Archived Publications eBook: Confidence in the Development of your Futur | Seite 21

Providers across the continuum of care are working
together at an increasing depth. From regulatory
requirements to patient experience scores and
reimbursement policies, there are many reasons for this
newfound degree of collaboration. Part of this deeper
relationship is a shift in how we manage our talent—
the people who deliver care on the front lines and
those who manage them. Managing talent across
different settings presents just as many challenges as
opportunities for better patient care.
We sat down with Dan Borton, the Corporate
Director of Leadership Development for McLaren
Health Care Corporation, to discuss how his 45+ years
of experience help him think about and manage talent
across different care settings.
What challenges do you see from the HR
perspective regarding care across the continuum?
The overall challenge is to break out from beyond our
own four walls to enhance communication and
consistency across different care settings. One example
was seen in our training ICD-10, where traditionally we
only looked at our own staff. When we considered
care across different settings, we realized our own staff
is only one piece of a larger puzzle.
We began looking at who is providing training and what
resources are available for the other staff—people who
have a tremendous impact on patient care and
documentation across facilities and settings. We also
began to look at those who are not employed by us
but are still on staff at our facilities—because they are
ordering procedures and tests, and they impact the
patient experience just as much as fully employed staff.
These days, if we are confined by our organization, we
will miss opportunities to improve patient care and risk
miscommunication and inconsistency across all the
employees who influence the patient experience.
When looking beyond your organization—it must
be challenging to achieve the desired level of
influence. How do you approach the notion of
influencing those who are not employees but still
manage a large piece of patient care?
It’s about being more inclusive than exclusive. Early on
this was an issue for us. It came to the forefront during
the ICD-10 transition. People needed the information
but were getting it too slowly and at inconsistent
intervals. These are smart doctors, nurses, and other
providers, so we knew they understood the
information—yet they were not in the normal
communication circles. When someone hears critical
information second-hand, and not from a position or
office of authority, the effectiveness and gravity of that
information wanes.
Once we included them in a deliberate manner, people
starting understanding the importance of the ICD-10
initiative and how it impacted them. They started to
pay more attention. For example, if the hospital did not
get reimbursed due to an error in coding, that
employee—a physician or nurse—may not receive
payment or the resources needed in the long run.
When people understood how it affected them, some
people even sought out their own training for ICD-10
coding because they recognized the importance to a
much greater degree.
Which areas of talent management are affected
most by providing care across different settings?
Areas of specific concern are succession planning
and flexibility in our people’s skills. This whole idea
of succession planning needs more attention. The
challenge is identifying the next generation of people
who will take on responsibility, whether it is a
leadership role or not. We hope to find these
people within the organization. Flexibility is very
important because we live in a dynamic healthcare
environment that requires us to be more nimble in
our strategies and in how we deploy our talent across
the organization.
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