Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building a Transparent, Action Driven Health System Strategy with Warner Thomas

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Building a Transparent, Action Driven Health System Strategy with Warner Thomas · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  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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  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.
• 0:26
  This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Warner Thomas, chief executive officer at Sutter Health.
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  Warner, it's a pleasure to have you on
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  the podcast today. Great to be with you.
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  Absolutely. Now I'm excited to have you here
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  today. I know we're gonna be talking through
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  leadership in a good number of things. So
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  but before we begin, could you briefly introduce
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  yourself, your role, and tell us the scope
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  of Sutter Health? What's kind of currently, commanding
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  most of your attention as a leader?
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  Yes.
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  President and CEO of Sutter Health. Sutter Health
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  is based in Northern And Central California.
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  We're a large integrated delivery system,
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  with,
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  you know, hospitals throughout Northern California.
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  We have, 12,000
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  physicians in our network.
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  You know, about,
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  6,000 of those physicians and clinicians are in
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  medical groups, which kinda ground our our organization.
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  We have a a large contingent of independent
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  physicians with, you know,
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  very strategically aligned IPAs as part of that.
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  A large home care platform, so, twelfth largest
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  home care organization in America,
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  and a a growing and evolving
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  population health and and
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  global risk management capability as well. So,
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  but, yeah, cover
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  a a large geography about 13,000,000 people in
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  our primary service area.
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  That's amazing to hear. And, you know, really
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  cool to have an understanding of the entire
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  organization, everything that you do, and that is
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  integrated within the whole enterprise. So when you
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  think about all of the different,
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  areas that you lead, what is top of
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  mind for you? What are you really thinking
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  a lot about today in planning on as
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  you're prioritizing for the future? I think one
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  of the things we'll talk about today is,
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  you know, it's part of the talk I'm
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  doing here at Becker's
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  is the fact that in today's
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  environment, our point of view of the future
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  is you have to have a large
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  geographically
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  distributed
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  ambulatory
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  oriented
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  network, which which is always gonna be grounded
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  with the hospitals. I mean, you're all we're
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  always gonna have hospitals. But this idea of
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  having a geographically dispersed
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  ambulatory network,
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  strong alignment with physicians and clinicians
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  is a critical component to the system, and
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  we're invested significantly
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  in that area. But it has to be
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  coupled with a
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  digital ecosystem
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  that allows patients to move back and forth,
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  and people expect digital connectivity today.
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  And it's not just test results. It's test
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  results. It's online appointments. It's remote patient management,
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  remote patient monitoring.
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  And and, you know, we're continuing to build
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  our digital front door. But, you know, we
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  spend a lot of time thinking about the
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  evolution of this system,
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  how it integrates together, and how we really
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  use that to differentiate ourself in the in
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  the areas that we serve.
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  That's amazing to hear. And, you know, a
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  lot of change happening right now, and especially
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  this last year has been marked with a
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  good amount of change and evolving within the
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  health care system. So can you tell us
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  about a recent decision or or pivot that's
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  required most leadership conviction from you, particularly when
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  it comes to aligning the people, resources, and
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  capabilities?
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  I mean, I think we made a pretty
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  large pivot when,
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  this team got to Sutter Health and
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  really relooking at our whole capital allocation strategy
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  and moving a lot more of those resources
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  into the ambulatory environment.
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  You know, certainly, there's
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  inpatient investment we continue to make and and
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  filling gaps in our network. You know, we
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  recently
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  announced a big project in the Santa Clara,
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  California
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  area because we had a real gap in
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  that area
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  from a hospital perspective,
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  and so we're investing significantly there. But this
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  idea of being very strategic around capital investment,
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  making sure we're doing it to differentiate ourselves
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  and serve our patients in a better fashion,
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  You know, part of that's our center of
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  excellence strategy and advanced care complexes, which
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  are, you know, things like cancer centers, neuroscience
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  centers, sports and orthopedic centers that we have
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  all this great capability, but putting it together
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  in one location in an integrated fashion is
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  really what patients need, and that's what we're
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  providing to them.
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  That's fascinating to hear. You know, I I
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  know bringing more in that ambulatory strategy is
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  something so many health systems are trying to
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  figure out today and,
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  really put the structure around it as you've
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  been talking about. So,
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  as a leader, when you're making this ambulatory
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  expansion and kind of, thinking about the health
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  system differently than just the four walls of
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  the hospital or hospitals within the network, What
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  does that take from a leadership side as
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  well as, you know, the teams to build
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  the right ambulatory strategy? Well, I think part
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  of this is you you have to build
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  a strong team,
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  and you have to make talent management,
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  talent assessment, talent development
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  a key part of what you do. That's
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  a key part of what we call our
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  operating cycle and our operating rhythm
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  is is how we assess talent, you know,
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  how we continue to develop people. And we
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  always challenge our folks. You know, what are
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  you doing to make your team better? You
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  know, we've more than tripled our investment and
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  our learning and development,
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  since I've gotten to Sutter Health. And part
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  of that is because we wanna have the
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  best leaders. And, you know, we continue to
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  invest in them. We continue to help them
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  get better. And you and you cannot
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  operate in today's environment without the right leadership.
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  And we think leadership is a gating item
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  to our future, and that's why we continue
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  to make, you know, big investments in that
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  area.
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  That's helpful to understand and, you know, really
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  inspiring to think about putting together that team
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  in place that's gonna be, propelling you into
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  the future.
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  Now I'm curious. How do you think when
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  you're thinking through, the ambulatory strategy, what does
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  that do to challenge the assumptions that your
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  team had about the health care environment in
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  the past? And what did it change about
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  how you approach decision making
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  as well as organizational readiness?
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  So I think one of the things we
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  try to do is, you know, we have
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  a very clear communication
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  strategy.
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  We we operate with the principle of transparency.
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  We're very clear within our organization about what
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  we're doing and why we're doing it. You
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  know, we have one incentive plan that covers
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  our whole entire leadership team.
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  We have one set of, you know, AIP
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  metrics that covers our whole organization.
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  We really align around all those things. So,
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  you know, we continue to have, you know,
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  ongoing communication on a on a monthly basis
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  to all leaders.
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  We do town halls across the organization, so
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  we keep people up to date as to
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  what we're doing. So I think this idea
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  of, you know, being transparent,
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  being open, being clear, and making communication
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  a key part of your strategy.
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  You know, we really view that leaders need
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  to be master communicators. They need to be
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  able to
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  motivate people,
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  communicate clearly, and have people understand where they're
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  going, that this concept of clarity
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  is critically important to the success of any
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  organization. And so those are some of the
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  key tenants and key
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  foundational things that we do as an organization.
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  That's helpful to understand, and I love that
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  idea of transparency and communication. And I I'm
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  curious. You know,
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  transparency can be a great tool, but it
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  can also
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  might surface information or things that are hard
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  to communicate or things that people don't necessarily
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  wanna hear. So is there anything when you
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  are, being open and transparent that makes you
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  nervous about that strategy, or is it pretty
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  straightforward from your perspective? No. I I I
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  think
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  look. I mean, we often have to communicate
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  things that are not wildly popular.
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  And and many times, we communicate things that
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  there's half our organization that thinks, you know,
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  that that's a great idea and half that
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  doesn't think it's a great idea. And so,
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  you know, I think part of this is
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  that that's why transparency is important. If you
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  can explain why you're doing something,
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  the rationale behind it,
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  people may not like it, but they and
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  if they understand it, they can understand the
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  rationale behind it. I think it's when
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  people hear we're gonna do this, and they
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  have no reason or no understanding why. I
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  think that's when they get a lot of
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  questions. So we try to spend a lot
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  of time talking about the why we're doing
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  something and grounding our direction and purpose.
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  You know, we exist to take care of
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  patients and to take care of each other.
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  You know? Patients first, people always. And so
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  if you use that as kind of the
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  grounding mechanism,
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  and you and you can
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  tie your strategy and tie your actions back
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  to what you're doing there, I think it
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  really helps people to understand
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  what you're doing and why you're doing it.
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  I love that. And it's so helpful to
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  kind of propel those types of discussions and
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  have that as the backbone of your organization.
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  And right now, I know there's a lot
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  of forces reshaping health care. When you think
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  about whether it's policy,
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  technology,
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  patient behavior, just all sorts of things that
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  are are coming into, the health care space
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  and and making a difference. So where do
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  you believe leaders need to be more decisive
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  in the future, especially when they're thinking about
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  balancing speed, risk, and having the right teams
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  in place?
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  You know, I think in today's environment where
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  there's a lot of ambiguity, there's a lot
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  of uncertainty, I think the key thing is
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  to be action oriented. Mhmm. You know, indecision
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  is a decision.
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  Right?
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  Being frozen and not taking action is is
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  a challenge and an issue.
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  You know? I think being action oriented and
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  then reassessing
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  and adapting and and essentially
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  adjusting your strategy or adjusting
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  your actions,
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  I think, is a better strategy than
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  waiting until you think you've got it every
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  single thing figured out and then moving forward.
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  The the environment is so complex, and it's
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  moving
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  so quickly, and there's so many, you know,
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  different variables.
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  Nobody has all the answers. So you have
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  to keep moving forward, keep adjusting,
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  and I think be action oriented. And that's
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  one of the things I'll talk about today
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  in in the talk I'm doing here at
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  Becker's.
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  Yeah. I really appreciate that. And it can
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  be, you know, I I'm sure somewhat paralyzing
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  at times to think about the gravity of
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  everything you're doing in health care, but that
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  action orientation is
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  actually what makes a big difference and can
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  bring, it seems like, the,
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  care delivery as well as the health care
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  system into delivering what they need for patients.
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  I'm curious. Technology
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  has become embedded into daily operations within the
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  health system.
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  And how are you ensuring some of the
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  digital investments that you're making are actually supporting
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  rather than straining the workforce?
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  You know, one of the key tenets of
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  our,
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  digital strategy is making work easier for people.
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  And, you know, Laura Wilt, our chief digital
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  officer, and her team are doing a great
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  job,
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  you know, continuing to
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  develop and evolve our systems to make work
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  easier. You know, we,
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  you know, realigned all of our nursing systems
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  this past year,
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  streamlined a lot of the forms, looked at
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  the number of clicks, the number of,
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  the amount of time our nurses have to
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  stay in the system,
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  and, you know, did this with a with
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  a group of nurses. And, you know, we
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  call that our nurse focus, you know, initiative.
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  We've reduced clicks and time in the system
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  by 20%,
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  making work easier for those nurses, allowing them
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  to have more time at the bedside with
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  patients. And so this idea
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  of trying to make work easier, ambient listening.
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  You know, we've got ambient listening,
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  in our clinics now. We have 4,000
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  physicians and clinicians. It's making it easier for
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  them to do their job.
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  They can spend more time with patients.
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  In many cases, they're seeing more patients. So
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  this this idea of making work easier, I
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  think, has to be a key tenant of
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  how you think about your digital strategy.
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  That makes a ton of sense, and it's
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  really helpful. I know there can be some
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  anxieties or or stress,
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  overall just when you think about technology and
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  bringing AI in and what's it going to
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  do to change jobs
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  or shift responsibilities and accountabilities. But at the
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  end of the day, if it's actually that,
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  support system and supercharging
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  the organization, it seems like it's really beneficial
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  on all fronts. Certainly. Certainly. Excellent. Well, before
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  we wrap up here, I have one more
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  question for you. Sure. As uncertainty becomes the
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  norm, what leadership habit or mindset has been
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  most critical in keeping the organization and your
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  people moving forward?
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  I just think this concept of a growth
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  mindset.
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  You know, I think Satya Nadella said it.
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  It was in his book. You know? He
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  wanted, Microsoft to be learn it alls, not
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  know it alls. And I think we we
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  want to aspire to that at Sutter Health.
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  I mean, how do we be constant learners?
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  How do we be lifelong learners? And this
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  idea of a growth mindset continuing to get
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  better,
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  continuing to invest in yourself, continue to invest
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  in your people,
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  learning new ways of doing things. And I
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  think Becker is a great example of this.
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  You know? A lot of people here are
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  learning new things, people sharing
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  information.
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  The growth mindset to me is a way
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  that we can improve health care, and I
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  think it's a critical
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  I think it's a critical way that we
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  need our leaders to think about
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  their work in the future.
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  I love that. Warner, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today. This
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  has been a really fun discussion. I I've
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  learned a lot from you, and I look
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  forward to connecting with you again soon. Great
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  to be with you. Thank you.