Championing Holistic HLTH is Also Important for the Future of Healthcare

What's up everybody? David Kemp, host of Highway To Health Podcast. Here with my buddy, Geoffrey M. Roche. Geoffrey? Hi, David. How are you? Geoffrey M. Roche, hosts of holistic leadership future of work and education and health care. Day three, HLTH, whatever you wanna call it in Vegas, the convention center. Yesterday, we talked about value based care, how that all know, the progress that we're making there. Here's what almost all of my conversations today, were around. It was around, and I use this term a lot. So it's a little self promotion, but how health care is gonna it's gonna take a village to get where we wanna go. When we talk about improvements to access, experience, outcomes. And, three different times today. We talked about why health? Why are you here? You know, what's what about health is is exciting for you for take time out of your data, you know, out of your job to come to this conference, and it was it's a it's a great collaboration of all different parts of health care. And because it's a younger crowd, more more of a startup vibe to it in some areas of the event. Why are you acting like that's provocative? That's not provocative. People are more willing to partner, which I think is a good thing, Geoffrey. Why are you acting that way? I think there's all ages here present. I wasn't even speaking of age. That's on you. But your thoughts on that? It taking a village in what you've seen here. Yeah. I mean, it does take a village, and I appreciate that David Kemp, is using a phrase that, Hillary Clinton used, during the 1990s, health care reform. And so, I mean, you know, and the reason I say that is we've been talking about it takes a village to reform health care for a very long time. So, I mean, it does take a village. But the reality of it is is Hold on. I didn't I didn't I didn't invent this saying. No. Hillary Clinton, are you implying that I'm trying to take credit something. No. I'm just I'm intrigued the fact that David Kemp would would quote something from Hillary Clinton, but but, the reason that that I find it interesting, right, is, it's to your point, think it is encouraging, that health specifically, certainly, has brought together, you know, payers, providers, startups, and I think to your point, everyone wants to do what's right. What I saw I mean, you know, I would say generally what I heard today in various different sessions was certainly what do we need to do to really make sure primary care is the best that it can be for patients. And, I think we've gotta remember we've gotta have the have the clinicians right now, we're at a time where we got significant physician burnout. In fact, I was I was reading an article, today, that that is actually a significant tearjerker, and It's, it's interesting because this issue of burnout, when you talk about taking a village, you can't take a village if you don't have the people. And, this, this, story was about a nurse. Who committed suicide recently. And in her obituary, she specifically cited, the reason she committed suicide was her health system. No way. It's in the obituary. Check out Rebecca Love's post, today. And, you know, I think we've gotta we've gotta really pay attention to these things. Because we're we're out of time, when, you know, I know I posted an article today on LinkedIn, and I heard back from several healthcare professionals who specifically said, that's me. I'm burnt out. That's me. I'm tired. And so, it does take a village, but it but we've got to take care of our people if we're gonna have that village operating. I don't understand where we're we're missing the mark. We are working in the most inspiring, rewarding industry of any. And yet we have a hard time attracting top talent, retaining top talent, and then taking care of the people that are meant to take care of everybody else. I don't it's it's ironic. It's sad. And you're exactly right. We're nothing without the provider. Without the caregiver. And, have you ever first of all, it taking a village. That's small town saying. Alright. I come from small town. To prove that, you ever heard of, so god made a farmer? Yep. Somebody should do something like that with So god made a caregiver, or so god made a doctor. So god made a nurse, because they're that important to our community. Every community. We're all patients. I heard somebody say today that there's three hundred fifty million patients in the United States. There's fifty million nurses Think about that with that number shrinking by almost a million by twenty twenty seven. It's not scalable. It's not sustainable. And we're we're going pretty quickly towards a cliff here that we may not recover from. Yeah. Well, I think we have to be excited and encouraged by the fact I don't know if you saw but health announced earlier. An even larger focus in the future on nursing. That's that's pretty revolutionary. You know, we have not I mean, as somebody, I'm sure like you go to many healthcare conferences, we normally see just a little bit. Just a little bit. A lot about our physicians, certainly a lot about the industry, but, but, it's encouraging that health is really recognizing that need and know that Doctor. Bonnie Klipper had a huge role in and, salute Bonnie for her work. She's an Austin girl. So we'll give him a credit. We'll give a little credit to Texas. But but, no, I I think you're right. And, you know, I think the other piece of this that's really, really important is, I'm also encouraged by all the, continued investment, and work in mental health. We're at a time where, you know, if you look at our children, you know, you and I read a presentation earlier, you think about our children our children are facing behavioral health issues, more than more than any other time. And yet we don't really have access to care in the way that we really should. And so I'm encouraged to see startups really, putting forward, amazing, really innovations, but also, you know, in many ways solutions. And I think even the kid at kid's ex, work that's occurring, is is also really, exciting to see, because if we don't address these issues head on, we're just gonna continue to have the epidemic that it is and and mental health is truly an epidemic. It is. And our, you know, I have four young ones and they're facing things that I I didn't have to face until I was a young adult and my kids are, you know, ten, eleven, twelve, and then a young woman that's three. But they're having to face, they're having to face things and being exposed. Here's here's the truth. They're being exposed to things that mentally, they're just not prepared. To deal with. Whether it's, you know, social media, whatever. And, and so that's challenging. They need we need as parents and they need as kids. The resources to to manage that, to deal with it, to to work through it. Let me get your opinion on something. You know, we talk about when we come to these conferences, we always say you know, do more with what you have or do more with less and automation and innovation. It's gonna make things easier, allow your workforce to do more. To scale. That's that's usually the talk track. But you touched on something earlier. I mean, at the end of the day, we need more people. How how do we do that? I mean, what's what in your opinion is is the path forward to attracting retaining and then treating, you know, those those caregivers the right way so that we have enough. Yeah. Well, I think on the attracting piece, right? We have to do a better job of reaching the youth earlier on why health care is a special place to serve. If you if you would go out to any school, which I do pretty regularly and and talk to students, they know they generally know an idea of what a physician does. They generally have an idea of a nurse does. They don't know all the other ancillary, important critical roles, all the other roles in clinical health, the fact that you could be an administrator from a non clinical perspective, so we've gotta really educate health care is a special place to serve and has huge opportunity for impact. I would argue it's the best industry to work in and the best industry to serve in, and so we've gotta help them do that. So the question is, how do you do that? We've got to leverage, you know, tools like AR, because we've really gotta bring, you know, we have to help our students understand the science behind health care from a STEM perspective. And really help them understand that that could be them. The second thing I think is, particularly when we talk about our staff, our current staff, as leaders, we've got to make sure that we're doing everything we can to really have a culture that that that supports and really amplifies the need for psychological safety. We've got to have a sense of belonging for everybody. And we certainly have to really advance, you know, an environment where people feel that they're valued, appreciated, and that they there. And, you know, it's not easy to do. I think, you know, I look at people like, Doctor. Jonathan Fisher, at Novon Health, who's doing phenomenal work around, psychological safety and really has been a leader in in addressing burnout. He's been a guest, on the holistic leadership podcast, and and Doctor. Fisher, is not only a good friend, but a cardiologist and and, somebody who who is really rooted in this work, and, one of the things Doctor Fisher and I've talked about is, is we've got to have champions in all aspects of health care for this. And we need to have more leaders that are championing it. I also would just say that our boards, our governing boards, trustees, they need to be champions of this too. This is an epidemic. Mental health is an epidemic, and it infects it affects the workplace, and it affects us, at home. And ultimately, leaders have a responsibility to address it. And, like I said, I'm encouraged that health had so many sessions, throughout the time on, on not just mental health, but also the integration of mental health, and, and, we've gotta address it. And then the third thing I would just say is we've got to, We've got a really, from a from an investment end in our health care system, really embrace, technology, from advantage point. I mean, you know, mental health is gonna take tech solutions, it's also gonna take human solutions. We are not gonna solve the issue of access to care quickly. We don't have enough psychiatrists. Don't have enough psychologists. We don't even have enough social workers. We don't have enough licensed professional counselors, but we can leverage technology in a positive way. And we've seen that. And there's some amazing startups doing work in this space And so I I would just encourage healthcare leaders to to not be so slow. You know, the sales cycle in healthcare is is abysmal, frankly. And, you know, on the provider side, it's almost two years. Every deal. It's it's sickening, frankly. And then it's another year to get implemented. Yep. And we've got a year to get, you know, adopted. We've gotta innovate. Yeah. And we have to be more accepting. That's that innovation. And then we also have to, you know, coming from the sell side, you wanna get on soapbox. Get on soapbox. Now, we have to be, willing to invest in things that I'll just say it. Don't have a hard ROI. You know, if if if I were selling mental health solutions to any big organization, not just an not just a provider or health system. But if I were coming to them with a solution or a partnership idea, I'd have to specifically, demonstrably prove that they were gonna get whatever they invested, they were gonna get back. Yep. And then more. And you can't always do that in dollars dollars and cents. Money's tight. I'm not saying it's not, especially on the provider side, and it's always gonna be hard, to find the money for it. But you gotta place your bet sometimes. And and sometimes placing your we're in Vegas. You know, it's risky. But what better place to place a bet than on your people? Especially the people that are taking care of an entire community. Yeah. Well, I think the best way to view it to your point is it's a life and death situation. So if you're a leader and, you you hear of a solution that has the potential to impact that, that specific scenario. I think you've gotta, you gotta make a decision to roll with your heart. And, you know, I think you know, people regularly hear me say that, health care, you know, it's all about people, yet from a leadership perspective, we haven't necessarily seen that practice. And I think, if you're a leader in health care, now is the time more than ever to be people centered and to be heart centered, and, people need to know that they matter. And they need to know that their physical and their mental health and and all aspects of the mind, body spirit are valued. Yeah. Or we won't have a workforce and our patients won't have people to take care of them. It's it's conferences like this that in in others, not just h l t h, but in others that that kind of show you, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel or the, you know, the positive side of things because we are making progress. And I think everything that we took in over the last three days and what we'll continue to discuss throughout the end of today and tomorrow. There's we're living in the golden age of innovation. Now now it takes implementation and adoption, of those things to really make an impact. And I and look, necessity breeds, creativity and innovation, and and there's no bigger need right now than in the health care space. And so we'll do it because we've always done it. Yep. Anything else? Yeah. No, I mean, I would just say, you know, I think, people have seen, you know, to your point, you say it takes a village. I say, it's really all community. And, when I look at the the space here at health, I see really a lot of aspects of community. I see people who not only are in this work, because they care, but also because they're passionate. And I think what gives me optimism is, is, organizations like health, because they're doing it differently. They think differently. They do have a huge focus on the people. And, look, I mean, you got a unicorn as a mascot. You know, we're on to bigger and better things. So the only better thing that I think in the future is if David Kemp was in the unicorn, unicorn mascot. I mean, Halloween's about two Well, I can't wait to see that image. Jeffrey, thank you. Thank you, David. Can't wait to see that mascot.