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Speaker 1: This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast, and we are recording live at the fifteenth annual meeting. I'm currently joined by Tiffany Miller who serves as the CEO at Yocom Community Hospital. Tiffany, thanks for being here. Would love to have you start off by introducing yourself and telling us a little bit more about your background in health care and your organization. Absolutely.

Speaker 2: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me here. It's been a wonderful event. It's been a fast and furious twenty four hours. A little bit about myself.

I am a member of the executive leadership team at Yoakum Community Hospital, which is in Yoakum, Texas. I always give a point of reference if you know where the Shiner Brewery is. We're about 10 miles south of there. We're a 23 bed critical access hospital, so pretty small we're small but mighty. We have been serving in the community since 1922, so a very, rich history in the community.

A little bit about myself, I have been at Yoakum Community Hospital for a little over two years now, and my how time has flown. Prior to that, I worked on in the acute care side, then I moved over to emergency medicine and hospitalist medicine, and then I moved into population health, when I was completing my dissertation. And then I moved into post acute in LTACH and inpatient rehab before I found myself in a critical access hospital back in the acute care side.

Speaker 1: Wonderful. Well, thank you for taking the time to be here. And let's start off within the last twelve months or so. What's an initiative you've taken on that you are particularly proud of, and how has this impacted your organization?

Speaker 2: So something that I am extremely proud of that started about eight months ago and still in progress is we engaged with a leadership consulting firm out of Arizona Thunderbird Leadership Consulting. A little bit about my team, we had we've had a lot of train change and transition since I onboarded a few years ago and really wanted to provide support to my leadership team, in terms of how do we create a vibrant organization. Because as we all know, those who work in health care, it's constantly changing. It's we're there's a lot on the horizon that there are a lot of unknowns, and it makes it scary. And if there's one thing with with your leaders and with your frontline staff is employees wanna feel safe.

And especially when you're in a smaller community, it has a very it feels like it's very family oriented. So engaged with this organization about eight months ago, and the impact, we're just seeing it. It's starting to pay in dividends in terms of, like, I keep referencing the creating that vibrant organization. It doesn't just it's not just it doesn't just start with me. It's with every single leader across the spectrum because I I was saying if if this was easy, none of us would have a job.

And everybody plays a part in how that contributes to the whole. And part of that downtrope of what we're starting to see and the point that we're in with this engagement is is is going to start impacting the frontline staff. So it's the goal is to diffuse it all the way from the top all the way down to the frontline.

Speaker 1: And on the flip side of that, what do you see as the most significant challenge currently facing health care, and how is your organization working to address this?

Speaker 2: So something specific to rural and specifically critical access hospitals is the, transition the conversion from traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage populations. That really since critical access hospitals were cost based reporting, so that the particular accounting method so it's very different from a PPS type hospital. So when we do see that conversion, when the patients are converting from traditional Medicare to, like, a Medicare Advantage replacement product, it really impacts our bottom line, and we already run with razor thin margins. So part of what we are, where we're arming the community and the common lay person is through education around just informing about Medicare versus Medicare Advantage products, advocating. I I serve on the, council on policy development with Texas Hospital Association, so I'm actively advocating at that level, at the legislative level, to inform our representatives as well as our senators who are making those policy decisions around how that impacts us.

Because it's easy for somebody who's far removed from the immediate frontline to not understand the impact that that would make, if it could jeopardize our health care institution in terms of the the payment mechanisms.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. And as a leader, I'd love to know what your biggest leadership lesson that you've either recently learned or are currently learning, if you'd like to share that.

Speaker 2: I would say something that I'm continuously learning is that it takes a village, it takes an army, and it really does take it's respecting each other's differences and understanding how those individual differences can be leveraged to execute on strategies, to achieve goals, to ensure that we're meeting our objectives. And I think it's it's easy to kinda get stuck in that mindset of doing things a certain way versus if you consider it from somebody's else somebody else's perspective, but still maintain your own individual personality and and how you see the world, but still being willing to adapt. And that's a a big part of what we're doing in terms of the the the leadership development with my team is understanding who you are, understanding your individual team members, your coworkers, and your colleagues, and figuring out how do I dial up and dial down in certain encounters and make sure that we're meeting people where they are and vice versa.

Speaker 1: And then as we round our conversation out, I'd love to touch on workforce since that is a ongoing priority for health care organizations. So what do you hope or envision for the health care workforce in the next five to ten years, and how are you preparing for this future?

Speaker 2: I think part of the my hope and what I envision for the future of health care and the workforce is it's health care is not an easy job to function in. You're in the it's a service industry and you're dealing with human lives. And so it's you're dealing with people. I've I'll tell new hires that, you know, people who tend to come to us are not at their best, so they're already operating at a deficit. So it requires having a level of kindness, being empathetic, being understanding, and it's so you can always you can craft the technical side of a trade, but in terms of being able to have that footprint of an individual who is compassionate, acts with integrity, has respect for others, and and wants to exude excellence in what they do, That's what I envision for the future of health care.

It is very easy to get burned out in the health care industry because it is. It's that it's that focus on continuous improvement that versus, okay. Hey, we didn't do this well. We need to do better in this area versus could we press pause for a moment and recognize what did we do well and how did my contribution impact the greater whole? So creating a workforce that has that kind of fire and that kind of drive and wants to carry it forward, that's what I envision for it.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. Well, Tiffany, thanks so much for joining me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Again, we are recording live at the fifteenth annual meeting.