We're bringing you a special crossover episode with Coleman Associates Innovation Podcast! Host Adrienne Mann is joined by CEO of Coleman Associates, Melissa Stratman, and CCI's own Sofi Bergkvist, as they share their thoughts on rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic and launching into the future of health care. Hear about how they're dealing with staff burnout, tackling health disparities, facing the impacts of climate change, and personalizing health care for underserved populations.
We're bringing you a special crossover episode with Coleman Associates Innovation Podcast! Host Adrienne Mann is joined by CEO of Coleman Associates, Melissa Stratman, and CCI's own Sofi Bergkvist, as they share their thoughts on rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic and launching into the future of health care. Hear about how they're dealing with staff burnout, tackling health disparities, facing the impacts of climate change, and personalizing health care for underserved populations.
Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode:
© 2022 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.
Sofi Bergkvist (episode teaser):
We have to be closer to the patients and figure that out because during the pandemic, we've shown that it can be done.
Health Pilots intro:
The Center for Care Innovations’ Health Pilots Podcast is excited to bring you a special crossover episode with the Coleman Associates’ Innovation Podcast, with host Adrienne Mann.
Coleman Associates is a passionate, experienced team of innovators, leaders, digital designers, and process re-designers specializing in health care. Working with staff & providers in community health centers, in private practice, and beyond - they provide practical solutions with the expertise to help you produce results you thought were out of reach. Visit ColemanAssociates.com to learn more.
Today, we’ll hear from CEO of Coleman Associates, Melissa Stratman, and our own Sofi Bergkvist, discussing what they’ve learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and what they see for the future of health care. Listen in and enjoy!
Adrienne Mann (host, Coleman Associates):
Without further ado, I want to start us off. Sofi and Melissa, do you want to introduce yourselves and your organization so our listeners can learn about who you are and what you do?
Sofi Bergkvist (guest, Center for Care Innovations):
Yes. Happy to. I'm Sofi Bergkvist and I'm the president of Center for Care Innovations, and I've been in this role since September, joining during the pandemic and learning a lot. Center for Care Innovations is a nonprofit based in Oakland, California. And we work to spark seed and spread innovations, specifically for historically under invested communities. And our vision is that everyone should have fair, just, and inclusive opportunities to be healthy. Most of our work is with federally qualified healthcare centers, but we also work with public hospitals and with community based organizations and more and more so in the partnership between community based organizations and healthcare providers.
Adrienne Mann:
Thank you, Sofi. Melissa, do you want to introduce yourself and Coleman Associates?
Melissa Stratman (guest, Coleman Associates):
Sure. My name is Melissa Stratman and I have worked in healthcare for about 30 years with being the owner and CEO of Coleman Associates, for the last 11. Coleman Associates is nationally spread. We've worked in all 50 states, but we're based here in Boulder, Colorado. And our goal as an organization is to raise the level of healthcare for the underserved in every corner of the country. So, the mission of Coleman Associates that I get jazzed about is making community health, the jewel in the crown of American medicine. And changing the way we do healthcare. Starting from the people who work with sometimes the most challenging patients. And our goal is to make community health centers amazing places where people want to work. And where they can do great work and have a great experience giving back to the community, which is what brought us all to healthcare in the first place.
Adrienne Mann:
Absolutely. So for our listeners, you can already tell why we're so excited to be doing this crossover podcast episode. But where I just want to start is I think what is on everybody's mind right now in healthcare, is what does it look like? And I almost hate to use the word post-COVID but in the period where COVID is becoming endemic in our communities, what does that landscape look like for healthcare?
Melissa Stratman:
So, I would just jump in and say that COVID has been a huge disruptor, and it's hard to imagine that it could be more disruptive. But in some ways I kind of wish that it was, because at the very start of COVID, when everybody went to telehealth, everybody's calling us, everybody's emailing, "What do we do? How do we do this?" The people that were doing this are like, "We're so cool that we did this in advance." And everybody else is, "Crap. How do we get this figured out? And what is a Zoom and how do we do..." And all these things. And I had a moment back in late spring where I thought, "Holy crap. This is going to change healthcare forever." And then I thought to myself, "Well, wait a minute. We're not in retail. We're not in an industry that responds to this kind of stuff right away."
Melissa Stratman:
And I don't think I was feeling cynical, but I was thinking, "I wonder if this is really going to change healthcare forever or if this is just going to move us a little bit and then we're going to do what we always do, which is slide back to a more comfortable state?" And so in some ways, what I see is that everybody went wacko with all this stuff in a great way. And we health centers are like, "Hey, we're going to send blood pressure monitors to everybody. We don't know how the hell we're going to get the data, what we're going to do, but we're going to send those things out. We're going to get them rolling, and we're going to do video calls," and all this stuff. And now I hear people saying, I was just at a health center two weeks ago, and they were having a debate about whether or not they wanted to have at least 20% telehealth visits or no more than 20% telehealth visits.
Melissa Stratman:
And in either way, it was a very funny conversation because there're miscommunications. But the bottom line was, I was like, "20%? Holy smokes, you were seeing 60, 70% before. What gives?" So, that to me, that's going to be one of the biggest things that we have to grapple with, especially as people like the CVS's and the Target's. I mean, who wants to get their COVID vaccine and have to lay down on the floor at Target when they feel like they're going to pass out with people walking over them, buying ChapStick and stuff, but they're competing for our patients. And so, it's really interesting to me to say, "Well, what's this going to look like if..." I mean, we almost need a bigger disruptor or something, but at least it's moved us somewhere, which is awesome.
Sofi Bergkvist:
I mean, I have to repeat the piece on virtual care, it's so prominent and so across the board, and I think shocked everyone. Many of the centers we worked with, within one month pivoted to 80% virtual care, which I don't think anyone could have imagined that before that you could so quickly pivot the workflows. Just the mindset of both patients and providers to be able to do that. And that has been now for so long, that I think the norms have started to shift. But it's not only in healthcare, I think it is in so many different industries that patients expectations are evolving, that not having to get into the car or the people that don't have a car, having to take public transportation. Or when there's no public transportation, having to figure out how to get from A to B for a regular checkup doesn't really work anymore.
Sofi Bergkvist:
We have to be closer to the patients and figure that out, because during the pandemic we've shown that it can be done. So, while there is a huge risk of slipping back to business as usual, I'm hoping that patient expectations are going to lead. And as Melissa said, the competition is there. So I think it's very important that providers are now thinking hard about what is it that we want to keep to make sure that we are meeting the patients where they're more comfortable, without compromising on quality, can really continue to deliver care in ways that we've learned during the pandemic. And another thing that I don't know about, is recognizing that it's been a pandemic and that people have been working so hard and that people are now tired. And we see many healthcare centers trying to manage huge outflow of healthcare workers, that are now feeling that, "I can resign or take a break without harming too many people." And so, the importance of rest to recover and renew, and how are we going to do that?
Melissa Stratman:
Two of the things that Sofi just made me think of, is that one of the things that's on everyone's mind right now in every health center that I'm talking to, is all of this delayed care and getting everybody caught up for that. So, not only are we trying to get healthcare providers rested and recovered and reminding them that they really are the heroes that they are for having kept all this together and going, but at the same time it's like, "And we need 9,000 well-childs done." It's crazy what we're asking people. That's also something that we do have to consider in the very short term, is how do we get people caught back up?
Melissa Stratman:
And on top of all of that, because we work in the underserved communities, we have to realize that this divide has gotten huger. And I know people are talking about this, but the fact of the matter is, there are some patients who aren't ever going to do video visits with us, and that's great, that's fine. We want to be there for them, but we just have to acknowledge what that looks like. And realize, we'll kind of have these pseudo diverging models until the government infrastructure and city infrastructure can catch up on things like providing wifi and providing those technology pieces.
Sofi Bergkvist:
It's been so clear about how big of a universal issue the inequities are. I think the pandemic has really demonstrated that no one is protected from the inequities, really. Oh, you can buy a flight to your private island maybe, but otherwise the inequities are affecting everyone. And the pandemic has really made that even more intense. And I wonder at how many different levels are people going to lead with that in their work going forward. And talking about the digital divide, Governor Newsom and our $6 billion investment to provide broadband connectivity specifically, for the underserved. So, those are significant and major investments. Are we going to lead with the lens of addressing disparities at all levels? And I'm really hoping that is the case. That is the area that I'm the most hopeful about, that people are not going to let go of the narrative, that addressing disparities is something that all of us has to work for.
Melissa Stratman:
There's so many challenges from a community perspective, from a policy perspective, from a patient perspective, in terms of getting people connected, getting them access, figuring those out. And then there's the real challenge that you face when you go into the health center as a medical assistant or a nurse or an operations director. You walk in at 8:00 AM and the schedule's full of people and now one of your colleagues just tested positive, so they're not coming in today. And it's like, "Is this going to be something we're doing on an ongoing basis?" And is this something we're still testing people for COVID for in who knows? A year down the road, two years down the road.
Melissa Stratman:
And these real challenges of operationalizing thing. I mean, the pain is always in those little bitty details of "Awesome, everybody can get on wifi. How the heck are we going to handle that volume and how are we going to deal with that? And how are we going to coordinate that? And is that going to change the fact that it still takes three weeks to get an appointment unless you're bleeding out the eyes?" Everything has to keep moving together, these totally disparate pieces and trying to pull them together into something that works as a solid system. And there's so many players, it makes it challenging.
Sofi Bergkvist:
With a human touch.
Melissa Stratman:
Exactly. All of that. And do it in an awesome way that's really careful and in tune, right? It's like, "Holy crap, That's a lot to ask."
Adrienne Mann:
What do you think is the biggest upcoming challenge for healthcare to overcome in the next five to 10 years, specifically for underserved populations?
Sofi Bergkvist:
There's so many challenges. So what is the biggest one is very hard. But I think the fact that the disparities are larger than before the pandemic, with unemployment and everything that comes with that distress when someone has lost their job, we see behavioral health, we see substance use. It's going to be a long time to recover from the pandemic just within families. Families that are under so much stress right now and will continue to be. So the economic recovery I think and its direct impact on the wellbeing of communities, I think is going to be one of the largest challenge.
Sofi Bergkvist:
But with that comes behavioral health, specifically substance use. And so, that I think may be the biggest challenge to address. And then the other challenge that we've already talked about is how do we make sure that we actually learn and reflect to make sure that we end up at a better point after the pandemic and five years out? And not going back to where we were prior to the pandemic? Which also was not a place we want to be. We have to continuously address disparities and be in a better place five years out. So what does that look like? And continuously ask ourselves that.
Melissa Stratman:
I agree with Sofi 100% that the way that people are coming out of COVID is definitely a huge challenge for us in terms of dealing with all of the issues, all of the behavioral health issues. All of the delayed care, all of that stuff. And I would add that I think if I put myself in the shoes of a leader of any health center, my biggest worry and what I would lose sleep over tonight if I sat in this place is, "How am I going to navigate us through the next 3, 6, 9, 12 months, getting staffing, getting recovered patient wise, getting our billing set? Getting back to being able to do anything with quality?" Especially, if we're counting on quality dollars next year.
Melissa Stratman:
I mean, forget about last year, that was just over. So, I'm losing sleep because I have to navigate this and I have to have the vision for not just getting us out of this to the place that we were before, but getting out of this to a new place. And for me, thinking about how do I do that, that requires different leaders. The leaders I need to get us out of this bind and the leaders I need to get us to where we need to go, aren't generally the same people. I need some problem solvers, I need some boots on the ground. I need some people who can solve this and figure out like, "Geez, what do we need? What scripts do we need? What short term solutions, long-term solutions?"
Melissa Stratman:
And then I need somebody who's out there that no one's going to want to listen to that says, "Wait a minute. A bunch of people have blood pressure cuffs. Why would we bring them back in for blood pressure checkups? And why would we do this?" And thinking about all of those future things and trying to get us in. Nobody wants to hear that when they're trying to plug the holes and hold back the water right now. But as a leader, I know that I'm not doing my organization any favors to get us back to where we were in January 2019, that's over. And it's a hard one. It's a hard one I think for anybody in that position to wrap their head around. But it's the question I think to be asked.
Sofi Bergkvist:
And I think it goes across all industries that balance now, where you need visionary leaders to communicate what the future is going to be for this organization and the people we work with, but then internally, recognizing what a tough time this has been and being there to listen and support staff and doing both is very hard. Even communicating a vision can be hard for staff to hear, when they are burnt out. So, how to both listen and being visionary and if that goes across all industries, that is even more, I think, intense in any healthcare organization right now.
Melissa Stratman:
I agree. And I'd just like to put in a pitch that I think the airline should just keep the no change policy going.
Health Pilots commercial:
How can we maintain momentum on telehealth? Providers that rely solely on telephonic visits rather than more clinically effective and equity-conscious video visits, risk reverting to pre-pandemic workflows — undermining many of the telehealth investments and health equity gains made over the last two years. Announcing the Telehealth Improvement Community Fund! Its goal is to expand access to video visits, particularly for people who have experienced economic disparities, housing and food insecurity, institutional discrimination, or violence. Participants will receive $15,000 grants, expert coaching, key telehealth tools, and peer networking. Learn more by visiting careinnovations.org/programs, or check out the link in the Show Notes. Deadline to apply is November 10th.
Adrienne Mann:
So, one of the things that I've been thinking about a lot is with the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that pandemics, heat waves, extreme weather, become more and more common with climate change and the worsening of climate change. And we also know that those impacts disparately impact the underserved populations, which are our populations. So, I'm curious how you think health centers should respond to climate change and how to build that resiliency you've been talking about in organizations?
Sofi Bergkvist:
So I started my career working on sustainable development, than specifically climate change. And there are many days where I wonder, "Is it better use of my time if I would've stayed and focusing on that, given the huge challenges we are seeing?" And as you pointed out, it really is also going to drive inequities globally. And I think healthcare has a fundamental role to play because what we need is behavioral change. People need to change their day to day lives and ask themselves questions. "What can I at an individual level, do differently?" That's the only way that we can do something about this. And for that we need to be in a good state of mind. And if looking at the behavioral health crisis, we need to work on that and health centers to really be there to support patients. It's foundational for the behavioral change we need for addressing climate change.
Sofi Bergkvist:
So, that's I would say the first and most direct. But the other piece is what we've learned through the pandemic with coalitions of multiple sectors coming together and just thinking outside of the box to address a problem. We are going to see flooding, we're going to see more wild fires. And that requires the same thing. The ability to get together, the ability to collaborate and respond. So, the responsiveness we can learn from and reflect on, and making sure that coalitions that have been built during the pandemic are not just let go, repurpose them. Look at how can we use these collaborations for new constellations and addressing new and other problems.
Melissa Stratman:
So, there's a couple things that when I think about all of the community health centers that we work with across the country. There are community health centers, particularly in California that are very in tune with working toward things in a more environmental way. There are community health center leaders that will listen to this that are in places in the country, where their boards will not support and their communities will not widely support work toward climate change, because they're not convinced that's our pressing problem. That becomes kind of challenging to create a one size fits all just because across the country we're at different levels of appreciation of this is a problem. And identification even of it as a problem, I think it's fair to say. But one of the things that I would really anticipate and I would expect to see down the road, is that we will have, and we've done a better or worse job of really incorporating social determinants of health.
Melissa Stratman:
We talk about it, every manager, every CEO and CMO thinks they're doing stuff about social determinants of health. But operationally, when I shadow people in the clinic, I don't see everybody always talking about it and focusing on it. And in the same way, I think these questions about what are the environmental determinants of health and how do we look at people's water supplies? And how do we look at their housing situation? And know the haves are always going to move to the places that seem the most safe and the most stable for their families. And then the people who are not in that position to have that liquidity of self, are going to be stuck. And so, I think that's a real tangible we can do as a health center, is start thinking about what are the environmental factors? Take the Flint water crisis as an issue.
Melissa Stratman:
Multiple health centers in that area, "Hey, do we need to be looking at this kind of stuff? What do we need to be doing? How do we need to think about how we're taking care of our pediatrics patients? What do we need to be doing to test the water? Can anybody test the water anyway? What do we need to be doing to check this kind of stuff? Do we need to raise the red flag more when we see things coming up? Kids with asthma, abnormal labs and such? What do we need to be doing in these situations?" Because I don't think we see it as a systemic issue right now. I think we see it as a patient after patient. Instead of realizing, "We've got something here." Which COVID, we were able to do that and say, "Oh, we've got something here. We've got this person that has these symptoms." So it's in the same kind of way, "What kind of symptoms are involved here and what do we need to do about that from a treating the patient perspective?"
Sofi Bergkvist:
I love that. So not only response, but working actually more in early signaling and using analytics and the data that they have in a different way to then work with partners to address it. So one of our partners in Sonoma County, when there were fires, they went out to look at where do their patients live and actively reaching out and trying to figure out what support they may need. So I see that it already, but it's very much in responses mode and what more can be done in terms of preparedness and prevention?
Melissa Stratman:
I can still imagine that even in the midst of a fire or a mudslide or something else, somebody's still going to be marking that patient as a no-show and saying, "Well, that's their fifth no-show, so they're going to have to schedule only in real-time now." And it's like, "Well, there're things..." I mean, at such a basic level, we have to think about how these things impact all of our operations. Of course, they're going to no-show, they don't have a house right now.
Adrienne Mann:
That hurt me because it's so true. What are you all excited about in terms of healthcare innovation right now?
Sofi Bergkvist:
I'm excited about having patients feel respected in a different way based on where they are. So reaching patients where they are. Now, many providers have been able to connect with their patients in their home and seeing where they are, it feels like it's can become more personal. And for patients with remote patient monitoring, for example, there's more data. But it's also the patient feeling some ownership of participating in a different way. It's so much that needs to be done to improve and address the disparities because the people that have not been able to benefit today, I think are the ones that could have the most benefits.
Sofi Bergkvist:
Being it elderly, for them to have to travel into a clinic for them to have to do that trip when they are facing barriers in terms of transportation and energy and needing a lot of support to do those trips. However, they are also been the ones that have not been able to receive care as much at home. My grandmother was comfortable using Alexa. That technology is so advanced and it's so user friendly, why could you not start a video call using an Alexa? And that is happening, but not benefiting the people that actually really need it. So, I really think that the people that have not been benefiting are going to be the ones that can benefit the most, if we just really lead with simplicity and making it easy from a patient perspective.
Melissa Stratman:
What excites me about healthcare, and I'm just listening, thinking about this and I'm writing down notes because otherwise I'll be like [inaudible]. There's all this crazy stuff happening on one end. So Sofi alluded to it, like the idea of Alexa. So the bottom line is, what excites me in healthcare is it's so cool that I hope to God that I don't get hit by a bus tomorrow, because I want to be here to see this stuff change and I want to see... I mean, there's such amazing stuff that's happening out in the forefront. Here you have, okay, so Branson and Bezos go to space. Okay, great. So when people start going to space, it turns out if something bad happens, there's no healthcare in space. So, we're going to have to come up with things. And that's where these Alexa's and all these kinds of things come into play.
Melissa Stratman:
And we have all these great companies that are starting all this. But I think the thing that excites me is seeing that come into and coalescing into something, integrated behavioral healthcare. Not everybody has it, but it's so much further along than it used to be 15 years ago. People are like, "Well, I don't know. We have a behaviorist over there in the corner." And she's sitting there with a noise maker outside of her room, but otherwise she doesn't leave the space. And now it's becoming more of a thing. So, I'm excited to see as this stuff moves forward that just gives more great technologies and things, both device and computer technology as well as process and operational technology, that's going to trickle down to all of those who are ready to put it together and coalesce it into something amazing. Which I think is the community health centers and their partners, frankly. So, that's what excites me.
Sofi Bergkvist:
And I think the word that I was trying to find is personalizing it. It's been used a lot in medicine, personalized care, but when it comes to just the experience, personalizing it really based on your cultural and based on your preferences and for example, language. There's so many people that are not receiving care in their preferred language. And it's a huge barrier. It's a huge barrier in terms of quality of care, but also puts family members in tough situations. And we have the technology, it's really there. It's just not reached the people that would benefit the most.
Melissa Stratman:
Can I build off of that? I love that because I was in a health center two weeks ago, where I saw a patient and I was in the visit, a patient that speaks a language I speak, but that the provider sort of speaks. But because the provider sort of speaks it, there wasn't an interpreter. So, the provider was going through the visit and explaining stuff and I could see in the patient's eyes, I could see she didn't totally get it. But the provider would say a few things in the language that she knows and then she would say, "Okay?" And she would shake her head yes and then she would say a little bit more. She would say, "Okay?"
Melissa Stratman:
And of course the patient's going to shake her head yes because she's like, "I'm guess. I'm sort of getting it." Like, "okay, do I agree with you? Okay, do I know what you're talking about? Okay, would I have generated this plan if I knew what you knew?" I mean, there's so many things that get lost in there. And Sofi, I love the fact that you talk about personalization because there's just so many layers to that onion. And I can guarantee you with everything I have, that that health center believes they provide linguistically appropriate care and they have interpreter bots all over the place that you can pull into a room. But I can also guarantee you that that patient went home and said, "I think I'm supposed to do this."
Melissa Stratman:
And I left the place and I told the nurse practitioner that was with me, I said, "This kills me this visit," because it was right before we left. I said, "This patient's going to readmit in a week. I know she is." She was a hospital discharge. I'm like, "I know she's going to readmit within a week because she doesn't get the plan, she doesn't like the plan and it's not meeting her needs." And in order to look at processes, you have to be kind of cold and calculating and not jump in on every one of those patients or we'd never be able to get anything done. But at the same time, the personalization in just that one example of linguistically appropriate care, needs a lot of work.
Adrienne Mann:
How are your respective organizations getting ready for the future of healthcare?
Sofi Bergkvist:
The first thing we are doing is that we're taking a break. So, we're actually closing the office for two weeks to allow time to rest and reflection. But the other thing is listening to providers and listening and working with the providers to listen to the community. What is it that people want to keep? Where is it, we can learn from pandemic of what really made a positive difference to patients and to providers? And we're leading with that to then inform future work. And we're also working internally to make sure that every single program has an explicit health equity focus. That's why we are in business. We're working to address disparities.
Sofi Bergkvist:
How can we continuously hold ourselves accountable for doing that and leading with that? So we talk about fair, just, and inclusive opportunities for everyone to be healthy. But what does that mean? How can we embed that in everything we do? So that is how we're preparing right now. And then the second piece is partnerships. We have done a lot of partnerships within our programs, and I think that there are major opportunities to do partnerships at an organizational level with mission aligned organizations. Everything we do is in partnership and figuring out what is that partnership model. Who is it that we should partner with, to make sure that we can benefit more providers and the patients that they are serving.
Melissa Stratman:
Yeah, what we're doing to get ready falls into a few different categories, I think. There's kind of the internal stuff that we're doing and the stuff that we're doing with our team. There's the stuff that we're doing with our clients and then there's the stuff that we're doing to set the stage for a few years from now. And if I think about, I was jotting down some of the things as you asked the question, some of the things that we're doing. So for example, internally we're working on, even with our own shipping, I put out a request to my team that's working on production and materials. It's like, "All of our stuff needs to be shipped in compostable bags. No more plastic." All this stuff. All these kinds of things. If we can find this stuff that's made more locally as opposed to something that comes that's boated here from who knows where, so that we can just spread it back out.
Melissa Stratman:
We are stopping doing that, because those are I think, important things that we can do. We're working to offset our carbon footprint on all of our flights because we spend a lot of time in the air. And then I think about our team, and we just took a retreat last month. And took everybody went actually out of the country to a place that we found is affordable, took everybody totally out of their comfort zone and to a new space and said, "We're just going to celebrate the fact that we've come through COVID the way we have. And that we're ready to lead all these health centers and get ourselves really in place for that." And we're doing an innovation bonus, we're doing a technology bonus for folks. "Get whatever your own tools are that you need, whatever jazzes you up to get reconnected to what's there and what's happening and where we go with this."
Melissa Stratman:
So, those are some of the things that we're doing kind of internally. And then when I think about prepping for our clients, we're working on how we give people gentle nudges to the future and saying, "Okay, that's great. But this question about whether or not we're seeing at least 20% or more than 20%, really needs to be how do we get to 50%? Or how do we get to 80% of everybody who wants a telehealth visit, has it? And what is the scripting that we use to communicate with people and how do we codify all of these things and make these processes that people can follow?" So, what are the scripts? What are the steps in the scheduling? All of those pieces because it gets to that... Confucius says there's three ways to learn. You can learn through contemplation, which is the noblest, direct experience, which is the most bittersweet. Or imitation, which is the easiest.
Melissa Stratman:
So make it as easy as pie for people to say, "Here's what you need, take this, use this. Get this thing done. Because you got to spend your bandwidth thinking about other things that we can't help you with, but we can definitely help you to internalize and to operationalize this. So take these processes, take these procedures." And Adrian's done a great job in leading us to get this pool together of these processes and procedures. And then I'm thinking about where we go future wise and thinking about keeping us really in tune with the technologies and keeping us aware of what these things are and keeping this out in front of our team. Because just like people in the health centers, I mean, our role as Coleman Associates is we're kind of pollinators. Every week, we're in different places. And we take great ideas and we carry them to the next place.
Melissa Stratman:
And that's the beauty of what we get to do. But we also get busy in our pollinator role, just like health center staff get busy in their health center role. And it's about looking up and saying, "Well, what's going to be coming next?" From a pollinator perspective, "Is there something better than pollen? Is there something different to carry it in? Is there a different place to get it?" And thinking about those things and pulling those through. And even the work that we've started on in this health center that we're going to be working with on this whole DEI program for their managers. So, that they can be thinking about diversity, equity, inclusion as they manage and lead people. To me, this extrapolates out to health centers, you really have to think about how you take care of your own people, how you take care of your patients, and then how you program yourself to go forward. I think those are the buckets that you really have to look at to prepare yourself.
Adrienne Mann:
Is there anything else you all want to add for our listeners?
Melissa Stratman:
Prior to COVID, I fly every week. Every week at the airport. I have switched from driving to the airport from Boulder to Denver, to taking the bus. Taking transit because obviously the environmental impact. And because my daughter was worried that the polar bears weren't going to have any place to stand. So, I decided that I was something that I was going to start doing is taking the bus. But when I would drive, every time I would leave the airport, undoubtedly sometime between 9:00 PM and 2:00 AM or 1:00 AM and I would be leaving the parking lot and they switched the parking lot at our airport from having this kind of grumpy people that are in this little booth. I would be grumpy too if I was trapped in a booth eight hours, I'm sure.
Melissa Stratman:
But they were in this booth taking your credit card and dealing with people with lost tickets, et cetera. And there was this particularly surly woman that always worked the late shift during the week. So I always seemed to get her, and I can't remember what her name was. I'll call her Denise for purposes, but basically, I would always pull up. I'd like, "Ah, I got Denise." And I'd give her my ticket and then she'd ask some totally ridiculous thing and I'd give her this answer, and then she would scowl about it and say how, "This wasn't the thing." It's amazing the amount of conversation you have with someone's just processing your credit card to pay your thing and get you out of there. And then I noticed that they started having some that were no cashier. And I was like, "No, cashier, that means I could just put my card in myself."
Melissa Stratman:
And I was like, "Well, this is kind of cool." And so, I started using it and I was like, "Look at this. I don't have to interact with Denise. I don't have to hear her surly story. This is great." And they had clearly piloted them because then they closed those down again and they were shut off. So those were dark and you had to go back. And I remember going back to and getting Denise's booth again by chance and giving her my card and her complaining, because my one credit card, it takes a couple times to scan and futzing. And I said, "So they're putting in kiosks to do this. We don't have to..." And she's like, "Yeah, and then I don't know what I'm going to do for a job because..." And she was very upset and I could understand her frustration and at the same time, and I think I said something probably a little softer, but basically, "Maybe this will give a chance to find a job that'll make you happy." Because clearly she wasn't happy in this situation.
Melissa Stratman:
And I know you're thinking this doesn't have anything to do with healthcare what we're talking about, but I think it does. Because what I think about people feeling like healthcare's being moved into this place where it's going to be technology and, "What if patients are communicating on the portal? What if they only text? What if they don't come in? How is this going to change?" There are some patients that don't want to have a relationship and that's their prerogative. And there are some providers who don't provide, and I don't know how to say this kindly, but don't provide a relationship that's worth whacking your way through all the stuff just to get. Denise was one of those providers. It wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth it to go and talk to her.
Melissa Stratman:
And I think that the providers are doing a really awesome job. I think that everybody else is doing a really awesome job and that everybody wants to come and hang out with them. And I'm not saying that there are a bunch of people that are doing a bad job, but I'm just saying there's only so long I'm willing to wait to have this great interaction. And there's only so much I'm willing to adjust my life schedule because you only have a nine o'clock appointment available and I'm not available then. I mean, there's some of these things that just... And I think the technology and the ability to chat in questions and I know there's no way for us to handle it right now, and there's no way to bill for it.
Melissa Stratman:
And it's hard to compensate people for it and it feels like extra things in someone's inbox. But to me that's the excitement and that's the opportunity that's right in front of us is getting to what Sofi's been talking about this whole time, which is about individualized care. But then thinking about, "How do we make it so that it's something that people really want? And that it's this great experience that they have?" Because that's what makes somebody want to deliver on the goods. "I'll drink less alcohol because I know you're going to ask me about it next month and I don't want to disappoint you." As opposed to, "Who's asking me these questions and why do they care and give me a break." That's the piece that I think is so exciting for us, is to figure out how to open that up.
Sofi Bergkvist:
I could not agree more. I've read many studies where they're finding that African American communities or patients, are more satisfied with virtual care than white patients, for example. And that's probably not because they're getting better virtual care, but it's the alternative. This was better than the experience they had in-person. And then also, not looking at African-American as one community, but then you go down to individual level. Finding those individual preferences and being able to improve at a much more... Just more modalities, more options, and finding a way to allowing patients without compromising on quality.
Health Pilots outro:
Thank you, Melissa and Sofi, for joining us in this special crossover episode of Health Pilots, in collaboration with the Coleman Associates’ Innovation Podcast. Special thanks to host Adrienne Mann for guiding this engaging conversation and allowing us at the Center for Care Innovations to share this content with our listeners. Again, you can learn more about Coleman Associates by visiting ColemanAssociates.com. Be sure to like & subscribe to their Innovation Podcast, and give them a follow on LinkedIn.
If you’ve enjoyed what you heard, please spread the word and subscribe to Health Pilots on Spotify, Apple, or where you listen to podcasts. For more information about the Center for Care Innovations, our programs, and upcoming funding opportunities, please visit, careinnovations.org. Follow us on LinkedIn and on Twitter, @CCIvoice. We’ll catch you on the next episode of Health Pilots!