This is Chris Sosa with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm pleased today to be joined by Dr. Robert Root,
associate Chief Medical Officer of Michigan State University Healthcare. Dr.
Root, thank you for joining us today.
Thanks for having me.
Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background?
Sure. While I'm a pediatrician by training,
went to medical school at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic
Medicine,
and I did my residency training through msu EW
Sparrow Hospitals pediatric residency program.
Practiced a general pediatrician since graduation, and, uh,
and over the last three years, uh,
been serving as the Associate Chief Medical Officer for MSU Healthcare. And, uh,
in that role, wear a variety of hats,
but engaged in various aspects of patient access to care,
quality peer review among other duties.
Uh, what are the biggest issues you're following in healthcare in 2023?
Yeah, I think we're coming off the heels of the,
the COVID 19 pandemic, and particularly in pediatrics. We're,
we're also in the midst of the viral respiratory infection
surge that we've seen through the fall and the winter. And I, I think,
I think that's really highlighted access to care issues and a need to continue
to evolve our care models to best meet those needs, uh,
for our patients and our communities that we serve.
I think that's one of the biggest things I see in, in 2023 going forward.
That's gonna be a big, big important thing to tackle. I think that's,
that's created more strain on our healthcare systems. Um, I think, uh,
not only in the hospital, but in the ambulatory settings, you know,
so I think we need to look at some priorities around, you know,
how do we, um, enhance access for our communities and evolve here.
What has the discussion revolved around in regards to increasing that access to
care?
Great question. I think it's gonna be, have to be multifaceted. Um,
we're gonna have to look at leveraging different technology to
help meet patient needs, uh,
whether that's via telehealth platforms or partnerships with
different healthcare entities.
I think that's also expanding our partnerships within the community.
One of the,
the kind of the growing concerns amongst that care has,
has been mental health concerns. And so I think working on,
um, expanding partnerships with the community,
helping our patients tap into the community resources to seek out
mental health care needs is gonna be an important piece here.
And so that's part of that conversation. Uh, I think as we,
we move forward here.
Uh, what are you most excited about in the healthcare space right now?
What makes you nervous?
Well, , I think, you know, I'm up here in Michigan,
uh, so I'm kind of excited, uh, about the spring, um, and just, uh,
trying to get some warmer weather.
We still got a good amount of snow on the ground up here. Um,
I'm hoping that as we, we go further in the spring, we see the,
the surge of viral respiratory infections subside,
and we can kind of pivot to some warmer weather here and,
and, and,
and that may actually help allow a little bit of better access to care just
because of the, the, the virus respiratory surges is so overwhelmed, um,
our ambulatory care providers and, and hospital settings.
So I'm excited about that. Um,
I'm in general just very excited about the future of pediatrics and seeing
how we tackle the evolving care needs that exist in our community.
Yeah, so I think those are things that kind of excite me.
The things that make me nervous is just continuing to support our care
providers, our RNs,
our care managers and social workers are healthcare receptionists and healthcare
assistance supporting all the care providers of our team as we
continue to kind of tackle all the, the needs of our patients.
Uh, Dr. Ru, I'm Michigan State students,
were victims of horrific shooting in February.
Any another latest hosted listening session in the wake of the tragedy.
On that note, what steps are most important in advance in the healing process,
in the wake of such a tremendous event,
and how does Michigan State Healthcare help its personnel handle these
situations?
Yeah, thanks for asking that. Obviously it was a horrific event,
very tragic and sad experience for our community,
and we continue to pull for all the families who were
impacted by this. You know, from MSU healthcare standpoint,
leaders within our team and within the Department of Psychiatry
really pivoted, quickly, mobilized a lot of community,
uh, resources for all members of our community, but our students,
particularly our faculty and staff, because this is such a traumatic event,
and in order to have healing,
we need to be able to kind of tap into those resources.
So we've been working hard to ensure that our community has
all those resources. Our students have access to those resources,
whatever they may need as they continue to grieve and heal during this period
of time. Um, we've focused on just trying to have some strategies amongst,
you know, talking to our younger patients, our pediatric patients,
and how to talk to younger kids about those things.
So we've created some dialogue, uh,
examples and stuff like that to help support them.
And Dr. Root,
where do you even start when you're trying to explain to a young person
what has happened in a situation like this?
Well, I think where, where you started, you, you check in with where you're at,
kind of processing this thing and make sure you're in a good space there,
kind of understanding where you're at.
I think you start with with simple open-ended questions and you,
you're checking in with your child or your patient, you know,
asking what their thoughts are, what they're feeling,
kind of trying to tap into those emotions from there,
I think you give them space to, you know, and,
and time and maybe silence even to give them an opportunity to kind of
say what they're feeling. I think that as we continue to move forward, we,
we don't forget that we keep kind of circling back to that and seeing how those
emotions and those feelings are evolving.
I think that's an important part of it as well. You know,
making sure our patients,
our children know they have a safe space to talk about these things
anytime they want. I think it's an,
an additional important element to that conversation.
One month after this horrific event.
What is your sense of how the Michigan State Healthcare, um,
system as well as this community at large is,
how do you sense that they're recovering from this,
and how resilient do you see the community being?
I think the first thing I would say is our community came together in a way I've
not really ever seen, but it was so positive.
And I think that will only serve to drive our
resilience here. And, and I've seen a, a great sense of resilience amongst, um,
everyone in our community. I think we still have a lot of healing left go,
and I, I think that's the expected, but again,
I think our community really pulled together,
really bonded it around a spartan strong
mentality to support one another,
to acknowledge how challenging and, and,
and how tragic this experience has been. And,
and that has stood out to me in a way, you know, that I,
I could never have kind of imagined. Um, and so, uh,
I'm optimistic with that kind of community togetherness, uh,
that will continue to show great resilience in the wake of this strategy.
Obviously, no one wish any of this upon anyone. Uh,
but now that you have, uh, gone through this with your other healthcare leaders,
what advice do you have for others in your position?
So I think this harkens back to trying to be prepared.
You can never predict this. You can never imagine it happening,
but being ready for it,
thinking through that process will help a community be ready if there is an
event like this.
And I think that entails how do you mobilize resources to
support the community, particularly mental health resources,
mental health providers, counseling, therapy, et cetera.
I think those are critical aspects to being able to respond
effectively and efficiently and quickly in the wake of
any kind of event like that. And I think it goes back a little bit again,
this is going, I guess a little deeper here, but I, I think, you know, again,
it goes back to, to access to care,
especially with the mental health crisis I that we're,
we're experiencing, I think in our country right now,
I think that the mental health crisis has really put us on our heels a little
bit,
and it's forced us to be a lot more reactive than maybe we would
like to. And in, in medicine,
we always want to try to be preventative and provide preventative care.
So I think as we move forward,
one of the things we should be looking at and prioritizing is how do we pivot to
a more proactive strategy to address some of the mental health needs,
you know, in our communities, particularly with our pediatric patients.
That's something I really have an eye on, um, as we move forward.
And I think it's a,
it's a critical step that we need to take as pediatric providers.
Dr. Ru was a pleasure speaking today. Thank you being so open with us.
Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you. Uh, thanks for having me.