The Medical Management Podcast_Career Change in Healthcare: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

The Medical Management Podcast_Career Change in Healthcare: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Jay Holmes:
Welcome to the Medical Management Podcast. A podcast focused on helping you level up your practice. Through interviews with some of the most successful leaders in the industry, we help uncover resources, tools, and ideas to help you level up your practice. Thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy today's program.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Hello and welcome to the Medical Management Podcast. I'm your host, Jesse Arnoldson, I'm excited today as we're going to be speaking with a dear friend of mine from eastern Idaho, Doug Crabtree. Doug formerly was the CEO at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center before coming over and being the executive in residence over at Idaho State University, where I've gotten to know him a lot better. Doug, welcome to the show!

Doug Crabtree:
Jessie, thank you very much. It's a pleasure and a privilege to be here with you, and I think you're just a rock star and anxious to see all the great things you're doing over there in the Boise area and elsewhere, and, you know, not only in the state of Idaho, but other states as well. So it's just a pleasure to be with you.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Thank you, Doug. You know, I told you before this show, I just you make me feel so good. So thank you.

Doug Crabtree:
Yeah, you're doing a lot of great things. I'm glad you're feeling good about it.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah, thank you, Doug. Well, you know, let's start off with a little going back to what I was saying in your introduction. Tell me a little bit about what it's been like to transition from the chair, the CEO of the hospital, you know, being in that seat over to the classroom with the students over at ISU? What's it been like? What have you enjoyed the most? What's been tricky? You know, any of it? What are you thinking?

Doug Crabtree:
Well, you know, Jesse, I appreciate the question. I get asked that a lot. You know, in almost every week or, you know, sometimes multiple times during the week, people ask me, don't you? Aren't you glad you're not at the hospital any longer? And I try to be truthful with them and say, you know what? I loved that job, and there's a lot of days that I really miss working at the hospital. I loved it. I loved the heartbeat of the hospital. I loved working with the doctors, bright, bright people and loved their passion for medicine, loved watching the art of medicine work, I loved putting the team together with the nurses, the doctors, the therapists, all the other providers. I just loved it, loved the employees, loved the physicians, and really loved the patients and their family members. And, you know, even though I was never clinical, I love serving where I could and helping where I could, and trying to just lighten someone else's day. And I just thoroughly loved the hospital. You know, I never did. I would often put a vacation day or two or three on the calendar, and all that that really meant was that I didn't have any meetings that day. I'd still come to work. I just wouldn't have any meetings scheduled. So I loved it. I love the hospital and I loved all the people there and just loved it. You know, it came time for that chapter to close and that chapter was closing. A good friend of mine, Tracy Farnsworth, reached out to me and said, Doug, if you ever leave the hospital, I need you to Idaho State University. And I said, well, Tracy, let's go to lunch and talk about that because that chapter may be coming. And so I left the hospital in early 2018 and began teaching in the fall of 2018 for Idaho State University. And you know, you think about having one great career in health care administration and you think, how can you follow that up with anything that is equal in terms of meaningful? And I think, man, I just am so blessed and so fortunate because as much as I loved health care administration, I also really enjoy the academic side and being in the position where I'm now able to help future health care leaders and aspiring health care leaders to get some knowledge and skills, and also to deepen their passion for the profession of health care. So I think I've just gone from one great world to a second great world and just I feel so fortunate that I've been able to make that transition. And as much as I loved working in the hospital, I now love teaching at the university.

Jesse Arnoldson:
I love it. No, it's wonderful. No, I hope to follow in those steps of, you know, multiple lives within your health care career that are all as wonderful as the last, or even more so.

Doug Crabtree:
That's right. And opportunity to contribute, opportunity to be involved and learn new things.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Doug Crabtree:
And you know, the computer system called Moodle, the learning based computer system at Idaho State University, was a real challenge for me. And, you know, particularly when we left the classroom and went all online. You know, how do you connect with your students when you're in a virtual world? And you know, that's been a real challenge, but it's a real opportunity too.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Absolutely. What other stuff, maybe your style or anything else that you had to maybe change or adapt going from the chair of the CEO to the chair of the professor?

Doug Crabtree:
You know, I think there's just an awful lot of similarities. I have always believed that health care, you know, we're in the business of serving and taking care of people. It's all about people. It's all about relationships. And you find the same kind of thing at the university setting, where it's all about people and it's all about, at the university setting, everybody you run into has the same purpose and the same goal of helping the students and the students are all there to improve their livelihood, to improve their life, to be able to go out and provide for themselves and or their family, and to be able to just to elevate and improve. And so there's a real, I really like that about the university setting that everybody that you run into is there for the purpose of helping the students who are there for the purpose of providing for themselves, elevating themselves in terms of knowledge and skills and wisdom, and also being able to provide for their families and their communities. And so there's just an awful lot of similarities, I really worked hard on those relationships that the hospital and I now I'm really working hard on those same kind of relationships with the students and making sure they know that they can reach me. I've never had office hours, in the four hours I've been there. When they ask me about my office hours early on in the semester, I just give them my cell phone and I say I'm available all day, you know, every day. If you have a question, just call me. That's why I'm here. And you know, it shocks them at first. But I'm available all the time for the students and they text me, they reach out to me. And some of that is about school, and some of it is about life and hopefully I can assist, like in the hospital, be an influence for good and help things go smooth. And, you know, as I did in the hospital, I want to do now at the university.

Jesse Arnoldson:
I love it. I'm assuming that's what plays into, you know, the fulfillment you get from either side of the coin, you know, whether at the hospital or the university. Is that similar spirit of there it is this one final downstream person, either the patient or the student that you're just there to serve, whether you're the dishwasher, doctor, administrator, now professor, you know?

Doug Crabtree:
Well, it's just so fun to be able to be, you know, you get to know these students, you know, in a pretty, pretty good level and then coach them into doing this or be involved in this club or you ought to be involved in this college of healthcare executives or whatever. And then you follow them in six months later, they're doing this, and 12 months later, they're doing that. And then two years later, they're running their own clinic and they're doing great things and they're fulfilling their dream in a way that they never thought it was possible just two years before. And so it's really fun to see the students not only while they're in college, but after they graduate from the university and go out and launch themselves into their field. That's really rewarding for me to see them be so successful.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Absolutely. I'm, I'm recalling a meeting that you and I had with a student, maybe two, two and a half, three years ago, and it just exemplifies everything I love about Idaho State. When I was going there, I remember they were always trying to balance between the academic PhD professors and the more of the people who had come from the professional side of, you know, I was an administrator or a CEO for X amount of years, and so they would balance how many professors we had of each. And I felt like it was probably more beneficial than any other university I looked at when I was looking at those programs. And then fast forward, outside of the program, and you and I get to sit down and spend time with this student and kind of guide and direct her and give her as much insight as we could. Now she works for us and it's just amazing. You know that, that kind of support from the folks that over at Idaho State is incredible for the students.

Doug Crabtree:
Well, and I hope all of the students who I've had in the program, whether I've had them or have not, I hope all of those students know that myself and all of our faculty members at Idaho State, we're always accessible to help even after they've left the university. You know, if any of those former students at ISU who now work for you, they're fortunate enough to have that opportunity. If they called and needed me to help them with something, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Jesse Arnoldson:
I think that too.

Doug Crabtree:
You know, I have, and I've loved that.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Doug Crabtree:
That's that's been a lot of fun for me.

Jesse Arnoldson:
That's fantastic. Can you tell me maybe what are some things that you've learned while over on the academic side that make you think about your days in the hospital like, oh, I wish I could go back in time and try this? Or maybe this would have been a neat approach to this long-term issue I had over there.

Doug Crabtree:
Well, I think that there's, you know, of course, a hundred things I wish I would have done better or differently.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Oh, sure, sure. I think that ISU specifically sparked some ideas.

Doug Crabtree:
Well, through the coursework at ISU.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Doug Crabtree:
You know, we're training these future leaders of health care in the state. ISU is the health university designated by the State Board of Education. And so I think about just some skills that as a leader that I wish I would have known better in the real world that I've since learned to appreciate in the academic world. And that has to do with just the idea of accountability and how I wish I could have applied the principles of accountability better throughout my career. I did it, but I didn't do it, if I had it to do over again, I would do it differently.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Doug Crabtree:
A good friend of mine named Renee Oswald has tried this in a couple of things since she's left the hospital, and it's just been liberating for her to learn and understand accountability and how it works. And I wish I would have done better there. And now we teach our students about how fun it is to hold people accountable in a coaching way, in a growth way, not in a punitive, I got my thumb on your way.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Right.

Doug Crabtree:
But it all starts real quickly. You know, I want, this isn't about accountability, but just in a nutshell, it's all about clear expectations and clear agreements and then holding people accountable to those agreements that have been mutually defined and outlined.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Doug Crabtree:
And as you do that, the person's performance either quickly elevates or quickly doesn't, but there's no more excuses, there's no more oh, I got to feel bad about having this discussion, it's just we agreed to this, you didn't perform, help me understand why and, you know, let's try again, but you know, you don't have much time to keep trying and it would have been liberating to me as a leader to have learned some of those skills.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Right.

Doug Crabtree:
I think in the hospital, I was really focused on services and specialists and making sure I had all of the employees necessary to keep the doors of the hospital open.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Right.

Doug Crabtree:
We created the NICU, we created the trauma program, we created the PICU, we did this, we did that. The Open Heart program. We improved a lot of different things that provided great care, and the facility kind of demanded that I be that involved. In retrospect, another thing I wish I would have done better is been more aware of how our community and the communities we live in kind of shape our outcome of health.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Okay.

Doug Crabtree:
And we could have done some things in Idaho Falls. I could have been more of an influence in Idaho Falls to affect change in a way that would have kept people healthier if I had just left the four walls of the hospital and left the workings of the hospital for the hospital. But now I've had a chance to really study these social determinants of health and have really come to learn how important they are. And just as a, you know, an example, multiple sources, the CDC, the American Hospital Association, they attribute about 20 percent of one person's health to the health care they receive.

Jesse Arnoldson:
And that's it, just 20.

Doug Crabtree:
And that's it, 20 percent. And so you're thinking, Well, what else is there? Well, there's a lot of socioeconomic factors, there's health factors, there's your physical environment, there's your access to food and nutrition, there's your access to recreation and exercise. All of those things are impacted by how we build our communities together, how we take care of each other in our communities. And I don't think I had the vision of that when I was at the hospital as the CEO, I was so focused on the hospital that I didn't pay as much attention to what we now call public health as I should have.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Doug Crabtree:
And you know, another thing I think I missed out on and I think we as a society miss out on a lot right now is, you know, taking care of our own health and our, being responsible for our own health. But also there's a segment of our community, I think when you're about 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 where you kind of quit going to the doctor.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Doug Crabtree:
You're out of the house, you're either.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Mom's not taking you to the pediatrician anymore!

Doug Crabtree:
Yeah, you're out on your own, and because you're out on your own, you go to the urgent care if you've really got something bad. But other than that, you really don't go to the doctor. There may be a period of time from when you're 18, 19 or 20, and Donna Bergman from St. Luke's taught me this concept. Donna teaches that if she could change one thing, it would be make sure we get health care from those critical years of ages 20 to 45.

Jesse Arnoldson:
Yeah.

Doug Crabtree:
Make sure that you got an exam. Make sure that you get in your routine physicals. Make sure you've got a medical home so that we can diagnose and help find out about your diabetes or about this or about that before you're 45 years old, where things are already progressing to a point that sometimes could have been avoided if you just come into the doctor earlier. But, you know, all of that access to health care, all of that stuff about exercise and nutrition, all of that is stuff I think I could have and should have paid more attention to in terms of public health, community health, rather than just running the day to day affairs of the hospital.

Jesse Arnoldson:
I love it. I love it. If you had answered, you know, not that I'm good, I think everything I'm realizing in the academic side of everything I did on the, you know, the professional side is exactly spot on. I would have, you know, probably called you a liar and not posted this episode. So I love all of that. And actually, it's a perfect segue way because, you know, for our listeners, we're going to dive in, next episode, more into those determinants of health and what it is that we can do as individuals to maybe change the direction of this gigantic ship that is health care, our gigantic health care system. What can we do in our own individual responsibility? And so we'll, you know, please tune in next week for the next episode with Doug. Doug, thank you for everything that you shared with us today.

Doug Crabtree:
Hey, you bet. I look forward to next week. And just to give one little tidbit is if you live in Idaho Falls in one neighborhood and across the street is a second neighborhood, you may find that your life span can be impacted by up to seven years, just depending on what neighborhood you live in as you talk about those social determinants of health. I look forward to that discussion next week with you.

Jesse Arnoldson:
That is the perfect cliffhanger, myself. I'm definitely tuning in next week. I'm sure everybody else will, too.

Doug Crabtree:
Sounds great.

Jesse Arnoldson:
All right. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in to this episode of the Medical Management Podcast. For any of our show notes, sources, anything like that, please visit us at MedMan.com. You'll also be able to see everything else at MedMan does to help medical practices level up. We'll see you next week.

Jay Holmes:
Thanks for tuning in to the Medical Management Podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's featured guest. For the show notes, transcripts, resources, and everything else Medman does to help you level up be sure to visit us at MedMan.com

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