Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Michael Cureton, MHA, FACHE, CEO of Sutter Davis Hospital at Sutter Health

Transcript

Michael Cureton, MHA, FACHE, CEO of Sutter Davis Hospital at Sutter Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Laura Dierdo with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:02
  Podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Michael
• 0:05
  Kearton,
• 0:06
  CEO of Sutter Davis Hospital, part of Sutter
• 0:08
  Health. Michael, it's a pleasure to have you
• 0:10
  on the podcast today.
• 0:11
  Thank you. Pleasure to be here.
• 0:14
  Absolutely. Now, I'm excited for our conversation because
• 0:16
  I know there's so much happening in health
• 0:18
  care right now, and particularly
• 0:20
  a lot within the workforce and workplace needing
• 0:23
  to,
• 0:24
  make some adjustments as well as find the
• 0:26
  right culture and innovation and to really meet
• 0:28
  the needs of of the health care workforce
• 0:30
  today. So I'm excited to talk with you
• 0:31
  about that. But before we dive in, could
• 0:34
  you briefly introduce yourself, your role, and kind
• 0:36
  of the scope of of what you do
• 0:38
  at Sutter Davis Hospital?
• 0:41
  Yeah. Absolutely. So I am the CEO at,
• 0:44
  like you said, Sutter Davis Hospital. We are
• 0:46
  a 57 bed community hospital,
• 0:49
  West of Sacramento, California by about 30,
• 0:52
  minutes, give or take traffic.
• 0:55
  We have, 35 med surg telebeds,
• 0:59
  telemetry. We have six ICU beds,
• 1:03
  24 ED Bay, and we serve the county
• 1:06
  of Yolo County,
• 1:09
  and located, like I said, in Davis, California.
• 1:12
  We have approximately 700 employees and a 150
• 1:15
  active medical staff.
• 1:17
  And, yeah, we're we've seen about 4,500
• 1:21
  charges last year, so we we are crucial
• 1:23
  in the community and,
• 1:25
  one of the many hospitals within the Sutter
• 1:28
  Health system.
• 1:31
  Fantastic. And, you know, it's so helpful to
• 1:34
  understand kind of the breadth of the organization
• 1:36
  and and, clearly, like you said, critical services
• 1:38
  that you're providing to the community. Now what's
• 1:40
  currently commanding most of your attention as a
• 1:42
  leader?
• 1:44
  Right now, it's really partnering with our foundation
• 1:47
  partners, the ambulatory
• 1:48
  care care leaders within our organization,
• 1:51
  and particularly around growth and access in Yolo
• 1:54
  County. We have some services that,
• 1:57
  to next available appointments is much too long.
• 1:59
  We have an issue where the demand is
• 2:03
  strong and our ability to supply physicians is
• 2:06
  right now weak. And the the reason for
• 2:08
  that is really there's no physical space to
• 2:11
  place anybody. And so we are actively looking
• 2:14
  about how we can create growth opportunities in
• 2:17
  the community to keep it local.
• 2:19
  Like I said, you know, we're about thirty,
• 2:21
  thirty five minutes from Sacramento, and,
• 2:24
  many of our residents
• 2:25
  can go across what we call the causeway,
• 2:29
  you know, over
• 2:30
  the
• 2:31
  freeway to be able to see some providers
• 2:33
  in that community. But our goal is really
• 2:35
  to keep care local. And as best we
• 2:38
  can, we want to make sure that people
• 2:40
  don't have to travel to be able to
• 2:41
  see primary care and specialty care. And so
• 2:45
  we are working,
• 2:46
  with
• 2:47
  great pace to try to figure out where
• 2:49
  is the best place to grow, what are
• 2:52
  the right physicians to put there,
• 2:54
  and that's really kind of our attention and
• 2:57
  our focus this year.
• 3:01
  Absolutely. That's helpful to understand. And, you know,
• 3:04
  so interesting
• 3:05
  to
• 3:06
  see how you've been able to kind of
• 3:08
  grow that care locally and keep it in
• 3:10
  that space. I know so many hospitals and
• 3:12
  and organizations across the country are having that
• 3:15
  same, challenge in conversations with their teams and
• 3:18
  what they need to do in order to
• 3:20
  kind of expand and and make access to
• 3:22
  care,
• 3:23
  really
• 3:24
  more broad for their communities. So in the
• 3:27
  last year or so, that's been marked by
• 3:28
  a lot of rapid change. Could you talk
• 3:30
  about a recent
• 3:31
  decision or or pivot, that has required the
• 3:33
  most leadership conviction from you, particularly when it's
• 3:36
  come to aligning people, resources, or capabilities?
• 3:40
  Yeah. You know, to to set this up,
• 3:42
  I I wanna just kinda throw out there
• 3:44
  a model that was shared with me once
• 3:45
  about decision making, and I really love it.
• 3:48
  It's the concept of good, better, and best.
• 3:51
  I'm not talking about for the Chicago Bears
• 3:53
  fans out there. I know Ben Johnson has
• 3:55
  a a phrase, good, better, best. Never let
• 3:57
  it rest till your good gets better and
• 3:59
  your better gets best. Our COO of the
• 4:01
  organization loves that.
• 4:03
  But I'm really talking about, as it pertains
• 4:05
  to decisions,
• 4:07
  you know, we have good decisions, we have
• 4:09
  better decisions, and there's the best decisions. And
• 4:12
  with finite resources,
• 4:14
  really thinking about this model is important. And
• 4:17
  so the example I would love to give,
• 4:18
  you know, over the past,
• 4:20
  quarter, I would say, we've been really,
• 4:23
  looking into expanding or whether we should expand
• 4:27
  our, birthing center
• 4:29
  capabilities,
• 4:31
  and particularly we're thinking about expanding to a
• 4:33
  NICU level two and if that is the
• 4:35
  right move at Sutter Davis Hospital. We have
• 4:38
  a birthing center.
• 4:41
  Actually, where I know a lot of the
• 4:43
  organizations out there are seeing a decline in
• 4:44
  the number of births that are being performed
• 4:47
  at their hospital, we've actually seen an increase
• 4:49
  over the past few years by about a
• 4:52
  300.
• 4:53
  And part of this is because we started
• 4:55
  increasing our primary service area to include other
• 4:59
  geographies that are now coming to the Sutter
• 5:01
  Davis Hospital. And so, with that, our thought
• 5:05
  was if we increase our level,
• 5:07
  our ability to a NICU level two,
• 5:10
  that would help
• 5:12
  decrease the number of transfers out that we
• 5:14
  have to do. It would improve our unexpected
• 5:16
  newborn complication rate.
• 5:18
  It would help
• 5:22
  We have a hospitalist model, and many of
• 5:25
  them would love to have a NICU level
• 5:27
  two available.
• 5:29
  But we did the math. And in order
• 5:32
  to do this, we would have to physically
• 5:34
  expand our campus by another 1,200 square feet.
• 5:37
  It would include,
• 5:39
  having an intensivist on-site. It would include additional
• 5:42
  training for our nurses.
• 5:44
  And
• 5:45
  while
• 5:46
  expanding might be a good decision,
• 5:49
  it wouldn't be the best decision for us
• 5:51
  at this time because we do have other
• 5:53
  priorities, like I mentioned, other ambulatory care needs
• 5:57
  in the community that we really need to
• 5:59
  focus on. You know, we looked back at
• 6:01
  the past ten years and even within our
• 6:03
  county,
• 6:05
  we saw about a 30%
• 6:06
  decline in the,
• 6:10
  fertility rate,
• 6:12
  and the number of births that were coming
• 6:14
  from from Yellow County. And some of our
• 6:16
  other encatchment
• 6:17
  areas were approximately, you know, 20 to 25,000
• 6:20
  or, sorry, 20 to 25%
• 6:22
  decrease.
• 6:24
  And if that trend continues, you know, we
• 6:26
  would hate to build out only to not
• 6:28
  be able to fill it
• 6:29
  five, ten years later.
• 6:31
  And so, thinking about all the benefits
• 6:34
  that would go in expanding our services,
• 6:37
  but then weighing it against, you know, what
• 6:39
  are we giving up, really we decided that
• 6:42
  we had to forego this opportunity
• 6:44
  and to not move forward with a NICU
• 6:47
  level two expansion. And so, you know, I'm
• 6:49
  sure many other healthcare leaders are facing the
• 6:52
  same thing. There's a
• 6:54
  limited amount of capital,
• 6:56
  a limited amount of resources. We invested a
• 6:58
  lot in just trying to see if this
• 7:00
  plan would even, you know, take wing.
• 7:03
  But ultimately, we decided against that. And I
• 7:05
  think sometimes you have to make really difficult
• 7:07
  decisions about where you want to invest resources
• 7:10
  and where you're going to serve the most
• 7:13
  amount of people.
• 7:14
  And so weighing those options, I think, is
• 7:16
  just something that's ever increasingly
• 7:19
  important
• 7:20
  in today's day and age.
• 7:23
  That's such a great way to illustrate those
• 7:25
  tough decisions that I know leaders are making
• 7:27
  on a continuous basis. And,
• 7:30
  you know, great example of, again, how you
• 7:32
  can look at the information, look at the
• 7:34
  data, and assess, you know, the different options
• 7:37
  so you can make those decisions even if
• 7:39
  they are hard ones or or not always
• 7:41
  popular.
• 7:42
  I'm curious. How did that moment or decision,
• 7:46
  challenge your assumptions, and what did it change
• 7:47
  about how you approach decision making in the
• 7:50
  talent or organizational readiness today?
• 7:53
  Yeah. You know, I I think right now
• 7:56
  there's a lot of people who are
• 7:59
  looking for creative ways to create access,
• 8:03
  while at the same time trying to,
• 8:06
  face the headwinds that are coming with us.
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  And I think it's important to consider any
• 8:10
  and all options,
• 8:11
  but at the same time,
• 8:13
  not invest,
• 8:14
  don't put a stake in the ground where
• 8:16
  it doesn't need to be, right? And so
• 8:18
  there are times where even though we might,
• 8:21
  want to sell our idea and be really
• 8:23
  excited about the potential
• 8:25
  of a new service or
• 8:28
  a new program,
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  there are times that we have to really
• 8:32
  take a look at it and make the
• 8:33
  hard decision and and walk away.
• 8:36
  And for some, it will be disappointing news,
• 8:38
  but in reality,
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  we have to think what's gonna best serve
• 8:43
  the most amount of people and do the
• 8:45
  most amount of good. And so, again, it's
• 8:47
  that good, better, best concept is that, you
• 8:49
  know, if we were to expand, that that's
• 8:51
  a good thing.
• 8:53
  However, it wouldn't be the best thing right
• 8:55
  now. And so I think,
• 8:57
  ever increasingly
• 8:58
  looking at
• 8:59
  the decisions to be made,
• 9:02
  and really consider all options. And so I
• 9:03
  you know, we are being bombarded with new
• 9:04
  options. And so I you know, we are
• 9:06
  being bombarded with new technology that we have
• 9:09
  to decide. Do we wanna put the investment
• 9:11
  in? Is this really gonna make a difference?
• 9:13
  And and, again, it's worth taking a look
• 9:15
  at, but, we we have to be careful
• 9:17
  where we hit your wagon.
• 9:21
  Absolutely. I I think, you know, that's such
• 9:24
  a a critical piece of advice because there
• 9:27
  are so many opportunities out there and a
• 9:29
  lot of things that,
• 9:31
  health care leaders could be looking into or
• 9:33
  or investing in or people they could be
• 9:35
  partnering with. But at the end of the
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  day,
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  you know, those that select wisely,
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  are are the ones that are gonna be
• 9:42
  positioned for the most success in the future.
• 9:45
  What when you think about some of these
• 9:46
  forces that are reshaping health care right now,
• 9:49
  where do you believe leaders need to be
• 9:51
  more decisive, especially when it comes to balancing
• 9:54
  that speed
• 9:56
  as well as risk and having the right
• 9:57
  teams in place?
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  Yeah. More than ever, it's about having the
• 10:02
  right people on the bus with you. And
• 10:03
  and sometimes having those right people is simply
• 10:06
  just, investing in their professional development and growth.
• 10:10
  I think as an organization, that's where Sutter
• 10:12
  Health is really shining as we are doubling
• 10:14
  down and ensuring that, you know, our managers,
• 10:17
  our directors, our first time leaders are getting
• 10:20
  the support that they need to be able
• 10:22
  to to drive change at the frontline level.
• 10:26
  You know, it is ever more important to
• 10:29
  be watching our costs.
• 10:30
  And if a leader really hasn't had the
• 10:33
  experience of how to manage, you know, a
• 10:35
  profit and loss statement or manage their productivity
• 10:39
  tools,
• 10:40
  they need the education and the assistance in
• 10:42
  order to to do that. And so we
• 10:44
  are doubling down and ensuring that, you know,
• 10:47
  we have at Sutter Health, for instance, Sutter
• 10:49
  Health University,
• 10:51
  we are ensuring that leaders get into,
• 10:54
  almost on a quarterly basis, some sort of
• 10:56
  professional development,
• 10:58
  opportunity. There's LinkedIn learning. There's books that we
• 11:02
  are,
• 11:03
  passing out to leaders just helping them become
• 11:06
  their best selves,
• 11:07
  often in health care and I'm sure other
• 11:09
  industries as well, is that you have leaders
• 11:12
  who don't never expected to become leaders. Right?
• 11:14
  They were great bedside nurses. They were great,
• 11:18
  housekeeping,
• 11:20
  technicians, BVS techs.
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  And you see them, you know, you see
• 11:24
  the talent in them. And as we
• 11:27
  bring them up and have them become supervisors
• 11:30
  and then managers and then directors,
• 11:32
  are we giving them the adequate tools to
• 11:35
  be able to address the changes that are
• 11:37
  are forthcoming?
• 11:39
  Because things like how do we make,
• 11:42
  throughput more efficient?
• 11:43
  How do we ensure that we are reducing
• 11:45
  our premium pay and overtime?
• 11:47
  If our people are not equipped to address
• 11:50
  these concerns, if they are not equipped to
• 11:53
  become,
• 11:54
  credible leaders to where their frontline staff are
• 11:56
  going to follow them, we're not setting ourselves
• 11:59
  up for success. And, really, we need strong
• 12:02
  leaders more than ever at this time. And
• 12:04
  so that's really where I think, the the
• 12:07
  emphasis that we need to be making. At
• 12:09
  least that's what we're doing here at Sutter
• 12:10
  Davis Hospital.
• 12:14
  That makes a lot of sense. And I
• 12:17
  know that especially a lot of new leaders
• 12:19
  are up and coming through the ranks and
• 12:21
  spending time trying to not only learn the
• 12:24
  industry, but transform the way that their teams
• 12:26
  are operating. And it takes a lot of,
• 12:29
  a lot of leadership in order to do
• 12:31
  that. I think, you know, the other element
• 12:33
  that we haven't talked a ton about today
• 12:35
  is just some of the uncertainty in the
• 12:37
  healthcare space. Of course, you know, looking
• 12:40
  at staffing and some of the financial dynamics
• 12:42
  are are a challenge, but also, you know,
• 12:44
  policies
• 12:45
  across the board,
• 12:46
  are are changing quickly, and there are are
• 12:49
  are good amount of economic factors too that
• 12:51
  are affecting how
• 12:53
  hospitals and health systems are are operating. So
• 12:56
  from your perspective, as this uncertainty becomes more
• 12:58
  of a norm, what leadership habits or or
• 13:01
  mindset has been most critical in keeping your
• 13:03
  organization
• 13:04
  and people moving forward?
• 13:07
  Yeah. I I think one is being a
• 13:10
  transparent leader. I think that's gonna be,
• 13:13
  very important here in the future is to
• 13:16
  let people know why we are doing what
• 13:18
  we are doing. You know, I've just had
• 13:20
  some conversations lately,
• 13:22
  with some providers.
• 13:25
  They are we're making a change that they're
• 13:28
  not necessarily excited about. We believe it's the
• 13:31
  best thing for our patients and for the
• 13:32
  hospitals and quite frankly, many of our physicians,
• 13:37
  but they don't necessarily understand the why behind
• 13:39
  it. And so, it kind of was like
• 13:41
  an moment where we need to talk to
• 13:43
  them about the current state of healthcare and
• 13:46
  where things are headed, you know, with the
• 13:48
  one big beautiful bill or the HR1.
• 13:51
  How is that impacting hospitals? And not just,
• 13:53
  you know, here at Sutter Davis, but,
• 13:56
  around the nation,
• 13:57
  we're seeing a shift in how, you know,
• 14:00
  payments are going to be coming. There's questions
• 14:03
  about 340B.
• 14:04
  All of these things are happening. And
• 14:07
  rather than,
• 14:09
  you know, when there is a vacuum, people
• 14:11
  fill it with their own thoughts and their
• 14:13
  own,
• 14:14
  ideas. And I think it's important that we
• 14:17
  are transparent about the realities that we face.
• 14:20
  You know, just yesterday, I stood in front
• 14:22
  of our leaders.
• 14:24
  We had a, one of our best surgeons
• 14:27
  is going to be leaving the area and
• 14:29
  that's going to be a significant impact on
• 14:32
  our hospital.
• 14:33
  And as a result, I was quite frank
• 14:36
  with our leaders is that more than ever,
• 14:38
  it's going to be important that we watch
• 14:40
  our costs,
• 14:41
  that we watch our utilization,
• 14:44
  that we are making sure that we are
• 14:45
  doing everything that we can to be able
• 14:48
  to,
• 14:51
  to keep the the hospital strong and that
• 14:53
  we're being good stewards with the finances that
• 14:55
  we have. Because of the not for profit
• 14:58
  organization, we reinvest
• 15:00
  back into the community, and and that's really
• 15:01
  important. And so I think being just real
• 15:05
  with our frontline leaders about what's ahead
• 15:07
  and with our physicians about, you know, what
• 15:09
  challenges we face,
• 15:11
  that's gonna be the key, I think, to
• 15:13
  making sure we're all rowing in the same
• 15:15
  direction.
• 15:19
  I love that. Thank you so much for
• 15:21
  sharing it and being very candid with,
• 15:23
  the situation that you have at Davis Hospital
• 15:26
  and how you're thinking about it and communicating
• 15:27
  with that, to your teams. I think it's
• 15:30
  so critical, like you mentioned, to be focused
• 15:33
  on how you can
• 15:34
  really, you know, be good stewards of the
• 15:36
  financial
• 15:38
  and other resources that are in the organization,
• 15:40
  and then continue to support those who are,
• 15:42
  supporting the hospital as well. Before we wrap
• 15:45
  up here, I have one more question. What
• 15:47
  signals or metrics how your workforce strategy is
• 15:50
  actually working, and where are you still experimenting
• 15:52
  or or course correcting to some degree?
• 15:56
  Yeah. You know, I I wanna go back
• 15:58
  and and touch the,
• 16:00
  the comments I made about professional development. You
• 16:02
  know, as AI technology comes in,
• 16:05
  I I joke, anybody's gonna sound intelligent
• 16:08
  these days,
• 16:10
  through email. Right? I can I can write
• 16:12
  any draft
• 16:13
  and, you know, write like a third grader
• 16:15
  and make it look like I I don't
• 16:17
  you know, choose which writing style you want?
• 16:20
  I can sound like Shakespeare. I can sound
• 16:21
  like Jared Holcomb. I can sound like the
• 16:23
  most professional person.
• 16:25
  But when it comes time for me opening
• 16:27
  my mouth and and speaking,
• 16:31
  people truly know what type of person I
• 16:34
  am. Right? And so with that, really building
• 16:37
  on this authenticity.
• 16:39
  And we are trying to ensure that,
• 16:43
  we are getting authentic individuals into to our
• 16:46
  hospital.
• 16:47
  I'm very proud of the results that we've
• 16:49
  been able to get as of recent at
• 16:51
  Sutter Davis Hospital, you know, we are in
• 16:53
  the ninetieth percentile for patient satisfaction.
• 16:57
  Last year, our employee engagement was at the
• 16:59
  ninety fourth percentile
• 17:00
  nationally.
• 17:02
  And, there's a lot of great work that
• 17:04
  is happening. There's still some opportunities.
• 17:07
  And so, we are being very,
• 17:10
  aware about who we bring into our hospital.
• 17:14
  And we're actually doubling down on that. I
• 17:17
  currently have our leaders, frontline leaders working on,
• 17:21
  trying to find best practices about, you know,
• 17:23
  determining who comes in as a new hire.
• 17:25
  How are we ensuring that someone is going
• 17:28
  to not only just be good clinically, I
• 17:30
  think that's, like, the the bar,
• 17:32
  but how do we know that they are
• 17:34
  going to be somebody that is collaborative? How
• 17:36
  are they gonna be somebody that is caring
• 17:39
  and empathetic?
• 17:40
  And how can we be better at hiring
• 17:42
  the superstars?
• 17:43
  Because,
• 17:44
  you know, at the end of the day,
• 17:46
  that's what patients really want. I think all
• 17:48
  patients go into a hospital
• 17:50
  expecting to have great quality.
• 17:53
  And,
• 17:54
  you know, with a few exceptions here.
• 17:56
  But I think where when I read patient
• 17:58
  comments on
• 18:00
  patient satisfaction surveys,
• 18:02
  it's rarely about the clinical care that they
• 18:04
  got. Right? It is truly about
• 18:07
  the
• 18:08
  care that they received.
• 18:10
  It's about how the person made them feel.
• 18:13
  It's about the comments that were shared with
• 18:15
  them.
• 18:16
  That's what really patients are talking about and
• 18:18
  that's what we see and that's what we
• 18:19
  hear.
• 18:20
  So, going back, you know, the metrics that
• 18:23
  we know that is working is one,
• 18:25
  we see our patient satisfaction scores. I have
• 18:28
  this firm belief that
• 18:29
  in order to have happy patients, you first
• 18:32
  need to have happy employees.
• 18:34
  We've been successful. We have less than a
• 18:36
  10% turnover rate at our hospital.
• 18:39
  We have individuals who are committed to this
• 18:42
  community,
• 18:43
  and we just want to continue on that.
• 18:44
  So, again, it's making sure, doubling down and
• 18:47
  ensuring that our leaders have the tools, the
• 18:49
  development,
• 18:50
  the training,
• 18:51
  everything that they need to be the best,
• 18:54
  their best self
• 18:56
  within their departments. As our CEO, Warner Thomas,
• 18:59
  has shared with us, you know, everybody is
• 19:02
  the CEO
• 19:03
  of their responsibility.
• 19:06
  And I love that concept, right, is that
• 19:08
  the best ideas are going to come from
• 19:10
  closest
• 19:11
  to the patient and from those departments.
• 19:13
  We just need to make sure that our
• 19:15
  leaders are are prepared, and and we think
• 19:17
  it's working.
• 19:19
  There is still some opportunity out there. Like
• 19:21
  I said, we're revamping
• 19:23
  our interview questions.
• 19:25
  We're thinking about how we make new employees
• 19:27
  feel more welcome, because that is one area
• 19:29
  that that we're looking at is how can
• 19:31
  we reduce our first year turnover.
• 19:33
  But by and large, we're we're excited about
• 19:36
  the direction we're headed.
• 19:39
  Fantastic.
• 19:41
  That's amazing to hear. Michael, thank you so
• 19:42
  much for joining us on the podcast today.
• 19:44
  This has been a really fun conversation. You
• 19:47
  know, I I've learned a lot and inspiring
• 19:48
  to hear everything that you've accomplished at Sutter
• 19:50
  Davis Hospital and look forward to connecting with
• 19:53
  you again soon. Doctor. Brian G. Durie, Thank
• 19:55
  you so much for the invite. My pleasure.