Learning from the Pandemic

Happy New Year everyone! As NAHQ’s President, the thing that I am most looking forward to this year is connecting with you. We are a part of a very special community of people passionately committed to improving patient care. And NAHQ provides us with the opportunity to engage with one another, advance our skills and live our commitment every day. I am so honored to be able to serve you and NAHQ this year.

As quality professionals, we are naturally curious. We want to know the data and the details. We want to understand how people think and make decisions. We want to help people learn and our organizations advance. I want to tap into that energy and explore what makes quality professionals, from across the continuum of healthcare, tick.

So earlier this month, I called Johan Smith, MBA CPHQ. Johan is the Vice President, Health Informatics at Universal Health Services, Inc. (UHS) and the Head of Mental Health Outcomes (MHO). Johan has a unique perspective on the impact of the pandemic, the responsibility of healthcare leaders in times of crisis and why it is important for even senior executives to achieve and maintain their Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality® (CPHQ).

At the beginning of our conversation, I asked Johan how he was doing. Personally, he is grateful that he and his family are well. Professionally, his organization is struggling with the same issues as other healthcare organizations such as staffing shortages. But working in behavioral health, he has a different insight into the impact of the pandemic. Ultimately, Johan believes that the emotional toll of the pandemic has a more widespread impact than the virus itself. Suicide, depression, anxiety and substance abuse have already increased significantly and will continue to do so.

While this situation is difficult, Johan believes that good will come from what we are learning. For example, clinicians are recognizing that behavioral health integration is vital to the treatment of physical disease. The emotional impact of social isolation must be taken into consideration when treating patients with physical illness. While the connection between mental and physical well-being has always been strong, the pandemic is reinforcing the point and creating new standards of care.

Johan is also impressed with the flexibility and agility that healthcare has exhibited during the crisis. Long-term barriers to quality care are being torn down. Take, for example, CMS’s approval of Telehealth which will be a key provision strategy in patient care from this point forward. In addition, 2020 and 2021 have been bellwether years for the development of mental health apps. We will look back on this as a period of great innovation in healthcare, as painful as it is.

Leading a professional team during the pandemic has had its challenges, but Johan believes that the very characteristics that make quality professionals so good at what they do are also required for crisis leadership. An open and curious mindset is the starting point. Dispassionately assessing the situation, as difficult as that can be, is a must. Letting the data tell its story helps to keep emotional responses in check and everyone focused on the task at hand.

Although the CPHQ is not required for Johan’s position, he is dedicated to maintaining both his credential and his affiliation with NAHQ. Johan studied for his CPHQ earlier in his career because he was up for a “challenge”. His career was moving in the direction of quality and so, in his own words, he wanted to “earn his spot”. But Johan maintains his CPHQ for a very important reason. “I firmly believe healthcare should be about standards of excellence in care. I am encouraging clinical staff to engage in best practices, so I need to as well. CPHQ and the ongoing education NAHQ provides is best practice for healthcare quality professionals. So, I need to take my own medicine.”

I want to thank Johan for sharing his insights with me so I can share them with you. I look forward to hearing more of your stories this year.

Emmett T. Ervin, MPA CPHQ
NAHQ President