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Laura Marquez and I discuss building out a team and working to make that team as effective as possible in our first interview of the conference. I hope you enjoy.

Transcript

. All right, here we are at HIMS 2022. This is actually our first interview. I'm looking forward to this. We have, , Laura Marquez with Yukon health, chief. Chief application officer, you can tell it's my first interview and it's early in the morning.

Laura. Welcome. Welcome to the show.

Thank you so much. I'm glad we ran into each other. Yeah,

me too. We were at the hit like a girl. , w what is that? It was the,

I hit like a girl podcast. So it's where they really celebrate women leaders and make sure that we have great representation for health.

There was a, , there was something like this advice last week, but I was not invited because I was not a woman, but this one, I was actually able to walk.

And network with, all the people out there. They, they do such a great job with that podcast. And you listened to them.

I do. I do. And it's fantastic. That's, you know, between hit like a girl in your podcast. I'm that's my morning exercise.

You're good to go. , well I'm glad we ran into each other. So what's top of mind at Yukon health right now.

Yeah. So we are, , really looking at optimism. How can we move the needle forward with, you know, trying to stand up and informatics team really bridging that gap between our caregivers and clinicians, to make sure that we're delivering the tools that meet their needs. So epic. We are epic go live.

When was 2018 yes.

, pandemic kits. Are you on foundation?

Yes, we are on foundation. We've done very little customization. So we got through. Update major upgrade pandemic kits. We were able to, , get through a quarterly release cycle. So that was a major, first win is really making sure that we are in sync and trying to stay up to date.

How long you've been at Yukon, just coming up on three

years for years, the, , w we've done a lot of interviews with CEOs, and they're talking about this, this crunch, this hiring crunch, and you're trying to build up an informatics team. It seems like you're trying to do that. You're swimming upstream right now.

Yeah.

But we won't stop swaying. It's it's so important. I really think that that's been, , a crucial missing component to making sure that we have, you know, we're making the right decisions and getting that buy-in, that change management is huge. So we really are looking forward to inviting more caregivers to the table, you know, to be part of the informatics team.

So,

so how do you build a team that people want to be a part of and that people don't want to

leave? Yeah. It starts with, , building a foundation of a culture of safety. So you want to really create a place where people want to show up as their best and be there.

They, you know, I think when you wake up out of bed, do you enjoy what you do? We want those people to come to. And find joy in the work that they're doing. And part of how we do that is making sure that we're connecting back to purpose. You know, each, each like tool that we develop our solution, how does it really, you know, marry with our mission, vision, and values, let's connect that let's show them that what they do matters.

What, what's the mission of Yukon

health? Yeah, we are an innovative, so we're academic research medical center. So we are really looking to provide our community with. , services and healthcare and ensure that we are also living true to our research and academic mission as well.

It's interesting that connecting the, , health, it, the informatics staff to the mission, people think, oh, well, that's, that's easy, right?

That's why they came to work there and those kinds of things, but we lose sight of it so easily because we're, we're behind the scenes. I used to say for, for the team that I led, I used to say we were the best supporting actor in the delivery of health. If we weren't doing what. The clinicians wouldn't be able to do what they're doing, or they would be doing it with paper and fax and all sorts of other stuff.

, talk to me about strength thunder. So you, you seem to be a fan.

I'm a big fan. Yeah. Clifton StrengthsFinder. So I took my entire umbrella of, , people through StrengthFinder and it's really let's figure out what we're good at. What do people, where do they thrive and tap into those strengths? And so how we interact interactions as well?

Truly, maybe how you process things, you know, are you someone that, you know, is a high-end intellectual or, you know, really loves to learn, you know, you might need more time to process and digest the data versus someone who might be an achiever, you know, who just is like, let's get it done. When are we starting?

So to marry up and be able to see, okay, I have this strength who can compliment my strengths. Let me partner with. And so it was really fascinating and helped us all understand each other a little bit better so that we can build better together. So

did people walk around in their badges and say, I'm, you know

this?

No, but I have this wonderful Excel spreadsheet that was distributed. That does show everyone with, you know, each team has a different tab and it's, it's great. So you could really see where

I've done a lot of those things over the years. I've , Karen Colby has a thing quick start fact finder follow through it.

That was really good. I did that with my team. We've, we've done any ramp and cause it's interesting with the Enneagram.

It does talk a lot about your interaction and it explains why some people just do this naturally. It's. Hey, you know, I need a lot of information before I start writing somebody. Else's like, let's start, we'll figure it out. As we go. And people are looking at each other, like, what are you an idiot,

because, and you don't want to make those assumptions.

And so by knowing other people's strengths, you could really, truly attribute that positive intent. And that is where it loops back into that culture of safety. You're building trust because you understand where they're coming from and their point of view. And maybe you've understand to be able to put yourself in their shoes and view it through a different.

So you have a team you're hiring into that team. So all these people just went through it. We've always had this challenge. These people go through it and then new people come in. How do you bring them into the culture and the family?

Yeah,

we, we do a follow-up StrengthFinder exercise with that team to whomever, whatever team they're on, they will do that exercise and we'll relive it. And it's actually fun because it might be, it might've been, you know, several months it could have been a year since we lasted the exercise. So it's always good as a refresher.

You're trying to build out this informatics team at this time. How do you attract talent? How are you? Are you hiring from a larger area bow or,

yeah, well, we're actually still trying to get approval to get the informatics positions. So, , yes, my interim CIO and I, we are, we're pitching a slide deck upcoming soon for, to the execs to make sure that we could try to secure those positions.

It's interesting. I thank you for your honesty, by the way. It's, it's very real because there's a lot of people who are listening to this right now. God. Yes. I, I feel your pain. It's, it's interesting because we have such a high need for people. , but , it's a challenging time financially for a lot of health systems.

Well, and when we think about what value that. Are part of our pitch is to show, you know, look at how many projects have been delayed because the workflows were not defined well, , look at, you know, the resources that, you know, if we missed, you know, we were not on track.

We were not on budget. You know, those impacts are huge to an organization. And when you think about how many projects you get per month, let's say, I think our average is 15 gets submitted a month. We're only able to close 10. So we're constantly under one. And so if every project is getting delayed, think of the ripple effect that has.

So that's where our stance is. If we could bring in an informatics team to keep things on track, have, you know, requirements well-defined upfront, really understand the language and interpretation of what the end goal of that project is, it'll be successful. And then we can stay on track and on budget 15.

So

you must have a really good governance process.

We are, , we're evolving governance process. Yes. '

cause I remember where I was at. It used to be like a hundred a month would come in. It's like, Hey, we have this idea that, you know, if you change this workflow, do this thing. But you know, we also had 16 hospitals, so it was, they were just constantly coming in.

And so our governance process had to be really tight. And, , and we were oftentimes looking at 60 novels. You're looking at, okay, this is going to benefit these four, but it's not going to be limited by these. It was a, it was a challenging

process. Yes. And we're experiencing the growing pains of governance.

, but it's, we're moving in the right direction. So even though we're underwater, , in terms of projects coming in versus being able to for the output, you know, it's, it's good. We're the leaders are talking and really trying to figure out what aligns with the 📍 overall organizational strategy and goals.

Laura, thanks for your time. Yeah. Thanks.

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