Becker's Hospital Review

23 RCM LEADER 'The name of the game is all about relationships': Revenue cycle executives' thoughts on strong leadership By Andrew Cass F or Troy Spring, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health's enterprise vice president of revenue cycle, being a strong leader in the field goes beyond having the analytic skill set. "You have to know all the details, but the name of the game is all about relationships," he told Becker's. "You have to have good relationships and have the ability to build good relationships with your partners to get work done." He said it's important to get everyone to understand that they have a role in the revenue cycle . "From nurses doing documentation, to the charge capture, we all have a role in it," he said. "And you have to have folks that have good people skills and the ability to build good relationships to drive the results. You can't do it by yourself. It takes every player in the system to drive the results you need." Stephen Rinaldi, senior vice president and chief revenue officer at Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health, said he thinks being effective as a revenue cycle leader is similar, if not identical to the leadership traits that you need in general in any role. "I look at this as self-awareness, integrity, humility, really foundational characteristics of inspiring leaders," he said. "I think it's important to create that internal discipline for execution, for inspiration. In order to do that, we need to have a strong self-awareness and own our successes and failures." He said one of his favorite books is Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. In the book, the authors talk about leaders needing to take responsibility for everything in the world. ey say there are no bad teams, only bad leaders. "I think that's a really important lesson," he said. "ey also talk about this thing called 'cover and move,' which, of course, is a tackle skill used in hostile environments to move safely under fire. But in a business sense, it really means that teams must support each other through interconnected efforts versus isolation." Because revenue cycle touches all aspects of the business, Mr. Rinaldi said it's important to exercise those sort of leadership qualities. "You're not working with one department," he said. "You have to work across all of the departments. And in order to do that, you have to be humble and eager to learn, and be receptive and a good communicator." Sandra Johnson, vice president and chief revenue officer at Columbia, Md.-based MedStar Health, said strong leadership is about building a culture where her staff feels comfortable coming to her and letting her know what's going on." "We act like we're a big family," she said. "We look out for each other." She said the holidays are not always a happy time for everyone and she lends an ear if someone needs to talk. "I always make sure they have somewhere to go for the holidays," she said. "I always make sure they have something to eat for the holidays. I remind my staff all the time, if we're going to be a family, we have to act like one." Ms. Johnson said she doesn't want her employees to feel like they just come in and "work, work, work" but that they're getting invested in as well. "ey know I have educational programs, I have all kinds of things going on all the time because I want them to feel like they're getting something out of this too." n

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