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- This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Alan Cock,
chief Executive Officer
and medical director at Northern Colorado Hospitalists.
Alan, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- It's a pleasure to be here, Laura. Thanks for having me
- Now.
I'm really excited for our discussion.
I know there's a lot happening in healthcare and,
and really it's a critical time right now to, uh,
be looking ahead and making improvements
and doing some really great things.
But before we dive into our broader discussion,
I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more
about yourself and your background.
- Sure. So as you mentioned, uh, right now I'm the CEO
and Medical Director of Northern Colorado Hospitalists
as well as NCH Health Partners.
Um, we're a large physician-owned independent regional
hospital medicine and post-acute care, uh,
group in northern Colorado.
And we partner with University of Colorado Health Hospitals.
Uh, I'm also the vice chief
of staff at our level one trauma center medical center
of the Rockies in Loveland.
So I'm kind of wear a multitude of hats
and internist by, by training.
And then I've been practicing hospital medicine now
for, for more than 10 years.
- Got it. That's really great to hear
and definitely exciting to, uh,
just have all those different, um, aspects
of the healthcare system represented in,
in everything that you do.
And, you know, when you look at where we're at today,
what are some of your top priorities?
What is really top of mind for you right now?
- Well, I think, you know, one thing
that we always are focused on I is, is patient care.
I mean, you have to have that as kind of your,
your cornerstone for any, any program,
especially a physician owned and run group like ours.
That's step one, always.
And so I think, you know,
during the pandemic there was a lot of, uh,
really shaking up of the,
the healthcare systems and processes.
And, and I think one of the big things that a lot
of folks are doing, both within in our group
and then in healthcare systems at large is,
is refocusing on trying
to provide the highest quality of patient care.
So, you know, looking at process refinement, things
that need to change
or adapt maybe, um, that's,
that's always gonna be our priority.
And I think, um, so that's sort of step one for me always.
And I think step two for us
or kind of our second priority, um, is still the idea that,
that we, we have
to focus on recruiting the best people and retaining them.
Um, burnout is a huge issue still all throughout healthcare
as, as you guys and Becker's are well aware.
I mean, there's just statistic
after statistic with, um, you know, physicians
and healthcare providers that are, that are changing jobs,
leaving the profession, et cetera.
So that's probably our primary focus, um, outside
of the clinical realm specifically, is
how do we support our, our frontline providers?
How do we support our physicians in this kind
of peri pandemic era?
- Absolutely. I think that's such an important point.
And, and definitely, you know, when you look at, um,
that aspect of being able to support providers
and making sure that, you know, they're able to operate, um,
in, in a way that's providing great patient care,
but without putting too much trust on themselves or,
or feeling burnt out.
Um, is there anything that you've been able
to do over the last few years
that has really supported them in this space and,
and yielded some great results?
- Yeah, so I mean, I think, um, the,
the pandemic really was a good mirror to look at at
how you're doing things right.
And we, I mean, luckily we've kept, uh,
2.5% turnover rate in our organization even throughout the
pandemic, which is extremely low.
And that's really a testament to the fact that we, you know,
we focus on all sorts of pieces
of the physician retention puzzle.
We, we've looked at just the environment of
how the rooms are set up
and that our work rooms, for example,
do they really lend themselves, uh, in a way to,
to allow collaboration,
to allow collegiality kinda build that culture.
And then our processes,
just even from our day-to-Day workflow, you know,
our clinical workflow, our scheduling processes,
we've really looked at all those, how we,
how we have services at the hospitals,
how our admission cycles go, all those things
or our part of, you know, de-stressing our, our physicians
and sort of that, that, um, mental burden
and that mental workload trying
to make it as smooth as possible.
And, uh, I think that shows you're investing in people.
And so we've tried to say, Hey, look, what do you guys need?
What, what do you think would be helpful to support you
so you can sustain this career trajectory?
And we've done some of those things.
We actually implemented a sabbatical program
that starts in January.
So we kinda have a cycling sabbatical for, um,
for the physician owners of our group, uh, you know,
over the course of several years where people
can have that time away.
And I think that, that people need that after the pandemic.
That's just kinda one specific benefit that we, we found
that our, our group, uh, values quite a bit.
There's obviously, you know, paternity leave, uh,
looking at those type things,
looking at all sorts of benefits programs.
I think those are things we've really kind
of turned over the rocks to see what we can do
and improve upon to not only recruit physicians,
but retain them once they're here.
And so far it's been, it's been very helpful.
Um, I think that's been the one aspect.
And then from the leader side,
really working on career development.
You know, you need a deep leadership bench,
and one thing we've been focused on is, you know,
giving extra, extra financial support for people that go
to leadership training programs and, and explore conferences
and learn how to be a better leader for, uh,
physician and provider groups.
And that's, you know, pays dividends down the road
because you have more
and more people that can really help your clinical processes
and help navigate some of the obvious, you know, challenges
that happen all the time in healthcare.
So those are just some of the things that we've done
to really focus on the physician retention
and, and burnout piece.
- I love that. I, I think those are such great ideas
and certainly areas that not only help the physicians,
but the organization at large.
And speaking of that,
how do you see Northern Colorado hospitalists, uh,
evolving over the next two to three years or so?
- Uh, you know, it's, uh, we're in a growing region.
Um, Colorado in general is, uh,
has always been a high growth the last few years.
The pandemic accelerated that Northern Colorado
where we work in the region, uh, is just a tremendous,
uh, level of growth.
And so what that really means for us is, well, how do we,
how do we, um, up staff to meet that demand, uh,
as our hospitals grow, uh, as our,
as our patient population grows in different regions,
and how do we focus on maintaining our culture
through that growth and expansion?
I think that's, uh, one thing
that we are focused on right now.
So that's a, a big part of it.
And then another aspect in the next two to three years,
and some of the groundwork that we've
recently laid is looking at kind of new
and innovative ways to care
for patients along the spectrum of care.
We really see there being a lot of gaps in care right now
where the inpatient to outpatient setting.
And so we actually established a post-acute care division,
um, NCH Health partners, uh, over the summer
and have launched in some skilled nursing facilities
and acute rehab facilities around the area to help
with these transitions of care to try
and kind of, uh, bridge the connection for patients
as they're, as they're moving, uh, into
and out of the hospital
and really ultimately try to prevent them from, from having
to come back in the hospital, try to keep them healthy.
Uh, and so that's a, a big program that we are,
we're lifting right now.
And so over the next two to three years,
we'll be developing those transitions of care, um, trying
to leverage some
of the telemedicine opportunities and maybe even ai.
I mean, we don't really know where AI's gonna go,
but we, we all think it's gonna be a part
of our life in tremendous ways.
Uh, definitely over the next five years, probably closer
to one to two years with the rate, uh,
that things are changing and we're hopeful it's gonna
help us with new processes that, that kind of alleviate some
of the things I talked about earlier for
our, our physicians.
Um, maybe makes, makes, you know, one extra tool, uh,
for either clinical decision making or,
or helping with documentation, all the things that,
that right now, um, take more time out of a provider's day,
we think that may help streamline things.
So we're looking at a lot of those,
and I, I do think that each
of those aspects are gonna be part of our,
our two to three year plan.
- Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
You know, and, and really, uh, seems to tie nicely into the,
the initiatives and projects you already have
and thinking through, you know, um, that kind
of digital transformation, how you're growing and developing
and, and continue to be innovative.
Um, what is it like for a, a leader, um, to, to kind
of change that culture around that for, um,
the other physicians that you work with in your team?
Um, how do you make sure
that everybody is looking at things in a new way, um,
and really embracing whether it's technology
or other processes, methods to become more efficient
and effective at what they're doing?
- That's a great question. I mean,
change is hard for anyone.
Change is exceptionally hard for physicians.
Uh, it is something that we really message from the,
from the get go from when we start recruiting
people from the beginning.
We talk about the need to flex and adapt.
And I think people who've been through the pandemic know
that more than ever that change is a part of healthcare.
And being flexible is a part of healthcare.
And I think if you really remind people of the why, uh,
that you're doing the change, that's the key part, right?
We know there's an underserved population, um, of, of
aging people in northern Colorado that we can really help
with their clinical care, keep them healthy, like I said.
And I think when you, again, focus back on that, that,
you know, fundamental cornerstone
of high quality patient care
and doing what's best for the patients, it's, it's easier
to work through change management
whenever everybody sees that, that common,
that common thread, that common goal.
And we work towards it.
So it, you know, there's always change management.
We like to use the Kotter model of change.
It's a great one just to kind of plan change and messaging.
And of course it takes multiple permutations
and everybody adapts differently.
But I think if you can really relay, uh, the why
behind those changes and make sure you have the right
stakeholders at the table, um,
and that again falls to, uh, excellent leadership team, uh,
who is ready for those initiatives,
and you make sure that your processes are in place, I think
that's really what can make change messaging
successful, uh, for leaders.
- I love that. Thank you so much for that advice.
Now, before we wrap up here,
I know you already talked a little bit about some
of the changes you've made on staffing and retention.
Is there anything else you'd like to talk through
or share with us that's, uh, really been successful
for you over the last year or so?
- Yeah, so, um, the really, we've made a concerted effort to
rethink care delivery.
Um, as I mentioned, you know, I think
that care delivery is changing
and I think we have to make sure
that we're open to new models.
It can't always be in-person, uh, face-to-face care.
And I think that's one thing that we're really trying
to explore is how can we do it differently,
more efficiently, um, in a way that serves the patients, uh,
in a way that also can serve
the providers, if that makes sense.
So trying to, to extend your reach without having to always
extend the physical manpower.
And I think that's something that,
that we're still working on, still trying
to figure out in our post-acute division.
Um, but I think that will be one, one piece, um, that,
that I think is gonna, gonna continue
to provide great results in the future for us.
I hope.
- I love it. Well, thank you Alan, so much
for joining us on the podcast today.
This has been really a fun and interesting conversation,
and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
- Thanks so much, Laura. Uh, I would love to come back.
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