Becker's Health IT + Clinical Leadership 2018 Speaker Series: 3 questions with Greenwich Hospital/Yale New Haven Health System Executive Vice President of Operations, Susan Brown

Susan Brown, RN, MSN, serves as the Executive Vice President of Operations at Greenwich Hospital/Yale New Haven Health System. 

On May 11th, Susan Brown will present at Becker's Health IT + Clinical Leadership 2018. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place May 10-11th 2018 in Chicago.

To learn more about the conference and Susan's session, click here.

Question: Who or what are the disruptors that have your attention? Why?

Susan Brown: Technology presents significant advantages in the healthcare arena. Its use is vital to our efficiency as we care for patients and interact with coworkers. Not surprisingly, it can also impede the treatment we deliver and the attention we allocate to our colleagues during transactional situations. How many of us stare at our phones or computers when we should be paying attention to what's going on right in front of us? How many times do we ask someone to repeat what they've just said because we were oblivious the first time they communicated? To negotiate these disruptors and remain effective, we need to evoke an effort to "intentionally listen" as a core competency and to achieve true success. We must ensure that we look up from our devices, listen and be present in the situation, or we will not be able perform our roles with true excellence.

Q: How do you see the barrier between competitors and collaborators changing?

SB: Whether you refer to the concept of our new collaboration model as "cooptation" or to having a "frenemy," it is vital to align with your competitors so as to achieve successful growth in the healthcare environment. Our patient bases are identified as shared population pools, and working jointly with your competition results in strengthening mutual opportunities to grow. Embracing our opposition in project and program development transitions competitors into collaborators. Illustrations of sharing investments can manifest themselves as joint ventures and population health agreements. Cooperation lends itself to the creation of profitability of the whole, instead of splitting the pie.

Q: How do you define patient engagement?

SB: The HealthCare Performance Improvement LLC-HPI foundational concepts are based on three stable pillars: Do not harm me, heal me and be nice to me. Each unique patient's engagement will be reflective of their experience as they navigate within a healthcare facility. Whether on an in-patient or out-patient basis, a patient must first feel safe before they can be cared for and subsequently then be able to judge a satisfaction score. A handful of fundamental behaviors that can secure the patient's feeling of safety include the clinician and staff introducing themselves by name and title, informing the patient what their role will be, exhibiting a posture that is welcoming, intentionally listening to the individualis needs and ensuring observable accountability for their interaction with their patient.

The excellence in care we want our patients to experience, defined as patient engagement, is only achievable when we can identify with the individual and their family. Excellence exists not when we are doing what is expected, but what we do when it is not expected. In the final analysis, excellence in patient engagement can only exist if it runs throughout an organization and filters into every facet of care.

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