Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Advancing Nursing Leadership, Workforce Stability, and Value at Trinity Health

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Advancing Nursing Leadership, Workforce Stability, and Value at Trinity Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:02
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 April.
0:14
This series 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,
0:23
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.
0:32
This is Laura Dirdle with the Becker's Healthcare
0:34
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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doctor Tim Kerrigan, regional chief nursing officer for
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Illinois and Indiana at Trinity Health. Doctor Kerrigan,
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it's a pleasure to have you on the
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podcast today. Yeah. Thank you, Laura. It's a
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pleasure to be here. Absolutely. Now I'm looking
0:47
forward to our conversation because I know it's
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such a transformative time in health care right
0:50
now. And, truly, Trinity is at the forefront
0:53
of a lot of
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the major trends in in caring for some
0:57
really important communities. So, I I'm excited to
1:00
learn a little bit more about what you've
1:01
been doing in the last year as well
1:03
as how you're thinking about the future. But
1:04
before we dive in, can you introduce yourself
1:06
and just tell us a little bit more
1:08
about Trinity Health?
1:09
Yeah. Sure. So, Laura, as you mentioned, I
1:12
serve have the privilege of serving as the
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Regional Chief Nursing Officer
1:17
for Trinity Health Illinois in Indiana region. And,
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in Illinois, that includes Loyola Medicine, which is,
1:23
a three hospital academic health system. And in
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Indiana, that includes St. Joseph's Health System located
1:30
in Mishawaka and Plymouth, Indiana.
1:33
Our our larger company, you mentioned Trinity Health.
1:36
Trinity is one of the largest,
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not for profit faith based health systems in
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the country. We
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employ over 130,000
1:45
colleagues.
1:46
We have 90 hospitals across the country.
1:49
And, you know, really a mission
1:52
driven organization
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that despite those challenges you mentioned,
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our mission and vision and values really stay
1:59
at the forefront of, what we do.
2:03
Got it. That's incredible to hear and, you
2:04
know, such a
2:06
widespread,
2:07
region that you're caring for, but, also, I
2:09
can imagine a lot of, great great opportunities
2:13
to continue to grow and develop access to
2:14
care there too.
2:16
When you think about the last year or
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so, what was the most important initiative that
2:19
you led? What did you do, and what
2:21
were the results?
2:23
Yeah. Well, Laura, it's hard to narrow that
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down to just one. So if you'll if
2:27
you'll indulge me, I'll I'll maybe list two.
2:30
One,
2:31
first, is the chief nurse for our organization.
2:34
One of the,
2:35
initiatives that really lives squarely in my wheelhouse
2:38
is our focus on quality, safety, and experience.
2:41
And, you know, those are just really fundamental
2:43
to what we do. And we we often
2:45
talk about if if we can't deliver on
2:47
those three imperatives,
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everything else is is really, secondary. And so
2:53
over the course of this last year,
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we have taken a renewed look at how
2:58
we're achieving those outcomes. We've
3:01
rebuilt
3:02
regionalized
3:03
teams so that we can achieve
3:05
consistent
3:06
quality, safety, and experience outcomes across all of
3:09
our,
3:10
sites of care. We're using consistent approaches to
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data management. We're,
3:16
embedding,
3:17
levels of accountability
3:18
that are, again, consistent
3:20
across the region through performance management,
3:23
expectations,
3:24
balanced scorecards of how we measure that.
3:27
And, you know, some of the outcomes of
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that are that we are beginning to see
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improvements
3:32
in,
3:33
externally validated,
3:36
data sources. So, for example, LeapFrog.
3:39
LeapFrog is a certainly,
3:42
an organization that we value how
3:45
they are rating our health system. And over
3:47
the course of the last year, we've seen
3:49
all of our hospitals actually improve and leapfrog
3:49
standings. Another area that we
3:51
hospitals
3:52
actually
3:53
improve and leap leapfrog standings. Another area that's
3:54
a bit, bit
3:55
tried and true to nursing is the magnet
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designation.
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And I'm particularly proud
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that in Illinois, all three of our hospitals
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are magnet designated.
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And in fact, our Indiana hospital is launching
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their journey to become a magnet hospital. So
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that's kind of one major initiative that me
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and the clinical teams lead or have led
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over the course of the last year.
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The second,
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really is how
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we create
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value in healthcare. And,
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you know, sometimes
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clinical leaders focus on clinical outcomes
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and leave some of the financial and strategy
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initiatives
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to other executives, and I think that's flawed.
4:38
I think we need to be at the
4:40
table in helping to lead that. And, you
4:42
know, our cost structure in healthcare is not
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sustainable.
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And so, what we need to really do
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and what we've been focusing on is how
4:50
we become more efficient, how we optimize the
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services that we're offering.
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I gave an example earlier of how we
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regionalize
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things. So,
4:59
our structures don't necessarily need to be different
5:01
across our hospitals
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in Indiana versus Illinois. And so, as the
5:06
more that we can do those things, the
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more that we are able to drive cost,
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in some cases unnecessary
5:12
cost out of our health system
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to improve value for, the populations that we
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serve.
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I love that, and I think that's such
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a a great point in terms of looking
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at the clinical outcomes, how you can strengthen
5:25
those, but understanding the financial realities of of
5:27
health care today and learning how you can,
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really drive out the unnecessary cost to put
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yourself in a better position for sustainable,
5:35
care delivery in the future.
5:38
I'm curious. You know, looking ahead, what are
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some of the big priorities and headwinds you're
5:41
focused on for 2026?
5:44
Yeah. 2026
5:45
is gonna be,
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a challenging year for, I think, all health
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systems.
5:51
And there there's a couple things that are
5:53
are front and center on our horizon. One
5:55
is we've really gotta get good, be good
5:58
at running,
5:59
running our business. And I, what I would
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say is that the COVID-nineteen pandemic, which turned
6:04
into a multi year,
6:06
multi year pandemic with, with a lot of
6:09
repercussions
6:10
that, that really
6:11
carried through, you know, real frankly, from 2020
6:14
all the way through 2024 and in some
6:16
cases into 2025.
6:18
And so one of the initiatives that, that
6:21
I and my colleagues are now laser focused
6:23
on is continued focus
6:26
on how we,
6:28
stabilize our workforce.
6:29
Our workforce is fundamental to how we operate
6:32
our hospitals and clinics and and really everything
6:35
we do.
6:37
And, you know, there's a lot of focus
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on recruitment and retention
6:40
of a limited work force in the market,
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but it's actually more than that. It's not
6:45
just recruitment and retention.
6:47
It's about providing both physical and psychological
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safety for our colleagues.
6:53
You know, resiliency
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for for colleagues that are are often faced
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with very stressful situations,
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and and frankly embedding joy,
7:03
into the workplace so that so that colleagues
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are,
7:06
happy and and finding meaning in in the
7:08
work that they're doing. So
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workforce stabilization,
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a big, big audacious goal, and much more
7:15
than simply,
7:17
you know, recruiting colleagues into our organization.
7:21
The second focus
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is on, technology.
7:24
Now I mentioned earlier,
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that our cost structure Trinity
7:29
Health,
7:31
we
7:32
are,
7:35
in
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the
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process
7:40
of implementing, Trinity Health, we are, in the
7:43
process of implementing
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one of the if not the largest instance,
7:48
single instance of EPIC as our,
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system wide electronic medical record. And what that
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will allow us to do is to use
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the most cutting edge technologies to communicate with
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patients, to communicate between providers, to use artificial
8:02
intelligence,
8:04
ambient listening technologies,
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data collection, and and really, really focus on
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population health. So across our three Loyola Medicine
8:13
hospitals, we're implementing that instance of Epic,
8:16
in about, in February
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2026.
8:19
And really looking forward to that. And that
8:22
will bring us up to the really state
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of the art art platform,
8:26
that that will leverage Trinity health as an
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industry leader in the use of, the epic
8:32
platform.
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The third thing, and
8:35
I would probably,
8:37
can't can't go without mentioning our proactive planning,
8:42
and and actions that we are taking to
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respond
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to recent changes
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both in government policy and,
8:50
including CMS cost reductions.
8:53
You know, the these changes are gonna hit
8:55
not for profit health care particularly hard, and
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we've gotta really be thinking about how we
9:00
sustain,
9:02
our product for, you know, the next hundred
9:05
years. We are, committed to being here for
9:08
our patients. And to do that, we've got
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to look at how we operate differently. So
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those are the three initiatives that I think
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2026
9:15
will, our organization will be,
9:17
highly focused on.
9:20
That makes a lot of sense and is,
9:21
you know, really fascinating to hear about that
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intersection between,
9:25
you know, being able to come out of
9:26
the pandemic and now stabilizing the workforce using
9:29
technology and integrating that in an important and
9:32
strong way. And then, you know, proactive planning
9:34
for the future. As you mentioned, there are
9:36
so many changes happening right now, and, being
9:38
able to stay on top of them, it's
9:40
easier said than done.
9:42
And and I'm curious. You know, thinking about
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all of those things, what do you think
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will be the hardest thing that you'll have
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to do in the coming year?
9:48
Yeah. You know, health care is gonna look
9:50
different
9:51
in the coming years. And I think
9:54
with any gestalt change
9:56
in the way things,
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look from
10:00
future state to past state,
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it is very challenging,
10:04
to to manage and to lead the workforce.
10:07
So,
10:08
our organization
10:09
just here locally,
10:11
is, you know, over 10,000 colleagues. And, I
10:14
mentioned that Trinity Health has over 130,000
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colleagues. So, those are all individuals. Right? Those
10:19
are individuals that have
10:21
connections to the way health care was practiced.
10:24
You know, frankly, over the last forty years,
10:26
we just had a nurse retire in our
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organization that has been here for forty three
10:29
years. So, think about,
10:31
the tradition and the history and the way
10:33
that that person has been working for their
10:35
entire career. And, you know, we know a
10:38
lot of those things are gonna change and
10:39
change is hard. And so, in nursing, it's
10:42
the largest,
10:44
usually the largest workforce in any health system.
10:47
Much of what I and the nursing leaders
10:50
that I work with do is focus on
10:52
our people. And
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that includes,
10:55
you know, change management,
10:57
communication,
10:58
you know, helping to deal and confront,
11:01
the emotion that occurs with change.
11:05
At times there's disagreement
11:06
about the direction that we should go and,
11:08
you know, those always lead to, you know,
11:10
in-depth, crucial, and at times, critical conversation.
11:14
And there's an impact on people. Right? I
11:16
mean,
11:18
people's livelihood is connected to the way that
11:20
they
11:21
practice and work. And so for
11:24
me, one of the biggest,
11:26
focuses and challenges with this will be on
11:29
how
11:30
we bring
11:31
our extensive workforce
11:34
along with the work that we will need
11:36
to do
11:37
to thrive in the future of health care.
11:40
That's fascinating to hear. And, you know, so
11:42
on point with what, is going to be
11:44
the engine of that,
11:46
you know, being able to operate at the
11:48
highest capacity and provide the best amount of
11:50
care possible.
11:51
And so it's fascinating to hear some of
11:53
the ways that you're looking at continuing to
11:56
boost the workforce and,
11:58
make sure that, you know, they're in the
12:00
best position,
12:01
to be successful.
12:03
Is there anything,
12:04
especially that you've noticed that's worked particularly well
12:07
to recruit or retain new clinicians and in,
12:10
you know, in knowing that there are shortages
12:12
in many parts of the country? And so
12:14
how have you been able to,
12:16
continue to keep that top of mind and
12:18
make sure that, you know, you're,
12:20
ahead of where you wanna be with with
12:22
the workforce recruitment and retention?
12:25
Yeah. You you know, I I would say
12:27
that it it's very easy to point to
12:30
things like,
12:31
salary and benefits and,
12:34
maybe some of the other very traditional things
12:37
that we come to work to receive, right,
12:39
pay.
12:40
And we need to be competitive in those
12:41
spaces. There's no doubt about it that, particularly
12:44
in areas like Chicago or some of our
12:46
other big markets where there's a lot of
12:48
competition, we have to stay,
12:51
competitive within that market on our pay and
12:53
benefits. But it's so much more than that.
12:56
And what we are seeing in our, in
12:58
our emerging workforce is those, those people that
13:01
are either entering the workforce or in their
13:03
first couple years,
13:04
out of their,
13:06
preparatory education,
13:08
focuses on things like flexibility.
13:11
So, you know, when I graduated
13:13
from college,
13:15
I kind of knew that I was going
13:17
to be a low person on the totem
13:19
pole and would work nights and weekends and
13:21
holidays.
13:23
And, and there's really less tolerance for some
13:25
of that today than there was,
13:28
twenty, thirty, forty years ago. And so, we're
13:31
trying to think of ways and implement ways
13:33
to be very,
13:35
flexible with the way that our workforce is
13:37
scheduled,
13:38
and what that looks
13:40
like, for our patients
13:42
to be, you know, to continue to receive
13:45
great clinical outcomes.
13:47
We also know that emerging,
13:50
emerging,
13:51
populations embrace technology. And for many of us,
13:54
we're used to communicating in person and in
13:56
small groups. And so I think we need
13:58
to retain some of that high touch communication,
14:00
but we also have to challenge ourselves to
14:02
think about,
14:04
mass communication methodologies
14:06
like social media.
14:08
I know text messaging is a bit simple,
14:10
but there's a lot of different platforms that
14:11
we can use that are similar to text
14:13
messaging to communicate with our colleagues.
14:17
And you know, I mentioned
14:19
joy and burnout and resiliency in the workforce.
14:22
I think our our our newest colleagues are
14:26
really looking to their organization
14:28
to help solve some of those problems for
14:31
them, more so than previous generations did. So
14:34
we've embedded programs
14:36
and invested significant amounts of money,
14:39
and how how we can help combat
14:42
and create,
14:44
a less burnt out and more, joyful and
14:47
engaged workforce.
14:49
Those are the things I think that will
14:51
differentiate us in the market.
14:53
I love that. I think it's, so helpful
14:56
to understand a little bit deeper into how
14:58
those differentiators are really coming to life and
15:00
shining,
15:01
within, you know, what you're doing there at
15:03
Trinity. Before we wrap up, I wanted to
15:05
ask about growth as well. Where do you
15:07
see some of the best opportunities for organizational
15:09
growth and continued development in the future?
15:12
Yeah. Well,
15:14
what we know is that there are plenty
15:16
of patients and people out there that still
15:18
need to access
15:20
health care.
15:21
We see it in our own organization.
15:24
And those organizations
15:26
that can make access
15:28
easy for patients,
15:30
I think will win in the future. Right?
15:32
So,
15:34
ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, patients were willing
15:37
to wait weeks and in some cases, even
15:40
months to see a provider and maybe even
15:43
travel great distances.
15:45
And I think our
15:47
ever,
15:48
evolving technologically
15:49
savvy,
15:51
population in in The United States and across
15:54
the world is not as willing,
15:56
to wait or to travel for that same
15:58
access. And so
16:00
for us, one of the key growth strategies
16:03
that we have is just making ourselves the
16:05
easiest health system to access in our market.
16:09
Now there are some other areas too.
16:12
Ambulatory surgery is a particular
16:15
growth strategy that that many organizations
16:18
are,
16:19
looking towards in the future, right? So, the
16:21
center of surgery and procedural care used to
16:25
be in the hospital.
16:27
And we know that as those procedures, surgeries,
16:30
anesthesia practices have,
16:33
improved and advanced over the last decades that
16:36
many of those things can be done in
16:38
a lower cost of care in an ambulatory
16:41
setting. So there's huge opportunity for growth there.
16:45
And then last and not least is primary
16:47
care. You you know, we've we've sort of
16:49
moved to
16:51
high profile specialty care
16:53
as at times being
16:56
critical
16:56
to to different strategic plans and organizations.
17:00
And and I think healthcare,
17:01
many organizations
17:03
lost track of the importance
17:05
of having a very
17:07
broad
17:08
and wide
17:09
primary care base because
17:11
quite honestly, that's the healthcare that most of
17:14
us need to receive, right? Which is preventive
17:17
primary care. And so, investing in high,
17:20
high access primary care, perhaps that uses virtual
17:24
technologies,
17:25
is easy to use,
17:27
and meets populations where they're at, I think,
17:30
is going to be a winning formula in
17:33
the future.
17:35
I love that. Thank you so much for
17:37
joining us on the podcast today, Tim. This
17:38
has been such a amazing conversation, very informative
17:41
and inspiring to think about, you know, how
17:44
you're looking at the future and continuing to,
17:46
spur growth.
17:48
And I'm excited to see you as well
17:49
at our April annual meeting. I know you'll
17:51
be speaking on a panel, and, truly, it'll
17:53
be a fantastic opportunity to connect with so
17:55
many different clinical leaders, as well as administrative
17:58
leaders from the health system side and, figure
18:00
out ways that we're gonna tackle some of
18:01
these big challenges together. So, looking forward to
18:04
that, and and, I'm very much excited for
18:06
your panel as well.
18:08
Thank you very much, Laura. It was a
18:09
pleasure.