Licensed to Lead

About Licensed to Lead

Join host Patty Fahy, MD as she shares the evidence for why physicians must lead healthcare and lead us out of the current healthcare system morass. Patty has twenty years of experience working with leaders in healthcare—as a member of an executive team, founder of a successful coaching and consulting firm, and as a committed physician advocate. This podcast is for you if you want expert physician leaders at the helm of U.S. healthcare systems and if you want practical advice and critical conversations about honing the leadership skills of physicians. The Licensed to Lead Podcast offers new angles on the neuroscience of leadership, challenges a “burnout industry” that is profiting from physician burnout, and offers a no-holds-barred investigation into the business school mindset that puts profits over patients. Patty and her guests provide provocative and clear recommendations for changing the business of medicine so that it fulfills the professional obligations of medicine. The physician identity is deeply rooted in doing the right thing for patients. It is time for the financial preoccupation that arises from a business school mindset to be subordinated to the professional obligations we have to patients. Find out more about Patty and Fahy Consulting at LicensedtoLeadPodcast.com.

Publisher

Patty Fahy, MD

Category

business · health & fitness · science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

22 Mar 2020

Latest episode

7 Jun 2022

Latest episodes

42 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Jun 2022

   042 - Dr. Susan Rogers Tells Senate: Don’t Hand Medicare to the Profiteers

   Community, connection, purpose: these values are almost palpable even in a virtual conversation with Dr. Susan Rogers. Dr. Rogers is an internist, educator, and activist on behalf of those who suffer when profit motives bulldoze the institutions that are meant to serve the public. A neon example of a public good which has been targeted by profiteers is traditional Medicare. As president of Physicians for a National Health Program, Dr. Rogers is fighting back against the shape-shifting strategies launched by insurance companies and private equity firms to cash in on Medicare. She fills us in on the importance of preserving the choice of traditional Medicare, and talks about her work to inform the public and Congress about the “predatory DCEs” or Direct Contracting Entities. She was shaped by growing up in a uniquely integrated community in Chicago as well as by the activism of the 1960s. When she was in middle school, her mom took her to a march led by Martin Luther King, Jr. protesting the state of the public schools in Chicago. She trained at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and then went on to hold leadership and teaching positions there as an attending. While she did defect temporarily to work in other settings in Chicago, she missed the camaraderie and like-minded passion of her Cook County colleagues. She emphasizes the importance of community with colleagues and the significance of a physician’s long-term relationships with patients. Dr. Rogers is exasperated at the privatization of healthcare by people who know nothing about the practice and profession of medicine. She describes the total disconnect when decisions are made by financially-driven business people: “There should be no role for them.” “Resources aren’t placed where they’re needed— they’re placed where they can generate more money.” She compares the inroads of private equity firms in healthcare to the debacle of private equity firms and charter schools siphoning funds away from public schools in poor communities. As in healthcare, the motives are not to provide the needed services to the public—but to amass profits for investors. Rural hospitals that are acquired and then closed by large healthcare systems are another example of decision-making by those seeking to maximize profit, not community benefit. Dr. Rogers and other representatives from Physicians for a National Health Program had success on Capitol Hill when they petitioned Congress and HHS to reject DCEs. While PNHP’s efforts were influential regarding DCEs, she describes how it didn’t take long for a new acronym and strategy to emerge. “Same shirt, different color,” she says about ACO REACH (ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health). She emphasizes the remarkable lack of oversight by Congress for this program that can be hoisted on patients without patients realizing that their traditional Medicare decision has been overruled. Also in this episode: •The powerful impact of a high school biology teacher •Activism in the time of role model Angela Davis •A Tuskegee airman who exemplified the bond between physician and patient •She was able to see patients as people: “They shared their lives with me” •“Are you going to open your own office?” a question rarely posed to medical students now that 70%+ physicians are employed •Burgeoning full-service hospitals arising in close proximity are as logical as putting a town’s four fire stations on facing corners. Meet Susan Rogers, MD Dr. Susan Rogers is president of Physicians for a National Health Program, a national organization with over 23,000 physician members, whose mission is to advocate for Single Payer/Medicare for All. Dr. Rogers received her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. She spent...

2. 

   17 May 2022

   041 - Mining Mintzberg for Management Gold

   McGill Business Professor Henry Mintzberg is the author of 20 books on management, creator of two revolutionary international management programs, and the recipient of a mountain of accolades and honors for his thought leadership in the business world. Mintzberg minces no words in his pointed criticism of current approaches to management training and the behavior of those in management and leadership positions. In this interview, Professor Mintzberg comments on the value of an MBA in providing management skills: “Anybody who comes out of a business school should have a stamp on his or her forehead—like a skull and crossbones—that says Warning! Not Prepared to Manage.” He explains how managers get distorted during traditional business education. Management is a practice where art, craft and science intersect. Because the art and craft cannot be taught in a business school setting, the “science” has become the focus of graduate business education. Thus, MBAs emerge with skills in marketing, finance, and accounting but lack the very “essence” of management—the art and the craft. He explains why “remote control managers” are dangerous. These are people who manage by the numbers, with monitoring and measuring substituting for actually knowing what’s going on in the business. This lack of understanding has implications for the success and capacity of the organization and disconnection from the ground floor of the organization impairs innovation. Professor Mintzberg says healthcare should not be run like a business. In fact, he states, “most businesses should not be run like a business.” He makes it clear that this is especially true in professions and in services like medicine and healthcare. Healthcare is not a business, it’s a calling. Professor Mintzberg points to the pros and cons of various groups such as physicians, nurses, MBAs, accountants and others who seek to lead healthcare institutions. He believes managers must know and understand the services being offered, be unequivocally collaborative, and humble enough to learn. Physicians who succeed in business are those who collaborate and build relationships. Mintzberg, an internationally recognized iconoclast, believes jail is the most appropriate destination for board members who approve super-sized CEO salaries and for the executives who accept them. He states that huge salaries are dysfunctional nonsense and the opposite of leadership that leads to “a kind of narcissism.” When asked about incentives for physicians, Professor Mintzberg exudes enthusiasm. “Yes! A patient whose life has been saved and who is appreciative is a terrific incentive!” But treating physicians like caged pigeons and giving them little rewards for their work is just silliness. Professor Mintzberg talks about the structure, purpose, and successes of the International Masters for Health Leadership program which he co-founded. And he shares a high level overview of his important work focused on the need to rebalance society. An imbalance in three sectors, the public, private and what he calls the plural sector, are at the root of many of society’s most harmful and dysfunctional patterns. This is so relevant to healthcare, which is being destroyed by inroads by the profit-driven private sector. In this episode: •Why Professor Mintzberg’s quadruple bypass cost $2.50 •How beaver artists find gallery space •The Supreme Court legalized bribery in the Citizens United decision •Mintzberg’s Masters Program, Ebola Virus, and Doctors Without Borders •Dulcie and the Infinite List of Positive Characteristics Meet Henry Mintzberg Henry Mintzberg, PhD, is a professor in the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University in Montreal. He sits in the Cleghorn Chair of Management Studies and has had extensive visiting professorships at INSEAD in France and the London Business School in England. As an...

3. 

   26 Apr 2022

   040 - Stanford Physician Writes the Book on Wellbeing

   Author and certified lifestyle medicine physician, Iris Schrijver, MD, describes a fulfilling and fast-paced academic career at Stanford as a full professor of pathology and director of a molecular genetics research lab. A few years ago, in an unlikely turn of events, an opportunity to design a leadership project ignited her long simmering interest in wellbeing. That project culminated in a 2016 research article An Exploration of Key Issues and Potential Solutions that Impact Physician Wellbeing and Professional Fulfilment at an Academic Center. I give you the details here because this is the article that led me to reach out to Dr. Schrijver. I had read everything and everyone with a scholarly approach to physician burnout in preparation for several podcasts. Dr. Schrijver’s article was one of the most outstanding and useful of the scores of articles I read. In our conversation, she describes how important it was for her to have the credibility of being a physician as she interviewed her colleagues about the underpinnings of burnout. She also describes how extrinsic factors, such as restricted autonomy, dominated the findings which contributed to physician burnout. She and her husband, an astrophysicist, decided there was more they wanted to accomplish and experience beyond their fulfilling but all-consuming careers. The magnificent Oregon landscape was pulling them away. Dr. Schrijver describes how she consciously made changes to create the life she wanted. She decided to pursue a certificate in lifestyle medicine, write a book on wellbeing, and contribute to medicine and patients in a different way. They moved to Clackamas County, Oregon, and she began volunteer work at the Clackamas Volunteers in Medicine Clinic—including a stint as medical director and a board member. Now she is developing a lifestyle medicine service for the Clinic. She finds the work remarkably rewarding. As she says, “Poverty is not a crime, and it is a privilege to provide good medical care for this population.” She continues to serve as adjunct pathology faculty at Stanford. Dr. Schrijver describes an interaction with a mentor early in her career who gave her a pointed introduction to her leadership accountabilities as a physician. It served her well. She has served in academic and national leadership roles, including as the President of the Association for Molecular Pathology. She connects the scientific method, physician leadership, and physician wellbeing to the important task of promulgating accurate and useful information to the public. Dr. Schrijver makes a compelling case in her book and in our conversation that we can take steps to improve wellbeing. We can envision and create a more fulfilling life for ourselves and guide our patients to greater wellbeing as well. Also in this episode: •The Six Principles of Lifestyle Medicine •Mentoring advice to physicians making their first career move •Does Press Ganey turn doctors into Nordstrom clerks? •How alliances can serve physicians in attaining wellbeing •Seeking resilience is aiming too low—aim to thrive Meet Iris Schrijver, MD Iris Schrijver is a certified lifestyle medicine physician, also specialized in clinical pathology and molecular genetics. She is an adjunct clinical professor of pathology at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a past president of the Association for Molecular Pathology. Dr. Schrijver served as medical director of Clackamas Volunteers in Medicine, and is now developing a lifestyle medicine service there, because she believes that healthcare is a basic human right. Her dedication to patients and to medical progress through science has resulted in the publication of many original research articles, book chapters, and books. Together with her husband, an astrophysicist, she wrote “Living with the Stars”, a popular science book about connections between the...

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