I'm Bill Isenberg, and I have the privilege of serving as the
Chief Medical and Quality Officer for Sutter Health.
You know, I think the first time I was given the opportunity to
become a leader as a physician was when some members of my
department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Summit campus
asked me to run for the chair of the department.
I was a little sobered by that because I thought, wow, I mean
chair of the department.
I've only been on the medical staff for about two years, but I
was so impressed that they had the confidence that I could do
the job and I thought if they think I can do it, I'll figure
out a way to do it.
My name is Surani Hare-Kwan and I'm the Vice President of
Professional Practice and Ambulatory Patient Care.
My leadership journey began about 30 years ago.
I've been in healthcare as a nurse and then a nurse
practitioner for that time, and it all began with questions.
I was very curious about the way things worked in healthcare and
why we were doing things in a particular way.
So for me, curiosity was the beginning of my leadership
journey.
Eventually, I found that my friends at work were asking me
questions about how things worked and why couldn't we
change things?
And I began to take leadership positions to see if I could
actually implement some of those changes that we had discussed,
eventually making my way through the hospital and then ambulatory
setting to my current role with Sutter Health.
When somebody offers you an opportunity, your default answer
has to be yes, because sometimes the things that are the scariest
when they're proposed to you end up being the richest
opportunities you've ever had.
And you can be afraid.
But fear is okay.
Fear helps you test yourself, and fear helps you try new
things.
And fear helps you make new friends and new colleagues.
Each one of those is an enriching experience and a
personal growth opportunity.
Trust yourself.
Trust that you know what you're doing.
Trust that you know the answers or you certainly know who to ask
for the answers.
And trust that you're going to be successful or at least learn
from your mistakes when you move forward with a solution.
We are now at a juncture within this organization where the
voices and the thoughts of physicians have really taken a
prominent place on the stage.
And I think it's important that we not lose sight of that golden
opportunity and squander it.
My biggest hope for the clinician leaders at Sutter
Health is that we become the team that is inseparable from
each other, that the patient experience is a singular whether
it's an APC or a physician taking care of that patient, we
are all doing the care of that patient in the same direction.
So the experience by the patient should be seamless and
uninterrupted regardless of who's actually helping them
recover and become better.
That's going to require us to really focus on healthcare
disparities and eliminating those disparities.
It's going to require you as emerging leaders to realize that
each member of our population deserves the level of care that
we offer to everyone.
Do not forget to collaborate.
None of us can get this work done alone.
We all need each other to be successful.
So trust your physician or your APCs in the office and know that
everyone is trying to do the the good work towards improving
patient care.
As a leader, you will be given entree into the capacity to
really impact the lives of many, many more people than you do in
any of those individual settings.
And we have to really work hard to make that dream a reality.
You can do it, but you really have to work at it.
So please take advantage of these offers.
