← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Mandy Fauble, PhD, LCSW, Vice President of Operations at UPMC Western Behavioral Health
00:11:09
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome everyone to the Beckers Healthcare Podcast series. I'm Ryan Muhammad, writer and moderator with Becker's Healthcare. I'm thrilled to have with me today Dr. Mandy Fauble, Vice President of Operations at UPMC Western Behavioral Health. Doctor, welcome to the podcast. We're very excited to have you join us today to get us started. Would you mind please introducing yourself and telling us a bit about your background?
- [00:21]
B
Sure thing. Well, thanks for having me. As you mentioned, I'm Dr. Mandy Faubel and I work for UPMC Western Behavioral Health. And during my career I've spent most of my time working in cricket crisis services, in community mental health and in academia. I'm a social worker by training and love doing community collaborations. And I'm so proud to be at upmc, which was recently ranked number seven in the nation for psychiatry. So a really truly wonderful place to be practicing in behavioral health.
- [00:53]
A
Absolutely. Thank you so much for that background. So what opportunities and headwinds do you have your eye on right now?
- [01:00]
B
Oh my gosh, so many. Probably for me the top ranking ones are first, the changing workforce. We're seeing all kinds of new technologies arise in both the technical sense. I think we are all familiar with what's happening in for instance, AI and in apps and just in technology that can help us work more smartly, more efficiently. But even things like advances in medications and things like the types of workers that are out there in the workforce, there's just so much changing that I think attending to how our technology is changing and who can deploy that technology and how we can evolve that to be more efficient is so critical. There are also so many more positive opportunities right now in collaboration. We can collaborate more across health and social services than ever before. It's so strong. I see that in emerging practices, for instance, like co response programs and crisis intervent, or things like the expansion of 988 and the buildup of that crisis care continuum really across the country, things like partnerships between housing providers and healthcare entities, or even things like specialty care coordination among different types of healthcare practices. So of course both of those things mean multiplying and leveraging our resources differently, thinking more creatively and again helping to expand our workforce by teaming and by embrac. Some of these technology innovations and practice innovations that we're seeing all around us.
- [02:42]
A
Absolutely. Thank you so much for that information. And how are you thinking about growth and adding value to your organization this year, within the next couple years?
- [02:52]
B
I love that question because I love to think about value and values. And so I think Growth in healthcare services must continue to support the core of our collective mission, which is truly patient care. So ultimately, I think any growth that we're contemplating has to be framed in that lens, one that is supporting both our critical and foundation services, like again our crisis intervention programming or things like our outpatient medication services. And then by strengthening those types of services and bringing them to people who maybe have not had those opportunities to experience them, such as people in rural, where growth may mean reaching people that have had a harder time accessing care. And so I think about strengthening our crisis programming and our core services and then thinking about how do we focus on our workforce? Because the workforce truly is key to making any of the services not just possible, but they're really truly where the quality comes from, where the success comes from. So anything that can help our employee experience and that might mean TR more learning and development opportunities, developing more supportive workplace where the staff are given opportunities to take ownership of their tasks and sort of leave their mark on the space. You know, I am fortunate to work in two locations where staff have actually wanted to support gardening activities. And that's such a small example of an activity that really beautifies the environment, but it also creates opportunities for engagement. And so I think about any way that we can further help our workforce to be deeply engaged is really important to any type of growth that we're going to do as organizations. And in that same like relationship based spirit, when I think about growing the organization, I think it's really about relationships and how we collaborate and partner across types of organizations. Even, you know, when we think about adding value to our own organization, part of that is helping other people see our value too and see the value that they contribute to our work, we contribute to theirs, and that we together can better support our communities. So in healthcare, you know, in a system like for instance as large as upmc, that might mean finding new ways to care for teams together. For instance, one of the teams I support just partnered with our health plan to enhance services for housing case management and to truly enhance housing as healthcare opportunities. But it could also mean new partnerships in the community, for instance, student success and working in the educational setting. It could mean permanent supportive housing crisis co response in so many ways. Quite frankly, this is just when we think about our patients holistically, we understand that health is intertwined with every life domain and partnering together enhances the person's overall wellness. So the sky's the limit really for me.
- [06:17]
A
Yeah, that's definitely amazing. I love the idea of servicing the rural Communities, they're definitely in need right now. So that's amazing. What do you think is one risk or investment worth making this year?
- [06:33]
B
Well, this is like a super hard question. I think probably you can tell by talking to me that I'm really deeply interested in integrated healthcare and in partnering across systems and integrating across systems. So, you know, for me, I think the risk worth taking is always, always the one where we contemplate a new partnership or a new relationship of some kind, whether that means moving into a new community, a new geographical area, a new specialty area, or even just building a new strategic relationship. For instance, as I mentioned, a team that I support recently has partnered with our health plan to address housing insecurity. And this really pushed us because, of course, the work that we're most familiar with is more traditional behavioral health services. But by pushing into that space, we are finding new ways to support people and certainly new ways to support our organization. Because I think we all know that there's no one thing, there's no one investment, one risk, one ultimate payoff. What we can be sure of, though, is that being stagnant is unhealthy for any living organism and an organization, truly a living organism. So leaning into strategic change is kind of always a winning mindset. And I think following sort of those rules of thumb that you want to pull your resources in ways that are going to diversify your core competencies, improve your revenue streams or create more diverse revenue streams, reduce expense, build strategic alliances, or even things like improving your advocacy opportunities because you are bringing more people to the table for that conversation. I think those are always wise. And again, the relationship is always the risk worth taking.
- [08:33]
A
Absolutely. Definitely agree with you there. And, doctor, before I let you go, the last thing I wanted to ask you is, where do you see the best opportunities for growth in the future?
- [08:44]
B
Oh, my gosh. Well, Mariah, you are going to think I'm a broken record here, because I think, again, I'm going to stay in partnership. I think as a behavioral health professional and as someone talking to you on a behavioral health podcast, I think it's important that we collectively start to emphasize more that behavioral health is truly part of every domain of human life. So really, the possibilities for partnership are just endless. Things like supporting students in school to be more successful, diverting people from the justice system, helping people to manage their physical health more effectively, thinking about living in the community more easily because of their ability to navigate the complex social systems. These are all ways that we can bring the skill of behavioral health to the table. And when we help people understand that behavioral health care, we're a really great addition to those tables that we can help them understand how managing behavioral health well often helps to reduce costs in many systems, it reduces complications in other types of settings. And ultimately, when we improve the health of our community members, we all gain something from that. So that teaming and that partnership and that leaning into community continue to feel very, very important to me, as does embracing technology and new innovations that help us build that community in different ways. You know, things like the use of telehealth or remote, remote patient monitoring or even apps that can be used to bridge people together. All this partnership and teaming really will require us also to lean on our innovations that make that work more easily accomplished.
- [10:52]
A
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That definitely makes a lot of sense. And thank you so much for those final thoughts. It's definitely been a very informative discussion. So again, I want to thank you so much for coming on back to healthcare, especially for the first time, and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
- [11:05]
B
Good. Thanks, Mariah.