Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1272398
66 Executive Briefing Sponsored by: The COVID-19 pandemic permanently changed healthcare. As healthcare executives recover lost revenues, reinstate furloughed workers and coordinate delayed services, their leadership must also change. Robert Porter, senior vice president and executive coach at healthcare executive coaching firm MEDI Leadership, said there are two paths forward. One is a traditional "turnaround" that maintains the framework of the healthcare system. That approach focuses on eliminating waste through cost-cutting measures that affect personnel and expenses. It's unlikely these measures will be enough to offset the unprecedented financial fallout COVID-19 has brought to the healthcare system. The second approach reimagines the status quo through "design thinking." Design thinking upends conventional thought and calls for a redesign of the organization's operating and business model. "It demands leadership of a different kind," Mr. Porter said, adding that leaders' thinking needs to shift from "what is" to "what is possible." In emergency situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, administrators need courageous leadership that embraces "what is possible" thinking. It's a leadership style that's willing to build and leverage new relationships to co-create a path forward. Designing thinking in practice Matt Troup, president and CEO of Conway (Ark.) Regional Health System, has first-hand experience with design thinking. To avoid a major strategic threat, Conway Regional Health System had to reimagine the organization's hospital-physician relationship. In 2008, fueled by an ambition to grow independently and have more of a definitive say in their operations, 30 Conway Regional physicians prepared to leave to run their own surgical hospital. The departures would have eliminated between 30 and 40 percent of the small hospital's revenue. Today, a sudden decline in revenue is a reality for hospitals nationwide. With major financial challenges looming, Mr. Troup recognized bringing the group back couldn't be done through transactional leadership, or "checking the boxes," but rather through transformational, intentional and authentic relationship building to move the team to a shared vision. To transform the hospital-physician relationship, Conway Regional worked through four steps to break the organization's status quo: Step 1: Rebuild trust The first step to transforming Conway Regional's hospital-physician relationship was to build relationships based on trust instead of power. Building trust is about communication. When Conway Regional was undergoing its transformation, Mr. Troup brought in physician leaders who were highly regarded among their peers for a monthly meeting to openly discuss the best path forward. He said the sessions helped "build relationships, build trust, and allowed us to demonstrate we had the competence and the character to be able to implement our strategy." Step 2: Equip the new model with skillfulness When crises like COVID-19 arise, intent is not enough. To build a high-performing team, hospital leaders must create space for team members to learn about one another and sharpen their team-building skills. For executives, this may mean "letting go of the need to control in favor of designing solutions where you share control, reflecting a commitment to the needs of one another in the pursuit of your common goal," Mr. Porter said. "It replaces positional power or coercive power with creative power — power that's created through collaborative decisions formed out of that mutual purpose and respect." Step 3: Create economic incentives that support change Resilient hospital-physician relationships require accountability. Conway Regional infused accountability into its physician partnerships by tying compensation to committee appointments and to the success of collectively achieving defined metrics. When forming physician-led committees, Mr. Troup said leaders must recognize committee roles are not volunteer positions, but real jobs. He said if physicians aren't engaging in discussions during committee meetings, don't reappoint them. Accountability, he found, supports the integrity of the new relationship. Step 4: Determine metrics to track success When setting metrics to track success, it's necessary to evolve from an organization that focuses on physician performance metrics to one that has all needles pointing toward hospital and health system overall performance, Mr. Troup said. "As we're establishing the metric, we'll talk about action steps that speak to the progress we need to make and the things we need to do as a team to gain headway on that metric," he said. And while the work continues and the journey is never complete, Mr. Troup pointed to their "most recent physician engagement score in the 95th percentile," as evidence that their new leadership approach is working. Bouncing forward, not back Hospital leaders have implemented several structural changes to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. The path forward is unclear. What is certain is healthcare can't rebound back to business as usual, but must move forward differently. The lessons Mr. Troup learned from reimagining the hospital- physical status quo at Conway Regional provides guidance for leaders overseeing their organization's pandemic recovery. Like Mr. Troup, leaders will need to draw from more than usual turnaround strategies to reimagine operations. More than ever, team-building, relationships and trust will determine long-term success. The road ahead for healthcare executives is daunting. But for organizations with leaders courageous enough to prioritize transformational change, the opportunity in breakthrough improvement will come. n New leadership for a new normal: 4 steps to break the status quo Leadership Leadership Leadership Leadership MEDI Leadership, founded in 2000, is the largest executive coaching firm in the nation dedicated exclusively to the healthcare industry. As a service of Navvis, MEDI Leadership works with individuals, teams, and organizations to increase transformational leadership proficiency and drive improved performance, faster. e MEDI Leadership coaches are known and respected industry experts with a unique blend of healthcare leadership and coaching experience. e coaches' skillsets, coupled with the proven MEDI Method that leverages transformational coaching, result in sustained behavior change and leadership growth.