Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Expanding Access and Advancing Women's Health with Annmarie Lyons
Transcript
- 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 they go to
- 0:21- 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.
- 0:50- This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
- 0:54- Podcast.
- 0:55- We're thrilled to be joined by a leader
- 0:57- who's been running the women's service line in
- 0:59- women's healthcare
- 1:01- at one of the greatest systems in the
- 1:02- country at UPMC for really a couple decades
- 1:05- now. He's been been at UPMC for a
- 1:08- for a a good deal of time.
- 1:11- Ann Marie Lyons,
- 1:12- tell us a little bit about your career,
- 1:14- about yourself,
- 1:16- and you you've been at UPMC now for,
- 1:18- I think, almost, I see, nineteen years, ten
- 1:20- months, so for a a an incredible period
- 1:22- of time. It's or longer than that now.
- 1:24- Tell us about your career and about UPMC.
- 1:28- Hi. Thanks, Scott. Thank you for having me,
- 1:30- and,
- 1:31- thanks for all the the nice words and
- 1:33- you're welcome. So you got it right. I've
- 1:35- been at UPMC
- 1:36- here in Pittsburgh,
- 1:38- for about twenty years in so many roles.
- 1:41- Being part of a big system affords you
- 1:43- that opportunity. So I've worked with our hospitals,
- 1:46- with our physician groups,
- 1:48- and, you know, with some of our, corporate
- 1:51- strategies
- 1:52- and services.
- 1:54- But for the last four years,
- 1:56- at UPMC,
- 1:57- I've really been focused on women's health,
- 2:00- and,
- 2:01- and it's a role that I have loved
- 2:04- every minute of. I find it super fulfilling.
- 2:07- And what that means for me as the
- 2:09- vice president of the women's health service line
- 2:12- is that I'm responsible
- 2:13- strategy, the operations,
- 2:15- the advancements
- 2:17- in the full continuum
- 2:19- of all of women's health. And maybe to
- 2:21- give it a little bit of perspective, we
- 2:23- are a service line with now 16 birthing
- 2:26- hospitals,
- 2:28- 24,000
- 2:29- deliveries, over 700,000
- 2:31- visits, and over 21,000
- 2:33- surgical procedures
- 2:35- every year. So I really am centered on
- 2:39- a general principle that women matter,
- 2:41- that women's health matters,
- 2:43- and we have to make it accessible in
- 2:45- all communities and advance women's health through strategic
- 2:48- problem solving,
- 2:50- cross functional partnerships,
- 2:51- and bringing a human centered lens
- 2:54- to our system.
- 2:56- And talk about the trends that you're watching
- 2:58- in women's health care.
- 3:00- It seems like so many things going right
- 3:02- and so many real challenges.
- 3:04- We end up ranked as a nation very
- 3:06- low in certain women's health areas
- 3:09- in maternal and child health care.
- 3:12- We've got labor and delivery shortage throughout the
- 3:14- country. Tell us a bit about the overview
- 3:16- of the trends because there there must be
- 3:18- some things that are going well too outside
- 3:20- of so many things we see in the
- 3:21- news in in a news cycle.
- 3:24- Yeah. So there are absolutely
- 3:26- some amazing things that we're doing, and a
- 3:29- lot of it is to augment care and
- 3:30- to address some of the issues that, you're
- 3:33- mentioning.
- 3:34- And I'll I'll start with some of the
- 3:36- the rural, health deserts that we have where
- 3:38- we have literally
- 3:40- counties without any obstetric care available.
- 3:44- And I actually think
- 3:46- that that is driven by a lens of
- 3:48- looking solely at cost, and that's important. It's
- 3:51- important for what we do, and it really
- 3:54- does matter. But,
- 3:55- you know, we can't solely look at cost.
- 3:58- We have to look at the holistic financials.
- 4:01- Because like most things, if you look at
- 4:02- an isolated,
- 4:04- episode,
- 4:05- a a delivery, a baby delivery,
- 4:07- a lot of times the cost is particularly
- 4:09- high. But some of the ways to sort
- 4:12- of overcome it and what we do at
- 4:13- UPMC is we look at a holistic financial.
- 4:16- So you're not just looking at one episode.
- 4:18- You're looking at the the impact to the
- 4:20- hospitals, to the physicians, to the clinic,
- 4:23- or factoring in the downstream revenues, you know,
- 4:26- the the closed gaps,
- 4:28- and all the other
- 4:30- sort of ways that you can really drive
- 4:32- what is important.
- 4:34- And the soft side of that sort of
- 4:37- business proposition
- 4:38- is the
- 4:40- the impact that we have on future
- 4:43- market share or future growth is really that
- 4:46- if you capture a woman in your front
- 4:49- door during their reproductive journey
- 4:51- and you do it right and build the
- 4:53- trust, you know, many times there's a a
- 4:56- downstream impact. You know, she's gonna tell her
- 4:58- friends and families and,
- 5:00- really build a a trust and loyalty
- 5:03- to your organization,
- 5:05- but that's sort of the soft side. So
- 5:06- the cost is one big part of it.
- 5:08- You know, from a quality perspective,
- 5:11- I think everybody is building so many responsible
- 5:14- care pathways
- 5:15- across the whole care continuum.
- 5:17- But you mentioned maternity.
- 5:19- For sure, we still have quite a a
- 5:22- global impact on,
- 5:24- unfortunately, still on maternal health. And so
- 5:27- advancing through different pathways
- 5:29- and using our technologies, whether we're monitoring remotely
- 5:33- or using some predictive models, they've really come
- 5:36- a long way
- 5:38- with,
- 5:39- particularly things like postpartum,
- 5:42- hypertension disorders, things of that nature. So we
- 5:44- really have come a long way. But I
- 5:47- will share
- 5:48- one thing I'm watching that I think is
- 5:51- an underlying
- 5:52- cause of all of it is
- 5:54- understanding what women,
- 5:56- need, what they want, and really getting a
- 5:59- better handle on the expectations.
- 6:01- You know, I'm a as a woman myself,
- 6:03- a lot of times, I tend to think
- 6:04- I know what women want and how they
- 6:07- want it delivered. And, you know, it's very
- 6:08- humbling when you actually dig into intelligence
- 6:12- and the data that we have,
- 6:14- to really understand.
- 6:16- You've gotta meet women in where they are.
- 6:18- They've gotta feel trusting and,
- 6:20- you know, different demographics,
- 6:22- view that extraordinarily
- 6:24- differently. So as a sorta traditional health care
- 6:28- provider,
- 6:29- it changes your whole strategy when you think
- 6:32- about the fact that you've gotta put the
- 6:34- patient first and,
- 6:36- understand where they're at.
- 6:39- Fascinating. What are some of these when when
- 6:41- you sort of have those conversations and I
- 6:43- and I love your discussion of that because
- 6:45- as a woman yourself,
- 6:46- you have an intuitive sense of what you
- 6:48- think that other women need. And what are
- 6:51- some of the things that you learn when
- 6:52- you have those open discussions, which so many
- 6:54- of us are so uncomfortable?
- 6:56- Sometimes I don't wanna talk to a customer
- 6:57- what they really want because it's hard to
- 6:59- hear it sometimes or or hard to sort
- 7:01- of open your mind to it. How does
- 7:03- that how does that go? And what do
- 7:04- you what does something that you learned? So
- 7:06- I'm gonna give you something that actually come
- 7:07- out under the consumer focus group because I
- 7:09- think this will really come make it kind
- 7:11- of almost, visual for you.
- 7:14- We were,
- 7:15- asking
- 7:16- midlife women,
- 7:18- about menopause.
- 7:19- They knew nothing. They didn't know what it
- 7:21- was.
- 7:22- They didn't know there was such a thing
- 7:24- as midlife health,
- 7:26- but they certainly knew what a hot flash
- 7:27- was and they knew they had them.
- 7:30- And so I think, again, you know, you've
- 7:31- gotta change your whole paradigm
- 7:34- that, you know, nobody knows what a urogynecologist
- 7:37- is a lot of times. A layperson doesn't
- 7:38- know that, but they certainly know that they're
- 7:40- having leakage issues. So kinda meeting where they
- 7:42- are.
- 7:44- And then also at the highest level,
- 7:47- really simply, you know, our demography,
- 7:50- right, our our demographics,
- 7:51- our older women
- 7:53- do tend to value ex expertise,
- 7:55- clinical knowledge, access,
- 7:58- and really anchor trust in a provider that
- 8:00- that relationship that they have where younger women,
- 8:03- you know, they're seeking ease, you know, ease
- 8:05- of care,
- 8:06- making requests, making sure their care is coordinated,
- 8:09- having better communication.
- 8:11- And unlike the older generation that relies on
- 8:13- that provider, our younger women are really
- 8:16- looking at relatable
- 8:18- relatable sources to them. So digital wellness driven
- 8:21- sources, friends, family,
- 8:23- coaches, online resources.
- 8:25- So it's really fascinating when you think about
- 8:27- that you've gotta retain everybody,
- 8:30- and the next generation,
- 8:32- is, you know, very different, and so you've
- 8:33- gotta be able to offer what what people
- 8:35- need. You you know, going back to my
- 8:38- original response, we've actually changed a lot of
- 8:40- our marketing campaigns to use words that our
- 8:44- women told us mean something to them. We
- 8:46- were, many times, simply using the wrong words.
- 8:50- And and and let me ask you a
- 8:51- question. In terms of the world today,
- 8:54- in
- 8:55- at one point, you might have had an
- 8:57- obstetrician, gynecologist that was with you your entire
- 9:01- almost adult life.
- 9:03- Now so much of that care is done
- 9:05- in different ways. It it seems almost
- 9:07- fractional or transactional or you you're not seeing
- 9:10- the same person, but maybe you're seeing a
- 9:12- team. How does the younger generation respond to
- 9:15- it? Are that are those do they have
- 9:17- just different expectations of it? How does that
- 9:19- how does some of that play out?
- 9:21- Yeah. So it it plays out, and it
- 9:23- does split amongst the generation divide. I think
- 9:25- our younger generations are more welcoming of it
- 9:28- because,
- 9:29- you know, they're they're
- 9:31- really putting themselves first and foremost and navigating
- 9:34- their care. Where they will notice it's a
- 9:36- problem to have a different provider or in
- 9:39- some cases, maybe you're being monitored versus having
- 9:42- a face to face encounter
- 9:44- is if the care does not seem coordinated.
- 9:47- So,
- 9:48- for many women, it's okay to,
- 9:51- just like we had in many times during
- 9:53- your pregnancy journey, you tend to see different,
- 9:56- providers in the practice. Right?
- 9:59- But yet you feel like you're part of
- 10:00- a a system and part of a group
- 10:02- that's gonna know you and is gonna advocate
- 10:04- for you and support you. So that's the
- 10:06- main key. And so how do you do
- 10:08- that with different,
- 10:10- systems
- 10:12- where the erecord is sharing the information
- 10:14- and that you are building that really, really
- 10:17- important trust
- 10:18- is is definitely the,
- 10:22- the the struggle that we have.
- 10:25- I would say
- 10:26- that where we do have some
- 10:28- women who prefer to see, you know, a
- 10:31- one
- 10:32- one person I have a relationship, you know,
- 10:34- maybe they delivered
- 10:35- myself, my kids, their kids,
- 10:38- You know, we have a harder time trying
- 10:41- to really
- 10:42- maybe feel folks have folks trust us and
- 10:45- feel confident that they can be seen by
- 10:47- others. And sometimes
- 10:49- that
- 10:50- paradigm shifts
- 10:51- simply due to access. Right? You know, I
- 10:54- I get it. If you really wanna see
- 10:56- doctor Smith,
- 10:57- it's gonna take a while, but I can
- 10:59- get you in more expeditiously.
- 11:01- And, hey, we share the same protocols and
- 11:03- the same, you know, commitment to your care
- 11:06- and and putting you in in the driver's
- 11:08- seat. So it it it's really considering how
- 11:11- you're gonna be
- 11:13- how our patients receive care
- 11:15- and knowing that somebody, whether it's one person
- 11:18- or many, has their best interest in heart
- 11:20- for all of their needs.
- 11:21- I think that's fantastic. And and when you
- 11:23- look at women's health
- 11:25- and UPMC,
- 11:27- take a moment on what you're most focused
- 11:29- on and excited about this rest of this
- 11:31- year and going into next year. What are
- 11:33- you most focused on and excited about currently?
- 11:36- So I think one thing I'm excited about,
- 11:39- but I'll be honest, we do it every
- 11:41- year and probably almost my entire career, it's
- 11:44- on access.
- 11:46- And I think why I get excited about
- 11:49- access is that we're really getting smarter about
- 11:51- it, and we are providing it in areas
- 11:54- of need.
- 11:55- In the women's health spectrum at UPMC, we
- 11:57- really do want to, we have a hub
- 12:00- and spoke model
- 12:01- and really wanna make that care available.
- 12:04- And we've embraced a philosophy that patients shouldn't
- 12:07- assume the burden of navigating their care. You
- 12:10- know, our people, processes, and technology have to
- 12:13- be as consumer centric as possible. And,
- 12:16- you know, many systems, not just UPMC,
- 12:18- are fortunate that there's a lot of, tools
- 12:21- and EMRs that
- 12:22- we can really maximize, and I think we're
- 12:24- getting much smarter about it. We understand workflows.
- 12:28- We use as much automation
- 12:30- as possible from Epic or other systems
- 12:34- and, just really being there for patients in
- 12:37- ways,
- 12:38- that frankly can be different.
- 12:40- But we also are respectful
- 12:43- of the patient's choice too. Right? So
- 12:46- in everything we do, it's, you know, some
- 12:48- patients prefer virtual,
- 12:50- some prefer or need face to face. There's
- 12:52- a geography.
- 12:54- You know, there's all the things that kinda
- 12:56- go into really
- 12:58- surrounding
- 12:59- the patient in the middle and letting letting
- 13:02- us kind of be there for them and
- 13:03- and get them where they need.
- 13:05- We have virtual care centers that are set
- 13:09- up to,
- 13:10- when a patient has a need for a
- 13:12- condition, but they don't know where to go.
- 13:15- You know, I I have this pain. It
- 13:16- sounds a lot like endometriosis. I don't know
- 13:18- who takes care of endometriosis.
- 13:20- We have a virtual care clinic that you
- 13:23- can make an appointment with our endometriosis
- 13:25- care. It's you don't have to know which
- 13:27- doctor it is. And what we do in
- 13:29- that virtual visit is really I mean, it's
- 13:32- a it's a fully,
- 13:34- it's a full visit. You're you're with, an
- 13:36- expert in that
- 13:44- development
- 13:45- of sort of the care plan. Right? Where
- 13:47- do you need to go next? Where do
- 13:48- you need to be seen? And, hey. Might
- 13:49- be on the other side of the state,
- 13:51- but that's okay. UPMC is over there. I
- 13:53- I see you live a few hours away
- 13:54- from me. So I'm kind of excited for
- 13:56- all the things that we're able to do
- 13:58- with access.
- 14:00- That's fantastic. Literally fantastic. And and take a
- 14:02- moment, Ann Marie. You've had this amazing career,
- 14:05- did a master's at Johns Hopkins too, and
- 14:08- then twenty years at the same system. We
- 14:10- said to anybody that's been two decades at
- 14:12- the same system,
- 14:13- they've gotta be a nice person who is
- 14:15- generally likable, and they've gotta be good at
- 14:17- what they do. Because because anybody spends twenty,
- 14:18- thirty years, if you're not a nice person,
- 14:19- it's somewhat you get sideways with people. So
- 14:21- you gotta be a good person, and you
- 14:23- gotta be quite competent. So a fantastic career.
- 14:26- Talk for a second about what advice do
- 14:28- you give to emerging leaders?
- 14:30- Sure. So I would say this. The first
- 14:32- thing just going to UPMC in general,
- 14:35- I've also been very blessed. So I you
- 14:37- know, being here for twenty years,
- 14:39- I've never had the same job, even though
- 14:42- I probably had eight formal jobs across that
- 14:44- journey. And so you really
- 14:46- grow and learn and, you know, build off
- 14:49- of other people, and, I think that's really
- 14:51- important.
- 14:52- And I think my advice is,
- 14:55- you know, no matter how much you know
- 14:57- and, you know, everything that you've done, whether
- 14:59- it's, you know, two years or twenty years,
- 15:01- for all the achievements you have,
- 15:03- you need to be humble.
- 15:04- Right? There's people there helping you and people
- 15:06- you're helping, and you need to stay curious.
- 15:10- Part of why I've grown in in my
- 15:12- career is I'm I'm curious. I wanna see
- 15:14- how how things work, you know, in a
- 15:17- different area or somebody has a problem and
- 15:19- they think I could help fix it. But
- 15:21- the other thing I would say is
- 15:23- you really need to know your drive.
- 15:26- And I think, you know, some of us
- 15:28- get a little bit older in our careers.
- 15:30- We do realize that finding a role that's
- 15:33- personally fulfilling is like the icing on the
- 15:35- cake. Right?
- 15:36- So you might succeed in many, many things,
- 15:39- but when you drive impact
- 15:41- in an area that matters to you,
- 15:44- you will be more engaged,
- 15:46- and then
- 15:47- everything you do will be so much more
- 15:50- effective.
- 15:51- And then lastly, you gotta stay true to
- 15:53- your core values. You know, you never break
- 15:55- your values, that you have the values of
- 15:58- your organization.
- 15:59- So, yeah, that's my advice I would be,
- 16:01- shouting out there.
- 16:03- No. I I I love that, and I
- 16:05- love this concept of
- 16:07- when you determine what's right for you, the
- 16:10- right spot, the right road for you, what
- 16:11- you want to do for your career,
- 16:14- my perspective is that's when people's career satisfaction,
- 16:18- their professional satisfaction
- 16:20- accelerates and goes through the roof. When when
- 16:22- you're doing something, you've decided it's the right
- 16:24- thing for you. It could be that I
- 16:26- want to be the leader in this. I
- 16:27- wanna contribute in this area. It could be
- 16:29- that you just want a job, and you
- 16:31- gotta take care of your family at home.
- 16:32- It could be a million different things. But
- 16:34- the difference is when you decide this is
- 16:36- the right role for you,
- 16:38- I think that's when, really, careers and satisfaction
- 16:42- accelerates professionally.
- 16:44- A 100%. And you know what? It's really
- 16:46- hard to do that at the beginning of
- 16:48- your career. Right? You're getting advice from so
- 16:50- many people. Do this. Do that. Don't stay
- 16:52- here too long. You're not you haven't stayed
- 16:54- here long enough. You need to have this.
- 16:55- You need to have that. And so I
- 16:57- think that we we climb up a mountain
- 17:00- that we believe is where we should head
- 17:02- for success.
- 17:03- And and many times that works. Right? Because
- 17:06- we're driven and we're still we're growing and
- 17:08- we're we're learning. But sometimes it's really hard
- 17:10- to find what we're talking about, Scott, that
- 17:12- fulfillment
- 17:14- initially.
- 17:15- And, you know, sometimes it takes maybe you
- 17:17- get to that top of that peak and
- 17:19- you look over
- 17:20- and, you know, you've done everything, you've been
- 17:22- very successful, but, you know, you kinda look
- 17:24- out at the skyline and you think, gee
- 17:25- whiz, like, what makes this so special to
- 17:28- me and and kind of then decide,
- 17:31- alright. I'm I'm gonna go up the next
- 17:33- peak, but the next peak might look a
- 17:34- little different, because when I think about what
- 17:36- motivates me. So I I think it's hard
- 17:39- at the beginning of careers or sometimes when
- 17:41- you're going through changes in a career to
- 17:43- put fulfillment first or put your team first,
- 17:47- because there's a lot of external forces that
- 17:49- are are telling us what we should do.
- 17:52- But, again, stay true to stay true to
- 17:53- your values. If you stay true to your
- 17:55- values, it'll guide you. But but there is,
- 17:57- though your point is so well taken. There
- 17:58- is some trial and error, some evolution in
- 18:01- this as well. I mean, there is. Until
- 18:03- you find the right sponsor, you find the
- 18:04- right and and as you think about and
- 18:06- connect dots to what works for you and
- 18:08- what really you want to do. And I
- 18:10- think there is. It's an evolution. And I
- 18:12- think your point on a young careerist or
- 18:14- early in his career, and I can tell
- 18:15- you even later on in his career trying
- 18:17- to figure this out and having different people
- 18:18- coming in with different ideas on it, is
- 18:20- is you constantly have to ultimately
- 18:22- come back and sort some of it out.
- 18:24- And and I'm a huge believer
- 18:26- that it's almost impossible to do in a
- 18:28- whiteboard type way. You almost have to in
- 18:30- an abstract way. You almost have to be
- 18:32- into things enough that you really figure out,
- 18:34- does this work for me, does it not,
- 18:36- and then think. Think and work. Think and
- 18:38- act. I I just love that, Ann Marie.
- 18:40- And also know that
- 18:41- what you might love today, that also can
- 18:43- evolve. I think, again, stay curious. You know,
- 18:46- everything everything,
- 18:48- you know, is constantly whirling around us,
- 18:51- you know, personally,
- 18:53- you know, in the world today, or a
- 18:55- new innovation might really spark your interest. So,
- 18:57- you know, never it's okay that you pivot.
- 19:01- A 100%.
- 19:02- What a pleasure to visit with you. What
- 19:04- a magnificent career. What a great system.
- 19:07- Thank you so much for joining us today
- 19:09- on the Beckers HealthCare podcast. Thank you so
- 19:11- much. Oh, thank you. It's my pleasure.