?
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  And that opened the door to conversations
• 7:11
  about
• 7:12
  philanthropic investments.
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  But even if the family wasn't philanthropic,
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  they felt so much better about their care
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  experience.
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  And,
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  so, Scott,
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  what my mission is
• 7:25
  to inspire our clinical teams to understand there's
• 7:28
  gratitude every day
• 7:30
  where usually we're missing it and dismissing it.
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  And so I'm on a mission to help
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  inspire
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  everyone in health care to understand gratitude exists.
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  Let's invite it.
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  Let's accept it.
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  Let's assign a nonclinical
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  team member to triage that gratitude to ensure
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  that patient and family
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  has the best possible experience and, frankly,
• 7:56
  so that we can bring those gratitude stories
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  back and help address the burnout
• 8:01
  that our care teams are still feeling.
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  And, frankly, right now, Scott, with all the
• 8:06
  uncertainty
• 8:07
  and stress in health care,
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  focusing on gratitude is a much more positive
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  and optimistic
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  activity that we could be doing every single
• 8:17
  day because
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  it's right in front of us every day,
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  but we often miss it.
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  You know, and and I love the entire
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  theme and message. And I think it's so
• 8:26
  important
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  be because someone's
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  saying thank you for their great experience,
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  the the great care that they got.
• 8:34
  And what's fascinating about is when people say
• 8:36
  thank you,
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  they they do it for multiple reasons.
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  They themselves benefit from it because they feel
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  better if they're able to say thank you
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  and express their gratitude.
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  And I think part of the point is
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  if they're sort of dismissed in
• 8:52
  giving that gratitude,
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  then instead of it having a positive, it
• 8:55
  can have a negative.
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  So so learning how to also accept that
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  gratitude
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  is such a fascinating perspective, isn't it?
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  It is. And it's not something that's naturally
• 9:06
  happens in health care.
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  And,
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  Scott, I often tell this story back in
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  1990.
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  A movie came out,
• 9:14
  with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
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  called days of thunder.
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  Tom Cruise was a NASCAR driver. He was
• 9:21
  injured in a terrible accident in a
• 9:24
  race, and Nicole Kidman was the doctor that
• 9:27
  brought him back to good health.
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  Partway through the movie,
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  there's a scene where
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  he goes back to the hospital to thank
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  the doctor.
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  She's walking through the parking lot to get
• 9:39
  into her car, and he's yelling, doctor, doctor,
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  doctor, and she looks at him and says
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  as she gets in the car,
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  what do you need? And he said, I
• 9:47
  just wanna say thank you. And she looks
• 9:49
  at him and she says, it's my job.
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  He looks at her and says, yeah. Well,
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  it's my life.
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  And what I love about quoting this story
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  from a 1990
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  movie is it was clear the screenwriters
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  understood
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  there's an imbalance
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  between what's routine for the caregiver
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  and the patient.
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  It's all about their life.
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  And so my question for us in the
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  industry is,
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  if we've known about this for more than
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  thirty five years, why haven't we fixed it?
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  I'm on a mission to fix it.
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  Bruce, let me ask this question. Where can
• 10:26
  people learn more about what you do and
• 10:28
  about the gratitude group and just fascinating what
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  you do?
• 10:31
  Yes. The gratitude help group.
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  We do have a website, gratitude health group
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  dot com, but,
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  I've also done a lot of work
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  around the health care industry. And most people
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  think, Scott, because I'm a chief philanthropy officer,
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  this is just a fundraising strategy.
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  But I have to
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  admit to you, it's so much bigger than
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  that.
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  It's so much more about
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  building,
• 10:59
  an optimistic
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  and encouraging culture across health care
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  and even for profit health systems
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  that aren't in the fundraising business,
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  they still get great value
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  from
• 11:14
  improving patient experience
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  and reducing burnout.
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  And,
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  so there's it's it's so easy
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  to begin to focus on this,
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  and I'm hopeful that our industry,
• 11:30
  just begins as you've done today, begins to
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  step back for just a minute and think,
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  you know, this is so natural and organic,
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  and,
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  why can't we do something about this? And
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  the simple thing to do is
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  let's inspire our clinical teams to respond differently,
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  but let's also
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  train and teach our nonclinical
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  teams
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  how to effectively triage gratitude,
• 11:55
  make sure patients and families have the best
• 11:57
  possible experience.
• 11:59
  Bruce, I can't even tell you how thankful
• 12:01
  I am for you to join us on
• 12:03
  the Veterans Health Care podcast. I love the
• 12:05
  message. I love what you do. Thank you
• 12:07
  for taking the time today.
• 12:08
  Thank you so much. We are grateful for
• 12:10
  you and your advocacy
• 12:12
  for
• 12:14
  enhancements in health care.