Jaspal Singh, MD, MHA, MHS, FCCP, FCCM, serves as Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine Physician for Atrium Health.
On April 2nd, Dr. Singh will speak at Becker's Hospital Review 10th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place April 1-4, 2019 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Dr. Singh's session, click here.
Question: What do innovators/entrepreneurs from outside healthcare need to better understand about hospital and health system leaders?
Jaspal Singh: Innovation needs to be of significant value while not putting patients and populations at undue risk. For health system leaders, this is also true for any type of system-wide innovation; every decision requires a deep appreciation of the downstream implications including potential risks of the innovation. Ideally, this would include testing innovation in an unbiased manner.
Q: Tell us about the last meaningful interaction you had with a patient.
JS: I have been blessed that meaningful interactions occur daily in my practice, and patients and their families are forever the best teachers in healthcare. I will not forget last year though when, during a highly stressful situation around 2am, a patient’s family was not enamored with my bedside manner. The next day, the wife of the patient praised my technical skill, but let me know that I notably lacked warmth and compassion in that critical moment for them. I felt I had let them down, and the patient’s wife told me something I will never forget: “remember as a Doctor you are always on stage.” Even though I had practiced medicine for over 15 years by that time, at that moment she was my teacher. She was right, and leaders need to also be mindful of how powerful words and emotions are no matter how tense the situation. I am always thankful for that reminder and for the numerous experiences I get to share with my patients and their families.
Q: Can you share some praise with us about people you work with? What does greatness look like to you when it comes to your team?
JS: I work with some people that simply inspire me to be better all-around, as a physician and human being. My wife is a primary care doctor for a medically underserved practice, where she and her colleagues teach future physicians how to deliver high-quality, compassionate medical care no matter how limited the resources, how high the expectations, and how challenging the circumstances. Just doing this day in and day out shows greatness. From a healthcare leadership perspective, I have the privilege to work with our leaders of the Levine Cancer Institute, who truly aim to deliver high-quality cancer care to a region, including helping some of the most disadvantaged individuals have access to state-of-the-art care. Such concepts seem daunting, but with leadership, commitment, skills and teamwork, I leave some days feeling inspired to simply be a part of that and working with such colleagues. So in essence, greatness seems the ability to bring out the best in you and your team.