Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Growing Rural Healthcare Talent from the Ground Up with Meagan Weber, DPT

Transcript

Growing Rural Healthcare Talent from the Ground Up with Meagan Weber, DPT · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Kristen Kuchno with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:02
  podcast.
• 0:03
  And today, I'm joined by doctor Megan Weber,
• 0:05
  CEO of Scotland County Hospital, who is doing
• 0:08
  really interesting work in rural workforce development.
• 0:11
  Doctor Weber, thank you for being here.
• 0:13
  Thank you.
• 0:15
  Could you introduce yourself and share a bit
• 0:17
  about your career journey
• 0:18
  from physical therapy into the CEO role at
• 0:21
  Scotland County Hospital?
• 0:23
  Sure. I,
• 0:25
  actually grew up in Memphis, Missouri, which is
• 0:27
  where Scotland County Hospital is located.
• 0:30
  I had an interesting
• 0:32
  high school career. My best friend and cousin
• 0:34
  was in a really bad car wreck, and
• 0:37
  he was in a coma and rehab for
• 0:39
  a long time. And when he got back
• 0:41
  to high school, I was the designated family
• 0:44
  member to deliver him to therapy every day
• 0:47
  after school. So
• 0:49
  I really got kind of interested in
• 0:51
  the health care
• 0:53
  field just from what we we went through
• 0:55
  with my cousin and seeing how much better
• 0:58
  he would get with physical therapy and rehab
• 1:01
  was very intriguing to me. I'm also I
• 1:03
  I was an athlete, played basketball. So,
• 1:06
  watching that was was fun and interesting. And
• 1:10
  I went on to become a physical therapist
• 1:12
  after high school. I got my doctorate in
• 1:15
  physical therapy from Rockhurst University and then moved
• 1:18
  back to Memphis, Missouri to my hometown.
• 1:21
  And I was the therapy director,
• 1:24
  for eleven years prior to becoming the CEO,
• 1:28
  in 2022.
• 1:30
  Great. I appreciate you sharing that.
• 1:32
  Recruitment is a major challenge for rural
• 1:39
  students. Can you share a bit about that
• 1:40
  and what other rural leaders should know about
• 1:43
  building a sustainable workforce pipeline?
• 1:46
  Yeah. I think just knowing how important it
• 1:48
  was to see real world experiences for me
• 1:51
  growing up in that in that high school
• 1:53
  era when you don't really know what you
• 1:55
  wanna do, I think it's a very
• 1:58
  important part of what we do is showing
• 2:01
  students,
• 2:02
  the real world that we started a medical
• 2:04
  club for three local high schools in our
• 2:07
  area.
• 2:08
  And
• 2:09
  with the first year, I kinda did it
• 2:11
  on my own. I owned it, but it
• 2:13
  became a lot bigger and not really manageable
• 2:16
  for me as the CEO. I actually hired
• 2:18
  a full time employee. She was a really
• 2:21
  good substitute teacher that had moved back, and
• 2:23
  she's great with kids. But
• 2:25
  she,
• 2:26
  organizes
• 2:27
  every high school, we have a meeting where
• 2:30
  one of our healthcare providers presents to them
• 2:33
  every month so they can see all the
• 2:34
  different fields that healthcare has to offer. There's
• 2:37
  a lot of things that you don't know
• 2:38
  about until you're in the healthcare world. And,
• 2:42
  our students have a Google calendar where they
• 2:44
  can
• 2:45
  schedule to come observe in any departments that
• 2:48
  they want to whenever they're free. Our staff
• 2:50
  are very open. They know that our goal
• 2:52
  is to grow our own. So our supervisors
• 2:54
  and managers are great about having students in
• 2:56
  their departments and showing them real life experiences.
• 3:03
  Replacements. I mean, it's just very, very cool
• 3:07
  to get them in at that age to
• 3:09
  see kind of what they're interested in. And
• 3:10
  we do have
• 3:12
  this last year, we've we've hired from our
• 3:14
  very first medical club year from 2022
• 3:16
  in nurse in the nursing world. So, it's
• 3:19
  showing, the rewards. It took a few years,
• 3:22
  but, it's just it's just a really cool
• 3:24
  experience for them to be able to see
• 3:26
  the real world. And this year, we actually
• 3:27
  started our own CNA program at the hospital
• 3:29
  too.
• 3:31
  Great. That's a really exciting initiative.
• 3:33
  And given that you've hired clinicians directly from
• 3:36
  the medical club initiative,
• 3:39
  what lessons have you learned about engaging the
• 3:41
  next generation of healthcare workers early?
• 3:44
  I think just showing them how rewarding it
• 3:47
  can be to work in the healthcare field.
• 3:49
  And, you know, rural living is a specific
• 3:53
  way of life that
• 3:54
  I think
• 3:56
  kids either
• 3:57
  know that that's how
• 3:58
  they wanna live and knowing they can have
• 4:00
  a very good career and a lucrative career
• 4:03
  in the healthcare field and still stay home
• 4:05
  where they're from
• 4:06
  is important for them to see. Now some
• 4:08
  kids wanna get out and travel and go
• 4:10
  to the cities and that's understandable
• 4:12
  too, but I think it's just
• 4:14
  we're the largest employer in our five counties
• 4:17
  in the Northeast Corner Of Missouri. So when
• 4:19
  kids know that they can go get an
• 4:21
  education and stay home and work and be
• 4:22
  close to family, it's just it's a good
• 4:25
  thing for them to see in the high
• 4:26
  school years.
• 4:28
  It's a great point.
• 4:29
  I now want to look broader across the
• 4:32
  industry. We know that rural hospitals across the
• 4:34
  country are facing financial and workforce pressures right
• 4:38
  now. Where do you see the biggest risks
• 4:39
  and the biggest opportunities
• 4:41
  in rural health care today?
• 4:43
  Well, as you know, rural hospitals operate on
• 4:46
  razor thin margins, 1%, 2% margins, and it's
• 4:50
  just getting harder and harder with Medicare and
• 4:52
  Medicaid cuts.
• 4:53
  You've probably heard a lot about the one
• 4:55
  big beautiful bill. With that has come some
• 4:59
  chances for us to get some funding, but
• 5:01
  it also comes with some pretty big Medicaid
• 5:03
  cuts.
• 5:04
  And we just have to really,
• 5:06
  really hone down on our collections and our
• 5:09
  processes.
• 5:10
  And there's really no room for
• 5:12
  for air for us. So the risks there
• 5:14
  are definitely financial.
• 5:16
  We have to another thing about rural health
• 5:19
  is the volumes. You know, it takes good
• 5:21
  volume to run a sustainable business. And and
• 5:24
  rural hospitals, the volumes aren't as high
• 5:26
  as city hospitals, and we just have a
• 5:29
  lot of risks with that too. Our population
• 5:31
  is aging and declining, and
• 5:34
  I believe that rural living is becoming more
• 5:37
  enticing, I think, just the peaceful way of
• 5:40
  life.
• 5:41
  And I I think we have grown a
• 5:43
  little bit, but as far as the volumes
• 5:45
  go, the risks are definitely there for
• 5:48
  for rural health. And then the workforce collapse
• 5:50
  is the other thing, which is why we're
• 5:52
  trying to grow our own.
• 5:54
  We're in the middle of an OB desert
• 5:55
  and a medical desert, and that's why we're
• 5:58
  trying to think outside the box with what
• 6:00
  we're doing to grow our own workforce and
• 6:02
  be sustainable for the future.
• 6:04
  Definitely. A lot of exciting opportunities,
• 6:07
  alongside those challenges.
• 6:09
  Well, thank you again for joining us, doctor
• 6:12
  Weber. It was great learning more about what's
• 6:14
  happening at Scotland County Hospital, and we'll look
• 6:16
  forward to keeping up with everything you have
• 6:18
  going on. Well, I appreciate the opportunity, and,
• 6:22
  we love what we do up here in
• 6:23
  Northeast Missouri, and thanks for reaching out to
• 6:25
  us. Great. Thank you so much.