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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Bruce A. Bartoo, MPA, CFRE, President and Chief Gratitude Officer of Gratitude Health Group
00:12:19
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- [00:02]
A
This is where healthcare leadership comes together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives and nearly 800 speakers to Chicago, April 13th through the 16th. This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former President George W. Bush. For the agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalreview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you in Chicago.
- [00:33]
B
This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. We're thrilled today to be joined by Bruce Bartou and Bruce has an organization. He'll tell us more about it called the Gratitude Group. And we're thrilled to visit with Bruce and hear more about what he does and how he does it and how he got started. Bruce, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do and your background?
- [00:59]
C
Thank you. Scott yes, my name is Bruce Bartoo. I run an organization called the Gratitude Health Group, which I launched three years ago after 30 plus years in the healthcare sector, mostly as a Chief Philanthropy Officer and working with so many grateful patients and families over the years. Scott we what I learned and really became inspired by was the fact that gratitude was what motivated most people to make significant philanthropic investments in healthcare. And so I was fortunate in a number of health systems where I served as Chief Philanthropy Officer to facilitate philanthropic investments that were used to advance the work of care teams for whom those patients and families were grateful. But I learned something else that really inspired me to launch the Gratitude Health Group. And that is before people even consider a philanthropic investment, they are so thrilled to have their gratitude accepted and shared with care teams. And what I learned through this process, Scott, is so often in healthcare, what patients and families who wish to express gratitude here from humble Care Team members is that's nice, but it's my job. I do this every day. Don't worry about it. And unfortunately people feel dismissed when they actually want to share their gratitude. They feel deep passion and often would love to share the entire story around why they're grateful. But we know our care team members don't necessarily have additional time to take to listen to stories about gratitude. For care teams, we facilitated in my career lots of partnerships with clinical teams where we inspired them to respond differently when someone expressed gratitude instead of saying no big deal, I do this every day. We what we inspired our colleagues in clinical world to say is thank you. That means a lot. May I introduce you to my colleague Bruce. He works with patients and Families who are grateful to make sure you've been able to share any gratitude story you might want to share. And people loved that and they were so inspired to be able to share their gratitude stories. So I launched a mission three years ago, Scott, to get our entire industry, everywhere in the world to respect gratitude, allow people to share their stories and to teach our colleagues who are non clinical, like philanthropy colleagues, marketing, patient experience, those sort of folks working and doing great work in healthcare to learn how to triage gratitude and allow people to share their thanks. Is it just a thank you or is there a very specific story that they feel inspired to share? So that's the mission I'm on.
- [04:25]
B
I mean, I mean simply fascinating. And isn't it an education and how many people get said thank you to or somebody says, I am so thankful for what you did. And so many of us, so many people, so many caregivers, providers, physicians are so sort of, it's hard for them to accept that because they're so busy. They're so they feel sort of humble in saying you're welcome or they're just sort of, they don't know how to handle somebody saying thank you to them. Talk about that a little bit because that's a fascinating, fascinating topic and obviously in the philanthropy world just become a huge part of health care and so important to making health care work. That ability to say thank you, to accept that thank you and say, hey God, would you like to be involved more with the system or just being able to accept that gratitude in a nice way. What a fascinating topic. Bruce, talk more about that.
- [05:23]
C
Yes, Scott, so what's fascinating, and I learned over the years, is people end up reflecting on their experience as a patient and a family member in a much more positive manner. If we inspire clinical team members to accept their gratitude in a kind way instead of being dismissive, which is naturally what's happened forever in healthcare. But people reflected upon their experience in a more positive manner. They felt more respected. And so that was great for patient experience and satisfaction scores. But also when we focus on having non clinical staff triage that gratitude and capture the stories. When we, and I love doing this part of work as a chief Philanthropy officer, when we would hear those stories and bring them back to the care team and share them. Absolutely made a difference in addressing burnout because you had the opportunity to go sit with a group of clinicians and say, let me tell you a specific story. I learned today something you did and your colleagues did that had a real impact. And this patient and their Family is so deeply grateful and they feel so honored by what you did. That made a world of difference in addressing burnout. And that pathway created a much more natural and organic discussion than if that family was philanthropic. They would often say, well, I don't want to just say thank you, I want to help the team. What can I do? How can I help them? What do they need? And that opened the door to conversations about philanthropic investments. But even if the family wasn't philanthropic, they felt so much better about their care experience. And so, Scott, my mission is to inspire our clinical teams to understand there's gratitude every day, where usually we're missing it and dismissing it. And so I'm on a mission to help inspire everyone in healthcare to understand gratitude exists. Let's invite it, let's accept it, let's assign a non clinical team member to triage that gratitude to ensure that patient and family has the best possible experience. And frankly, so that we can bring those gratitude stories back and help address the burnout that our care teams are still feeling. And frankly, right now, Scott, with all the uncertainty and stress in healthcare, focusing on gratitude is a much more positive and optimistic activity that we could be doing every single day because it's right in front of us every day. But we often miss it, you know.
- [08:23]
B
And I love the entire theme and message. And I think it's so important because someone's saying thank you for their great experience, the great care that they got. And what's fancying about is when people say thank you, they do it for multiple reasons. They themselves benefit from it because they feel better if they're able to say thank you and express their gratitude. And I think part of the point is if they're sort of dismissed in giving that gratitude, then instead of it having a positive, it can have a negative. So. So learning how to also accept that gratitude is such a fascinating perspective, isn't is?
- [09:04]
C
And it's not something that's naturally happens in health care. And Scott, I often tell this story. Back in 1990, a movie came out with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman called Days of Thunder. Tom Cruise was a NASCAR driver. He was injured in a terrible accident in a race. And Nicole Kidman was the doctor that brought him back to good health. Partway through the movie, there's a scene where he goes back to the hospital to thank the doctor. She's walking through the parking lot to get in her car and he's yelling, doctor, doctor, doctor. And she looks at him and says, as she gets in the car, what do you need. And he said, I just want to say thank you. And she looks at him and she says, it's my job. He looks at her and says, yeah, well, it's my life. And what I love about quoting this story from a 1990 movie is it was clear the screenwriters understood there's an imbalance between what's routine for the caregiver and the patient. It's all about their life. And so my question for us in the industry is, if we've known about this for more than 35 years, why haven't we fixed it? I'm on a mission to fix it.
- [10:24]
B
Bruce, let me ask this question. Where can people learn more about what you do and about the gratitude group? And just fascinating what you do.
- [10:32]
C
Yes, the gratitude health group. We do have a website, gratitudehealthgroup.com but I've also done a lot of work around the healthcare industry and most people think, Scott, because I'm a chief Philanthropy officer, this is just a fundraising strategy. But I have to admit to you, it's so much bigger than that. It's so much more about building an optimistic and encouraging culture across healthcare. And even for profit health systems that aren't in the fundraising business, they still get great value from improving patient experience and reducing burnout. And so there's, it's, it's so easy, easy to begin to focus on this. And I'm hopeful that our industry just begins, as you've done today, begins to step back for just a minute and think, you know, this is so natural and organic and why can't we do something about this? And the simple thing to do is let's inspire our clinical teams to respond differently, but let's also train and teach our non clinical teams how to effectively triage gratitude, make sure patients and families have the best possible experience.
- [12:00]
B
Bruce, I can't even tell you how thankful I am for you to join us on the Vectors Healthcare podcast. I love the message, I love what you do. Thank you for taking the time today.
- [12:09]
C
Thank you so much. We are grateful for you and your advocacy for enhancements in healthcare.