On Leadership

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 →

More podcast recommendations – going beyond HIT

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If you are like me, there is no gym time and no commute time these days. But there are still ways to get exercise every day. My long daily dog walks are one of those times when I try to get smarter. And podcasts are the means.

I have made podcast recommendations in the past and still have my favorite “go to” for health IT but I have added a few more in recent months.

ThisWeekinHealthIT – this has been my “go to” podcast since Bill Russell started it in 2018 as a weekly show. In 2019 he went to a twice weekly format. And during the pandemic, he went to daily podcasts with an excellent and very timely Field Report series – interviews with health IT leaders on how they are managing during this crisis and preparing for recovery and the new, better normal. Many great lessons and insights have been shared the past few months. Kudos to all his guests for their incredible work and making time to share with others. And kudos to Bill for his ongoing commitment to developing next generation leaders. My firm, StarBridge Advisors, is a proud sponsor of the show and share in that commitment.

Digital Health Leaders – this is a relatively new podcast series started by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) a few months ago. Russ Branzell, CHIME President and CEO, interviews IT leaders on a range of topics.

Relentless Health Value – this is a podcast I first became acquainted with when I was asked to be a guest back in 2018 – my episode was “The Evolving Role of the Chief Information Officer”. But IT is not the focus. Stacey Richter, a healthcare entrepreneur and innovator, has hosted the show since 2014. The website describes the podcast this way: “The show that connects you with other health care leaders trying to achieve the quadruple aim of improving population health and patient and provider experience, while managing costs effectively. Our mission is to help transform health care by breaking down silos and connecting disconnected parts of our industry. The first step toward collaboration is simply knowing what others are working on and wrestling to overcome.” So, if you want the big picture on healthcare and not just IT, add this one to your list. And like Bill, Stacy has a special COVID-19 series as well.

And continuing down the beyond IT path, I have recently started listening to a few other ones: Continue reading →

At the intersection of racism and healthcare

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It has been two weeks since George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. Since then, millions of people have joined protests in major cities and small rural towns around the world to make their voices heard. They have said enough is enough, racism must end and real change is needed.

When the protests end and our national focus begins to shift, we can not go back to business as usual. The statements of support and solidarity made by so many these past two weeks must turn into action.

At the local, state, and federal level we must hold our government leaders accountable for change and exercise our right to vote for those committed to change. With the focus on police brutality, we are beginning to hear some major cities announce planned changes in policing. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has introduced his “Say Their Name” agenda to reform policing in New York state. House and Senate Democrats have introduced the Justice in Policing Act.

In recent days, we have seen many “white coat” rallies as well – White Coats for Black Lives. My social media feeds are filled with pictures and stories of hospital staff rallies – many of them organized by the residents. Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, UMass Memorial in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Henry Ford Health System in Detroit were just a few of them. And these are hospitals who saw thousands of COVID-19 patients in recent months. Truly our healthcare heroes.

In 2014, after Michael Brown was shot by police in Ferguson, we saw similar support. Students at 70 medical schools around the country organized a national white coat die-in saying it was an “important time for medical institutions to respond to the violence and race-related trauma that affect our communities and the patients we serve”. They lay down for fifteen and a half minutes. Eleven minutes to represent the number of times that Eric Garner said “I can’t breathe” as he was in a choke hold by police in New York City and four and a half minutes to represent the four and a half hours that Michael Brown’s body lay in the street after being shot by a police officer. And yet here we are in 2020.

These hospital staff rallies along with the many statements of support from hospital and health system CEOs are an important show of support but we also need action and attention to health disparities. I want to share two heartfelt CEO statements that were the most impactful for me. They are from healthcare leaders I have worked with and greatly respect. Continue reading →

Be a part of the change

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I have watched with sadness, anger, and disappointment the events of the past week. Amid a public health crisis and a historic level of unemployment that are disproportionately impacting people of color we saw captured on video the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of four police officers in Minneapolis.

I am a liberal white woman. I grew up in a white neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis. As a young adult, I lived in South Minneapolis and later North Minneapolis – much more racially diverse parts of the city. My sister and brothers, nephew and nieces, and their children all still live in the Minneapolis area. My nephew has lived for over 20 years just off Lake Street in South Minneapolis where nearly every business has been damaged or destroyed in the past week. But this destruction was not limited to Lake Street which you saw on the news. It happened all over the Twin Cities area as people intent on causing trouble and more divisions scattered to set fires and smash windows. As of late Sunday night, 270 businesses had been damaged or destroyed. It broke my heart to see that beautiful, diverse city so broken. And then to see that destruction spread in other cities over the weekend.

I am old enough to remember the riots and social unrest of 1968. I came of age during the women’s movement in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. I have been to my share of peaceful marches and protests over the decades starting with an anti-war demonstration in 1970 on the University of Minnesota campus with one of my high school teachers and several classmates. In recent years, my husband and I have showed up for women’s rights, gun control, and immigration reform.

While I have experienced sexism, I also experience white privilege. I try to understand racism and its impact on people, but I cannot fully understand what it is like to be a person of color in America.

As a citizen, it is our right to peacefully protest. Thousands of people are in the streets in every major city across this country peacefully protesting racism and police brutality. A small number of extremists are turning these protests to violence and destruction each night.

We are seeing the best and the worst in people right now. Continue reading →

Hospitals too are part of a safe reopening

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This past weekend was the unofficial beginning of summer. After 2+ months of stay at home orders and a few weeks of phased reopening depending on the state you live in, the images of large crowds packed in close and without masks at a pool in Missouri, on the boardwalk in New Jersey and at a race track in North Carolina were concerning. As I hope many others chose to do, we stayed home and had a family visit on our patio at a social distance.

We are hearing stories of super spreaders from Mother’s Day two weeks ago resulting in upticks of COVID-19 cases in many states. We see stories of a hair salon in Missouri where two stylists who were ill exposed over 140 customers. We see stories of no available ICU beds in Montgomery, Alabama where cases have reportedly doubled since that state reopened two weeks ago.

On Friday, the President ordered churches to reopen and threatened to override governors who refused to do so. Fortunately, many faith leaders acted responsibly and outlined plans for continued online or outdoor services until they are certain that they can safely reopen their doors to congregants.

News reports say the virus is still spreading at epidemic levels in 24 states and is not contained. This pandemic is not over. And it may be a long time before it is. So how do we begin to recover and safely reopen? Continue reading →

Year of the Nurse: We must support our nurses

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The first time I cried during this pandemic was March 17 when I read that in Italy people over 60 years old were being left on gurneys in the hallway to choke on their own sputum. Patients with coronavirus had

Message from Brigham and Women’s Hospital OR nurses: #StayHome

exceeded the hospitals’ capacity. I had been watching the news and stories from Italy closely in anticipation of what was going to happen in our country assuming we were just a few weeks behind them in this crisis. I cried then not only for Italy but for myself. I wondered if I was going to be one of those over 60 left to die if our hospitals were also unable to handle the potential number of very sick COVID-19 patients.

The second time I really teared up was when I thought about my daughter who is the Chief Nurse Practitioner (NP) on the inpatient orthopedic/spine service at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in the Boston area and reassigned to work shifts in the ICU with COVID-19 patients. I feared the worst for my family. That she would get exposed and transmit it to her husband and five-year-old daughter who both have very bad asthma and are allergic to almost everything. We knew this virus was not just killing elders. People of all ages and especially those with underlying conditions were and are still at high risk.

Most of the times I have had tears since then has been watching a nurse or physician tell their story on the news. Describing what it is like to care for intubated COVID-19 patients, helping their patients’ families understand there is nothing more they can do, and sharing the fears they have for their own families when they go home from their shift. I have also cried when I see the stories of family members dying within days of each other from this virus, many of them people of color who are essential workers who can’t stay home.

I have listened to my own daughter describe the days she was assigned to work an ICU shift with COVID-19 patients. While it was not the overall intensity of what we have seen on the news in New York City hospitals, every individual case she described was just as sad and heartbreaking. And the emotional and physical toll on the nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists was obvious.

On the brighter side of this crisis, I have smiled with joy as healthcare workers in NYC celebrate the 500th or 1000th COVID-19 patient discharged from their hospital. Continue reading →