Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Leading Through Financial Headwinds and Workforce Challenges in Healthcare with Mark Behl

Transcript

Leading Through Financial Headwinds and Workforce Challenges in Healthcare with Mark Behl · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
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  helping you and improving health care for everyone.
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  That means building stronger teams and delivering sustainable
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  solutions that truly make a difference.
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  to bring you innovative best practices to solve
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  the problems that we face in health care.
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  We're not just promising you results, we are
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  delivering them. Visit us at insightglobal.com.
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  This is Ella Jeffries reporting live from the
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  Becker's twenty twenty six annual meeting. I'm here
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  today with Mark Bell, president and CEO of
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  NorthBay Health. Mark, to start, can you please
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  briefly introduce yourself, your role, and the scope
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  of your organization, and what's currently commanding most
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  of your attention as a leader?
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  Sure. Thanks, Ella. Yeah. My name is, as
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  you said, Mark Bail. I'm the president and
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  CEO for NorthBay Health, and we're a system
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  located in Northern California that, services,
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  really the area between San Francisco and Sacramento.
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  A lot of, suburban areas, rural areas, agricultural
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  areas.
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  We cover Napa.
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  We cover Solano County. We cover Yolo County.
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  So a lot of my focus,
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  really has been this year around continuing to
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  find ways to grow despite the all the
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  challenges that we're facing, a lot of financial
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  headwinds.
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  Definitely focusing on
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  workforce
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  stability,
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  also focusing on access into care because those
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  are all, key drivers of our success going
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  forward.
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  Definitely. Thank you so much for sharing those.
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  And in a year marked by very rapid
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  change, what recent decision or pivot required the
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  most leadership conviction from you, particularly particularly when
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  it came to aligning people, resources, or capabilities?
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  Yeah. I think I think the, challenge that
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  we all have been facing around HR one,
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  you know, and the financial headwinds,
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  in front of us is how do you
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  continue to invest
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  in growth? How do you continue to invest
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  in technology,
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  when you have limited resources?
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  So I think we've had to go back
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  and really
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  challenge our teams
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  to really find solutions that can also help
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  us grow
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  while at the same time having a short
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  term ROI,
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  so that we can ensure that we do
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  have enough resources to be able to continue
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  to grow. So I think aligning the workforce
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  around that has been,
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  obviously challenging,
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  But I think that it's important that we,
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  are very honest with our teams about those
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  challenges that we face and the importance of
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  getting things right.
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  Definitely.
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  And how did that moment challenge your assumptions,
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  and what did it change about how you
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  approach decision making, talent, or organizational readiness today?
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  Yeah. I I think that when you engage
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  the teams in those types of conversations, I
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  think they start to identify their top priorities.
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  And oftentimes,
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  we're offering solutions or we're starting to, you
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  know, have strategic initiatives that may not be
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  solving some of the problems that they need
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  to solve as well. So growth is is
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  great,
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  but if we are putting even more,
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  the burden on our workforce
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  to be able to meet those challenges of
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  growth, then we need to offer solutions that
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  can help reduce some of the burden. And
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  I think that's something that I've really had
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  to take a step back and realize that,
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  you know, the people that should improve the
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  work are the people that actually do the
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  work. And so it's important
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  to take the time to engage them. They're
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  you know, all of our clinicians are really
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  smart people.
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  If you give them the data and you
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  help them understand the challenges that we're facing,
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  they'll figure things out, much like we would.
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  So they'll they'll come to the they come
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  to us with, solutions that,
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  maybe we weren't thinking about because they have
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  a different perspective.
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  Definitely. Those are great points that you raised.
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  Thank you. And as uncertainty has become the
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  norm now, what leadership habit or mindset has
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  been most critical in keeping your organization and
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  your people moving forward?
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  Well, I think it's focus. Definitely having
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  the right metrics so we understand are the
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  strategies that we have and the problems we're
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  solving for, are they actually getting better?
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  And so,
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  really developing those the right dashboards and the
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  right,
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  you know, sort of meeting cadence
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  to to look at those metrics and to
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  have dialogue around,
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  are we making progress in the things that
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  we said we needed to make progress on.
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  So I think
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  in this time,
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  when it's really, really challenging for our our
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  frontline teams and for our c suites to
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  try to work through all the challenges,
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  just having something that we can point to
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  to say, hey. We're making progress. And when
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  you start to put really, points on the
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  board, so to speak, I think everybody gets
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  energized around that because they they're seeing progress.
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  Definitely. Thank you for sharing.
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  Now as labor markets remain tight and care
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  demands continue to grow, how are you rethinking
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  traditional workforce models,
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  including greater use of international or contingent talent
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  to build resilience rather than maybe just fill
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  gaps?
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  Yeah. I think that we have,
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  well documented. There are significant shortages,
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  for the physicians as well as nursing,
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  as well as well as other clinicians.
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  And we do not have enough,
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  supply of those resources. So we're going to
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  have to find ways
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  to really tap into, I think, some other
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  labor forces,
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  and that includes international workforces that we can
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  really start to build a pipeline, not just,
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  like you said, filling gaps. I think we
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  have to be a little bit more thoughtful
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  and proactive about how we can really take
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  care of the long term,
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  again, supply issues that we have in our
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  country
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  by finding ways to work with those other,
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  those other countries and those other systems to
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  help develop future pipelines. Mhmm. Great. Well, thank
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  you so much for sharing these insights today,
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  Mark, and for sitting down with us, and
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  enjoy the rest of your conference. Alright. Thank
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  you, Ella. I appreciate it.