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- Welcome everyone to the Becker's

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Healthcare podcast series.

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My name is Mariah Mohammed.

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I'm a writer and moderator
with Becker's Healthcare,

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and I'm absolutely thrilled to have

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with me today Molly Moran, senior Director

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of Ambulatory Clinical Practice

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and Workforce Development at
Rush University Medical Center.

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Molly, it's very nice to have
you on the podcast today.

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Very excited to talk with you.

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To get us started, would
you mind please introducing

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yourself and telling us a
bit about your background?

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- Absolutely. Thank you so much

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for having me on the podcast today.

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My name is Molly Moran

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and I am a ally prepared registered nurse

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and the senior director of
Ambulatory Clinical Practice

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and Workforce Development, as you said.

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And my background really
is as a registered nurse

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and I have worked

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as a direct care provider in
pediatrics at Freestanding

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Children's Hospital as well as
at an academic medical center

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and have really been in
ambulatory over the last, uh,

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five and a half years.

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And over that time I have seen
the evolution of ambulatory

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and most definitely the growth and

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and integration of technology into

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this new patient care area

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and new in the sense of telehealth

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and telemedicine expansion.

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Not new in the sense that ambulatory

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and community health really
have been along for a long time.

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So, uh, my role really is
to continue to build on

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what is already there and,

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and continue to help
make way for the future.

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- Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much

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for giving us that background.

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And kind of speaking of
building, in recent years,

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the healthcare industry has
seen a growing emphasis on

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patient-centered care.

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Can you share some examples of

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how your organization is
placing patients at the center

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of care delivery and any, uh,
success stories that you have

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of how this enhanced patient
sa uh, ification and outcomes?

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- Most definitely. So at Rush, I like

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to say our patients are our true north,

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and we really do believe
that and, and live that.

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And it is integral to our decision making.

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And so as I had shared, ambulatory and

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and community health have been
around for hundreds of years,

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but in recent years we've seen an ability

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to integrate technology in new ways

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to really provide patient
centered care in a way

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that is meaningful to the patient in a way

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that more quickly connects
patients with the right level

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of provider and the right
level of, of care and,

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and, uh, question resolution
that they may have.

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And so we've done a couple
of things to really, uh,

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build on that from a workforce standpoint.

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And one of those, um, really has to do

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with assessing our current workforce

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and looking at what do we
need to do either in terms

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of upskilling of current employees

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or what do we need to think
differently about for the future

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so that we can continue
to build a workforce

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that is comfortable with
this technology integration

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and also still has the skills training

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and education necessary to provide that,

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that highest quality, safest patient care.

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And through one of our
biggest initiatives,

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it has been the Medical
Assistant apprenticeship program.

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And one thing that we had
identified was there is a real

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need to provide
opportunities for individuals

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who have an interest in
working in healthcare a way

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to earn and learn.

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And so we did a formal analysis of, uh,

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medical assistance who had
gone through various, uh,

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programs in our community to see what some

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of their barriers were to
completing their education, uh,

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sooner or just challenges
they encountered in general,

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and really developed a
program that was meant

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to alleviate those barriers.

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We have a wonderful educational partner in

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with Harper College in Palatine, Illinois,

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who has really helped,
um, as the provider of,

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of the formal education

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and didactic helps meet
the needs of our employees,

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which in turn is helping to
meet the needs of our patients.

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- Yeah, thank you so much
for giving us that insight

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and to delve more into the
workforce aspect, um, of

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what you were just talking about.

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What is your strategy for developing

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and maintaining a highly
skilled healthcare workforce

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capable of adopting those new
technologies and care models?

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- That's a great question.

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So we have a multifaceted approach to

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how we are addressing the
medical assistance training

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and education once they
are employed with us.

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So as I mentioned, the first is really

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through the medical assistant
apprenticeship program

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and through that program, as
I mentioned, we've been able

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to, uh, not just have a, a
great educational partner,

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but our employees also learn
multiple different roles that

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also impact healthcare.

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And so they start, uh, working
as a clinic coordinator

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and understanding, uh, all of the,

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the moving parts that go into

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not just checking a patient in,

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but everything from insurance

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and prior authorizations all
the way up through working

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as a medical assistant.

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Once we have new medical
assistants in our organization,

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we actually really have
the, the great benefit

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of having a medical assistant
educator on my team.

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And she is a medical assistant

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and has worked, um, as an MA
in a number of different areas

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at Rush as, as well as elsewhere
over the last 15 years.

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And her role primarily
focuses on our new hires.

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She is, uh, the facilitator
of our new hire skills day.

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She also facilitates our
procedural class day.

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So we recognize that so many procedures

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that previously were
done on inpatient units

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in a same day surgery type setting.

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Now that testing can be done in ambulatory

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or in an outpatient setting,
but requires the upskill

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because it's not a, a traditional skillset

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that's covered in a
medical assistant program.

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So things like, uh, surgical

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or procedural support as
well as the pre-cleaning

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and high level disinfection processes.

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And so her role really is
to help our new hires with

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learning not just our equipment,

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but also learning those new
procedures and processes

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and then having that also translate to

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having medical assistant
preceptor classes.

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And so recognizing the complexity
of the patient population,

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really wanting to invest in
our MAs to give them the tools

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that they need to
successfully precept those,

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those new medical
assistants in the clinic.

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We also have recently
implemented an annual competency

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program for our medical
assistants, similar in nature

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to ones that, uh, healthcare
organizations may be familiar

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with for registered nurses
or other licensed personnel,

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but recognizing that
there are high risk and,

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and potentially problem grown procedures

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that medical assistants now
are directly involved in,

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where a few years ago
they may not have been.

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And so it's really for
us about creating a,

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a wraparound program of
support from the time

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that an employee enters our
organization through the time

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that they are, are with
us for their career.

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- Wonderful. Wonderful.

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Thank you so much for
giving us that information.

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And Molly, before I let you
go, the last thing I wanted

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to ask you is can you
discuss any new initiatives

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or projects that Rush is
planning for the future

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and explain how these align

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with their overall strategic vision

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for ambulatory clinical practice
and workforce development?

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- Absolutely. So much
like other organizations,

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we're looking both at the
short term as well as long term

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plans for workforce development.

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And many of the, the pipeline programs

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or as I had shared,

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the apprenticeship programs really are an

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investment in the long term.

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However, what we have seen is

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that we do have positive
outcomes in terms of retention

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of individuals in the program progression

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through the program, um, as well

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as seeing positive outcomes associated

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with our patient experience scores.

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And so really our, our job right now is

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to look at other opportunities
to build similar programs

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for individuals who may want to

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try a new role in healthcare, um,

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or who may want to move from a nonclinical

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to a clinical role and
really focus on that upskill

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of individuals in a way that they're able

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to not just have work-life balance, um,

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but that really work becomes also part

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of their formal education.

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- Wonderful, wonderful.
Thank you so much, Molly.

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Uh, for those final thoughts,
this has been an amazing

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and informative discussion.

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So again, I wanna thank you so much

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for coming on Becker's Healthcare

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and I look forward to
connecting with you again soon.

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- Thank you so much.
- It's so important

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for leaders at the top of
organizations to keep learning,

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stay sharp, grow their networks,

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help our audience better do
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