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the description. We are excited to welcome you in October.
Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. I'm Mariah Mohamed,
she her pronouns with Becker's Healthcare,
and I'm absolutely thrilled to have with me today. Kathleen, the bold. Kathleen,
it's so nice to talk with you today. How are you?
I'm so great. It's so nice to be included. Thank you so much.
Yes, of course. Well, to begin,
would you mind please introducing yourself and telling us a bit about your
background?
Uh, yeah. My name is Kathleen Fial.
I'm the executive director for the Kaiser Permanente Nurse Aesthetist
Association.
So I represent the Advanced practice nurses that deliver anesthesia to the
patients within the Southern California region. Uh,
I am also on the executive board of the Alliance of Healthcare Unions,
which is an alliance of, uh, multiple unions within Kaiser Permanente.
Uh, and so we represent, um, a wide variety, uh,
of bargaining units and people that deliver patient care.
Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving us that background.
And the first thing that I really wanted to ask you is with all your experience
and everything you're doing with the organization,
what are the biggest issues you're following in healthcare in this year?
Well, ,
and it's a complicated question because there's so many different levels.
From a provider standpoint, because I represent the providers,
we're facing a lot of burnout.
Approximately 40 to 70% of the people delivering healthcare, uh, are,
are burnt out, um, after covid. Uh, and due to the staffing shortage,
which is another issue that we're facing, uh, currently, you know,
we need 3.2 million more healthcare providers to meet the demand.
Uh, and so staffing, uh, is literally at a critical stage, uh,
at most facilities across the nation. This, of course, then affects access,
um, which then leads to more burnout. Um, you know,
as we also have 10,000 baby boomers every day, um,
joining Medicare every day. And so that leads to, you know,
in a tremendous stress on, on the providers to,
to meet the demand and the access with what the limited staffing needs that,
that are currently being provided. The other thing that really,
really is a big issue and one of the main things that I focus on, uh,
is the psychological safety, um, of the providers. Um, you know, whether,
you know, you're an advanced practice nurse giving anesthesia who I represent,
uh, or an emergency room nurse or an e v s worker or a food service worker,
or even a physician or a manager within the healthcare space,
there's so much going on that truthfully,
psychological safety has become such an imperative
issue for everyone to focus on. It then leads to higher, you know,
safety results within the patient care, uh, work workplace,
which leads to higher quality, safety service, um,
and just the satisfaction of, of the patients.
And so I think that the biggest issue really is, is shifting our focus, um,
away from, you know, the people that we want to come in, uh,
and really focusing on the people that are doing the work, uh,
and those that are giving the care, uh, and providing it for, for,
for the people that are purchasing the healthcare product.
Yeah, absolutely.
I feel like burnout is definitely something I hear about daily. Uh,
it seems with healthcare professionals,
it definitely is a problem that needs solving asap. Um,
so I'm glad that you're kind of working on that. And for you,
what are you most excited about?
And also is there anything that's making you nervous whether,
and it's just in the healthcare space or something that you're currently working
on? Anything like that?
Well,
I'll start with excited cause I always try to start with what's good and I'm
really excited for the opportunity to reinvent in real time how we
deliver care and, and how we respond to the needs of our healthcare providers.
We truly did this during covid. It was a moment by moment,
day-to-day situation where we were on, you know,
command center calls regionally, nationally, and locally,
just getting information in realtime and, and passing it down, you know,
to the people on the frontline.
And during that time it was really fantastic because everybody came together
as a team. We were all on the same team. Um, we just,
it wasn't about your space or MySpace, it was a collective hour space.
So I think that having been through that and having been an integral part of
that during covid,
I do think that we have an opportunity to continue that work forward, um,
as Covid has, you know, quote unquote, um,
become a normalized situation, uh, within our daily lives. It,
it makes me very nervous, uh, at this point, uh, based on, you know,
the access issues as well that the patient care systems are playing not to lose.
I do think that's a really, really big problem, um,
because a lot of people are leading from fear.
There's a lot of financial instability in the healthcare market right now,
and people are really moving back into silos where we don't have, uh,
the realtime, um, innovation like we did during covid. And,
and a lot of people are, are moving back to the old ways of doing things of the,
the top down leadership. Um, and really just,
just leading from a place of fear and playing not to lose as opposed to,
you know, leading from innovation and disruption and,
and really trying to do what's best for the world that we live in now.
Wonderful. Yeah, thank you so much for that insight.
Covid definitely changed things and some of the change was better, thankfully,
as you said. Um, before I let you go, for you,
what will the most effective healthcare leaders need, uh,
in order to be successful in the next two to three years or so?
Well, are you a basketball fan?
I dip Will and dabble .
So I'm a huge basketball fan and so I've really been enjoying all of the Eastern
and Western conference playoffs. And,
and one of the things that I would really like to see is, one,
I'd like to see everybody, you know, drop their, uh, name badges with their,
you know,
22 page long titles and realize that what we need to do is we
need to start focusing on the people that are on the floor,
the actual players on the team. Um, can you imagine if, you know,
the basketball, um, only focused on,
on getting the fans in the stands and all of their focus was about, you know,
the fans in the stands and they didn't focus on the players that are actually on
the floor doing the work, which is what everybody comes there for.
And so really flipping that paradigm where you can't have, um,
a healthcare system unless you have the best team possible. I mean,
healthcare really is a team sport,
and we really need to start focusing on the people that do and the people that
do the work. And if you have the highest level people doing the work,
then people will come and be a part of your healthcare system because you will
have the highest safety record, the highest quality record,
the highest patient satisfaction scores. You know,
you can't have a basketball team with just a center.
You can't have a rock band with just a drummer,
and you can't have a healthcare system with just a C E O or a C O O or one
person in an or. It takes the entire team.
And so I really think, you know, as,
as we just kind of continued down this analogy that we need to focus on the
people that are on the floor doing the work so that the people in the stands
or our patients really get what they came there for.
Absolutely. Thank you. So sense. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No,
everything does make sense. Thank you so much for those final thoughts. Uh,
I have to say, this has been an amazing discussion,
so thank you so much for coming on Becker's Healthcare and I look forward to
connecting with you again soon.
I do too. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
Of course. Thank you.
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