This week I am talking to Dominique Wells, Chief Operating Officer at Conduit Health Partners, a remote virtualization company to extend the healthcare team. Dominique started out her career in the housekeeping staff and progressed through various roles, qualifying as a nurse and through each step learning to experience and understand healthcare from the bottom up.
Dominique’s incremental advice to everyone is
“Not to be afraid”
As she puts it “go knock those doors down…walk through those doors and step through” learning every step of the way.
Nearly everyone at Conduit is a nurse like Dominique and so they apply that lens to everything they do with their nurse-first culture and they pride themselves in bringing the whole team to the table to solve problems with a community approach
Listen in to hear our discussion on the pandemic and what it taught healthcare and how her organization and staff responded and the importance of closing the loop for staff working in a virtual setting and how they go about that.
Listen live at 4:00 AM, 12:00 Noon, or 8:00 PM ET, Monday through Friday for the next week at HealthcareNOW Radio. After that, you can listen on demand (See podcast information below.) Join the conversation on Twitter at #TheIncrementalist.
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Raw Transcript
Nick van Terheyden
And today, I’m delighted to be joined by Dominique wells. She is the chief operating officer for conduit health. Dominique. Thanks for joining me today.
Dominique Wells
Thank you so much for having me, definitely.
Nick van Terheyden
So if you would tell us a little bit about your background and story. And how you got to this point, it’s always important for setting the context for the discussion.
Dominique Wells
Yeah, absolutely. I always enjoy sharing my story, because it was one of those pathways that really has been formative for me. And my growth as a leader, I started my healthcare journey, at a time when I was just starting nursing school. And I knew that it was going to be important for me to get some experience and you know, on the ground experience, and I was looking for a job, and unfortunately, wasn’t able to find one, there wasn’t a lot available at the time. And so I literally went knocking on doors. And it was the third hospital that I got to that I said, just give me a chance, I’ll take anything that you have. And so my health care journey actually started and housekeeping. And I, you know, I think back to that, that time, and you know, I’ve heard some people say, dominate you live the true American success story. And for me, it was really driven from a deep desire to learn, and to take every opportunity to understand everything about the roles in the organization. You know, I’m the type of person who has to deeply understand how hospitals work, or how anything works. And so, you know, being able to serve in a variety of roles, if I was training to become a nurse really helped me and helped me remain centered at what was truly important. And I took that those opportunities throughout my entire career journey, even once I became a nurse to, you know, what happens for maintenance, and to keep the lights on and all of the things that it takes to just be able to provide health care in general. So having had that opportunity to have walked in their shoes, you know, the premise for continued growth and leadership has really been something that I think back fondly on is as my career journey has progressed. I would say that one of the things that people have asked me is, what’s the one piece of advice that you would give someone who’s just getting started in their career, no matter what that career is. And for me, it’s Don’t be afraid, because in this instance, I had to go knock those doors down. So you know, I wasn’t afraid to walk through those doors. And there’s been other opportunities where people have started to open that door for me, and I had to take the step through. And so for me, it’s, it’s always been, do not be afraid to take those risks and take those opportunities that are presented to you and maximize what you learn from it.
Nick van Terheyden
So I obviously, it resonates a lot with me, it’s something that I talk about frequently, which is, you know, walk a day in the shoes. If you don’t do that, you know, you’re missing opportunities. It reminds me a lot. It’s interesting. I gave a presentation at one of the large healthcare conferences a number of years ago with Hilton. And, you know, I think there was a lot of Wait, wait a second, what’s Hilton got to do with this. And you know, the reality is that healthcare is an awful lot of hospitality. And what was interesting about that particular presentation was a senior executive that was on the stage with me talked about the requirement for them to actually go and live and experience multiple jobs in a remote. I don’t remember which of the various brands but you know, could have been a Doubletree or whatever. And she talked specifically about, you know, the housekeeping, and how that was one of the hardest jobs she’d ever done in her entire life, because those mattresses are heavy, and, you know, so I imagine you got a tremendous amount from that. And, you know, I think your point about living and learning at the same time is, you know, this recurring theme throughout. You obviously continued that but you know, there is a risk as people sort of move through their career, you lose sight of that, have you lost sight of it, or if not, how have you managed to maintain that
Dominique Wells
I’m purposeful about it, and I would say I haven’t lost sight of it. I am one of the things the first things I did when I took the job as Chief Operating Officer for conduit was sit chairside with the with the nurses who are who are doing the work every day so that I could deeply understand what it was, what their life was, like, what the experience of their day to day work was like. I long my career journey I also served as the Chief Nursing Information Officer for a large health health organization and so be it started a couple of purposes a and helped me understand how they Were working in the what barriers they potentially had. And it allowed me or enabled me to really think about innovation around the way that they’re working day to day. And I think all of that became becomes really relevant as we continue. And it’s something that I think helps build trust with your teams, because they recognize that, hey, I’m not afraid to do what I’m asking them to do, I’m willing to roll up my sleeves and do the work. And to, it helps. It helps them feel confident and being able to come to me to be able to talk through those opportunities.
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah, so let’s be clear, it’s a little bit more than confidence, I think if you actually spend time with them, they don’t have to come to your physical office, and they can be quite intimidating. on its own. I’m not saying your office in particular, I just think in general, you know, up to the CCI, we’re, you know, the upper floors, nobody wants to go there. If people are coming down, I think there’s a real, you know, level of respect. Especially if that’s includes follow through. So, you know, listening, and then actually actioning some of that. So, tell us a little bit about some of those experiences, as you’ve found insights through that, that you’ve then been able to turn around and potentially improve both the delivery, but also, you know, this is it’s a very personal delivery system that we’re in healthcare is all about people. And it’s also on the other side, you know, we hear burnout all the time, are you managing to provide some support on both sides of that equation?
Dominique Wells
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I think lots of things come to mind, as I think about the response to this, first and foremost is providing that real time feedback in the moment. So I sit down with them, and I have those those conversations and obtain from them, areas of opportunity, but having rapid follow up on on how how we can approach things differently to make their jobs easier, is important. We also have we implement a shared leadership model. So we bring the team to the table as part of the solution, I have had some opportunity throughout my career to to do some process improvement work. And, you know, one of one of the my most favorite memories is when the team would come to me and say, here’s the problem. And instead of looking to me to solve it, they were already coming to me with a solution. And how impactful that is because they know from the from the onset, that change is going to happen, and that there is a potential pathway to that change. So they become part of the solution. And not part of not just sitting back and frustration ever what what has historically been happening. So I think that’s really important. It also reminds me of some of the work that’s really become critical, a particularly today post pandemic, or are we post pandemic? I’m not sure what we call ourselves.
Nick van Terheyden
Every time I say that, I’m not sure so you’re okay now in good company.
Dominique Wells
So but but when we think about right now is really thinking about the mental, mental well being of our of our team and creating that, that culture and that pathway for which people feel confident in coming forward and saying something doesn’t feel right. Or I feel off and being astute to individuals who who may not be and we’re recognizing that. And so all of those things, I think become relevant, as part of that deeper connection with really being present in the moment with the team and helping to solution there.
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah, it’s interesting, you talk about individuals coming with solutions. I always remember people in my past, and there was one particular boss who was notorious for this, you know, you can come with problems, but you better come with solutions. And I think you’re taking it a step further, which is not only come with the solutions, but also be part of that solution. And I remember being a little bit frustrated at the time, you know, here’s the problem, you solve it, but the reality is that we all have to contribute. So I think that’s part of that team based approach that we really, maybe have lost sight in, in healthcare a little bit. It’s, you know, them and ours. It’s, you know, different factions that are, and ultimately it all boils down to what’s best for the patient, or at least it should, but we don’t think about it in those terms. So, tell us a little bit about your experiences and you know what you’ve seen either See, everybody has their own perspective on the pandemic. But you you’ve been through that, what happened through that? And what did you learn from that experience?
Dominique Wells
Yeah, that’s that’s a great question. And I think, you know, if we think about some of the offerings that conduit Health Partners provides in the space, and we have four main solutions transfer center services to moving patients, from one acute care setting to another for a higher level of care, whether that’s a stroke or a STEMI, or some other reason 24/7 365, the Eurorack accredited nurse triage to symptom based triage, as well as some virtual nursing capabilities and a little bit of provider practice scheduling. But But when I think about the solutions that we offer, they all became essential through the pandemic. And I joke because the president of our parent organization at the time, he called us the smoke jumpers, he’s like, we can pull, we can drop conduit and behind the line of fire, and no matter what it is, they’re going to put out the fire, they’re going to create a solution, they’re going to first seek what the problem is create a solution, and get us on the right pathway. And, and that was really what we did throughout the pandemic. And there’s, I’ll never forget the first, you know, week or so of the pandemic, our triage volumes nearly quadrupled overnight. And so being able to try to let me ask
Nick van Terheyden
before you go on, did you end up on on supporting that and going in helping out on the switchboard?
Dominique Wells
So I personally did not because I was doing a lot of coordination for some other things. But we had people, we had HR leaders, who did, we had, because at the time, there were a lot of folks who are being furloughed for other reasons. And they’re saying, we can help we can answer a phone. And we stood up community lines and just being able to offer in the moment, real time support when things were changing. by the hour. I mean, literally information was coming to us by the hour and was changing. It offered peace of mind to people to have a resource or ready resource that could that could answer those questions in a time that was really unsettling. And so and then I think about, you know, some of the time that we spent for transplant, the Transfer Center work and we had the opportunity, we were blessed to be able to be asked to serve as the centralized Transfer Center for load balancing across an entire region within the Cincinnati Ohio market. And I’m not sure how much you are or the listeners really no that market. It’s a really competitive healthcare landscape. And it’s really one of the highlights of my career to have been able to sit at that table with a bunch of Healthcare Executives, to truly put the community community’s needs above their own. And to be a part of that was really something special. And there’s a lot of things that came out of the pandemic and things like return to work and workplace injury and other things that we stood up just as a necessity of things that were happening and transpiring that really are continuing today.
Nick van Terheyden
So for those of you just joining, I’m Dr. Nick the incrementalist today. I’m talking to Dominique Well, she’s the chief operating officer for conduit health partners, we were just talking about the challenge of the pandemic and the difficulties of all of the things that sort of overwhelmed us. You know, you mentioned the sort of call volumes. And in fact, I ended up volunteering on our local state health helpline, which actually was an interesting experience that provided enormous insight into what was going on in the community, because of course, you get all of these. And I will say, I don’t know if it’s true, I don’t know if this person really was who I think they were. But Nancy Grace, who’s famous on TV, was apparently visiting our state and was terribly upset about mass compliance and called in to complain and threatened all sorts of legal action and wanted to know my name, which I refuse to give her, even though it was very obvious, you could find me based on my accent and all of these things. So I had lots of very interesting experiences that like you, you know, live the experience. But, you know, ultimately trying to deliver that value. You talked a little bit about, you know, the standing up of these solutions, and importantly, the virtualization which, you know, we sort of expanded on in the pandemic, because everybody goes, well, you know, you can just do it virtually which we could thankfully, up until that point, it was sort of I don’t know muddling along. Do you think this gave it the push that was necessary or was it inevitable going to go this way? Or is it indeed pushed us in a direction that we wouldn’t have gone at all Because of the pandemic,
Dominique Wells
I think it pushed us to advance where we were already headed or should have already been heading. I think that there, there have been great opportunities for us to deliver healthcare in different ways. And you know, when we think about the spectrum of care delivery, and I think oftentimes, folks will say, you know, our elderly population don’t really want to do virtual nursing, and they want our virtual care, and they want to be in person. And that might be true, although I do think that there are age differentiations that are out there that may or may not be accurate. But then I think about the younger age who really knew nothing more than then working on their phone and working behind a computer? And how are we meeting all of their needs? across that continuum? I think we think about, you know, if we think about where healthcare is in relation to other industries, I think it’s fair to say we’re healthcare is behind it in a lot of ways. And so when I think the pandemic afforded us is that we can build the bus while we’re driving it. And in some instances, we had, we were forced to implement some things that that perhaps would have taken much longer, and kind of catapulted us into being able to deliver deliver care in different ways.
Nick van Terheyden
So, overall, I think, you know, a positive impact, I hesitate to say that in the same way that you hesitate on, you know, the pandemic over, we’re not really certain. And, you know, the same with positive impact from a pandemic, but we did, we saw a number of those things. And you know, that virtualization has certainly certainly extended it. But it’s not easier, at least that’s my understand, particularly in clinical practice, you know, and you have a virtual nursing, supporting capability. I imagine that that’s, that’s different. I mean, it’s not like touching the patient, you know, hands on being there. How do you manage to deliver the same compassion and engagement that’s necessary to deliver the health care that people are looking for over that channel?
Dominique Wells
Yeah, that is a great question. And it’s actually something that we have, first and foremost, our nurse, nurses become nurses for a reason. They want to provide care and compassion people, they want to take care of people. And so that is at the forefront of every one of our nurses that that work for conduit Health Partners, and really is the backbone for how we formulate our offerings, and how we’re going to use solution around it. We have to work really hard to close the loop for our team, because they don’t have that hands on experience, they don’t have the ability to touch and feel the patient, you know, how do we help them understand the true impact that they’ve had, on the care that they’ve provided. And so you, that’s part of learning how to, for us to learn how to lead through a virtual environment, to help them feel that same care and compassion and every step of the way, I’ve got tons of stories that have happened through the pandemic for, you know, our triage services, where we had someone who, who called in and just needed a little bit of mental and emotional support, and they just called the talk because they were lonely. And then we had, you know, a father who called in because our number was on the back of their insurance card, and it was the first number they could think of a call, and their wife was imminently delivering on the side of the highway, and off knowing that they had someone who could just help support them in that really became, you know, became important. And so it’s those kinds of stories that help the nurses pull that caring, compassion, and that, that feeling of doing something positive, for which they really, you know, took an oath to do helps kind of close the loop and bring it all together.
Nick van Terheyden
You know, it’s interesting, you bring that up, I have not really thought about it, but you know, in in person care, you always got the feedback, good or bad, you would get it because the patient would walk out, you know, and if they had a bad experience, you were likely hearing about it. And and, you know, typically we’re having a good experience, but you lose all of that potentially, because you sort of dip in and dip out. And I actually think I mean, telling the stories is a great way but actually personalizing those feedback stories would be even better. So, you know, whoever actually delivered the supporting words to that father to be on the side of the road. I bet they would love to hear some of that, you know, specific maybe they did, I don’t know they were part of the community. But you know, it’s an interesting area for sort of additional exploration because there’s We’ve moved in separated out, we’ve lost that, you know, first hand connection. As you think about the future, I mean, lots of things happening, we’ve got, you know, more in the case of the medical home, very difficult to support. But you know, that’s, to me feels like we’re going back to the future, because it’s what we used to do anyway. But it’s very difficult to deliver that on an ongoing basis. And then, you know, all of this technology that sort of weighing in, in a positive way, but not always negative, what are you excited about as you think about the future?
Dominique Wells
Oh, my gosh, what am I not excited about? I think there’s so many things because it, particularly if I think about hospital at home, and all that we are, you know, all we’re really thinking about here is we’ve got a, we’ve got a unique opportunity to serve as an extension to health care organizations who are trying to manage that capacity, manage staffing shortages, and still be able to take care of as many patients as they possibly can. And so when I think about that, you know, that hospital at home, you know, model, in and of itself, you’re right, we are going back to, you know, our past, our past roots, and to some extent, there’s not a whole, there are learnings, because we’ve done it differently for so long. But there’s still foundations of care that we that we need to provide in those in those models, particularly and so being able to serve as you know, as the health system send a real live person out to the patient’s home in that setting a couple of times a day, um, knowing that they have a resource readily available to just something doesn’t feel right, or, you know, I’m not feeling well, or perhaps they need to go back to the hospital setting, having already resource that is able to help coordinate and facilitate and be in the moment, just having that conversation takes me back to the housekeeping conversations. And we talked about the importance of that they knew our patients better than anyone in our hospital, because they truly took the time to listen to him, because they were in there for 30 minutes cleaning a room every day. And so you know, it’s that foundation of of care delivery, that we’re really, you know, really moving towards I think, and you and I think about one of the other things that we’ve actually been able to do as a result of the pandemic, in coordination with another company is deliver here through nurse triage to homeless shelters. And so we’re reaching out we know we’re expanding our reach into areas that we haven’t historically been able to reach in, in, in our old ways of operating that now we can, and and how, what is the end the overall impact not just to the healthcare system, but to the community at large EMS resources? All of those things? And how are we thinking holistic, holistically about healthcare delivery? That’s what excites me.
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah, I think homeless shelters especially, can only imagine the sort of challenge of follow up connection, you know, identification, and, you know, when you think about areas that need the most in the way of those kinds of services, and support, obviously, vastly exceed other areas. So I think, you know, very worthy targets and direction, obviously, the support of the community in the home based delivery, to me reminds me of, you know, going back before medicine was really medicine, it was you know, by mumbo jumbo at that time, but the community in the family and the home, was the focal point and actually delivering and doing so. And now potentially doing that with technology that sort of overlays this extra level of care and support that makes that not only you know, the better thing, because that’s where everybody wants to be they don’t want to be in a hospital, but actually does it in a way that delivers the best possible care. So I think exciting times. You know, obviously, this is a tremendous opportunity for all of us. And, you know, admire that you’ve managed to make all of this and, you know, clearly a career path that not everybody can follow, but I think they can follow the elements of this, in particular, unfortunately, as we do each and every week, we’ve run out of time. So it just remains for me to thank you for joining me on the show. Dominique. Thanks for joining me.
Dominique Wells
Thank you, Dr. Nick. It’s been my pleasure.
