Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building Workforce Strength and Financial Resilience in Community Healthcare with Robert Chestnut

Transcript

Building Workforce Strength and Financial Resilience in Community Healthcare with Robert Chestnut · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  When it comes to today's RCM, we know
• 0:02
  the challenges,
• 0:03
  complexity of claims, talent shortages,
• 0:05
  low funding, and lagging tech.
• 0:08
  That's why we built MedMetrix.
• 0:10
  We have the expertise and advanced tech to
• 0:13
  give you that edge on your revenue cycle.
• 0:15
  We're a partner who will relentlessly raise your
• 0:17
  yield, a partner who's on your side because
• 0:20
  they've been operator side, who knows your battles
• 0:23
  and will make sure you win from start
• 0:25
  to finish, end to end. MedMetrix,
• 0:28
  be exceptional.
• 0:30
  This is Madeline with the Becker CFO and
• 0:32
  Revenue Cycle podcast, and I'm thrilled to be
• 0:34
  joined today by Robert Chestnut, senior vice president
• 0:37
  and CFO of LMH Health. Rob, thanks for
• 0:40
  joining me. Thanks for having me.
• 0:42
  So, Rob, do you mind, right, before we
• 0:45
  kick things off, just sharing a little bit
• 0:47
  about yourself with our listeners and and more
• 0:49
  on LMH Health.
• 0:51
  Sure. LMH Health is a sole community hospital
• 0:54
  in Lawrence, Kansas.
• 0:56
  We serve
• 0:58
  a a service area primary service area about
• 1:00
  a 125,000.
• 1:02
  We've been here for a hundred years.
• 1:05
  Me personally, I was actually born and raised
• 1:07
  here in Lawrence and was born here at,
• 1:10
  LMH Health
• 1:12
  and served on the board of trustees before
• 1:14
  I joined as a as a permanent staff
• 1:16
  member a couple of years ago. So I've
• 1:19
  had a a long history with this hospital.
• 1:22
  That's awesome. And I know when we've talked
• 1:25
  before, I that's one of my fun facts
• 1:27
  about talking with you is so cool, your
• 1:29
  connection to the hospital. So I appreciate you
• 1:31
  sharing that. So, Virat, today I'd like to
• 1:33
  dive into of course, we're always seeing things
• 1:35
  changing in the industry. So
• 1:37
  I would like to hear maybe some of
• 1:39
  the strategic priorities that are demanding the most
• 1:41
  of your attention right now as we're, you
• 1:43
  know, inching further and further into 2026.
• 1:47
  I think our primary focus right now is
• 1:51
  just managing the labor force.
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  You know, we're seeing, again, just more and
• 1:56
  more demand on
• 1:59
  everything.
• 1:59
  I mean, you know, all across the board
• 2:01
  as far as as far as labor's concerned,
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  nursing,
• 2:06
  radiation technologists,
• 2:08
  medical assistants,
• 2:10
  phlebotomists, you name it. And we're really focusing
• 2:12
  a lot on how we can
• 2:15
  get out in front of this. We're working
• 2:17
  on some,
• 2:18
  training programs with our local vo tech school,
• 2:21
  even apprenticeship programs,
• 2:24
  just trying to,
• 2:25
  facilitate a place where we can grow
• 2:28
  a lot of the talent that we need
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  locally,
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  to stay in the community.
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  It's just it's just really kinda
• 2:35
  come to the forefront.
• 2:37
  And I think because
• 2:38
  of obviously, there's a lot of inflationary and
• 2:41
  pressure in the economy, so that's putting pressure
• 2:43
  on wages.
• 2:44
  The workforce is shrinking, as you know, just
• 2:46
  by demographics.
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  And,
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  also, I think what you're finding is that,
• 2:52
  you know, we we are
• 2:54
  a community that,
• 2:55
  where folks have options to work in either
• 2:58
  the Greater Kansas City metropolitan area
• 3:01
  and and other places, and we wanna make
• 3:03
  it in,
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  you know, a great place to work here.
• 3:07
  So that is a real strategic for focus
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  for us right now. Yeah. And I often
• 3:12
  hear when I talk to CFOs,
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  you know, when they talk about strategies involving
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  workforce,
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  kind of that grow your own mentality.
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  Mhmm. Has that been something that you guys
• 3:22
  have discussed? Yes. Grow your own and also
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  recognizing the fact that
• 3:27
  that it's not just always about money. It
• 3:30
  it can be,
• 3:31
  you know, what's the culture that you're creating
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  at your,
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  in your organization?
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  What kind of recognition are you providing people?
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  There's a whole host of things that that
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  we have done. It's not as though we
• 3:46
  we haven't,
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  you know, just started this initiatives, but recognizing
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  how important it is for people to feel
• 3:53
  good about what they do. Because health care
• 3:55
  is hard. I mean, we we ask especially
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  frontline,
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  folks. There's
• 4:00
  a there's a that day to day pressure,
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  and we wanna make sure that given a
• 4:04
  challenging environment, how do we create the best
• 4:06
  outcomes for them and and a place where
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  they feel like they're they're part of something
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  bigger.
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  Yeah. And that's so important.
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  I guess too,
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  is there any involvement of using, you know,
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  technology or any types of other, like, innovative
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  strategies, especially when we talk about workforce.
• 4:22
  Yeah. And on revenue cycle, we're implementing a
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  lot of,
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  AI.
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  We've seen it,
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  with some improvements in in,
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  diminishing streaks keystrokes in coding.
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  We're we're really probably focusing now a lot
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  on the front end.
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  We've just kind we've just, undertaken a
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  a transformational
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  product project, excuse me, on our clinic enterprise.
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  Mhmm. We have a we employ
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  the majority
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  the vast majority of physicians in our service
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  area,
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  and we put that that together
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  by,
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  a lot by acquisition. You know? We we
• 5:02
  had a lot of private practice folks fifteen
• 5:05
  years ago, and as they've
• 5:07
  kind of either,
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  maybe some of their senior partners have have
• 5:11
  gotten closer to retirement
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  or other circumstances,
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  they've they've come in with us.
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  We've gotta create a
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  a platform where we can standardize what we're
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  doing
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  and really apply technology across it. So it's
• 5:25
  not just using the technology tools. Yeah. It's
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  developing the workflows to make sure that you
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  can utilize that technology. Because
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  if you're, you know, doing things so
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  consistently across all your clinics,
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  technology is not gonna solve that problem.
• 5:42
  Yeah. No. That's some some good thoughts there.
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  And when, you know, we talk about these
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  some of these challenges and just all the
• 5:49
  things that are ongoing right now, what would
• 5:51
  you say your approach is to building, you
• 5:53
  know, that financial resilience when often volatility seems
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  to be such a constant in the industry?
• 5:59
  Well, I'll I'll give you a non CFO
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  answer.
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  Okay? Okay. Yep. If you you if you
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  think about your challenges or or the way
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  you're trying to develop your organization, you have
• 6:10
  the intrinsic development, which is really the people
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  and how they feel and what they're doing,
• 6:15
  what the culture's going on, and you have
• 6:17
  the extrinsic, which is all the deliverables. How
• 6:19
  am I improving my, you know, DNFB, and
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  how am I doing this, and what you
• 6:24
  know, am I managing all my revenue cycle
• 6:27
  metrics or or other things in the organization?
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  And we really need to work both
• 6:31
  at the same time.
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  I would say that one of the things
• 6:35
  that,
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  at least I've kind of come to,
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  you know, kind of understand is that we
• 6:41
  really have to work on
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  developing
• 6:45
  the connectivity of our people because they've gotta
• 6:48
  work together to solve a lot of these
• 6:50
  problems.
• 6:50
  Right. And that financial resilience is really built
• 6:54
  by, you know, instilling some trust, understanding common
• 6:58
  goals, being able to
• 7:00
  understand each other, work together
• 7:02
  because those are sustainable gains. Yeah. You know,
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  I can get out there and start pushing
• 7:07
  an agenda of, you know, we need to
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  do things this way. But if people aren't
• 7:11
  connected
• 7:12
  as a team, though those initiatives tend to
• 7:15
  fall by the wayside, and they won't sustain
• 7:17
  themselves. So we're working on both at the
• 7:19
  same time, and and and it's a good
• 7:21
  journey. I think that people
• 7:23
  see more transparency
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  from senior management saying, hey. We're we're really
• 7:27
  trying to figure out how we can work
• 7:29
  together, and that that's been received very well
• 7:32
  by by our organization.
• 7:34
  Yeah. And then the CFO
• 7:36
  financial seat, what would you say are some
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  major decisions that are kind of requiring
• 7:42
  CFOs to think beyond that traditional financial management
• 7:45
  and maybe act more as like a enterprise
• 7:47
  strategist?
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  I think that working
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  hand in hand with the CEO to understand
• 7:56
  their vision on what you're trying to do.
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  You know, one of the things I've I've
• 8:00
  really found just in in my experience, whether
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  it be in health care or any other
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  industry,
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  you can't drive
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  you can't drive the the true leadership from
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  from this chair. Yeah. You've gotta work in
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  concert with your with your leader to figure
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  out what what their,
• 8:18
  vision is. Because
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  I think one of the things is there's
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  always a thousand things to do. Right? Mhmm.
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  And so how do I focus? How do
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  I
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  work collaboratively with the with the management team
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  to say, let's figure out what are the
• 8:31
  most important three or four things? And one
• 8:34
  thing I try to do is put numbers
• 8:36
  to that. Okay. What what are the biggest
• 8:38
  bangs for the buck and initiatives that we
• 8:40
  can undertake in any given year? Because there's
• 8:43
  always what you know, there's always more initiatives
• 8:46
  than there is time to do it. So
• 8:48
  let's let's figure out the things that we
• 8:50
  can get some early wins on Mhmm. And
• 8:52
  things that we really think will transform the
• 8:54
  organization
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  versus
• 8:56
  trying to push 20 things at a time.
• 8:58
  That just that just slows your workforce down
• 9:01
  and gets them kind of kind of, you
• 9:03
  know, discouraged.
• 9:05
  Yeah. And prioritizing, you know, what needs to
• 9:07
  be tackled quickest. That can often be a
• 9:09
  challenge, especially as you know, they there's so
• 9:11
  much going on. So kinda kinda tackling that
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  from a strategic standpoint, I think the CFO
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  is in a unique position to say, hey.
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  Based on everything that's out here
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  Yeah. Here are the, you know, three or
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  four things that I think can really be
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  financially most transforming,
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  and and really try to focus our energy
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  on that.
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  And when you look to, you know, maybe
• 9:34
  even just three to five years out from
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  now, what do you think are some
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  capabilities
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  or, you know,
• 9:40
  transformation that will separate certain organizations from those
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  that might struggle?
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  I think that one thing that's not being
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  talked about enough
• 9:50
  right now is
• 9:52
  that,
• 9:53
  you know, we for instance, we live in
• 9:55
  a community
• 9:56
  that is is, you know, fairly self contained,
• 10:00
  but we have health care systems all around
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  us. And this is true, you know, across
• 10:05
  across the the,
• 10:06
  United States. I think one of the things
• 10:09
  is how can you work
• 10:11
  collaboratively
• 10:13
  to understand the region
• 10:15
  and where you fit in that and and
• 10:18
  really accentuate your strengths
• 10:20
  and even work on collaborating on some of
• 10:22
  your weaknesses. We work,
• 10:25
  with other health systems on saying, hey.
• 10:28
  You know, we'd like to have a strategic
• 10:30
  you know, a clinical relationship
• 10:32
  with with a a a certain specialty or
• 10:35
  something like that where we see a strength
• 10:38
  in you and maybe it's not a place
• 10:40
  where we're strong. And and and work those
• 10:43
  relationships because it's better for the patient,
• 10:46
  and, also, ultimately,
• 10:48
  it's a better and more efficient,
• 10:51
  use of resources, but you gotta establish a
• 10:53
  lot of trust to do that. Right? Right.
• 10:55
  Right. As you're always feeling vulnerable if you're
• 10:58
  kinda showing, you know, somebody else where where
• 11:01
  maybe you're not as strong. But I think
• 11:03
  that, you know, one of the things that
• 11:05
  we found is the the rural transformation funding
• 11:08
  that's come down has really started to encourage
• 11:11
  some of these relationships because we have we're
• 11:14
  you know, we sponsor a critical access hospital
• 11:16
  that's about 60 miles away from us, and
• 11:18
  we're starting to work with other systems to
• 11:21
  say, you know, let's talk about what your
• 11:23
  challenges are, what our challenges are. How can
• 11:26
  we solve this problem for the greater good
• 11:28
  of, you know, this this region?
• 11:31
  And I think that's where health care is
• 11:33
  gonna go because
• 11:35
  we can't work in silos. We just Right.
• 11:37
  Provider hospitals cannot work in silos. That that
• 11:40
  that formula
• 11:42
  is gone and it's not ever coming back.
• 11:45
  Definitely. In times like these, it's important to,
• 11:47
  you know, lean on those partnerships and collaboration
• 11:49
  where you see best fit. So some good
• 11:51
  thoughts there. Well, Rob, as always, it is
• 11:55
  such a pleasure getting to chat with you.
• 11:56
  Thanks for breaking down some of the things
• 11:58
  we're seeing in the industry with me, today,
• 12:00
  and I'm excited to chat with you again
• 12:02
  sometime soon.
• 12:04
  Appreciate it. Have a good day.
• 12:06
  You too.
• 12:08
  When it comes to today's RCM, we know
• 12:10
  the challenges.
• 12:11
  Complexity of claims, talent shortages, low funding, and
• 12:15
  lagging tech.
• 12:16
  That's why we built MedMetrix.
• 12:18
  We have the expertise and advanced tech to
• 12:21
  give you that edge on your revenue cycle.
• 12:24
  We're a partner who will relentlessly raise your
• 12:26
  yield, a partner who's on your side because
• 12:29
  they've been operator side, who knows your battles
• 12:31
  and will make sure you win from start
• 12:34
  to finish, end to end. MedMetrix.
• 12:36
  Be exceptional.