← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Building Culture, Trust, and Community Impact in Hospital Leadership with Dan Bowen
00:16:06
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- [00:00]
A
When it comes to today's rcm, we know the challenges, complexity of claims, talent shortages, low funding and lagging tech. That's why we built MedMetrics. We have the expertise and advanced tech to give you that edge on your revenue cycle. We're a partner who will relentlessly raise your yield. A partner who's on your side because they've been operator side, who knows your battles and will make sure you win from start to finish, end to end. Medmetrics, be exceptional.
- [00:30]
B
Welcome to the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm Kelly Gooch, managing editor at Beckers, and I'm thrilled to be joined today by Dan Bowen, president of Orlando Health Sebastian River Hospital. Dan, thank you so much for joining us.
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C
My pleasure. Thanks for having me, of course.
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B
And Dan, I thought we could start off with you briefly introducing yourself, your role, the scope of your organization as well.
- [00:50]
C
Absolutely. Like I said, I'm Dan Bowen. I'm the president here at Orlando Health Sebastian River Hospital. Joined the organization in mid January, so just hit my 90 days. We are part of the east region that was acquired in October of 2024. So we're a little over 18 months into establishing this region between us and Melbourne Hospital and our medical group. Prior to this, I was with an organization, South Carolina Piedmont Medical center, which is part of Tennant. I was the market COO there over 22 hospitals, a freestanding ED and several outpatient facilities. Prior to that, I was with Health first in Brevard county for seven years. During that time, I ran three of their four hospitals over that period. When I departed, I was the president of Cape Canaveral Hospital when I left in 2024. And prior to joining Health First, I was in the air Force for 21 years, earned the rank of lieutenant colonel and retired in 2017 when I joined Health First.
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B
Thank you so much. And definitely expansive experience across the board there. And so I'm curious then, what drew you to the current role and what were maybe your top priorities walking into your first 90 days?
- [02:09]
C
So definitely the reputation of Orlando Health, both of the impact of the communities they serve and and the culture they've established. I've had several colleagues join the organization over the last few years. I keep in touch with them quite a bit and all of them just couldn't stop raving about Orlando Health, what they do in their communities, the culture of the organization, how they treat their people, their medical staff, their leaders, the opportunities they have. So as I was in my career and keeping up with some colleagues, one of them mentioned an opportunity right here in Sebastian. And so I jumped at it, submitted my application, and I was lucky enough to get a call and an interview and got the job. And the biggest thing with my first 90 days that you mentioned is building those relationships with leaders and team members in our community. Really getting out there in the community, meeting the people that we're serving, getting their feedback, going from department to department, spending time with the leaders, shadowing with a team member, just understanding who we are, what we do, talking to patients. Just kind of get my arms wrapped around this community. The team, our medical staff spend a lot of time with our physicians. And overall, I mean, everyone at Orlando Health has been so supportive and helpful. Just anybody I had a question I could reach out to, whether that's right here locally or corporately in Orlando. If I needed questions about, you know, supply chain or compliance or anything that I needed or, you know, equipment acquisition, I reached out and people just, you know, got back to me right away and helped me really learn and navigate the organization. And my experience with our community partners has been the same. I mean, very open, transparent, give me feedback that we need to get better. And I continue to build those relationships. So it's been great.
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B
Yeah, sounds like a great and really transparent process there. As well as you've been able to talk with the team and the community so far. And car curious, what have you learned from those interactions so far that has really shaped your leadership approach?
- [04:13]
C
So, you know, from the team perspective, you know, our leaders, our team members, our medical staff, very strong culture and also passionate about the community. So as I came in in my first week and I was talking to everybody, I had a meet and greet with several leaders. There were so many people that said they'd been here at Sebastian river Hospital for 20, 30, 40 years. Regardless of who owned the hospital, they choose to stay. And when I asked why, it's just, well, this is my community. I want to be here for them. And that's why they're staying. And they never left. And their attitude when Orlando Health took over was really great. I mean, they were so glad that they're part of Orlando Health now. And it just solidifies the fact that they're going to stay here until they retire. So I thought that was really, really great to see so much tenure from the people that have been here and just love serving their community. And the community itself is just as passionate. They want this hospital to be successful. They want to be proud of their hospital. They want to keep their care local, they want to go anywhere else. And so we have Their investment and we just have to deliver. And so they can continue to talk about us and spread the word across the community that, yes, please come to Sebastian River Hospital. We're going to take amazing care of you. And you don't have to go far from home to get your care. You have it right here in Indian river county on the Treasure Coast.
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B
Right. And I was curious to how you're really thinking about physician alignment, staff engagement and retention in today's environment. Specifically, of course, so many pressures there. So we'd love to hear more from you there too.
- [05:49]
C
It's culture, culture, culture, culture. I mean, have an environment that people want to stay. They have a, you know, similar set of values and be proud of where they work. And for physicians, the ones who feel respected and whose values match the organization's mission and culture, they're more likely to stay loyal to their house health system. When they have a choice and a voice in decision making, they feel valued and engaged. The more move away from feeling a commodity to becoming a co leader. You know, they're part of that organizational transformation. We're listening to them figuring out what they need because their goal is they just want to take the best care of their patients. And so they need the resources, they need the team members, the clinicians that work side by side with them to be top notch, to provide amazing care and ultimately those great outcomes. When it comes to staff engagement and retention, it's just that engagement is what's crucial. They want to feel heard. And to me that translates into feeling valued. And so how we provide that as leaders and how I can emulate that or how I can just being transparent, providing that proactive and effective communication, giving them the resources they need, whether it's, you know, equipment, supplies, time, staffing, whatever they need to take care of their patients, to take care of each other, make sure we provide those resources, a commitment to their well being, you know, let them know we care about them. Whether they're in the building or out of the building. We want to make sure them and their families are taken care of, recognize really good performance, publicly, privately, whatever they prefer, but making sure they understand when we see them do great things, we're recognizing them for that and invest in their growth. What do they want to be? Maybe they're at a place right now they want to. They're a CNA that wants to be a nurse or they want to go into leadership. You know, how do we listen to them during this process and create a roadmap for them to get them where they need to be. And then one thing that sometimes is left out of that is accountability. You know, that's also part of a good culture. Standards are and should be really high and we need to continue to assess our performance, whether that's through our outcomes and metrics or the team members performance. And so if there's really no accountability and that poor performance is accepted, you end up losing your best performers that way because they want to work at a place where the standards are high and we deliver amazing care. So there's a lot rolled into that, but it's, it's not easy to do that. So it takes a lot of effort through everybody in the organization to make that happen.
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B
Absolutely. And I heard a lot about, well, wellbeing and like you said, about accountability as well and obviously many factors there. And so any best practices or just philosophies you're, you're using just to build that strong workplace culture you just outlined.
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C
I mean, Orlando Health has a great baseline, but you know, I've been a leader for a lot of years and it's just honesty and transparency. We have great programs that we can do that. Recognition, we want to hear their stories, we want to listen to them and get feedback, whether it's through formal, you know, engagement surveys with the team, whether it's attending their huddles and listening to things real time. You know, we have an environment where everybody has the right to speak up and raise their hand. No matter where you are, you know, whether it's in the or you can stop the line. Whether it's, you know, raising your hand when you see an issue. We always want to make sure we have these, we have safety huddles. And it is key to transparency. You see something, say something, you're going to be heard and something's going to be done. And so I think that's the culture. It's not, you know, what it says on your badge and what your job is or your rank, it is, you have a voice. If you see something we want to know or if we can get 1% better, like if you've come from an organization that, you know, you think that we can do something a little bit better, we want to hear that too. And so really having that mentality and that culture of everybody is valued, everybody has a voice and then everybody buying into that. Right. It has to be across the board. So I think that's important. I think it's something Orlando Health does really well.
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B
Absolutely. And I wanted to ask now outside of the workforce too, just how you're approaching partnerships and community trust right now in the. In the area. I know you mentioned before, of course, the conversations you've already had had there, but would love to expand more.
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C
Yeah, really, it's, you know, being available, present, transparent, inquisitive, asking a lot of questions. So there's been a lot of different parts of the community reaching out and asking for some time and whether that's through, you know, the chambers or other organizations that just want to understand what we're doing here with Orlando Health and, you know, telling our story for what's out there. Right. We want to make sure we have a strategy. Some of the stuff we can, we're not ready to talk about yet, but, you know, because there's plans are in place but haven't been firmed up yet. But overall, just getting out there, spending time with those organizations, answering their questions, and overall, I've seen just great feedback. I mean, we want to know the experiences they're having. They're our eyes and ears in the community. And so we want to know what it's been like before, what it's like now and then, where we can be to get even better in the future. I give feedback on what our community needs are based on our performance. Like I talked about, we look at those outcomes where we can get better. We get feedback from all of our patients and families and that's in person while they're in the hospital. Obviously, we do our patient experience surveys through press Ganey, we do Google reviews. I mean, we really want to have any place where they can give us feedback. It should be very, very easy. And believe me, we read every single one of those and we want to make sure we respond to those as well. We also initiated a community engagement council. Different members of Indian river county community leaders, whether that's through our first responders for some of the areas in our political environment or government officials, we want to understand what they need and what they're hearing. And we also do a community health needs assessment to understand really what our community needs in relation to their health care or their ability to take care of themselves and their families. So it's just getting out there, being present, answering those questions and continuing to do that and build those relationships.
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B
Right. And it definitely sounds like a lot of forums there at this point already. So, yeah, absolutely. And we started off the conversation with you outlining all your previous experience as well that you bring to the role. And so I'm curious what leadership lessons have shaped you most in your career?
- [12:28]
C
Self awareness is crucial. Understanding yourself Emotional intelligence, making sure you can read the room, understand what people are needing. Active listening. My dad said you had two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you speak. So that's a big part of that is really, really listening as you go throughout the building or in meetings and making sure, like I said, everyone has a voice and taking that information you get and getting back with a leadership team and seeing what we can deliver based on the feedback we're getting. Also embracing vulnerability. I don't have to have all the answers personally just because of my. Who I am. In the hospital, typically, you hire great people and get out of their way, and if you have a great team, the answer's in the room somewhere. And so you just hire a lot of talent, making sure and have the same values and fit the culture of taking care of their people and making sure their patients are the top priority. And then just lead by example. Have the energy, be visible, be available when people need you. And whether that's, you know, a patient or family member that needs to have a conversation, whether that's a frontline team member that needs to talk to me or anybody about something, it's just, you know, the team and the culture here is. It's what drives the work and ultimately takes care of the patients and really follows through on our mission.
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B
And, Dan, as we. As we wrap up our conversation, I wanted to bring it full circle, too, and just ask you what motivates you personally in this role in serving the
- [13:59]
C
community that started a long time ago, like I mentioned, my career in the military. I, you know, joined the Air Force to serve, you know, 21 years, and I was an enlisted member working on the flight line and F15s and when I was 19. So that's kind of what I needed for discipline and kind of understanding. I'm part of something bigger. Then I transitioned and got commissioned as an officer and spent my next 15 and a half years doing that. And I was in healthcare operations in the military, military treatment facilities. So that service mentality, you know, whether that's in the military generally or in healthcare. And as I transition to civilian healthcare through my journey, it's just always been my motivation is, you know, to serve. Whether that's serve the community, serve our team members, other leaders, coaching people. I love the leadership development portion of what we do. I love mentoring all those different things and being part of something bigger. It's always been that way. I mean, whether it's Air Force and now part of Orlando Health, which is an amazing organization, that I feel my values match to a T and they put me in positions to lead the way I want to lead and be that person that takes care of others. And so that motivates me every single day. And it's just I love what I do and I love being here.
- [15:20]
B
Well, thank you so much, Dan. It was great talking with you and it was great to have a fun and interesting conversation today and we look forward to staying connected and working with you again soon.
- [15:30]
C
Absolutely. Thanks for the opportunity. Appreciate it.
- [15:33]
A
When it comes to today's rcm, we know the challenges complexity of claims, talent shortages, low funding and lagging tech. That's why we built MedMetrics. We have the expertise and advanced tech to give you that edge on your revenue cycle. We're a partner who will relentlessly raise your yield. A partner who's on your side because they've been operator side who knows your battles and will make sure you win from start to finish, end to end. Medmetrics be exceptional.