Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Strengthening Leadership and Retention at UVA Physicians Group with Lisa Hudnall

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Strengthening Leadership and Retention at UVA Physicians Group with Lisa Hudnall · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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This is where health care leadership comes together.
0:04
Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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speakers to Chicago
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April.
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This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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visit beckershospitalreview.com
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and click on the events tab in the
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upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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in Chicago.
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This is Laura Dierdahl with the Becker's Healthcare
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podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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Lisa Hudnell, chief human resources officer at UVA
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Physicians Group. Lisa, it's a pleasure to have
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you on the podcast today.
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Thank you so much, Laura. It's an honor
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to be here. Now I'm excited for our
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conversation because I know there's a lot going
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on in health care and particularly some cool
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things you're doing in UVA, and so I'm
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looking forward to connecting and and learning more
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as well as gaining your perspective on the
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future. But before we dig in, can you
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tell me a little bit more about yourself
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and UVA Physicians
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Group? Sure. Happy to. So as you said,
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I'm the chief human resources officer for University
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of Virginia Physicians Group.
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We are the faculty
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practice plan for UVA Health.
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We're a nonprofit
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affiliated foundation
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of UVA and support a very large and
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complex,
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physician enterprise
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delivering care,
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education,
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medical research,
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and and across the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
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And, you know, it it's a really interesting
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and, unique position to have there, you know,
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with the,
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academic health system and serving the community. So,
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you know, when you think about the last
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year or so, can you tell me about
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an important initiative that you led? What did
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you do, and what were the results?
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That's a great question. I love that question.
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There were so many
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important initiatives
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that we had in 2025.
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But I would say the most important initiative
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truly was strengthening our leadership effectiveness
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and operational
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discipline across UPG,
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during a period of growth
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and constraint at the same time. So what
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we did at UPG was further clarify leadership
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expectations.
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We did that through training
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and ongoing
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personalized
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meetings. It was really important for us to
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be connected,
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personally connected to the leaders within the organization
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and have that connection point,
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ongoing communication
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and presence as we walked them through
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these new
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expectations, the higher standards that we were setting.
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But it really tightened the alignment between HR
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operations and clinical priorities.
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And as a result
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of those improvements,
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we've already seen
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improvements in engagement
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in some targeted areas,
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definitely some more consistent onboarding,
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and leadership practices
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have really helped with our retention rates.
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Our turnover
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has
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decreased already by more than 5%
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as we've worked on this leadership development
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and consistent onboarding with the leaders.
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Other things that we've really been able to
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see
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as fruit of our labor in 2025
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is those improved engagement scores. So we're really
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looking at engagement scores with a priority
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of the leadership
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domain,
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and we've seen that engagement
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score rise by nearly
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a point and a half,
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which is pretty phenomenal
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when you think about
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how
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much of an impact that leadership,
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the leader development really has on engagement, and
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that really
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was evident in those engagement scores.
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We've been able to improve the time to
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productivity
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through standardized
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onboarding with physicians.
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So really tightening that up and getting folks
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ready, getting them the tools that they need
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to be successful
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on day one and after.
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And just as importantly, we've improved our ability
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to address
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people risks earlier, right, which reduces that downstream
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operational and financial disruption.
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That's fascinating to hear. And, you know, it
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seems like an all hands approach to really
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improving some of the the things you talked
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about at the beginning, making sure you've got,
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the clinicians and and team that feels well
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taken care of and,
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has the opportunities to focus on the right
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things so they can build their careers with
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standardized onboarding and leadership training. It feels like
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it makes a big difference. I'm curious as
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you were going through a lot of that
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and, you know,
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having those standard expectations and figuring out, you
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know, what, was needed from each leader on
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the team to continue to grow and and
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challenge
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their their colleagues to step up.
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What what were some of the unlocks that
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you found, or what were some of the
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things that,
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you you know, you were able to now
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incorporate into whether it's a standardized processes or
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the things that are are going have made
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a big difference, I think, in the
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the engagement and the the retention,
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for the team too. It's just,
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would be fascinating to hear about some of
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the things that came up within those discussions
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and that you were actually able to implement.
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Mhmm.
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Yeah. So
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I will share the most surprising to me
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as we were speaking with the leaders across
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EPG
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was
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this
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misunderstanding
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that,
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you know, improved leadership skills or
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sharpening of those skills took a lot of
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time.
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And,
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of course, the last thing that we wanna
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do, right, is
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add more to the plate of these
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very busy leaders, physician leaders, their leading clinics,
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they're leading departments within the medical center.
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So the last thing we wanna do is
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add more time. So it was really interesting
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to have that dialogue and that conversation to
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say,
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these are very small things that you can
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implement
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into your day
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as it is already. Right? We're not asking
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you to do more.
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Just edit
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the things that you've already got in place.
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For instance,
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having
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consistent one on ones
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with team members.
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So
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those were in play. They're in process. So
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what we did with the leaders was just
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tighten that one on one experience.
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How are those going? What are the questions
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that you're asking?
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What what is the feedback that you're looking
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for from these employees? And really building that
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trust
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during that one on one time with the
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employee
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for them to allow
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them to share their feedback and open up
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with the leader as they continue forward. So
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really truly honing in on those things that
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were already happening
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and just tightening those up. And once the
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leaders understood that, no. No. We're not adding
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more to your plate.
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It was
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much, much
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better received,
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and they are much more engaged. And, you
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know, truly,
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it's, you know, one on ones or,
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showing appreciation,
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a thank you, a smile.
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Right? So those things that are that are
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easy to implement throughout the day.
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I love that. That's such great advice and,
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you know, really thoughtful and insightful when you
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think about how leaders across the organization are
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are showing up for their teams. Now when
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you look ahead,
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what do you see as being some of
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the big priorities and headwinds that you're focused
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on for the next year?
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Yeah. I think, you know, in 2026,
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we're
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really
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gonna be faced with, I think, the the
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same headwinds that we were in '25, and
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that's the workforce sustainability,
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you know, clinician
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burnout and that continued
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margin pressure.
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These
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directly affect quality, access, and financial performance.
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So our priority,
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again, in 2026 is
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continuing to build
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upon that leadership
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depth,
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stabilizing
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some key segments of the workforce and investing
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in systems such as
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AI.
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There's a lot of AI systems that we're
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piloting at the moment, but investing in those
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systems
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to
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assist us in reducing that burnout,
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and avoidable turnover.
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So from a metric standpoint, we're really focused
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on retention in those critical roles. Again, the
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the engagement
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trends tied to leadership effectiveness
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and,
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essentially, reducing the cost of disruption
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caused by vacancy and burnout.
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You know, if we can tackle
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that burnout
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right away before it happens, then it's saving
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us
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so much on the back end. When you
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think about
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replacing a physician, for instance,
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you know, that cost could be
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500,000
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and upward into the millions depending on the
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specialty
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of those providers. So it's a huge cost
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on the back end,
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when you're thinking about
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turnover and you're thinking about replacing those folks.
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So we're really trying to
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work
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on the front end and invest in the
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front end.
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That's really interesting to hear, and it's definitely
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such a great point when you're looking at
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cost. And as you mentioned, margin pressure moving
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into the future, being able to have a
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stable team in place,
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makes a big difference in the cost to
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bring on a new person,
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and especially a physician in the clinical team
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is,
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you know, pretty significant. So,
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when you're looking at all of those things
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and and seeing some of these headwinds as
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well as opportunities ahead,
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what do you think the hardest thing you'll
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have to do in the coming year will
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be?
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I believe
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it's going to be
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continued support of our leaders. Right? There's gonna
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be trade offs that we're gonna have to
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make, but
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continuing to maintain that trust and performance.
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Financial
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realties
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mean that we really have to prioritize
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relentlessly,
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and that includes sometimes making decisions that may
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slow growth in some areas
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while protecting the leadership and workforce capabilities that
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really drive those long term results. So
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the risk of of not doing that
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is, again, higher turnover, lower engagement,
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and increased operational volatility. So really to put
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a finer point on that,
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short term savings can create
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long term workforce
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risk if we're not
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very careful and very intentional.
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And that makes a lot of sense. And,
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I I love that idea of being so
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intentional with what you're doing and deciding, you
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know, what you do want to go after
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further and some of the things, you know,
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that
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may not be a top priority and so
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may have slower growth. That's just a really
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fascinating way of looking at that. And, you
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know, when you think about that leadership team
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that you've been growing and working with, whether
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it's your c suite colleagues in in, you
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know, that next level of management leaders,
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how do you make sure everybody's on the
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same page when understanding, you know, what you're
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prioritizing,
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what you're really, truly need to focus on
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in order to meet all the needs of,
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you know, the workforce and the team as
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well as,
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understanding the financial realities of of today.
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Mhmm.
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Yeah. And that's that's the that's the question.
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Right? Getting everybody to buy in.
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And
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I believe if if we're able to align
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culture and strategy,
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pair those two together and be able to
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show how much the culture can truly have
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an impact on the strategy and where we
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want to go
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and grow into the future,
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showing that evidence,
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showing
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the numbers, the financial impact has really truly
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been
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extremely helpful for me and for my team
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to connect the dots and to get everybody
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on the same page,
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rowing in the same direction, working for the
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same goal,
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and truly,
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you know, setting that expectation.
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So this this is the culture that we
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are setting forth. And so
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if there are leaders
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or folks in the organization that potentially
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are not on board with that
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new standard,
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how can we
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pivot,
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and maybe find other opportunities
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for that leader?
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That makes sense. Thank you for digging a
13:07
bit deeper there. Now before we wrap up,
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I wanted to ask about growth too. Where
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do you see some of the best opportunities
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for organizational growth?
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Yeah. So so staying
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on
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the leadership topic, I really truly believe the
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biggest opportunity
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is improving leadership effectiveness
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at scale.
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You know, when leaders are clear,
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capable, accountable,
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supportive,
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transparent,
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and able to really gain the trust
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from the folks that they serve,
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we truly do see better engagement and stronger
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retention, and that directly impacts quality
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and
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impacts
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quality
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and predictable performance.
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So, you know, there's there's as I said
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previously, there's definitely an upside in aligning culture
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and strategy
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and ensures that decisions
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reflect our values
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even under pressure, external
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or internal pressures. And that alignment reduces friction.
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Execution on decisions are more effective and timely
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and really strengthens the trust across the organization.
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I love that, Lisa. Thank you so much
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for joining us on the podcast today. This
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has been a fascinating discussion. I really appreciate
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your perspective here, and I look forward to
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seeing you at our annual meeting in April.
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I know you'll be speaking on a panel,
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and, it'll be great to dig a little
14:31
bit deeper into many of these themes and
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then, find opportunities to connect with one another
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and and learn from each other. So I'm
14:38
looking forward to it.
14:39
Thank you. Yes. I I as well I
14:41
love the, the Becker's health care conference is
14:44
always something that I look forward to.