The team at Wakefield Brunswick regularly receives questions that push us beyond our immediate experience, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded. To better serve our community, we’d like to bring these questions and answers to you as considerations for your own professional experience.
Today's question is about engaging with executive leadership as part of the COVID-19 response.
"Our discussions are at the emergency management and incident command system level, but not at the executive level. Our executives are having conversations, but they're not coordinating with us in the command center. What tips do you have for us to connect with our leaders?"
Angela Devlen, Wakefield Brunswick CEO –
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We see this a lot on a day to day basis in emergency management, where our emergency management colleagues are struggling to get executive buy-in and connection with the executive suite. We talk a lot about how to address that as part of the planning activities in our free leadership course.
I'd encourage you to take the course if you haven't yet.
Like us, you’re probably thinking, how do we really employ that here in a COVID-19 response?
1. Make sure that you are effectively and concisely documenting the issues that are emerging.
Make sure you're finding in the command center and casting a net across the organization to capture the issues that are emerging and either how those issues are being addressed or coming up with recommendations and solutions for how they can be addressed efficiently and as quickly as possible under the current circumstances.
If you can consolidate all of that data and aggregate that into a meaningful document, and we have a really simple template that you're welcome to use and adapt for your own needs. However, if it's not organized in a clean and concise way, such that executives can identify what the problem statement is and what the solutions are to address that, or if the solutions are not clear but you have recommendations, then make sure that those recommendations are in there and that you are able to provide recommendations from which they can make a decision.
We don't want to go to our leaders with a challenge or a problem, but then not have recommendations or solutions for them to choose from.
2. Consider opportunities to collaborate with some of the workgroups that you might otherwise not normally work with to help co-create those solutions.
Example: There could be a workgroup working on resuming elective surgeries. Being able to create a staggered strategy for the resumption of operations along with what you're seeing as challenges in the command center. One example is that we know we have an organization that is moving towards resuming certain procedures. However, until other solutions around the availability of PPE is solved, there's going to be some bumping up of challenges there.
By working together with that workgroup and the command center, they're able to co-create that solution in real-time, rather than working in silos. Being able to connect with some of those folks that are working on those strategic leadership priorities for trying to resume operations is another opportunity for you to get front and center with key leaders who are making decisions and a reminder of how the command center actually is a critical partner in also, not only the response but also in the recovery.
You want to be proactive in providing guidance in areas that are also strategically and financially relevant to the organization.
Many of our healthcare facilities are facing real financial challenges because of COVID-19 because we have had to really focus our response in certain areas and do things like canceling elective surgeries. WB has created a resource for the financial considerations that we recommend you explore as part of your response and recovery. Start with that template and really think about what it is that you can be doing in providing recommendations to your executive leadership and your CFO.
I have seen – after every disaster – hospitals leave millions of dollars that they're eligible for in reimbursement following a disaster because these considerations weren't thought of early enough on.
3. Start thinking about adaptive systems.
If you watched my other video on Considerations for the New Normal in Healthcare, you'll know I talked a lot about agility and being able to pivot. We need the systems that allow us to do that so that we're getting data that really provides that decision support.
Even if we don't have the technology to do it, we still have to have the thinking.
The idea is: what is the set of considerations? If this, then that. Almost an algorithmic thinking.
Then, you can take the technology you do have to help adapt your thinking because what we really need here is a common operating picture.
The team at WB is looking at that with several organizations that we're working with and thinking about how to build the right technologies so that we can determine what we have, what we need and leveraging real-time data so that we can really build out that guidance in those solutions in real-time so that we have that common operating picture and have the resources and the decisions being made in real-time based on real data.
There’s no doubt that this is definitely a bit more of a reach there in terms of a resource that's not available to everybody. But the systems thinking by itself will certainly go a long way to getting you there.
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We’ll be in-touch with an answer and an opportunity to share our considerations with the WB community.
In preparation for a global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Wakefield Brunswick began collaborating with the international healthcare community at the beginning of January 2020. Since then, we’ve authored and co-created numerous clinical, procedural, and advisory resources in-use at hospitals across North America.
WE ARE CONSTANTLY UPDATING OUR FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY ON OUR WEBSITE…
View our COVID-19 Resource Collection and our Risk & Resiliency Resource List.
Upcoming updates will include lessons learned and resources regarding staffing, triggers for decision support, and continuity of operations.
WORK COLLABORATIVELY. ACT DECISIVELY.
The WB Team
We at Wakefield Brunswick believe sharing information in a timely manner is critical, particularly during this unprecedented time. We will continue to work with our team of resiliency and medical experts and our partners to disseminate actionable information as fast as possible. Please note that this will necessitate periodic revisions and clarifications of some of our recommendations. The most recent version of our materials will be available on our website.