What 1 Florida hospital CEO learned from Southwest Airlines

Shane Bedward has served as CEO of AdventHealth Dade City (Fla.) for about a month, but his time with the hospital’s parent organization, Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth, spans a decade. 

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He joined AdventHealth in 2014 as a human resources management resident and has since held roles such as manager of employee experience, director of organizational development, administrative director of operations and assistant vice president of operations. Before assuming his current role on Nov. 17, Mr. Bedward was hospital administrator for AdventHealth Dade City and previously served as COO of AdventHealth Zephyrhills (Fla.) and AdventHealth Dade City.

In his new role, Mr. Bedward told Becker’s he is focused on issues like behavioral healthcare, team relationships and organizational culture. He discussed these priorities and offered his perspective on the industry.

Editor’s note: This is a regular series of conversations with CEOs of the nation’s hospitals and health systems. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Question: What is something the healthcare industry isn’t talking about enough?  

Shane Bedward: We’re not talking about behavioral health enough, and what that means for a community with the epidemic of mental health. And as a health system, we are focused on how we can continue to partner with our community outreach, our law enforcement, emergency medical services and other agencies out there to figure out how we can manage these patients better. How do we provide the services that they need? And then, how do we connect with those outreach programs once they go back into the community, so we can make sure that they’re set up for success in their lives.

Q: What is an industry or business outside of healthcare that you think we could take notes from?  

SB: The airline industry. One of them that’s really doing this well is Southwest. And I was reading an article from their CEO that says the most important thing that’s really driven their culture is their people and then their customers. It’s an interesting take, because you hear all the time that the patient is first in the healthcare industry. And then there is an airline industry that says no, we’re going to take care of [our] people. By taking care of [their] people, their people will take care of their customers, driving experience.

And it really begs the question, even for me, as CEO of Dade City: How do we drive experience? Because we care for people through people. If we’re going to bring a differentiated experience into our hospital, we have to take culture to the next level. And I think that’s just fascinating.

Q: If you could go back in time 10 years, what would you tell yourself to start doing, or start learning about? What ended up being a bigger deal than it might have seemed at one point?  

SB: One of my first jobs in healthcare was as a pharmacy technician. And I became a lead at a company. And as a lead, I started overseeing people. And I think one of the things I learned from that experience is that before people can buy into your vision, they have to buy into your leadership. And that’s one thing that I’ve taken away, that I focus on building a relationship with my team, encouraging those leaders to build relationships with their team, build a strong foundation of trust and authenticity. Lead yourself, then people will buy into your vision. So, 10 years ago plus, I learned that lesson and used that as a framework for how I lead my team today.

Q: What are you reading up on now to prepare for the next three to 10 years? 

SB: I am reading about how to differentiate ourselves in healthcare — specifically around experience and technology — and how we use technology to augment our services, to scale, and to make sure that our services are able to not only provide for the patients that we see today, but also the patients of tomorrow. From an experience perspective, we have to be more nimble and more understanding that patients want to be part of the care experience. They no longer just want to be pulled on the journey, but part of the journey. And how do we integrate using MyChart Bedside and those tools at the bedside to make sure that the patient knows exactly what the next steps are, and include them in their care journey? So when they go back home, they know exactly how to continue that remedy — the discharge process — making sure that they’re driving their health from a wellness perspective that hopefully will prevent them from re-entering the hospital in the future.

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