Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Dwight W. McBee, Senior Vice President and Chief Experience Officer at RWJBarnabas Health

Transcript

Dwight W. McBee, Senior Vice President and Chief Experience Officer at RWJBarnabas Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
• 0:04
  - understand what it takes to lead a health
• 0:05
  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
• 0:17
  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where do they go
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  - to pressure test their thinking.
• 0:22
  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
• 0:39
  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
• 0:42
  - For the agenda and event details,
• 0:45
  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:47
  - and click on the events tab in the
• 0:49
  - upper right.
• 0:51
  - Well, hello, everybody. I'm Rick Evans, the cochair
• 0:54
  - of the chief experience officer advisory board here
• 0:57
  - at Becker's HealthCare.
• 0:59
  - I've had the privilege of serving as the
• 1:00
  - chief experience officer at some great hospitals including
• 1:03
  - New York Presbyterian and Mass General over the
• 1:05
  - years.
• 1:07
  - Chief experience officers or CXOs as we like
• 1:10
  - to call them across the country
• 1:12
  - play a pivotal role in assuring that their
• 1:14
  - organizations
• 1:15
  - understand the perceptions and the real lived experience
• 1:18
  - of our patients and families and our customers
• 1:21
  - in our health systems.
• 1:22
  - And it's the CXOs job to assure that
• 1:25
  - their organizations
• 1:26
  - have a defined
• 1:27
  - and robust strategy to continually improve that experience
• 1:31
  - with the goal of maintaining
• 1:32
  - patient loyalty and also the, you know, remaining
• 1:35
  - competitive in the markets where we work.
• 1:38
  - There is deep expertise
• 1:40
  - in the CXO community in American healthcare and
• 1:42
  - a body of knowledge about how to truly
• 1:44
  - understand and improve
• 1:46
  - patient and consumer experience. And today,
• 1:49
  - I am joined
• 1:50
  - by not only a good friend, but one
• 1:52
  - of those innovative and expert CXOs
• 1:56
  - for a conversation about his work and his
• 1:58
  - organization.
• 1:59
  - I'm joined today by Dwight McBee, the senior
• 2:02
  - vice president and chief experience officer at RWJBarnabas
• 2:05
  - Health. Dwight, welcome to the podcast.
• 2:09
  - Rick, thank you so much for,
• 2:11
  - the invite.
• 2:12
  - It's my great pleasure to join today.
• 2:16
  - Really excited about the the conversation and the
• 2:18
  - space that's being created for Chief Experience Officers
• 2:21
  - to share a little bit about the very
• 2:23
  - important role that we play within our organizations.
• 2:26
  - That's great. And, why don't we start by
• 2:28
  - you telling us a little bit more about
• 2:30
  - yourself, your role, the scope you have at
• 2:32
  - RWJBarnabas?
• 2:34
  - Sure. Well, first of all, RWJBarnabas
• 2:37
  - represents the largest, most comprehensive academic healthcare system
• 2:41
  - in the state of New Jersey. We cover
• 2:43
  - eight counties.
• 2:44
  - We cover about 5,000,000,
• 2:46
  - lives.
• 2:47
  - We have 12 acute care hospitals, one of
• 2:49
  - New Jersey's only, actually,
• 2:52
  - freestanding NCI designated cancer hospital.
• 2:55
  - We have a network of children's
• 2:57
  - specialized hospitals focused on outpatient and long term,
• 3:01
  - care.
• 3:02
  - We have a freestanding behavioral health hospital, we
• 3:04
  - have two adult trauma centers, and all in
• 3:07
  - all about 700
• 3:08
  - patient care locations.
• 3:10
  - We have about
• 3:11
  - 45,000
• 3:12
  - employees, 9,000 physicians,
• 3:15
  - about 1,600
• 3:16
  - medical residents and fellows. So, large complex health
• 3:19
  - system and we also
• 3:21
  - contribute to the economic engine of New Jersey,
• 3:25
  - contributing over 7,000,000,000
• 3:27
  - annually to New Jersey's economy,
• 3:30
  - through many different streams. Some of the social
• 3:32
  - impact is about 1,700,000
• 3:35
  - pounds of food being distributed through our community
• 3:37
  - health network,
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  - over 160,000
• 3:41
  - Uber rides,
• 3:43
  - diaper distributions,
• 3:44
  - SNAP applications.
• 3:46
  - I would just say that we are fully
• 3:48
  - entrenched
• 3:49
  - in this state's,
• 3:51
  - engine, if you will.
• 3:52
  - And I serve in the capacity of the
• 3:54
  - system's
• 3:55
  - senior vice president and chief experience officer, and
• 3:58
  - my role
• 3:59
  - is to set the high level strategic priorities
• 4:02
  - around
• 4:03
  - ensuring that every patient, every family member across
• 4:07
  - our entire continuum
• 4:09
  - comes here and leaves with an exceptional
• 4:12
  - care experience. And that's done through several very
• 4:17
  - important ways.
• 4:18
  - The first way is to make sure that
• 4:20
  - we have systems to understand our patients in
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  - a very deep way,
• 4:24
  - that we have processes and practices that connect
• 4:28
  - and build relationship along the way. And then
• 4:30
  - we take action
• 4:32
  - in a way that's consistent with best practice
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  - and the best evidence.
• 4:36
  - And my role is to make sure that
• 4:38
  - we're sustaining the work.
• 4:40
  - And so there's there's many different tactics that
• 4:42
  - go into that, but, ultimately,
• 4:45
  - the end result of that is that we
• 4:47
  - as as
• 4:48
  - a health system wanna make sure that every
• 4:50
  - moment that we have with our patients
• 4:52
  - is an extension of the medicine that we
• 4:55
  - prescribe. So every moment is medicine is really
• 4:57
  - a mantra
• 4:58
  - that I lead across the health system.
• 5:01
  - I love that. I love that phrase.
• 5:04
  - And let's let's go a little deeper into
• 5:06
  - that. So,
• 5:07
  - you know, could you maybe share some of
• 5:10
  - the main elements
• 5:11
  - of your patient experience strategy and maybe where
• 5:13
  - you're seeing success right now and where there
• 5:15
  - are some challenges. Again, the spirit of a
• 5:17
  - podcast like this is to
• 5:19
  - help us all learn, and improve. And I
• 5:21
  - I can tell you from my own experience,
• 5:22
  - there's no health system in America that doesn't
• 5:24
  - have successes and challenges. So if you'd be
• 5:27
  - willing to share maybe a little bit of
• 5:28
  - a glimpse into that, that'd be great.
• 5:30
  - Sure, Rick. I I so appreciate a space
• 5:32
  - where we can actually be honest about this
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  - because you go to conferences, right, and you
• 5:36
  - hear how everyone has it all together. Well,
• 5:39
  - we do. We we are really proud of
• 5:41
  - a lot of what we're doing, and we
• 5:43
  - are honest
• 5:44
  - to ourselves about the areas of opportunity that
• 5:47
  - we have. And so, I would say
• 5:49
  - the strategy that we're laying out starts... It's
• 5:51
  - really four buckets, right? It's understand our patients,
• 5:54
  - connect,
• 5:55
  - to take action and to sustain. And so,
• 5:57
  - around understanding our patients,
• 6:00
  - obviously, all patient experience is anchored around our
• 6:03
  - survey strategies and the mandates that we have
• 6:05
  - to ensure that we're collecting the voice of
• 6:08
  - those that we serve. But in between that,
• 6:11
  - an anchor
• 6:13
  - rounding programs, and that's leveraging a digital tool
• 6:16
  - that we put in the hands of everyone
• 6:19
  - with a badge, and we make sure that
• 6:21
  - we take
• 6:22
  - time out of our busy schedules to meet
• 6:24
  - with our patients where care is being delivered.
• 6:27
  - And the moment
• 6:28
  - the care is being delivered
• 6:30
  - and we check-in on the care delivery process,
• 6:33
  - we ensure that the best practices that we
• 6:35
  - think are being rolled out are, in fact,
• 6:38
  - being rolled out and that our patients are
• 6:41
  - extremely satisfied
• 6:42
  - with the care, with the treatment, with the
• 6:44
  - communication
• 6:45
  - from the many
• 6:47
  - people that walk through the threshold of a
• 6:49
  - busy academic health system.
• 6:51
  - We we want to make sure that our
• 6:53
  - our leaders and our staff are positioned in
• 6:55
  - a way that we can listen in the
• 6:56
  - moment. And so, we do that through our
• 6:59
  - rounding program.
• 7:00
  - What's unique about, RWJBarnabas
• 7:03
  - Health is actually
• 7:04
  - we have a role dedicated at the system
• 7:06
  - level,
• 7:07
  - around our rounding and insights program. So I
• 7:10
  - have a director
• 7:21
  - optimizing the tools so that our leaders
• 7:24
  - have a very simple interface that,
• 7:26
  - really facilitate better conversation with our patients. So
• 7:29
  - our leaders can just walk in the room
• 7:31
  - and start talking
• 7:32
  - to our patients, understand very simply where the
• 7:35
  - pain points are, capturing those in a digital
• 7:38
  - tool, and then sending that back to our
• 7:41
  - system to... For data and analytics to synthesize
• 7:44
  - and pull out themes, trends.
• 7:46
  - Obviously, if there's anything in the moment that's
• 7:48
  - a service recovery
• 7:50
  - issue that needs to be sent to the
• 7:52
  - right person, we've got our system,
• 7:55
  - built in place to do that in a
• 7:57
  - very timely way. And so,
• 7:59
  - understanding our patients in real time is an
• 8:01
  - anchor strategy of ours, and it fuels how
• 8:04
  - we connect with our patients. We take what
• 8:06
  - we're learning
• 8:07
  - from all of that rounding. And by the
• 8:09
  - way, to quantify this, last year,
• 8:12
  - over the course of the calendar year, we
• 8:13
  - had, I believe, it was 1,500,000
• 8:16
  - rounds documented
• 8:18
  - with our digital rounding tool. And anyone that's
• 8:20
  - been doing this long enough knows that's really,
• 8:22
  - really hard to do. Yes. You know, and
• 8:24
  - you're you're layering rounding on top of care
• 8:26
  - delivery. Right? And so
• 8:28
  - to do that, you have to have a
• 8:30
  - system that's really optimized
• 8:31
  - so that it doesn't interrupt
• 8:33
  - the very important work of delivering care. Yep.
• 8:37
  - And, can you maybe share, like, from rounding,
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  - what would be an example of an insight
• 8:42
  - that you've gained that maybe you wouldn't get
• 8:43
  - from a survey?
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  - Something that you've learned.
• 8:47
  - Yeah. I think what's what's really important to
• 8:49
  - know is we we think we know, but
• 8:51
  - our patients tell us what it's really about.
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  - And so, one of the opportunities we have,
• 8:56
  - and this is sort of the vulnerability section
• 8:58
  - of the podcast, is, you know, we do
• 9:01
  - a lot of work that we think around,
• 9:03
  - quietness. And the HCAHPS program itself
• 9:07
  - changed, an entire domain and now there's a
• 9:09
  - restfulness domain. And so, we've done a lot
• 9:11
  - of the work that everyone else does in
• 9:14
  - handing out,
• 9:15
  - eye masks, ear plugs, setting
• 9:18
  - quiet hours, and doing all the work that
• 9:21
  - we think is important to,
• 9:23
  - make sure our patients have a restful care
• 9:24
  - environment. And absolutely, that is the case. And,
• 9:27
  - through rounding, what we learned is that we're
• 9:29
  - actually doing pretty well with those things. Our
• 9:31
  - patients have
• 9:33
  - the tools they need
• 9:35
  - to make sure that they're getting the rest
• 9:37
  - within the hospital space, but they just... What
• 9:39
  - we learned is they don't want to be
• 9:40
  - interrupted.
• 9:42
  - The, the Q4 hour vital signs, the
• 9:46
  - orders that fire off where we're doing lab
• 9:48
  - work at 2AM for some reason,
• 9:51
  - those are the the the little things that
• 9:53
  - come up through rounding that,
• 9:56
  - they don't really surface in a survey. After
• 9:58
  - a healthcare encounter, four days, five days in
• 10:00
  - a hospital,
• 10:02
  - those little, nuances aren't really captured at scale
• 10:05
  - like that. But when we're rounding, we're finding
• 10:07
  - them out, and we're taking that objective feedback
• 10:10
  - back to our teams for some performance improvement.
• 10:13
  - And like every other leader, making change within
• 10:16
  - the health system requires good data. And so
• 10:19
  - the rounding
• 10:20
  - program itself has given us really solid data
• 10:24
  - to then fuel the change we need to
• 10:26
  - make. And it's not sort of,
• 10:29
  - just throwing everything at the wall and seeing
• 10:30
  - what sticks. It's really
• 10:32
  - a targeted approach to improvement based on real
• 10:35
  - patient feedback. And so, our rounding program really
• 10:38
  - anchored around our desire to understand our patients
• 10:40
  - has given, given us the insights to make
• 10:44
  - better connections,
• 10:45
  - you know, create a better care experience as
• 10:48
  - a whole.
• 10:49
  - But, it's certainly surfacing opportunities
• 10:51
  - that we have to do things a little
• 10:53
  - bit better. That's amazing. And, you know, 1,500,000
• 10:57
  - data points, that's
• 10:59
  - pretty amazing. I mean, even,
• 11:01
  - a robust survey, HCAHPS survey strategy isn't gonna
• 11:04
  - get you anywhere near that. And HCAHPS tells
• 11:06
  - you that people are having trouble resting. Doesn't
• 11:08
  - tell you why. Exactly. So what a great
• 11:08
  - combo. And, you know, real time listening is
• 11:08
  - where it's at. It's
• 11:13
  - one thing to find out, as you said,
• 11:15
  - weeks later that we had a problem. It's
• 11:17
  - much better to find it. And I I
• 11:19
  - would bet, Dwight, that also it probably make
• 11:21
  - sure leaders... Better leaders because they're actually hearing
• 11:23
  - the voice of the patient literally,
• 11:26
  - through that process. That's that's fantastic.
• 11:30
  - If we could, maybe switch gears a little
• 11:32
  - bit. You... You've been a leader nationally and
• 11:34
  - and,
• 11:36
  - sort of a guide for for me, quite
• 11:38
  - frankly,
• 11:39
  - in meaningfully integrating
• 11:41
  - equity and inclusion
• 11:43
  - in your strategy and the way you think
• 11:44
  - about,
• 11:45
  - patient experience.
• 11:47
  - Why is that so important to you and
• 11:49
  - to RWJBarnabas?
• 11:50
  - And maybe can you share an example of
• 11:52
  - how you've done some work in that space
• 11:54
  - that's benefited your patients?
• 11:57
  - Oh, Rick. This is so near to me,
• 11:59
  - and I know it's near to you as
• 12:00
  - well. I think about
• 12:02
  - the the the great
• 12:05
  - responsibility we have in healthcare to take care
• 12:07
  - of populations, to take care of our communities.
• 12:10
  - And all too often, there are members within
• 12:12
  - our communities
• 12:13
  - that get forgotten. Or they're not they're not
• 12:16
  - seen, you know, in in the first blush
• 12:19
  - of of any change that we need to
• 12:20
  - make for, to improve our services. And so,
• 12:24
  - I have personal experiences here. I have a
• 12:25
  - daughter who has a condition called Rett Syndrome.
• 12:29
  - And, she's 19 years old, and so we
• 12:32
  - certainly have been living this for quite some
• 12:34
  - time. But I'm particularly
• 12:36
  - interested in the challenges
• 12:39
  - in access, in
• 12:41
  - care progression,
• 12:42
  - in care continuity
• 12:44
  - for those that have any form of disability,
• 12:47
  - but certainly intellectual and developmental
• 12:50
  - disabilities. And I'm really proud of RWJBarnabas
• 12:54
  - and a lot of the work that we've
• 12:56
  - done around this particular patient segment. So,
• 13:00
  - one of the,
• 13:01
  - responsibilities I have within the health system is
• 13:03
  - to ensure that we have patient centered outcomes.
• 13:06
  - And so I work closely with our health
• 13:08
  - equity leaders to ensure that we are taking
• 13:11
  - a data driven approach to
• 13:14
  - identifying where
• 13:16
  - some of our patients are getting stuck in
• 13:17
  - the health system. And what we've learned
• 13:20
  - is that those that with intellectual disabilities
• 13:23
  - typically have a longer,
• 13:26
  - runway to getting care. Sometimes they experience delays
• 13:30
  - in, at the front end of care scheduling,
• 13:33
  - getting
• 13:35
  - the appointment that they need, getting the right
• 13:37
  - provider that they need, and then getting that
• 13:40
  - certainly all the way through to
• 13:43
  - the entire care
• 13:45
  - across the care continuum.
• 13:47
  - Where we are starting to focus is in
• 13:50
  - the pre
• 13:51
  - appointment check-in
• 13:53
  - and how we can leverage our electronic health
• 13:56
  - records to better capture
• 13:58
  - some of the unique nuances with those that
• 14:01
  - have some form of intellectual disability. Whether you
• 14:04
  - have a sensitivity to noise,
• 14:06
  - whether there are certain triggers that we want
• 14:09
  - to be mindful of, whether there's certain things
• 14:12
  - that you actually like, like certain sounds, certain
• 14:15
  - colors, certain,
• 14:17
  - approaches to asking about your health and well-being.
• 14:21
  - We want to capture those in our electronic
• 14:23
  - health record and surface that for our providers.
• 14:26
  - And so, we've created an augmented care guide,
• 14:29
  - which is essentially an extension of of our
• 14:31
  - check-in process that allows
• 14:33
  - a patient and or their caregiver
• 14:36
  - to engage with us before their healthcare encounter.
• 14:39
  - And then, it gives us that kind of
• 14:41
  - head start in navigating the encounter with our
• 14:45
  - patients and their caregivers. And I mentioned caregivers
• 14:48
  - very specifically because I can tell you as
• 14:51
  - a health system,
• 14:52
  - and every health system across the country is
• 14:54
  - learning that the key
• 14:56
  - to all of our success
• 14:58
  - largely hinges not only on the patient, but
• 15:00
  - also those patients' caregivers that are associated with
• 15:03
  - them. And so, so we're taking the approach
• 15:06
  - to make sure that we've got the tools
• 15:08
  - pointed
• 15:09
  - at the right point in the care process
• 15:11
  - to learn from our patients
• 15:13
  - and embed that learning
• 15:14
  - into the workflow of our clinicians so that
• 15:16
  - we have more meaningful
• 15:19
  - encounters with our patients and, really a more
• 15:21
  - accurate,
• 15:23
  - prescription
• 15:24
  - of how to how to really, carry your
• 15:26
  - care forward.
• 15:28
  - That's fantastic. And, you know,
• 15:30
  - in addition to the,
• 15:33
  - you know, just the mission based reasons for
• 15:35
  - doing this, we wanna meet our patients' needs.
• 15:37
  - Right? That's what we... That's why we exist.
• 15:38
  - It's why we get up in the morning.
• 15:40
  - It's why our organizations were created and founded.
• 15:43
  - I would bet if a
• 15:44
  - a CFO might be listening or a CEO
• 15:47
  - or another administrator who doesn't do our stuff
• 15:49
  - every day, Dwight, that when you don't do
• 15:51
  - that, there are costs.
• 15:54
  - Missed appointments,
• 15:56
  - appointments where a patient shows up and suddenly
• 15:58
  - you find that they have needs that you
• 16:00
  - weren't prepared to meet and now that twenty
• 16:01
  - minute visit is a forty minute visit and
• 16:03
  - it's causing delays and you have to mobilize
• 16:06
  - different staff that maybe weren't prepared for that
• 16:08
  - visit. I mean, the bottom line is that,
• 16:10
  - you know, this patient experience work, this equity
• 16:13
  - and inclusion work probably also
• 16:16
  - reduces cost, helps us be more efficient. I
• 16:18
  - mean, it's just better all the way around.
• 16:21
  - And I love that, again, you're leveraging that
• 16:23
  - record. It's not... Look like you might wanna
• 16:25
  - comment on that. I can assure you, Rick,
• 16:28
  - that
• 16:29
  - anyone that's listening,
• 16:31
  - take a look at your your ICD codes
• 16:34
  - for anyone that would be intellectually disabled.
• 16:37
  - Right? Just isolate the top 40
• 16:40
  - ICD codes and then look at the length
• 16:42
  - of stay
• 16:43
  - or look at the readmission rates for that
• 16:46
  - cohort of patients.
• 16:47
  - I guarantee you that those are your long
• 16:50
  - length of stay. Those are your patients that
• 16:52
  - are being rated... Readmitted more frequently And there's
• 16:55
  - real cost to that. So I absolutely
• 16:59
  - believe that we're coming to a place where
• 17:01
  - the data that we have available to us
• 17:04
  - in our electronic health records
• 17:06
  - will start to surface
• 17:08
  - populations
• 17:09
  - that are within our larger group of patients
• 17:12
  - that need
• 17:14
  - nuanced care. And it's going to require us
• 17:16
  - to think differently to solve the problems that
• 17:19
  - they present with. So, absolutely, I agree with
• 17:21
  - you that there's a cost to this.
• 17:23
  - There's an ROI
• 17:25
  - when thinking about delivering care in a more
• 17:27
  - equitable manner.
• 17:29
  - And
• 17:30
  - we would be we would be shortsighted if
• 17:31
  - we didn't pay attention to that. Yeah. I
• 17:34
  - really, really appreciate that point. And, you know,
• 17:36
  - again,
• 17:37
  - we know that good patient experience means better
• 17:40
  - patient engagement,
• 17:41
  - which means better outcomes, which means more patient...
• 17:44
  - Patient loyalty, which means better finances. Like, just
• 17:48
  - connecting all those dots is just so so
• 17:50
  - important. It's it's not only the right thing
• 17:52
  - to do. It's just... It makes really great,
• 17:55
  - appropriately great business,
• 17:57
  - sense. Absolutely.
• 17:59
  - I really appreciate you sharing all that. Maybe
• 18:01
  - let's, wrap up today with,
• 18:04
  - again, we're hoping that, podcast like this that
• 18:06
  - that,
• 18:08
  - people might listen because they wanna understand how
• 18:10
  - to do this work better in their organization.
• 18:12
  - So what advice and guidance would you have
• 18:15
  - for c suite leaders? And, again, not just
• 18:17
  - the p x types, but the CFOs of
• 18:19
  - the world, the CEOs of the world,
• 18:22
  - in in terms of trying to improve the
• 18:24
  - patient experience in their organization. What advice would
• 18:26
  - you give them?
• 18:28
  - I've been doing this a long time, Rick.
• 18:29
  - This is my third,
• 18:31
  - opportunity to lead a large complex organization in
• 18:34
  - the realm of patient experience.
• 18:36
  - I've seen organizations
• 18:37
  - do this the right way.
• 18:40
  - And I've seen organizations
• 18:41
  - really do this in a way that they
• 18:43
  - think is right, but it really doesn't translate
• 18:45
  - to,
• 18:45
  - any measurable,
• 18:47
  - improvement.
• 18:48
  - And the challenges that,
• 18:50
  - we're trying to solve need focus.
• 18:54
  - The complexities
• 18:55
  - that are being presented to our organizations
• 18:58
  - for for whatever reason our patients are presenting
• 19:01
  - with require
• 19:03
  - a dedicated focus around
• 19:05
  - that patient and that patient experience. And so,
• 19:09
  - when we look to commingle patient experience with
• 19:11
  - different roles,
• 19:12
  - I've seen
• 19:14
  - fancy titles that have patient experience tied to
• 19:17
  - the end of it. And, you know, sometimes
• 19:19
  - it's not even in the title alone
• 19:21
  - at all. And so, when we begin to
• 19:23
  - mix together patient experience with everything else, you
• 19:26
  - dilute the impact,
• 19:28
  - you create,
• 19:30
  - unnecessary,
• 19:33
  - distraction
• 19:34
  - on one of the most important things a
• 19:36
  - health system can do, which is make sure
• 19:38
  - that at the end of the day, those
• 19:40
  - that choose you for their care
• 19:43
  - actually get care that is that is designed
• 19:46
  - for them centered around their needs, centered around
• 19:49
  - their their... What they expect for care. And
• 19:52
  - expectations are changing, Rick. More and more people
• 19:55
  - are having
• 19:56
  - non traditional
• 19:57
  - healthcare providers,
• 19:59
  - experiences.
• 20:00
  - You know, you can just look at what
• 20:02
  - Amazon's doing. Take a look at what... How
• 20:05
  - easy they're making some of the preventative care.
• 20:07
  - And I do believe preventative care and primary
• 20:09
  - care, those are things that will likely, you
• 20:12
  - know, we'll see a lot more competition
• 20:14
  - in the coming years. And so, how can
• 20:16
  - we get a dedicated focus around improving patient
• 20:20
  - experience? And the risk that we run is
• 20:22
  - to try to commingle this with anything else.
• 20:24
  - I will also say, and this is something
• 20:26
  - that we're taking on,
• 20:28
  - is we've got to separate improvement
• 20:30
  - from advocacy in a certain way. There's a
• 20:32
  - lot of work in the complaint and grievance
• 20:35
  - space
• 20:36
  - that ties up our patient experience leaders. And
• 20:39
  - so, what we're doing and many health systems
• 20:42
  - do is those that are laser focused on
• 20:45
  - advocacy and making sure that we're problem solving,
• 20:48
  - that's one realm. But then there's a design
• 20:50
  - and improvement side of the experience work that
• 20:53
  - needs
• 20:54
  - a similarly dedicated focus, and that's what we're
• 20:57
  - doing. And so,
• 20:58
  - if I'm a CFO,
• 21:00
  - really take a look at what real r...
• 21:02
  - ROI looks like from patient experience. And are
• 21:05
  - you getting it from roles that are commingled?
• 21:08
  - And and I would challenge everyone to think
• 21:10
  - about a dedicated focus there.
• 21:12
  - That's so... I I I couldn't say it
• 21:15
  - any better, Dwight. I couldn't agree more.
• 21:17
  - And the fact is that,
• 21:20
  - you know, it does require a skill set,
• 21:21
  - a knowledge you just mentioned. You've been around
• 21:23
  - this block a couple times. I have too,
• 21:25
  - and we've known each other for a good
• 21:27
  - portion of that.
• 21:28
  - And,
• 21:29
  - you know, there is expertise that you want
• 21:31
  - resident in your organization,
• 21:34
  - not just putting someone in charge that loves
• 21:36
  - patients or was, you know, known for their
• 21:38
  - kindness or is interested in p x.
• 21:41
  - That's not needed anymore. We've got this body
• 21:44
  - of knowledge. We have these expert people like
• 21:46
  - you
• 21:47
  - around the country who can really bring,
• 21:50
  - you know, the expertise and strategy to to
• 21:52
  - bear. So,
• 21:54
  - thank you for that advice and, you know,
• 21:56
  - thank you for all you do and and
• 21:58
  - for your great organization. I mean, I I
• 22:00
  - lived in Jersey for a long, part of
• 22:02
  - my life,
• 22:03
  - and RWJBarnabas
• 22:05
  - is just a remarkable health system. You have
• 22:08
  - incredible leaders,
• 22:09
  - and your commitment to your community is... You
• 22:11
  - you know, you're just known for that.
• 22:13
  - So
• 22:15
  - so thanks for joining me today, Dwight,
• 22:18
  - and, for sharing some of your wisdom and
• 22:20
  - experience with us, And, I wish you a
• 22:23
  - good rest of your day and a good
• 22:24
  - rest of your day to all of our
• 22:25
  - listeners out there.
• 22:27
  - Rick, it has been and continues to be
• 22:29
  - an absolute pleasure to know you,
• 22:32
  - to share space with you. Thank you for
• 22:34
  - creating space for this conversation, and I look
• 22:37
  - forward to what comes next. So have a
• 22:39
  - great day as well and, good spending time
• 22:41
  - with you.