Speaking candidly with Glenn

I have always been concerned about how others view me as a person. I asked Glenn, "How do you ensure that when you finish a conversation that others have a positive view of who you are?" His answer was surprising. He said, "I don't view it that way. I view it that I want to let others know about who I am as an individual. The #1 word is respect - mutual respect. The first thing that I make sure I do is show respect. I respect the position and responsibilities that the person has. Whether a janitor or physician, I respect a person and expect the same back. For example, when a physician comes in, I need to respect that physician's commitment to his or her patients. In response, that physician needs to respect my commitment to my employees, the board, and the rest of the organization. Although the person may not like my decision, my hope is that they understand who I am and realize that I am being true to myself and my organization with the decision that I make."

Don't talk through your rear, Jonathan

Today I met with Glenn to discuss how things have gone up to this point in my internship. It was a great discussion, up until the point when he asked me what I thought of healthcare reform. I pulled some answer out of my butt that was fluff, I knew it and he knew it. It didn't have any substance, and he saw right though it. He didn't say anything about it, just mentioning that I need to be clear and concise about numbers and information. People assume that you know things, especially in health reform. Since you're in the industry, people will turn to you and want to know what you think about the recent health reform proposals. It is our responsibility to be informed and clear with information that is presented to them. In the future, though, if I don't know or can't think of a way to answer the question at that time, I need to respect the other person enough to say that although I don't know, I can find out.

Shadowing the CEO of UNMCP

Today I met with the CEO of UNMC-Physicians, Cory Shaw. Since the start of my internship I've looked forward to meeting him, especially since he took much the same track as me. He's an MHA from the University of Missouri who has gotten where he is obviously based on his excellent communication skills and understanding of the industry. He's also been lucky to have been placed in positions at a young age that typically aren't available. A couple of things that I gained from working with him is that:
1) Having a sense of humor is critical! Being able to diffuse a tense situation with a little humor is a trait that cannot be underemphasized.
2) Most deans and health care leaders derive power not from how much they make, but how much money they are able to allocate to others from departments.
3) There's an important difference between being productive and being efficient. Productivity is derived from how many hours you spend working. Efficiency is derived from the amount of time it takes to perform a particular task. We must never confuse the two.
4) Nothing's done by fiat. Therefore, you must have excellent communication skills in order to make progress with ideas, solutions, and implementation.
5) If ever I get let go by an organization in the future, make sure you say that I'll walk out today if you want me to, but if you want I can also temporarily help the new person get acquainted, all I ask is that during the time that 1) I am paid and 2) you purchase COBRA for 6 months. That way you leave on a good note and it gives you time to continue looking for other opportunities.
6) Although being CEO for a physician group can be difficult, it's a great and worthwhile place to be.

Cheating

Today has been a welcome and much needed slower day for me to be able to catch up on a number of projects. I've spent a large portion of the day reading articles for our health policy project, specifically from the Advisory Board and Deloitte. One of the nice things about using these tools is that the analysis has already been done. All I need to do is look at their assumptions, evaluate the recommendations, and present it to management in a meaningful and applicable way. It saves incredible amounts of time, especially considering that I'm involved in multiple projects and don't have very much time to collect data, analyze it, formulate a hypothesis, and write up a full report. It feels like I'm "cheating" at times, but it's definitely better than reinventing the wheel.

The Marketing Team

One of the nice things about being a CEO is that you have people working to make you look good.

And the people at NMC do a great job with that task. Today I met with a number of directors in the marketing department, each charged with the task of improving the hospital's image in one way or another. Since taking business classes in college, I've come to appreciate marketing's role in communicating effectively with employees, stakeholders, and the general public, and how difficult the charge can be at times. It takes money, ideas, and a lot more time then people usually realize. I appreciate the time the marketing team set aside to answer my questions and aquaint me with what they do.

I met with Annette in the morning to go over our plan for the diabetes service line project. It was great to watch the process she took in formulating a strategy for what we needed to know and what we needed to focus on. She basically made sure that we knew exactly where our revenue came from, what our costs were, what the payer mix was, and what patients were included in each "bucket". By getting this information as detailed as possible, we were able to start making some connections and inferences about diabetes center patients. I'm glad I was able to be in on the action during the exercise.

I then met with Krista who's in charge of internal communications. Krista is actually a former news anchor for an Idaho TV news station, and it's evident in the professional way that she talks, thinks, and acts. She communicates very well and made me feel very comfortable asking questions about her role at NMC. She moved to Omaha about a year ago, was hired by NMC, and since then has led a team in developing a number of marketing tools that standardize the message that management is trying to get across to patients and employees, such as a style guide, campus map, online marketing request form, and an overall communications strategic plan. She also gave some good advice on communicating well, such as remembering that audience members want to know "wiff'em" (WIIFM-What's In It For Me), anticipating questions and answering them, being flexible and not agressive when managing others, knowing your own strengths and weaknesses in communication, and making "talking points" that give you an idea of what you're going to say and helping others stay on topic.

I then was introduced to the data guru of the bunch - Debbie. She did a superb job in introducing me to the world of DRGs and procedure codes, and I was impressed with the excel spreadsheets she developed in order to create a number of reports that NMC uses on a regular basis. I also met with Nizar to discuss the Advisory Board tool that NMC uses to get market research information, specifically relating to strategic planning. He was helpful in getting some information for my summer projects.

My time with Leslie was full of valuable insights into the external marketing portion of the department. First of all, you should be aware that Leslie and her team has a bookshelf full of awards that NMC received from various organizations. She has a whole row of "Tellies" - awards that recognize achievement in local and regional healthcare advertisements. As you can see from the picture, they look a lot like Oscars (it made me want to grab one and thank all the people in my life who have gotten me to this point - I resisted the temptation). She was eager to talk about NMC's tagline as being most recognizable and the importance of creating a brand promise for the organization. I'm doing a Facebook/Twitter project for her and am excited to share my results with the team on Friday.

Keepin' Busy

I'm starting to gain an appreciation for advanced scheduling now that I've been an intern at NMC for a month.

Who knew I would have so many meetings, projects, and introductions that I would need to schedule them weeks in advance for them to happen. I'm almost starting to get to the point where I need to schedule dinner and sleep in or else I'd put those off as well. Of course, I like being busy...it not only makes the time go by fast, it also makes me feel that I've been productive. I realize that being busy and being productive are two different things, but I enjoy the feeling that comes from knowing that every minute counts.

As I look at my calendar today, I was completely packed from 8 to 5. I attended a Senior Executive Meeting this morning where we discussed . . . nice try Alegant - I'd like to keep my internship, thanks. This afternoon I attended the Clarkson Regional Health board meeting. Clarkson is part owner of the Nebraska Medical Center and also has investments in SimplyWell and PPA. A number of board members are on the NMC board as well, so it was a good opportunity to reacquaint myself to them. I sat next to Randall and had a good conversation with him about my mission to Russia and other experiences I've had. He's a great listener. . .he'll be a great Development director.

I also had the chance to meet with Paulette Davidson, the Executive Director for Primary Care Services. We discussed the general trends of primary care, especially when it comes to working with physicians in one form or another. There are 3 main ways to bring more Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) into the hospital: 1) Employ them by paying them salary, 2) Incubate them (providing an initial outlay of money for them to develop their own practice), and 3) Giving the organization that they represent money, whether it be a private physician group or academic-based practice. One of the big issues is that the demand for PCPs is growing due to the increase in the baby boomers' ages and due to growth in the area. This leads to more hospitals wanting to employ their own physicians, which demonstrates the current trend. NMC is actively seeking to build relationships with PCPs, which is the area Paulette is particularly focused on. The discussion with her was insightful and very helpful to understand the dynamics of what is happening in the current environment.

Lastly, I met with the marketing gurus of the ECCP 2nd floor. Man, I'm excited to work with them this week. They are bright, energetic, and full of passion for marketing that was evidenced during my conversation with them. I'm looking forward to shadowing them and learning from their experiences in the healthcare field.