Alena Shelton, serves as Director of Business Operations, Perioperative & Interventional Services at Rush University Medical Center.
Alena will serve at the summit "The Rise of True Efficiency: An Executive Summit on the Transformation of Hospital Operations" at Becker's Hospital Review 12th 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 in Chicago from April 25-28, 2022.
To learn more about the conference and Alena's session, click here.
Q: What are your top priorities for 2022?
Alena Shelton: My top priorities for 2022 are to stabilize staffing structures to meet health system needs while planning for future growth of the organization. Operations continue to be impacted by the long-term effects of COVID on both the health and wellness of our teams.
We must identify ways to recruit and retain staff, providing an environment that makes them look forward to coming to work each day. Our leadership team is dedicated to building a supportive and inclusive culture that focuses on the professional growth of our staff. To do this successfully, we must identify the right measures of human and fiscal resources to provide the best care environment for our patients and providers. Supporting the team to grow with the organization is extremely important.
While we put efforts into reinvigorating the current team, we look ahead to the future and the strategies needed to align our work with the organization’s vision and mission. Developing a blueprint to support our priorities and achieve our objectives.
Q: What technologies and innovations are you most excited about in healthcare right now?
AS: I am extremely excited to see how Artificial Intelligence fueled by machine learning will transform clinical and operational workflows, decreasing labor-intensive manual processes and allowing us to shift these resources into patient services and advocacy. This technology will improve every aspect of the healthcare system. AI will also allow us to more quickly identify and better prepare for upcoming needs. This will allow leaders to focus on the greater questions of how we must adapt to meet future needs, and what the impact could be if we don’t.
Q: What will the lasting legacy of COVID-19 be on the healthcare system?
AS: COVID-19's lasting legacy for healthcare will be the accelerated transformation of care delivery systems. Over the last two years, healthcare systems have developed telemedicine programs for services that before the pandemic would have remained the traditional brick and mortar operation. During this rapid evolution, providers have reframed the way in which they thought about providing care to meet the patients’ needs. This type of innovation continues to have a positive impact on healthcare systems by increasing patient access to care. Remote working has also positively disrupted the healthcare system by offering a new sector for work-from-home flexibility and expense reduction to organizations.
Q: What advice do you have for emerging healthcare leaders today?
AS: Stay grounded in your core values as a healthcare leader. In times of uncertainty relying on your values, purpose, and vision as a professional in this industry will provide you the foundation needed to guide your team forward. At the same time, stay alert to opportunities for positive change. Finally, be mindful of day-to-day responsibilities slowing your progress toward larger goals. And if I could offer just one piece of advice for all of us, take a breath, remember that what we are collectively doing is hard, but it's critically important, and it matters to every family who honors us with the trust of their care.