Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Workforce Strategy and Culture at Children's National Hospital with Gina Cronin

Transcript

Workforce Strategy and Culture at Children's National Hospital with Gina Cronin · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

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  The most important health care decisions don't happen
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  in isolation.
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  They happen when leaders come together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
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  3,500
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  hospital and health system executives this April in
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  Chicago.
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  With 800 speakers from Ascension,
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  Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit and more, the conversations get
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  real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning
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  for policy shifts, breaking through value based care
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  barriers, and building clinical teams that translate new
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  ideas into real world care.
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  Join top decision makers in the room April
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  13 through the sixteenth.
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  For the agenda and event details, visit beckers
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  hospital review dot com and click on the
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  events tab in the upper right.
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  This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Gina Cronin, executive vice president and chief people
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  officer at Children's National Hospital. Gina, it's a
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  pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  Thank you so much, Lauren. Very pleased to
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  be with you here today and with Becker.
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  Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation because
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  I know there's so much happening in health
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  care, particularly at Children's National. You do some
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  amazing things. But before we dig in, can
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  you tell us a little bit more about
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  yourself and the organization?
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  Oh, absolutely.
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  I serve as chief people officer here at
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  Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC,
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  and we are one of the few independent
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  freestanding children hospitals in The US. It's a
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  pretty special place to work,
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  and we're very honored and and humbled to
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  be recognized as a top 10 children's hospital
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  in The US.
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  Our history is really, really long and interesting.
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  We have over a hundred
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  fifty five years. We
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  actually started and opened our doors in 1870,
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  serving orphaned children in the civil war. So
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  if you can imagine that.
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  We're the only hospital actually that's headquartered in
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  Washington, DC,
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  and we care for kids and families across
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  the District Of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and our
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  primary service area, but also the rest of
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  The United States
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  and many, many children across the globe.
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  Well, mission is is focused on outstanding
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  clinical care, really subspecialized
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  care,
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  innovation,
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  as well as we serve the community pediatric
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  care needs of the kids within our area.
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  For myself personally, I'm, I've joined Children's National
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  about a year and a half ago,
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  and I'm pretty unique, I think, as a
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  chief people officer in that I spent half
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  of my career really in clinical operations.
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  So I feel like I can bring that
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  clinical operations lens
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  into the work that we do within HR
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  to support our workforce, to support our teams,
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  to support our leaders, having kind of that
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  acumen.
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  And it's been a really wonderful and invigorating,
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  past year and a half year.
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  That's amazing to hear. You know, truly, outstanding
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  to have that opportunity,
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  you know, on the clinical side and clinical
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  operations
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  and then figuring out how, you know, you
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  can bring,
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  your specialization for the workforce too and and
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  the chief people officer role, it all ties
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  together so wonderfully.
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  When you think about the last year, year
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  and a half or so, could you tell
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  us about an initiative that you led? What
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  did you do, and what were the results?
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  Yeah. You know, when I joined, I also
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  joined a relatively new CEO.
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  And,
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  task one was really to get Children's National
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  ready to deliver on a new five year
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  strategy that was approved by our board, and
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  we were charged and are charged with really
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  delivering on some ambitious goals
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  around providing care,
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  preeminent
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  research,
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  pediatric
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  education,
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  our patient access and patient experience,
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  big focus on the communities that we serve,
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  and, of course, a pillar of all that
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  is our people. That was an important part
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  of the strategy.
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  So as a new chief people officer with
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  a, relatively new CEO and tenure,
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  My role as chief people officer is really
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  to charge and ready our organization to deliver
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  on that over the past recent year.
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  So the focus we had was really from
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  from a people lens on a few things.
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  The first, it was really important for us
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  to get leader alignment. So as we had
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  the strategy,
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  how did we get all all of our
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  leaders aligned to the strategy
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  for them to understand their role in delivering
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  that, inspired around that change,
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  to be clear eyed about the headwinds and
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  challenges we have, but also to be optimistic
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  and know that we have the capability
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  and the skills,
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  to deliver and inspire that. So we spent
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  a lot of time around leader alignment within
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  that, convened leaders together with our CEO and
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  and board chair with each other.
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  A second part of that was the organization
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  design. Right? So how we really wanted to
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  look at how we were structured to deliver
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  on the strategic goals
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  and what did we need to do to
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  adjust.
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  Did we need to adjust to be contemporary
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  children's hospital? So we looked across the organization
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  at
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  how we were organized, our our roles within
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  the clinical
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  operation space,
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  research, administrative. What are those structures,
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  that are needed? How did we need to
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  look at our decision making in order to
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  support that?
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  So that was a it was definitely a
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  big focus we had.
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  We also developed our leaders. So when we're
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  looking at how we deliver on that strategy,
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  how do we really invest intentionally invest in
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  our leaders to prepare them to lead?
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  So with a phased approach, we we started
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  with our executive team. We started with our
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  directors and above,
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  and then we've really rolled it out to
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  all supervisors and managers
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  with a focus on getting that common leader
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  culture. What are we all about as a
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  leadership team? What is our mindset?
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  Equipping our leaders with a common set of
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  frameworks and tools in order to, have the
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  abilities to do that,
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  and really walking the walk of this. Right?
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  So we wanted it to be embedded everywhere.
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  So we're now in progress actually
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  in developing a series of listening sessions because
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  we want to really curate what are our
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  expected set of leader behaviors that we can
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  use across the organization
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  to develop our leaders, to select,
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  to measure performance again. So so that's kind
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  of what the space we've been looking in
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  around leader develop.
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  And then finally,
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  change management. Right? So knowing that we've got
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  org design and we've got this this five
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  year strategy ahead, how do we equip equip
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  our leaders
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  with the ability to lead through that change
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  to support them with being able to frame
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  to their teams the why. Right? Why are
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  we doing this? And having those tools to
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  to get their teams,
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  to the other side of it.
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  So that's what what we've been focused on
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  on the past year. It's been amazing work,
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  but it it's been really invigorating
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  to to watch everyone lean in together into
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  it.
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  I love that. I think it's so critical
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  to have that type of executive alignment and
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  making sure you've got everything in place. So
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  then, you know, as you're developing
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  what what your strategic plan is going to
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  be and then listening to,
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  your teams in the front lines as well,
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  it just really makes a big difference, to
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  have all folks have influence over it quite
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  frankly and then being able to move forward.
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  And I like what you just said too
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  about framing the why and and making sure
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  you have, the tools for your team to
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  get there.
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  I'm curious, you know, when you look into
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  the next year or so, what are some
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  of your priorities and headwinds that you're focused
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  on as you're continuing to go through this,
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  process in 2026?
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  Right.
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  Well, headwinds, I think that's another word for
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  opportunities. Right? How do how do we frame
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  that, so that knowing that we have the
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  ability to tackle them? I think as we
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  look into 2026,
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  a big focus from us, from a people
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  perspective is is really creating strategic workforce capabilities.
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  And,
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  what we're particularly facing, we've got three big
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  transformations underway. We are really seeking
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  to enhance the experience of of our children
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  and families across all of our ambulatory services
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  so that they
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  have a very standard and outstanding
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  experience across any location or or facility where
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  they're receiving care.
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  We also are,
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  implementing Workday, a new ERP,
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  and we're also launching an implementation of Epic,
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  a new EHR.
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  So we've got three big transformations,
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  and we know that those are gonna really
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  fundamentally
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  change the way that our team members work.
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  So we're looking to build a capability
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  at Children's National within HR that we can
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  strategically look at our workforce. So we can
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  have the ability
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  to look across jobs,
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  capture, you know, potential business cases around standardization,
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  modernization,
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  look at workforce redesign,
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  readiness,
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  and really take jobs and deconstruct them, look
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  at a task level,
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  and perhaps create new jobs that haven't existed
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  before,
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  allow our team members to operate at the
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  top of their license,
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  as we're creating these new workflows.
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  So that's what our focus is gonna be.
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  We wanna be proactive and not be reactive.
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  And, you know, everyone is really talking about
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  what the implications
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  to the workforce will be around
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  AI. And,
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  we think if we can start looking at
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  work force
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  design around these big areas, ambulatory redesign,
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  epic redesign,
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  that will have that good strong capability
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  to handle any type of disruption
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  that AI may have for some of our
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  workforce.
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  The the other
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  big opportunity
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  that we are focused on is really looking
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  at well-being
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  at Children's National, and we made a very
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  intentional effort to create that as a strategic
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  imperative for our workforce.
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  And we are taking in all kinds of
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  data points around that and and looking what
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  are the opportunities
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  to substantially
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  impact well-being,
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  across the organization, whether that is around
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  financial well-being,
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  mental health well-being,
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  structural well-being. Right? How do we make sure
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  that our systems and processes
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  work pretty frictionless across the organization
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  to make the everyday
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  lives of our clinicians better?
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  So we're really looking at a lens of
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  doing that, and that work,
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  is really we're we're supporting it from HR,
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  but it's partnering very deeply with our with
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  with everyone across the organization from nurses to
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  physician leaders,
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  operational leaders, and more. So those are really
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  the two big focus focus areas we have
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  ahead around strategic workforce design and well-being.
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  I love that. And, you know, it's, both
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  aspects are so critical. And I know especially
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  today when you think about bringing AI into
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  the health care organization operations and, you know,
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  anything along those lines, there there's always gonna
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  be a little bit of challenge or or
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  fear of the unknown. But it sounds like
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  being able to have the right message to
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  your teams and, understanding that redesign and and
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  caring for them and and how they're,
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  fulfilled within their roles, it it makes a
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  big difference.
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  And and I'm curious. Can you share with
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  us? Yeah, anything, you know, one bit deeper
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  about kind of some of that transition and
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  how you're making sure you're prepared for that.
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  And I know there'll just be more AI
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  and more opportunities,
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  for for things to come into the organization.
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  So how do you create, like, that nimble
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  and and resiliencies?
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  You you know, you're,
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  moving quickly, I I think, especially, right now
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  when technology evolves so quickly.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. I think that's why we wanna
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  start working on it today. Right? And so
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  what we do know is changing
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  is, we do have this this imperative to,
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  really make ambulatory experience first rate. So how
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  do we look at the jobs that are
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  being done today
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  and, have that standardization
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  create, you know, less friction within that. And
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  we've got these two big technologies coming in.
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  So we feel like if we can get
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  our feet wet in these current changes and
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  get really pretty nimble and agile
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  on how to change those roles for the
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  future,
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  that we should be able to have that
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  resiliency,
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  that capability,
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  that when when an AI change,
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  impacts us, we'll have the toolkit to know
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  how to approach it. So that's why we're
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  we're hoping to lean into it and not
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  kind of be back in our heels and
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  reacting to it.
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  I love that. That makes a lot of
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  sense. Now,
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  I'm curious too when you think about the
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  next year, what is the hardest thing that
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  you're gonna have to do? I know, you
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  know, even,
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  having growth initiatives in in some of the
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  opportunities that you've talked about, that are really
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  exciting but don't always come easy when you're
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  trying to do something organization wide. So I'm
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  curious. How are you thinking about those types
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  of things?
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  Yeah. Well, it's it's pretty daunting even the
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  the few imperatives I put out for you
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  for the upcoming year. So I think we're
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  really gonna be keeping a pulse
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  on our organization,
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  our team members, our leaders
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  to make sure that they are,
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  not getting fatigued with all the change.
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  So change is super exciting, especially the the
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  change that we have coming in that we
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  know are going to allow them to care,
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  for patients in in much more contemporary fashion.
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  But when you have too much change, right,
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  you have to be worried about how much
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  how much, the organization can take in without
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  it becoming a bit overwhelming. So we're really
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  trying to keep a close pulse on that,
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  to make sure that there's not a fatigue.
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  And what do we need to pause? Right?
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  So if we are getting to that point,
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  are there priorities that we need to just
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  kind of put on pause for a while
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  until we get through some of these major
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  transformations?
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  That makes a lot of sense. And, you
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  know, it's definitely hard sometimes to hit that
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  pause button or to go a little bit
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  slower, but making that strategic decisions and focus
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  areas, I know is critical.
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  And when you think about, you know, that
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  potential for fatigue or the pause button, what
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  types of things, you know, kind of typically
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  fall into that bucket, or do you anticipate
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  falling into that bucket over the next couple
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  years?
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  You know, Tara, I think I think it's
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  gonna be hard to to know what we're
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  gonna need to pause on. There's certain things
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  that we know we've we've gotta deliver. Right?
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  So we are gonna be implementing
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  a transformational
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  ERP across the organization. We are bringing epic.
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  We are we are committed to the things
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  within our strategic plan. So I think it's
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  gonna have to be we're gonna have that
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  muscle and to build in that
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  that routine schedule where we're revisiting priorities,
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  and we're creating criteria about what is most
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  important for us to take care of children
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  and what really drops down low on the
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  priority. So, you know, we're everyone is super
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  ambitious and and wants to do everything
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  everywhere.
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  But there are points where we're just gonna
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  have to say, this one's gonna have to
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  wait. So I I think it's gonna really
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  be a team effort with us really
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  re being almost ruthless about prioritization
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  around what needs to happen and what's most
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  important for caring for kids.
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  That's helpful to understand. And even, you know,
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  just how you're thinking about that decision making
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  processes,
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  makes a lot of sense. Now before we
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  wrap up here, where do you see some
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  of the best opportunities for organizational growth?
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  Well, again, we have this incredibly special mission
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  of of caring for our most precious, our
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  most vulnerable patients with our children.
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  So for us,
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  we really view it as, an organizational
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  mission to continue
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  to
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  grow the care that we can provide.
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  So highly differentiated,
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  complex, clear. How do we deliver that to
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  more kids and families?
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  So for us, how do we bring that
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  world class pediatric care to more communities, more
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  neighborhoods?
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  That's really gonna be where our focus is,
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  and which is really centered around our victim.
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  Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
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  You know, it's a great way to think
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  about how you can grow and and serve
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  your patient population.
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  Thank you so much, Gina, for joining the
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  podcast today. This has been so much fun
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  to kinda learn from you and,
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  getting your perspective on everything that's going on
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  in health care at Children's National. And, you
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  know, I look forward to catching up with
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  you as well at our annual meeting. I
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  know you'll be speaking on a panel with
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  us, and we talk touching on many of
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  these things too. So I look forward to
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  seeing you there.
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  Thank you so much, Laura. It's great to
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  chat with you, and, I'm excited to, meet
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  everyone in April as well.