The Exec: AdventHealth CMO Shares Keys to Success in Expanding Hospital Service Lines

Knowing your market and enlisting primary stakeholders early in the process is essential to expanding service lines, this hospital CMO says.

One of the top priorities of the new CMO at AdventHealth Celebration hospital will be to expand tertiary service lines.

Omayra Mansfield, MD, MHA, was recently named as CMO of AdventHealth Celebration hospital. She has worked in several leadership positions at AdventHealth, most recently serving as vice president and CMO of AdventHealth Apopka hospital. Mansfield has a clinical background in emergency medicine.

Part of the key to success in expanding tertiary service lines is identifying market needs and what the community requires at the local level, according to Mansfield.

"So many people have complex medical conditions, and as we consider how we provide whole-person care, we have to recognize that that involves providing more complex care closer to home," Mansfield says.

To expand tertiary service lines, a CMO must bring in primary stakeholders early in the process, Mansfield explains.

"There are key physician partners, nursing partners, and ancillary services partners," Mansfield says. "You need to have a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to expand service lines with high quality."

The participation of physician leaders is crucial when a tertiary service line is expanded, according to Mansfield.

"We want to have our physician leaders at the table to help us understand what quality looks like and to have them be champions for quality as we engage the other members of the service line team such as ancillary partners," Mansfield says.

Leadership is not a skill that is taught at most medical schools, so AdventHealth has a leadership development program for physicians and their primary partners. The program has courses that have been developed at the division and corporate level.

"This training is not only for physicians but also for administrative partners, so that we can build relationships," Mansfield says. "Physicians need to know how to partner with an administrator in a dyad to make sure that they both have clarity of purpose, an understanding of the goals they are trying to accomplish, and the ability to leverage each other's strengths."

Omayra Mansfield, MD, MHA, is the new CMO of AdventHealth Celebration hospital. Photo courtesy of AdventHealth.

Promoting patient experience

In addition to expanding tertiary service lines at AdventHealth Celebration, Mansfield has been charged with improving patient experience.

In the hospital setting, it is imperative for physicians and nurses to work together to boost patient experience, according to Mansfield.

"The reality is that if we work in nursing and physician siloes, we will not get a good patient experience outcome," Mansfield says. "At the end of the day, the patient wants to see nurses, physicians, and the rest of the care team working cohesively to advance their care. So, the RN-MD relationship is critical for patient experience."

One of the ways Mansfield promoted a good patient experience at AdventHealth Apopka was through effective RN-MD rounding at the bedside. In RN-MD rounding, a patient's nurse and physician work as a team, connecting in advance before going into the patient's room.

"They should make sure they know everything there is to know about the patient," Mansfield says. "They need to go into the patient's room as a unified team to the benefit of the patient. They go into the room and have a care conversation."

The nurse and the physician should talk about how they are qualified to provide great care, Mansfield explains.

"If the nurse has worked with the physician before and knows the physician is a great doctor, they should say that to the patient, and vice versa," Mansfield says. "The care conversation should not only be clinically driven but also demonstrate a sense of confidence in the team."

Prepared for success as CMO

Mansfield says her clinical background in emergency medicine has been instrumental in her ability to serve well in the CMO role.

"At AdventHealth, our CMOs come from several specialties, and I love the diversity in our CMO group," Mansfield says. "But for me specifically, what attracted me to emergency medicine was that in an emergency setting you want a physician who can remain calm despite chaos. You want a physician who can prioritize what to do when there are myriad variables."

Serving as an emergency medicine physician and a hospital CMO are similar in important respects, according to Mansfield.

"I started working as a CMO on Feb. 2, 2020. The World Health Organization identified COVID as a new pathogen on Jan. 31, 2020," Mansfield says. "It was the right moment to leverage the skillset of keeping calm despite chaos and uncertainty. That skillset has carried me through my CMO journey."

Emergency medicine physicians are good generalists, but they often rely on subject matter experts to care for patients, which is an excellent experience to have as a CMO, Mansfield explains.

"Part of the skillset of an emergency medicine physician is bringing in experts as needed to help inform and guide decision-making," Mansfield says. "Being able to navigate relationships and conversations is an asset in the CMO role."