Show Notes

April 1, 2020: In times of crisis and great uncertainty, how do leaders in healthcare successfully lead their teams? As the corona virus spreads, more healthcare systems are overwhelmed and healthcare workers are at increased risk, how do we prepare and systematize structures to better support patients and their loved ones, our colleagues, and our community? Every healthcare organization may be run a little differently, but we are almost all in the same boat when it comes to the corona virus pandemic. In this boat too, is today’s guest, Steve LeBlond, CTO for Ochsner Health in New Orleans. Steve is leading his team at Ochsner Health through the COVID-19 crisis in exceptional, innovative ways. Steve has many lessons and valuable advice to share about his experience thus far in leading a team through this unique, challenging crisis. We hear how Ochsner is approaching its containment strategy, building in-house testing capabilities, ICU beds, and daycare centers, hosting patient visitations via Skype, managing work schedule rotations, communicating with staff, and much more! By the end of this episode, not only will you have practical steps to help you deal with the reality of this crisis, but you will also be motivated and inspired to be the leader you need to be.

Key Points from This Episode:

• Find out what Ochsner is doing to better serve their community during this crisis.
• The four different pillars that Ochsner is currently working on as an organization.
• Expanding containment strategies, testing capabilities, and overall care.
• Find out why Ochsner has set up a daycare center for the children of employees.
• Supporting 4000 teleworkers who are working in an office one day and at home the next.
• Learn more about the process of setting up in-house testing and 50 new ICU beds.
• Communication structure: How to ensure you eliminate confusion during a crisis.
• Preparing for a surge in confirmed corona virus cases among your workforce.
• How to keep an engaged workforce that is still willing to be on the frontline.
• Scheduling your team: If someone goes down, someone else needs to be coming in.
• Keeping your health IT staff safe by dividing them into onsite work and virtual work.
• How to approach and expand your telehealth with virtual patient visits for loved ones.
• The importance of getting creative and resourceful with your solutions.
• Why Steve drove around for three days finding iPad deals from Best Buy.
• Latency, bandwidth, data capacity, security: How to handle scaling at a rapid rate.
• The importance of accepting the “new normal” early on and that this is long-term.
• What we now know about containment and preparing for care facility capacity.