Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Expanding Access and Leading Through Crisis at UCLA Health with Deesha K. Brown

Transcript

Expanding Access and Leading Through Crisis at UCLA Health with Deesha K. Brown · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  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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  Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm Scott King, thrilled today to be
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  joined by a very special guest, Disha k
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  Brown, senior director, community clinics network operations over
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  at UCLA Health. Disha, how are you? Thanks
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  so much for joining us.
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  I'm doing well, Scott. Thank you so much
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  for having me.
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  Of course. Of course. And, you know, we
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  have a lot of of big topics in
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  health care to to lean on you for
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  to answer for us just a little bit.
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  Before you do that, I was hoping you
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  can give us a little bit about a
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  little information about your background and your career
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  in health care.
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  Absolutely. Absolutely.
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  So, Scott, currently, I serve as the senior
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  director of community clinics operations
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  here at UCLA Health, and I've been in
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  this role now for a little bit over
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  a year and a half. I have
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  close to,
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  twenty years of health care operations
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  experience. And currently here at UCLA,
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  I have the privilege
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  of leading over 200 community clinics
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  that delivers care to diverse communities across seven
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  regions.
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  Our clinics are often the front door
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  to our health system, and the work that
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  we do every day is centered on
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  one simple but powerful mission,
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  and that is healing with human kindness one
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  patient at a time. And I like to
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  think that what makes our organization special is
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  not just the scale of what we do,
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  but the intentional focus on bringing high quality
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  academic level care
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  closer to where patients live, work, and raise
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  their families.
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  Through our community clinic footprint,
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  we see approximately
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  close to a million outpatient visits a year.
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  And so we're expanding
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  access and advancing population health and really building
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  care models that are increasingly
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  team based and patient centered.
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  For me personally,
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  the work is deeply meaningful because it sits
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  at the intersection
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  of leadership,
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  operational
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  excellence, and community service. And so this is
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  what drives me and continues to inspire me
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  to do the work that I do every
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  day.
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  Thanks so much, Disha, for sharing your background
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  info there. And and, yeah, I I think
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  it's it's such a great, approach to focus
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  on just, you know, one patient at a
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  time. I think you end up helping so
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  many people that way. So thank you for
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  sharing that as well. And, you know, I
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  I want to start by
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  getting to the topics and asking you, what
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  was the most important initiative you led in
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  the last year? You know, what did you
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  do for that initiative, and what were the
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  results?
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  You know, as I reflect over the last
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  year and especially being new to UCLA,
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  it is a little difficult for me to
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  point to just
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  one initiative.
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  Leadership,
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  I believe, in a complex health care system
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  requires
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  balancing
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  the immediate operational realities while also trying to
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  advance
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  long term strategic priorities, and I often refer
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  to this as the duality of leadership.
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  When I stepped into my role,
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  over a year and a half ago, I
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  established six leadership
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  imperatives
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  to guide the trajectory
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  of my leadership platform.
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  And some of those
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  imperatives included strengthening our leadership teams,
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  integrated collaboration,
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  governance, standardizing
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  processes,
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  team cohesion,
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  and just building
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  a more results driven culture.
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  Unfortunately,
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  I had to shift focus. Within
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  nine months of me being here at UCLA
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  Health, we were faced with an unexpected
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  crisis
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  during the LA fires,
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  And I'm sure everyone
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  remembers and recall what a difficult time period
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  that was across,
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  Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.
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  My immediate focus at that time was ensuring
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  the safety
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  of our staff, patients, and operational
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  assets.
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  Unfortunately, during that time, we did lose,
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  one of our
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  facilities.
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  But, thankfully, due to quick action and just
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  quick leadership
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  of the people we had on the ground
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  and leading our clinics, no lives were lost.
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  And I'm very, very grateful for that because
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  certainly that remained
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  my highest priority to ensure that our staff
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  and our patients were safe.
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  If I step back and think a little
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  bit more, I would also
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  highlight the fact that over the past year,
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  we were able to continue advancing
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  one of our population health strategies that was
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  extremely
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  important.
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  I co champion an initiative to help improve
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  hypertension management
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  across our community clinic footprint,
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  and this focused on repeat blood pressure checks
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  for patients that were presenting with elevated
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  readings.
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  Our performance improved
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  by approximately
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  thirty percent in a very short period of
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  time
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  between July and December, and our fiscal year
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  is not over. And so I'm super excited
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  about the achievements
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  of the work that we've done in regard
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  to this metric and in regard to this
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  particular population because it represents
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  meaningful progress in reducing long term cardiovascular
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  risk for the population that we serve. In
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  addition to that, I just learned this week,
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  and I'm even more excited about it, that
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  an abstract we submitted,
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  in regard to this work was selected
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  for the Society of Internal General Medicine conference,
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  presentation
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  in May. So I'm super excited about it.
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  And as I think about
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  both of these
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  areas over the past year, the experience demonstrates
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  to me our ability to navigate crisis
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  while still delivering
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  measurable
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  health outcomes.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. You
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  know, it's unfortunate to hear that a a
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  facility was lost, but but, you know, it's
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  nice to hear that everyone kinda banded together
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  and everyone was okay and and just, you
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  know,
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  a great great leadership got you guys through
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  that crisis, it sounds like. And I kinda
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  wanna go back to something
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  you said about leadership.
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  In your introduction, I think you kinda broke
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  down your role as as focusing on leadership,
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  operational excellence, and community service. And what I
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  wanna ask you is is out of
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  those kind of three sectors you divided your
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  role into, do you think that leadership
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  is the most important? Because, obviously, good leadership
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  leads to good operational excellence and good community
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  service.
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  Absolutely. At the end of the day, regardless
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  of whether we're talking about being
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  results driven or being more people centered
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  or even focusing on improving patient experience, at
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  the end of the day,
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  it all connects back to leadership.
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  And that is why leadership
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  became one of my
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  first imperatives to focus on in regard to
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  ensuring that our leaders,
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  are strong and they're presenting strong and that
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  they have what they need to succeed in
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  their roles.
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  Absolutely. And and leadership will get you through
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  a a crisis like you just shared with
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  us, and and you'll
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  able to learn from that crisis.
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  Absolutely. Like that again.
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  Yes. Absolutely.
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  And so the thing I wanna ask you
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  is, what is what is the hardest thing
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  you'll have to do in the coming year,
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  you think?
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  I think for me, the hardest thing that
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  I would have to do is continue to
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  focus on leading sustained
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  culture change.
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  Strategy
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  definitely
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  is essential,
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  but culture, I think, at the end of
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  the day, ultimately determines
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  whether strategy succeeds.
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  And culture change
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  is very difficult, and I often say, as
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  leaders, we must learn to do hard things.
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  We have to, and we have to lean
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  into it. And and
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  change can be certainly hard, and it requires
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  consistency
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  and certainly
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  a lot of courage and patience at the
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  same time, as well as, I believe it
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  means, holding ourselves accountable
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  to the behaviors
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  we say we value
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  and how we live up to those behaviors
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  even when it is uncomfortable
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  and staying committed to the long game despite
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  competing priorities.
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  I often say I believe the real work
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  of leadership
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  is often unseen.
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  It's not just achieving operational wins,
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  but building environments where excellence becomes the norm.
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  I think this level of transformation
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  requires intentional effort every day,
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  and I see that as both the greatest
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  challenge
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  and the greatest opportunity ahead.
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  Disha, where do you see the best opportunities
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  for organizational
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  growth?
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  You know, I am incredibly
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  fortunate to be part of an organization
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  like UCLA Health whose vision centers on healing
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  with human kindness. And as demand for care
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  continues to grow,
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  access remains one of our greatest opportunities.
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  I have this joke that I say all
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  the time that, oh my gosh, I wish
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  I had a garden so I could grow
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  more physicians.
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  It seems that we cannot simply hire enough
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  physicians to meet the demand. So we must
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  become smarter
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  about how we design our care delivery models
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  and focus on
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  advanced team based models and optimizing the roles
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  of all of our,
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  providers and our clinical staff and even being
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  able to leverage technology thoughtfully.
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  I believe that if we can do that,
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  when we build systems that are efficient,
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  team based, and people centered, we can expand
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  access and improve outcomes
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  and at the same time,
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  position the organization for long term sustainable growth.
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  And, Disha, I think you have such a
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  great perspective on on leadership and and what
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  good leadership you know, what that entails in
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  health care. I I want to to close
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  this by asking you, how do you think
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  you evolved as a leader?
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  I
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  think, you know, when you're starting out as
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  a as a young leader, at some point,
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  it it really appears to be daunting. It's
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  like you're looking at the mountain.
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  I was fortunate that throughout my leadership career
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  and I began my
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  experience in health care with the department of
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  veteran affairs, I have the opportunity
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  to really grow through various leadership platforms
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  and trainings.
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  In addition to that,
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  matriculating
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  through various senior positions,
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  I think, also prepared me very, very well.
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  And also facing that duality of leadership, trying
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  to balance crisis while at the same time
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  focusing on operational
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  goals and initiatives.
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  I think what has developed me the most
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  as a leader is my commitment to being
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  people centered
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  and focusing on the human element
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  of this work that we do every day.
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  I I believe so much of what we
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  do, especially in health care, but especially in
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  a senior leadership role is human centered, and
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  we must connect to the human element in
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  order to drive operational excellence.
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  Yeah. I think it's such an important point
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  as we deal with emerging technology, you know,
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  in health care now to to to make
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  sure we're staying people focused. I think it's
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  a a great perspective. And, Disha, thank you
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  so much for a great conversation and for
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  joining us on the podcast. Look forward to
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  working with you again soon. Thank you. It's
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  certainly been my pleasure.