Q&A with Mike Slubowski of Trinity Health: ‘We’ve referred to the pandemic as a six-act drama’

How would you say the pandemic has most affected Trinity from a financial, operational or staffing perspective?

We’ve referred to the pandemic as a six-act drama. We had the first impact, and then the summer that looked like we had it under control, and then a bad winter. And then vaccines came out and we thought we were on the mend. And then delta and omicron came along. So, up until recently, we have been in what we call Act 5, which was the two surges, the variants and probably the worst impact of the pandemic.

But we’re now moving into what we call Act 6. And I’m calling it emergence 2.0. We’re really focusing on how we move forward and transform our ministry to respond to the new world that we’re facing, and it’s not resurrecting the past. There’s been a change in people, the impact on our colleagues, the impact on services, the mix of services and how we provide those services. And then finally, the impact on the demand for value.

At what point would you consider COVID-19 to be endemic? And what does Act 6 looks like from Trinity’s perspective?

While we’re very hopeful that we’re moving into an endemic stage now, the reality is we have to be on guard for new variants and what impact they might have on us. We have more treatment opportunities now and more testing opportunities. And we have medications for people who end up seriously ill. So that’s all hopeful. But only 70% of folks are fully vaccinated, so anything could happen.

We’ve really called out four things here at Trinity Health on emergence 2.0. The first is continuing to support communities as we shift from pandemic to endemic. The second is supporting our colleagues. The third is doubling down on the patient/member focus: treating people as members of our health system, keeping them safe, but also really focusing on their needs. And then the fourth is on growth.

You’re investing in programs like hospital at home and bringing that care directly to your patients. Is there going to be any shift in those initiatives as we move on into the new normal?

Trinity has always had a large role in home care. In PACE, we’re the second-largest PACE provider in the country, and in long-term care services as well. We do a ton of telehealth with folks at home and we’re advancing those initiatives at a very rapid pace as well. We see home care and programs like PACE as huge growth areas for us, as we take care to home.

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You joined forces with 13 other health systems to create Truveta and use data to improve patient care. What made you decide to be a part of that effort?

Health systems like ours and others that joined Truveta are really a treasure trove of clinical data, as well as financial data, that can be used to really understand at a very macro level the correlation between the care that we provide, the demographics of people that are served and the opportunities for best outcomes. We think it’s important to be part of a national effort like this, to be able to have the data, to be able to mine the data and to make transformational changes in delivering the right care at the right time and using the right resources. And also supporting people as we honor diversity and the impact that has on health.

Do you feel that the pandemic has made it easier to work with other health systems on efforts like this?

The pandemic certainly has opened up the opportunity to think more broadly about things. So for example, we started, actually before the pandemic, our own nursing agency called First Choice. We have 2,000 nurses who are in First Choice and are deployed to our communities. It was a way for us to recruit nurses that otherwise would have left the field to still stay part of the family, and they’re familiar with our care process. We have them on board to support us nationally. And I’ve had some conversations with some other health systems about if there an opportunity for us to leverage that nationally and others coming aboard and creating a national agency for nurse support, by way of example.

Are there other ways that Trinity is trying to retain staff or help them find jobs in different areas of Trinity than they might have been otherwise?

There has been a number of initiatives, all the way from new care models to how we can provide incentives for people to stay aligned with us, as well as getting support for mind, body and spirit needs that they have as they and their families have dealt with this pandemic. We’re doing things like eliminating the waiting period for new colleagues to get their health insurance. They’re getting that day one when they start working with us. So there’s a whole range of activities that we’ve taken on around supporting our colleagues to recruit and retain.

What are the biggest challenges facing Trinity or health providers at large?

Clearly, the staffing challenges are big, and everyone I talked to has experienced the same “great resignation,” or people moving into different roles entirely outside of the organization. So really regaining the trust of the colleagues who have stuck with us all this time, as well as recruiting new people and going through all the cultural development to make sure that they’re aligned with our mission vision values, is the No. 1 challenge.

The second is how we respond to the new environment and new services that we need to provide. How do we deliver value, as one of the nation’s leaders supporting population health, and take responsibility for total cost of care and outcomes? We’re really expanding that work across our ministries. We have a Medicare Advantage plan now in six states, across the nation, so a lot of those things are taking us to the next level.