Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Dan LaVallee and Dr. Brandy Hershberger of UPMC

Transcript

Dan LaVallee and Dr. Brandy Hershberger of UPMC · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

0:00
Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the
0:02
Becker's Payer Issues podcast.
0:04
Thrilled today to be joined by doctor Brandy
0:07
Hershberger, who's the chief nursing officer and vice
0:10
president of academic affairs at UPMC,
0:12
And Dan LaValle is the associate vice president
0:15
of community engagement at UPMC Health Plan.
0:18
Brandy, Dan, thank you both so much for
0:20
taking the time to be with me on
0:21
the podcast today. Thanks for having us. Yeah.
0:23
Thanks so much, Jacob. Yeah. And before we
0:26
dive into everything we wanna talk with you
0:27
both about, can you each, tell us a
0:30
little bit more about yourselves, your background in
0:32
health care, and what it is that you
0:33
both do today at UPMC?
0:36
Brandy, I'll come to you first.
0:37
Sure. Good morning, everyone. I'm doctor Brandy Hirschberger,
0:40
chief nursing officer and vice president of academic
0:43
affairs.
0:44
I've been a nurse for around twenty two
0:46
years, a chief nurse for around eight years,
0:50
and I actually am a boomeranger.
0:52
Grew up as a baby nurse at UPMC,
0:55
left for a little bit to get some
0:57
for profit experience, and I came back because
0:59
I do love UPMC.
1:01
And happy to be here with you today
1:03
to talk about,
1:05
you know, just our apprenticeships and everything that's
1:07
going on good in UPMC. So thanks for
1:10
having me.
1:11
Absolutely. How about you, Dan? It is wonderful
1:14
to be with you, Brandy, always. And, Jacob,
1:16
thanks. I'm Dan LaValle.
1:18
I've been at UPMC just about ten years
1:20
now. You know, I'm a native Yinser as
1:22
we call it here in Mister Rogers neighborhood
1:24
in Pittsburgh. You know, I lead our community
1:26
engagement efforts at at UPMC health plan that
1:28
includes,
1:29
you know, work in our communities workforce,
1:31
programming that we'll talk about today to help
1:33
our our Medicaid members in particularly,
1:36
you know, get, life changing careers. So it's
1:38
wonderful to be here and can't wait to
1:39
have them to chat.
1:40
Fantastic. Well, really glad to have you both,
1:43
sitting down with us.
1:45
So we're we're here today to talk a
1:47
little bit about,
1:49
workforce development initiatives at UPMC,
1:52
and really the success that the health system
1:54
is has seen in terms of assisting those,
1:57
your your Medicaid members with with finding
2:00
meaningful careers within the health system. So, Dan,
2:03
why don't you start us off? Talk about
2:05
why you're so passionate about this work overall.
2:08
Thanks. Thanks, Jacob. And, you know, so our
2:10
our journey into into our pathways to work
2:12
program as we called it started about five
2:14
years ago right in the beginning of the
2:16
pandemic. You know, we also had,
2:19
at that time, right before the incredibly challenging
2:21
time, we had a wonderful partnership,
2:24
with our department of human services that had
2:26
started something that they called a work supports
2:28
program. So just like anytime you get a
2:30
new Medicaid member as a as a payer,
2:32
you know, they had asked us to help
2:34
people find work. It wasn't a requirement, but
2:35
it was just help people who wanted to
2:37
find work when you were helping them find
2:39
a primary care physician. We thought that was
2:41
such a neat, you know, effort. And it
2:43
and it made us look what can we
2:45
do as a system. At the same time,
2:47
you know, we have hundreds of thousands of
2:48
Medicaid members. Many are already working. We also
2:51
are the largest nongovernmental
2:53
employer, you know, as an integrated system here
2:55
in Pennsylvania. So we had an opportunity with
2:58
thousands of open jobs and so many people
3:00
that were already in our family to make
3:02
sure that we were providing, you know, opportunities
3:04
for work. And then at that moment, you
3:06
know, when the pandemic hit and one in
3:08
three of our neighbors were filing jobless claims,
3:11
it was time for us, you know, to
3:12
step up and to show up in our
3:14
communities and help people that had skills, you
3:16
know, find careers with us that we're gonna
3:18
help care for our communities. So that's how
3:20
we started this Pathways to Work program. We're
3:22
able to work with Brandy and so many
3:23
other leaders on helping to place people in
3:26
careers, in apprenticeship programs, other training programs.
3:29
It's just been, you know, just a incredible
3:31
joy to work,
3:33
with you, Brandy, and so many others to
3:34
make this program work, and, can't wait to
3:36
talk more about it. Yeah. No. It's amazing.
3:39
I mean, you're really helping
3:40
your members beyond just just benefits.
3:43
What about you, Brandy? Why why'd you wanna
3:44
get involved in this kind of work?
3:46
So and it's a pleasure, you know, working
3:49
with the whole team and Dan,
3:51
at UPMC.
3:53
And part of my role is building pipelines
3:55
and, you know, filling those vacant positions that
3:59
are meaningful to provide patient care.
4:01
And why not helping others seek meaningful,
4:05
stable professions in health care and them having
4:08
a dream. We're helping them to fulfill the
4:11
dream, especially we're gonna get into apprenticeships,
4:14
but the apprenticeships help to provide on the
4:17
job training
4:19
while assisting them with their education cost and
4:21
expenses,
4:23
and really just
4:25
promoting what we have at UPMC.
4:27
Some of the times people don't really know.
4:30
Yes, they know about nursing, they know about
4:32
being a physician,
4:34
However, there is a multitude
4:36
of careers that we're going to get into
4:38
today that helps provide,
4:40
you know, services
4:41
from a health care arena and provide great
4:44
patient care.
4:45
Absolutely, and I'm glad you brought that up,
4:47
Brandy. Let's talk about what these apprenticeships
4:49
look like on the ground. What's available to
4:52
your members?
4:53
What exactly is the health system offering?
4:56
So some of the apprenticeships that we're offering
4:58
at UPMC,
5:00
we just new and improved, we just got
5:02
it approved as our LPN to RN or
5:05
RNR
5:06
or registered nurse resident
5:08
apprenticeship.
5:09
So we're very much in the infancy stages
5:12
to launch here, in the next few weeks.
5:15
We also have a surgical
5:18
technologist
5:18
apprenticeship
5:20
that we're working towards to get it launched
5:22
this fall as well sometime in the August
5:24
room
5:25
and then in the works we have our
5:28
imaging or diagnostic
5:30
tech apprenticeship
5:31
and those are the individuals that take x
5:33
rays. So if you have a broken bone,
5:35
they're gonna help. So we're working towards that
5:38
to launch this far fall
5:40
and then the pharmacy
5:42
tech apprenticeship,
5:43
which they are instrumental
5:45
in our pharmacies pharmacies
5:47
to really help prepare medications,
5:49
get our meds to our patients, and so
5:51
forth. And, Dan, I know you also,
5:54
have a few apprenticeships
5:55
too. Wow. Brandy, that is incredible. I like
5:58
hearing you. I can't wait for the fall.
5:59
This is just gonna be a beautiful day
6:00
in the neighborhood. I think Jacob too, one
6:02
of the the first kind of first one
6:04
that we had that we saw some success
6:06
to see where, you know, some of our
6:07
other leaders could look and see what they
6:09
could do was in facilities maintenance. And I
6:11
think, you know, as as we all know,
6:13
when you think the world pressure, if you
6:15
think a lot of the the trades and
6:16
which is wonderful, and they've laid the path
6:18
for that. And I think we saw that
6:19
we were, you know, having an an an
6:21
aging workforce and facilities maintenance across our 40
6:23
plus hospitals and other locations.
6:26
You know, our leaders took a chance, built
6:28
a program, you know, that where people get
6:29
some education here at one of our community
6:31
colleges and and other partners, and then are
6:33
able to work in our hospitals starting starting
6:36
young to make sure we're showing, you know,
6:38
what the the careers can be in getting
6:39
into some of the schools. So that was
6:41
kind of the gateway. We saw some of
6:42
that work, built some, you know, ability to,
6:45
you know, make sure that we could replicate
6:47
a model that, you know, we we believe
6:48
this could be the model for the country
6:49
and how a how a health care system
6:51
can, you know, build apprenticeships that also hire
6:54
individuals with barriers to work or off Medicaid.
6:56
So it's just a beautiful day.
6:57
Absolutely. It's so exciting, and it really it
7:00
spans the entire spectrum of what's available at
7:02
the health system, it sounds like.
7:05
And congratulations
7:06
on on the nursing one this fall. That's
7:07
very exciting.
7:09
Dan, can you expand a little bit for
7:11
us in terms of on the ground, what
7:12
these individuals are are seeing, what they're receiving
7:15
in terms of the benefits of participating in
7:17
something like this?
7:18
Yeah. So, you know, I think at the
7:19
beginning of our our journey, it was a
7:21
couple things. Like, we, at first, wanna make
7:22
sure that people who have skills can get
7:24
right into careers if they can. But then
7:26
if they desired some preemployment training, we built
7:28
a couple new programs there that were great,
7:30
five, six week programs that people could get
7:33
in and get into a, you know, a
7:34
career mostly entry level fields. I think what's
7:37
beautiful about apprenticeships
7:39
is that you're able to work, go to
7:40
school at the same time, and get other
7:42
supportive services, which has been great. Helping people
7:45
with transportation,
7:46
with materials, books, whatever it might be. You
7:49
know, I can't say enough about our department
7:51
of labor and industry here in the Commonwealth
7:53
and the governor's vision and secretary Walker here
7:56
around how they've looked at new sector apprenticeships
7:58
to make it available to people like me
8:00
and Brandy to to to try this and
8:02
to try to build it because the benefits,
8:04
you know, are right there. And we've seen
8:06
incredible retention rates, you know, with other employers
8:08
and other, you know, sectors, and we're seeing
8:10
that here. So I think that's kind of
8:12
the piece, kind of the wrap around supports,
8:14
you know, that that last quite a bit
8:16
longer than a three or four week program.
8:17
So that's a big benefit,
8:19
and also can't say enough about our workforce
8:21
investment board partnerships and, you know, how they're
8:23
willing to take a chance with us to
8:24
make something work.
8:26
Absolutely. And it's it's very it's exciting to
8:28
hear that this has been supported by by
8:29
the state as well. It would be, incredible
8:32
if this is a model that could be
8:34
spread, like you said, to the to the
8:35
rest of the country and to across other
8:37
systems.
8:38
Brandy, can you talk a little bit about,
8:41
what's the apprenticeship
8:43
grant that UPMC
8:44
most recently received, and what's the amount here?
8:47
What in dollars? What are we talking about?
8:50
Sure. So, Jacob, first, we are honored and
8:52
grateful to be the recipients
8:54
of this grant. It is actually the supporting
8:58
Pennsylvania's
8:59
health care sector through apprenticeships and pre apprenticeships
9:03
grant program. And we received $400,000
9:07
to support these apprenticeships.
9:09
And it's the four apprenticeships I talked about.
9:12
And
9:13
it will be instrumental. This will be providing
9:16
funding
9:17
that will support the apprentice.
9:19
And it will help with wages,
9:21
books, tuition, uniforms,
9:24
you name it. It helps this individual
9:27
or these individuals
9:28
in this apprenticeship program
9:30
to, as I talked about,
9:32
get the career of their dreams.
9:35
And specifically
9:36
with the LPN to RN apprenticeship program and
9:39
can I highlight we're the first in the
9:41
state
9:42
to get this apprenticeship
9:44
so then people in the state can duplicate
9:47
this apprenticeship will be phenomenal to help LPNs
9:51
get their RN
9:52
and then come into our workforce, stay in
9:55
Pennsylvania
9:56
and get wage reimbursement,
9:59
get help with tuition and so forth? And
10:01
the other apprenticeships will as well. So this
10:03
grant is instrumental, and that's why it's important
10:06
to have additional grants like this in the
10:08
future
10:09
to help apprentices
10:11
and to help our workforce and grow them
10:13
in the state of Pennsylvania.
10:15
Absolutely. So it's not just providing them that
10:17
career and education support, but also everything that
10:20
comes along with it as well, the tuition,
10:22
the books, all all that good stuff. It's
10:24
amazing.
10:25
Dan, in in terms of the work that
10:28
you're doing, how do you how do people
10:29
find out about this? How do they apply?
10:31
How do they actually,
10:33
you know, take advantage of something like this?
10:35
Yeah. It's a great question, Jacob. You know,
10:37
I think for us, you know, in our
10:39
our pathways to work model that we have,
10:40
we will show up anywhere, anytime, whether it's
10:43
a thousand people or one person that's interested
10:46
in a career with us or or elsewhere.
10:48
So what we've tried to do is make
10:49
sure that we have recruiters. We call them
10:51
dream makers, and they go out in the
10:52
community with me and and and our team
10:54
and and others to just share about careers,
10:57
to share that we have a place here
10:58
to help navigate. We work with other workforce
11:00
development partners, schools, of course, but then training
11:03
organizations, community based organizations
11:06
to make sure that they know if they
11:07
have someone interested in a career that they
11:09
can reach out. So we've had five years
11:11
of building trust here to make sure that,
11:13
you know, when people see us, they know
11:15
that we will help. It's not a guarantee
11:17
of a job always, but it's a guarantee
11:18
to have somebody there to help navigate, and
11:20
we're gonna use that model for these apprenticeship
11:23
programs that Brandy was going in to make
11:24
sure that we're working in our schools, working
11:27
in our neighborhoods that have higher unemployment rates,
11:29
you know, where people, you know, just desire
11:32
to have a, you know, a potential life
11:33
changing career. So I think it's all about
11:35
first just showing up and making sure that
11:37
we're showing up everywhere where people have an
11:39
interest in careers, but then really communicating, what
11:42
this
11:43
training programs look like, what an apprenticeship program
11:45
looks like to make sure we have no
11:47
no wrong door to enter our pathways to
11:48
work program, which we love. And Absolutely. Jacob
11:51
and Dan, if I can add too, not
11:53
only will the apprentice
11:55
be a UPMC
11:56
employee,
11:57
but they will be in school. So you
11:59
will be a student and an employee because
12:01
you're receiving valuable training, learning from the best
12:04
to be the best,
12:06
and you will find the apprenticeship
12:10
specifically,
12:10
as a career on upmccareers.com
12:15
and it will be labeled as such. And
12:16
you apply just like a regular employee would
12:19
and then you will be into The Apprentice.
12:22
And then with our either our own UPMC
12:25
schools or with our academic partners, you'll have
12:28
to meet the requirements for application
12:30
for a student, but it's a dual role.
12:33
So specifically towards some of our apprenticeships within,
12:37
the LPN to RN, the search tech imaging,
12:40
and pharm tech.
12:42
Perfect. Yeah. I appreciate that tag on there,
12:44
Brandy, on exactly how someone would access this.
12:47
One thing I do wanna ask you both
12:49
about because, obviously, as you both know, this
12:51
is a very quickly changing and evolving industry,
12:54
health care overall.
12:56
So how do these apprenticeships how does this
12:58
financial support that you're offering
13:00
members, how does that adapt to meet the
13:03
demands of of a very quickly changing industry?
13:07
Can you talk about that, Dan? I mean,
13:09
how does this how does this program stay
13:11
flexible?
13:13
Yeah. I'll I'll start, and then I know
13:14
Brandy can can rock through. I I think,
13:16
you know, for us, it's all about making
13:18
sure that we help people find the right
13:20
fit, and that may not be the first
13:22
time. You know? It's it's just maybe they
13:23
get into a career as a as a
13:25
patient care tech and wanna become a nurse
13:27
and, you know, can go along that that
13:29
journey. So I think for us,
13:30
that's key. And then also making sure that,
13:33
you know, that we are right there, you
13:35
know, partnering with our public sector and the
13:38
private sector here together. I think that's what's
13:39
made this beautiful is that we learned, you
13:42
know, pretty quickly. Okay. An an imaging career
13:44
and that that pathway, that education pipeline that
13:46
Brandy can go into more is perfect for
13:49
an apprenticeship, you know, and perfect to learn
13:51
a bit on the job and get this
13:52
done even if we just make sure that
13:54
we, you know, get get through the part
13:55
of getting it registered and and get it
13:57
moving. So I I see that as adapting,
13:59
and I think the beautiful thing is, you
14:00
you know, once we've we we continue to
14:02
have bits of success, and then that just
14:04
brings more partners and passionate people on to,
14:06
you know, make this work in other areas.
14:07
I don't know. Brandy, what do you think?
14:09
Yeah. And Jacob and Dan, those individuals that
14:13
come in as an EVS employee that says,
14:16
I wanna be a pharm
14:18
tech. We have the means and the pathway
14:20
to get them there. And one of our
14:22
brand new, hopefully, proved apprenticeships
14:26
for pharm tech will help an individual be
14:28
successful for wages and all the reimbursement and
14:31
all the covering of expenses.
14:33
These
14:34
apprenticeship programs and workforce development pathways
14:38
really help individuals who never thought it was
14:41
possible to pursue their dream career. And it
14:43
could be in nursing and say, I get
14:45
into nursing and this isn't for me. And
14:48
then I flip to imaging and that's okay.
14:51
But we have a multitude of of directions
14:53
that an individual can go providing the valuable
14:56
skills and instructions.
14:58
And these apprenticeship programs and the grant funding
15:01
is the funding.
15:02
It is so important to keep our pipelines
15:05
to fill our vacant workforce positions
15:08
while giving people the opportunity
15:10
to pursue these valuable careers.
15:14
And why not? Learning from the best to
15:16
be the best.
15:18
We give valuable instruction and provide them on
15:20
the job training to pursue these careers.
15:24
Wonderful. Well, before we go, I'd I'd love
15:26
to get any final thoughts, last tidbits of
15:28
advice you wanna offer all the other health
15:31
care leaders listening in from all over the
15:33
country. Brandy, why don't you start us off?
15:36
I'm just gonna say, why would you not
15:39
want apprenticeships
15:41
in health care arena?
15:43
You know, we need to be innovative, so
15:45
this isn't the time to sit on the
15:47
sidelines. Let's be innovative together.
15:50
So you create an apprenticeship, I create an
15:52
apprenticeship, and we're just gonna duplicate it because
15:54
we're going to feel the workforce. We're going
15:57
to feel the pipeline need,
15:59
and then getting exposure out to our middle
16:02
and high school students
16:03
are so important
16:05
because
16:06
we need to talk about the multitude
16:09
of professions
16:10
in our buildings today
16:12
so that people
16:14
will go towards those professions
16:16
and
16:17
have careers,
16:18
have dream careers. That's what we're all about
16:21
is making dreams happen.
16:23
And, Dan, your closing thoughts for us? I
16:25
I I love it, Brandy. It does make
16:26
me think about our our kinda third person
16:29
who's not with us today, our our our
16:30
HR leader. He always says we have every
16:32
career but a firefighter here at at UPMC,
16:35
and it's true. You know? And that's the
16:37
beautiful thing. There's a fit for everybody, but
16:39
that's up to us to continue to show
16:40
up and communicate that. I would say, Jacob,
16:42
one of the biggest things for us that's
16:44
that's helped us along the way is going
16:46
to meet our workforce investment boards. You know,
16:48
every county has one or group of counties
16:50
and just showing up and try trying things,
16:52
being a little bit vulnerable to try to,
16:54
you know, figure out what what might work
16:56
and, you know, even if something doesn't work,
16:57
just trying the next. And that's how we've
16:59
gotten here, just with common goals of trying
17:02
to help our communities and help our, you
17:04
know, impact that we wanna make in in
17:06
those communities and, just, you know, be with,
17:08
you know, those that are that are ready
17:09
to make a life changing difference, you know,
17:11
through a life changing career. So we we
17:12
love it. I would say that's the biggest
17:13
thing, though. That's helped us along the way
17:15
is our our workforce boards and then, of
17:17
course, the labor and industry team that's just
17:18
been wonderful here in the Commonwealth. And, you
17:20
know, we know that's everywhere. We're happy to
17:22
talk to anybody anytime who wants to talk
17:24
about this journey.
17:25
Fantastic. Well, you you can really feel the
17:28
passion you both have for for this work
17:30
and for the people you serve coming through
17:32
through the screen right now. So,
17:34
just really appreciate Dan, doctor Hershberger for for
17:37
taking the time to sit down with us
17:39
and for sharing about the impactful work going
17:42
on under under your leadership at UPMC. We
17:44
really appreciate it. Thank you. Our pleasure.
17:47
And to our listeners, if you'd like to
17:49
listen to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare, you
17:51
can visit beckershospitalreview.com.