Becker's Hospital Review

57 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Christus Health CNO Debi Pasley on why healthcare isn't innovating faster By Kelly Gooch D ebi Pasley, RN, is system senior vice president and CNO of Irving, Tex- as-based Christus Health, a system with more than 600 facilities, including more than 60 hospitals and long-term care facilities. She became permanent CNO in January 2017 aer serving as interim CNO since August 2016. In her role, she leads nursing strategy across the system, which operates hospitals in Tex- as and two other U.S. states, Mexico, Chile and Colombia. Becker's caught up with Ms. Pasley to discuss the primary initiative she will focus on this year and her view on healthcare innovation. Question: What do innovators and entrepreneurs need to better under- stand about health system leaders? Debi Pasley: Reimbursement for what we do has been and continues to diminish. We can no longer afford to expend resources on bright and shiny toys. We must prioritize our goals and not be distracted by those with a great idea or product which does not address our identi- fied priorities. If we are to be effective stewards of the resources entrusted to us, we must stay focused and address those initiatives most im- portant to operations and strategy. Potential innovators/entrepreneurs must first under- stand the need at hand. Q: What strategic initiative will de- mand the most of your time and en- ergy in 2019? DP: My extraordinary team and I will spend much of our year improving upon the model of care we have developed for our acute care environments. e model has shown great promise, but just having enough people at the bedside is not sufficient. We must also con- tinue to improve upon the quality of the care we deliver and ensure that our outcomes and patient experiences are on a reliable upward trajectory. at will not happen without well controlled roll-outs of the new model, careful and consistent monitoring of the performance, and course corrections as indicated. Christus is honored to serve communities and three states and four nations. ose communities deserve the safety and quality they trust us to provide. Q: Healthcare takes a lot of heat for not innovating quickly. What's your take on this? DP: Innovating quickly brings with it risk that we will harm those we serve. As tempt- ing as it is to reach for a solution that seems to have dropped from the heavens, exercising caution to assure a robust investigation and assurance that we will cause no harm is not a responsibility we can sidestep. n How Flagler Hospital's physician IT crew helps promote groupness & new technology: Q&A with CIO Bill Rieger By Jackie Drees B ill Rieger, CIO at Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine, Fla., shared insights on the health system's process to best define digital patient engagement to meet the needs of the consumer as well as his best advice for motivating teams. Editor's Note: Responses have been lightly edited for clar- ity and length. Question: Can you share your best advice for motivat- ing your teams? Bill Rieger: The best way to motivate any team is to con- nect them to purpose. We are all looking for meaning and purpose in life. If we can find a way to connect every staff member to purpose and mission and keep them connect- ed, we are half way there. The other half is to find every member's individual mission, or purpose, and find some small way to connect the organization to the individual's mission and purpose. This idea is called co-mission, and it is the most effective way I have found to motivate a team. Q: How does your organization gain physician buy-in when implementing a new technology or solution? BR: We have worked hard over the last several years to create a culture of inclusion, or groupness as our CFO likes to call it. Nothing is decided without groupness. We con- nect an initiative to purpose and mission, and as a group, including all stakeholders like the medical staff, we make an investment decision. Predominantly, for physicians, this is accomplished through our physician IT crew, which is led by our CMIO. The PIT crew is a medical staff sanc- tioned group given authority through bylaws to act as a decision-making body on behalf of the medical staff for technology related initiatives. Q: What is the No. 1 thing you wish you knew before taking a leadership post at your organization? BR: The power of good governance. I learned that while working here. I hit the ground running when I started here and topically understood governance, but not at a founda- tion level, and it caused me and the organization some pain. Q: How have you adapted to new patient experience expectations in the age of consumerism in the last year? BR: We have recently, meaning in the last few weeks, completed our evaluation of digital patient engagement vendors and made a final selection. We will be rolling this platform out and will go live when we open a new facility in July 2019. We went through a lengthy process to define digital patient engagement for our organization as best as we could, realizing it is a little fluid and needs to remain flexible as the demands of the consumer change. n

• Cover