142: Finding the Brilliance from Burnout with Brent C Jackson, MD, MBA, FACS

The Healthcare QualityCast

Meet our guest, Dr. Brent Jackson, the Vice President/Chief Medical Officer at Mercy General Hospital, a Dignity Health Facility in Sacramento, California. Dr. Brent had been a Practicing General Surgeon for 15 years before moving to administrative roles. In this episode, I sit with Dr. Jackson and discuss the healthcare industry in regards to burnout, the importance of taking time to recharge outside work, as well as dynamics of teamwork, and defining quality metrics. Top Takeaways [00:20] With a positive mindset, it's amazing what people can accomplish when they put their minds to something. [01:45] Burnout is insidious, and the deeper you get in it, the more blind you get; this was the major reason behind Dr. Brent’s move from clinical practice into an administrative role. [07:00] Losing the autonomy of private personal practice was one of the factors responsible for burnout. If you reflect and see that you've become your career, you're probably on your way to burnout. You need to take time away from your career and develop outside interests. [14:30] The definition of a team is a small group of individuals with a shared goal who have mutual trust and accountability. When you bring a team together, you need to focus on developing relationships with them and encouraging them to develop relationships with one another. Also, often allow for shared decision-making, then they have ownership of it. [16:53] Best 'Aha' moment: While taking time off work, Dr. Brent had realized he always wanted to do an MBA, and finally had time to do it. [23:35] Current changes in healthcare: Error prevention is becoming critical, with new high-reliability organizational principles and tools being implemented. [28:40] The healthcare industry needs to be more geared towards defining quality for the upcoming quality leaders. We need to spend more time finding good metrics for defining good quality. [32:25] Newsletters and giving awards to recognize efforts and inspire. [36:00] Best career advice: Listen more and ask more questions. [37:57] Personal habit for leadership success: When trying to solve a problem, it is important to ask 'who are the right people to pool together and what are the right questions to ask?' [39:25] Professional society recommendations; A.C.H.E and Becker's Healthcare Conference [41:23] A personal goal-setting process: It is important to identify your goal, what are the stories to get there and what is the timeline. [42:55] Book recommendation: "The Busy Leader's Handbook" by Quint Studer. [46:24] Dr. Brent’s message to himself: To himself in the past "Don't become your career", and to his future self "Are you there? How do you like it where you are?" [48:46] Final advice from Dr. Brent: when you put a project together identify who will be impacted by it, and take their workflows into account to manage the impact. If you often have shared decision-making and engagement of the stakeholders, you will have organic adoption as opposed to resistance. Key Quotes: "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right" - Henry Ford "Work to live, don't live to work" "A team creates something that is greater than the sum of the individual components, whereas the work just creates the sum of the individual components" "That's the mark of good leadership; it's 'how many leaders can you produce?' " "When you have the drive and you get the recharge, you'll get it done" "If you don't know where you're going, you can't define the steps to get there" "'Some' is not a number and 'soon' is not a time" Connect: Find | Dr. Brent Jackson On LinkedIn --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/healthcarequalitycast/message