Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Supporting Care Teams Through Change and Technology with Ann M. Richardson

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Supporting Care Teams Through Change and Technology with Ann M. Richardson · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:01
  This is where health care leadership comes together.
• 0:04
  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
• 0:07
  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
• 0:10
  speakers to Chicago, April 13 through the sixteenth.
• 0:14
  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
• 0:17
  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
• 0:20
  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
• 0:22
  visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:25
  and click on the events tab in the
• 0:26
  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
• 0:29
  in Chicago.
• 0:31
  This is Scott Becker with the Beckers health
• 0:34
  care podcast.
• 0:36
  I'm thrilled today to be joined by your
• 0:37
  brilliant leader who's had a fantastic career in
• 0:40
  leadership in health care. We're joined today by
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  Anne Richardson,
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  and Anne is the leader of
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  LeadWell Healthcare Consultants.
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  We're gonna talk to Anne today about
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  trends she's watching,
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  what she's most focused on, and and a
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  lot more. Anne, can you take a moment
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  to introduce yourself, and and tell us a
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  little bit about yourself and your career?
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  Yes. Thanks, Scott. Thanks for the, introduction.
• 1:05
  So I am a, decades long health care
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  executive and operator. I spent most of my
• 1:10
  career,
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  when I was employed by health systems and
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  academic medical centers,
• 1:15
  complex health systems, medical groups,
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  leading operations, finance, and strategy, basically.
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  And also over the years, I've done a
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  lot of fractional and interval, interim leadership
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  and consulting and
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  systems, medical groups, and in particular,
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  I have special interest in partnering with health
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  care technology companies,
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  laser focused on solutions that can help health
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  systems and medical groups better support their care
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  teams
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  by improving the care team experience,
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  patient engagement,
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  and delivering, meaningful
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  results.
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  And in fact, after being an independent consultant
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  for many, many years, I'm actually in transition
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  to be employed by a health care technology,
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  company in the next month.
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  Well well, fantastic, and congratulations.
• 2:14
  Talk a little bit about
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  what what are the key trends you're watching
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  in health care currently? There's so much change
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  going on. You get to talk to so
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  many different people. What are some of the
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  key trends that you're watching and that are
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  top of mind for you?
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  So there's lots going on out there, and
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  I tend to,
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  refer to the challenges that we have out
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  there as challenges versus problems because while they're
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  complex, I do believe a lot of the
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  challenges
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  that we have, there are solutions. And
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  when we phrase things as problems, people tend
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  to be, paralyzed by it. But as you
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  know, we have,
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  a challenge with diminished access across the country
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  for a wide variety of reasons,
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  hospital consolidation,
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  rural hospital closures,
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  service lines closing, labor and delivery, for example.
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  Some of the closures are due to financial
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  external financial reimbursement
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  constraints, but also due to
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  a,
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  limited availability
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  of physicians
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  in certain areas and and nurses as well.
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  And we can't provide
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  safe quality and timely access if we don't
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  have providers,
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  to provide that care. And that is the
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  case in some of the rural hospital,
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  l and d labor and delivery closures.
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  So that's so that's a real concern. Patients
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  are either waiting longer for care,
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  delaying care, not getting care at all, or
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  they're traveling,
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  quite far for their care.
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  And so and a lot of that when
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  we look at the diminished,
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  access to care is due to just the
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  burden on clinicians and moral injury.
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  Clinicians,
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  while we may look at the numbers and
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  say we have a large number of physicians
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  and nurses licensed, they're not necessarily
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  practicing
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  clinical medicine today.
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  So
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  for health systems, for example,
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  that affects their operations.
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  And when their, operations are affected negatively, it
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  clearly affects their financial performance,
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  and also poses patient safety risks when you
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  don't
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  have proper complement of,
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  clinicians.
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  And then also, I mean, health care organizations
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  continue to to be taxed by the CMS
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  mandates, you know, quality reporting, value based care
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  models,
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  all of these demands that are, in many
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  cases, mandates,
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  where systems
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  and organizations need to have,
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  either people or technology to be able to
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  track the data and, put out measurable results.
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  A nurse said to me the other day,
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  and it's so true. He said, Anne,
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  we as nurses are one more CMS mandate
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  away from walking away because if we don't
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  have
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  a streamlined process or technology to help us
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  capture some of this data that we're now
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  mandated.
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  You know, we can't take one more, you
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  know, whether it's an Excel spreadsheet or something
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  that we need to click in epic. It's
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  too much, and this
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  the burden on us is
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  is too much. So I hear that a
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  lot.
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  And then also, of course, all the noise
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  out there about the rapid
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  acceleration of AI.
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  And when people bring up AI to me,
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  when we talk about solutions,
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  it's very sexy to talk about and people
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  think it's it's it's a great
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  to incorporate that in technology that can be
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  true.
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  But what I like is the companies that
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  are proceeding with caution and respecting
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  the risk and the liability that goes along
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  with,
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  implementing AI across,
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  the health care organizations into medicine.
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  So
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  there's there's good and bad with that.
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  And then also one of the challenges that
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  I see and I hear all the time
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  is
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  as health systems and medical groups are constrained
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  financially,
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  the span of control is growing. And what
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  I mean by that is leaders are responsible
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  for more and more departments,
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  more hospitals, more medical groups. In some cases,
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  there's executives covering state lines, crossing state lines,
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  and it's too much. And so one of
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  the many things that it does even if
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  they're great leaders, it,
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  limits their ability to be creative and innovative,
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  and look for solutions. It's paralyzing at times.
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  And
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  gatekeeping as you probably know is I always
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  say it's an Olympic sport in a lot
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  of these organizations
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  and rightfully so because everybody wants to come
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  in and
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  pitch and sell their latest innovation.
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  And so these leaders are in a situation
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  where they may be missing an opportunity
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  to vet a solution that could provide some
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  relief to their care teams and, patients, for
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  example. But
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  the noise,
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  level is what I call on screech.
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  And gone are the days where
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  organizations can say, well, that's interesting technology. Yeah.
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  Sure. Bring it in. We'll do a pilot.
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  There there's not the time, and the bandwidth
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  to be able to do that. They need
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  credibility. They need results,
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  and they need,
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  responsible
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  partners versus vendors to come in and help
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  them make that difference, in a more timely
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  fashion.
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  No. Thank you so much. I think you've
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  hit on some of the really key issues,
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  shortages,
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  AI,
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  working with vendors and teams,
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  and and the limited bandwidth of everybody and
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  and how much span somebody could have. We
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  just had the discussion today with the chief
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  nurse executive
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  who oversees 14,000
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  people, and how many people could that person
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  directly actually engage with that then cascades down
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  and leads that organization. But those are real,
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  real issues. No. Thank you.
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  And take a second on this year.
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  Where are you most focused and excited as
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  you could health care this year
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  and and professional growth this year?
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  So,
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  again, it's easy during this time in health
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  care with what's going on nationally,
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  you know, and and then right down to
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  the individual organizational
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  organizations whether it's for profit or not for
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  profit health system. So it's easy for people
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  to get caught up in the negativity, let's
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  say, and the concern and then at the
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  federal level, you know, as you know,
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  with a big beautiful bell hospital struggling with
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  how they're gonna deal with, you know, reductions
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  in federal,
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  funding and so forth.
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  So I I have always felt this way
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  in,
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  in my leadership roles as I'm one person,
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  but my one person needs to be intelligent
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  and on
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  always on a quest to learn more of
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  how can I make a difference? I can't,
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  as we say, boil the ocean. I can't
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  solve all of the ilk in health care
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  and in medicine today, but what can I
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  do with the background that I have, with
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  the curiosity that I have? And so what
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  I've spent really the last three plus years,
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  especially in the last six to eighteen months,
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  is laser focusing on
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  the, technology companies that are out there,
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  partnering with health systems,
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  and medical groups
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  to be able to
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  augment care teams. And I say that because
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  that's what I'm most passionate about is how
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  can we help care teams.
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  Care teams are the physicians, surgeons,
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  nurses, medical assistants, respiratory, everything,
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  to be able to
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  not change their workflows, but to basically
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  augment with
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  technology solutions,
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  that are gonna partner with EMRs, not, you
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  know, take the place of an EMR,
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  but be able to help them
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  better care for patients. And what I mean
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  by that is,
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  and I'm talking specifically about patient engagement platforms
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  and patient adherence.
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  I talk to surgeons and doctors all the
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  time. In fact, I had,
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  a meeting last night with a surgeon in
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  Boston, and we were talking about this.
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  The the solutions that the surgeons and the
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  doctors don't even actually have to use nor
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  do the nurses have to use. These are
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  patient tools that the patients are actually craving
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  because they are these are patients that are
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  motivated to heal,
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  and get back into,
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  their normal work function.
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  The systems that we talked to that were
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  actually in the process of going live,
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  they
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  are craving solutions like this. So for me,
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  I said this to somebody and I say
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  this a lot. Everyone that knows me and
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  knows my management style,
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  I'm a hugger. I really loved my care
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  teams, and I would check-in on them every
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  day, all day. And when I knew they
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  were having a difficult time with volume, I'd
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  give them a hug.
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  I look at this as kinda like my
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  moment. I found a tech a technological hug,
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  so to speak. So when I go into
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  health systems and we talk about that,
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  that's how I feel.
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  This allows
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  the care teams to have less friction and
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  have more time to focus on patients versus
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  managing inboxes and EMRs and phone calls and
• 10:53
  so forth. So
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  I I highlight that because and I don't
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  wanna underestimate
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  the due diligence that you need to go
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  through for somebody like me to be able
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  to vet these companies is a lot because
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  there's a lot of noise out there. There's
• 11:06
  a lot of early stage and start up
• 11:08
  companies.
• 11:09
  And while many of them and most of
• 11:11
  them are well intended,
• 11:12
  many of them are not ready. They're not
• 11:14
  ready for the market yet.
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  And I am a fierce
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  gatekeeper
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  for, people in my network and the professionals
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  that I work with. And what I mean
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  by that is,
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  I'm not gonna introduce
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  a company that's not ready to a hospital
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  executive because they don't have a lot of
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  time, and credibility is the currency that I
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  have.
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  And so I've spent
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  really the last probably close to four years
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  on that, but laser focused in the last
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  six to eighteen months
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  that I can now say that I a
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  a company found me and I found them,
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  and
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  the work that we're doing together is just
• 11:53
  aligns with my passion for making a difference
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  for patients and for care teams, and I'm
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  very excited about that.
• 12:00
  Yeah. And I I love that perspective.
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  Take a second. You've had this great leadership
• 12:05
  career. You're connected to a million people. People
• 12:08
  rave about you. Take one moment on what
• 12:10
  advice would you give to an emerging leader.
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  What are one to two things you advise
• 12:15
  an emerging leader?
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  Well, number one, which is how I got
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  to where I am today that I could
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  be so effective for this technology company.
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  I know what I know. I know what
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  I don't know. But what's so effective for
• 12:28
  the CEO for this company and the hospitals
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  is because my management
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  style I I was lean trained. I did
• 12:35
  a lot of OPEX. I did a lot
• 12:36
  of system based training where we work with
• 12:39
  the workforce from the bottom up. I believe
• 12:41
  in all that. But long before I was
• 12:43
  long
• 12:44
  formally trained in that, that was just my
• 12:46
  management style. I was young. My first job
• 12:50
  was as an administrative director for anesthesiology in
• 12:53
  an academic medical center, level one trauma center,
• 12:55
  and it was huge. And I was young,
• 12:57
  and I'm like, oh, man. Like, I, you
• 12:59
  know, I have no idea what these people
• 13:01
  are talking about. So I used to go
• 13:03
  to the OR OR all the time. I
• 13:04
  go to the surgical ICUs all the time.
• 13:06
  I go to clinics all the time. And
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  I loved it, and I learned so much.
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  And I wasn't and the and the clinicians
• 13:13
  loved it. I got to know the surgeons,
• 13:14
  anesthesia, everybody. And so that's that stayed with
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  me. So
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  that's a concern though that I have because
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  while that's my management style,
• 13:23
  over the years,
• 13:25
  my colleagues didn't always celebrate that because some
• 13:28
  of them said, oh, you make us look
• 13:29
  bad because we don't like going into the
• 13:31
  clinical setting. And I'm thinking, gee, how do
• 13:32
  you learn and how can you be, the
• 13:35
  most effective leader? Because I was able to
• 13:37
  solve things and bring solutions
• 13:39
  or ideas to people
• 13:41
  in a way because I observed and listened
• 13:44
  so much that it was it was easy
• 13:46
  for me to do that. So I wasn't
• 13:48
  struggling
• 13:49
  doing financial variance reports trying to figure out,
• 13:52
  gee, why do we have this result? Because
• 13:55
  I felt like I was so close to
• 13:56
  where the care was provided
• 13:58
  and listening and learning that I could answer
• 14:00
  those questions rather easily.
• 14:02
  And I could also take on more than
• 14:04
  a lot of my colleagues because,
• 14:07
  I didn't necessarily have the staff and I
• 14:08
  was lean. But on the other hand, I
• 14:10
  just felt like I had a very deep
• 14:12
  understanding
• 14:13
  of why things were the way they were.
• 14:16
  And also being a patient advocate and a
• 14:19
  safety advocate.
• 14:21
  I was fierce when it came to advocating
• 14:23
  for more staff, more capital equipment, more space,
• 14:26
  whatever the case may be. So
• 14:28
  I strongly
• 14:30
  recommend to everybody that they spend as much
• 14:32
  time as they can authentically with their care
• 14:34
  team. And what I mean by authentically, not
• 14:37
  a kind of a show
• 14:39
  what I call, like, a photo app shadow
• 14:41
  session where you just kinda walk through and
• 14:44
  occasionally, you know, you show your face and,
• 14:48
  doing rounds. But I mean day in and
• 14:50
  day out, make sure that you're physically present.
• 14:53
  But there's a challenge with that because a
• 14:54
  lot of leaders today are physically located in
• 14:57
  places that that's not possible.
• 14:59
  That's where the,
• 15:01
  strife comes in for leaders like me because
• 15:04
  they're not able to be there as much
• 15:06
  as they wanna be, and they know that
• 15:08
  their teams need them, but there are other
• 15:10
  competing interests that prevent them. And so then
• 15:13
  the other thing that's really important along those
• 15:15
  lines is just learning, just saying no, and
• 15:17
  being laser focused and learning
• 15:20
  how to protect your your own time and
• 15:21
  also protect your teams,
• 15:23
  because you're you know, not only do you
• 15:25
  have people calling upon you in a way
• 15:27
  that could be distracting,
• 15:29
  your teams do as well. And so making
• 15:31
  sure that you protect,
• 15:33
  your teams in that regard.
• 15:36
  And as I said earlier, and I really
• 15:37
  feel strongly about this, it really takes
• 15:41
  experience and subject matter expertise
• 15:43
  to explain why you're saying no to people
• 15:46
  as much as saying yes. And what I
• 15:48
  mean by that is
• 15:50
  one of the greatest compliments I've ever had,
• 15:53
  and these were from surgeons
• 15:54
  who are otherwise deemed as difficult. And I
• 15:56
  can take no from you because I know
• 15:58
  you do did your homework. And when you
• 16:01
  say no to me, you tell me the
• 16:02
  reason no, why you said no, but you
• 16:04
  also give me the steps to get us
• 16:07
  to a yes. Like, what do we need
• 16:08
  to do to work together to get us
• 16:10
  to a yes? And so
• 16:12
  I give you that example because,
• 16:14
  it's hard to be a leader in health
• 16:16
  systems today. It always has been. It's never
• 16:18
  been easy. Harder today because there's fewer.
• 16:21
  So leaders are asked to wear many, many
• 16:23
  more hats, but
• 16:25
  making sure that you behave
• 16:27
  as a good human so that you're respected
• 16:29
  and you're trusted. Because once you've earned the
• 16:32
  respect and trust,
• 16:34
  and this is my own personal experience, then
• 16:36
  you're able to actually
• 16:37
  work through some of the chaos and some
• 16:39
  of the difficult changes that need to be
• 16:41
  made because your people trust and respect you
• 16:43
  enough that I'm not gonna say you mandate
• 16:45
  because I I don't believe in that, but
• 16:47
  they follow along with you and work with
• 16:49
  you in a way, because you have that
• 16:51
  trust and respect. So
• 16:53
  people that come in and lead with kindness
• 16:56
  and lead with the heart, I think it's
• 16:58
  never gonna be easy, but it's gonna be
• 17:00
  easier.
• 17:02
  And then the other thing I'll add is,
• 17:04
  going back to my comment about credibility
• 17:07
  is when we do in a health system
• 17:10
  today, if you're a leader in a health
• 17:12
  system or a medical group, you're always gonna
• 17:15
  need partnerships, and you're gonna need partnerships with
• 17:17
  external
• 17:18
  parties.
• 17:19
  And that's what you should focus on, who
• 17:21
  are the vendors versus who are the partners.
• 17:23
  And and to me, there is a difference.
• 17:25
  I mean, with health care evolving the way
• 17:27
  that it is, it's best to have partnerships
• 17:30
  knowing that your partners can be nimble and
• 17:32
  change with you. As the ecosystem, I guess,
• 17:36
  changes in health care with regard to, you
• 17:38
  know, third party reimbursement,
• 17:40
  federal mandates, and technology changes and whatnot, and
• 17:44
  the regulatory environment. Having partners that can help
• 17:46
  you through that is key. And just being
• 17:49
  able to lead with, humility is a big
• 17:51
  thing.
• 17:53
  Humility and respect,
• 17:54
  I speak of often,
• 17:56
  and that's very, very important, in the conversations
• 17:59
  that we have today with people.
• 18:01
  Thank you. And I'm gonna ask you one
• 18:03
  more question, and this is gonna be a
• 18:04
  difficult question. You are an incredibly transparent person
• 18:07
  and leader and just fantastic. I agree with
• 18:09
  everything you said. I love it. I'm gonna
• 18:11
  ask you a tough question. You have to
• 18:12
  ask let let me know whether you're ready
• 18:14
  for a tough question.
• 18:16
  Sure.
• 18:17
  So so here is a tough question. You're
• 18:19
  a New Englander. Correct? And you've got that
• 18:21
  fantastic New England accent.
• 18:25
  Yes. I do. Literally fantastic. So here's the
• 18:27
  tough question for the day.
• 18:29
  Bill Belichick
• 18:32
  gets snubbed
• 18:33
  for the holiday. Believe it?
• 18:35
  I cannot believe it. Give us a sense
• 18:37
  of that. Is that a a travesty of
• 18:40
  justice, or how do you look at that?
• 18:41
  Bill Belichick is the famous famous coach in
• 18:44
  New England Patriots.
• 18:45
  Ever be exceptions to be a first ballot
• 18:47
  hall of famer in National Football League. He
• 18:50
  was did not get get in on the
• 18:52
  first ballot. That means 10 people out of
• 18:54
  50 must have voted against him or more.
• 18:57
  And give us your thoughts. Unload on us.
• 18:59
  Let us know if you could answer that
• 19:00
  question.
• 19:01
  So that's a great question, and it's a
• 19:03
  good thing I actually saw a little bit
• 19:05
  of the news clip early to see that
• 19:06
  because otherwise, I'd be like, oh my god.
• 19:08
  That happened. So my sense of that first
• 19:10
  of all, I agree. That that makes no
• 19:13
  sense. But
• 19:15
  what I'm learning is that those that were
• 19:17
  voting, I I think that there there's a
• 19:20
  perception that there might be an open door
• 19:21
  for him to go back as an NFL
• 19:24
  coach.
• 19:24
  And so I don't know if that's an
• 19:26
  excuse, but so then, of course, there's the
• 19:28
  people with the silver lining to say regardless
• 19:30
  of the reason, of course, he's gonna get
• 19:32
  in on the second round. But it it
• 19:34
  doesn't it doesn't make any sense. But,
• 19:37
  I haven't heard any credible
• 19:39
  story that he was gonna, reenter the NFL
• 19:42
  because we know that he's in
• 19:44
  at, Chapel Hill, and he's in the NCAA.
• 19:47
  But,
• 19:48
  that's my only thought. But, of course,
• 19:50
  I I I that that makes no sense.
• 19:53
  Makes no sense.
• 19:54
  Couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more.
• 19:56
  Thank you so much, Anne. A pleasure visiting
• 19:59
  with you always. I love it. Thank you
• 20:01
  so much for joining us today on the
• 20:02
  Becker's healthcare podcast. Thank you very, very much.
• 20:05
  Thank you, Scott.