Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building a Culture of Safety and Leading Agile Hospital Transformation with Dr. Mayank Shah

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Building a Culture of Safety and Leading Agile Hospital Transformation with Dr. Mayank Shah · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:01
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
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April.
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This year's 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,
0:22
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.
0:31
This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
0:34
podcast.
0:34
I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor
0:36
Mayank Shah, vice president and chief medical officer
0:39
at Advocate Condom Medical Center, part of Advocate
0:42
Aurora Health. Health. Doctor Shah, it's a pleasure
0:44
to have you on the podcast today.
0:45
Laura, thank you so much for having me,
0:47
and,
0:48
we're looking forward to our exciting conversation talking
0:51
about health care.
0:53
Absolutely. And, you know, what a huge topic
0:55
and important time to be speaking on these
0:58
things. I think, you know,
0:59
there's just so much happening in the health
1:01
care space, and I I'm excited to dig
1:03
into some of the things you've been doing
1:05
at Canada Medical Center as well as, you
1:07
know, how you're thinking about the future. But
1:08
before we dive in, can you tell us
1:10
a little bit more about yourself and the
1:11
hospital?
1:12
Absolutely.
1:13
So Advocate Condell Medical Center is a 275
1:17
bed,
1:18
facility located in the Lake County area in
1:21
Libertyville, Illinois.
1:23
We are the only level one trauma center
1:25
in the entire Lake County.
1:27
We serve roughly,
1:29
16,000
1:31
inpatient visits annually as well as over 200,000
1:35
plus outpatient visits,
1:37
throughout our facilities.
1:39
We see significant number of anywhere from,
1:43
1,400
1:44
to 1,500 deliveries a year.
1:46
We have a significant
1:48
number of patients and community programs
1:51
that go beyond that, and we're part of
1:52
the advocate health system,
1:55
that offers over 6,000,000,000
1:57
in community benefits annually to the communities that
2:00
we serve. So it's great to be part
2:02
of a larger system and also very focused
2:04
on the service that we provide to our
2:06
local community.
2:08
For myself, I've been the vice, the chief
2:10
medical officer at Advocate Condell Medical Center for
2:14
the last two and a half years.
2:16
Prior to that, I led the Medicaid plan
2:19
in Illinois
2:20
as the chief medical officer.
2:22
And prior to that, I was part of
2:24
the non,
2:25
not for profit health care system,
2:27
leading, as the CMO of the, physician,
2:33
PHO, essentially the the partnership organization
2:36
with our aligned physician groups, within the organization.
2:40
And I also had in the in the
2:41
middle of a stench with, Cigna Healthcare and
2:44
leading their primary care practice at home for
2:46
about three years.
2:48
So that's kind of my background. I've worked
2:50
both on the payer and the provider side,
2:52
and, it is extremely,
2:55
wonderful to be part of organization
2:58
at Condell,
3:00
not only focused
3:01
on delivering outstanding care to the communities that
3:04
we serve, but really thinking about all of
3:07
the health care impacts and how do we
3:09
navigate through the dynamics of health care changes
3:12
that we're seeing today.
3:14
I love that. I think that's,
3:16
so cool that you've gotten the experience both
3:18
on the provider side as well as the
3:19
payer side and,
3:21
now able to bring that into your current
3:23
role and really make an impact on the
3:24
community.
3:25
Now
3:26
based on,
3:27
the last year or so, could you tell
3:29
us about an initiative that you led? What
3:31
did you do, and what were the results?
3:33
Yeah. So, you know, coming into an organization,
3:37
you know, there's always a purview of what
3:40
is the role of the CMO. A CMO
3:43
continuously wears multiple hats at the hospital.
3:47
If you ask me this, you know, about
3:48
ten years ago, the focus for a CMO
3:51
was purely on the quality of care and
3:53
clinical programs at the hospital.
3:55
That is no longer the case. I think
3:57
the CMO really needs to be a diverse
3:59
role looking at all aspects. But the first
4:01
and foremost
4:02
accountability and responsibility we have as a CMO
4:05
is is creating a culture of safety and
4:08
quality.
4:09
And I'm very proud to say that, Condell
4:11
has achieved both of that in the years
4:14
that I've been here. When I started at
4:16
Condell, we were a leapfrog
4:18
c grade organization,
4:20
and we have moved towards an a organization.
4:22
The last three grades they were we've received,
4:26
are all a's, straight a's, you know, for
4:29
for Kondal. And that speaks to the amazing
4:32
quality of care provided, at Kondal. And being
4:34
able to show, demonstrate, and capture that has
4:37
been sort of the pride of accomplishments at
4:39
Kondal.
4:40
I would say the second and more, again,
4:43
important that the quality perspective, from a safety
4:46
perspective, another important aspect is creating this culture
4:49
of safety.
4:51
And what that means is being attuned to
4:53
anything
4:54
that puts patient safety at risk, being on
4:57
a journey of a high reliability organization,
5:00
which means continuously pursuing,
5:02
safety challenges, safety reports, and looking at all
5:05
of those tools and tactics such as preoccupation
5:08
with a failure and and integrating those tools
5:11
into our day to day operations
5:13
so that we could be the safest possible.
5:16
As you know, there are four hundred thousand
5:18
deaths predicted every single year,
5:20
from safety incidences occurring at our hospitals across
5:24
the country.
5:25
And our primary goal is how do we
5:27
minimize that? Hospitals should be a place of
5:29
recovery,
5:29
not a place of incurring injury,
5:31
and that is a fundamental principle we hold
5:34
very dear to our heart. And so promoting
5:36
that culture, creating that movement within our teams
5:39
to navigate
5:41
and,
5:42
continuously
5:42
pursue,
5:44
quality improvement and safety improvement has been some
5:46
of the best,
5:48
outcomes I think we've been able to accomplish
5:50
in 2024
5:51
and 2025.
5:53
And the outcome of this has been that
5:55
Condell currently leads the entire advocate health system
6:00
in terms of our safety reports that we
6:02
submit
6:03
month after month and year after year.
6:05
And that accomplishment came from working together as
6:08
a team and leading the efforts to create
6:10
the culture of safety.
6:12
That's so impressive to hear. And, you know,
6:15
coming from where you started with the organization
6:18
to where you're at today and being,
6:20
LeapFrog a
6:22
and leading advocate health, within, you know, your,
6:26
the quality care and improvements is is really
6:29
impressive. And I'm curious from your perspective,
6:33
when you look at the changes that you've
6:34
been may able to make over the years
6:36
that you've been with Condell and, you know,
6:39
what especially
6:40
has made a difference, I'm curious. What what
6:43
did you learn, I guess, during that process
6:44
and, you know, anything that surprised you or
6:47
or things that you feel like, really made
6:49
a difference to accelerate
6:51
that focus on high quality in inpatient safety?
6:55
You know, Laura, that's a great question. And
6:58
I would say that one of the, you
7:00
know, despite
7:02
health care advancing
7:03
so much in the last decade,
7:06
I have to say that we continue to
7:08
work in silos within the health care delivery
7:11
space.
7:12
And I think many times we lose
7:15
the vision of and purpose of our work,
7:18
until we come together and until we're able
7:20
to ground ourself in that vision
7:23
and continuously validate each other that we are
7:25
moving towards that right goal, I think we
7:28
lose that purpose and that vision along the
7:30
way. And this is what leads to a
7:32
lot of burnouts that we see, a lot
7:35
of discouragement and dissatisfaction
7:37
where people change careers,
7:39
and a lot of people shifting from hospital
7:41
to outpatient to different areas within the health
7:43
care market.
7:44
And I I feel that was the fundamental
7:47
change that we were able to make as
7:49
leadership team at Kandal is really aligning with
7:53
our goals of creating the highest quality and
7:55
safety environment
7:57
for everyone, whether it's our teammates, whether it's
7:59
our patients and families,
8:01
or whether it's our providers.
8:03
And how do we create that culture of
8:05
safety?
8:05
It really started with creating a vision and
8:08
a re a mission, a purpose,
8:11
and, having grounding ourselves in that. We call
8:14
it kind.
8:16
So what that means is really grounding in
8:18
that principle of what our identity should be,
8:21
who do we wanna be, in the market,
8:23
and with with our patients and communities that
8:25
we serve. And once that definition was clear,
8:29
it was very easy to get our teams
8:31
aligned
8:32
to do the right thing. And and not
8:34
only doing the right thing, but also creating
8:36
new ideas and new opportunities to create this
8:39
culture of safety and quality.
8:41
So, I would say that the fundamental change
8:43
was really grounding ourselves in that vision
8:46
of, our identity and how we wanted to
8:49
show up,
8:50
every single day, at work and in our
8:53
communities.
8:54
I love that. Thank you so much for
8:56
digging a bit deeper there. Now looking ahead
8:58
in 2026, what are some of the big
9:00
priorities and headwinds that you're focused on?
9:03
Another great question. I think the biggest,
9:06
you know, challenge that we face is a
9:08
lot of uncertainty in the health care market.
9:11
You know, with the shifts that are occurring
9:13
on the payer side, with some of the
9:16
regulatory changes and shifts that are occurring,
9:19
one of the key things that we need
9:20
to build in health care going forward is
9:23
a lot of agility. Right? Moving with,
9:26
with speed when it comes to change adaption.
9:29
And I think that is one of the
9:31
biggest headwinds that I see for us in
9:33
2026.
9:34
We need to build the right infrastructure so
9:36
we could be a far more agile in
9:38
health care than what we have been in
9:39
the past.
9:41
To give you one example,
9:43
in health care, there's a belief that when
9:46
a new study or a new,
9:49
treatment option comes out, it takes ten years
9:52
for us to adapt that into mainstream
9:55
practice.
9:56
That can no longer be true. Right? Going
9:58
forward, our health care, our delivery, our knowledge
10:02
is changing so rapidly
10:04
that I think we need to be a
10:06
lot more agile than waiting for ten years
10:08
to adapt those changes.
10:09
And so how do we create that agility
10:11
from ground up? I think that is one
10:13
of the biggest challenge
10:15
that we face as an organization and as
10:17
health care market. And so, we look forward
10:20
to partnering, we look forward to learning best
10:23
practices,
10:24
and we look forward to innovating in the
10:25
space so that we can continue to adapt
10:27
and change. It requires a very different mindset
10:31
from our physicians, from our frontline teams, from
10:33
our workers,
10:34
and then also requires an enormous level of
10:37
collaboration.
10:39
I was shared, a a, an image that
10:42
change management is like a rider,
10:45
that is riding on top of an elephant.
10:47
And an elephant has three parts. Right? We
10:50
consider the head of the elephant. We consider
10:53
the body of the elephant and then the
10:54
tail.
10:55
The head is sort of your leaders that
10:58
are continuously
10:59
helping you navigate through change. They're the visionaries
11:02
that help you at the front line. They're
11:04
the ones that are quickly adapting to change
11:06
and defining the path that you're gonna walk
11:09
on. Then the body is sort of the
11:11
rest of the the the system, the provider,
11:14
the teammates that really drag along with the
11:17
change process.
11:18
And then your tails are the people that
11:20
are normally resistant to change. They want things
11:23
to be the way they are. And so
11:25
when we think about that body, it's really
11:27
thinking about how do we create an infrastructure
11:30
that supports all three parts of the elephant.
11:32
Right? Of course, ahead,
11:34
we leverage the opportunity and the motivation that
11:37
those leaders have to create the vision and
11:38
the path. Then we create how do we
11:40
motivate and invigorate the body to continue to
11:43
move forward? And then how do we address
11:45
those people at the tail that really are
11:48
reluctant to change and bring them along through
11:50
the journey so that we don't leave any
11:52
parts behind and that we create no abrasion
11:54
and we create a holistic moment towards that
11:57
change? And then we wanna do that with
11:58
agility, with quickness, with, with,
12:01
fast paced approach,
12:03
with the number of changes coming our way.
12:05
And so I I feel like that is
12:07
one of the biggest challenge and barriers that
12:09
we continuously work through, and we're adapting and
12:12
and pivoting and and building in '26.
12:16
That's amazing to hear, and I think it's
12:17
so precious to have that understanding
12:19
of the mindset that needs to shift within
12:21
your teams and looking at that nimbleness and
12:23
the agility,
12:24
especially knowing,
12:26
what, you know, is coming down the pipe
12:28
and how quickly
12:29
things and changes and best practices need to
12:31
be adopted. And I appreciate,
12:33
the mental model too when you're talking about
12:35
the elephant and everything else. That's,
12:37
you know, a really helpful image when you're
12:40
thinking about, you know, how you're moving forward.
12:43
I I'm curious. What do you think the
12:45
hardest thing you'll have to do in the
12:46
coming year will be?
12:48
Oh, the there's many hard things coming our
12:50
way as we think about the headwinds, but
12:52
I think the hardest thing is, you know,
12:55
what's happening, from from the government side,
12:59
what's happening with our payer, limitations. And,
13:02
as parts of the health care markets get
13:04
squeezed,
13:06
it it truly becomes our accountability and responsibility
13:09
to meet the needs of our community. So
13:12
how do we expand our scope beyond what
13:14
we're doing today to continuously look at that
13:17
need and address? To give you an example,
13:20
many hospitals are struggling with their margins.
13:23
Although Advocate is doing really well overall,
13:26
we continue to think about what happens when
13:29
there's limited resources in our community, whether we're
13:32
talking about social resources,
13:33
whether we're talking about access to health care,
13:36
whether we're talking about payer specific resources,
13:40
with things like Affordable Care Act at risk,
13:43
you know, what when and lot of uninsured
13:46
and uncovered care increasing in our markets. How
13:49
do we continuously think about the challenges of
13:51
meeting those needs, keeping our communities healthy and
13:54
productive,
13:55
and continuously look at those opportunities of prevention,
13:59
before the care of, cost of care gets
14:01
out of hand. And so those are, you
14:04
know, sort of the key headwinds that we
14:06
continuously think about,
14:07
being creative in our model, thinking through opportunities
14:11
for expanding the scope,
14:13
of how we think about revenue generation
14:15
and then continuously thinking through how do we
14:18
fund that revenue to benefit the communities that
14:20
we serve. To give you an example, in
14:22
the Chicagoland area, Advocate Health has committed to
14:25
a $1,000,000,000
14:26
project in
14:28
putting up a hospital in the South Side
14:29
Of Chicago.
14:31
Again, you know, this is an area that's
14:32
been avoided and neglected. It's called a health
14:35
care desert.
14:36
You've heard stories about the age
14:38
discrepancy that we see across
14:40
a single street, you know, in that neighborhood.
14:44
And so trying to figure out how do
14:46
we serve that community, leveraging our scale and
14:49
scope,
14:50
to continuously meet the need of our Chicagoland,
14:53
communities that we serve,
14:55
and how do we think about the global
14:57
benefit that we create across the entire country?
15:00
So those are some key challenges that we
15:02
continuously think about. I think the unpredictability
15:05
in the healthcare market with the regulatory changes,
15:08
lot of changes in the health the dynamics
15:11
of what's happening out of Washington can truly
15:14
impact our local delivery
15:16
in a significant way. And so build building
15:19
cushions and ability for us to bounce back
15:21
and be agile to create programs and and
15:24
meet the needs of our community is constant
15:26
thinking that we, do as a team.
15:29
I love that. And I think, you know,
15:30
in looking critically at some of those things
15:31
that you mentioned,
15:33
how are you making sure that as you've
15:35
got all these dynamics happening, whether it's financial,
15:37
whether it's, you know, some of the other
15:39
headwinds that you talked about and then looking
15:41
at the change management that we've been discussing,
15:43
for those folks who
15:45
are the tails were, you know, at the
15:47
end that want them to stay the same
15:49
and,
15:50
are are really resisting some of these changes
15:52
that are gonna help you accelerate
15:55
growth and development and transformation,
15:57
how do you work with those folks to
15:58
really bring them along and and get them
16:00
into a position
16:01
to see that big picture and why what
16:03
they do every day, is so critical to
16:05
to change a bit?
16:07
Laura, that's such a great question,
16:10
and it's so insightful. And what I've learned
16:12
over the years is oftentimes,
16:14
those people who are resistant to change are
16:17
resistant
16:18
either because of a fear of that change,
16:21
creating something that is gonna create either more
16:24
stress
16:25
or create an imbalance in their own personal
16:28
life or in their financial life or in
16:30
their, you know,
16:33
individual life,
16:34
balance, overall. And so I you know, how
16:37
do we address that meaningfully? I think the
16:39
first and foremost is get digging deeper into
16:43
understanding
16:44
what matters to them most.
16:46
We talk about, addressing this with our patients,
16:49
but we need to do that with everyone,
16:50
whether it's our teammates, our providers,
16:53
our communities.
16:54
What is it that matters the most to
16:56
them? And then I think working around,
16:59
seeing the change differently.
17:00
Instead of saying that change is disruptive,
17:04
I think seeing the change being collaborative and
17:07
helpful,
17:08
and how can it address
17:10
and and really redesign
17:12
our workflow to help us in that direction,
17:16
could be a huge way that we begin
17:17
to uplift. And you will still find some
17:20
people that are resistant. They're gonna see how
17:22
the change is adapted and done with others.
17:25
And oftentimes,
17:26
leveraging their peers and other people who can
17:29
really
17:29
show them that they trust, I think, could
17:31
be a great way. The other opportunity that
17:34
I see is really
17:36
redeveloping and building trust in health care overall.
17:40
There's a lot of dissonance and and separation
17:42
that's beginning to occur with administration
17:45
and people in the front line of care
17:47
delivery, with how we manage the business of
17:50
health care, with how we deliver care and
17:52
the vision and mission of what we do.
17:54
And sometimes that malalignment
17:56
as, you know, venture capital investments and others
17:59
get into health care,
18:01
leads to a lot of abrasion
18:04
with how our providers view,
18:07
health care overall.
18:08
And so I think bringing them along and
18:10
helping them see the good that we can
18:12
create,
18:13
with appropriate change management and making sure that
18:16
they,
18:17
have a vision and a stake in the
18:19
process
18:20
can be hugely helpful in navigating through and
18:23
bringing everyone along. But it definitely requires a
18:26
lot of effort. It require it requires infrastructure
18:29
so that we can find out those deeper
18:31
thoughts and deeper concerns
18:33
and then continuously build our vision around that
18:36
to support them as well.
18:38
But, you know, it's an effort, but,
18:41
like I said, if you build it correctly
18:42
and if you do it the right way,
18:44
it could be hugely helpful as we navigate
18:46
through,
18:47
the changes that are coming our way in
18:49
health care. To give you one example,
18:51
we deployed
18:53
Dex Nuance,
18:54
which is our,
18:56
platform for
18:57
ambient listening and note generation.
19:00
And initially, there was a lot of thought
19:02
about, wait. This is gonna create disruption. I
19:05
have one more task to do in the
19:07
day.
19:08
But once we found those early adapters and
19:11
they were able to come back and they
19:13
were able to share with others that it
19:16
really decreased down their pajama time. The notes
19:18
were amazing,
19:19
and it captured so many things. And then
19:22
we started to collect safety events and episodes,
19:25
like things that were found
19:27
by ambient AI that perhaps would have been
19:29
missed by providers who were relying on their
19:31
memory to document,
19:33
things that we could comment on in terms
19:35
of patient experience and,
19:37
what what was the patient's,
19:40
perception of that encounter.
19:41
Like, those are deep insights that we now
19:44
we could learn that perhaps were missing from
19:46
our prior approach. And once that vision was
19:49
created and that depth of, information was shared,
19:54
it was very easy to now expand the
19:56
adaption. So we're still working through that, but
19:59
it's been invigorating to have the peers promote,
20:02
the change themselves and then create this process
20:05
of adoption.
20:07
I love that. And what a great example
20:09
of how you can really,
20:11
work with those team members and empower that
20:13
the growth and the adoption and everything else.
20:16
I I love that example, and it's so
20:18
helpful to illustrate everything you've been talking about
20:20
today. And before we wrap up, I wanted
20:23
to just touch on growth as well. How
20:25
do you see the big opportunities for growth,
20:28
coming through at a Condell Medical Center, and
20:31
what do you see as being some of
20:32
the things that you're most focused on for
20:33
the next year?
20:35
Another great question, Laura. And I think, you
20:37
know, there's a short term plan, and there's
20:39
a long term plan as we think about
20:41
our strategic planning and how we think about
20:43
growth.
20:44
I think the reality is that, you know,
20:47
our perception and our health care market
20:50
has been very hospital centric,
20:53
and that is quickly shifting.
20:55
As we look at alternative places of care
20:58
delivery, we look at different models
21:01
and innovation when it comes to health care,
21:03
the adoption of AI and, you know, shifting
21:06
of care more in the community setting.
21:09
I feel that there's an opportunity for us
21:11
to think differently about health care and expanding
21:14
the scope
21:15
beyond the hospital. And so I think hospitals
21:17
will, in the next,
21:19
few years, we'll really be looking at their
21:22
model of care and thinking about how do
21:24
we integrate with lot more services,
21:27
preventative services, and things,
21:29
that previously
21:30
affected the bottom line of the hospitals, but
21:33
truly in the long run benefit us in
21:36
in creating health and wellness in the communities
21:38
that we serve. I think that shift is
21:40
coming,
21:41
and, that is truly
21:43
the the
21:44
the prominent way that we are,
21:46
pivoting to think about growth for Khandel is
21:49
truly looking at our community needs and how
21:51
do we meet those needs through creation of
21:54
programs and innovation within health care delivery model.
21:58
I love that. Doctor Shaw, thank you so
22:00
much for joining us on the podcast today.
22:01
This has been such an informative and and
22:03
fun conversation,
22:04
and I look forward to connecting with you
22:06
again soon as well as at the annual
22:08
meeting in April. I know you'll be speaking
22:10
on a panel there and really touching on
22:11
many of these themes and and digging a
22:13
bit deeper. So it'll be great to connect
22:15
and and, you know, look forward to seeing
22:17
you.
22:18
Laura, thank you for the opportunity to be
22:20
interviewed today, and I love Becker's for all
22:22
the great information and best practices you all
22:25
bring forward to help all of us in
22:27
the health care community. So thank you.