Yearly Archives: 2020

Doomscrolling? Break the habit with a good book

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I guess I am behind again. The first time I heard the term “doomscrolling” was several days ago when someone tweeted that they looked forward to when they could just read a good book at bedtime instead of doomscrolling. I presume they were referring to getting past the election in two weeks. It resonated with me.

Doing a google search, I see articles going back to the summer months about doomscrolling and anxiety and how to break the cycle. It is described as the practice of endlessly consuming doom-and-gloom news. I find myself looking to see what awful things have happened, been spoken, or tweeted when I get up in the morning and again late at night.

The practice of always having a good book that I’m reading has been harder since this pandemic started. A novel I had just started in early March was set aside for months. I just couldn’t concentrate on reading a book in those early months. A political book I was reading was also set aside. I realized I didn’t need to know the inside story about all the outrageous things that had happened since 2016. I eventually finished the novel though I had to go back many pages to refamiliarize myself with the characters. I have yet to pick up that particular political book again and probably never will.

I just finished a novel that I would highly recommend – “The Daughters of Erietown” by Connie Schultz. It is an excellent story starting in the mid-1940s tracking four generations of women in a northeast Ohio town. It weaves daily life in a blue-collar community with significant historical events including the 1970 shootings at Kent State and the early days of the women’s movement. And yes, I am open to recommendations on my next novel.

I’ve started a non-fiction business book that one of my coachees sent me a while back – “Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder” by Chip Conley. It is described as part manifesto and part playbook for how to become indispensable in the second half of your working life. Continue reading →

Digital health has arrived

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Every healthcare organization seems to be focusing on developing their digital health strategy these days. But do we have a common definition and understanding of what digital health means? A few months back I wrote a post called “Knocking on the digital front door” addressing what many organizations mean when they talk about digital health. Meeting patients where they are and guiding them along the right care pathway with efficient, consistent, and easy processes in the background. It was a very popular post, so I guess it resonated with many.

But digital health encompasses far more than just the digital front door. My StarBridge Advisors colleague, David Muntz, has taken on the broader issues of digital health this year in a multi-part blog series on View from the Bridge. Here is his four-part series if you are ready to go deeper on digital health:

Digital Health – Is Healthcare Ready? Are You and Your Organization Ready?

Becoming a Digital Health System

Digital Health – Governance in a Digital Health System

Digital Health – The Role of Empathy and Understanding

If you are interested in future posts in David’s digital health series, subscribe to View from the Bridge to get notifications of new posts. Our team of advisors regularly contributes posts on a wide range of topics relevant to today’s healthcare executives and IT leaders.

And if you are looking for help developing your digital health strategy and roadmap, David or I would be happy to schedule time to talk.

Adapting to virtual project work

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It is encouraging to see major system implementations continue to move forward during this period. Seattle Children’s, UI Health and Steward Health Care are just a few examples of EHR go lives in recent weeks. Kudos to all the teams who are working to ensure they go smoothly and safely as they provide a combination of virtual and onsite support.

My StarBridge Advisors colleague, David Muntz, and I just completed an ERP selection with a client. We have moved into the contracting and planning phase. All our work has been virtual. There was a short period where the client team was partially back in their offices but as case numbers in that state rose, they returned to the work from home arrangement with the exception of senior leaders in the office on certain days. The vendors successfully conducted virtual demos over several days with very high participation and engagement by the client organization.

While the vendor of choice is understandably anxious to meet with the client team in person, that is not happening for the foreseeable future. By the time of go live in Spring 2022, it should be a very different situation with onsite work. But for now, it will be all virtual work. And even when regular travel and onsite work is considered safe, I expect more work by the vendor and their implementation team to be done remotely to save on travel costs and time.

Bottom line, we have all made this virtual way of working a success. Yes, there were a few times when being in person in the same room would have really helped – the initial period of work when we were getting to know the client team and some of the key decision meetings. Learning the culture and “reading the room” can be a challenge in the virtual world but it is all doable. Continue reading →

When healthcare becomes personal

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When you get a call that your husband has been taken to the ER by ambulance, it is hard not to think the worst. I got that call last Wednesday. The good news is that by late Friday night Tom was OK’d for discharge from the hospital. But we still do not have the answers needed. More tests and results should help us better understand what happened and why it happened so together with his PCP and specialists we can develop a go forward plan.

I have worked in healthcare for over 35 years. Our family has dealt with various minor health issues and been able to access the best healthcare available. I have the utmost respect and gratitude for health professionals and all they do.

Through this experience I have seen healthcare through the patient and family lens in a different way. I have several takeaways worth sharing.

Emergency resources – Know when to call your PCP, go to the nearest urgent care center, call 911 or head right to the hospital ER. Minutes can matter.

Friends and family – I can’t say enough here. Tom was visiting a friend when the incident started. She took him to the closest Urgent Care, they called an ambulance fairly quickly and he was taken to the closest ER. The friend reached out to another friend thinking that person might know how to contact me. Fortunately, he did. We are setting up the Emergency Contact feature on our phones for the future. On the first call with the ED physician, I did a 3-way with my daughter who is a nurse practitioner. I wanted her in the loop from the start – to help interpret what I was being told, help educate me, and advocate for Tom.

Clinician in the family – If you are fortunate as we are to have a clinician in your family, let them help you. They are invaluable. Listen to them, loop them in on calls to ask all the right questions, and let them educate you. Our daughter spent ½ hour on the phone with the attending physician before Tom was discharged while I drove to get him. She then explained it all to me and started doing more research on her own.

Accessible and Integrated EHR – Now we are in my domain. Continue reading →

Career advice in a competitive market

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I seem to be getting an increasing number of requests for career advice calls these days. Of course, I make time to talk to people I know and try to be as helpful as I can. No question that there are a lot of good and talented people looking for a new opportunity these days for various reasons.

Here is my current baseline advice when I have these calls:

Criteria: You need to establish your criteria such as type of organization, type of role, title/level, culture, salary, and location. This may sound too basic, but it is critical. Not all criteria are equal so apply a relative weight to each. Once you have this framework, you can evaluate each option against your criteria and stay true to them. You don’t want to compromise and then regret your decision in 6 months.

Market trends: Do your research. What are the new and emerging roles/titles? How does your experience align with them? Do you need to reinvent yourself or develop new skills/knowledge to get a new role?

Search firms: Develop and maintain relationships with a few search firms and recruiters. They need to know who you are, what you are looking for, and what you offer compared to other candidates. They can also be helpful and honest about the market and how you compare to others in search. But remember, you own your career and your next move. Continue reading →

COVID-19: The good, the bad, the different

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When it comes to COVID-19, there is little good. But every report that reflects progress is good news. Whether it is progress in how best to treat hospitalized patients, progress towards a vaccine, or the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths trending downward. I saw one of those reports just a few days ago when Shereef Elnahal, President and CEO, University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey shared their good news on social media:

“We made it.

For the first time since the #covid19 pandemic started, University Hospital has ZERO patients with coronavirus in house.

After over 1,000 discharges, leading northern NJ’s regional response, and folks in the City of Newark wearing masks, socially distancing, and getting tested, we hit a milestone that we’ve been hoping for since a time when almost every patient in our hospital had coronavirus.

So proud!”

There are probably many more hospital leaders in the Northeast who can finally report this same good news. And they have reason to be very proud of what they and their teams have done for their communities.

But there is plenty of bad. A health crisis with nearly 200,000 deaths and a projection that there could be over 400,000 deaths by the end of the year. An economic crisis with millions unemployed.

Another evolving bad news story is what we are learning about the “long-haulers”. These are people who had COVID-19 and months later report a variety of long-term symptoms. Continue reading →

A different kind of summer comes to an end

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If you were a fan of Downton Abbey and remember the Maggie Smith character, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, you may even recall how she said in her aristocratic way, “What is this thing you call a weekend?”. For the landed gentry of England who didn’t work, what did a weekend mean? For those of you working from home, dealing first with home schooling and then kids on summer break, and with vacation trips cancelled, you may ask the same question. But it’s because every day seems to run into the next during this pandemic.

As we approach the final summer holiday and three-day weekend we know as Labor Day, hopefully you won’t have to “labor” but can actually take a break. In the health systems I worked at, August was the big vacation month – especially in the academic medical centers. When I was CIO at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, one of my VP colleagues would remind us that after Labor Day it is a sprint until the holidays in December. He’d say let your family know how busy you’ll be and be sure to take a break in August somehow.

With a trip to Disney with grandkids and a European trip cancelled this year, my husband and I feel like one day just rolls into the next as I’m sure many of you do. I’ve written in the past about the importance of making time to reboot and the 6 R’s of summer. But this year is different. I only hope that all of you and especially those on the front lines of this pandemic have found time for a much needed and well-deserved break, somewhere, somehow.

If you are feeling overwhelmed at times, this article by Tara Haelle may resonate with you – “Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful”. It describes our personal “surge capacity” and how to manage through these times. Continue reading →

5 job search challenges in 2020

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One thing that hasn’t seemed to change during this pandemic is the number of health IT leaders making moves. Since we provide interim management services at StarBridge Advisors, I track these moves closely. I’m currently helping a number of colleagues find new opportunities and having conversations about what it takes to make their job search successful.

I have written many posts focused on career management over the years. Much of that advice remains the same. But in this new environment there are also new challenges:

Updating your resume and telling your story – It is always wise to consider professional resume writing help or at a minimum ask a trusted colleague to review and give you feedback. Ensure your most recent work experience is updated and focuses on outcomes and results. And regardless of why you are looking, be ready to tell your story succinctly and consistently. It is your story and you need to tell it. This is even more important if you are in between jobs for whatever reason.

Competition – It appears to be a “buyer’s” market with many talented people looking for new opportunities. Whether you have decided it is just time for a change or you were let go due to a merger or layoff, you are in a very competitive market. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. It’s best to pursue several opportunities at a time. But be ready for disappointment. Only one person gets the job in the end. Don’t get discouraged. Learn from each situation and prepare for the next. My post, “So you didn’t get the job”, has some advice you might want to check out. Now is a good time to work your network, let colleagues know what you are looking for and nurture your relationship with search firms. And if you learn about a position that’s not right for you, let others you know in search who might be better suited for it.

Preparing for virtual interviews – It’s very possible that all interview rounds will be virtual, and you will never meet people in person until you start the new position if not well after you start. Continue reading →

Vote your values

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My mother was just a little girl when women in this country won the right to vote in 1920. Her mother raised her to be a strong and independent woman. And in turn she raised my sister, two brothers, and me to not only be strong and independent but also to be kind and caring. We learned early on about social justice and equality. My sister and I came of age during the women’s movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We each have two daughters. Along with our husbands, we raised them to be strong, independent, kind, and caring women.

This week marks the centennial anniversary of women having the right to vote. The passage of the 19th amendment guaranteed and protected women’s constitutional right to vote. But this right did not come easy. The suffrage movement dates to the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention that passed a resolution in favor of women’s suffrage. A women’s right to vote came only after the suffragists organized for decades, marched in the streets, and were arrested. But they persisted and finally succeeded 70 years later.

This week also marks another historic first. Senator Kamala Harris is the first woman of color to be nominated for the second highest office in our country by a major political party.

White men are 31% of the U.S. population but hold 65% of elected offices. White men have long governed and made policy decisions affecting all of us. There continue to be record numbers of women running for office at local, state, and national levels. The face of government is changing. It is looking more like all of us and therefore more representative.

The right to vote is a fundamental right of a free society. Voter suppression is real and takes various forms. This is the time to be informed – know the rules and deadlines in your state. Make sure you are registered. Know your options for mail-in or in-person voting. Exercise your right. Live your values.

As I walk my neighborhood 3-4 miles a day, I see many yard signs for candidates in advance of a local primary in September. I expect to see yard signs for the November 3rd election soon. But the yard signs that have the greatest impact are the ones that express the values and beliefs of the people who live there – the ones that say:

We Believe: Black Lives Matter — No Human is Illegal — Love is Love — Women’s Rights are Human Rights — Science is Real — Water is Life — Kindness is Everything — Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere

Vote on November 3rd or before if you can. Vote your values – for you and generations to come. 

Resources: 

When We All Vote

Fair Fight

Starting a new job or client project in a virtual world

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If you are starting a new job or a new client engagement during this pandemic, you are most likely missing (and even craving) the in-person contacts that you are used to. The job interviews and onboarding may have been all virtual and the actual work may still be all virtual. For a new client engagement, you may be doing not just the kickoff meeting but all the subsequent work virtually. And this virtual mode may be the situation for the foreseeable future.

Neither of these scenarios is the same as a team or group of people who already know each other well and have formed good working relationships to suddenly be working virtually.

Given our work is often all about the relationships, what are some of the challenges of this new way of working with clients or starting a new job? And how best to address them? Some lessons and tips from my latest client engagement experience:

Culture – We have all heard the phrase “culture eats strategy for lunch”. You must work that much harder to understand the culture of an organization when you are not spending time together in person. Early on, find out what the norms and values of the organization are from your key contacts. Observe and listen. And don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Politics – Every organization has its politics. Best to stay out of them if you can. But you need to be aware of the politics and how best to navigate to get results. The politics may be less evident (a good thing) in the virtual world but are still there.

Who’s who – If you are used to getting to know your new colleagues or clients more informally to build a good, trusting working relationship, then this is all new. Continue reading →