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

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

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The most important health care decisions don't happen
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0:45
This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
0:48
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.
0:57
Thank you so much, Lauren. Very pleased to
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be with you here today and with Becker.
1:02
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
1:12
you tell us a little bit more about
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yourself and the organization?
1:16
Oh, absolutely.
1:18
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.
2:11
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.
2:52
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,
3:09
your specialization for the workforce too and and
3:12
the chief people officer role, it all ties
3:14
together so wonderfully.
3:16
When you think about the last year, year
3:18
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?
3:24
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
3:35
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
10:19
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
11:34
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
12:09
when technology evolves so quickly.
12:12
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
12:31
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,
12:47
that we should be able to have that
12:49
resiliency,
12:50
that capability,
12:51
that when when an AI change,
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impacts us, we'll have the toolkit to know
12:57
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
13:02
reacting to it.
13:04
I love that. That makes a lot of
13:06
sense. Now,
13:07
I'm curious too when you think about the
13:10
next year, what is the hardest thing that
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you're gonna have to do? I know, you
13:13
know, even,
13:14
having growth initiatives in in some of the
13:17
opportunities that you've talked about, that are really
13:19
exciting but don't always come easy when you're
13:21
trying to do something organization wide. So I'm
13:24
curious. How are you thinking about those types
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of things?
13:27
Yeah. Well, it's it's pretty daunting even the
13:30
the few imperatives I put out for you
13:31
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,
13:43
not getting fatigued with all the change.
13:46
So change is super exciting, especially the the
13:48
change that we have coming in that we
13:50
know are going to allow them to care,
13:53
for patients in in much more contemporary fashion.
13:56
But when you have too much change, right,
13:58
you have to be worried about how much
14:00
how much, the organization can take in without
14:03
it becoming a bit overwhelming. So we're really
14:05
trying to keep a close pulse on that,
14:08
to make sure that there's not a fatigue.
14:11
And what do we need to pause? Right?
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So if we are getting to that point,
14:15
are there priorities that we need to just
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kind of put on pause for a while
14:19
until we get through some of these major
14:21
transformations?
14:23
That makes a lot of sense. And, you
14:25
know, it's definitely hard sometimes to hit that
14:28
pause button or to go a little bit
14:30
slower, but making that strategic decisions and focus
14:32
areas, I know is critical.
14:35
And when you think about, you know, that
14:37
potential for fatigue or the pause button, what
14:40
types of things, you know, kind of typically
14:42
fall into that bucket, or do you anticipate
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falling into that bucket over the next couple
14:46
years?
14:48
You know, Tara, I think I think it's
14:51
gonna be hard to to know what we're
14:53
gonna need to pause on. There's certain things
14:55
that we know we've we've gotta deliver. Right?
14:57
So we are gonna be implementing
14:59
a transformational
15:00
ERP across the organization. We are bringing epic.
15:04
We are we are committed to the things
15:06
within our strategic plan. So I think it's
15:08
gonna have to be we're gonna have that
15:10
muscle and to build in that
15:13
that routine schedule where we're revisiting priorities,
15:16
and we're creating criteria about what is most
15:19
important for us to take care of children
15:23
and what really drops down low on the
15:25
priority. So, you know, we're everyone is super
15:28
ambitious and and wants to do everything
15:31
everywhere.
15:32
But there are points where we're just gonna
15:34
have to say, this one's gonna have to
15:35
wait. So I I think it's gonna really
15:37
be a team effort with us really
15:40
re being almost ruthless about prioritization
15:43
around what needs to happen and what's most
15:46
important for caring for kids.
15:48
That's helpful to understand. And even, you know,
15:50
just how you're thinking about that decision making
15:52
processes,
15:53
makes a lot of sense. Now before we
15:55
wrap up here, where do you see some
15:57
of the best opportunities for organizational growth?
16:01
Well, again, we have this incredibly special mission
16:04
of of caring for our most precious, our
16:07
most vulnerable patients with our children.
16:09
So for us,
16:11
we really view it as, an organizational
16:14
mission to continue
16:16
to
16:17
grow the care that we can provide.
16:19
So highly differentiated,
16:21
complex, clear. How do we deliver that to
16:23
more kids and families?
16:25
So for us, how do we bring that
16:26
world class pediatric care to more communities, more
16:30
neighborhoods?
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That's really gonna be where our focus is,
16:34
and which is really centered around our victim.
16:38
Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
16:40
You know, it's a great way to think
16:41
about how you can grow and and serve
16:43
your patient population.
16:45
Thank you so much, Gina, for joining the
16:46
podcast today. This has been so much fun
16:48
to kinda learn from you and,
16:50
getting your perspective on everything that's going on
16:53
in health care at Children's National. And, you
16:55
know, I look forward to catching up with
16:56
you as well at our annual meeting. I
16:57
know you'll be speaking on a panel with
16:59
us, and we talk touching on many of
17:01
these things too. So I look forward to
17:02
seeing you there.
17:04
Thank you so much, Laura. It's great to
17:06
chat with you, and, I'm excited to, meet
17:10
everyone in April as well.