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Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. My name
is Paige Twenter. I'm an assistant editor here
at Becker's Healthcare.
I'm thrilled today to be interviewing doctor Moffat
Bruce.
Thank you so much for joining me. Before
we dive in, I'd like I'd love to
have her introduce herself and tell us about
her background.
That's great. Well, thank you very much for
the opportunity to be here today.
So I am Susan Moffett Bruce. I am
the president
of Leahy Hospital and Medical Center.
I have been, at Leahy for,
about 16 months.
I am a cardiothoracic surgeon by training and
trade,
and I have been probably in health care
and leadership roles in health care for about
25 years.
I'm fairly new to the New England,
area. I came from Ottawa, Canada,
where I was the CEO of the Royal
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
And prior to that, I was at The
Ohio State University,
in progressive
leadership roles, including,
the inaugural chief quality officer
for the, integrated health care system there. So
absolutely delighted to now be here at Leahy
and, have had an absolutely
fantastic
16 months, thus far here in New England.
Great. Great. I'm sure it was a big
jump from
Canada to New England. Hopefully, it's
going well, the transition.
Yeah. At
your hospital,
what would you say is the most successful
project or initiative from the past year?
So thank you for that question, and and
we've had, you know, a very busy year.
We serve more than, you know, a 1000000
patients per year inclusive of inpatient and outpatient
care.
But I think the,
initiative that really comes to mind is that
of
establishing
and soon to welcome our welcome our first
medical student
to the UMass
Chan Leahy,
Regional Medical School.
More than 2 years ago our dean,
Dean Anne Rosenthal,
was able to work and be successful in
really striking a terrific,
successful
in really
striking a terrific,
collaboration with UMass,
CHAN,
Chancellor Collins, Dean Flott
came together and we are going to be
in becoming a medical school in less than
2 weeks.
Really exciting to introduce 32
new medical students to really the next generation
of health care providers,
and they will be trained here at Leidy.
I'm sure you're,
busy, busy in the next 2 weeks. What
is still left to do,
before
the med school launches?
That's an excellent question. You know, it's almost
a year in the making to actually have
medical
students apply and then interview and then rank
and and have them and and us, you
know, mutually agree upon the medical students.
What we have left right now is, kind
of,
kind of the finishing touches.
So,
physically, you know, just making sure that they
have computers that they can work at,
that they are welcome to our campus.
We're looking at, you know, welcoming them some
of them to Burlington for the first time.
I I mean, it really is going to
be just kind of the last last touches
so that they feel truly that they're being
welcomed into a very,
innovative and new learning health system here at
Leahy.
When they arrive on August 12th, they will
share their time between Burlington
and Worcester, where obviously UMass Chan is,
and we're very excited that we'll really have,
you know, integrated medical students across 2 very
distinct campuses
and leverage the clinical expertise here at Leahy,
so that they're learning from our expert clinicians,
nurses, and staff.
You mentioned some of these students are coming
to Burlington for their first time. Are there
any
learnings or,
kind of lessons that you've learned in the
past 16 months from your transition, you know,
for the first time in New England coming
from Canada
that you're implementing,
for their transitions?
Yeah. I think some of the things that
we're trying to do to help really improve,
their experience and try to take down some
of the barriers, looking at ways that we
can help
to find housing for them.
Obviously, in New England, that's always a bit
of a challenge, but we're looking at ways
to help facilitate that.
Transportation,
making sure that they're able to come to
class, that they're able to come to their
clinical rotation.
And then, I think, just also, creating
venues and opportunities
for
this,
group of medical students
to really have meaningful
social and professional,
events with the UMass Chan Worcester medical students
as well, and there's over 200 of them,
per year. So really trying to create community
so that we can welcome them,
to the to the area and so that
they feel as if, you know, this is
going to become their new home for the
next 4 years and that it's going to
be one that's very welcoming.
Going back,
to the past a little bit, can you
take me through what prompted the idea for
this project and what all the hospital had
to do and leaders had to do to
make it come alive.
Yes. That's an excellent question.
So Leahy, you know, is now
101 years old,
created
in 1923 by Doctor. Frank Lahey, a surgeon
and really a visionary relative
to patient care,
has accepted and has been
very privileged to take to have met multiple
medical students
learn within our
bricks and mortars and in our clinic.
However, we've never had an official
medical school designation.
So the first thing that we had to
do was kind of look at our history
over the last many decades of taking care
of being able to train medical students and
say, you know what's going well?
What do the medical students enjoy?
How do we leverage that,
and how do we go forward in a
more formalized
way with a,
established medical school? So we actually put out
an RFP.
That RFP was fairly competitive,
and then we were able to work with,
in this instance, UMASS
to look at how do we develop a
collaboration
so that the medical students
will feel truly as if they're getting the,
you know, the top quality medical education.
We needed to make sure that they were
given
every opportunity to learn from our expert clinicians.
And then how do we leverage the innovation
and all of the excellence at UMass Chan
and bring that to Leahy.
So it was an idea that was created
based on years of teaching medical students
and wanting to be more formalized
and truly recognized as a medical school.
To that end, the final step was actually
getting accreditation,
standards bestowed upon us so that we do
meet the standard of,
medical school and medical education
so that the med the students can be
assured that they will get a high quality,
care sorry. High quality education
here at,
Lehigh.
And in the context
of physician workforce and projected shortages in the
next few years,
what does this medical school mean specifically for
you and your,
hospital? So, that's a very
specific reality that we have right now is
around how do we think to the future
to really train and educate
the next generation of healthcare providers
and how do we serve the communities
around us. It is our anticipation,
and really our mission
to be able to train the next generation
and continuous
generations of health care providers that will serve
the community here in New England.
And so I do think that it's going
to help address some of the inequity that
exist
relative to access and availability
of services
for patients,
particularly in the primary care,
arena.
We know that,
as we are community based, we have every
opportunity to train
community based,
providers who could be in in many instances
primary care physicians.
And so I see this as really an
opportunity,
to contribute
and to address some of the workforce issues
and really be proactive
around developing a sustainable workforce for the future.
I'm wondering, other than building a more sustainable
workforce, how else
are you all planning to, measure the success
of this medical school and its first class
of graduates 4 years later?
The success for us will be that we
continue to have,
very interested students that want to come here
to learn.
We will measure, obviously, and get feedback from
the medical students themselves, what's going well, what's
not going well, how can we improve.
We'll also be engaging with our faculty and
our clinicians that are teaching the medical students
to make sure that they are having an
excellent experience,
and how we might continue to develop
and support their learning as educators.
And so success for us will be that
we are able to really,
meet the needs of our faculty as educators,
and continue their own faculty as educators, and
continue their own professional development, which will be,
you know, a truly concerted effort. But in,
you know, 2,
3, 4
years, success will look like, you know, having
additional
medical students. We may even grow the class,
that we have faculty that are very satisfied
and engaged in the learning process,
and we have our 1st graduates
that become community based and serve,
the patients within,
our area here,
in New England.
I'm also wondering,
over the past 12 months,
what do you think has been the biggest
obstacle
you and your team have had to overcome
while creating this school?
Mhmm.
So, I think there's been many, challenges, many
headwinds that I think in general health care
has been facing.
I think specifically
And practitioners, and the PAs,
as well as our nurses and staff,
you know, we're still stabilizing
from the pandemic.
And so I think that has been an
ongoing challenge,
and the reality that we
pipeline
programs
and connecting into community colleges
and others.
I also think that the reality is that,
you know, the cost of health care,
is one that we face every day.
And so, as we go forward, we're always
thinking about how to be more efficient, how
to be thoughtful with the resources
that are pretty scarce in health care,
and so that we can provide really safe
care for patients and excellent experience for our
providers.
That is an ongoing challenge and one that
I don't think is going to be
relieved,
or,
easily addressed in the short term.
My last question, since we're coming up on
time, is regarding the, physician workforce issues
or,
even just building a medical school in response?
What would be your number one recommendation
or takeaway based on the conversation we've had
today for our listeners?
You know, I think that,
having now been in healthcare for many decades
and having faced different challenges,
I think that what we are able to
do and have impact on relative to being
a physician or a healthcare provider, is that
noble and I think very,
important
role in our community.
My advice would be to stick with it
for those that are within the healthcare domain
and the providers
and that through our sheer,
perseverance,
insight, and even innovation
that we will continue to really provide a
sustainable
and hopefully equitable,
healthcare environment.
And so, there is a need for perseverance.
There is a need for patients. And I
do think that I would,
in every instance,
recommend
that healthcare truly is a terrific place to
work and grow and learn.
And we need to have patience
and some perseverance.
And I'll definitely take, perseverance for those last
few, finishing touches next 2 weeks, and I'm
really, you know, excited to see,
what happens with the medical school and all
the great successes they'll come through.
We are at time. Thank you so much
for letting me meet today, doctor, Moffat Bruce.
If you wanna hear more,
from from doctor Moffat Bruce about this project
and other priorities. She is speaking at our
upcoming clinical leadership forum at the Becker's CEO
and CFO roundtable, which is taking place November
11th through 14th,
Chicago. We have limited space available
for attendees and sponsors. So if you're listening
today, contact us to learn more. And I
just wanna say thank you again, doctor Mafa
Bruce, for your time.
You're very welcome. Thank you for the opportunity.