Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Chanda Chacón, CEO of Children's Hospital & Medical Center

Transcript

Chanda Chacón, CEO of Children's Hospital & Medical Center · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Chris Os with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Chanda Chak,
• 0:05
  CEO of Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha. Chanda,
• 0:08
  thank you for joining us today.
• 0:09
  Thanks. I'm really excited to be here today.
• 0:13
  Excellent.
• 0:13
  Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background?
• 0:16
  Absolutely. I'm Chanda Chaco,
• 0:18
  I'm the president and c e o here at Children's Hospital and Medical Center in
• 0:22
  Omaha. And I have always been in pediatric healthcare.
• 0:26
  I started my healthcare career at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston and
• 0:31
  was there for 14 years doing a little bit of everything.
• 0:34
  I started as an administrative fellow.
• 0:36
  I was in pharmacy ambulatory operations,
• 0:40
  the fetal center, the heart center, the maternity center. Um,
• 0:45
  I went out to our West Houston community campus in the end of my career and then
• 0:49
  headed to Arkansas Children's in Little Rock and was the chief operating officer
• 0:55
  for the system there. And really was,
• 0:57
  had a great opportunity to do and use the skills I'd learned at Texas Children's
• 1:02
  that we had done really in a citywide level because we were 4 million people in
• 1:06
  Houston, uh, then across the state in Arkansas.
• 1:09
  So it was a great opportunity to scale, um,
• 1:13
  my experience to a statewide view and um,
• 1:17
  in a state that had challenges in child health and also had a lot of
• 1:22
  rural, um, environments and so learned a ton there. Was there for four years,
• 1:27
  um, was really a great experience. Learned quite a bit.
• 1:30
  And then joined the children's team here in Omaha in September of 2020,
• 1:35
  uh, right during the pandemic.
• 1:38
  What would you say are the biggest challenges in scaling up as you referred to,
• 1:41
  and how did you overcome them?
• 1:43
  Yeah, it's perspective.
• 1:45
  And so I think the skills that I learned in Houston in an urban
• 1:49
  environment that was, um,
• 1:52
  really densely populated gave an a unique perspective of,
• 1:57
  um, what the tools could be and what the potential solutions were.
• 2:01
  And then moving to a state and looking at um, you know,
• 2:06
  rural areas and different, um, components of the community.
• 2:09
  The same skills really for me, um, stood out. It was the,
• 2:13
  how that was different.
• 2:15
  So when you're going into a rural community in say southeast Arkansas,
• 2:20
  um,
• 2:20
  it's important to connect with the people and not come in as the big children's
• 2:25
  hospital to say, here's how we can help you, but really engage the community.
• 2:29
  And I, I think for me,
• 2:30
  that focus on people has been something that's been important part of my career
• 2:34
  from the very beginning.
• 2:36
  And so it was really looking at all these opportunities we had and what was the
• 2:41
  community interested in. And so, um,
• 2:43
  for me it was really a great opportunity to um,
• 2:47
  really see how solutions in one large urban environment might not
• 2:52
  exactly be the same thing that is needs to be in a rural um, environment,
• 2:56
  but certainly gives a place to start to have the conversation. So,
• 3:01
  um, for me it was just an awesome opportunity to get very focused on building
• 3:06
  relationships that, um, were across the state versus across the city.
• 3:11
  I will tell you,
• 3:11
  Houston takes forever to drive across and so it probably took me the same amount
• 3:16
  of time to drive across Houston as it did driving from little Rockton,
• 3:19
  Northwest Arkansas.
• 3:21
  . Uh,
• 3:22
  given your perspective now as c e o there for almost three years, uh,
• 3:27
  what would you say are the biggest issues you're following right now?
• 3:30
  Gosh, you know,
• 3:30
  it's issues and opportunities because I certainly think in healthcare we're such
• 3:34
  a dynamic environment and we have to be nimble.
• 3:37
  What I've seen happen in the last couple of years since I've been here at
• 3:41
  Children's is just the,
• 3:43
  the people market has changed so dramatically where in healthcare,
• 3:47
  the more than 20 years I've been in healthcare,
• 3:49
  we've always seen nursing staffing via challenge.
• 3:53
  What we're seeing now is it's across the entire healthcare system in lots of
• 3:57
  roles.
• 3:58
  And so it's really pushed us in healthcare to be more agile and nimble
• 4:03
  in focusing on our, our people.
• 4:06
  And that's to me the biggest part of the work we do.
• 4:09
  And we're more competitive now across other industries where historically,
• 4:14
  you know, people who wanted to work in healthcare really flock towards that.
• 4:17
  Were having to use much more unique strategies for retention and wellbeing of
• 4:22
  our own team members and also to help attract people into healthcare that might
• 4:26
  not have thought that that is an opportunity for them.
• 4:29
  And really help people either develop a,
• 4:32
  why they want to be in healthcare or just be the kind of company that's
• 4:36
  competitive with the bigger companies that are not healthcare related.
• 4:40
  And people say, gosh,
• 4:42
  at Children's they offer really great benefits and they are very focused on
• 4:46
  wellbeing and it feels like they care about me as an individual and that's what
• 4:50
  attracts people in. And we've had to be much more agile with, um,
• 4:55
  that thinking.
• 4:55
  And I think that's very exciting in looking at how we build teams,
• 4:59
  how we build models of care and really pushing our thinking around
• 5:05
  maybe something that's been the same thing we've done forever in healthcare and
• 5:08
  we have to think about it differently. I find that really energizing. Um,
• 5:13
  and it's been very energizing for our team to be able to say, there's no box.
• 5:17
  You have to think within it. Just, just think of the best solution.
• 5:21
  So I see that the people part of our work, um,
• 5:26
  as probably the biggest challenge that we're all facing. And it's not just,
• 5:30
  you know, I don't call it staffing cuz it's more important to me than that.
• 5:34
  It's really about how we retain great people,
• 5:37
  how we develop the p the workforce pipeline,
• 5:40
  the next generation of leaders for the future that are already at our
• 5:44
  organization. So I think that's pretty exciting.
• 5:48
  I'm gonna use that right there as a segue.
• 5:50
  So what else energizes you as far as being competitive or retaining staff and
• 5:55
  people or connecting with your community and what makes you a little bit
• 5:58
  nervous?
• 6:00
  Sure. Um, let's see, what else makes me excited? Innovation,
• 6:04
  I think you spoke to Ryan Cameron,
• 6:06
  a executive on our team and it was intentional that we doubled down not only on
• 6:11
  the people promise that we have for our own team members and the patients and
• 6:15
  families we serve, but on investing in innovation. And if, um,
• 6:19
  there's not a lot of dollars on the healthcare innovation pipeline that are
• 6:23
  invested in pediatric healthcare because we are such a diverse population,
• 6:28
  right? We're from birth until 19 and sometimes older.
• 6:32
  And so it's,
• 6:33
  it is a difficult business proposition to invest in innovation when
• 6:38
  our population is so diverse just on age size, all those things.
• 6:42
  And so we knew we would have to be very, um,
• 6:46
  purposeful in our work around innovation because the patients and families we
• 6:50
  serve really deserve us to be excellent. And um,
• 6:54
  so we had to really focus on how we were going to elevate that work.
• 6:59
  And that for me is kind of exciting and also certainly a little bit in
• 7:04
  intimidating when you think we're in the same game with really big innovative
• 7:08
  companies. The difference for me is that we know our population really well.
• 7:13
  We have a very tight relationship with our team members and they are really
• 7:18
  smart and have really great ideas of the work we could do to do this work
• 7:22
  better. Not just from a research side, but a day-to-day work, right?
• 7:26
  How do we think differently and really expand the horizons of things that may
• 7:31
  never have been done in healthcare but could propel the work we do,
• 7:35
  the efficiencies we have.
• 7:37
  And that for me is really exciting to think about what healthcare will look like
• 7:42
  five years from now. Uh,
• 7:44
  we changed a lot during Covid and we're forced into that real digital
• 7:48
  space. And now like we talk about digital innovation,
• 7:51
  it's just part of our language now and that feels exciting.
• 7:55
  We have tons of data and information in healthcare.
• 7:58
  How do we use that in our organizations to help us be more efficient and
• 8:01
  effective in the work we do?
• 8:03
  I think that's not only the right thing to do for the care we provide to
• 8:06
  patients and families, but it's also right for our employees, right?
• 8:10
  If I knew my employer was helping intentionally focus on innovation to make
• 8:14
  my work easier, more effective, that feels pretty exciting.
• 8:18
  I wanna be a part of that. And so I'm really looking forward to how um,
• 8:23
  we are gonna,
• 8:23
  how the industry and how we specifically here at Children's will look five years
• 8:27
  from now and how we do our work.
• 8:30
  I love how you said there is no box. So as you look forward in the,
• 8:34
  to the next 18 months or so,
• 8:36
  how do you anticipate your roles gonna change and how are your team teams going
• 8:39
  to have to change?
• 8:41
  Yeah, I have spent a lot of time in the past year and you know,
• 8:45
  focusing our team on how important it is to remember that
• 8:50
  healthcare and healthcare organizations only provide about 20% of health
• 8:55
  to people. 80% is determined outside of our walls.
• 8:58
  And so we have really shifted our focus in the work we do to also
• 9:03
  include that 80% outside of our walls and how do we partner differently more
• 9:08
  effectively and how do we really refine our work to not not be that sort of big
• 9:13
  brother idea of coming and saying do it how we want to,
• 9:15
  but really standing side by side with organizations in the community,
• 9:20
  with schools, with community partners to say,
• 9:23
  you're already doing really great work.
• 9:25
  How do we help you go faster and go bigger and not need to smack our logo
• 9:30
  on it? Right? For me,
• 9:31
  doing the right thing in child health and making an impact in child health is
• 9:36
  the right thing to do regardless of logos.
• 9:39
  And I think credit comes where partnerships happen and that's how people talk
• 9:44
  in communities. And so for me, you know, my time is, uh,
• 9:48
  progressively more spent externally to the organization, um,
• 9:52
  are still a hundred percent our focus. Our core mission is, uh,
• 9:57
  providing great healthcare to families,
• 9:59
  but our mission at Children's is to improve the life of every child,
• 10:03
  not just the health. And to be able to do both those things,
• 10:06
  we have to be external.
• 10:07
  And so our team is spending more time building partnerships,
• 10:11
  building relationships in the community, in regions and in the national front.
• 10:15
  And I only anticipate that's gonna increase as we realize how integrated we are,
• 10:21
  um, here in our community, but just really, uh,
• 10:24
  further out and those relationships and partnerships help us solve big problems
• 10:29
  like mental health, right,
• 10:31
  or child abuse that's not gonna be solved by one organization.
• 10:35
  It's gonna be solved by us partnering together to do the best thing for kids.
• 10:40
  As far as building relationships and building a strong community.
• 10:43
  And you're a part in that.
• 10:44
  You've advocated for kids and foster care as a support appointed special
• 10:48
  advocate, which is terrific.
• 10:49
  So how has that influenced your leadership style first and foremost?
• 10:53
  Oh gosh, it is, um, probably the most impactful thing I've done in my life.
• 10:58
  Um, I don't have my own children, uh,
• 11:01
  biologic children and so this was my way to make an impact personally in
• 11:06
  kids' lives. And I remember when I was in Houston, everyone would say,
• 11:09
  I don't know how you have enough time to do that work.
• 11:13
  And I think you make time for things that are important.
• 11:17
  And my dad used to tell me as a, as a little kid when, uh,
• 11:20
  you're really full ice cream always fits in,
• 11:24
  it fits in the little open places for dessert.
• 11:26
  And I see child advocates and being a court appointed child advocate as that
• 11:31
  kind of work for me. Um, I have served over, gosh,
• 11:35
  over 15 kids that have been in the system and have relationships still with
• 11:40
  several of them and really feel, uh, personally gosh,
• 11:45
  honored to have been able to be a part of their journey and to see how
• 11:49
  successful they've been. And for me, that's the personal part of leadership.
• 11:54
  It's why I'm in pediatrics is for the impact that we can make early in
• 11:59
  kids' lives and in families' lives that help change their memories,
• 12:03
  change their trajectory for the rest of their life. And I just,
• 12:06
  I feel really honored that I got to be in the journey with these families and
• 12:10
  these kids who, um,
• 12:13
  gosh taught me as much as I taught them, if not more. And that's, uh,
• 12:18
  been real powerful for me to realize that individuals can make a really big
• 12:22
  impact.
• 12:23
  And that's a big reason why I came here to Children's in Omaha is because
• 12:28
  this is the kind of place,
• 12:30
  this is a size of city where individuals can still make a really big impact.
• 12:34
  And the community here is very nimble, moves quickly,
• 12:38
  partners really rapidly.
• 12:40
  And that for me is an exciting place to be when we can see big work and big
• 12:45
  shifts happen really rapidly. Cuz if it's the right thing to do,
• 12:49
  we shouldn't stand in the way of ourselves waiting to be perfect when we're
• 12:54
  missing the excellence that's just gonna pass us by if we don't move. So, um,
• 12:59
  I've loved being a court appointed child advocate. It was, as I said,
• 13:02
  PR really probably one of the pieces of my life where I think I've been the most
• 13:06
  impactful.
• 13:08
  Zooming out on that subject a little bit,
• 13:10
  how connected do you think the healthcare system in your hospital and healthcare
• 13:15
  system in particular is connected to foster care and where do you see room for
• 13:19
  improvement?
• 13:20
  I do think that, um, many children's hospitals as we are here, um,
• 13:25
  in Omaha are very tied to the state, um,
• 13:29
  c p s teams, child teams. It's, it has been every place I've been,
• 13:34
  it has been a really tight partnership,
• 13:36
  a really close partnership at the state and city level.
• 13:39
  And that's powerful because healthcare sometimes is one of those pieces that can
• 13:44
  fall off, um,
• 13:46
  of the radar in those kind of shifts and transitions.
• 13:50
  And I see that as a really unique role of children's hospitals to provide care
• 13:54
  for some of the most vulnerable kids who are in foster care. And we've,
• 13:59
  every place I've been has done a really great job of, uh,
• 14:03
  partnering in Lincoln and I think those relationships and partnerships have to
• 14:08
  be fed and watered, right? They have to be grown to make sure that you,
• 14:13
  um, shift and modify your work based off the needs of this very vulnerable
• 14:17
  population. We've seen that shift here and during C O V D of,
• 14:22
  not surprisingly the increase in need for mental health services in the this
• 14:27
  patient population.
• 14:28
  We've seen that across pediatrics and it's no different in our,
• 14:31
  the kids that we see that are in the foster care system. And so, um,
• 14:36
  as we've said about many of the things we do, we don't do that in a vacuum,
• 14:39
  we don't do that alone.
• 14:40
  We do that through partnerships of the child advocacy centers that are in our
• 14:44
  community here, um, and work really closely with them to say, how do we partner?
• 14:49
  How do we do the right thing? And I,
• 14:51
  I do believe you have to ask those questions because what we believe is
• 14:55
  important or helpful from the children's hospital side might not actually be
• 14:59
  what those organizations need to help provide the very best care for children in
• 15:04
  foster care. And so those conversations in partnerships are powerful. Um,
• 15:08
  for me, so powerful. I actually serve on the board here of Project Harmony,
• 15:13
  which is one of our child advocacy centers. Um,
• 15:16
  for me it's really important that there's that connection between our
• 15:19
  organizations so that we can be nimble and agile for kids that didn't ask
• 15:24
  to be in the foster care system. Um, and we should,
• 15:28
  we should have a responsibility to do the very best work.
• 15:32
  Last thing I have for you today, Chanda.
• 15:33
  So what issue in your field do you think deserves a much brighter spotlight than
• 15:37
  it's getting right now?
• 15:39
  Oh gosh. I think, I mean,
• 15:41
  I think both of the things that I would think about are getting a pretty bright
• 15:45
  spotlight. There's not an easy answer to them.
• 15:48
  I would say the first one in pediatric healthcare is around behavioral and
• 15:52
  mental health.
• 15:53
  And we are shining a very bright light on that here in Omaha and Lincoln
• 15:58
  in the region here in Nebraska because we know it is so critical to the future
• 16:03
  of our state to the future, uh,
• 16:06
  people who are gonna be working across our state. And so we've intentionally,
• 16:10
  um, really doubled down on that work,
• 16:12
  working across the community with state and local government, um,
• 16:17
  with donors in the community, with our team members,
• 16:20
  with community partners in schools. And we'll be investing, uh,
• 16:24
  breaking ground actually this August on a facility through the help of the
• 16:29
  Mental Health Innovation Foundation,
• 16:30
  which is a foundation started here in Omaha to invest in a facility that will
• 16:35
  have a full continuum of mental and behavioral health from, um,
• 16:39
  the very least acute to an urgent care center,
• 16:43
  to a partial hospitalization to inpatient psychiatric beds,
• 16:47
  will also embed primary care in this facility.
• 16:50
  And it's intended to be the hub to create a hub right here in Omaha to
• 16:55
  then create spokes across the state. As being a rural state,
• 16:59
  we have to think of creative solutions to help providers and kids stay close to
• 17:04
  home.
• 17:05
  And so we're doing a lot of work on education of providers implementing some new
• 17:09
  really innovative care models through telehealth and through partnerships with
• 17:14
  primary care providers in, uh, across the state. Also looking at urgent care,
• 17:18
  mental health centers so that we can help really deescalate as quickly as
• 17:23
  we can and then also have that spoke back into this highest acute care
• 17:28
  that we'll uh, be delivering right here in Omaha and our, uh, central campus.
• 17:33
  And that's,
• 17:34
  that's really important work because there's so much linkage to
• 17:39
  long-term outcomes, long-term health, um, with mental health.
• 17:43
  And we've seen such an increase in, um,
• 17:46
  kids coming to the emergency department for suicide ideation, uh, depression,
• 17:51
  anxiety here in Nebraska. We have a higher, uh,
• 17:55
  rate of suicide than the national average for at teens and adolescents.
• 17:58
  And that for me is one of those things that keeps you up at night. You know,
• 18:02
  when when I can sit in, be in a hero walk for a child who,
• 18:08
  um, has successfully passed from suicide, it makes you think, gosh,
• 18:13
  I know people on my team know this child and know this family and this is not
• 18:17
  okay. We have to do better.
• 18:18
  That shouldn't happen here or anywhere and we gotta get ahead of that curve and
• 18:24
  we're chasing it, to be honest.
• 18:25
  And so I would love to shine a brighter spotlight, um, on that.
• 18:30
  I think there's a pretty big spotlight on it right now, but, um,
• 18:33
  it is something we're definitely chasing and, um, not yet ahead of that curve.
• 18:38
  So for me that's, uh, probably the most important work we have ahead of us.
• 18:43
  Shannon,
• 18:44
  thank you so much for sharing your insight today and giving us your time.
• 18:47
  We can't wait to share all your insight with our listeners.
• 18:51
  Awesome. Thanks so much.