Building a Future Ready Workforce at CommonSpirit Health with Dionne Dixon

0:00This is where healthcare leadership comes together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives and nearly 800 speakers to Chicago April 13th through the 16th. This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aitman and former president George W. Bush. For the agenda and event details, visit Becker's Hospital Review.com and click on the events tab in the upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you in Chicago. This is Laura Deerda with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Deon Dixon, regional director for the Northwest Region of Common Spirit Health. Deon is the pleasure to have you on the podcast today. My pleasure, Lauren. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share the wonderful things that we're doing out here in the Northwest Region of Common Spirit Health. Fantastic. I'm excited for our conversation because I know healthcare is such a dynamic field and you've got so many amazing things you're doing at Common Spirit.

1:01So I'm excited to learn more. But before we dive in, can you introduce yourself and just talk a little bit more about Common Spirit Health? Absolutely. So I'm Deon Dixon and I have been with Common Spirit for three years. Seems like much longer than three years, but that is how at home I am in the organization Common Spirit is a national organization with hospitals and services across over 22 states. Our region is the Northwest Region for Common Spirit Health, Virginia Mason, Franciscan Health, and that is my stomping ground. My role in the organization, I have just the absolute best role in the organization and I have selfish to say that. It sits in the sweet spot of education, training, and workforce development.

2:02And so my team gets to prepare the right people with the right skills for the right rules so that they're able to meet the healthcare needs and provide the critical patient care that are coming to this to serve. And selfish to say that it is the best role in the organization, the best work because what an honor it is to prepare the people who are actually taking care of and saving lives, taking care of others and saving lives. It's just such a noble, trustworthy responsibility and anyone doing that work would share. I am sure share the sentiments that we're doing the best work. This work also, it touches everything Laura, it spans recruiting, how we reach back and engage

3:05people to join healthcare to be interested in healthcare, to be introduced to healthcare. It works with those who are already in healthcare to make sure that they are the most current, that they can be with the cutting edge resources and treatments that are available. And then also it goes beyond that to grow talent as well. And we have to think that if we want growth and everybody wants growth, our teams also want growth. And so to retain them as contributing members of our organization or work is heavily linked into the retention space as well. So it is truly the best job I tell you. We do more than teaching, we do more than filling roles.

4:06We are building out a system and ecosystem that is going to be skilled, it's going to be agile, it's going to be flexible and it's going to be ready to meet healthcare where it's going. I love that. I think it's so important and critical to have that type of flexibility in really seeing where healthcare can truly serve as a service of the community and have great, great quality care. Now what trends are you watching currently? Could you tell me a little bit about some of the things that are top of mind for you? Laura, I watch everything. I am probably military, I watch everything, but I will tell you that there are three main things that I have on the radar when it comes to this work space. And the first one is workforce supply and demand trends. And I track that not only nationally and regionally, but I track it internationally as well.

5:10I don't only look at volumes, I also look at the skill mix. Do we have the mix of the workforce that we're going to need to provide the healthcare that we need? So that is one area that I track. The other one closely related to that is the care delivery trends. So we are seeing where our care delivery models are moving outpatient and more community based and also in a virtual space as well. So I need to look at those trends consistently because I need to ensure that our team members are prepared for the skills that are going to be needed in those spaces once the work transitions are the care models transition and that is actively going on. So that's an important trend for me to have to monitor.

6:17And then the last one would be the innovations in training. Looking at how training is provided, looking at how education is delivered. And the reason I look at that is because based on what's going on with workforce volumes and skill mix and based on the needs that are out there in the community as a result of our care delivery trends, we're going to have to prepare our team members. We're going to have to prepare them sooner, faster and more precise. So our traditional training methods are not going to be sufficient at that snail pace that we've done for so many years. And so looking at how we're doing, looking at the trends in training, modular training, accelerated training, competency-based training, all of those are important markers that I'm tracking.

7:25And I'm excited that Virginia Mesa-Francisco and Health is at the forefront of some of that work. One such thing that we did over the last year is we created a search tech program. And the search tech program, we partnered traditionally, a search tech program takes upwards of two years to get someone trained and into a role. And we were able to partner with a local academic college and create a program that got our students registered with the state of Washington in under a year and placed in roles. And so that sort of thinking and modular preparation for our workforce is going to be very critical to help to fill some of the shortages as we move forward.

8:30So that's one area that I have another area that I track frequently. Fantastic. I think it's just so helpful to understand all of those different dynamics that are coming into the health care space. And interestingly here, some of the ways that you're meeting those challenges by tracking things and accelerating training in the workforce and ensuring that your team is strong and ready to go. Can you tell me about what you're most focused on? Excited about what are you proud of from the last 16 to 18 months or so? I am so excited. I'm excited about, I'm most excited about the progress that we have made, building out our workforce, healthcare workforce pipeline. We have expanded our pipeline Laura in both ways. We have built-in activities on the front end with our recruitment.

9:31And we have also built-in activities on the retention end. And I'm super excited about that. Let me just walk you through a few of the things that I think are not worth it to share. So we have built out our high school career exploration program. And we walked that back further to our middle school because of the interest that we had. And we are also entertaining our elementary level students as well and offering them opportunities to not only be introduced to healthcare, but also to come in and explore careers that they didn't even know existed in healthcare. In just one year, we have been able to host over 50 events. And we have cycled through over 500 students. And I tell you that the trajectory for 2026 is double that volume.

10:37So the interest is there and our students and their parents, I got to tell you as well, their parents are super excited and super engaged in this opportunity as well. So I'm very excited about that. The other thing that really fills my boat is our allied healthcare academy that we were able to build. That academy is super special because it caters for the also includes the neurodivergent population. It is not only for the neurodivergent population, but it makes room to include the neurodivergent population as well. And so that particular strategy, it widens the pool. It gives us access to more individuals for the pipeline that would traditionally not even see themselves in healthcare. And then the other thing that it does is that it allows us to do what I talked about earlier,

11:43which is to create accelerated new modular tracks for education. So we have more autonomy to really focus on precise training that will meet the needs of the roles that we're trying to prepare or team members for. So that is super exciting. Within the same recruiting space, we have leaned in even closer with our academic partners as well and partnered with our economic development board, neighbors, and we've all just come together and say, what do you need? What do you need and what do you need? And we're all looking at how can I better prepare for what your needs are going to be and how can we partner to make sure that we're filling the workforce needs? The other thing within the same recruitment space is that we have expanded our student placement capacity

12:53year over year by more than 20%. So we're super proud of that because that is an investment from the organization in our communities and in the students that are coming in. And it also, of course, it increases, it increases our opportunity to convert students to VMFH team members. So we're really excited about that. The other thing that I really wanted to share about what I'm proud about, as you can see Laura, I'm so proud about so many things. We have also leaned into the retention space, but we've looked at it in different angles. So there are the traditional student tuition reimbursement programs available, career ladders, programs, all of those things that have been known to support the team members' growth,

14:03which is a big part of retention, right? But we're also looking at the well-being very, very intentionally. And so what we have done is we have created resilience and burnout programs that we offer at different levels of our organization. So we have frontline team members, entry-level team members, such as our CNAs and our MAs, have the opportunity and access to resilience and burnout support. And we're not talking about a benefit's type of package, we're talking about an individual that they can speak with available to help them with resilience challenges and burnout challenges. So almost like a coach that is available to our team members. And we're hosting leader resiliency retreats as well.

15:06So it's not a module that you just thumb through just because we're intentionally creating a space to say, how are you doing? And making sure that we're filling or existing team members' cups because we want to keep them on for a long time. And then last but not least, I would be remiss if I didn't mention what I'm most proud of. And that would be our results. So let me just pick one thing. Our Allied Healthcare Academy, we have been able to retain 100% of the students that have been hired within the organization from that program. 100% and these are in roles, Laura, that traditionally, nationally and locally

16:11and higher regionally have turnover rates of half. So up to 56% of these roles normally turn over in the first year. And what we have been able to do is we have been able to retain 100% of our students that we have prepared and transitioned them into our family team or team members. And so I'm super proud of that because that says something about how we have prepared them. It says something about how we've prepared them skill-wise to be successful in the environment and also prepare them for a culture that is also super important as well. So I think those would be the things that I'm most proud of. But we could be here for the entire day if we were to go on, Laura.

17:12Absolutely, I know there's a lot going on and I think those are some amazing examples that you shared, especially looking at your retention rates and working with students and more, strengthening the pipeline of the future for healthcare providers. I know there's a huge huge undertaking but at the same time, critical to the same success. Before we wrap up here and speaking of leadership, what advice would you give to evolving leaders today? Good question, very good question. My advice, I think first know your why, know your why. And my why is, if not me, then who? I'd be willing to step away if there was somebody else there to do it. So know your why because when the other things get hard like the complexity of healthcare, the complexity of collaborating across disciplines in healthcare,

18:14when those things get hard, your why anchors you, right? So I would say know your why. I would say realize and accept that healthcare is complex. It is, we are flying the plane while we're building it. And my colleague, Julie Gardner always said that, not my original thought, but I agree with it so much, we're flying the plane while we're building it. So once you accept that, then you remove the anxiety from the equation and you really focus on how am I best going to navigate what is happening? I'd also share that lean into collaboration because no one group has all the answers, no one group knows the way. If we're not collaborating, if we, if we're not subscribing to that, then we're already behind because collaboration is essential.

19:19And then to survive, you have to focus on progress over perfection. Waiting for calm seas is not going to be well, bold well. And so just celebrate the small wins and understand that it is stackable. And you're going to move from one step to the next step to the next step and it's not going to be perfect, it's not going to be, but it's its progress and we celebrate that. So those are the things that I would share with any, any emerging leader who wants to join healthcare or who is in healthcare at this point, right? The way complexity accepted, collaborate and to celebrate your small wins, progress over perfection.

20:21I love that, Dion, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been such a fun conversation. It's clear you're so passionate about what you do and, you know, it's been fun to hear from you and speak with you. I look forward to connecting with you again soon. And I know you'll be speaking at our annual meeting coming up in April. So it'll be great to see you there and continue the conversation. I look forward to it, Lauren. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing, for giving this opportunity for us to just share the wonderful stuff we're doing at Virginia Mason-Franciscan Health.