Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Heather Resseger on Strategic Growth, Workforce Innovation, and Patient-Centered Care

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Heather Resseger on Strategic Growth, Workforce Innovation, and Patient-Centered Care · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - Hi, everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's
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  - Healthcare coming to you live from Becker's twenty
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  - twenty six annual meeting. So excited to have
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  - you, and I am so excited to have
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  - doctor Heather Rezinger, senior vice president, chief hospital
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  - operations officer, and chief nursing officer at North
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  - Bay Health. Doctor Rezinger, welcome. It's so great
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  - to have you. Good morning. So glad to
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  - be here. Yes. I do wanna start us
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  - off with introductions. If you wanna just briefly
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  - introduce yourself and and your work in health
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  - care.
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  - Love to.
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  - So I've been in nursing and health care
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  - leadership for over twenty two years now. You
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  - know, North Bay Health is located in Northern
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  - California.
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  - I've been there for almost ten years.
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  - Really have been blessed to work in, a
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  - lot of different opportunities in health care leadership,
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  - and,
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  - really excited about being here today to just
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  - explore
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  - where we are at North Bay, where I
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  - am in my leadership, and where we are
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  - as a, you know, a country in our
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  - health care team. Speaking of where you are
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  - in your leadership, if you think about
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  - everything that's going on in health care, this
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  - is going to be hard. What's that one
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  - thing
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  - that's really commanding your attention right now that
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  - you're paying special attention to? Yeah. I think
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  - that,
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  - you know, narrowing it down to one thing
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  - is always really,
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  - hard because there's a million things coming at
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  - us. But I think what we at North
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  - Bay,
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  - and so as part of that leadership team
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  - is really strategic growth.
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  - And which is sounds kinda different because a
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  - lot of organizations,
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  - are are shrinking or, you know, diverse divestiture.
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  - And, actually, at North Bay, we are looking
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  - at how do we actually grow and not
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  - just our hospitals, but our ambulatory
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  - footprint
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  - and really bringing care to people
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  - in our rural communities who have not necessarily
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  - received that, through
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  - a really,
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  - strong strategic
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  - vision
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  - and developing,
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  - partnerships that matter,
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  - and
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  - still staying independent,
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  - which is really hard to do for small
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  - organizations. So North Bay is, you know, two
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  - hospital health system, and we're fiercely independent.
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  - And we are making strategic
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  - moves in order to continue to be,
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  - that
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  - community
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  - based,
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  - partner, but also
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  - to bring care where other people may not
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  - see that there's a financial benefit to do
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  - that.
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  - But for us, it's really about population health.
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  - Yeah. Right? And so if you take care
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  - of your,
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  - community before they even reach a hospital,
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  - we can decrease costs and actually,
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  - improve the environment of health care and how
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  - we deliver it. So, really, strategic growth is
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  - is a big one for us and doing
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  - it wisely,
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  - being very mindful how we do that. I
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  - think that's that's really driving us right now.
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  - You mentioned
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  - just now being mindful. When you're looking at
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  - all of the decisions that you having to
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  - make on a daily basis,
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  - are there moments that stick out to you
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  - where you where it took a little bit
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  - of conviction for you specifically when you're looking
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  - at the value, when you're looking at how
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  - to give back, when you look at staff
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  - alignment, etcetera?
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  - You know,
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  - the nurse part of me really thought about
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  - that this year Yeah. And about how do
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  - we deliver care differently. And there has been
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  - a population of patients that,
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  - have always kinda tugged on my heart, and
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  - that's our renal patients, our dialysis
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  - patients. And, you know, when they come through
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  - the walls of the hospital,
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  - we most organizations
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  - contract that out with,
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  - dialysis companies. Right? And those nurses come in.
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  - They hook the patient up, and then, you
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  - know, they do what they do, but they
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  - don't really deliver total care. They do that
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  - one specific task for that patient.
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  - And I feel like we can do that
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  - differently. We can do that better.
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  - That patient deserves total care by their whoever's
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  - at that bedside.
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  - And so I really took it this year
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  - and said, how do we do dialysis in
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  - the hospital differently?
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  - And there's some organizations out there who are
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  - allowing us to really bring it in house.
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  - And so if whether you're getting, you know,
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  - your blood pressure medicine or you're getting dialysis,
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  - you're gonna get that from my nurse. And
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  - my nurse is gonna deliver the care that
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  - North Bay Health wants to deliver. It's gonna
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  - be patient centered. It's gonna be about that
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  - patient. But it's also telling my nurses, you
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  - got to change change what you do, and
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  - you have to,
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  - bring on a new skill set. Right? And
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  - that's scary. Like, we we do this. Right?
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  - Change is hard, and it requires conversation. Yeah.
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  - So what's exciting about it is though, you
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  - know, where you may feel like your staff
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  - are gonna push back,
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  - people wanna grow. And what we're seeing is
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  - those nurses are seeing this. They're like, oh,
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  - I get to add a skill.
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  - This is exciting. And now we're gonna do
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  - it patient centered.
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  - So it was going out on a ledge
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  - and saying, let's do this differently, but in
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  - the heart of my heart of hearts, it
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  - was because it's the right thing for the
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  - patient. And, you know, we're just on that
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  - journey, but I think it's
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  - sometimes you have to think outside of the
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  - box. Is that what you base your decision
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  - making on right now? Has that whole approach
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  - changed the way you make decisions, or is
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  - that really the crucial aspect
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  - of it that you just described when making
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  - decisions?
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  - Yep. Two things always drive my my decision
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  - making, the patient Yeah. And foremost. Right? You
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  - know, does this,
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  - improve,
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  - quality access,
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  - experience for my patient outcome?
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  - And then second, it's about my employees. Does
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  - it make sense? I always try to think
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  - about when I was at the bedside.
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  - Right? And then
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  - if I feel like I haven't been at
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  - the bedside recently enough,
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  - I need to go back to my staff
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  - and say, I'm thinking this, but does that
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  - make sense to today's world. Right? And so
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  - I'm really big on shared governance and staff
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  - advisory, not just for nursing. I think, you
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  - know,
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  - nursing does that well, especially with magnet and
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  - and those types of things. But what I've
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  - learned as an operational leader
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  - is all staff need to have a voice.
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  - So your EVS worker, your biomed, your lab.
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  - And so we're really big on shared governance
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  - for all staff members so that they have
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  - a voice and they can really question some
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  - of the decisions we're making or be part
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  - of that decision making. And I think that
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  - the more we include them, the better we
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  - are, and then that helps us drive better
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  - decisions. Yeah.
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  - Where do leaders need to be more decisive
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  - today? Looking at all of the change that
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  - we've seen, where should leaders be more decisive
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  - right now?
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  - So I think I don't know if it's
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  - decisive, but
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  - being visionary,
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  - being strategic,
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  - and then bringing in the right people to
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  - help get there,
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  - and realizing
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  - that
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  - you need a team of experts.
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  - Be more decisive about
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  - it may not come from health care.
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  - We get siloed in that too. Right? Be
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  - more decisive of, I'm gonna go outside of
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  - the norm
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  - and find,
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  - resources, people, technology that can leverage where we're
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  - going. Yeah. And be decisive
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  - in,
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  - your communication.
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  - You know, wishy washy doesn't work. Yeah. So
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  - I think decisiveness
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  - through you just gotta be decisive in everything
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  - you do. Yeah. Absolutely. You you've talked about
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  - the fact that you're still very much influenced
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  - by your experience as a nurse and how
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  - it influences your day to day work, certainly
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  - with your colleagues as well with clinicians, etcetera.
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  - When you're looking at your own leadership and
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  - how it's evolved, right, what habit or mindset
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  - has been most critical for you
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  - in keeping your organization and certainly also yourself
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  - moving forward?
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  - Continuous learning. Yeah. You know, I think that
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  - you you can't have enough
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  - learning opportunities.
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  - And it I my favorite mantra I tell
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  - my staff all the time and my leaders
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  - is that if you start stop learning, you
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  - stop growing.
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  - If you think you know it all, it's
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  - probably time to retire. And so we have
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  - to continuously
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  - breed, be part of, participate, come to, you
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  - know, come to Becker's,
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  - come to those,
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  - those learning opportunities. And it's changing so rapidly
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  - that what you know today will be different
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  - tomorrow.
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  - And so,
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  - growth and knowledge is power.
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  - And us, living in The United States, we
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  - have we have that knowledge,
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  - access
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  - at our fingertips,
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  - and we don't take full advantage of that.
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  - And I think as leaders, it's so important
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  - for us to always looking at that. Evidence
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  - based practice is not just for the clinic
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  - clinician. It's also for a leader. There's evidence
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  - based practice for leadership out there. Right? And
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  - so how do you leverage that? And and
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  - that's really been a passion of mine, and
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  - and even leadership development program at North Bay
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  - that I helped design
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  - because I know that we have to invest
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  - in them, and people need a pathway to
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  - invest in themselves.
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  - Which leads me to my next question because
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  - I think that's very, very important. Right? We've
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  - seen
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  - workforce in and of itself
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  - develop so much in the way we treat
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  - employees, the way they work, team members really.
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  - How are you rethinking these traditional workforce models
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  - that we've had? Right? We talk about international
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  - talent too. Contingent talent is such a big
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  - conversation right now,
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  - but it's all about staying resilient in the
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  - face of some of those changes that we've
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  - talked about. How are you rethinking workforce?
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  - Yeah. You know, in California, it's a very
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  - different environment. We have a lot of regulatory
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  - requirements, staffing ratio laws. And so,
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  - nursing leaders and even health care leaders in
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  - general sometimes have a harder time thinking outside
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  - of the box about how do we reimagine,
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  - care models.
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  - But this year, even for my team and
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  - I, I said I challenged them and I
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  - said, how do we do,
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  - air on our acute care unit differently?
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  - How do we really make sure our patients
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  - are getting what they need? How do we,
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  - elevate our ends? And how do we bring
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  - licensed vocational or licensed practical nurses back to
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  - the bedside? You know? There was this big
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  - push to move them out, but, really, there's
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  - a place for them. And so we're bringing
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  - LVNs back in. We're bringing them to the
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  - bedside. We're reimagining care. We're looking at, like,
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  - maybe we could have even have more staff,
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  - but not cost us as much because we're
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  - leveraging everybody to their full scope of the
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  - process. And so I think that's it. You
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  - have to really think about
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  - not what the norm is or what we've
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  - done up to now, but, like, what can
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  - we do differently with the resources we have
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  - in our community? I think that's the other
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  - thing too. Every part of the country is
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  - facing a little bit different challenge around staffing
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  - or what type of staff that they're challenged
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  - with. So
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  - what resources do you have? How do you
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  - bring them into whatever environment you need? How
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  - do you leverage them? How do you use
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  - them to the top of license? And,
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  - I think there's opportunity even in California or
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  - some of these states where, you know, ratios
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  - are are playing a part of that.
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  - I think you just have to and work
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  - with your teams. I think I've learned a
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  - lot about that too. I had a vision
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  - and a strategy, but I really needed my
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  - team to say, okay. How do we operationalize
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  - that? Great, Heather, but, like, can we really
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  - operationalize it? And they went to the drawing
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  - table. It took six months of back and
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  - forth in the, you know, the the senior
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  - leaders. And then it was bringing my managers
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  - in, and then it was bringing some front
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  - of the staff in and since it makes
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  - sense.
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  - And so I think don't forget your teams
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  - when you're trying to design Yeah. Because you're
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  - gonna miss something, and they have such great
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  - ideas. And I think
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  - what will be a good plan can then
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  - become a great plan and actually sustain.
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  - What you've just described is effective change management.
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  - It's it's it's being proactive. Right? Doctor Rezinger,
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  - it's so great to have you. Thanks so
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  - much for being here. Thank you so much.
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  - I had a great time. And our listeners
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  - sure had a great time as well. My
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  - name is Lucas Voss, and you can listen
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  - to more podcasts at beckershospitalreview.com.