Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Transforming Patient Care: Insights from Dr. Erik Summers, CMO at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

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Transforming Patient Care: Insights from Dr. Erik Summers, CMO at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  Hi, everyone, and thank you so much for
• 0:02
  joining us for this episode of the Becker's
• 0:04
  Healthcare Podcast,
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  where we're joined by doctor Eric Summers, chief
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  medical officer at Wake Forest
• 0:11
  Baptist Medical Center.
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  Doctor Summers, welcome, welcome. We're so excited to
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  have you on and thank you for taking
• 0:17
  the time.
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  Yeah. Thank you for inviting me.
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  Doctor Summers, can you just start off by
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  telling us a bit more about yourself and
• 0:25
  your background at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center?
• 0:29
  Sure. Yes. I,
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  I came to HRM Health Wake Forest Baptist
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  around 14 years ago as a hospitalist.
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  And within 2 years, I was section head
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  of hospital medicine and
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  gradually progressed
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  from associate CMO to CMO
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  here at Wake, and I've been CMO for
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  6 years. And
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  to be honest, I had no
• 0:53
  aspersions to be CMO or to be an
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  administration. But,
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  as a hospitalist,
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  seeing
• 1:00
  opportunities
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  to fix things in the hospital, help patients,
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  I realized that was a passion of mine.
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  And
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  I had the ability to to make change.
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  And when you do that, people notice and
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  they give you more responsibility
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  and more titles, and that's how I got
• 1:15
  here. And,
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  but I've really enjoyed
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  the opportunity to work with all
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  the different groups in our hospital
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  to make our patient care better. It's been
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  tremendously
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  satisfying.
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  Yeah. Doctor Summers, thanks for saying that. I
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  think it's interesting to hear from
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  a lot of what we hear from physician
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  executives is that what you mentioned of really
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  not not having it have been something on
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  your radar in terms of that CMO role
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  and pursuing a path to the c suite.
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  So
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  just building off that, can you can you
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  share a piece of advice for aspiring CMOs
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  or maybe people
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  who younger physicians who maybe don't have a
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  c suite track on their radar, but are
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  are thinking or considering leadership down the road?
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  Yeah. I would say a couple things. 1,
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  being a physician, a practicing physician is very
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  different from being in administration.
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  You know, as physicians, we,
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  you know, making decisions,
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  quickly,
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  it tends to be just us ourselves making
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  these decisions.
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  And administration
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  is very much about relationships
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  and it takes time to build processes. But
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  you have to move forward, you have to
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  constantly move forward and you have to know
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  how to implement. But I think the key
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  to any success that I have and which
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  I think is very important for young CMOS
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  or aspiring CMOS to be aware
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  of is the value
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  of the relationships throughout the hospital. And I
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  don't mean
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  just in the c suite. I mean the
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  nursing,
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  I mean
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  therapists,
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  nursing assistants,
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  the people in the cafeteria,
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  everywhere,
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  you need to have relationships. And,
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  that builds your
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  your brand,
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  that builds your sentence, what do people say
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  when you're not there
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  is critically important.
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  And you want to be seen
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  in the CMO role as someone who cares,
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  who gets things done and who listens.
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  So relationships is the foundation in my opinion
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  of being a successful CMO. You have to
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  have that piece and then you build off
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  of that.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. And I'm and kind of going
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  off what you mentioned there as being someone
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  who who gets things done and that being
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  just such a core
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  aspect of the role too. Can you share
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  a bit about your most successful project or
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  initiative
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  from the last year
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  including
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  kind of what you did to get there
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  and what some of the results were?
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  Yeah. So, I mean, you know, just expanding
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  off of relationships
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  and and and patient centered care.
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  We have when I first got here 14
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  years ago, Wake Forest was one hospital in
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  and of itself.
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  Now we're 67. We're part
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  of advocate health and a larger group. But
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  we also have a market
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  and by that I mean we have 4
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  hospitals surrounding Wake Forest and that's kind of
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  our
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  core group that we interact with daily.
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  And
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  what we have really worked on is the
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  proverbial systemness, how to work together as a
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  system.
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  And so that takes relationships
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  and that takes working with each other and
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  getting to know each other and
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  driving out to our market hospitals, Wilkes, Davie,
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  Lexington, High Point,
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  establishing those relationships. And
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  the benefit of that is that when you
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  want to build a project, a system project,
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  you have those relationships,
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  it makes it that much easier. And so
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  we have really been working on
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  right patient, right place, right time.
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  I helped build an operations center, patient flow
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  operations center about 6, 7 years ago.
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  That group has been expanding and doing a
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  great job.
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  But one of the
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  things as with
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  many hospitals out there,
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  we're at capacity,
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  more people want to see us,
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  we're without good patient flow and throughput,
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  ED boarding
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  goes up, will increase.
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  So
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  we looked at
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  what are the opportunities
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  for patients
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  in our emergency department at Wake, what are
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  the opportunities for our inpatients at Wake
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  to potentially go to our market hospitals.
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  And if a patient is in their hometown
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  of
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  Lexington
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  and they need a GI procedure that cannot
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  be done in Lexington,
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  how can we
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  perform that procedure,
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  at Wake and bring them back to their,
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  home community
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  if clinically appropriate. And so
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  those moves
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  are all for the greater good of maximizing
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  our resources to help as many patients as
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  we can.
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  To do that took a lot of
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  conversations and relationships with
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  the leaders, the C suites of all 5
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  of those hospitals.
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  But we have
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  really
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  worked hard on this. And
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  as an example, last
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  month we had 52 patients
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  that were transferred
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  from Wake to one of our market hospitals
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  to
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  either continue their care or a round trip
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  procedure.
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  And those are patients that historically
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  all 52 would have been admitted at Wake.
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  And
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  that's okay too, but when you have high
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  capacity and you don't have
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  the infinite bed space, you want to utilize
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  all these tools
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  to maximize what we do. And so couldn't
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  be prouder of the new leadership in our
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  patient flow and everyone working together getting on
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  board
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  to,
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  like I said, really put patients in the
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  right place
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  at the right time.
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  So that's what I'm that's what I'm really
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  proud of, this year, was the great work
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  of that team.
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  Yeah. Doctor Summers, thanks for sharing that. And
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  I think
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  kind of the progress there and being able
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  to actually do that and create some of
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  that systemness
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  that you mentioned with this effort to to
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  transfer patients
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  to those market hospitals really goes all back
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  to what you were mentioning about those relationships
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  and that's kind of where it all started.
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  Just to give some context to you, I
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  know you mentioned 52 patients transferred from Wake
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  to one of the market hospitals,
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  within the last month.
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  So I know this is something that kind
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  of got off the ground within the last
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  year. So say like, going back a year,
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  was that something that really
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  wasn't happening? There really wasn't necessarily, like, a
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  system
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  process there yet?
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  So it's it's,
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  how to put it? 7 years ago, we
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  started PatientFlow and we slowly built
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  this over time. And so we
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  the first step was strengthening the relationships and
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  that
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  was years ago that we got the relationships.
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  And that
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  to really get there so that you can
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  build projects off of
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  that, the system needs to know that we're
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  part of a team. It's
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  not Wilkes versus Wake or versus Lexington. We're
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  all on the same team. We're working together.
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  So we did the we started with the
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  ED transfers, then we built the inpatient transfers.
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  And really, in the last year, where we've
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  had,
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  the the additive component. But this is yes,
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  this is not something that we built in
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  9 months and we went from 0 to
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  52.
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  We've been steadily building this over time, but
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  it's the round trippers have been
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  that took time to build that and,
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  it's complex.
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  It takes many pieces to put that together.
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  You've got transport, you've got collegiality
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  between the teams
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  coordinating all that. So really that piece is
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  what we've built and grown
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  in the last year, but it's all part
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  of a greater
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  project that we started
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  when we broke ground 7 years ago opening
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  the operations center.
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  Yeah. Thanks, Doctor. Sonos. It's interesting to hear
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  how it's really kind of
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  piece by piece, like things to build off
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  one another after having started with the ED
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  transfers.
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  Looking ahead here, what do you foresee as
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  as the biggest challenge, or what are you
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  really,
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  expecting, bracing for over the next year? How
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  are you preparing?
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  Yeah. I think I think the biggest challenge,
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  even though we have done some great things
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  in patient flow and length of stay here,
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  is
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  build a challenge with
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  meeting the needs of our patient population
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  and obtaining staffing
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  to help meet those needs.
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  And so we need to continue to grow
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  and build off of what we've done from
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  a system perspective,
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  talking about moving
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  some of our specialties to our market hospitals,
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  potentially
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  some surgical
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  specialties doing more in our
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  in a High Point or a Lexington instead
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  of Wake.
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  We philosophically
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  when I first came here Wake, everything comes
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  to Wake, everything comes to wake and
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  we absorb everything. But we really can't do
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  that anymore. So
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  we have to continue to think outside the
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  box
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  because the last thing we want
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  is ED boarding.
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  We don't want patients to
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  that need to be admitted upstairs to sit
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  in an emergency department,
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  Not the best thing for them. We know
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  the we know the studies, the morbidity, mortality
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  increases.
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  So,
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  we still have work to do off of
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  that. It's still
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  a challenge. And and with our staffing,
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  there have been, you know, since
• 10:44
  COVID and and during COVID, there have been
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  staffing challenges. And we're
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  steadily coming through that, but we
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  need to continue to work
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  on having appropriate staff to meet the needs
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  of our our patients. That's what it's all
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  about.
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  Doctor Summers,
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  building off that,
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  can you talk about how you see the
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  CMO
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  role evolving
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  over the next few years or maybe how
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  the scope of work may grow or change?
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  Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I I doing
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  this a while, I have a lot of
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  CMO colleagues
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  out there and and, you know, each CMO
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  job is a little bit different.
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  But
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  I can say for myself, I think there's
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  2 areas
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  where I can see the CMO role evolving.
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  Number
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  1, playing
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  more of a role in leadership development
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  and growing.
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  We need to grow our new leaders. That's
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  an initiative that we're very much focused on.
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  I see
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  CMOs have such a pulse
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  on really the entire hospital
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  from
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  the floors to medical staff to peer review
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  to credentialing
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  that,
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  I can't help but think that
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  they will play more of a role in
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  the financial aspects of the institution,
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  establishing budgets,
• 12:06
  controlling
• 12:07
  departments
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  and working through those finances. I think that's
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  a natural transition.
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  And for that reason,
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  I really,
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  I didn't
• 12:18
  6 years ago,
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  somebody asked me if I needed an MBA
• 12:21
  and I said, I'm not sure, maybe, maybe
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  not.
• 12:25
  Now I think you do in this position,
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  because I think
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  we're going to get to the point of
• 12:32
  more
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  responsibility
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  from a, like I said, from a financial
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  standpoint. I just see that
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  as a natural
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  evolving aspect of this.
• 12:42
  Some CMOs already do that. We don't do
• 12:44
  that as much here, but I but that
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  would be something I see for the future.
• 12:49
  Doctor Summers, thank you so so much for
• 12:52
  talking with us today. Learned a lot about,
• 12:55
  it was great to hear about the improvements
• 12:57
  made there with,
• 12:59
  patient flow and
• 13:00
  being able to work more closely with with
• 13:03
  market colleagues to to reduce some of the
• 13:05
  ED boarding
• 13:06
  issues and capacity challenges that we see so
• 13:09
  many hospitals
• 13:10
  continue to deal with and and try to
• 13:12
  wrap their arms around. So so appreciate your
• 13:15
  time,
• 13:16
  and for listeners
• 13:17
  to tune in to additional episodes of the
• 13:20
  podcast,
• 13:21
  please visit the podcast page on our website
• 13:23
  at beckershospitalreview.com.
• 13:26
  Thanks all.