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In Change Management, COVID-19, High Stakes, Strategic Plan Pivoting

Of tightropes and treading water: Winning strategies of today’s successful healthcare leaders

Man balancing on a tightrope, displaying only below his knees

You’re still performing a high wire act of balancing the needs of your patients, doctors, nurses and staff.

You’re likely feeling deep fatigue and yet, because of your sense of purpose and mission, wanting to do more. That’s a challenging spot to be in. Yet the reality is, you and your teams have done so much.

You’ve saved lives. Many of them.

We know focusing on that daily tightrope of operational demands can make it hard to look forward to tomorrow’s strategies just paces ahead. Or to acknowledge and celebrate the victorious small steps along the way. Or to provide the physical and emotional support your team craves.

It’s no secret that fatigue and stress can lead to tension, even in the best relationships. That’s something we’ve observed at Jarrard Inc. through our client work and our recent national survey. Fact is, healthcare workers and those living with healthcare workers are a bit less trusting of hospitals than the general public, and even feel slightly less safe in healthcare settings. Surprisingly, a notable number (40 percent) is reluctant to get vaccinated when one becomes available.

Sounds concerning. And it is, especially knowing that the fall likely brings a flu/Covid-19 combo. But what this information really points to is a clear, compelling opportunity to strengthen your relationship with your incredible doctors and nurses. Because they need the attention.

Here are four suggestions – two tactical and two philosophical – for doing just that.

Double down on listening.

Ensuring your team feels supported means talking with them about the things they care about most. If you’re trying to decide exactly what’s on folks minds, ask. Bring together your C-suite to lead listening sessions with groups of 10 to 15 people. Ask, “What’s really on your mind? What could help you feel safer at work? What could we do to better support you?”

Those questions move the needle, and systems asking them are seeing a return. You’ll feel better, too. Knowing what people think and having the ability to respond is so much better than speculating.

But you can’t stop with listening. You have to then slow down and tell people what you heard. Once you’ve collected the feedback, process it and come back to people with, “Here’s what we heard you say, and we’re making this change because of it.” Or, if it’s simply not feasible, explain why.

Reconsider your messengers.

One of the most revealing pieces of data from our survey was the continued trust people place in doctors and nurses for healthcare information. The public expects and desires for clinicians to be involved in conversations around healthcare.

But the conversation must be authentic and start internally. Though trust in doctors and nurses is a bit lower for healthcare workers, they still hold clinicians in high esteem. Therefore, you’d be wise to use them for internal communications. Make sure you have respected, well-spoken clinicians as messengers. If you’re not a physician-led system with a physician in the CEO role, there’s real opportunity in featuring your chief medical and nursing officers as you deliver messages about safety or protocols employees need to follow.

With the right messengers offering the right – authentic – messaging, you can convey that you have your team’s back.

Consider what could have been.

Consider that data around the feelings of healthcare workers as a bright spot. The survey’s “scores” on trust and safety for providers have held steady through the roller coaster ride of the past several months – even while there has been so much working against healthcare providers. But you, your team and your organization have hung on. That goes to show you that temporarily treading water is sometimes enough. Even if it’s not the most satisfying activity.

Remember also that in so many critical areas, you’re making a difference. So many lives have been saved. How many people have you discharged from your COVID ICU? Celebrate the caregivers and the administrative teams that made those discharges possible. Some clients are celebrating milestone discharge numbers – 100, 200, 500 patients back home and recovering.  Could your team name with pride how many are recovering? Help them do so.

Imagine what could be.

There’s a lot of work yet to be done—but it’s work that matters. Imagine what it would look like to strengthen the financial position of your organization through additional federal funding and more favorable payer contracts? Imagine what it would look like to allay fear and move the needle on people feeling safer, to provide them an even better experience both in the midst of and after the pandemic. Imagine what it would look like to gain traction on vaccination rates for the first time in decades. Any of those things would be a big achievement…and you can do this. Take that message to your teams, remind them of your shared purpose. Check in and listen to their fears.

And celebrate the work they’ve done and will continue doing.

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In Change Management, COVID-19, High Stakes, Strategic Positioning

How will Health Systems Deal with a COVID-19 Vaccine?

Woman lifting her shirt sleeve while a man inserts a medical shot into her arm

As opponents build their case, providers risk reputational damage if they don’t take a point of view.

Early in the COVID-19 era, sometime after Bargaining and Depression, Acceptance began to set in.

With it came the grim realization that we wouldn’t fully leave this era until there was a widely available and reliable COVID-19 vaccine. And we were told that cavalry wouldn’t be rolling in until early 2021 at the absolute soonest. Now here we are, months later, still in suspended animation and confronting another major question:

What if there’s a reliable vaccine, and people refuse to get it?

Our recent national consumer survey shows that just 53 percent of Americans are extremely or very likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Now, there’s a lot we don’t know about an eventual vaccine. But we do know two things:

  1. The public overwhelmingly expects and trusts healthcare providers to actively talk about healthcare issues, which includes educating about the coronavirus and encouraging people to take specific actions to protect public health.
  2. The looming war on vaccines will make the masking battles look like tickle fights.

Six months ago, no one cared about the idea of wearing a mask. The idea that it could become a major political signifier would have seemed absurd, even for these absurd times. But as we saw, the issue quickly took on major cultural importance for months before we settled into our current détente. Some of the political air has left the balloon. Most people have accepted their masked fate, while the holdouts remain largely unpersuadable.

There are several significant differences between masking and vaccines, with the most obvious being that one is gently draped in front of your body and the other goes directly into it (via needle, no less…shout out to my fellow trypanophobiacs!). There’s also the fact that suspicion about vaccines has steadily risen over the last several years, long before COVID-19 swept the land. Some groups, particularly marginalized groups with unpleasant histories of medical trials in this country, have every right to be wary. Then there are the Jenny McCarthys of the world, whose rationales are less reasonable but even more, uh, viral.

So, are we telling you that you have to mandate vaccines for all your employees and aggressively promote the vaccine’s efficacy to the public? We are not.

However, as the trusted voice on healthcare in your community, healthcare leaders have an opportunity and a responsibility to educate the public, starting with the people who work within your organization.

Of the 47 percent of the public (and 40% of healthcare employees) who are hesitant about taking the hypothetical vaccine, the overwhelming majority are either worried about the potential side effects or worried about getting infected from the vaccine. These are very reasonable concerns about what is likely to be the most quickly developed vaccine in history. They are also an opportunity for health systems to leverage the trust the public has invested in them in a way that answers the public health concerns they seek.

Broad education on vaccines must start now, while clarifying that specific instruction on what to expect from a COVID-19 vaccine will come later, when we have the appropriate information. Don’t take for granted that everyone understands how vaccines work. Hypothetically, there could be a communications consultant who’s worked in healthcare for years but is just learning today how they actually work. Hypothetically.

Both now and later, explain how your organization will evaluate any vaccine. Make it clear that you won’t just be pulling syringes off an unmarked van and administering them to patients. (You’re not going to be doing that, right?) By explaining the process, we can begin to socialize the idea that any vaccine that comes our way will be thoroughly reviewed for safety and efficacy – “Operation Warp Speed” notwithstanding.

This is a major challenge, and it’s one that many health systems would prefer to avoid. It is an instantly political issue which will be further politicized and weaponized in our dismal national discourse. While it may not feel like it, the far greater reputational risk lies in health systems not doing everything they can to get responsible, timely and accurate information out to the public. As we continue to confront the greatest public health crisis this generation has seen, shrinking from the moment is a guaranteed way to lose the trust you’ve built.

What is your plan? You don’t have an option to sit this out, so you best start preparing one now.

Review the full survey results

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