← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Kelly Gooch, Senior Editor and Enterprise Lead at Beckers, and I'm thrilled today to interview Amy King, Chief Human Resources Officer at Denver Health and have her on the podcast today. Amy, thank you so much for joining me.
- [00:14]
B
Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be on the podcast today.
- [00:19]
A
Of course I'm excited for our conversation because of course workforce strategy is so central to health system success today and you bring a unique perspective from leading HR at safety net institution. So before we dive in, I would love for you just to introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about your background.
- [00:37]
B
Sure. Thanks Kelly. As you said, I'm a Chief Human Resources Officer here at Denver Health and I feel like I have such an honor and a privilege to serve in that role. Denver Health is super special. I've got nearly 30 years of human resources leadership experience in both healthcare and the higher education sector and a huge passion for workforce engagement and culture throughout my career. I've also done some executive and team leadership coaching along the way throughout my career and that part always, always fills my cup.
- [01:15]
A
Yes, it's so, so great to hear about just the joy from that and just the trajectory there and was curious in your role currently, what trends are.
- [01:26]
B
You really watching watching a number of different trends anywhere from health care workforce evolution to burnout, technology in HR and change and I can talk a little bit about each of those areas. If you look at healthcare workforce evolution, the competition for talent is quite fierce, especially as it relates to nursing, behavioral health positions in the provider space and a number of other areas. And really we have to think differently in attracting and retaining talent as well as how the how on building the workforce pipeline at Denver Health we're trying to be super creative in our workforce development space and looking three and five years out which we should all be doing to and beginning to partner with different institutions and organizations to build those pipeline programs. Because really if you take a step back, organizations have to be willing to invest in the people and building those pipelines even though those disciplines may may not be ready for a number of years. We have to start now. Another trend that we're watching which is not a new trend by any means, particularly based on years coming out of the COVID pandemic, but that whole burnout and well being aspect, it's still a top concern, but our focus shifting from being reactive well being program partners to building supportive and sustainable cultures as it relates to this improving well being and resilience of our workforce, particularly with Our bedside roles has been and it will continue to be an issue of great importance and concern for us. And one of the areas here at Denver Health we have a division called Restore and it is a really, really special space for us. It focuses on promoting and sustaining the well being, the mental well being of our workforce. Whether that's individual well being, collective well being or even our organization. It has support services from whether it's 247 peer support line where you can access emotional support and psychological first aid including handoff resources. We have Vision itself has a support center where staff can go in and see peer responders. There are trained professionals that provide space for self care, reflective care, maybe even emotional and immediate access support for counseling. We do drop in group support where interdisciplinary confidential group support conversations are facilitated. There's team specific support. We do walkabouts with RESTORE and actually bring RESTORE to the units themselves. They do a lot of different trainings whether it's de escalation, trauma and resilience, informed training, rap which is workplace response and assault protocols. It's truly, truly an incredible program. Another trend is obviously technology and hr. I don't know any conversation where AI and analytics doesn't come up when it comes to workforce planning and just thinking about talent engagements. Obviously it's critical and aids for shifting human resources from being reactive to proactive which is oftentimes a challenge for HR organizations. I would think the last part that I would say is trend not new but different is change. While change is always constant, I'm uncertain that we've experienced change as we are now. And what I mean is obviously during COVID we said we were experiencing unprecedented times and right, wrong or indifferent, that holds true today. However, what's unprecedented and different I think now is how rapid the change continues to be. Whether it's AI or all of the different aspects coming out from the government. And we sometimes feel like a whipsaw. Right. So employee expectations continue to evolve and we want to continue to help with that people purpose driven work and creating clear mobility opportunities and having the communication be as clear as possible when it comes to change and how we're going to move through it. Right. It's not being done to us but and how can we move through it? And you have so many different financial pressures and all of the regulatory environment that's being thrown at us. So supporting and developing our leaders to be able to lead through that environment for their, for their teams is, is absolutely critical. So those are some of the areas that I'm seeing from a workforce trend Perspective.
- [06:58]
A
Yeah, no, absolutely. I think you hit on a lot of just really important topics there. Great to hear about RESTORE and of course the pipeline always topic to keep an eye on and, and as you mentioned the rapid pace of AI and just different of course financial pressures amid all of it. So I think you hit on a lot of. A lot there for sure. And so with that being said, we know all these challenges exist. So I was curious what you're most excited about.
- [07:28]
B
Gosh, I am super excited about a number of areas and actually if I can pop up and talk a little bit about Denver Health itself because that Denver Health itself gets me excited. We are an integrated health system that serves not just Denver, but the Rocky Mountain region. And our focus is so embedded on our mission. Our mission is so embedded in our focus, I should say. And our mission is to provide high quality, equitable care for all regardless of your ability to pay, while still training for the future healthcare professional and partnering in community research. We have an annual budget of about $1.5 billion and proud to say that we are powered by nearly 8,500 dedicated, absolutely dedicated employees serving across our footprint which is quite large. We have over 130 medical specialties, a 550 bed hospital. We are in 19 school based or have 19 school based health centers, 10 community health centers. We serve over 88,000 behavioral patients, 1.44 million patient visits annually. We have an incredible paramedic division that answers well over 13911 calls for emergency services every year. And you know, we're just really, really community focused. And I would say that our grit level is quite high in our resilience. So that excites me in and of itself just being able to work here at a safety net hospital where the mission is palpable. Here. It's so cool. Some of our top priorities from an HR perspective that I'm excited about are strengthening our retention strategies. We want to build clear career mobility pathways and the other areas, expanding our leadership development for both emerging and seasoned leaders. You know, we, we want to think differently about data and how we bring that into each of these areas. And sometimes being proactive, as I said earlier, versus reactive, that discipline or that muscle seems really easy to speak to but sometimes really difficult to put into practice, particularly as you're trying to get the HR division to shift from being transactional to being transformational. And so our focus really is on that leadership support development at the foundation to help us strengthen all of these areas that I mentioned. We're excited about the Retention, the career pathway and mobility along with the leadership support and development.
- [10:26]
A
Absolutely. And you mentioned, of course, leadership development being a key piece and so wanted to ask you too. So what is your advice today for evolving leaders?
- [10:38]
B
I love this question because I remember early in my career I would ask my mentor for advice often and some of the best advice was around obviously leadership style. And there's a number of things that relate to that. Showing up with empathy and having accountability. And I think for leaders today, both empathy and accountability go hand in hand. People want to be seen and they want to be heard and they want to be supported, but they also expect clarity from their leader and that follow up and follow through. Our chair of our trauma division had said this about providing feedback and which I absolutely love and learned from him. Even when the feedback needs to be constructive, you're actually being kind to the individual that you're giving that constructive feedback to. Because if you don't give it, that individual doesn't necessarily know what they might need to shift. Obviously the delivery is important and when you actually give it constructively, you're actually being kind to your employee. Another area, I would say stay curious both when listening and learning because health care is evolving so quickly and that continuous learning is so essential. Another area, my suggestion, invest in relationships. Relationships are incred important and invest in them deeply because trust will be your strongest currency in times of change, which we are in the midst of for sure. Balance short term needs with your long term vision. So balance the urgency of the daily demands with the importance of the long term goal like workforce development, succession planning and building a strong culture which we know doesn't happen overnight. Another area obviously is truly, truly important, particularly in today's times, is modeling respectful behavior. I would love nothing more, more than to be out of a job because everyone treated everyone with respect in the workplace and respect is just so important. So I would say whether leaders realize it or not, eyes are always, always on us and our behavior. And that's what makes leadership super challenging at times because we're always on right? And yet we are human too. So that said, leadership is an honor and a privilege. And how incredible and is it that we're able to get to know our employees on a personal and professional level and hear them and watch them in their greatest and toughest moments. And perhaps most importantly, I love that we get to see in them what they themselves maybe can't or don't see in themselves. And as leaders, that provides us the opportunity to help coach and grow our people into more than what they can imagine for themselves. And, gosh, that's incredible. And I'm so, so grateful for that opportunity.
- [13:59]
A
Thank you so much, Amy. Wonderful advice there and staying curious, really developing leaders, especially in this evolving space. And I want to thank you for a great conversation today and found it really interesting and loved getting your perspective. So thank you again and we hope to talk with you again soon. Great.
- [14:19]
B
Thank you.