Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Kevin McGeachy, FACHE, President of Mather Hospital

Transcript

Kevin McGeachy, FACHE, President of Mather Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
• 0:04
  - understand what it takes to lead a health
• 0:05
  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
• 0:08
  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
• 0:11
  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
• 0:14
  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
• 0:17
  - And it's why the most effective c suite
• 0:19
  - leaders are deliberate about where do they go
• 0:21
  - to pressure test their thinking.
• 0:22
  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
• 0:26
  - brings together more than 1,500
• 0:28
  - executive level attendees
• 0:30
  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
• 0:32
  - around growth, financial sustainability,
• 0:35
  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
• 0:38
  - have easy answers.
• 0:39
  - Join us November second through the fifth in
• 0:41
  - Chicago.
• 0:42
  - For the agenda and event details,
• 0:45
  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:47
  - and click on the events tab in the
• 0:49
  - upper right.
• 0:51
  - Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Mariah
• 0:54
  - Taylor, assistant editor, and I'm thrilled to be
• 0:56
  - speaking with Kevin Maggiji, president of Mather Hospital.
• 1:00
  - Thank you so much for being here with
• 1:01
  - me today. I'm really excited to learn more
• 1:04
  - about your journey to becoming a CMS five
• 1:06
  - star hospital. But before we dive into it,
• 1:09
  - I'd love for you to introduce yourself and
• 1:10
  - tell us a little bit about your background.
• 1:13
  - Absolutely, Hintz. I wanna thank, you and Becker's
• 1:15
  - for having me on the podcast. We're always
• 1:17
  - happy to talk about
• 1:19
  - our journey,
• 1:20
  - as it comes to when I talk about
• 1:23
  - patient safety and quality improvement.
• 1:27
  - I'm a longtime Northwell employee,
• 1:31
  - head of the been here, at Northwell in
• 1:34
  - our system for twenty eight years in a
• 1:37
  - variety of roles,
• 1:39
  - in I've done, some corporate stuff in affiliations
• 1:44
  - and, mergers and acquisitions.
• 1:47
  - I've worked at a couple of our community
• 1:49
  - institutions. I've worked at our two big tertiary
• 1:52
  - hospitals
• 1:53
  - in a variety of roles.
• 1:55
  - I've also had experience, about seven years experience
• 1:57
  - running our children's hospital, Cohen Children's Medical Center,
• 2:01
  - which was wonderful and then had the opportunity
• 2:04
  - to become president
• 2:06
  - of Mather Hospital, which is my community hospital.
• 2:09
  - I live in this community
• 2:11
  - and I've been here a little over six
• 2:13
  - years right now. So it's been a great
• 2:15
  - journey,
• 2:16
  - both at Northwell and prior to my engagement
• 2:19
  - at Northwell,
• 2:20
  - I worked in the city for a couple
• 2:22
  - of large academic medical centers in a variety
• 2:25
  - of health roles. So I've been doing health
• 2:27
  - administration,
• 2:28
  - health leadership for a very, very long time.
• 2:32
  - Amazing. And I guess it's no surprise to
• 2:34
  - anyone that someone with as much experience as
• 2:37
  - you have was able to help Math Air
• 2:39
  - Hospital complete a journey to becoming a CMS
• 2:41
  - five star hospital, which is an incredible achievement.
• 2:45
  - Can you tell
• 2:46
  - us a little bit about how this whole
• 2:48
  - journey started, and what was the strategic thinking
• 2:51
  - behind focusing on this as your goal?
• 2:54
  - Great question.
• 2:56
  - So when I first got to Mather,
• 3:01
  - Mather let me just preface that. But when
• 3:03
  - when I came to Mather,
• 3:06
  - Mather had a wonderful foundation to work with.
• 3:08
  - It was always known in our community,
• 3:12
  - as a great,
• 3:13
  - little community hospital.
• 3:15
  - But we were middling around three stars and,
• 3:19
  - four stars. And
• 3:20
  - part of our strategic plan, particularly when it
• 3:23
  - came to quality and safety and patient experience,
• 3:26
  - was to improve our baseline
• 3:28
  - numbers.
• 3:29
  - And my belief is
• 3:31
  - when you
• 3:32
  - begin to focus on the elements that go
• 3:34
  - into the CMS rankings, there's a halo effect
• 3:37
  - for everything else.
• 3:39
  - When you're talking about
• 3:41
  - surgical site infections, hospital acquired infections or other
• 3:44
  - conditions, readmissions,
• 3:47
  - patient safety incidents, etcetera, etcetera.
• 3:51
  - And we made that our motto, and
• 3:53
  - we
• 3:55
  - pieced apart and knew what it would take
• 3:57
  - to get us there. And it sounds simple
• 3:59
  - on the surface, but,
• 4:02
  - it is
• 4:03
  - really just about execution. And so we began
• 4:06
  - that journey,
• 4:07
  - in earnest six years ago,
• 4:09
  - to get to CMS five star
• 4:12
  - rating.
• 4:14
  - We knew what we had to improve on,
• 4:16
  - because these efforts, they take a little while
• 4:19
  - to get rooted,
• 4:21
  - and then it takes a while for the
• 4:23
  - data to wash itself out. So you could
• 4:25
  - be making great strides in 2026,
• 4:28
  - but you wouldn't see those improvements in CMS,
• 4:31
  - for example, or health grades for at least
• 4:33
  - a couple years, just the way they work
• 4:35
  - on the data lag and that.
• 4:38
  - And so that's what we started on. And
• 4:40
  - it's been a great,
• 4:42
  - rallying cry for us,
• 4:44
  - around CMS five star ratings and where we
• 4:47
  - can improve on. And we've
• 4:50
  - it's been wonderful for us, and it's it's
• 4:52
  - really become part of the mantra and continued
• 4:55
  - culture of the hospital here.
• 4:58
  - You know, and the and the baseline in
• 5:00
  - which we,
• 5:01
  - work from
• 5:02
  - has been
• 5:04
  - really a strong,
• 5:06
  - compassionate, and engaged workforce that we've had here
• 5:09
  - as well.
• 5:11
  - Amazing.
• 5:12
  - Yeah. What are some of those areas that
• 5:13
  - you focused on most during this journey?
• 5:16
  - Oh, I'll
• 5:17
  - I'll tell you a couple. One was readmissions.
• 5:22
  - We pieced apart our,
• 5:25
  - the whole process around which we look at
• 5:27
  - readmissions,
• 5:28
  - who has responsibility
• 5:29
  - for this,
• 5:30
  - and I gave it to a small group
• 5:32
  - of,
• 5:33
  - of folks to fix the process.
• 5:36
  - And they've done an absolutely
• 5:38
  - remarkable job in reducing our readmission rate. We're
• 5:41
  - among the lowest in the in the country.
• 5:44
  - We're in the top two or three, within
• 5:47
  - Northwell, so that's about 24 institutions.
• 5:51
  - And we've been able to sustain what we've
• 5:52
  - done in readmissions.
• 5:54
  - And,
• 5:55
  - the team has really done a good job
• 5:56
  - and we I empowered them to do whatever
• 5:59
  - it takes to reduce our readmissions, understand what
• 6:02
  - the causes were,
• 6:03
  - and they've done a wonderful job. That's that's
• 6:05
  - one example of that.
• 6:07
  - Patient experience is something we have relentlessly
• 6:11
  - focused on as well.
• 6:14
  - We've been able to, particularly from health grades,
• 6:16
  - we've received for six years in a row
• 6:18
  - the outstanding patient experience acknowledgment. So again, we
• 6:21
  - had a wonderful base to work from in
• 6:25
  - which we did that. One other element we
• 6:27
  - focused on was a reduction in our patient
• 6:30
  - safety incidences, they called PSIs.
• 6:33
  - Again,
• 6:35
  - piecing apart what our processes were,
• 6:38
  - getting some folks to,
• 6:41
  - be in charge of that.
• 6:43
  - And, when we've done that, we typically put
• 6:46
  - a, a triad in charge of that. So
• 6:48
  - we've got someone from administration,
• 6:50
  - we have someone from nursing and I have
• 6:53
  - physician leads for both of those,
• 6:56
  - and they are responsible for that. And, we've
• 6:58
  - made some great strides in
• 7:01
  - reducing our number of PSIs.
• 7:03
  - You know, we learn from events that happen.
• 7:05
  - We're able to go back in and hardwire
• 7:07
  - some changes into the processes.
• 7:09
  - It is something we, they have committee meetings
• 7:12
  - on this. Those are routine
• 7:15
  - monthly meetings,
• 7:16
  - with affected individuals, and they talk about readmission
• 7:20
  - cases. They talk about PSIs.
• 7:22
  - So I hope those have been good examples
• 7:23
  - of where we made some improvements on.
• 7:26
  - Absolutely.
• 7:27
  - A lot of big changes coming out of
• 7:29
  - this journey. I'd love to dive into the
• 7:31
  - results just a little bit more.
• 7:33
  - All the big changes you've made, which one
• 7:35
  - do you think was the most impressive, and
• 7:37
  - what were those results?
• 7:40
  - I think our readmissions were
• 7:43
  - the most impressive when you look at just
• 7:45
  - pure results over where we were and where
• 7:48
  - we are right now.
• 7:50
  - I'm thinking when I first got here, we
• 7:52
  - were probably at about 14 to 15%,
• 7:56
  - overall readmission rate. We've been able to bring
• 7:59
  - that down. We've cut that in half where
• 8:02
  - we're running now about 7%, six to 7%,
• 8:06
  - overall for our readmissions.
• 8:09
  - And,
• 8:10
  - you know, that success when we were able
• 8:12
  - to show success on that really permeated the
• 8:15
  - organization and and and it showed to everybody
• 8:17
  - that our efforts were paying off, that what
• 8:19
  - we were doing was working,
• 8:22
  - and it's something we need to continue to
• 8:24
  - pay attention to. And, you know, there's been
• 8:26
  - a financial benefit for us as well because,
• 8:29
  - we were leaving a significant amount of money
• 8:31
  - on the table by,
• 8:33
  - with the federal government by getting penalized on
• 8:36
  - our readmission rate. And that's a mantra I
• 8:39
  - would tell people. It's we're just giving away
• 8:41
  - money,
• 8:42
  - the money that we could reinvest back into
• 8:44
  - the institution. So for the last three or
• 8:47
  - four cycles, we've been able to avoid, any
• 8:50
  - sort of readmission penalty there. So that's what
• 8:53
  - we when you look at the wrong numbers,
• 8:54
  - probably I'm most proud of and the biggest
• 8:56
  - impact that we have had,
• 8:58
  - organizationally. And that's allowed us a, a platform,
• 9:02
  - and it's given a sense of pride to
• 9:03
  - people that we can really make a difference
• 9:05
  - when we focus on things.
• 9:07
  - Absolutely.
• 9:08
  - And now that you have reached five star
• 9:10
  - status, what's your next goal?
• 9:13
  - Staying there.
• 9:15
  - You know, the journey is part of the
• 9:16
  - fun, getting there, but it it is challenging
• 9:20
  - when you achieve these kind of ratings to
• 9:23
  - continue to stay there because health care inherently
• 9:26
  - is complex.
• 9:29
  - And,
• 9:30
  - that is our,
• 9:32
  - our main focus in in is staying there
• 9:34
  - and also continue to receive. This is the
• 9:36
  - first year
• 9:37
  - we were recognized by Healthgrades as one of
• 9:40
  - their quote, unquote triple crown winners,
• 9:43
  - and we would like to stay there. We
• 9:44
  - would like to be a a triple crown
• 9:46
  - winner for multiple years in a row.
• 9:49
  - One of the other journeys we are considering,
• 9:52
  - that one of our sister hospitals
• 9:54
  - received is the Malcolm Baldrige award.
• 9:57
  - They were Glen Cove Hospital,
• 10:00
  - last year received the Malcolm Baldrige award. That
• 10:03
  - is a journey to sustained excellence as well.
• 10:06
  - So we've got that in our sites, as
• 10:08
  - a potential for us,
• 10:11
  - for maybe one of our next accomplishments.
• 10:14
  - Amazing.
• 10:15
  - Now for any other hospitals and hospital leaders
• 10:18
  - listening in and wanting to do what you
• 10:20
  - did, what advice do you have for becoming
• 10:22
  - a CMS five star hospital?
• 10:26
  - Oh,
• 10:28
  - it's multifactorial.
• 10:30
  - One,
• 10:31
  - a healthy focus on
• 10:33
  - your employees and engagement. I I don't think
• 10:36
  - if you look at any hospital that does
• 10:39
  - well in any of their outcome measurements,
• 10:42
  - I think a bedrock principle for all of
• 10:44
  - them is that they have a highly engaged,
• 10:47
  - workforce, and that's something we pay critical attention
• 10:50
  - to.
• 10:51
  - We've done very well on our,
• 10:54
  - engagement surveys, and we're always,
• 10:57
  - constantly paying attention to our workforce and ensuring
• 11:00
  - that we've got,
• 11:02
  - the right people in the right roles. And
• 11:03
  - also related to that, you have to ensure
• 11:05
  - you have the right leaders
• 11:06
  - in your building and that they're in the
• 11:08
  - right roles as well.
• 11:11
  - And, you know, once you've got that and
• 11:14
  - you've got a baseline to work from,
• 11:16
  - you really need to understand your data if
• 11:19
  - you don't have access to data and really
• 11:21
  - granularity in some of your data
• 11:23
  - by unit, for example, that you're able to
• 11:26
  - dig into and parse apart,
• 11:30
  - and understand where you have opportunities,
• 11:32
  - to improve.
• 11:34
  - You've gotta get the right I always believe
• 11:37
  - you wanna solve good big problems, put your
• 11:39
  - best people on your biggest problems,
• 11:41
  - and just get out of their way, give
• 11:43
  - them guardrails, and get out of their way,
• 11:45
  - but, charge them with, improving that. You have
• 11:48
  - to continue to make quality and safety your
• 11:52
  - number one thing you talk about and discuss
• 11:56
  - at, every,
• 11:57
  - single meeting.
• 12:00
  - And you've gotta be able to
• 12:03
  - when you make improvements, be be transparent about
• 12:06
  - your improvements, but celebrate those wins
• 12:09
  - that you're you're able to get, and you
• 12:11
  - have to pay constant attention to it. It
• 12:13
  - has to be top of mind every single
• 12:15
  - day. And I think, if hospitals,
• 12:19
  - can do that, it it's tough,
• 12:22
  - but, it can be done.
• 12:25
  - Absolutely.
• 12:26
  - That is some excellent advice. I really appreciate
• 12:28
  - you being on the podcast today. This was
• 12:30
  - wonderful. Welcome. Thank you so much.