Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Peta-Ann Anderson, CNO at Jackson Health

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Peta-Ann Anderson, CNO at Jackson Health · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  This episode is sponsored by the Dragon Ambient Experience, or Dax from Nuance.
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  That's N U A N C e.com/b e c k e r e s.
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  This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by PETA Anne Anderson,
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  chief Nursing Officer at Jackson North Medical Center. PETA Anne,
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  it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  Good morning, Lauren. Thank you for having me on the, on the podcast today.
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  It was a pleasure. It's a pleasure getting to,
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  to introduce myself and talk a little bit more of what's going on in healthcare
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  at Jackson North.
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  Well, absolutely. And you know,
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  I'm excited to have you on because I know a lot of the listeners in our audience
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  today, you know, are really, um, just having a lot of the same, um,
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  challenges as well as seeing opportunities, um, in the healthcare space,
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  just as you are. So I'm excited to dive into some of the questions,
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  but before we do that, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself,
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  your background in Jackson North Medical Center?
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  Sure, absolutely. So, as you said,
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  I'm the Chief Nursing Officer at Jackson North Medical Center,
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  which is a community hospital within a Jackson Health System. I, it's a,
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  currently, it's a 380 bed, 82 bed facility,
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  and we serve a diverse population. Prior to this role,
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  I've served for over 15 years in, um,
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  several leadership roles that has influenced nursing and
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  operations in the healthcare industry.
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  I completed my master's of science degree, um, Walden University,
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  and I'm currently pursuing my D N P at Walden.
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  As I, I,
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  I strive to be someone of a lifelong learner.
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  I'm also a recipient of a u Doctors of Humane letter that I received from
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  Barry University for my work that I did during the pandemic.
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  Absolutely. That's fantastic. And, you know,
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  congratulations on going through the D N P process.
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  I think certainly it makes a big difference,
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  and I can imagine being that lifelong learner and somebody who's striving to
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  always get better really helps your teams too.
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  Absolutely.
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  Now, I am wondering if you could talk about what are some of your top priorities
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  right now? I know there's a lot happening in the healthcare space,
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  and so from your perspective, where are you spending most of your time?
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  So, great question, Lauren. You're so right. As a nurse executive,
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  there is so much going on and, and if I would say,
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  I would say the practices and processes in our healthcare facility,
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  especially at Jacksonville right now, is very fluid.
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  But I must say I wanna laser focus and prioritize on
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  employee engagement, staff retention, and our ED capacity.
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  So I think like most of the healthcare facilitators that went through the
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  pandemic, and we had the staff turnover, nurses traveling,
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  we had nursing burnout, and now we're faced with all these challenges of,
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  um,
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  making sure that we can get back to some kind of normalcy with,
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  you know,
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  our staffing and making sure that our employees feel like
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  they have a voice and,
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  and get them engaged where they want to be at a place where they wanna work. So,
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  at Jackson North, we've done a phenomenal job at,
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  with our HR partners, you know, in, in Phil or, or nursing put,
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  um, roles at Jackson North during the pandemic.
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  We had significant turnover,
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  but we have reduced our turnover significantly over the last year and filled
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  our, our, our vacancies where we have reduced our, um, premium pays.
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  Some of the things that we're doing is, um,
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  we have our employee activity council, so that's led by the staff.
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  We want our staff to feel like they have a voice on what they want to
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  happen in their space. Another thing that we're currently doing,
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  we're using the Care Connect tool because we know that, you know,
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  it's good to to, to recruit and bring the staffing.
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  The most important thing that we as nurse executives must understand
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  is that we have to retain them. So I'm focusing on how can I retain,
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  so we have our Care Connect tool that we do some point check in with leaders.
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  Before we used to do 60, 90, now we're doing 10 days, 30 days,
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  60 days, 90 days, and 120 days with each new employee,
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  nurses that are, are onboarded.
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  And then every 30 days after that for the first year.
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  Because what we noticed that our turnovers was during that first
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  year, and nonetheless with the shortage of nursing schools,
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  we're getting a lot of nurses that are, are brand new.
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  So we have to make sure that we're focusing on onboarding and retention at
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  this time. Now, another thing that we have to work at,
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  which goes hand in hand with, you know, employee engagement,
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  staff satisfaction and retaining is our ED capacity.
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  So Jackson North, and, and I think most hospitals, um,
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  are facing the same thing. 'cause I,
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  I talk to all the executives and I hear that they're having the same things
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  where they're seeing their ed now, patients are coming back to the hospital,
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  so they're faced with high capacity. Right?
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  So that's one of the things that we're facing in my facility right now as we
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  emerge for the hospital of choice, I think is,
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  is critical as the nurse executive leader to make sure
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  that we are providing safe,
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  effective care while maximizing throughput and operational and efficiency,
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  the overcrowding of the ER as a,
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  as a merge and is a pressing concern for me as the nurse,
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  the C N O at Jackson North. Um,
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  this is compromised in patient care and it places strain on our staff as well.
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  So that goes hand in hand why I need to focus on that.
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  And if you think about it, it's the two important things in the,
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  in our healthcare,
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  the patients and the staff patient and people,
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  we must focus on these and these,
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  both of these priority will give us the leverage we need to ensure that our
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  staff are not feeling burned out, there's no strain.
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  So they can provide that excellent care to our patients,
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  and our patients can leave to say that we receive high quality
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  safe care when we came to Jackson North Hospital.
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  That's amazing to hear. You know what, I,
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  I really love that focus on the people side of it,
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  whether it's your teammates or the patients and,
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  and their families that you're working with.
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  It's so important healthcare to have that kind of personal relationship and
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  really understand what people need on a human level. And, you know,
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  when you talk about that and then coupled with, um, I just,
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  I so appreciate you weaving in there too. Um,
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  the very tactical aspects of making sure that, you know,
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  you're dealing with some of the emergency department issues,
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  patient flow capacity, those are so, such big challenges, um,
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  within the healthcare space today. Um, so, you know,
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  it's just fascinating to hear how you're tackling those and troubleshooting some
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  of those issues. I'm wondering, you know, kind of given where we're at today,
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  how do you see the organization evolving over the next two to three years or so?
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  What do you see as being, um, areas where you'll improve on, in what is, um,
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  on deck for, for your, I guess, key priorities next?
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  Well, I, you know, as we evolve in the next two to three years, and as we know,
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  um, the increased cost due to inflation, new technology coming out,
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  we wanna increase our technology to allow better patient safety and throughput.
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  We also know that that may cause some delays as well with some of the workforce
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  who are not tech savvy. So those are some of the things we're thinking about.
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  So I think as we, we, we look to the future in the next two years,
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  we will need to be doing some constant review of patients cost and
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  physicians to make sure the patients are informed and moving through the system
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  quickly in order for hospitals to be profitable due to the change in
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  environment.
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  We have an increased amount of patients due to age and the overall expectation,
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  and rightly so, when a patient comes to the hospital,
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  they should receive topnotch care. I, as the C N O,
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  when I go to a facility, I expect the best technology,
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  the best patient care. I wanna be moved through safely and efficiently.
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  I don't wanna stay three, four days in a hospital bed where I can become,
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  get hospital acquired infection when I can really move to the f the,
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  the system efficiently. So I think as an organization,
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  we need to do look at that.
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  So that's where we're gonna focus on how we're moving our patients
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  through the system effectively,
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  to be that hospital of choice where we provide safe care and our employees
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  want to be a part of something that's so, so exciting.
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  Absolutely. And, and I, I,
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  I think that's such an important aspect of healthcare.
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  I love your passion around that.
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  I can certainly hear it in your voice and to your point on how you can, um,
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  inspire families and patients to really understand and see what you're doing,
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  uh, to improve and get better. Obviously, having the best technology,
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  the best teams in place and the best opportunities for patient care is just, um,
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  just an amazing mission.
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  And for those who maybe might not be as tech savvy or might be a little bit, um,
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  anxious or nervous, you know, or,
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  or not really understanding why it's so important to,
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  for the hospital and the health system to, um, you know,
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  leverage these technologies and,
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  and move a little bit quicker than you have in the past,
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  bring patients through or otherwise. Um,
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  how do you kind of approach those challenges both with the staff members who
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  are, um, skeptical as well as patients?
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  Well, I think we have to do a lot of education.
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  It starts first with our frontline staff, right?
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  Educating them on the whys,
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  not just we're going to use this,
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  but we have to let them understand why we're using it and what is the end
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  result, what does it look like?
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  How is it gonna make your job more effective,
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  where you can move along safer and efficiently.
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  And then after the staff understands they can speak to that
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  with our patients, right?
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  Because they're the ones who are delivering the care at the bedside.
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  So I think we have to do a lot of, um,
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  education and more education until our staff are able to
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  be able to be proficient. It's, I think if you think back when, uh,
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  when we came out with the electionary health record, it's no different.
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  It's something that every one of us had to learn. Me as a nurse,
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  I remember I was a part of the team that rolled out the E H R in
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  my organization, and I was a staff nurse at that time,
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  and I knew there was challenges with it,
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  but we overcame those challenges and look where we are today.
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  So I think if we look at the ai, the technologies that are coming out, yes,
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  we know that there's gonna be challenges, um, with those who are not as savvy,
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  including myself, however,
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  we know that it's going to make it better for our staff and for our patient.
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  And that's my focus patients and our, and our staff members.
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  Amazing. I I love it. Thank you so much for the insight there. Now,
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  before we wrap up our conversation,
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  I was wondering if you could talk about a change that you or your team has made
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  that really yielded great results recently?
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  Yes, Laura, I would like to talk a little bit about one of the,
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  the program that we initiative that we did at Jackson North.
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  So again,
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  I go back to the pandemic where we saw an increased, um,
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  surge of, um, HX Hospital acquired infection.
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  So since the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic, the prevalence of, um,
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  hospital acquired M R S A in our tele unit was in, was increasing significantly.
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  And as a nurse leader,
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  that became a very concerning point for me and for my team as well.
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  So we had a group of us that we decided how we're going to make an
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  impact to really, um, put, um,
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  insulate different things to really get this under, um, control.
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  So we decided to, to, uh,
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  enroll in our program with the A H R Q,
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  the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on their Mesa safety program.
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  And we started that program in 2021, uh,
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  of the last quarter of our fiscal year.
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  And we saw a significant decrease in our mesa bacteremia
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  in our telemetry unit, and not just in the tele unit,
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  but across the entire facility.
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  So we had monthly webinars where we had our infection prevention, um,
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  director, myself as a team lead. We had physician partnership,
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  nursing leaders. Uh, it was a whole, uh,
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  group of collaboration to really get this to where we have reached
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  the, the, the ss i r that we wanted to be.
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  So we're very proud of that. That included our safety fair.
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  We started the quarter where we were having up to 10 uhms
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  a bacteremia hospital acquired that that year.
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  And I'm proud to say in 2023,
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  we only had one M R S A in our hospital.
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  So we're very proud of that.
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  Wow, that's amazing. What great results and,
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  and certainly something to be really proud of with your team, um,
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  is is that something you've celebrated getting those great results?
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  Absolutely. We celebrated, we had a banner, we had a party.
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  Um, we made a big deal about it.
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  That's one thing we focus a lot on at Jackson North. We do a lot of, um,
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  employee celebration because we want our staff to know that we
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  pre appreciate them, we're happy for the work that they're doing,
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  and no one can impact the, the, the patient experience better than our staff.
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  So with all of that, the staff, actually, I'm glad you asked that question,
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  Laura, because I didn't mention it,
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  but the staff was a big part of this because they all had to
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  watch the safety, the signs of safety video, and they took this on,
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  they had champions, we made posters. So the staff really,
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  really, we, the leaders met in the boardroom, but at the frontline,
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  the staff were the leaders at the bedside. So we're very proud of them. And yes,
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  we did a big celebration for them and we continue to cheer them on
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  and celebrate as they continue with zero M r s a, uh,
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  infection in that unit.
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  I love it. Peter Ann, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been a really fun and interesting discussion,
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  and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
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  Thank you, Laura. It was a pleasure sharing.
• 15:50
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