Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Renée Jensen, FACHE, CEO of Snoqualmie Valley Health

Transcript

Renée Jensen, FACHE, CEO of Snoqualmie Valley Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - The strategic agenda facing hospital and health system
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  - at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, and come
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  - Register on our events page at beckershospitalreview.com
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  - upper right.
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  - This is Kristen Kuchno with the Becker's Healthcare
• 1:01
  - podcast.
• 1:02
  - And today, I'm joined by Renee Jensen, CEO
• 1:05
  - of Snoqualmie Valley Health. Renee, thank you for
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  - being here. Thanks for having me, Kristen.
• 1:10
  - Could you introduce yourself and share a bit
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  - about your career journey and what led you
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  - to Snoqualmie Valley Health?
• 1:17
  - Yeah. Actually,
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  - I have a degree in biology and chemistry,
• 1:21
  - and I started my career in the laboratory.
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  - And,
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  - I just
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  - got a passion for health care leadership. And
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  - I had the opportunity to work with some
• 1:29
  - really amazing leaders. And I always aspired to
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  - be able
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  - to give support and lead a team. And
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  - so I ended up getting my master's in
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  - health care administration.
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  - And,
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  - I've worked in
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  - public hospital districts in Washington state as a
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  - CEO for almost twenty years now. I was
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  - actually one of the youngest female hospital CEOs
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  - ever in Washington. I was 30 years old
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  - when I ran my first hospital.
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  - And I've worked at some of the largest
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  - and smallest hospitals in Washington state.
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  - And Snoqualmie is kind of a culmination of
• 2:02
  - my career where I get to put the
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  - small and the big and the system and
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  - the rural and the urban all together in
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  - one place.
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  - Great. And I know your current organization has
• 2:12
  - a lot of exciting projects coming up.
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  - In early twenty twenty seven, Stoncombe Valley Health
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  - plans to open the hub, an 85,000
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  - square foot expansion that includes
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  - outpatient surgery, specialty services,
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  - and community spaces like a restaurant and climbing
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  - gym. What does a project of that scale
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  - say about your vision for the organization's future?
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  - Well, I have this incredibly
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  - talented and innovative staff that's always trying to
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  - figure out how do we deliver health care
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  - differently, and how do we just not do
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  - the same old thing. And I think that
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  - when I started here at Snoqualmie, it was
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  - kind of in the end of twenty twenty,
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  - still in the midst of COVID.
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  - And we took a lot of, a lot
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  - of lessons away from COVID and health care.
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  - And one of those was just the huge
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  - increase in mental and behavioral health,
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  - needs in our community,
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  - and that lack of social connection, and how
• 3:04
  - much impact it had on just our overall
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  - wellness in our communities. So,
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  - so Kwame was one of those places that
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  - just really hadn't grown and, and kind of
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  - failure to thrive over time. And this is
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  - really our investment in changing health care for
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  - our communities. Community. So we're taking those things
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  - that we learned from our economic development steering
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  - committee here at Snoqualmie, and coupling that with
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  - our lessons from COVID.
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  - And so basically,
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  - in historical healthcare,
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  - you are a patient when you're sick, and
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  - you show up at a hospital or healthcare
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  - center when you're
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  - sick. But our concept is really thinking about
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  - the health of our community as a whole,
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  - and meeting our community where they are. So
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  - before you get sick, and before you need
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  - sick care, what about delivering actual healthcare?
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  - So our concept blends,
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  - community
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  - gathering places and things that bring you to
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  - a place that traditionally could have been very
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  - intimidating and unapproachable,
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  - to a place that you want to be
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  - and you want to gather, and you have
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  - reasons to come
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  - that aren't just about sick care, making health
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  - care more accessible for everyone, and something that
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  - is a pleasant experience rather than something that
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  - sometimes can be seen as terrifying or, or,
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  - otherwise uncomfortable for families. So,
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  - yeah, so it's just, it's kind of all
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  - of those things together in one place, and
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  - thinking about health care as community health rather
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  - than just sick care.
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  - Thank you for sharing that. It's such an
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  - exciting project.
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  - I also wanted to ask, where do you
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  - see the greatest opportunity for growth or innovation
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  - in the next year or two at your
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  - organization?
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  - Yeah. I think that,
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  - for us, we're kind of in an interesting
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  - situation where we are a small, what you
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  - might consider rural hospital, but we're on the
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  - edge of a very metropolitan area outside of
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  - Seattle.
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  - And so we are rural. There's a lot
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  - of green space around us, but then we
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  - also have a lot of competition in our
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  - market. And
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  - I think that,
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  - sometimes when we think about rural hospitals, we're
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  - like, what what is the bare minimum that
• 5:01
  - we can do to survive? Or what is
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  - the bare minimum that our community actually needs?
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  - And what Snoqualmie is trying to do is
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  - say that just because you're small, it doesn't
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  - mean that you're less than. And rural communities
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  - should have access to the same thing that
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  - you might,
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  - other quality and access to things that you
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  - would have in a larger city.
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  - I think that
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  - just we we can build something here that's
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  - different because we're small. It allows us to
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  - be more flexible. It allows us to be
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  - more innovative,
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  - and I think really show,
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  - our health care community that you don't always
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  - have to do it the same way it's
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  - always been done.
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  - Definitely. And I think that flexibility is something
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  - that is so necessary for the future of
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  - health care with, just all the ongoing challenges
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  - today.
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  - I also wanted to ask, as you think
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  - about specifically the next twelve months, what are
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  - the top priorities for your organization and leadership
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  - team?
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  - Yeah. We we are building a building with
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  - the mortgage payment, and we don't have any
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  - business in it yet to generate the revenue
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  - to pay that mortgage payment. So
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  - really, we although it's a very creative and
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  - innovative, it also has to be financially sustainable
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  - and very financially stable. And so
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  - one of one of the interesting kind of,
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  - I would say innovative concepts that
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  - rolls into what are our priorities is around
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  - our staffing.
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  - A lot of rural communities have a difficult
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  - time recruiting and retaining staff just because of
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  - their location or the limited number of services
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  - that they provide.
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  - But what we're trying to do is think
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  - about
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  - usually in health care your patient is the
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  - center of care, and the patient is the
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  - center of the universe.
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  - But we started to think more about, well,
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  - what would it mean if our staff was
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  - also the center of our priorities?
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  - And so in a traditional health care construction,
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  - you would have what you call on stage
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  - and off stage, and you put all the
• 6:44
  - shiny fancy things in the lobby, and the
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  - things that the patients see are all really
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  - nice and pretty. But if you go behind
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  - the large corridor where you have to badge,
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  - everything is like five shades of health care
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  - white. It's boring, it's drab, it's a place
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  - where we don't spend a lot of money.
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  - But in our concept with the hub, we
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  - are investing in our staff, and we're investing
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  - in recruitment,
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  - and looking at what would it be like
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  - to be the place that everybody wanted to
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  - work, and the place that everybody wanted to
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  - be. It allows us to be selective of
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  - high quality, high caliber staff.
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  - And by doing that, in return, our patients
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  - get the best experience possible. So I think,
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  - really, our recruitment and retention
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  - of great staff are one of our biggest
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  - priorities, but also just to really make sure
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  - that this proof of concept with this integrated
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  - care and community support is something that could
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  - be sustainable for other communities to model.
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  - Definitely. And you mentioned some of those financial
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  - aspects. And I know that Snoqualmie Valley Health
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  - recently secured million dollars in federal funding and
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  - 3,000,000 in state capital funding for the hub
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  - project.
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  - So how are you thinking about the long
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  - term financial strategy behind that $147,000,000
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  - investment, and what does sustainable growth look like
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  - for a rural hospital today?
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  - Yeah. Generally, in in rural health care, sustainable
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  - growth means steady growth. It's not explosive growth.
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  - It's it's steady growth over time, and so
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  - we're really focused on that. The hub has
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  - been built for us to move in and
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  - grow into, so we won't be filling everything
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  - day one. We'll try to, over the next
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  - five years, start to fill out the space
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  - of services.
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  - But essentially, because we haven't had a huge
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  - footprint in this community, there's a lot of
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  - out migration. Our the community has become a
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  - bedroom community of Seattle and and other,
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  - areas that have a lot of tech industry
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  - here.
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  - And so we want to just have people
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  - get care close to home and not feel
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  - like they have to travel. They don't have
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  - to go into the city. They can trust
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  - the care here. It's more convenient.
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  - We want to be able to support the
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  - whole family and not have people have to
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  - travel.
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  - The other thing that's really important to us
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  - is that we're not here to compete. So
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  - true to a more
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  - rural environment, we are very much about collaboration.
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  - And we want to do the right thing
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  - for our community, not just because it means
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  - competing and having more dollars or more patients.
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  - So we are looking to fill the gaps
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  - in the care, and we've done a lot
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  - of work to determine
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  - what are those community health needs that aren't
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  - being served? Where are people having to have
• 9:11
  - long waits for appointments? Where is access really
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  - strained? And we're trying to fill those gaps
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  - for our communities so that,
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  - one, it's good for us. It's good for
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  - them. And we don't feel like we are
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  - in competition with other local small businesses.
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  - Definitely.
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  - Renee, thank you again for joining us. We
• 9:30
  - really appreciate your time and look forward to
• 9:32
  - following to Calmi Valley Health's continued growth.
• 9:35
  - Thank you so much. We're really excited to
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  - be an important part of the future of
• 9:39
  - health care, and we're glad, to be able
• 9:41
  - to have our story told. So thank you
• 9:43
  - for having us.
• 9:44
  - Great. Thank you so much.