Becker's 11th Annual Meeting: 3 Questions with Tesha Montgomery, Vice President of Access and Operations for Houston Methodist

Tesha Montgomery, RN, MHA, FACHE, serves as Vice President of Access and Operations for Houston Methodist.

On April 6th, Tesha will give a presentation on "Building a Center for Innovation / Changing to a Culture of Innovation" 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 Tesha's session, click here.

Question: What's one lesson you learned early in your career that has helped you lead in healthcare?

Tesha Montgomery: One lesson I have learned is every decision made as a leader impacts the patient, and when you keep the patient’s needs at the forefront, the right decision will be made. Great leaders in healthcare understand the ultimate purpose of their role and recognize even if they don’t personally have direct interactions with patients on a regular basis, their decisions will.

Q: Where do you go for inspiration and fresh ideas?

TM: I escape from the office and routine meetings and go in the trenches with our front-line staff and see what our patients are experiencing first-hand. It’s amazing the number of ideas I’m able to generate after shadowing the appointment office listening to calls, sitting in the clinics observing the flow, talking directly with our nurses, medical assistants, referral coordinators, and even shadowing providers. As leaders, it can be eye-opening to ascertain how things actually work under normal circumstances and experience the actual journey of our patients. Those moments, inspire me to make it better.

Q: Healthcare has had calls for disruption, innovation and transformation for years now. Do you feel we are seeing that change? Why or why not?

TM: Yes, I do feel we are beginning to see innovation and disruption within healthcare, and our patients are demanding it. Healthcare has been slower than other industries with the overall adoption of technological advances. However, we are seeing a breakthrough. When I look at the expansion of virtual medicine, on-demand care options, enhanced patient texting for communication, the use of artificial intelligence and robotic process automation, I would definitely say this change is happening. Maybe not as fast as we need it to, but the shift is here and will continue. I see it daily with the positive impact our own Center for Innovation is making for our patients and staff…come to our session to hear more!

"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."

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