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Would you like to exchange best
practices and ideas to improve care,

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enhance operational efficiency,

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and address financial
challenges with your peers?

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Becker's Healthcare is facilitating these
conversations at their eighth annual

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health, it digital
health and R C M meeting.

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You can check your eligibility for
complimentary attendance at the link,

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the description. We are excited
to welcome you in October.

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Welcome everyone to the
Becker's Healthcare podcast
series. I'm Mariah Mohamed,

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she her pronouns with Becker's Healthcare,

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and I'm absolutely thrilled to have with
me today. Kathleen, the bold. Kathleen,

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it's so nice to talk with
you today. How are you?

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I'm so great. It's so nice to
be included. Thank you so much.

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Yes, of course. Well, to begin,

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would you mind please introducing
yourself and telling us a bit about your

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background?

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Uh, yeah. My name is Kathleen Fial.

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I'm the executive director for the
Kaiser Permanente Nurse Aesthetist

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Association.

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So I represent the Advanced practice
nurses that deliver anesthesia to the

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patients within the Southern
California region. Uh,

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I am also on the executive board of
the Alliance of Healthcare Unions,

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which is an alliance of, uh, multiple
unions within Kaiser Permanente.

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Uh, and so we represent,
um, a wide variety, uh,

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of bargaining units and people
that deliver patient care.

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Wonderful. Thank you so much
for giving us that background.

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And the first thing that I really wanted
to ask you is with all your experience

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and everything you're doing
with the organization,

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what are the biggest issues you're
following in healthcare in this year?

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Well, <laugh>,

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and it's a complicated question because
there's so many different levels.

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From a provider standpoint,
because I represent the providers,

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we're facing a lot of burnout.

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Approximately 40 to 70% of the people
delivering healthcare, uh, are,

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are burnt out, um, after covid. Uh,
and due to the staffing shortage,

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which is another issue that we're
facing, uh, currently, you know,

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we need 3.2 million more healthcare
providers to meet the demand.

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Uh, and so staffing, uh, is
literally at a critical stage, uh,

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at most facilities across the nation.
This, of course, then affects access,

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um, which then leads to
more burnout. Um, you know,

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as we also have 10,000
baby boomers every day, um,

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joining Medicare every day.
And so that leads to, you know,

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in a tremendous stress
on, on the providers to,

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to meet the demand and the access with
what the limited staffing needs that,

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that are currently being provided.
The other thing that really,

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really is a big issue and one of
the main things that I focus on, uh,

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is the psychological safety, um, of
the providers. Um, you know, whether,

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you know, you're an advanced practice
nurse giving anesthesia who I represent,

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uh, or an emergency room nurse or an
e v s worker or a food service worker,

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or even a physician or a manager
within the healthcare space,

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there's so much going on that truthfully,

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psychological safety has
become such an imperative

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issue for everyone to focus on.
It then leads to higher, you know,

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safety results within the
patient care, uh, work workplace,

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which leads to higher
quality, safety service, um,

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and just the satisfaction
of, of the patients.

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And so I think that the biggest issue
really is, is shifting our focus, um,

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away from, you know, the people
that we want to come in, uh,

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and really focusing on the people
that are doing the work, uh,

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and those that are giving the care,
uh, and providing it for, for,

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for the people that are
purchasing the healthcare product.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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I feel like burnout is definitely
something I hear about daily. Uh,

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it seems with healthcare professionals,

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it definitely is a problem
that needs solving asap. Um,

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so I'm glad that you're kind of
working on that. And for you,

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what are you most excited about?

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And also is there anything that's
making you nervous whether,

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and it's just in the healthcare space or
something that you're currently working

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on? Anything like that?

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Well,

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I'll start with excited cause I always
try to start with what's good and I'm

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really excited for the opportunity
to reinvent in real time how we

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deliver care and, and how we respond to
the needs of our healthcare providers.

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We truly did this during covid.
It was a moment by moment,

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day-to-day situation where
we were on, you know,

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command center calls regionally,
nationally, and locally,

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just getting information in realtime
and, and passing it down, you know,

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to the people on the frontline.

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And during that time it was really
fantastic because everybody came together

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as a team. We were all on
the same team. Um, we just,

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it wasn't about your space or MySpace,
it was a collective hour space.

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So I think that having been through
that and having been an integral part of

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that during covid,

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I do think that we have an opportunity
to continue that work forward, um,

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as Covid has, you know, quote unquote, um,

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become a normalized situation,
uh, within our daily lives. It,

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it makes me very nervous, uh, at
this point, uh, based on, you know,

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the access issues as well that the patient
care systems are playing not to lose.

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I do think that's a really,
really big problem, um,

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because a lot of people
are leading from fear.

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There's a lot of financial instability
in the healthcare market right now,

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and people are really moving back
into silos where we don't have, uh,

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the realtime, um, innovation
like we did during covid. And,

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and a lot of people are, are moving back
to the old ways of doing things of the,

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the top down leadership.
Um, and really just,

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just leading from a place of fear and
playing not to lose as opposed to,

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you know, leading from
innovation and disruption and,

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and really trying to do what's best
for the world that we live in now.

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Wonderful. Yeah, thank you
so much for that insight.

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Covid definitely changed things and some
of the change was better, thankfully,

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as you said. Um, before
I let you go, for you,

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what will the most effective
healthcare leaders need, uh,

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in order to be successful in the
next two to three years or so?

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Well, are you a basketball fan?

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I dip Will and dabble <laugh>.

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So I'm a huge basketball fan and so I've
really been enjoying all of the Eastern

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and Western conference playoffs. And,

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and one of the things that I
would really like to see is, one,

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I'd like to see everybody, you know,
drop their, uh, name badges with their,

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you know,

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22 page long titles and realize
that what we need to do is we

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need to start focusing on the
people that are on the floor,

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the actual players on the team.
Um, can you imagine if, you know,

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the basketball, um, only focused on,

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on getting the fans in the stands and
all of their focus was about, you know,

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the fans in the stands and they didn't
focus on the players that are actually on

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the floor doing the work, which
is what everybody comes there for.

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And so really flipping that
paradigm where you can't have, um,

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a healthcare system unless you have
the best team possible. I mean,

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healthcare really is a team sport,

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and we really need to start focusing on
the people that do and the people that

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do the work. And if you have the
highest level people doing the work,

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then people will come and be a part of
your healthcare system because you will

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have the highest safety record,
the highest quality record,

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the highest patient
satisfaction scores. You know,

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you can't have a basketball
team with just a center.

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You can't have a rock
band with just a drummer,

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and you can't have a healthcare system
with just a C E O or a C O O or one

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person in an or. It takes the entire team.

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And so I really think, you know, as,

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as we just kind of continued down this
analogy that we need to focus on the

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people that are on the floor doing the
work so that the people in the stands

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or our patients really get
what they came there for.

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Absolutely. Thank you. So
sense. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No,

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everything does make sense. Thank you
so much for those final thoughts. Uh,

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I have to say, this has
been an amazing discussion,

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so thank you so much for coming on
Becker's Healthcare and I look forward to

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connecting with you again soon.

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I do too. Thank you so much for
having me. It's been a pleasure.

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Of course. Thank you.

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It's so important 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 this
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and meaningful way. Becker's
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