Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Nursing Leadership, Access to Care, and Workforce Culture with Kevin Zeng

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Nursing Leadership, Access to Care, and Workforce Culture with Kevin Zeng · 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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  - 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
  - Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Kelly
• 0:28
  - Gooch, managing editor at Becker's, and I'm thrilled
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  - to be joined today by Kevin Zhang, chief
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  - nurse executive at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center
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  - in California, part of Sutter Health. Kevin, thank
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  - you so much for joining me today. Yeah.
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  - Thank you for having me here. Of course.
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  - So to start off, could you briefly introduce
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  - yourself, your role, the scope of your organization,
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  - and
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  - talk about what's currently to make commanding most
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  - of your attention right now as a leader?
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  - Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Kevin Zhang. I'm the
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  - chief nurse executive at Aldebay Summit Medical Center,
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  - which is, 712
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  - licensed vets,
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  - facilities, three campuses in Oakland, Berkeley, California
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  - that would kinda provide service from the psychiatry
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  - to women's services and and kinda all in
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  - between
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  - and, within Sutter Health, in Northern California.
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  - So in a year marked by rapid change,
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  - what's a recent decision or pivot required
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  - that required the most leadership conviction from you,
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  - particularly when it came to aligning people, resources,
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  - or capabilities?
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  - Yeah. I think,
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  - again, just to your previous question about the
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  - the the what we're kinda working on from
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  - a leadership perspective, I think we
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  - and you're right in terms of the rapid
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  - change that,
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  - we have been focused a lot on providing
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  - access to our patients. I think that's a
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  - lot of a problem that a lot of
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  - us face in this country for health care.
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  - And we we have in in our site,
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  - we have particularly a little bit more challenge
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  - in terms of a payer mix perspective, just
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  - not your rep location and to balance that
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  - piece to making sure we continue to provide
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  - access and all the services that our patient
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  - and community,
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  - deserve and and continue to
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  - to be growing and and and providing a
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  - service. So that's that's kind of what what
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  - we were
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  - most challenged with and and balancing that with
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  - our employees' needs as well, making sure that
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  - that we have a happy workforce and a
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  - workforce that's healthy
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  - to be able to provide that service to
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  - our patients.
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  - Totally. And so when you when you think
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  - about that and and like you said, really
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  - focusing on the workforce, that access component,
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  - How did
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  - that moment or those issues really challenge your
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  - assumptions, and and what did it change about
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  - how you approach decision making, talent, or organizational
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  - readiness today?
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  - Yeah. And and I think there there's
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  - nothing all of us will be lying. There
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  - there isn't, you know, uncertainty or fear. Right?
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  - But like Winston Churchill said,
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  - fear
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  - fear is it's it's
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  - it's a feeling and and really courage is
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  - a decision.
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  - So
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  - I think we we gotta, as leaders, lean
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  - into it and making sure to build a
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  - right culture with our employees
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  - and our workforce
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  - to make sure that we are and and
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  - as as, a lot of us at this
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  - week and backers have talked about,
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  - how how be one team with one purpose.
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  - And I think we we go back a
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  - lot to it, and, of course, our, you
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  - know, CEO, Warren Thomas, really,
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  - spearheads that in terms of we our mission
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  - is pretty simple. It's it's care of our
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  - patients first and our people always, and really
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  - just to stay true to that and every
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  - decision that we make.
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  - Yeah. And so when you do think about
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  - all of those forces we've we've mentioned that
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  - are reshaping health care right now, where do
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  - you believe leaders really need to do be
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  - more decisive, especially when balancing speed, risk, and
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  - having those right teams in place? Yeah. That's
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  - a great question. I think we were just
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  - talking about that. Right? And and and and
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  - you mentioned a little bit, first of all,
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  - make sure that that the organization cultures, right,
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  - and as leaders and executives, that's all it's
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  - it's our our role to make sure that
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  - that is there and build the right team.
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  - Right? And and you ask on how to
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  - build the right team. I think we gotta
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  - start from culture start from the,
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  - our our mission, and we have to stay
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  - true to it that we talked about earlier.
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  - And going from that on, making sure that
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  - every level of organization
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  - really understand what what we're doing as as
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  - a business, as as a organization,
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  - and and has been no doubt about it.
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  - Like I said, I'm really proud of our
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  - organization's mission. It's simple,
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  - like and as, you know, Brene Brown and
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  - some other folks have talked about clarity, optimism,
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  - that that's
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  - also performance there. And and so we we
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  - really need to to do that.
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  - And then from then on, just
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  - to you know, we had to execute. You
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  - know, I think strategy is one thing. Executions
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  - and operation quite quite hard to to we
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  - can have a a
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  - a great strategy, but really having the day
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  - in, day out, have that as standard work,
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  - to be able to to operationalize what we
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  - want to do.
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  - And
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  - as uncertainty has become the more normal, of
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  - course, across the board, what leadership habit or
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  - mindset has been most critical in keeping your
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  - organization and your own people moving forward?
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  - Yeah. I think we we're gonna keep, again,
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  - back to the inspiration piece.
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  - That way, we remind our folks why we're
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  - here, and and and sometimes it needs quite,
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  - you know, frequent reminders. And because we get
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  - we get bogged down and sometimes get too
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  - busy into into work and and really kinda
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  - have to think through,
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  - that piece on a on a more regular
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  - basis
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  - and provide people tools. I mean, I think
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  - I think I think Daniel Pink said this
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  - before. You know,
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  - stop trying to spend time to convince people
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  - what you are thinking, but make it easier
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  - for them to act. Right? So I think
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  - that that gonna take that too hard. And
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  - how do I always think, how do we
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  - how do I provide tools?
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  - And for for our lead whether it's leaders
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  - in each level organization for them to function
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  - at the optimal,
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  - And I think that's that's where we put
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  - the performance and and and the execution.
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  - Well, thank you so much, Kevin, for for
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  - a fun and interesting conversation and and your
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  - time today as well. And, hopefully, we will
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  - work together again soon. So thank you. Thank
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  - you, Kyle. Appreciate it.