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3 Ways CEOs Can Help Humanize Healthcare

Analysis  |  By Melanie Blackman  
   June 24, 2022

Top executives recently convened to share ways they personalize healthcare for their organization's workforce, patients, and the broader community.

During the recent HealthLeaders CEO Exchange in Napa, California, healthcare CEOs discussed ways they are addressing workforce vitality, change management, disruptors in healthcare, and promoting health equity and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Humanizing healthcare was a common thread weaved throughout the challenges and solutions shared during the discussion. Here are three takeaways that executives shared to make healthcare more personal for their hospital and health system's workforce, patients, and broader community.

1. Embrace vulnerability and open communication

Executives discussed creating an organizational culture that embraces vulnerability, including how leaders can be more personable with the workforce and keep communication open.

One executive said organizations can conduct virtual calls or in-person "no-agenda" lunch meetings for leaders and staff to share personal stories, get to know one another, and to have open dialogue about what's going on in their lives.

Ways leaders can keep communication open with the workforce can include sending out a weekly five-minute video to staff to check in and keep them updated on organizational news. Leaders can also use this as an opportunity to start conversations around staff member mental health and well-being, as well as share available resources.

Several leaders shared that their organizations are intentional about not only having leaders round to help out, but to also create a stronger connection with the frontline staff and creating more opportunities for feedback and open communication. During rounding, the leaders not only help with tasks, they also talk to the workers, asking questions to find out more about staff members' professional and personal lives, and how they can help.

2. Learn from and accept imperfection

To fail is part of the human experience. Executives spoke about the importance of acknowledging failures as a learning opportunity. One leader said leadership should share their "spectacular failures" and use them as lessons about why an initiative didn't work and look for solutions and strategies to move toward success.

Another executive talked about using pilot programs instead of waiting for an initiative to work perfectly before rolling it out. This can save time and introduce new programs in the organizations at an earlier time, when the need is still prevalent. It also gives leaders and staff the opportunity to share feedback about what works and what doesn't in the initiative, and how to address those issues with a faster, streamlined strategy.

One executive shared that their organization adopted an agile-adaptive thought process, in which they rapidly learn, fail, and fix initiatives while they are rolled out.

It's also important to reach out and learn from people from other industries, an executive shared, which can create more learning opportunities and present different points of view.

3. Promote collaboration and partnership

Another way CEOs can help to humanize healthcare is to create an environment that fosters collaboration with staff members, health organizations, community resources, and the communities they serve.

Another executive mentioned that hiring diverse staff created more opportunities for new leaders, new business, and collaboration on organizational strategies.

Executives shared that hospitals and health systems should partner with outside organizations to promote health equity and connect with the communities to create health equity and DEI initiatives. This can include convening community teams such as banks, educational institutions, politicians, and community resources. Addressing healthcare access will also create community trust in the hospital and health system's workforce.

Hospitals and health systems should also look at other systems as potential partners and less as competition when it comes to serving their communities' needs. Not every organization can succeed in every area, so creating partnerships and joint ventures are ways to help create and maintain healthcare accessibility.

One executive spoke about the opportunity to partner with independent physician groups to grow the organization's footprint. This can also help independent physician groups who want to avoid private equity transactions.

Another executive said that when provider organizations partner to meet the community's needs, it also can help mitigate competition with disruptors. One executive said community partnerships can create strong relationships between organizations to help address larger initiatives to address healthcare access and disparity, health equity, and social determinants of health.

Stay tuned in the coming days and weeks for more key takeaways from the CEO Exchange.

The HealthLeaders Exchange is an executive community for sharing ideas, solutions, and insights. Please join the community at our LinkedIn page.

To inquire about attending a HealthLeaders Exchange event, email us at exchange@healthleadersmedia.com.

Melanie Blackman is a contributing editor for strategy, marketing, and human resources at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.


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