Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Bringing Humanity Back to Healthcare Leadership with Desi McCue

Transcript

Bringing Humanity Back to Healthcare Leadership with Desi McCue · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
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• 0:26
  - Hi, everyone. I'm Liz Caslow with Becker's, and
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  - we're here at our annual meeting in April
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  - in Chicago. And I'm really excited
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  - to be with Desi McHugh, vice president and
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  - chief nursing officer at Legacy Meridian Park Medical
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  - Center. Desi, thank you so much for joining
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  - us today. Thank you so much for having
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  - me. This is super fun. Oh, I'm so
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  - glad. I'm we're really excited to get into
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  - some of the questions. But first, I would
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  - love for you to briefly introduce yourself, talk
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  - about your role, and the scope of your
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  - organization. Thanks. As Liz said, I'm Desi McHugh.
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  - I'm the vice president and chief nursing officer
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  - at Legacy Meridian Park Hospital.
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  - I oversee all inpatient operations
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  - for Meridian Park. I also have scope over
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  - pharmacy, surgical services,
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  - and
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  - as additional duties or other duties as assigned.
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  - I'm also over the seven,
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  - emergency departments in our system. So I get
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  - to help them organize KPIs
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  - and align with our strategic mission.
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  - So I'd love to hear what's top of
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  - mind for you right now.
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  - What's taking most of my effort and energy
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  - right now is getting back to the human
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  - centered nature of healthcare. I feel like that's
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  - why a lot of us signed up for
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  - the job as we wanted to help people
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  - and
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  - have a greater purpose.
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  - A lot of things shifted
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  - during the pandemic, and I'm tired of talking
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  - about the pandemic, but it really did have
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  - a fundamental
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  - impact on our operations because
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  - during a crisis, leadership shifts to
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  - more directive and people shift to taking orders
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  - so that we can make sense of the
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  - chaos.
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  - And in doing that, we lose a lot
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  - of the aspects of human connection
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  - and ability to
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  - make decisions
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  - and critically think that we normally have. And
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  - so I'm trying to get back to a
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  - state where
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  - we see
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  - our patients,
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  - our employees,
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  - our leaders
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  - as humans who happen to be doing a
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  - job rather than
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  - people who are
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  - defined by their job.
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  - And I look forward to chatting a bit
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  - more about workforce with you a little later
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  - in our conversation.
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  - But in a year marked by rapid change,
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  - I would love to hear about a decision
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  - or pivot that required the most leadership conviction
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  - from you, especially when it comes to alignment
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  - with your people, resources, or other capabilities?
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  - Sure.
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  - One of the things I think we've had
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  - to
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  - focus a lot of effort on is how
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  - do we stay
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  - agile in the current market given all of
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  - the changes in regulations
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  - that we've had facing us,
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  - which has included optimizing our workforce and asking
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  - more of the people on the front lines.
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  - And that never feels good because I think
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  - we see how hard people are working, and
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  - we don't want to have to ask more
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  - of them as leaders.
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  - So it's required a lot of effort for
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  - me to not only
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  - align objectives and strategy for our team,
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  - but also to make sure that I'm taking
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  - things off their plates that needs to be
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  - taken off. So I'll give a real clear
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  - example.
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  - We've been working hard to decrease
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  - overtime incremental overtime
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  - and
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  - eliminate travelers in our system. And we've been
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  - able to eliminate the use of contract labor
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  - by really engaging
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  - and working on human centered nature,
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  - resilience in our teams,
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  - offering
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  - wellness
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  - initiatives like Code Lavender and critical incident stress
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  - debriefing,
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  - and making sure
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  - that we're always taking time to explain the
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  - why. And I think sometimes we wanna pivot
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  - more quickly than that, and so we don't
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  - we don't communicate as transparently as we would
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  - like to. And that has been
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  - something I have had to put a lot
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  - of energy into is slowing the change down
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  - enough that we can explain the why, but
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  - still pivot quickly enough that we are not
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  - falling behind.
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  - So that's definitely a tricky spot to be
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  - in asking more of your workforce. So
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  - how did that inform and change your approach
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  - to decision making as well as how you're
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  - approaching workforce issues going forward?
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  - Sure.
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  - I think one of the things that my
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  - leadership team and I have done a lot
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  - of is making sure that we're listening to
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  - the front lines and making sure that we
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  - understand how everything that we do impacts them.
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  - So if we're asking
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  - our
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  - ICU nurses to trial
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  - end of shift note with AI. I wanna
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  - know how that's impacting every single thing that
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  - they do as far as the workforce.
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  - If we are
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  - decreasing
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  - services
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  - such as pharmacy within our hospital. I wanna
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  - know how that's impacting readmissions
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  - and how that's impacting nursing and other
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  - allied health care professionals
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  - as well as our physicians.
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  - So I spend a lot of time out
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  - rounding,
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  - leading on the by listening. And,
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  - one thing I've done that's really cool this
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  - year is CNO office hours.
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  - So I just hold up in a room,
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  - and I have people come in
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  - and bring me their problems
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  - and their concerns
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  - and their hopes and their wishes, and then
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  - I make sure that I'm following up on
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  - that. But that's helped me
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  - understand the workforce so that when decisions come
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  - down the line, I'm making better decisions. And
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  - people are taking advantage of that opportunity? Oh,
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  - yeah.
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  - It is,
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  - sometimes there's a line. Sometimes I only get
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  - one or two folks, but people really enjoy
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  - connecting with me. And
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  - for some reason, even though I say I
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  - have an open door policy
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  - when I am in my admin office,
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  - People don't wanna go in. There's something I
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  - think it feels like the principal's office. Maybe
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  - they don't. There's something about that door and
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  - walking through that people don't wanna do. But
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  - when I'm sitting in a conference room next
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  - to the cafeteria, people will come by and,
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  - they've brought me everything from, hey, Desi. I
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  - think our our patients don't have enough handicap
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  - parking,
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  - and I see them struggling to come into
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  - the ED. Can we increase the handicap parking
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  - to,
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  - how come I can't have a raise or
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  - I don't feel like I'm being paid for
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  - my years of experience
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  - or,
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  - hey. I would like to be a nurse
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  - someday. And right now, I'm an MA in
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  - the clinic.
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  - What would you recommend for me to get
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  - into nursing? Or I'm a nurse and I
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  - wanna be a leader. How do I get
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  - involved? How can I be
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  - a part of this so that I can
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  - grow as a human?
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  - That sounds like there's better,
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  - engagement than some of my college office hours
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  - for sure.
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  - So just thinking a little bit more big
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  - picture, when you think about the forces reshaping
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  - health care right now, where do you believe
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  - leaders need to be the most decisive, especially
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  - when it comes to balancing speed and risk
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  - and making sure they have the right teams
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  - and resources
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  - established?
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  - I think we need to be very decisive
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  - with
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  - accountability,
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  - hiring the right people,
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  - and acting on quality measures.
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  - Over the pandemic, again, I think we got
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  - away from the fundamental quality and safety that
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  - defined health care,
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  - and
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  - we need to be very clear and crisp
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  - in our communication and decision making.
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  - Because if you leave things open to interpretation,
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  - our teams are just going to go back
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  - to their default settings. Right? Whatever they were
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  - most comfortable with. So we have to be
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  - clear,
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  - agile,
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  - decisive, and make sure that what we are
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  - saying to the front lines
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  - is
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  - as clear and transparent as possible. We also
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  - need to be thinking about
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  - how do we pivot if those decisions that
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  - we've made decisively aren't working out.
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  - So as uncertainty has become the norm, can
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  - you tell me about one leadership habit or
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  - mindset that you've adopted? It's been critical
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  - in keeping your organization and people moving forward.
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  - Sure.
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  - I try to be
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  - extremely mindful. So I
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  - always
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  - know what my intent is before each meeting.
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  - What is it that I'm attempting to communicate,
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  - and what is it that I want to
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  - get from my team at the end of
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  - the day. I also try to communicate that
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  - clearly to my team. So the purpose of
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  - this meeting is x.
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  - This is the product that we're gonna get
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  - out of it, and here's any prework that
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  - you might need to do before. And that
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  - sounds simple, but it it goes to any
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  - strategy.
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  - When I implement, for instance,
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  - potty work,
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  - we wanna reduce pottys and get to zero
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  - pottys. And my expectation of you is that
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  - by the end of this meeting, we will
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  - have next steps that we can roll out.
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  - The other thing I expect of my team
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  - is visibility. So they need to be rounding
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  - every day talking to the people who are
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  - doing the work on the front line. So
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  - when it comes to CODIs,
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  - I want them out in the mornings asking
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  - why patients have catheters. Do they still need
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  - the catheter?
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  - Is there a clear indication? Have they followed
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  - the bundle? And then they're reporting that up
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  - through our huddles, and I also do that
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  - myself. So if the CNO is rounding and
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  - looking at these things, the leaders ought to
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  - be rounding and know the answers before I
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  - come. And when we all show up like
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  - that and people are expecting us to show
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  - up like that, it drives accountability
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  - and moving forward.
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  - So how are shifting workforce expectations
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  - around flexibility,
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  - purpose, and mobility influencing how you design roles
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  - or schedules in different care teams? I know
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  - you talked about the pandemic, and I'm sure
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  - those priorities have become even more front of
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  - mind since then.
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  - Yeah.
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  - My teams want a lot of things different,
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  - and we certainly have to, like I said,
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  - prioritize
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  - being there for the frontline teams and making
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  - sure
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  - that we are
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  - visible presence
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  - at the bedside. That being said, at Legacy
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  - Meridian Park, we also do flexible work schedules.
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  - So my team
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  - has
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  - days that they work in the week. They
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  - have resilience days that they can take where
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  - they're not expected
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  - to
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  - work at all. They have days that they
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  - work from home.
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  - We make sure that as long as there
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  - is a leader available to meet the team's
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  - needs, that they can have flexible work. We
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  - also meet the team where they are. So
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  - I'll give you a an example. I have
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  - some Gen z folks working for me, and
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  - they said, Desi, I don't wanna read your
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  - emails,
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  - which at first, I was like, come on.
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  - Like, reading your email is sort of an
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  - expectation.
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  - They said, but I get so many emails.
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  - I don't wanna read your Huddl announcements.
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  - And I said, okay. What would you like?
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  - And they said, I would really like some
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  - short videos, actually,
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  - that I could could you just read them
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  - to me, and I could listen to them
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  - throughout the day? So I'm experimenting with that.
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  - It's very outside my comfort zone,
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  - but I'm doing that.
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  - Also town halls, we used to only do
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  - in person.
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  - We opened up town halls
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  - so that people can come online. They don't
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  - have to come and park on campus.
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  - And then I'm also do a charge nurse
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  - meeting once a month where I just talk
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  - to the clinical
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  - staff without their leaders present,
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  - and they can give me
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  - their lay of the land, real concerns, and
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  - that is also online.
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  - So I'm trying to engage with people a
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  - little bit in a different way, and I've
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  - also realized that in this generation
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  - of
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  - instant affirmations through likes on social media, it's
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  - really important for people to get affirmation that
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  - they're doing a good job.
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  - So we go out of our way to
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  - make sure that we're recognizing
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  - and looking for the good stuff instead of
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  - finding what people are doing wrong. So making
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  - sure that we are
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  - reinforcing
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  - whatever we see that's good, calling people out,
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  - making sure that we understand things about them
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  - as people, and that helps people show up.
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  - But also being agile with, you know, shifts,
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  - like, if you have a kid who's having
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  - a play in the middle of the day,
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  - how can we cover your shift to make
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  - sure you can be with your kid?
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  - How do we make sure that if you've
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  - had a really tough traumatic
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  - code, for instance, that you get time away
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  - from the bedside,
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  - time to take a pause, regroup, take care
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  - of yourself,
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  - and then offering you the resources so that
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  - you
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  - aren't just expected to process that event and
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  - move on to the next event.
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  - Between the videos that you're doing for your
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  - Gen z folks and now this podcast, are
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  - you ready to keep the multimedia trend going?
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  - I'm gonna try. I won't say that this
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  - is the most natural thing for me, but
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  - It's practice. Yes. And I think that we
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  - have to step outside our comfort zones. And
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  - just because one way of leading
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  - is comfortable for me doesn't mean that it
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  - meets the needs of everyone in my workforce.
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  - And so I really wanna meet everyone where
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  - they are.
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  - And the fact that people are willing to
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  - give me suggestions on what they'd like to
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  - see different and I'm willing to try it,
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  - I think
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  - will help me grow as a leader as
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  - well. And that's not even specific to just
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  - the clinical environment. I think that applies to
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  - pretty much any work environment.
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  - Well, thank you so much for joining us
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  - today, Desi, and I would love to hear
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  - do you have any other thoughts while I
• 14:02
  - have you here, or are you all good
• 14:04
  - to go?
• 14:05
  - I think I'm good. I appreciate the time.
• 14:07
  - Yeah. I appreciate it too. And to our
• 14:09
  - listeners, if you'd like to listen to more
• 14:11
  - podcasts from Becker's, you can go to beckershospitalreview.com.
• 14:15
  - Thank you.