Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building a People First Culture at Methodist Health System with Alen Brcic

Transcript

Building a People First Culture at Methodist Health System with Alen Brcic · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Kelly
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  Guge, senior editor and enterprise lead at Becker's.
• 0:04
  And I'm pleased to welcome Alan Bersich, chief
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  human resources officer at Methodist Health System in
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  Dallas. Alan, thank you so much for joining
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  us. Before we dive in today, I'd love
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  to start by having you introduce yourself and
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  share a bit about your background.
• 0:18
  Absolutely. It's great to be with you this
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  afternoon and,
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  hello from the DFW region.
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  As you shared, my name is Alan Birchridge.
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  I have the privilege to lead our human
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  resources function for the Methodist Health System.
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  For those of you outside of the DFW
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  region, we are a faith based organization
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  with the mission to improve and save lives
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  through compassionate quality health care. We are coming
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  up on our centennial anniversary, almost one hundred
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  years of service to the Southern sector of
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  Dallas in the DFW region and we are
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  so proud of all that we continue to
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  achieve for our communities.
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  Methodist is a network of 13 hospitals through
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  ownership and affiliation
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  with nationally recognized medical services such as level
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  one trauma center, multi organ transplantation,
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  level three NICU and so many other things.
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  From a workforce culture perspective, we are so
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  proud to continue to redefine
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  what it means to work in a place
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  that prides itself on putting its people at
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  the forefront of all that we do. And
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  I'm really excited to be with you today.
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  Thank you. And congratulations
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  on that centennial as well. That's so great
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  to hear.
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  And I I know as you just outlined,
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  there's,
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  I'm sure, many important things you could mention,
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  but was curious if you could maybe dive
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  into
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  one of the most important initiatives you've led
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  in the last year and maybe what that
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  entailed and what the results were there.
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  Absolutely.
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  So three focus areas for the last year
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  that we are so, so proud of.
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  One relates to turnover. Our turnover, we benchmark
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  ourselves nationally
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  against health care organization,
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  a database of about a million health care
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  workers. Looking at from a national perspective,
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  we have achieved the eighty fourth percentile
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  from a turnover perspective, very low turnover across
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  all of our domains,
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  nursing,
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  other clinical roles, which are all the tech
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  related roles, non clinical and overall, which we
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  are so so proud of.
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  The outcomes of the great strategy we had
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  around intentionally engaging on every single individual who
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  is
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  residing from Methodist Health System and ideating with
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  our leaders,
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  how we can retain them, looking at our
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  processes and procedures to ensure
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  that we support
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  great talent to remain with Methodist while meeting
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  them where they are. And that ultimately has
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  yielded
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  significantly strong outcomes from an overall turnover perspective.
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  The second initiative was related to employee engagement.
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  When you look at employee engagement, healthcare is
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  about people caring for people.
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  And from a workforce perspective, while we have
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  explored artificial intelligence, implemented it and numerous other
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  things, healthcare remains a people centred business.
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  An engaged workforce ultimately delivers the highest quality
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  of care for our patients,
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  not only the quality but also the compassionate
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  care which is part of our mission statement
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  and who we are.
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  Through numerous strategies around developing clear action plans,
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  activating our leaders, 700 leaders across our system,
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  we have been able to achieve the eighty
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  third percentile nationally on employee engagement,
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  which is really, really significant and the highest
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  in our history from Methodist Health System perspective.
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  The third strategy
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  centered around patient experience
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  and figuring out ways how do we continuously
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  evolve in all of our patient experience domains.
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  Our number one focus for this year and
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  last year has been ambulatory
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  surgery, outpatient ambulatory surgery,
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  and we have developed strategies to really figuring
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  out ways to be reviewing every one of
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  the comments that we get from our patient
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  experience surveys,
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  developing a systems steering group that works with
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  operational leaders and clinical leaders on the ground,
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  but also supports them from an overall system
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  perspective
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  to better technology,
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  better engagement
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  and ultimately tools that they need to ensure
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  that the patients on the end receive the
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  highest quality, the most compassionate care based on
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  their preferences. So really personalizing health care is
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  what we are focused on, driving that human
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  experience,
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  and we have made significant gains last year
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  and continue to see amazing improvements into 2026.
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  Yeah. That's great to hear that that percentile
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  and also just that continued focus on patient.
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  It sounds like patient engagement and
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  also
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  employee engagement and patient experience as well.
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  And anything else you had mentioned? You've you've
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  outlined a few things there, but anything else
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  you mentioned, Alan,
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  looking ahead, other big priorities or headwinds you're
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  really focused on this year?
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  Absolutely. What we are focused on this year
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  is continuing to build on that great momentum.
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  Once you are already doing great across all
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  of the domains that we track from a
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  workforce and patient experience perspective, how do we
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  continue to elevate?
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  The benchmarks as you get higher get more
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  narrow which means that every single engagement continues
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  to be as important. So a few things
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  that we are doing on the workforce side,
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  we are implementing artificial intelligence, we have implemented
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  already two key functionalities
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  around artificial intelligence. One is to help us
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  rediscover candidates
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  who have applied at Methodist maybe a few
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  years ago weren't selected but were high caliber
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  candidates and that has already shown significant ROI.
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  And then the second piece is from a
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  cost containment perspective around promotion of our jobs,
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  our talent brand marketing,
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  figuring out how do we really in real
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  time dynamically based on data
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  shift our investment dollars for those jobs that
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  we
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  need additional candidates to fill the role. So
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  we are really data science driven.
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  We look at all of the key metrics
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  and are always trying to figure out how
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  do we optimize the resources we have to
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  drive those strategies forward.
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  As I look ahead,
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  continuing to elevate our culture will be really,
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  really at the forefront of my role and
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  what we continue to do. As you may
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  have known, we have already been awarded a
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  great place Glassdoor best places to work in
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  2025,
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  in 2026,
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  great place to work, certified in numerous other
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  awards that we are so proud of. Now
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  the question is, how do we continue to
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  evolve and elevate? And I firmly believe
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  that Methodist has a culture that is second
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  to none,
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  the best culture based on the out port
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  facing metrics in the DFW region. And our
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  goal is to continue to elevate that because
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  we know once our employees feel they belong,
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  once they're engaged,
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  once our culture is strong, the outcomes for
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  our patients,
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  the outcomes for our communities and all of
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  our loved ones who are patients at some
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  point in time
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  will be significantly
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  better into the future. And we are so
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  excited to continue on this journey.
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  Yeah. Thank you so much. And I I'm
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  curious you're just following up too. Is any
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  anything else specific you mentioned on what that
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  culture,
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  what you envision
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  that looking like specifically? Just any other other
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  details there that you're you're thinking about you've
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  got culture?
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  Absolutely. We always ask our leaders and challenge
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  them really that
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  we set the path forward. But what does
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  that mean? All of our 700 leaders, they're
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  on stage every single day and our ask
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  of them is to continue to inspire
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  their teams to greatness,
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  connecting them to the mission. Our ask is
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  that they continue to strengthen relationships
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  within their leadership teams, within
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  cross functioning across the system because we know
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  through relationships
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  through a common purpose,
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  we can achieve anything. The
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  The other asks are we always wanted to
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  assume positive intent.
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  As leaders and as health care workers, we
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  are facing challenges every single day. Might be
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  workplace violence, mental health challenges, employee needs that
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  we are experiencing.
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  How do we continue
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  in all situations no matter what,
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  continue to assume positive intent and always leave
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  relationships
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  stronger than we found them? Today we walk
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  in in the morning compared to when we
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  leave. The question I ask myself is, did
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  I build trust? Did I leave relationships stronger?
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  And did I assume positive intent in all
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  engagement even at times when we disagree?
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  Ultimately,
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  the goal is that as leaders in the
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  healthcare community,
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  we continue to encourage our staff to grow
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  and develop. That might mean development from a
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  career progression perspective,
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  but even more important, upscaling them to ensure
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  that they continue to be able to meet
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  the opportunities
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  of tomorrow and serve our patients the best
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  way.
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  Absolutely. And you just mentioned,
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  of course,
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  challenges as well. And not only I know
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  you mentioned workplace violence, but, of course, financial
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  pressures,
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  just an evolving landscape
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  in general.
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  And so
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  what would you say is maybe the hardest
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  thing you'll have to do this year?
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  Absolutely. And I would say that, you know,
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  we are fortunate at Methodist. We are always
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  focused on how do we look ahead.
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  So for us in a continuously
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  changing environment, our focus needs to continue to
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  be to build trust,
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  to ensure that our employees feel seen and
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  heard, and how do we ensure that through
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  our strong employee engagement numbers, through our strong
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  patient experience,
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  delivery of services,
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  we continue to be at the forefront of
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  healthcare.
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  We believe that if we take care of
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  our people and if we provide great care
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  from a consumer perspective, if people
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  feel seen, if they get the highest quality
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  of care and they also receive the highest
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  level of compassion,
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  everything else will follow. When we look at
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  our data set and holistically across all of
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  the domains that we are tracking at the
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  system level,
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  we believe that we are working diligently on
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  all of those and are so proud of
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  our achievements. So while there is a lot
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  of talk around financial pressures and challenges and
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  no organization is immune,
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  being able to be strategic,
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  proactive to ensure that we continue to position
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  Methodist strong for the next century to them.
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  And that's a perfect segue into what I
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  wanted to ask next, which is where you
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  really see the best opportunities for organizational growth
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  right now.
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  Absolutely. So again, from a clinical perspective, we
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  continue to open up access points, but my
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  goal is to focus more on the workforce
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  side and the experience we are creating from
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  our patients. From a workforce perspective,
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  across our region and across the country, we
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  are struggling with all roles related to techs,
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  meaning radiology,
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  lab, anything that has a tech in a
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  title. How do we continue to upscale individuals?
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  How do we continue to grow the workforce
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  within our own ranks, encourage people to continue
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  to develop will be one of our focuses.
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  The second focus with the evolution of technology
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  is how do we continue to upskill our
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  workforce
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  to be prepared to utilize the capabilities and
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  tools that exist out there to ensure
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  that we are providing not only the skills
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  that they need but leveraging technology as an
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  enabler, leveraging technology to serve our employees to
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  to ultimately deliver better care rather than just
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  chasing the shiniest objects at the forefront.
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  The last piece, the third piece from an
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  experience perspective is as we look at patient
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  experience,
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  our focus is how do we continuously
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  improve our capabilities
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  to deliver insights and guidance to clinicians as
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  they are working with patients directly rather than
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  waiting for a survey
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  to come back a week, two weeks later?
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  How do we ingrain processes leveraging AI, leveraging
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  capabilities
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  to influence behaviors of our clinicians right at
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  the time when they're delivering the care and
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  ultimately continue to personalize health care? Those are
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  the three top opportunities for growth from a
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  workforce
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  experience perspective.
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  And, truly,
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  looking at the Methodist health system
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  model, much before I joined this organization,
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  we continue to focus on excellence. This organization
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  has done that
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  over almost a century of service,
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  and our charge is how do we continue
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  to build on that great momentum
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  and continue to elevate from there, which is
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  always a challenge, but we are up for
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  the task.
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  Yes. And congratulations again on that centennial
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  coming up. And
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  thank you again, Alan, for this fun and
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  interesting conversation. I I really do appreciate your
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  time, and I look forward to working with
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  you again soon.
• 12:46
  Sounds awesome. Thank you so much, Kelly.