On May 25th, Derek will serve on the panel “Defining Culture: How Does a Hospital or Health System’s Culture Affect Patient Experience?” at Becker’s Hospital Review 11th 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 on April 6-9, 2020 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Derek’s session, click here.
Question: What, from your perspective, is the biggest challenge about the future of work for hospitals, and what can they do about it? (i.e. automation, desire for more flexibility, clinician shortages, etc.)
Derek McMichael: As the Vice President of Operations, I oversee clinical and non-clinical teams. The biggest challenge that my non-clinical teams face is recruiting entry-level workforce. We have experienced significant turnover in environmental services, food and nutrition services, and other crucial entry-level positions. Much of this turnover is driven by the low unemployment rate and rising wages in fast food restaurants, warehouses, hotels, and grocery stores. Many of these businesses offer higher starting wages than our health systems. Health systems are going to have to increase the minimum wage for these workers in order to stay competitive in the market to get team members in the door and subsequently invest in their growth and development to keep them. Despite the significant cost to the health system, it must be done to keep hospitals staffed appropriately to maintain our environment and serve our patients, visitors, and caregivers.
Q: What, if anything, should hospitals be doing now given economists’ projections of a forthcoming economic downturn?
DM: Hospitals need to embrace lean management systems. Given the decreases in reimbursement and a looming economic downturn, hospitals have to run more efficiently and remove waste from operations. First line caregivers need to be empowered to improve their work processes. These caregivers know their work the best and how to best improve, so they must be given a voice to help make decisions that impact work efficiency and workflow. Community Health Network implemented daily improvement huddles in all departments to source caregiver ideas for improvement. This has led to hundreds of improvements that directly impact operational efficiencies. All of these small changes can add up to big savings in dollars and time for our caregivers.
Q: What’s one lesson you learned early in your career that has helped you lead in healthcare?
DM: A key concept that I learned as a new leader is the servant leadership philosophy. I really embrace the philosophy that the leader’s role is to serve their teams by celebrating success, developing others, removing barriers, and empowering direct caregivers to not only perform but also improve their daily work. I feel that this leadership style is particularly effective in healthcare, as most people got into healthcare to serve others and the servant leadership style allows this servant mindset to continue as a leader.
“What’s one lesson you learned early in your career that has helped you lead in healthcare?
The greatest lessons I learned in healthcare were three things on my first day of medical school: “listen to your patients they will tell you what is wrong, don’t be over-enamored with technology, and give every patient something for their time of need”. More true today!
What do you see as the most exciting opportunity in healthcare right now?
With society’s obsession with technology, now is the time to harness cutting edge technology to facilitate the human interaction, not replace it.
Healthcare has had calls for disruption, innovation and transformation for years now. Do you feel we are seeing that change? Why or why not?
As the saying goes, “One person’s innovation is another person’s disruption”. Transformation may be the most over-used word in healthcare today. True transformation (dramatic change) will come from a grass roots movement (outside the corporate walls) and led by synthetical thinkers who by doing what is best for patients will find it is best for business.”
At Becker's 4th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, taking place November 2–5 in Chicago, more than 1,500 hospital and health system executives tackle decisions that determine whether organizations thrive or merely survive: protecting margins under cost pressure, choosing where to grow, renegotiating payer relationships, stabilizing the workforce and proving real ROI on technology. This is where leaders work through them together, face-to-face. Apply for complimentary registration now.
