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Leslie Mathew, MD, FACHE
Chair, Healthcare Management Programs
Franklin University
Columbus, Ohio
Q: Tell us about your current position and your primary responsibilities at your organization.
A: I work full time at both Franklin University and its branch campus, Urbana University, chairing two graduate programs. These include the online master of healthcare administration program at Franklin, and the MBA healthcare program at Urbana, which is designed specifically for global medical students. For the past two years, I’ve also chaired the faculty development committee for both universities. This has provided me with great opportunities to focus on ways to add value to the careers of other distinguished faculty members. I also am on the implementation teams of five other special projects at the university.
Q: What inspired your transition from physician to physician leader?
A: I immigrated to the United States in 1999 following almost 20 years of clinical and administrative experience in India and the Middle East. I noticed a great shortage of physician leaders in this country. My department chair at The Ohio State University Medical Center, Daniel Sedmak, MD, encouraged me to join the executive MBA program in 2001, and supported me as I served as his administrative director of operations. He appreciated my experience, but saw the value in my pursuit of an executive MBA to formalize my leadership education. I continue trying to pay his contributions to my career forward to this day!
Q: What advice can you offer physicians seeking to become physician leaders?
A: I hope physicians understand that physician leaders are greatly needed to add value to our healthcare management system. Healthcare executives recognize this need more than ever before and look forward to the active participation of an increased number of physician leaders. I would advise physicians to consider acquiring the business skills needed, and striving to better understand the healthcare business environment. An MHA or an MBA healthcare degree may be one of the best ways to attain the knowledge and skills that have not been provided in our medical schools. I also would advise being very open to learning more from other executives about the healthcare delivery system. Doing so will enable physicians to become valuable partners in any conversation on healthcare management.
Q: What specific skills are required of physician leaders in the field of healthcare management?
A: I can list a number of them:
- Interpersonal skills: leadership, helping and delegating, listening
- Information management: information gathering, analysis, creativity/change management
- Analytical skills: planning, technology management, quantitative data analysis
- Business skills: goal setting, implementation and entrepreneurship
- Techniques to step out of one’s comfort zones
- Stretching yourself beyond the world of healthcare (cross-pollination)
Q: What is the most recent skill or knowledge you have acquired currently benefiting you, your patients or your organization?
A: I have intentionally trained to be a coach, leader and speaker, and I have been certified by the John Maxwell Team, which has a presence in 160 countries. This has helped develop my personal growth and leadership skills. As leadership expert John C. Maxwell often has said, “A leader cannot give others what he does not have himself.” So, working on my personal growth has helped me become a better leader and coach. It’s helped me and others understand Maxwell’s credo: “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”
Q: What role has ACHE played in your professional development?
A: Since I joined ACHE in 2003, the organization has contributed in more ways than I could have imagined; not only in my professional development, but in other aspects of healthcare leadership. As a member of ACHE of Greater Ohio, I continue to learn to interact with healthcare executives other than physicians. And, as former chair of our chapter’s local program council, I’ve found leading the group for a couple of years to be a great learning experience. Additional opportunities to gain knowledge have come from becoming an ACHE Fellow, through mentoring others to do the same, and by organizing and leading our chapter’s ACHE Advancement Sessions. Further, invitations to join the Editorial Board for The Journal of Healthcare Management and to review journal submissions for the International Hospital Federation World Congress also have proven to be valuable learning experiences. ACHE has allowed me to develop a professional network of wonderful people, which actually led me to my current university position over eight years ago.
A Question of Creating and Sustaining a Culture of Safety
Across the country, healthcare organizations have been responding to the critical call to establish and maintain a culture of safety. But what approaches are being used to accomplish this? These physician leaders answer that key question.
Note: Responses have been edited for style and length. Executives are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
As a physician leader, how are you working with your organization to create and sustain a culture of safety?
Senior Vice President/CMO
Cabell Huntington (W.Va.) Hospital
When it comes to creating and sustaining a culture of safety, I think of the popular toy called a “fidget spinner.” The Joint Commission produced a diagram to capture the concepts of a patient safety culture and high reliability. The words trust, report and improve are encircled within a triangular relationship with bidirectional arrows between them to show the concepts visually. The concepts and words made sense, but as I stared at the diagram, I noticed it looked just like a fidget spinner. Once I envisioned the cycle in motion, the analogy was complete. A basic level of trust and security is essential before an individual should even consider reporting safety concerns. Reporting these concerns requires a level of faith in one another and in leadership that the report will produce actions to improve safety. Successful improvements build further trust and the safety culture fidget spinner revolves faster and faster toward high reliability. At Cabell Huntington Hospital, we are creating and sustaining a culture of safety by keeping the trust-report-improve fidget spinner in continuous motion.
Jeremy Goodman, MD, FACS
CMO
Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix
As we work toward embracing a culture of safety, we’ve discovered that we don’t have a common definition of what “safety” means at our hospital. Each of us views the concept through our own particular lens. We recognized that if we’re going to all work together on this movement, we need to be saying the same thing. We’re bringing together front-line staff and leaders to develop that common definition, decide how we are going to spread the word and then hold each other accountable for creating a thriving culture of safety.
John W. Henson, MD, FACHE
Chief, Oncology Services
Piedmont Cancer Center
Atlanta
Our organization, particularly in the oncology area, is taking a somewhat systematic approach to safety culture that can be summarized this way:
Concept: ED utilization by cancer patients can be seen as a relative failure of care when seen through the lenses of safety and quality. This concept does not apply to all cases of ED utilization, of course.
Quality Lens: Adept, coordinated management of patients who are prospectively known to be at high risk of complications or side effects could lower ED utilization. Patients would avoid the stress associated with ED utilization, while both patients and society could avoid the costs.
Safety Lens: When a cancer patient uses the ED, their symptoms or problems may have become more acute than is "safe."
Our Approach: We measured our cancer patients’ ED utilization and found that 43 percent of them visited the ED during the first six months following diagnosis. Just over half of those (24 percent) visited for a cancer-related problem. The statistics for each patient were then shared with that patient’s oncologist, along with a comparison of the statistics of their colleagues’ patients. Our next step will be to engage in a discussion about a systemwide approach to lowering ED utilization.
Karin Larson-Pollock, MD, FACHE
Chief Quality and Analytics Officer
Providence Regional Medical Center
Mercer Island, Wash.
Creating a safety culture is hard, and sustaining it is even harder. In healthcare, no one comes to work each day with the intent to harm. Yet, in the complex, busy and fast-paced world of healthcare, safety events happen. At Providence Regional Medical Center, we truly feel that quality is everyone’s responsibility regardless of role, degree or title. Everyone is important in our continual quest for optimizing quality and safety. My job as a physician leader is to help make it easy to do the right thing and give our employees (clinical and nonclinical) the education, tools and support to do that. This includes working with staff to understand how they impact quality, fostering multidisciplinary teamwork to develop and analyze actionable data and using frameworks like the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s science of improvement approach to identify areas of opportunities, and to test, improve and learn. Working together, across disciplines, with a shared goal of quality and safety, is critical for success.
Atefeh Samadiniya, MD, PhD, FACHE
President/CEO and Co-Founder
IRACA Solutions Inc.
Mississauga, Ontario
To create and sustain a culture of safety in healthcare organizations, I have designed and led the Canadian National Study of Interprofessional Relationships between Physicians and Hospital Administrators. Improving quality of teamwork and communication among physician leaders and nonphysician leaders is considered the most important factor in improving the quality of patient care, safety and even budget management. The focus has been on the role of physicians or clinicians in patient care quality, but CANSIRPH results emphasized the role of administrators, managers and nonclinical leaders too. Medicine-management, interprofessionalism and improving physician-hospital relationships are the main pillars of a healthcare safety culture.
Editor’s Note: Join us as WE LEAD FOR SAFETY. ACHE’s leadership development expertise and insight on safety practices, offers healthcare leaders the foundational tools to measure, build and sustain a culture of safety in the workplace. Learn more about ACHE’s initiatives to lead a culture of safety at ache.org/Safety.
NEWS & RESOURCES
2019 Congress on Healthcare Leadership | March 4–7, 2019
Each year, ACHE’s Congress on Healthcare Leadership attracts the best and brightest healthcare leaders. Join executives from a variety of healthcare settings, March 4–7, 2019, at the Hilton Chicago/Palmer House Hilton.
Identify the strategies and skills needed to be an effective physician leader at the Physician Executive Forum Session, The Future of Physician Leadership, Wednesday, March 6, 8:45–10:15 a.m. This panel discussion, moderated by Carson F. Dye, FACHE, president and CEO, Exceptional Leadership LLC, Toledo, Ohio, and Hoyt Burdick, MD, FACHE, senior vice president and CMO, Cabell Huntington (W.Va.) Hospital, and chair, Physician Leadership Forum Committee, will cover challenges and solutions to overcoming barriers as a physician executive.
Be inspired at Congress.
Registration Opens Nov. 13
Visit ache.org/Congress
Your Partner for Physician Leadership Development
Visit ache.org/PhysicianLeader, a microsite dedicated to addressing the interests and needs of physician executives. The site offers a wealth of resources about ACHE education and membership, as well as books, career development tools and so much more.
Save Time and Money With ACHE’s Self-Study Program
Earn six ACHE Qualified Education credits by completing a course through the ACHE Self-Study Program. Self-study courses are portable and ready for you anytime—at home, in the office and beyond. Topics include finance, human resources, leadership and management. Take advantage of ACHE's special offer: Purchase one self-study course and receive a second course for 50 percent off. Review a list of available courses and corresponding Health Administration Press books and place an order here.
Mentorship
As you progress in your role as a physician leader, consider using a mentor to further your career development. Learn more about finding a mentor or becoming a mentor yourself at the Executive Coaches Directory.
Connect With Forum Members
Looking to connect with your Forum colleagues? You can locate them at the ACHE Member Directory. Scroll down to the "CEO Circle/Forums" drop-down menu, select "Physician Executives Forum" and look for the "PE" icon beside their name.
Liz Catalano
Marketing Specialist, Member Services
American College of Healthcare Executives
300 S. Riverside Plaza, Suite 1900
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 424-9374
ecatalano@ache.org
Erika M. Joyce, CAE
Assistant Director, Member Services
American College of Healthcare Executives
300 S. Riverside Plaza, Suite 1900
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 424-9373
ejoyce@ache.org
NETWORKING
Connect with your peers and expand your social network with ACHE.
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Career Management Network
Tell a Colleague About ACHE's Physician Executives Forum
Encourage your fellow ACHE physician executive colleagues to join the Physician Executives Forum by sharing this link to the Physician Executives Forum area of ache.org where they can apply immediately and conveniently.
Please note that any views or opinions presented in this online newsletter are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ACHE.