The nonprofit health system welcomed a new CEO, COO, and CFO in January.
January was a big month in leadership change for Adventist Health.
The California-based, nonprofit health system welcomed a new CEO and announced a restructuring of the leadership team in a move to further support the organization's 2030 transformation strategy, mission, and associates.
CEO
Earlier in the month, Kerry Heinrich, JD, assumed his role as CEO, succeeding Scott Reiner, who announced his resignation in July.
Heinrich brings years of leadership experience to his role, having served as CEO of the Seventh-day Adventist Loma Linda University Medical Center, CEO of Children's Hospital and Behavioral Medicine Center, and having also served as the organization's legal counsel for more than two decades.
He has also served on the board of Adventist Health for several years and was involved in the organization's 2030 strategic vision to "grow care, health, and well-being services" for the health system's 80 communities along the west coast and in Hawaii.
"I have always loved Adventist Health's mission of living God's love by inspiring health, wholeness and hope," Heinrich said in a statement. "I'm honored to have been selected to lead and support this incredible team in this high calling."
COO
Todd Hofheins, who has served as the health system's CFO since 2020, will now serve as the organization's COO.
Hofheins has experience in operations, financial accountabilities, payer relationships, and strategy.
Prior to joining Adventist Health, he served as executive vice president and CFO at HealthPartners. Prior to that, he served as executive vice president and CFO at Providence, previously known as Providence St. Joseph Health.
"Todd has a strong history of building solid relationships and successful system operations," Heinrich said. "I deeply value his visionary leadership, wisdom, and passion for seeing our mission lived out in every corner of our organization."
CFO
John Beaman, who has served as Adventist Health's chief business and people officer since 2018, will now serve as the $5 billion organization's CFO.
Beaman has an extensive financial background, having served previously as vice president and senior financial officer for the health system. He also served as CFO at Adventist Health's hospitals in Bakersfield and Simi Valley, as well as hospitals in other health systems.
"John is devoted to making a difference and serving our faith-based mission," said Heinrich. "He is inspiring to me and to many others throughout our organization."
CSO stepping down
Additionally, the organization's president and chief strategy officer, Bill Wing, will be stepping down from his role. He is noted as playing a leading role in helping develop the health system's 2030 strategy and was "instrumental" in the acquisition of Blue Zones® and the launch of Adventist Health Hospital@Home in 2020.
David Dill and Rob Jay share details about the LifePoint and Kindred transaction, the launch of ScionHealth, and the organizations' future innovations and strategies.
Just before Christmas, LifePoint Healthannounced the completion of its acquisition of Kindred Healthcare, just two months after the transaction was first announced.
Through the transaction, LifePoint grew its already large footprint across 29 states, and now has more than 65 community hospital campuses, over 170 additional sites of care, and over 30 rehabilitation and behavioral health hospitals added from Kindred. The health system now has more than 50,000 employees and around $8.5 billion of revenue.
The successful acquisition also marks the launch of ScionHealth, a new health system based in Louisville, Kentucky, that will operate independently from LifePoint, with LifePoint's previous executive vice president of integrated operations at the helm.
ScionHealth's footprint spans 79 hospital campuses across 25 states, and it includes 61 long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals, which were previously a part of Kindred, and 18 short-term acute care (STAC) hospitals, previously owned by LifePoint. It has around $3.5 billion net revenue and 22,000 employees.
LifePoint CEO David Dill and ScionHealth CEO Rob Jay spoke with HealthLeaders about the LifePoint and Kindred transaction, the launch of ScionHealth, and the organizations' future strategies in a recent interview. The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
An Acquisition Leads to New and Unique Opportunities
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the need for more diversification and more service line offerings across LifePoint's continuum of care.
"We've now spent the last two years taking care of our communities [during COVID], and we felt it was going to be important to broaden out the service offering and that's what led us to Kindred," Dill said.
Kindred had three main service lines, which LifePoint saw as an opportunity to expand their service offerings, including long-term acute care hospitals with a significant footprint, a fast-growing rehab platform, and a behavioral health platform.
"All three of those service lines and service settings are extremely important across the continuum. We'll be deploying these services in our communities," he added. "It will bring more diversification, more resources, more expertise, all focused on keeping patients close to home for care, which is, and remains, the mission of our company at LifePoint, of making communities healthier."
"There's no question that quality has been important at LifePoint for years, and Kindred has the same philosophy. Taking the shared vision of expanding healthcare across the continuum while focusing on quality through partnerships just made it a logical combination of the two organizations," Dill said.
"As we began the integration of [LifePoint and Kindred], it became crystal clear to our leadership team that Kindred had a deep bench in a strong management team, deep resources, and experience and expertise, and instead of combining into one company, it gave us a unique opportunity to build two companies, and that's what led to the launch of ScionHealth," Dill said.
"We looked at the portfolios of the companies to put unique assets together that will allow both organizations to focus and use the deep bench of talent, resources, and expertise that both companies have, and kept those going," Dill said. "We were able to keep the company ScionHealth in Louisville. When we first started talking to Kindred, it was important that we were going to keep a presence in Louisville."
"While we view ScionHealth as a startup, when you think about the corporate infrastructure chassis upon which we're building, the 25 states, the financial stability that comes with it is pretty impressive," Jay said. "And for me, I feel very fortunate as the CEO of ScionHealth to have this as the launching point for the company."
"I'm excited that Rob is taking it; there's a great deal of confidence, there's a great deal of collegiality between our two organizations, to make sure that ScionHealth gets off to a really good start," Dill added.
"Starting from scratch and needing to build infrastructure, it takes time, exposes you to potential risks, and is costly, so we found ourselves in a unique situation to put these two groups of assets together on a chassis that was already there," Jay said. "It was a chassis of leadership that was familiar with these types of transactions, that was ready to do something different, and create something new."
"Another unique part of what we put together between the two companies is you had teams of people who had been part of buying companies and putting companies together. So, there was just a lot of familiarity with what we were trying to do," Jay added.
"We worked collaboratively as we planned for integration with the Kindred teams to make sure that we explored all the opportunities to make sure we supported the businesses," he said. "It was a very familiar process to a lot of us that allowed us to get up to speed very quickly, to get to closing, so that upon closing we could move forward with running the businesses."
"If you look up the definition, [a scion is] a twig or an offshoot of a plant. The other definition is a descendant of a notable family," Jay said. "So, if you think about those two definitions, we thought it was ideal for what we were building here; something new, but also strong from the two legacy companies from which it came."
Innovating and Strategizing for the Future
Both companies are aligned when it comes to caring for their communities and strategizing for the future, including launching innovations in a meaningful way and searching for further opportunities to grow the companies and expand into more communities.
"Innovation [is] core to both of our organizations," Dill said.
"Right before Christmas, we launched our LifePoint Forward innovation strategy, and we entered into a relationship with a venture studio company in New York called 25Madison. We formed 25m Health, which will be a company specifically designed to build companies by solving problems that exist within ScionHealth and LifePoint, and then we hope to be able to commercialize those," Dill said. "When I think about the learnings from COVID, being more innovative and being more diversified is core to our success."
"LifePoint and Scion are both going to have access to and participation in the business of 25m Health, so it creates an exciting and unique opportunity," Jay said.
The organizations will also collaborate in the future when opportunities arise.
"This is all about aligning both companies; it was never that important to me to have a big company. The size of the company never really mattered. Here's what matters to me and what matters to Rob: being the very best and most that we can be for communities that have trusted us to be their healthcare provider, wherever it is across that continuum. This transaction allows both of these organizations to fulfill the promise that we've made. I do think there'll be natural ways for us to continue to collaborate," Dill said.
"I'm excited about integrations like we're going through. We're taking a big business in Kindred and we've moved some assets into different companies to allow both companies to focus on what they do well. We've moved people between organizations, and that creates challenges and excitement. It also creates an opportunity to learn from new team members that are coming into the team and adopt best practices. Every time we've grown as a company, we've learned something as we've grown, and we can take those learnings to improve care at the bedside. I'm excited about the learnings that we will uncover here over the next several weeks and months as we integrate these companies," Dill said.
Dill added about future growth for the company, "We think there are significant opportunities for us to continue to deploy capital to grow and expand not just in the markets that we're currently in, but also grow and expand the portfolio over time."
"David and I are aligned on where we're excited for both companies," Jay said. "For us at Scion, it's an opportunity to take out a blank sheet of paper and start something new. I want to create exciting opportunities for everyone in the company, especially all our care providers. Going through the pandemic has been extremely hard. At both companies, we're going to make sure that we're taking care of our employees, our caregivers, and our providers because they're tired. We're making sure that—whether it's integration, growth opportunities, innovation — we're doing whatever we can to enable our employees, caregivers, and providers to stay in the game, to keep taking care of the communities, and honoring the commitments that we've made. Ensuring that quality care continues remains a focus for us and all of the things that we've discussed to this point will lead us to be able to do that."
"The intentionality around taking care of our workforce to enable us to continue to do what we need to do for our communities is something that both organizations are going to remain focused on," he said.
"None of this would have been possible without 60,000 caregivers around the country doing what they've done," Dill agreed. "They are the heroes of this, and they put us in positions to be able to do this."
"[I]t is necessary to be proactive and innovative in order to achieve strategic diversity, equity, and inclusion goals from a governance perspective," says WittKieffer CEO, Andrew Chastain.
The COVID-19 pandemic reinvigorated healthcare organizations' focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and health equity initiatives.
According to a new report published this week by the Health Management Academy and WittKieffer, while national health system boards have also turned their focus towards DEI and health equity, they're not necessarily equipped to implement their strategies.
In fact, the report, which surveyed CEOs, hospital presidents, and board members from 25 leading health systems across the country, found 78% of health systems surveyed have a systemwide health equity strategy, while only 3% reported having health equity expertise on their board.
Additionally, the study found that racial and ethnic diversity on boards "remains stagnant for most minority groups," with diversity in age and gender also trailing behind stated goals.
In 2021, board members remained predominantly white (78%); with a notably smaller amount of people identifying as Black (17%), Hispanic and Latino (3%), and Asian (1%)
In 2021, board chair demographics were also predominately white, (67% male, 6% female)
17% Black board chairs identified as male, while 6% identified as female
6% Hispanic and Latino board chairs identified as male
In 2021, the majority of board members were 60–75 years old (60%). 28% were 50–59 years old and 40–49 years and 75+ years old were both 6%. Only 1% of board members were 31–39 years old. No one was under the age of 30.
To change this, health system boards must make changes to board member makeup, goals, and recruitment. Among the health system's strategies includes "the push to modernize governance and better align with health system strategy is reflected in LHS’ top 2021 board priorities," the report says.
Top governance priorities include:
Reviving strategic initiatives following COVID-19
Recruiting board members with DEI expertise to help boards navigate the future of healthcare
Electing board members that represent the communities being served (including race, age, gender)
Activating system-wide health equity goals
Modernizing board structures to support board evolution
According to the report, boards should also update their strategies to include:
Setting goals around diversity
Expanding the recruitment process, including a focus on inclusion during onboarding
Updating governance policies and procedures
Updated board communication and education
Reviewing and updated performance evaluations
"Health disparities and inequities that have existed for years, and have been further amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, have put additional pressures on healthcare boards to improve their governance practices," Andrew Chastain, president and CEO of WittKieffer, said in a statement. "This report should be a reminder for most, and a wake-up call for some, that it is necessary to be proactive and innovative in order to achieve strategic diversity, equity, and inclusion goals from a governance perspective. This includes finding the right board members who can make change happen in a health system."
Participating leading health systems, who were surveyed "on a range of governance and executive leadership trends" for the report include:
Hoag's independence will drive the expansion of reproductive health services in Orange County.
In a joint statement released on Monday, Providence and Hoag officials announced the two organizations have agreed to "amicably" end their nearly 10-year affiliation.
Hoag will become independent from Providence and Covenant Health Network (CHN), the vehicle for the organization's affiliation with Providence to promote population health initiatives in Orange County. Hoag's independence will drive the expansion of reproductive care in Orange County.
The split comes 20 months after the founders of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian filed a lawsuit to dissolve CHN and end the affiliation.
"We appreciate the relationships we built over the last several years with the Providence and St. Joseph teams. This move opens up new avenues of collaboration in the future, as each institution brings its unique strengths to bear in service of patient health," Robert T. Braithwaite, CEO and president of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, said in the joint statement.
Additionally, Providence president of operations, Erik Wexler said: "Although we are formally parting ways, we will have other opportunities to work together on behalf of the community. We look forward to future collaborations with our colleagues at Hoag, whom we continue to hold in high regard."
HealthLeaders was told that neither Providence nor Hoag will be providing any further statements.
California AG reaction
California Attorney General Rob Bonta agreed not to object to the disaffiliation on Monday, citing that the settlement will allow Hoag "to become an independent entity," which will lead to the expansion of reproductive health services in Orange County.
In a separate press release, Attorney General Bonta said "In a time when reproductive rights are under attack, we have to take every reasonable step we can to protect and expand reproductive healthcare in California. The separation of Hoag from Providence will allow two strong health systems to continue to operate, while allowing Hoag to expand access to essential reproductive care in the area."
Hoag's expansion of reproductive healthcare for Orange County will include:
Pregnancy termination services in Hoag Hospital-owned facilities
The creation of a formal program to address family planning, contraception, and the management of high-risk pregnancies
The recruitment of family planning, contraception, and abortion experts to provide a full range of expert family planning services
The recruitment of primary care and medical specialists to provide the LGBTQ+ community with sex-specific and gender-specific healthcare
It was noted in the press release that while the Attorney General's office was "not a party to the settlement," the finalization of the settlement was "contingent on any objections from the California Department of Justice."
Past disappointments come to an end
In November 2020, Wexler told Healthleaders that Providence was "disappointed" in Hoag's lawsuit and effort to dissolve the affiliation.
"Hoag is an outstanding institution and has been part of superb population health growth strategies in Orange County, along with Providence St. Joseph Health, for almost a decade," he said. "In these changing and difficult times, and with an imperative to advance healthcare, staying together is, from our point of view, a lot better for our community than potentially separating and having cannibalization and duplication of services."
"It's disappointing," Wexler added. "It just seems mostly like a desire of Hoag to simply just have independence."
During an interview in December 2020, Braithwaite told HealthLeaders that Hoag's initial relationship with St. Joseph Health was "based on the premise that we would bring together the two organizations and that we would basically serve Orange County through a population health strategy. The first couple of years were challenging, but nonetheless, everyone was very committed to working through those challenges, and serving Orange County."
But following the 2016 merger between St. Joseph and Providence Health, Hoag felt it wasn't achieving their vision.
"We were trying to focus on Orange County. That was who we serve and who we were serving with St. Joseph's. [Providence has] more of a western states, national-type vision and orientation,” he said. "What we clearly saw was a lot more decision making started moving farther and farther away from Orange County, and so our challenges grew in many ways."
Now that the affiliation has been formally disbanded, both organizations said they will continue to remain committed to "meeting the health needs of Southern California."
Smith & Jones shares several trends that will be essential to healthcare marketing in the coming year.
It's a new year, and healthcare marketing is more important than ever. The effects of the ongoing pandemic have created confusion, fear, and burnout amongst patients, consumers, and healthcare workers. The way healthcare is delivered has drastically changed over the past two years. These changes must be addressed by healthcare marketers to create a stronger relationship with its organization's patients and consumers.
Smith & Jones shares seven trends that will be essential to healthcare marketing in the coming year.
1. Address burnout
Burnout is not a new phenomenon for healthcare workers. Prior to the pandemic, staffing shortages and nurse and physician burnout was a concern. This has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put stress on healthcare workers and the healthcare system as a whole.
Smith & Jones suggests that healthcare organizations engage staff and work with them to address and find solutions for their daily frustrations. Taking steps to address burnout will help your workforce and potentially help with retention.
2. Address inequality
Burnout wasn't the only thing brought to the forefront due to the pandemic. A focus on social determinants of health (SDOH) and health equity was another factor. Numerous studies have been released around health disparities and the disparity of racial and ethnic mortality rates from COVID-19.
Smith & Jones suggests to build trust with your organization's underserved communities by adopting programs to meet their needs. It's also important to help educate and support your organization's underserved populations. Utilize partnerships to address issues such as vaccine hesitancy. Recruit a more diverse workforce that reflects the communities your organization serves.
3. Telehealth
The adoption of telemedicine and virtual care boomed during the pandemic. Previously, telemedicine wasn't widely used, but due to relaxed restrictions, clinical healthcare workers were able to meet with patients via video chat and telephone calls for appointments that didn't require the patient to be seen in-person. The utilization of this technology has promise for a sustained momentum, with CMS expanding overage for telehealth and remote patient monitoring.
Smith & Jones suggests that healthcare organizations should ensure that all of their patients are aware that telemedicine is an option for their care. By utilizing communication methods such as the organization's website, social media, email communications, and targeted ads, healthcare organizations can educate their consumers and patients. Going a step further by making online appointment scheduling, medical records, and lab results are surefire ways to increase the virtual patient experience.
4. Health consumerism
Healthcare has become much more consumer-centric due to competition popping up everywhere. Now, hospitals and health systems aren't only competing with other hospitals and health systems, they're competing with retail companies such as Amazon and retail drugstores, as well as standalone urgent care centers, and on-demand virtual care companies.
Smith & Jones suggests that organizations lean into email marketing strategies and "consumer-centric, data-driven content" to build rapport and a brand relationship with patients and local consumers. Also focusing on increasing the virtual patient experience can help keep patients coming to your organization instead of diverting them to your competition.
5. Address fear and uncertainty
The pandemic has brought a lot of fear and anxiety to the population has a whole. This fear and anxiety can also be translated into patients' feelings about going to a medical organization during a pandemic. During the first patient surge, patients were told to stay home unless it was an emergency. Now, organizations are trying to get patients to come back and catch up on screenings and other preventable measures that were initially put off.
Smith & Jones suggests that healthcare organizations should be upfront about their COVID-19 precautions; advertise safe check-in processes, share airflow improvements and deep clean regimens, and any other steps your organization is taking to ensure patient safety. If you haven't already, healthcare organizations should also "uncomplicate" processes and simplify patient instruction.
6. Create first-party data
First-party data is data that your organization collects on your audience based on behaviors found on your organization's website or app, according to Smith & Jones.
Websites such as Google or phone software such as Android and IOS only share certain information with advertisers and organizations. By collecting the data yourself, healthcare organizations can gain a lot more information on their patients and consumers.
Smith & Jones suggests website registration, reward and loyalty programs, as well as lead generation forms to start collecting that data.
7. Build and maintain trust
It goes without saying, but patient and consumer trust is vital for healthcare organization success. By building and maintaining the trust of your patients and community, patients will come to you above other organizations.
Smith & Jones suggests that now is the time to double-down on implementing ways to develop trust. Create community through empathetic messaging. Support the community through in-person and virtual educational resources. Utilize social media to give consumers a look behind the curtain; share patient stories and the personal side of staff members going above and beyond. Make sure your messaging is staying up to date with essential COVID-19 information and other information patients may be looking for.
Nick Ragone, JD, shares how Ascension's marketing strategy is driven by the organization's mission and a strong focus on storytelling.
Everyone has a story worth telling, and healthcare organizations can utilize that tool to connect with their patients and consumers.
One organization that leans into storytelling is Ascension, a large nonprofit healthcare system headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Nick Ragone, JD, who has served as the executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer at Ascension since 2014, utilizes the inspiring stories of patients and staff in the organization's marketing.
Ragone recently spoke with HealthLeaders about how Ascension's marketing strategy is driven by the organization's mission statement to advocate "for a compassionate and just society through our actions and our words" and a strong focus on storytelling.
The transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
HealthLeaders: What role does marketing serve for Ascension?
Nick Ragone: The way I look at it is for marketing and communications, our job is to tell the extraordinary stories of our caregivers who are inspiring, and the patients and the communities that we serve. That's our true north when it comes to marketing and communications.
Ascension has a mission that drives everything we do. When most companies talk about a mission statement, they might change every five years or 10 years with a new leadership team or new strategic direction. But our mission has been with us for over 100 years, and it's pretty simple. It's to provide care for all, especially those in need, and to advocate for a compassionate, just society. From that mission flows our priorities when it comes to marketing.
My title is executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer, but I do my job as a chief storyteller, and it's a great perch to be on. It's a privilege because I get to tell some of the best stories in healthcare, particularly over the last two years during the pandemic.
HL: What stories have you been sharing over the past almost two years during the pandemic, and how have you've utilized those in your marketing?
Ragone: Over the last few years, marketing has been solely focused on gratitude for our caregivers, and keeping our patients safe.
When the pandemic hit, like most organizations, we had to reorient a lot of what we did, including how we market ourselves. We weren't focused so much on service line marketing or other stuff. We distilled it down to show gratitude for our caregivers and to make sure our patients know what we're doing to keep them safe and healthy.
It's two years into the pandemic and that's still the focus of our marketing. About a year ago, we launched our caregiver gratitude campaign, which has been an extraordinary campaign. We use an original composition from Kelly Lang, who's a singer/songwriter based in Nashville, and she was actually a patient of ours 10 years ago. She had breast cancer and has talked about it publicly. She wrote an inspiring song 10 years ago based on her experience with us called "I'm Not Going Anywhere." Last year, we matched it up with the visuals of our caregivers who, at the height of the pandemic, were truly a lifeline to many patients and inspired this campaign of gratitude.
We just launched the second phase of that recently, called "Hope and Healing." It features the voices of our associates talking about why it's meaningful for them to be at Ascension caring for our patients.
We track our brand awareness and reputation in all of our markets every single day through a brand tracker survey, and over the last 18 months, our reputation and our trust has increased by double digits in almost all of our markets. It has been very affirming that we've had the right approach of focusing our storytelling around caregiver gratitude and patient safety.
On top of that, we're continuing with this idea that patients want to know that they're going to be safe at your site of care, and you're going to make them healthy and well, and focusing on that aspect.
Those two themes are going to extend beyond the pandemic. We're going to continue to find vignettes, personal stories of individual caregivers who have done extraordinary things, and individual patients who have overcome the odds. We are blessed to have many powerful examples and testimonials of extraordinary caregivers and patients, and we're going to continue to use those as the foundation of how we storytell.
HL:What are other ways that you measure ROI and the success of your campaigns?
Ragone: The brand tracker survey is the primary way because it's quantitative data. These are consumer surveys of our brand strength, which is an algorithm of a bunch of things, but mostly it's awareness and positive attributes or reputation. It's powerful because it's a consumer survey, so it's not based on experience, it's based on your understanding of our brand in its specific market.
We also look at social media engagement. It can give you a directional leaning as to whether or not a campaign is landing the right way; with the attributes of the comments, whether they're positive, negative, or neutral, you can get a sense of that as well.
In the last 18 months to two years, all those metrics have been really positive for us.
HL: What mediums do you find to be the most effective for your marketing initiatives?
Ragone: We take an omnichannel approach and we look at it in two ways.
One is qualitative marketing, which is what I would consider more awareness. That typically tends to be what we consider more "traditional media." We still do quite a bit of television advertising, it's an important medium for us in all of our markets, and particularly during the pandemic, people have been home. We do a lot of what they call pre-roll on YouTube and other video sites, both TV commercials as well as online video. We still do invest in billboards and print. In some of our smaller markets, print is still important and very powerful. And radio, too.
And then the other part is quantitative marketing, which is more data driven and more direct to consumer. We have that great qualitative awareness and, now, underneath that we have this strong CRM-focused (customer relationship management) direct to consumer marketing, where it speaks to using data, and trying to then speak directly to consumers about what type of care they might need from us, whether they're at a certain age and they need a colorectal screening, or we opened up a new urgent care near their house and they should check that out, or we have these different service lines at our local hospital, or did they enroll for a primary care physician. It's taking that brand awareness and then trying to be direct with consumers and patients about how we might be able to serve their care needs.
Over the last year, we've invested heavily in that CRM digital marketing to partner with this qualitative awareness, and it's taken us from good to great when it comes to making sure that we're not just creating awareness for the essential brand, but we're then targeting consumers to a site of care or to help them in some way with their care needs.
HL: Since Ascension has such a wide footprint, what challenges have you faced in marketing across the different communities?
Ragone: We're in 19 states, we have 2,700 sites of care, so we do have a wide footprint, which is great, that means we can touch many lives.
As a marketer, as the chief storyteller, it does present challenges, and so about five years ago we integrated the marketing team. Prior to that, marcomm was spread out and each market had their own approach, their own team, their own partners and vendors. We integrated and consolidated that, so we have one marketing team now. Doing that has made it much easier for us to be consistent in the way we tell our story. It's consistent; it's the story of Ascension. How we tweak it from market to market is on the omnichannel approach in which channels we're going to pay more attention to or less attention to depending on the needs of that particular community.
Having a consolidated, integrated marketing team has made all the difference in the world. We're in a much better place to speak with one voice and act quickly and act nimbly and be effective as storytellers.
HL: How will Ascension execute its marketing vision in 2022?
Ragone: We're going to continue to tell the story of our caregivers through the gratitude campaign, and focus on patient safety and wellness. Those two themes are going to continue to be our primary themes.
As we build out this quantitative side of the marketing, the CRM approach, we're going to continue to lean into that. As we continue to hopefully get past the pandemic, our qualitative marketing themes won't really change.
We're going to become more familiar with how to connect with patients and consumers on that one-on-one level and refine that model.
Great marketing, to me, is like a harmony. You have certain notes like qualitative marketing and quantitative marketing, and when done well, you hear all the notes of that harmony, and when that happens, you feel it. Because of our brand tracker, and other metrics, we'll know when we are clicking on all cylinders on that.
Now, as we have this national brand, we started looking for signature brand moments as part of our marketing to bring our brand to life. From a qualitative marketing standpoint, it's not just about TV commercials, and at-home, and billboard, and radio, and print, but also now leaning into signature brand moments. One of them in September was the Ascension Charity Classic PGA TOUR Champions event, which we did in North St. Louis County, which has been underserved for a long time. All the proceeds from this event went to charities in North St. Louis County, The Urban League, the Boys and Girls Club, and Mary Grove, which takes care of abused teens. We blew past all of our modeling when it came to attendance and sponsorship, and because of that, we were able to give back a million dollars.
It has opened up our eyes to the possibilities of the power of having these signature brand moments, not just to raise awareness for the Ascension brand, but to lean into our mission to create some energy around social change.
The sector lost 3,100 jobs in December, despite an increase in jobs in the ambulatory services sector.
The healthcare sector once again showed little change in employment numbers in December, according to the newest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment report, issued Friday morning.
In December, healthcare lost 3,100 jobs. While the ambulatory services sector saw an increase of 8,100 jobs, it was offset by declines in the hospital sector (-5,100) and nursing and residential care facilities (-6,100), BLS data shows.
The healthcare sector employed 16.04 million people in December, with minimal overall change since December 2020 (16.03 million).
Since the beginning of the year, the healthcare sector gained 143,800 jobs, but is still down 449,500 jobs since pre-pandemic levels in February 2020.
Since February 2020, the ambulatory sector gained 66,800 jobs, while hospitals lost 95,600 jobs, and nursing and residential care facilities lost 420,700 jobs.
The overall U.S. labor market gained 199,000 nonfarm jobs in December, with average job growth of 537,000 per month in 2021, according to BLS data.
Overall, the economy gained 6.2 million nonfarm jobs in 2021, but still remains 3.6 million (2.3%) lower than its pre-pandemic level in February 2020.
Alisahah Jackson, MD, shares the population health initiatives she's led at CommonSpirit during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, her leadership background and style, and offers advice to future leaders.
Editor's note: This conversation is a transcript from an episode of the HealthLeaders Women in Healthcare Leadership Podcast. Audio of the full interview can be found here.
Alisahah Jackson, MD, has wanted to work in medicine since she was a child. She's a family medicine physician by training, a specialty she chose due to the work being across the care continuum. She wanted to be able to take care of families during all stages of life.
She also noted that it was the only specialty at the time that provided training in behavioral health and community medicine, as well as population health, a specialty she is passionate about.
Currently, Jackson serves as the system vice president of population health innovation and policy for CommonSpirit Health, a new position for the organization, which she assumed in June 2020. Her role is to help the Chicago-based health system develop strategies to care for their vulnerable populations as well as develop health equity and innovative care delivery models.
In the latest Women in Healthcare Leadership Podcast episode, Jackson shares the population health initiatives she's led at CommonSpirit during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, why it's important for healthcare organizations to focus on population health, as well as offers a look into her leadership background and style, and advice for future leaders.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
HealthLeaders: What has been your experience joining CommonSpirit during the pandemic and leading population health efforts during the past 18 months?
Alisahah Jackson: One of the things that drew me to CommonSpirit was the mission. Embedded within our mission is taking care of the vulnerable and focusing on social justice. To join an organization with that level of commitment during a time where both of those things were significant issues across our country was transformational.
Leading during that time has been interesting. One of the things that we have to acknowledge is that our work has changed. We had to shift virtually because of the pandemic, and I think for all intents and purposes, some of that is going to remain. There are a lot of things that we realize that we can do virtually, and leverage technology and digital solutions to help provide our patients with holistic care, and at the same time, make sure we're not unintentionally creating disparity or widening some of the inequities that exist.
I have been excited to help our organization focus on virtual patient navigation. We're leveraging a text message solution, with live in-person support as needed, to help our birthing people through their maternity journey and connecting them to social resources as needed. This virtual tool has had stepped into to fill a gap and help navigate patients to resources.
We also convened a Vulnerable Populations Council that is made up of clinical and operational leaders from across the organization, who are committed to taking care of the vulnerable every day. We bring them all together on a monthly basis, identify best practices, identify needs, and identify barriers that they may be experiencing, and step in and help when we can.
A great example of that is as the vaccines started to become available, we acknowledged that there was vaccine hesitancy in some of our vulnerable populations and in our communities of color and recognized why that might be. Through the Vulnerable Populations Council that existed, we were able to quickly address that, create different resources, even for our providers, to have those conversations with certain populations, and stratify who we needed to be reaching out to directly to encourage people to get the vaccine, especially if they were considered high risk for hospitalization or death.
HealthLeaders: Why is it important for hospitals and health systems to focus on population health initiatives?
Jackson: It's exciting to see that most healthcare systems and healthcare companies, health tech companies, and health retail competitors, are starting to focus on population health. I think if we're honest about what we have today, the reality is we have a healthcare delivery system that is built around illness and disease. We have a unique opportunity to redesign the system to focus on health and wellness, and as a part of that, making sure that that's grounded in equity and justice.
Right now, we are still a predominantly fee-for-service type of industry. What population health management is doing is shifting to value-based care, and contracting that supports the concept around how well is the population that you're taking care of?
We're definitely on the path and I think the pandemic has accelerated that in certain aspects around virtual care and telehealth that has broadened the way in which we can deliver care. I don't think that cat is going back in the bag. So, how do we continue to support that, and again, make sure that our communities, especially our rural communities and other communities that may not have even things like digital access or broadband access, how do we make sure we're working with partners to provide the patients and the communities what they need?
HealthLeaders: How would you describe your leadership style and how has your work in healthcare administration and your background as a family medicine physician helped define that?
Jackson: I would say my leadership style is more of a facilitative and supportive style. I am about engaging in conversation, and welcoming all kinds of different thoughts and opinions, including ones that I may not share. From a diversity of thought standpoint, that's where we can get to some of the most amazing innovation that we have seen.
From a family medicine standpoint, we take care of so many different people. Because we experience so many different areas within our training, and ultimately in our practice, we tend to be natural consensus builders and collaborators. Family medicine has helped me be flexible and be adaptable.
HealthLeaders: What advice do you have for women who want to serve in leadership roles in the healthcare sector?
Jackson: You are needed. We are needed, as women, in leadership, specifically in healthcare.
I often say and I've heard others say that women are the chief medical officers of their home. If you look at the data, we know that women make between 70% and 80% of the healthcare decisions within households. Depending on which data set you look at, we also make up close to 80% of the healthcare workforce. Yet, we make up less than 20% of administrative leadership positions within the healthcare sector. We are needed in this space; our voice matters. Especially if we're the ones making the decisions anyway for the most part for our families, and even for our communities, we have to own that our voice does matter.
We have such a tremendous opportunity to make a difference, and never doubt that. That's something that I struggled with, and still struggle with at times: Am I making a difference? Do I have an opportunity to make a difference here? The reality is we do, even in our day to day lives. So never underestimate the amount of impact that you can have.
Former president and COO, Lisa Shannon, assumed the role of CEO on January 1.
Allina Health has a new CEO, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based health system announced earlier this week.
Lisa Shannon, who previously served as president and COO, assumed her new role on January 1. As CEO, Shannon will focus on leading the strategic direction of the organization, ensuring quality care, and supporting the health and wellbeing of the workforce through the pandemic and beyond.
"Throughout my entire career, I have remained passionate about quality care and elevating the voice and expertise of those who are doing the work to deliver on our caring mission," Shannon said in a statement. "This is more important now than ever as we navigate this critical time in health care. I am deeply honored to have been entrusted to lead such an exceptional organization with a reputation for clinical excellence, commitment to community and redefining systems of care to include all facets of the human experience."
Shannon, who served as COO since July 2017 and president since September 2020, succeeds Penny Wheeler, MD, who announced her plans to retire at the end of the year in September.
Wheeler's tenure at Allina spans decades. Her career includes working as a physician, serving as president of the medical staff of Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and serving as chief medical officer for the health system. She also became the first woman and physician to serve as CEO of Allina Health in 2015.
Wheeler will remain on the board of directors while Shannon leads the health system.
In a previous interview, Wheeler shared her decision to retire stemmed from a combination of stage of life, as well as Shannon's readiness to step up into the role.
"When you have somebody internally who's ready, you don't want to stand in their way or lose that person," she said. "Those all influenced it: stage of life for me, and the readiness of Lisa Shannon, who I felt very confident in moving forward and coming into this role."
The organization previously put a succession plan in place which ensured a smooth transition for both leaders.
"While times remain challenging, I step into this role with tremendous hope, gratitude and energy for the future of Allina Health and what we can accomplish together to improve the lives of those we are privileged to serve," Shannon said.
Each month, HealthLeaders interviewed and highlighted women executives who work in the healthcare sector.
Over the past year, HealthLeaders has spoken to numerous inspiring healthcare leaders. Among them include executives from provider organizations, payer organizations, and consultants.
Every month, Healthleaders has featured women executives, who spoke about areas of their expertise, as well as shared their leadership background and advice for other women who are aspiring leaders.
Here are 12 feature articles that highlight some of the amazing women who lead in healthcare.
Johnese Spisso, RN, MPA, currently serves as president of UCLA Health, CEO of UCLA Hospital System, and the associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences in Los Angeles, California.
During her more than 35 years working in the healthcare sector, Spisso began her journey as a registered staff nurse and worked through multiple management responsibilities, eventually becoming a CNO, then a COO, and finally a CEO.
In this interview, Spisso shares her journey from nurse to health system CEO, and how she strives to be an "inclusive, collaborative leader."
Robin Hoeg, RN, MSHA, has spent her over three decades-long healthcare career at Winona Health, the only hospital in Winona County, Minnesota, where she currently serves as the COO of hospital and primary care services.
Since 1988, Hoeg has worked for Winona in several capacities, including as a registered staff nurse on the surgical floor, a registered nurse in home care, the director of home care and hospice, and the director of inpatient services.
In this interview, Hoeg shares her career journey and the best advice she has received: be bold and be humble.
Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, MD, MPH, MBA, wanted to work in healthcare since she was a child and has worked for more than two decades in the healthcare sector.
She currently serves as the chief health officer of Accenture, which she joined in July 2021. When she last spoke with HealthLeaders, she was serving in her previous role as the senior vice president and chief community impact officer at Ascension in St. Louis, Missouri.
In this interview, Duperval-Brownlee shares how her curiosity, questions, and servant leadership style influenced her executive experience.
In April 2021, Mimi Liu spoke with HealthLeaders in the pilot episode of the HealthLeaders Women in Healthcare Leadership Podcast.
During the interview, she was serving as the chief technology officer at FireFly Health. Now, she serves as the chief operating officer in addition to the CTO role for the virtual-first primary care, behavioral health, and specialty care service, based in Watertown, Massachusetts.
In this podcast interview, Liu shares her experience starting a new role during the pandemic, what she's accomplished during her career, and advice for future women healthcare leaders.
Carladenise Edwards, PhD, currently serves as executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan.
Her career has been defined by roles in various aspect of the healthcare sector for three decades, including starting her journey as a policy analyst for the Department of Health and Human Services.
In this podcast interview, Edwards shares the organization’s initiatives around healthcare equity, her accomplishments as a healthcare executive, and advice for future leaders.
Seema Verma has a long career steeped in healthcare policy work. Among her past roles includes serving as the former administrator of the Centers for Medical and Medicaid Services under former President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2021.
Among her current roles, she serves as a health policy expert, consultant, and board member for Lumeris and Monogram Health. Her newer roles also include serving as a board member for LifeStance Health and WellSky.
In this podcast interview, Verma shares what drives her to work in healthcare policy, her goals while serving on the board of directors for both Lumeris and Monogram Health, her thoughts on the Biden administration, and advice for future leaders.
Roxanna Gapstur, PhD, RN, has served as CEO of WellSpan Health, a non-profit integrated healthcare system headquartered in York, Pennsylvania, since January 2019.
She has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare leadership, having worked in group practices, academic health systems, and integrated healthcare systems. Prior to serving as WellSpan's president and CEO, she served as president and senior vice president at HealthPartners System in Bloomington, Minnesota.
In this podcast interview, Gapstur highlights two launched initiatives to expand access to quality women's health, mental health, and substance use disorder care; describes how the health system has addressed vaccine hesitancy; and offers leadership advice.
Annette Walker, who serves as president of City of Hope Orange County, has more than 40 years of experience working in the healthcare sector and has held senior leadership positions at some of the nation's largest healthcare systems.
She currently leads the expansion of City of Hope into Orange County by working with physicians, community leaders, and healthcare experts to bring innovative cancer care and research closer to the patient populations served by the system.
In this podcast interview, Walker shares City of Hope's expansion plans and innovations as well as advice for future healthcare leaders.
Halee Fischer-Wright, MD, is a well-known business consultant, physician leader, and president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). She also co-authored Tribal Leadership, a New York Times bestseller, and authored Back to Balance: The Art, Science, and Business of Medicine.
Before joining MGMA in 2015, Fischer-Wright served as chief medical officer for Centura Health's St. Anthony's North Medical Center in Colorado. Prior to that, she served as lead physician and then president of Rose Medical Group in Denver. She started her career as a practicing physician.
In this podcast interview, Fischer-Wright shares her career journey and her experience leading as a woman physician and CEO, as well as advice for aspiring future leaders.
Amy Compton-Phillips, MD, has only ever wanted to serve in healthcare, and she has worked in the healthcare sector for over 30 years.
In 2015, Compton-Phillips joined Providence as the president of clinical care. Among leading healthcare and value outcomes at the Seattle, Washington-based health system, she also led the treatment for the first confirmed COVID-19 patient in the country.
In this podcast interview, Compton-Phillips shares the health system's COVID-19 learnings, how to improve patient safety and quality, and offers leadership advice.
Indu Lew, PharmD, serves as executive vice president and chief pharmacy officer at RWJBarnabas Health in New Jersey.
A pharmacist by background, she also has experience working in both the pharmaceutical industry and direct patient care. She currently manages the health system's pharmaceutical supply chain and provides strategic leadership over the health system's 25 pharmacy divisions, spanning acute care and integrated services.
In this podcast interview, Lew offers insights on what this year's flu season may look like, how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the pharmaceutical landscape, and leadership advice.
Amy B. Mansue currently serves as president and CEO of Inspira Health Network, a nonprofit healthcare organization serving patients across southern New Jersey.
Mansue's professional background includes working in public service, social work, and healthcare. During her transition to the anchor institute, she embraced Inspira's mission and vision as well as the people focusing on the health of the community.
In this podcast interview, Mansue shares what it's been like leading Inspira through the COVID-19 pandemic, describes what her main focus points have been as a leader over the past year, and gives us a glimpse into her leadership style.