Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Kathleen Theobald, Executive Director at Kaiser Permanente Nurse Anesthetists Association

Transcript

Kathleen Theobald, Executive Director at Kaiser Permanente Nurse Anesthetists Association · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  Would you like to exchange best practices and ideas to improve care,
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  enhance operational efficiency,
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  and address financial challenges with your peers?
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  Becker's Healthcare is facilitating these conversations at their eighth annual
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  the description. We are excited to welcome you in October.
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  Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. I'm Mariah Mohamed,
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  she her pronouns with Becker's Healthcare,
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  and I'm absolutely thrilled to have with me today. Kathleen, the bold. Kathleen,
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  it's so nice to talk with you today. How are you?
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  I'm so great. It's so nice to be included. Thank you so much.
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  Yes, of course. Well, to begin,
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  would you mind please introducing yourself and telling us a bit about your
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  background?
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  Uh, yeah. My name is Kathleen Fial.
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  I'm the executive director for the Kaiser Permanente Nurse Aesthetist
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  Association.
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  So I represent the Advanced practice nurses that deliver anesthesia to the
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  patients within the Southern California region. Uh,
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  I am also on the executive board of the Alliance of Healthcare Unions,
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  which is an alliance of, uh, multiple unions within Kaiser Permanente.
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  Uh, and so we represent, um, a wide variety, uh,
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  of bargaining units and people that deliver patient care.
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  Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving us that background.
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  And the first thing that I really wanted to ask you is with all your experience
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  and everything you're doing with the organization,
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  what are the biggest issues you're following in healthcare in this year?
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  Well, ,
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  and it's a complicated question because there's so many different levels.
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  From a provider standpoint, because I represent the providers,
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  we're facing a lot of burnout.
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  Approximately 40 to 70% of the people delivering healthcare, uh, are,
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  are burnt out, um, after covid. Uh, and due to the staffing shortage,
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  which is another issue that we're facing, uh, currently, you know,
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  we need 3.2 million more healthcare providers to meet the demand.
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  Uh, and so staffing, uh, is literally at a critical stage, uh,
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  at most facilities across the nation. This, of course, then affects access,
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  um, which then leads to more burnout. Um, you know,
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  as we also have 10,000 baby boomers every day, um,
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  joining Medicare every day. And so that leads to, you know,
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  in a tremendous stress on, on the providers to,
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  to meet the demand and the access with what the limited staffing needs that,
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  that are currently being provided. The other thing that really,
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  really is a big issue and one of the main things that I focus on, uh,
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  is the psychological safety, um, of the providers. Um, you know, whether,
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  you know, you're an advanced practice nurse giving anesthesia who I represent,
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  uh, or an emergency room nurse or an e v s worker or a food service worker,
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  or even a physician or a manager within the healthcare space,
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  there's so much going on that truthfully,
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  psychological safety has become such an imperative
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  issue for everyone to focus on. It then leads to higher, you know,
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  safety results within the patient care, uh, work workplace,
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  which leads to higher quality, safety service, um,
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  and just the satisfaction of, of the patients.
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  And so I think that the biggest issue really is, is shifting our focus, um,
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  away from, you know, the people that we want to come in, uh,
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  and really focusing on the people that are doing the work, uh,
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  and those that are giving the care, uh, and providing it for, for,
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  for the people that are purchasing the healthcare product.
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  Yeah, absolutely.
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  I feel like burnout is definitely something I hear about daily. Uh,
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  it seems with healthcare professionals,
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  it definitely is a problem that needs solving asap. Um,
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  so I'm glad that you're kind of working on that. And for you,
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  what are you most excited about?
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  And also is there anything that's making you nervous whether,
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  and it's just in the healthcare space or something that you're currently working
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  on? Anything like that?
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  Well,
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  I'll start with excited cause I always try to start with what's good and I'm
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  really excited for the opportunity to reinvent in real time how we
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  deliver care and, and how we respond to the needs of our healthcare providers.
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  We truly did this during covid. It was a moment by moment,
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  day-to-day situation where we were on, you know,
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  command center calls regionally, nationally, and locally,
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  just getting information in realtime and, and passing it down, you know,
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  to the people on the frontline.
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  And during that time it was really fantastic because everybody came together
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  as a team. We were all on the same team. Um, we just,
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  it wasn't about your space or MySpace, it was a collective hour space.
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  So I think that having been through that and having been an integral part of
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  that during covid,
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  I do think that we have an opportunity to continue that work forward, um,
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  as Covid has, you know, quote unquote, um,
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  become a normalized situation, uh, within our daily lives. It,
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  it makes me very nervous, uh, at this point, uh, based on, you know,
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  the access issues as well that the patient care systems are playing not to lose.
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  I do think that's a really, really big problem, um,
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  because a lot of people are leading from fear.
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  There's a lot of financial instability in the healthcare market right now,
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  and people are really moving back into silos where we don't have, uh,
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  the realtime, um, innovation like we did during covid. And,
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  and a lot of people are, are moving back to the old ways of doing things of the,
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  the top down leadership. Um, and really just,
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  just leading from a place of fear and playing not to lose as opposed to,
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  you know, leading from innovation and disruption and,
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  and really trying to do what's best for the world that we live in now.
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  Wonderful. Yeah, thank you so much for that insight.
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  Covid definitely changed things and some of the change was better, thankfully,
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  as you said. Um, before I let you go, for you,
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  what will the most effective healthcare leaders need, uh,
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  in order to be successful in the next two to three years or so?
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  Well, are you a basketball fan?
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  I dip Will and dabble .
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  So I'm a huge basketball fan and so I've really been enjoying all of the Eastern
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  and Western conference playoffs. And,
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  and one of the things that I would really like to see is, one,
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  I'd like to see everybody, you know, drop their, uh, name badges with their,
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  you know,
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  22 page long titles and realize that what we need to do is we
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  need to start focusing on the people that are on the floor,
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  the actual players on the team. Um, can you imagine if, you know,
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  the basketball, um, only focused on,
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  on getting the fans in the stands and all of their focus was about, you know,
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  the fans in the stands and they didn't focus on the players that are actually on
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  the floor doing the work, which is what everybody comes there for.
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  And so really flipping that paradigm where you can't have, um,
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  a healthcare system unless you have the best team possible. I mean,
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  healthcare really is a team sport,
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  and we really need to start focusing on the people that do and the people that
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  do the work. And if you have the highest level people doing the work,
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  then people will come and be a part of your healthcare system because you will
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  have the highest safety record, the highest quality record,
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  the highest patient satisfaction scores. You know,
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  you can't have a basketball team with just a center.
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  You can't have a rock band with just a drummer,
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  and you can't have a healthcare system with just a C E O or a C O O or one
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  person in an or. It takes the entire team.
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  And so I really think, you know, as,
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  as we just kind of continued down this analogy that we need to focus on the
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  people that are on the floor doing the work so that the people in the stands
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  or our patients really get what they came there for.
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  Absolutely. Thank you. So sense. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No,
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  everything does make sense. Thank you so much for those final thoughts. Uh,
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  I have to say, this has been an amazing discussion,
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  so thank you so much for coming on Becker's Healthcare and I look forward to
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  connecting with you again soon.
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  I do too. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
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  Of course. Thank you.
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