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This is where health care leadership comes together.

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Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500

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hospital and health system executives and nearly 800

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speakers to Chicago

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April.

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This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas

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Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George

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w Bush. For the agenda and event details,

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visit beckershospitalreview.com

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and click on the events tab in the

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upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you

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in Chicago.

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This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare

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podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by

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doctor Erica Powell, vice president of medical affairs

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at Welspun Ephrata Community Hospital. Doctor Powell, it's

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a pleasure to have you on the podcast

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today. Thank you, Laura. I am excited to

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be here and share a little bit about

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myself and WellSpan and and some of the

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things that are facing health care in 2026.

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Fantastic. Well, I I'm excited about this too.

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I mean, I think there's so much in

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health care. It's such a dynamic space, and

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so I'm looking forward to spotlighting some of

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the things you're doing. But before we dive

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in, can you tell us a little bit

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more about yourself in the hospital?

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Yeah. So I'm an emergency physician by training,

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but have been in a leadership role for

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about twenty years,

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in various positions. But my current role really

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is

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to oversee the quality and safety along with

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the dyad partner,

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at WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital.

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WellSpan is an integrated community based health system

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that that serves Central Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland.

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We have about 23,000

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team members, eight hospitals, and a comprehensive network

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of

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ambulatory specialty and behavioral health services.

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We're really here to provide exceptional personalized care

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and inspire hope in communities.

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Our real focus is on clinical excellence and

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innovation

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with the goal of delivering

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high value health services,

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to the community.

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That's great to hear. And, you know, a

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huge, huge and important responsibility that you have

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within the community to, make sure you're having

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that access to care and continue to providing

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great outcomes. Now if you think back the

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last

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year or so, could you tell us about

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the most important initiative that you led? What

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did you do, and what were the result?

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One of the big initiatives that we led

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was around length of stay

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and really how do we align clinical quality

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and operational

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across the entire cube care division

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focusing

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on patient flow, reducing variability,

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and strengthening physician engagements. I mean, some of

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the key components to that are interdisciplinary

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rounds,

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managing care escalation pathways,

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and really improving documentation

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accuracy to support the quality and financial integrity

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of our system. And what that really has

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led to is

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reducible,

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avoidable variation

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in length of stay across multiple service lines,

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better metrics,

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in ED to,

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admission, in

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overall length of stay.

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But the real

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beauty of focusing in on this was the

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strength in collaboration

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between operations,

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nursing, and medical leadership.

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And this when you get sort of the

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whole team engaged in this, it really helped

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us to deliver

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high reliable patient centered care

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while managing our capacity

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much more effectively.

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That's helpful to understand and, you know, really

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great that you've been able to make,

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movement and measurable impact on some of those

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things. I think especially,

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having that overall length of stay be managed

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closely is critical,

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because capacity continues for many hospitals and systems

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to be constrained right now. I think, you

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know, when you were looking at,

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those interdisciplinary

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rounds, can you tell us a little bit

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more about that, what really occurs during those,

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conversations that has moved the needle in making

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a difference on some of the metrics you

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talked about?

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One of the things that we sat down

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as a health system to do is to

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put together a playbook.

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What are those best practices that are really

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going to

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help us move the needle? And by creating

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that playbook for the health system, not just

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the individual hospital I work at, we were

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really successful

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at creating standardized

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processes and strategies.

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One of those was multidisciplinary

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rounds.

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And so

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at each entity, we have a standard for

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that work

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and what it should look like. And we're

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really focused in on geometric length of stay

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and how we are addressing that for each

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patient

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in their care continuum. And by doing that

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with each patient

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at every

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one of our eight hospitals, we were really

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able to identify what are the true barriers

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to getting a patient through the system. And

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so some key opportunities came up for each

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of our hospitals that were similar, and then

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we could solve,

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to root for those barriers

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and put new,

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countermeasures in in place that help us to

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be successful. And I'll just give you,

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a quick example.

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We realized that we had some delay with

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processing

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how we use our consultants.

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And so we really worked hard to identify

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how we

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order the consultation,

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how it gets completed,

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and really streamline that streamline that documentation

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so that now we have a

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dashboard where we can sort of see how

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our consultants are engaging with our hospital teams

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in order to improve that that throughput.

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And by adding an escalation pathway, that really

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was the turbo boost

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around making sure that the people who needed

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additional resources

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from other team members were able to get

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them in the fashion.

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That's helpful to understand. Thank you so much,

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doctor Powell, for digging a little bit deeper

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there. Now looking ahead, what are some of

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your big priorities and headwinds that you're focused

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on for 2026?

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I think, like, every hospital workforce stabilization

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and optimization are going to be key.

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We need to ensure that we attract, retain,

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support clinical talent while addressing burnout and the

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complexities in clinical practice.

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I think everyone's sort of focused on

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how we can improve

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the use of technology

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to

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stabilize,

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and optimize our workforce.

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The other piece that I'm really

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interested in focusing on is value based care

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performance

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and really being able to deliver high quality

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outcomes at a lower cost using data,

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that supports care redesign. And I think between

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these two things,

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we're gonna put a lot of energy into

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optimizing both pathways,

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to get a different different product

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without losing sight of

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the patient experience. And and that always is

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first of mine

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is the patient.

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Got it. That's helpful to know. And, you

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know, I love the ability to keep focus

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on what's happening with the patient, the patient

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experience, those outcomes, and making sure they have

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quality care. And to your point in looking

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at the transition to more of the value

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based care performance, looking at ways that you

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can get the best possible outcome,

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for the patients.

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I I'm curious. How are you approaching,

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that type of of,

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transformation thinking through not only the technology that

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you'll have to to get that in place,

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but then also,

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you know, having it be part of a

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a broader,

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shift in the way that you're thinking about

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care and care models.

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One of the things if you're gonna endeavor

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to do this work is to understand what

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your data's telling you

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about your community,

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about your hospital, about your practices,

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and then really leveraging that data to different

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outcomes.

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Every hospital is going to have some unique

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barriers in order to deliver

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amazing

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care at,

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a good cost. And so

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one of the things that I feel like,

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needs to happen in this space is to

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have good data analytic tools

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to be able to understand where your unique

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barriers are. And and, again, I'm an examples

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person. So

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one of the things that we've done in

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this space is really to

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understand

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down to the DRG

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how our physicians are diagnosing certain types of

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illnesses

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and where are the opportunities

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to create standardization

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in care pathways.

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We need all of our physicians to speak

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the same language,

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to understand the impact,

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of their documentation,

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and how we leverage that to,

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better outcomes for the patient. So we've really

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worked hard to implement

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ERAS,

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COVD pathways, heart failure pathways so that everybody's

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getting the same excellent

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high quality care,

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and we're also able to manage

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those cost pressures

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that exist

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for all of us.

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That makes a lot of sense. It's helpful

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to,

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kind of get additional detail,

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around those things. I think it's something that

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so many organizations are dealing with right now

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and trying to wrap their heads around. So

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thank you for some of the your insight

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and perspective on it.

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What do you see as being the hardest

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thing you'll have to do in the coming

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year? What do you think that will be?

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I think for anybody in health care leadership,

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one of the toughest things that we do

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is balancing short term operational needs with long

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term transformation work

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that we can't afford to slow down. So

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many of us spend time

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working day to day on the small things

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that are in front of us, but there's

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a lot of real work out there and

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the pace of change

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is exceptional. And we need to be able

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to lead people through that, support them, motivate

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them,

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and make some tough decisions about priorities, which

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takes

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a lot of communication,

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clarity, and empathy.

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And so

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I would just sort of reiterate

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that it's easy to get lost in the

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day to day when you know that the

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overall

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opportunities for organizational

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growth and stability lie in that longer term

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transformation

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work.

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Well, doctor Powell, that makes a lot of

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sense. And I I know there's a lot

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going on right now in the health care

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space to both think long term, big picture

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strategically as well as getting things done on

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a daily basis. Now from your perspective, as

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you're thinking about

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leaders in the health care space, emerging leaders,

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and more, what advice would you have for

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them to really be successful as they're going

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throughout their own leadership journeys?

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Laura, that's a great question. As I did

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on what I need to get done in

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2026,

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one of the things is to lead with

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clarity. People really are overwhelmed,

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and ambiguity is the enemy. I mean, we

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need to set fewer priorities,

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communicate them consistently, and reinforce them relentlessly.

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It's just getting back to the basics,

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in a very real way. So

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in other words, like, we need to go

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slower in order to move faster. I think

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sometimes the pace of change

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in health care

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is so exceptional that it just overwhelms

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our frontline

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team members,

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and leaders

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in order to get done. And then as

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I sort of weave through this, we need

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to prioritize

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patient connection in every initiative. I mean, the

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reason we went into health care,

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really was about the patient. And we need

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to ask ourselves, does it make it easier,

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safer,

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or more humane for our patients and families?

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And if it really doesn't, then we need

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to take a pause

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and wonder whether this is the right pathway

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to go down. And so

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I just would say to anybody who's

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going to be

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leading, in health care in 2026

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is we've gotta be more

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transparent about the tough stuff

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and really

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protect

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how we're doing things

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in terms of

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just being clear

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and concise and to the point until we

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build, you know, a new muscle in terms

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of our leadership,

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skill set.

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Fantastic. Now where do you see some of

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the best opportunities for organizational growth? I don't

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think leveraging digital tools and virtual care are

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gonna both help patients and clinicians.

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As we know, particularly on the physician side,

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there are multiple specialty

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gaps

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across the country in in various regions,

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and we're really gonna need to

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make work efficient for those individuals

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who are in the specialty, who wanna be

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able to help as many people as possible,

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but may not be located

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exactly nearby. So being able to start, like,

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virtual dermatology

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and virtual rheumatology, which are specialties that we

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struggle with across the country in various

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areas

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are gonna be key to

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being able to deliver those patient outcomes that

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I talked about,

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earlier. I also think that,

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we're gonna need to focus on building strategic

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partnerships,

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to improve care integration and support population health.

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As we know, the pace,

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the population is aging,

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at a significant rate, and I think we're

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going to need to

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be able to work with people outside of

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our individual health systems

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to make sure that we're able to support

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those patient outcomes

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both inside and outside of,

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our organization.

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And that whole community wellness

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kind of lens is gonna be critical to

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the success of health care.

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I love that. Doctor Powell, thank you so

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much for joining us on the podcast today.

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This has been such an informative conversation.

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You know, I I really appreciate everything that

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you're doing and and the passion that you

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bring, to health care, and I look forward

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to seeing you as well at our annual

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meeting. I know that you'll be speaking on

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a panel there, and so it'll be great

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to connect in person and and continue the

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conversation.

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That's awesome, Laura. I appreciate the opportunity to

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be able to share some of my insights

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here about what WellSpan is doing. I'm looking

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forward to connecting with my colleagues,

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at the conference in Chicago.

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It's always an exciting time to be able

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to hear and listen and learn from some

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of the best in the in the country.