Becker's Hospital Review

28 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP POPULATION HEALTH CHOP CEO Madeline Bell on why women shouldn't leave healthcare By Lauren Jensik M adeline Bell, BSN, is the president and CEO of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which made Forbes' 2021 list of best employers for women. She spoke with Becker's Oct. 14 about the notable ranking, as well as her conversation with President Joe Biden regarding the mental health crisis facing America's children's hospitals. Editor's note: is interview was edited lightly for length and clarity. Question: CHOP was named one of the best employers for women by Forbes. What protocols and practices do you think have contributed to CHOP making this list? Madeline Bell: First, I'm incredibly proud and was actually very surprised by it, and as the first woman CEO in our history, it's really important to me to have a recogni- tion like this. Our workforce is 77 percent female. So it really makes me proud that we got the recognition, and I think it's the result of several things. ere are programs that we have here at CHOP that are really focused on improving the experience that women have here, such as really good paid parental leave programs, breastfeeding support. We have breastfeeding pods and rooms everywhere. [We have] our women's employee resource group and lots of wellness programs that en- courage work-life balance. When I became CEO six years ago, there weren't women in the executive ranks. ere were just a few. And so now we're at almost 60 percent women in our executive ranks and 63 percent women physicians. So having that opportunity to show women that there's a woman CEO and there's opportunity for ad- vancements — I started my career as a staff nurse — so I think that's really important. And also diversity and inclusion has been an important part of my platform. So I would say all of those programs are im- portant, but what's really important is to have the CEO, the leader, stand up and say that we're a stronger organization with a diverse team and women representing our leadership. Q: What advice do you have for women in healthcare? MB: I would tell women, and I do tell women, to not leave healthcare. So many women are leaving the workforce right now, healthcare in particular. And I would tell them that there's lots of oppor- tunity and flexibility in a career in healthcare no matter what it is. You can be on the provider side, you can be on the insurance side, you can work for pharma, life sciences, health policy. ere are just so many opportunities. [My advice is] to not limit yourself in your current career, but to think more broadly about healthcare, and because healthcare is so dominated by women, and many consumer decisions about healthcare are made by women, having women leaders in healthcare is really important. Q: Why do you think so many women are leaving the industry? MB: I think part of it is the child care re- sponsibilities, and I really think this is a function of the pandemic, frankly. And I think there are two things: One is child care and other family responsibilities that oc- curred throughout the pandemic, but I also think that it has made a lot of people step back and really rethink their lives and their careers. As women do that, I want them to realize that there are ways to continue to stay engaged in a healthcare career, but perhaps to have more flexibility. Q: What are some of the trends you're noticing at CHOP regarding pediatric patients and mental illness? MB: is is probably one of our largest chal- lenges, the significant increase in children who have emotional, mental and behavioral problems like anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. It's a grave concern. In the middle of September, I had the opportunity to [partic- ipate] in a small group discussion with Pres- ident Biden, and I wanted to make sure I let him know that the pandemic has really exac- erbated a problem that we already had with children who have behavioral health issues. So there are a lot of things I think that can be done. We are, I think, woefully behind as a country in being able to prevent children from having such severe experiences with anxiety, depression and suicide that they end up being in a hospital. And so there's a lot that we need to do as a country. One of the things we're doing [at CHOP] is embedding therapists into each one of our primary care practices, so that there's readily available support for families. We're in the process of building 46 pediatric psy- chiatric beds. I wish that we didn't have to have a crisis center. As I said, I feel like there's so much we need to be doing to in- vest in prevention, but we're not there yet as a country, and so we're left with seeing and responding to children who have the most severe crises. Q: What are your top three goals and priorities for CHOP over the next year? MB: One of them is really focusing on an employer brand and focusing on recruit- ment and retention. We're also opening a new hospital, a second hospital campus, which is pretty exciting and can't come soon enough because all the children's hospitals, including ours, are very, very, very busy. And then on our research side, we're really doubling down on our cell and gene therapy strategy imple- mentation. So those are just a few things that I'm focused on. n "I would tell women, and I do tell women, to not leave healthcare. ... There's lots of opportunity and flexibility in a career in healthcare no matter what it is." Madeline Bell, BSN, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

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