Navigating Change in Healthcare Management

In Episode 447, Stacey Richter interviews Ashleigh Gunter, president of Translucent Healthcare Consulting, to discuss the indispensable role of change management in healthcare transformation. They emphasize that creating an effective change strategy involves great leadership, a clear case for change, influential change champions, over-communication, and continuous measurement and celebration of successes.

The conversation highlights the importance of understanding and aligning with the 'why' that drives healthcare professionals and the necessity of a multi-faceted approach beyond just implementing technological solutions like EHR systems.

Visit the Episode Page to read the show notes with mentioned links.

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I saw a bar chart by Phil Ballentine the other day in Nikhil Krishnan’s Out-Of-Pocket newsletter that showed, in the USA, in 2024, there are 18,982 live instances of Epic. Each one of those 18,982 live instances are all different: different workflows, separate data, different ways to do the same thing. So, even if having an “Epic strategy” actually was a complete master plan to change behavior in clinic, healthcare has no “nationwide, everywhere it’s all the same, so figure out your thing once and you’re good to go” thing going on.

There are 18,982 differences of opinion out there, but here’s the actual and big kahuna real reason why I’m leery. An Epic strategy is not equivalent to a change management strategy. That’s the real point that I want to make.

It’s necessary, very necessary even, but not sufficient. You want to make the way as easy as possible once the “why” goes down and the case for change is made, but even if it’s one click and not your usual 14 to 60 clicks, there’s no “why” there. There’s no automatic case for change that slithers out of anybody’s API like a spontaneous miracle.

I said this last week, too. Lots of things are really pretty easy. Lots of things are in Epic. Yet no one uses them. I mean, let’s talk about actually reading most of the best-practice alerts that pop up. How about consistent use of SmartSets in the majority of those 18,982 instances?

Anyway, I couldn’t be more pleased to have learned a thing or two from Ashleigh Gunter about change management and how to do this whole thing right. This conversation happened actually a while ago. It’s re-edited for 2024—call it a supercut—specifically considering change management at hospitals or physician organizations.

Ashleigh Gunther is president of Translucent Healthcare Consulting. She is also an expert in change management and how to align employees and staff so that an organization can move forward together.

One quick spoiler before we proceed: According to Ashleigh, there’s five steps to effective change management that will ensure success:

1. Having great leadership

2. Creating a case for change. This includes the whole “why” thing.

3. Finding champions—engaging people who have to change so that they can contribute and be supportive

4. Overcommunicating

5. Measuring how things are going and also celebrating small triumphs

If you continue to be interested in this topic, do go back and listen to the show with Karen Root (EP381) on shepherding innovation through a large company.

Before we kick in to the show today, let me remind you, if you haven’t done so and you appreciate the show, could I ask you to please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify? We haven’t had any of them this month, and it is important for the show to get found and for me and the team to stay motivated over here. While you're there, be sure to Follow the show.

09:22 How does change management go wrong in healthcare?

09:56 “Communication [of change] in and of itself isn’t change management.”

10:53 How does change management work on the provider organization side?

15:33 “You want to ensure you are educating the operational folks.”

16:35 What is change management?

17:36 What does great leadership look like in change management?

18:55 “Leadership sets the tone.”

19:04 What makes change management so hard?

19:31 “What’s the company reason to make this change happen?”

20:51 What are change champions, and why do you need to create them when changing your benefit plan?

21:57 Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore.

23:21 Why is it important to overcommunicate change?

26:47 Why is it important to measure your successes and communicate those after a change?