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- This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr.
Puja Villa, vice President
and Chief Medical Officer at BJC
Healthcare's Christian Hospital.
Dr. Villa is a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- It's a pleasure to be here.
- Now I know we have a lot to talk about,
and certainly I'll be excited to learn more about
what you're doing and
how you're making an impact on the community that you serve.
But before we dive into my questions,
can you tell me a little bit more
about yourself and your background?
- Yeah, absolutely. I'm the Chief Medical Officer here
at Christian Hospital.
We're a part of the BJC health system, um, in St.
Louis, Missouri. I've been in my role
for almost two and a half years.
Um, prior to that, I, uh, was a medical director
for the hospitalist medicine department,
and I'm originally from the northeast.
I did my residency in internal medicine at Northwell.
Um, and, uh, I'm happy to be here
to have a conversation with you today.
- That's great to hear. Now I'm wondering, you know,
obviously there's been a lot happening in healthcare over
the past few years, but if you could zero in on one change
that you made in the last year
or so that had great results, I would love to hear about it.
- Um, you know, one thing that we're really proud of
that we did last year was, um, improve
our case management department.
Uh, we transitioned to a contemporary care model where
the role of our case managers
and social workers was aligned
to their education and expertise.
Um, this, in my opinion, directly impacted our length
of stay for our patients in the hospital.
Um, we went from a length of stay
of 6.5 in January down to 5.2
by the end of the year.
- Oh, wow. That's amazing.
And, you know, a huge, huge impact, I can imagine on
so many things, whether it's a patient throughput, um, in,
in, in efficiency, as well as the financial, uh,
at the organization.
So when you look at getting that great results
and being able to lower the length of stay, um, how,
you know, I guess what actions did the team take and
and what did you do to make sure that you are able to, um,
have such great results?
- Um, you know, it comes down to communication, uh,
making sure that our teams are all talking to each other.
Everybody has patient care as their top goal and priority,
but, you know, we end up missing a lot
of information when we're just not communicating, uh,
with our case managers
and social workers now being aligned with their activities
and work, we had our providers
and nursing as, um, a group communicating together
to make sure that, you know,
we have the right plan in place for our patients.
Um, and for us, it's really important to understand the
community that this hospital is in.
Our patients, not only do we care about taking care
of them within our four walls,
but it's very important to us what's going on
after they're discharged.
Um, whether they're getting the care that they need,
are they following up with their primary docs
or other specialists in the community?
Um, and do they have access to resources, um,
wanna make sure they have transportation
or access to healthy food options?
And they're able to understand their disease processes
and we're able to somehow give them some
education on what they should expect from their condition.
- That makes a lot of sense,
and I can imagine it is really helpful for patients as well,
um, just to have that kind of clarity and,
and, um, team around them.
So that's really cool to hear.
Now, what are some of the top trends
that you're following in healthcare right now?
What's really top of mind for you?
- I will say staff
and physician wellbeing is really important.
And, and that kind of goes with what, um,
what's going on in the workplace,
workplace violence and safety.
Um, after Covid, I think we started to notice
that workplace violence was going up.
Um, we were in such a state of constant, um,
reaction of the pandemic that we didn't stop
and think about ourselves.
So now we're sort of seeing our providers
and our staff, you know, coming out of that zone of burnout.
Um, my focus has been to just make sure
that the teams here have the resources that they need.
Um, it really comes down to just taking care of our people.
- That's such an excellent point,
and certainly, you know, I,
I know organizations across the country are, um, trying
to troubleshoot the same things and,
and making sure, like you said,
that caregivers are supported.
Um, and obviously especially on the heels of,
of a very stressful last few years in, in many cases, um,
continued, you know, uh, patient volume
and stressors within the healthcare space.
Is there anything, um, that you've noticed about, you know,
as you've turned more focus into workplace safety as well
as, um, caring for the wellness, um,
that you've found worked particularly well?
Or any, anything that caregivers have, um,
requested specifically that you've been able to do
to really make things easier, lighten the burden for them?
- You know, um, what I think really works
is building relationships.
Just getting people to talk to each other, talk
to somebody they trust, um, being able
to share what's going on, um, and,
and growing trust within the organization.
Um, I think that's really important, not just for leaders,
but also, um, when you're talking to your peers
for physicians, you know, I, I try to make sure
that I am getting to know them, um, really in, in,
in their professional world as well as their personal life.
Um, 'cause the more you understand somebody
and you get to know them, the more you'll be able
to pick up when something's not right, when somebody's, uh,
behaving differently than their norm.
And that's when you as a leader can identify that
this person might need some sort of help, some sort
of resource, or, um,
maybe they just need to talk to somebody.
Um, same thing with caregivers.
You know, building relationships that will lead
to some other form of networking for them to be able
to link into other resources
that are available in the community.
Um, it, to me, it always comes down to the backbone
of building relationships and,
and getting people to network.
- That makes a lot of sense.
And, um, you know, definitely is cool to see
that you've been able to move in that direction.
Before we wrap up here,
how are you thinking about growth over the next 12
to 24 months or so?
- I, I'm really hoping to focus a lot more, again,
on our staff and physicians.
What I'm really looking to do is
get more physician engagement and then help our staff
and physicians develop, um, develop for the next stage.
You know, um, maybe that means leadership development.
Maybe that just means understanding their workplace
and the constant changes that we deal with in healthcare.
- Got it. Absolutely.
I, I love that kind of focus
and ability to impart that knowledge
and in thinking about the next generation, what's gonna be
so vital for leaders as they're moving forward.
Dr. Valez, thank you so much
for joining us on the podcast today.
This is so, um, such an interesting conversation.
I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
- Thank you. I really appreciate, um,
being given this opportunity to chat with you.