Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Dr. Reetu Singh, SVP and System Chief Medical Officer, Saint Francis Health System

Transcript

Dr. Reetu Singh, SVP and System Chief Medical Officer, Saint Francis Health System · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  - This is the Becker's Healthcare Podcast, created
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  Thanks for listening. Now here's the episode.
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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 Dr.
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  Ritu Singh, I, senior vice president
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  and system chief Medical Officer at St.
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  Francis Health System. Dr.
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  Singh, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  - Thank you, Laura. Thanks for having me.
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  - No, I, I'm really looking forward to our conversation.
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  I know there's a lot happening in healthcare
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  and certainly, um, a lot from the clinical perspective
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  that I am excited to hear
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  more about what you're doing at St.
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  Francis. But before we dive into the broader discussion,
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  can you tell me a little bit more
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  about yourself and your background?
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  - Uh, absolutely. So reusing Chief Medical Officer
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  for the health system in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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  We are the largest health system in northeastern Oklahoma,
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  locally founded, govern and operated,
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  and we have over 10,000 employees,
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  five acute acute care hospitals,
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  multiple ambulatory settings.
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  I'm an internist by training.
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  I've been in this role for close to 18 months now.
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  Uh, my background, I was Chief Medical Information Officer,
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  uh, before, and, uh, led clinical documentation, integrity,
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  uh, some of the other initiatives
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  with a larger health system.
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  I am an immigrant.
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  I'm a first generation immigrant, born and raised in India,
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  and I've been in US for 18 years.
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  - Got it. That's great to hear.
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  And definitely, um, you know, uh, awesome
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  that you've had such great experiences, um,
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  to bring into your current role at St.
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  Francis. Now, could you tell me about your most successful
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  project or initiative from the last year?
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  What issues were you trying to solve and what drove success?
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  - Sure. So Laura, it's really hard to pinpoint
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  to one project, but, you know, post covid world,
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  as things are rapidly changing, one of our top
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  priorities is to establish a comprehensive clinical strategy
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  for the next one to three years.
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  And at the core of that strategy, you know,
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  first is stabilizing our workforce to really brainstorm
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  and think of ways how we can proactively
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  engage our physicians, not only recruiting,
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  but how do we grow them with us to retain
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  and to be better leaders, empower them at bedside
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  to make better clinical decisions.
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  And really, uh, investing in that physician leadership.
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  We are partnering with our local teaching institutions, uh,
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  Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma University,
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  to bring in learners
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  and grow our own as we work towards what's the future
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  of workforce for us.
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  And, you know, second focus
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  of the clinical strategy is our path moving forward,
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  not only in terms of clinical quality,
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  but really from operations
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  and from being, uh, you know,
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  good financial stewards of our resources.
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  What does the success look like for each service line,
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  whether it's a destination metric, you know, center
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  of excellence or really creating access in Oklahoma,
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  we have rural hospitals that we struggle in providing access
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  and we know our community needs it.
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  So what is that path moving forward for service lines?
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  And, you know, third in
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  that comprehensive clinical strategy is
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  population health initiatives.
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  How do we ensure we provide the right
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  care in the right setting?
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  And, you know, putting emphasis on preventative care
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  and ensuring we provide care
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  to our patients across the continuum.
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  You know, collaborating with our primary care physicians,
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  hospital medicine physicians, really looking at ways
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  to improve the throughput
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  and then expanding on our post-acute presence
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  and ensuring that we wrap our patients
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  with the care they need no matter what setting, uh,
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  they come to us in.
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  And, and it's a comprehensive approach.
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  So that's sort of high level of what, uh,
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  we've been working on, uh, for the last one year.
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  And it's a continuous journey.
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  You know, it's, it's what we are focusing on for next two
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  to three years, and there's several moving parts to it, lots
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  of tactics and initiatives underneath.
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  And, um, you know, we are just glad to be blessed
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  with an organization that's locally founded
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  and governed that we can take decisions
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  and turn them around really quickly.
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  Our CEO, Dr.
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  Cliff Robertson is a physician,
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  and I think there is, there is something
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  to be said about when there's a clinician
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  running the health system.
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  You know, we have that comprehensive approach
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  to our leadership and our decisions,
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  so pretty excited about that.
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  - That's fantastic to hear.
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  And certainly when you look at
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  that movement towards more population health
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  and connecting, partnering with community organizations
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  and figuring out how you can better serve patients
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  and create access to care, it seems like there's a lot
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  of opportunities there,
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  but it, it is certainly not easy to make those connections
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  and then, you know, develop a team
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  that's really strong there.
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  I know the clinical workforce has changed
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  a lot in the last few years.
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  Could you talk about some of the challenges
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  that you're still facing and how you see
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  that workforce evolving, especially given some of the things
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  that you're just mentioning in, in thinking
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  through population health, um, and,
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  and really treating patients in in a more
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  specific and personalized way?
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  - Absolutely, Laura. So, you know, healthcare has changed
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  so rapidly post covid,
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  there is clearly workplace a workforce shortage and burnout.
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  There is tremendous stress on the existing resources and,
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  and, you know, there's just
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  so much people we have with us can do.
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  So we really need to look at strategies
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  to address the burnout and,
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  and prioritize the employee wellbeing.
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  And as we do that, it's super critical to address
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  the accelerated technological advancement that we have.
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  You know, how do we ensure that we use technology
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  to expand the role of the workforce we have, uh,
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  whether it's apps or physicians provide tele
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  and virtual services.
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  And, and then as we continue to do that,
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  how can we provide more preventative services from
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  population health perspective?
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  And, you know, 20%, I I believe personally, 20% of,
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  of a patient's healthcare happens with health systems.
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  80% of the care is really in the community at their homes
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  with their families and people around.
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  How do we make sure that we improve the health literacy
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  and provide them with the resources
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  and do that extra work that needs
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  to be done in the community.
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  You know, whether it's through community health workers
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  having, um, health fairs, uh, going to schools, uh,
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  partnering with, uh, you know, different, uh, uh,
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  organizations within the community.
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  And, and that's been at the forefront for us.
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  And, you know, how do we make sure we do that extra
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  that's needed once these patients leave our hospitals
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  and our primary cares offices
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  and whatever setting we encounter them in.
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  And, and as we look through all of that, you know, um, AI
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  is the buzz word in healthcare today.
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  We need to know, ensure that we educate our clinicians
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  and we provide them the training
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  and resource they need to be successful with the technology.
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  We have five generations in healthcare
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  and, you know, you, we need to meet people
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  wherever they are in their, uh, technology journey
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  and their adoption of that technology.
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  So, um, lots of challenges.
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  I'm sure we are not unique,
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  but, uh, I'm excited, uh, for the work we are doing.
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  - That's fantastic to hear
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  and certainly great to know that the workforce is evolving
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  and growing in a way that's gonna be meaningful
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  for the community and patients.
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  Now finally, before we wrap up our conversation,
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  I was wondering if you could share your best advice
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  for aspiring, aspiring physician and nurse leaders.
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  Uh, what really do you see as being important for them
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  as they're building and growing their career right now?
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  - Wow. It's, it's hard to give one.
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  Um, but if I could just think of couple.
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  I think first would be never stop learning
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  and seeking knowledge.
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  I think it's so important for us as clinical leaders
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  to be connected with what's happening at bedside
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  and what's the latest and greatest in healthcare.
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  And, you know, as a leader, collaborate with your team,
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  with your peers, people who, your nurses, your RTSs,
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  your other ancillary staff
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  and intentionally grow your team to be a diverse team.
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  There is, there is power to
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  the decisions you make when your team is diverse.
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  And, you know, as, as leaders, it's not just managing task
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  and responsibilities, it's our responsibility.
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  We inspire and motivate others to, to be in healthcare.
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  And I think today, uh, in my humble opinion,
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  we are not doing the greatest job
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  of recruiting people in healthcare.
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  - That's so interesting to hear and,
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  and definitely, um, just a fascinating challenge,
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  but also huge opportunity to do better.
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  You know, when you look at, um,
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  that recruiting people into healthcare and,
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  and making it an attractive profession, um, certainly to,
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  to make sure you've got all the patient care needs filled.
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  Is there anything that you're doing at St.
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  Francis to, um, you know, recruit more or,
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  or really reflect some of those efforts in
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  how rewarding a career in healthcare could be?
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  - Uh, sure. So, you know, we are
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  actively engaged in our diversity equity
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  and, uh, DEI initiatives
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  and, um, several
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  branches under that initiative.
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  But one of the things is we are actively
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  educating our frontline to all the way
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  to our senior leadership on, you know, what is, uh,
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  diversity in healthcare look like.
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  And we need to have a diverse workforce for someone from
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  outside to really want to come engage with us.
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  And, and when we have that diverse workforce,
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  we provide better patient care
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  and, you know, our patients feel more connected with us.
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  We are going and, uh, into several schools.
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  We are partnering with, uh, several local nursing schools,
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  uh, to, to help educate open our facilities
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  for their learning.
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  So we are able to eventually, uh, hopefully retain them.
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  Same with, uh, physician training, you know,
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  opening our grounds for students and residents
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  and fellows, um, to really
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  have them see our culture from the point they really stepped
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  into healthcare and,
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  and hopefully champion it for them, be, uh, good leaders
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  that they can follow and inspire them
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  to actually have a career long term.
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  - Amazing. Dr. Singh, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This is more a really fun, interesting conversation,
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  and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
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  - Thank you, Laura. Thanks a lot.
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  - It's so important for leaders at the top of organizations
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  to keep learning, stay sharp, grow their networks,
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  help our audience better do this in a more simplified,
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