On Best Practices

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 →

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 →

This Week in Health IT – Keeping current

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I have highlighted Bill Russell’s podcast series, This Week in Health IT, in several previous blogs and shared many of the episodes on social media. If you work in health IT and are not yet listening to them and subscribing, what are you waiting for? This podcast represents some of the best content available in our industry.

Bill launched the podcast in early 2018. Starting this past March, he pivoted from twice a week to a daily podcast with a COVID-19 Field Report series made possible by the generous sponsorship of Sirius Healthcare. In the first six months of 2020, there were 100,000 downloads compared to 120,000 in all of 2019. With the Field Report series still available for listening, Bill has gone to a three day a week schedule – Tuesday NewsDay and Influence interviews on Wednesdays and Fridays.

There will only be one episode this week – Tuesday Newsday with guest host Drex DeFord as Bill is taking a week off. Drex is a frequent guest on the show and he offers yet another way to receive relevant content with 3xDrex – what he describes as “3 Must-Reads, 3 Days/Week curated by a real healthcare exec” delivered via text.

I highly recommend that you listen to three recent This Week in Health IT episodes:

Atmosphere: State of Healthcare – Bill was the guest speaker at the recent Aruba Atmosphere Digital Conference. His talk provides great insight on the major changes in healthcare and IT the past several months as well as projections for the future. It is truly a unique episode with lots to learn from one of the best! Continue reading →

Healthcare leaders continue to learn and share lessons

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Virtual learning opportunities have increased significantly in the past few months as healthcare leaders are eager to learn from the experiences of others or share their own lessons during this pandemic. There are far more webinars, live sessions, and interviews than I have seen in the past. Most of these sessions are recorded so you can listen or watch when you have time. The trick is to register – if you end up not being able to join at the scheduled time at least you will be sent the archive link. And of course there are always podcasts – so many good ones as I have recommended in previous posts.

This week, there is yet another virtual learning opportunity that I am excited about joining – the HealthIMPACT Live’s Summer Forum. I have participated in their previous in-person forums and found them to be very thought-provoking programs with top-notch speakers on relevant topics. With limited attendance, there is always plenty of opportunity for dialogue. The forum organizers have pivoted and are promising a great virtual experience. The topics are very timely and divided into four parts over two afternoons:

Part I: Your People – Healthcare Workforce Reimagined – From Crisis Management to System-Wide Transformation

Part II: Your Processes – Sustaining Gains in Telemedicine and Virtual Care Delivery- Building on Successes and Lessons Learned Connecting Patients and Providers in Response to COVID-19 Continue reading →

7 Tips for effective virtual meetings

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If you have the kind of job where you can work from home, you have probably been on hundreds of virtual meetings in the past four months. And this will most likely continue for the foreseeable future as many companies have no set date for when they will have employees return to their offices. There are plenty of articles with overall tips for working from home. Here are my tips for effective virtual meetings:

Follow meeting norms – If your company had meeting guidelines and standard practices when you were all in person, continue to follow them. During my interim engagement at the University of Vermont Health Network, I became very familiar with the meeting norms in IT and shared them in a previous blog post – “We’re at meeting norms”. I consider them best practice. They included behaviors that contribute to productive, collaborative work. I can honestly say that the meetings there were some of the most productive, focused, and efficient meetings I have seen in all the organizations I’ve worked in. One of the most useful is having 25- or 50-minute meetings. When you are working in whatever home office setup you have, you do not have to move between meeting rooms. But you still need time between calls whether it’s a bio break, time to stand up and stretch, organize your follow-ups, or get ready for the next meeting.

Know how to use the tools – Get to know all the features of your preferred/default video conference tool and be comfortable navigating in it. But be flexible and quick to adapt to other tools as needed if the meeting host has a different default tool. Be patient when technical issues arise and work together to resolve quickly or find a workaround. People are more supportive and tolerant of issues now compared to when there was just one or two people remote with everyone else in a conference room together wondering why the remote people were having issues. Continue reading →

Staying fit and informed

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If you are working from home during this pandemic, getting enough exercise each day can be a challenge. I spoke to a CIO colleague recently who said he used to get 10,000 steps a day just at work given the size of his office complex.

I recently decided that I needed to up my exercise routine to ensure I get 10,000 steps a day. A long dog walk at the end of the workday plus the steps inside my house from my home office to the kitchen and back are just not enough. While I have never been an early morning exerciser, I am now two plus weeks into a new routine. Instead of rolling out of bed and starting on email and work right away, I now go for a brisk walk. I try to do a minimum of 30 minutes but depending on the time of my first scheduled call of the day, I do anywhere from 20-45 minutes. The end of day dog walk rounds it out to ensure I hit my 10,000 steps.

Besides the physical and mental health benefits of more exercise, I also have more time to stay informed via podcasts. A few weeks ago, I wrote about my latest podcast recommendations. With my new exercise routine, I am ready to recommend two more:

The Osterholm Update: COVID-19 – If you had not heard of Dr. Michael Osterholm pre-COVID, you probably recognize his name by now. Continue reading →

Time to reimagine industry conferences

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Large gatherings such as sporting events and concerts seem impossible to return prior to a vaccine and treatment for the coronavirus. Yet alternatives are being considered and reimagined. In the business world, industry conferences and conventions are in that same large gatherings bucket. So, they too should be reimagined.

Scientists and public health officials would say do not plan on these types of events until sometime in 2021. I do not want to minimize the challenges and complexities involved in these decisions and plans. But I do believe that leaders everywhere must trust science to keep people safe.

The American Telehealth Association (ATA) held a virtual conference last week. Of course, if any organization should be able to successfully pull off a virtual conference, it is the people who do telehealth.

But I am fresh off an entirely different virtual conference experience and I could not be more impressed with what they did and what is possible. It was not an organization in the tech industry but rather a faith community. I am a Unitarian Universalist (UU) and our annual church conference (General Assembly or GA) is held each June. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) board made the decision in March to not cancel but rather to go all virtual.

This meant they had to pull off a five-day conference that included large general sessions, discussion/debate on resolutions, delegate voting, workshops, poster sessions, worship services and special collections – all virtual. The result was higher attendance (close to 5000 registered) than many in-person conferences in past years, education and discussion on everything from spiritual practices, to congregational growth, to anti-racism organizing, and to getting out the vote in November. While people missed the hugs and hallway conversations, it was an overall positive experience for thousands of UUs.

That same UUA leadership had the foresight back in April to advise all congregations to plan on virtual Sunday services through May 2021. UU congregations all over the country are adapting to virtual services as the new normal and they are doing so in varying and creative ways. Many congregations report higher “attendance” than in the past.

The lessons are clear – it is time to reimagine and embrace the virtual world we now live in where we can. If planned and executed right, little is lost and much is gained.

So back to our health IT industry. What does the typical lineup of Fall conferences look like? Continue reading →

Physical distancing: finding our way

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We saw our grandkids again on Sunday. A small family get together for Father’s Day and our youngest grandchild’s 4th birthday. As we all find our way and do our best to minimize our risks of COVID-19, being able to hug my grandkids brings me great joy and is one of the things I have missed the most these past few months.

There is a reason many people want to refer to this new practice as physical distancing, not social distancing. We need each other. Social isolation is not healthy. Technology has helped but it is not the same. Just ask someone who said their final goodbye to a loved one on FaceTime or Zoom.

Living in Rhode Island, my husband and I have taken the shutdown very seriously. Governor Gina Raimondo got ahead of it early with the shutdown order and then a slow, phased reopening. From mid-March until a few weeks ago, we have mostly stayed home except for the weekly groceries, a few trips to the garden nursery and Home Depot, the occasional takeout order, and the daily dog walks.

We limited family visits to outside spaces at our homes at a distance and no hugs. We are gradually loosening up on the hugs. As we all learn more about how the virus is transmitted, spending time with close family who have also been strict during this period seems reasonable.

My 4-year-old grandson first told me back in April on a family Zoom session that he was going to have a birthday parade, no gifts, and a small cake only for his mom, dad, and sister. It was sad to hear him explain this at such a young age but I thought it was probably a reasonable plan. The idea of a parade was exciting to him. But two months later we decided it was ok to do the backyard immediate family only gathering, which was 12 adults and the 4 young cousins, aged 4 through 7. The grandkids gave us hugs and briefly sat on our laps. It was good to not feel like we were all radioactive.

The slow opening of our own circles is a challenge we all must deal with. I do not take this virus lightly. I read a lot and listen to many interviews and podcasts with experts. I try to be as informed as possible about the science. And I take cues from my sister who has a public health background and my daughter who is an NP and has cared for COVID-19 patients in Boston. Continue reading →