Becker's Hospital Review

10 10 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP For Geisinger CEO Dr. Jaewon Ryu, there is a silver lining to the pandemic By Kelly Gooch J aewon Ryu, MD, has helmed Danville, Pa.-based Geising- er since 2018, overseeing a nine-hospital system with nearly 24,000 employees, about 4,000 of whom are working remotely. Dr. Ryu, an emergency room physi- cian, joined Geisinger in September 2016 as executive vice president and CMO. He served as interim president and CEO beginning in December 2018, before taking the top role permanently in summer 2019. Becker's sat down with Dr. Ryu to learn what is top of mind right now, how his organization has responded to the pandemic, and the bright spots of the last two years. Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity. Question: What is one question you want to be answered right now, and why? Dr. Jaewon Ryu: When will we be able to put COVID-19 behind us? at's something I know a lot of our employees wonder about. e ripple effects are far-reaching. It's beyond just patient care. We're seeing ripple effects across everything. I was rounding at some of our facilities and one of the themes is: Even when you're able to get someone placed — let's say they need to go to a post-acute recovery area — it's tough to get them transported because there aren't enough drivers for paramedics and ambulances. If you had asked two years ago, there's no way anyone could have predicted some of the dynamics going on. We still see a lot of impact from COVID taking place. Q: What traits do you most value in the people working around you? JR: I think it depends on the role. But I think some traits are probably uni- versally very valuable and helpful, such as adaptability. Being able to adapt despite ever-changing circumstances and dynamics and being comfortable with that. It's one thing to be able to manage through it. It's another thing to be able to embrace changes and be able to roll with the punches. I think that's infinitely helpful in a time like this. But even aside from COVID, giv- en where the industry continues to evolve, I think those are truly valuable leadership traits and general traits for our workforce. Also, being receptive to thinking about things differently. Rethinking routines is something we encourage throughout the organization be- cause the same ways we've been accustomed to doing things — not just at Geisinger, but in the industry — for the last X years isn't necessarily how we'd like to keep doing it going forward, or how we are going to be able to keep doing it going forward. Q: What is one thing you stopped doing during the pandemic that you won't bring back? JR: e automatic reflex need for space is going to look different. We've seen that whether it's in terms of office space or even to some degree clinical space. How we think about space use is very different. Every- body talks about virtual care, but even in terms of work-from-home arrangements, we were able to terminate 12 different leases across our system, and able to repurpose a lot of that office space into clinical care space. So, I think how we view space as an organization — and even as an industry — is forever changed. I don't see that one coming back. Q: Is there anything you started doing during the pandemic? JR: is has really opened the door for mobility in the labor workforce that transcends location and geographic boundaries. We've hired many people even from prior to COVID who don't necessarily live and work in our service area, but we're able to have them be remote. at has ac- celerated with COVID as employers and employees are more comfort- able with remote working. A lot of our folks are still able to maintain a tether to the community and the area. ey come in regularly — maybe it's several times a week, maybe it's several times a month. But I think that flexibility and fluidity of where people live versus where they work — I think that's another one that's not going anywhere and got kicked into a different gear during COVID. Q: Geisinger announced a vaccination mandate in August 2021. How did the mandate go? JR: It went better than we thought it would. We announced Aug. 25, 2021, and we had a deadline of Nov. 1, 2021, where folks had to be meeting the policy. If they were not compliant with our policy by Nov. 1, 2021, then we did end up terminating about 150 people, which, for us, ends up being about 0.6 percent of our workforce. We're on the oth- er side of that now, so everyone at Geisinger is compliant with our pol- icy. We may have lost 150 people, but we gained back people because there are that many fewer on quarantine. We're super grateful and ap- preciative for our folks stepping up to that challenge. Q: Any advice for peers? JR: ere's always a silver lining and there's always a glass half full. I think that's true whether you're talking about the mandate or even the pandemic. ere are things that have become possible as a result of the things COVID has thrown our way or even the vaccine challenges. It's made life more dif- ficult and challenging. But at the same time, it's a time to lean in and rein- force and double down on your values. For us, safety is a core value, and it was a good opportunity to remind our folks we're an organization based on science, we're an organization based in safety, and at the end of the day, that is going to trump. Do we like or enjoy or relish the fact we had to tell some people what to do? No. No one likes being told what to do. No one likes telling people what to do. But at the end of the day, my advice would be it's an opportunity to lean in and view the positive. With COVID more generally, it's been an opportunity to adapt and pivot and transform at a speed or pace that may not have otherwise been available. Q: Any other thoughts you'd like to share in closing? JR: Geisinger is an organization that's always been known for innovation in care models. In many ways, COVID — and how that's reinvented or forced us to rethink the care models and position us to think about which of those changes can carry us forward into the future — has gone hand in hand with what Geisinger has always been known for, and that's rethinking how we advance the health of those we serve. No one likes the pandemic, but that has been one bright spot. Maybe it's partly because back in 1915 when our organization got started, we got started as a result of a typhoid outbreak. In a weird way, it feels like we may have come full circle. e same dynamics were in place back then. ere were local ordinances about congregating, enforcing masking, and here we are 106 years later dealing with the same issues. I do think there's a bright spot to this that we as an industry need to take advantage of because if we only focused on the negative, then I think we miss out on an opportunity to make things better. n

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