Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Leading Rural Hospital Medicine Through Change and Opportunity

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Leading Rural Hospital Medicine Through Change and Opportunity · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings healthcare leaders
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  together to unpack the most pressing issues facing
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  the industry.
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  And every year, those conversations shift in profound
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  and unexpected ways.
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  This April, more than 3,500
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  healthcare executives will return to Chicago for Becker's
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  sixteenth Annual Meeting.
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  Seven ninety five elite speakers will offer new
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  lessons, new case studies, and predictions about what
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  comes next. Join us April 13 through the
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  sixteenth.
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  For the agenda and event details, visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right.
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  This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast.
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  We're thrilled today to be joined by doctor
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  Zeeshan
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  Anwar, and doctor Anwar is gonna talk about
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  his career, leadership trends he's watching, and a
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  lot more. Doctor Anwar, can you take a
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  moment and introduce yourself?
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  Thank you, Scott, for having me. I'm Zeeshan
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  Anwar. I'm the assistant chief for hospital medicine
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  at Guthrie as well as associate chief medical
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  officer for Pennsylvania hospital sites.
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  In these dual roles, I oversee the hospital
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  medicine service line, across the system
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  while leading operational
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  quality and patient flow initiatives.
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  My focus is on strengthening discharge reliability,
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  improving throughput,
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  optimizing utilization
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  practices,
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  and ensuring our teams have that structure and
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  clarity needed to deliver safe and timely care.
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  I have been with Guthrie.
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  This is my fourth year, and, I'm happy
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  to be here.
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  Well, thank you so much for joining us.
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  When you look at health care today,
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  what are the big trends that you have
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  your eyes on that you're watching closely?
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  Yeah. So that that's a great question. So
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  we are rural health care, and, I'm gonna
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  talk about a little bit more on rural
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  health care. And, as you know,
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  rural hospitals are operating at the intersection of
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  historic opportunity
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  and historic risk.
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  As a leaders, we should aggressively
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  pursue federal funding,
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  advance digital and workforce innovation,
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  reinforce,
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  financial sustainability,
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  and protect access to essential services.
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  The trends we are watching,
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  number one,
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  we are looking closely
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  to,
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  a new government initiative, which
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  is RHT,
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  rural
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  health transformation
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  program.
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  And as we know that it will distribute
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  a dollar 50,000,000,000 from 2026
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  to twenty twenty thirty,
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  which is roughly 10,000,000,000 annually
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  and and with the 50 states will get
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  $200,000,000
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  per state award.
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  And for
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  for one state, I think a billion dollar
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  in in five years.
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  So
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  this fund is essential
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  to support
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  access,
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  facility
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  modernization,
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  workforce stabilization,
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  and innovative
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  care models.
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  We are a little concerned, though, because the
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  same legislation
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  introduces long term Medicaid
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  cuts that could offset gains and and and
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  deepen our financial stress.
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  And second, we are
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  watching
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  immigration
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  reforms
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  and particularly
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  presidential
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  proclamation,
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  regarding h one b visa fees, which is
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  additional 100,000
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  k fee,
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  which is,
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  directly affecting
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  us, especially rural health care.
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  We have some providers who couldn't come
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  to work because,
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  they required 100,000 k fee to get their
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  visa process.
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  We have, many nurses. We recruited international nurses
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  who couldn't come
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  to work in this busy time.
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  We had applied for a waivership program, which
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  is one of the,
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  waiver
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  we can apply for as a rural health
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  care, but we haven't heard anything. We are
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  very hopeful that in the coming weeks or
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  so,
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  there will be some
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  some decision on that.
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  But we are so dependent on those workers
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  to
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  to operationalize
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  our our functions.
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  Then,
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  also, we are looking for telehealth and digital
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  care
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  into
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  2026.
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  As you know,
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  we are,
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  as a rural health care to improve access,
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  we utilize telehealth,
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  a lot.
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  And as
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  as telehealth flexibility is going to expire at
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  the end of this month, actually,
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  unless it is extended by by congress.
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  So we are, watching that too.
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  So these are the these are the hot
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  issues,
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  we are looking at.
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  Thank you. And then when you look at
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  this year coming up,
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  Zeeshan, doctor Anwar, what are you most excited
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  about and most focused on for this year?
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  Yes. So we are
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  we are focused on, multiple things.
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  We
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  are working
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  very hard on cost containment.
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  We are working on reducing waste.
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  We
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  are negotiating
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  with peers.
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  And, also, we are looking at our master
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  service agreements with different, our vendors
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  as well as some provider services
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  to improve on those.
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  Also, long term capital,
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  planning,
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  we are doing. So so these are the
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  main things we are focused on, but we
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  what we are excited about,
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  we are excited about digital transformation.
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  We are working with,
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  a vendor,
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  Artisight.
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  And, with that, we are developing,
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  AI powered patient mobility detection
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  to reduce falls,
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  pressure injury prevention.
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  Also, we are, utilizing
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  AI vendor to to automate our documentation,
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  help in clinical note synthesis,
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  to reduce clinical cognitive load, improve
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  safety surveillance, and streamline documentation
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  while maintaining the accuracy and, and compliance.
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  We are also focused on
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  and excited about,
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  working on making our organization as a higher
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  live reliable organization,
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  improving our safety culture and human experience,
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  within the system.
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  The last one I wanted to mention is,
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  we are also focused on our service line
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  strengthening and clinical
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  standardization
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  by,
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  improving our
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  clinical pathways
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  within the hospital, how we treat patient to
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  reduce variation and improve evidence based medicine.
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  Thank you. And, doctor Anwar, you've had this
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  incredible leadership
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  career.
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  Take a moment. What advice would you give
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  to emerging and evolving leaders?
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  Yeah. So
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  I'll be very blunt on some few few
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  things.
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  Number one, staffing. So
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  when we talk about staffing, so what I
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  would say is
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  work on
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  recruiting
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  a players
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  if you can
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  and retain them.
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  So do not waste time on c players.
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  Two c players equivalent to one a player.
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  So
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  try to engage them if it they don't
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  go up to b or a.
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  You have to replace with with the a
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  players or at least b players
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  and and polish your b players to become
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  a player.
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  I think that's where
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  we can improve our efficiency.
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  We can perform
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  better,
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  and we can save in that. And I
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  think the organization,
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  whoever
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  able to figure out how to retain their
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  a players will be
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  more successful.
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  I'm talking about
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  health care.
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  Other things,
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  my advice will be
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  continuous improvement.
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  Keep
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  improving
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  even it's a tiny bit,
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  but keep improving.
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  Keep your trend
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  in a good way
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  towards a good side.
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  Improve your processes.
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  Work
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  on patient safety
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  and quality,
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  and that where
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  your financial KPIs will improve.
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  Optimize
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  physician, nurses, and other employees' workload.
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  That is also very important, to engage,
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  providers and nurses because that's where we are
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  struggling and shortages are. We do not want
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  that turnover to go higher.
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  No. Thank you so much. I I, overall,
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  love this concept of really focus on your
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  top performers. Keep on helping them accelerate. Work
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  on your b performers. Try to get them
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  to become a performers,
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  and don't spend too much time on your
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  c performers unless they're willing to put in
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  the effort to try and be great. I
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  I I love that, and I I do
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  think taking care of your team, taking care
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  of your people, taking care of staffing, and,
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  your physicians, so, so important.
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  Doctor Anwar, what a great pleasure to visit
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  with you today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  Thank you so much for taking the time.
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  Thank you very, very much. Thank you for
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  having me, Scott.