
Home is Where the HEALTH is
Home is Where the HEALTH is
Home Health Operational and Clinical Excellence and Advancing Women in Leadership
In this episode, Molly Haislip, home health senior vice president of operations at Compassus, discusses operational and clinical excellence in home health, as well as her passion for advancing career opportunities for women. And don't miss Molly's touching personal story about the patient experience that changed the course of her career.
Hi everyone, I'm Ashton Jones and this is Home is where the health is. This podcast brings you the latest news on progress and innovation in the home based healthcare space in association with compasses. At the end of the day every person deserves to be cared for with compassion, whether they're recovering at home, dealing with a serious illness or nearing the end of life in the place they call home no less. That's why every month we feature different subject matter experts. We dive deep into how their work is improving home based health care for patients. In today's episode, we're discussing operational and clinical excellence, as well as promoting women in leadership with our guests, Molly Haislip, home held senior vice president of operations at compasses and don't miss Molly's touching personal story about the patient experience that changed the course of her career. There's all that more coming up on Home is where the health is. Hey, everyone, welcome back to Home is where the health is. We're so glad that you decided to tune in today because we have a bright and accomplished guest on the podcast, home health Senior Vice President of Operations at compasses. Molly Haislip. Molly, thank you for being here this morning. How are you doing?
Unknown:I'm great. I'm so grateful to be here with you Ashton on this podcast. Thanks for having me.
Ashton Jones:Of course. Well, once again, it's great to have you here. I want to start off today's episode, like we always do and just get a little bit more information about you and your background. So before we even go into the professional side, what are some things that people need to know about you personally?
Unknown:Great question. I am married to my high school sweetheart. We have four beautiful grown graduated college children. Oh, we have three elderly dogs at home. And many people know about my beloved big Steve. He is actually my father's dog. When he passed in 2019. I did inherit him. He's a tiny Chihuahua. He is not big. But he has a big personality.
Ashton Jones:Yes, they always do.
Unknown:So my children, my my pets and my husband are my biggest fans and really could not be successful in my career without the support of them.
Ashton Jones:Did you always know that you wanted to be in the healthcare space? Yes.
Unknown:I knew from a very early age. At the age of nine, I was volunteering at the nursing home. I think it's volunteering. I was voluntold voluntold, I would go with them. My mom, during the summer at night, she worked third shift. Matter of fact, this is the first time in my life that she hasn't worked third shift. But I worked with an incredible, amazing group of CNAs that took me under their wing. I did a lot of laundry, I passed out ice and I put called lights on pillows. I carried the little red wagon around the library books and also passed out the mail and in some cases, read the mail to our residents and fell in love with being there and caring for those those patients and and the people that I worked with. So I knew very early on.
Ashton Jones:So how did you find yourself in the home based care space specifically, because that is different than what you saw for yourself, you know, starting out at the age of nine.
Unknown:Right? So at 17 I actually in high school, became a CNA and worked at the nursing home once I left there and went to another company and became a private duty CNA so that was really my first step in and caring for people in their home. From there, I was able to grow my career into an operational growth sales type situation with a hospice company. And so that was really the beginning of my home based journey. And I've been there ever since for the last 20 plus years.
Ashton Jones:That's awesome. Can you tell us what brings you the most fulfillment? From a day on the job?
Unknown:Yeah, it's the care moments and the share moments that I get to be a part of every single day. While I'm not doing direct patient care, I get to hear the moments that we share with our patients and families, the celebrations, the smiles of my my caregiving team, that sense of pride that they feel right, that I see when I'm able to experience those things and then give of myself and being of service to those that are that are doing that caregiving. It really does fill my cup so that I can continue to pour into others.
Ashton Jones:Well on that note Let's go ahead and jump into our first main topic of the day. I want to start off by talking about clinical and operational excellence in our home health programs, because we've seen so much positive growth. So Molly as a leader, what have you noticed?
Unknown:We are meeting in many cases exceeding top quartile results in our industry, we're seeing that access to care is increasing across all markets. Our teammate engagement scores across all lines of business have improved in all 37 areas of our engagement survey. There, there is definitely a direct correlation between the growth and access to care we've created, but also our quality scores celebrating some of the highest in the country. And with our retention results, especially post pandemic, we're seeing those engagement scores, and all of those things work in harmony together for what we are experiencing right now.
Ashton Jones:Well, in our May episode, when we had Jeff Marsh chief growth officer compasses on, he touched briefly on how our home health star ratings were really seeing a significant increase in the last few years. So what are some of the key factors or practices that you believe have played a pivotal role in achieving that improvement,
Unknown:there are really three key factors that have contributed to the level of excellence we've achieved. It's our focus on building our clinical capabilities, right attracting and retaining top talent, and then fostering an engagement of every single member of our team. We know that each member of our team makes a unique contribution. And that's best achieved through our culture of care for who I am.
Ashton Jones:So to achieve excellence, you definitely have to have a great team, of course, so how does compasses attract, engage and retain top talent,
Unknown:I do indeed have a great team. By leaning in on who we are, through that care for who I am culture, that level of engagement with our clinician really resonates and attaches purpose to their contributions through the work they do in our communities. We are learning more and more every day, our culture is our strongest value proposition. Our clinical quality scores are also growing, we're keeping more and more patients successful at home. This builds trust and confidence in our abilities to retain that top talent and attract even more,
Ashton Jones:and what are some of the ways you're investing in your team or even the way that the company is investing in home healthcare as a whole?
Unknown:Sure, we have created a clinical ladder that our clinicians can participate in that will expand their knowledge base and their earning potential. We started this last October. And I'm proud to say that this October, we're actually expanding the ladder to our therapist, and it will be called therapy ladder. These ladders really allow our clinicians and therapists to move higher and higher in their own development at their own pace. And it provides significant opportunities for them to not only expand their knowledge, but develop their leadership skill set. They get to teach, they learn how to present this personal and professional development really creates that that teammate cohort, and it improves the capabilities that they have. But it's really warming up the bench so that we have leaders on board and ready to take on as we continue to increase our access and to patient care and grow.
Ashton Jones:Yeah, definitely. And looking at the opposite side, you know, transitioning from talking about internally to then externally? What are some of the big advantages of home health care for our patients.
Unknown:And I think the biggest advantage for the patients in home health isn't just the quality of care that they receive. But it's really about the expanded continuum of care that can create that seamless transition from hospital based care to home base care. This is especially true when we're partnered with a health care system, where patients can experience the convenience of recovering in a familiar surrounding while still receiving that appropriate medical attention and support. Also where their families can be active participants in their recovery.
Ashton Jones:So what opportunities do you believe there are in the home healthcare space in the future, that could be five years 10 years or even more into the future?
Unknown:The home health space is likely to see significant advancements in the coming years due to technological advancements, just the shift in the population that we see and then Preferences for patients to be at home. Right. Advances in in telehealth technology will allow healthcare providers to remotely monitor those patients and their health conditions and provide consultations. This is really going to improve access to health care, especially for those who are in remote or underserved areas. The aging population in and of itself. will create a huge growing demand for our services we are seeing that silver tsunami happened now, I can't wait to see care coordination platforms occur. So that this the integrated platforms where patients can connect to caregivers can connect to other health care health care professionals, it's going to help facilitate better communication, collaboration, coordination of care plans, ultimately, improving patient outcomes. There's so many things that I missed, but that's what really the future is going to hold for us.
Ashton Jones:Well, we're gonna go ahead and take a quick break from our main discussion to share a story with you. And the reason we want to spend a little time on a single story is because when you're looking at the big picture, it's so easy to forget about all the people who are really impacted by this work. And at the end of the day, it's all about changing your life. So before we get started, I did ask Molly to come prepared with a story for all of you something that has really impacted her both professionally and personally. Molly, you told me that your story is about a patient experience that had such a profound impact on you that it really changed the entire course of your professional journey. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Unknown:Yeah, it happened as when I was a CNA in high school. And just so happened, I was working for my mom that night, she was our she was our lead charge nurse. And she knew something that I didn't. We were taking care of a gentleman who had been a farmer in our community for all his life, he had diabetes. And had, he was a double amputee. Both of his legs were gone. And he was very precious to me. And some time in the middle of my shift. And again, it's third shift. So it's the middle of the night, and it's probably 3am. She says, Hey, I need you to go and and stay with him for a little while. I was a little annoyed, because I had things to do. And I said, why he's fine. She goes, No, go on and just just hang out, see what you can do for him. And I'm standing in the hallway across from the nurse's station looking at her. And no one was coming. He was dying. He was actively dying, and his son wasn't on the way. And when I entered his room, he that was the first thing he asked me. He said is is my son coming? And I didn't really know what to say. And I said, you know, he's he might be on his way, I'm not really sure. What can I do for you. And he asked me to hold his hand. And I remember thinking to myself, this is the roughest little hand I have ever touched. And I hailed his son for the next two hours. And he died. But I was with him. So it was the first time that I realized that I have all these patients that I care for every day. And there wasn't hospice in our building. We didn't have it at the time. So when I did learn about hospice and the focus on people not dying alone, it was it really changed the course of my career and what I wanted to do, and how I ended up in hospice in the first place, and home based care, rather, now that I'm in leading home health, but this gentleman changed my life. And it was the first time that I had experienced a good death. He was not alone. And he was very grateful to me. And we we spent the time talking, I really didn't know at the time that he was that going to pass on that quickly. I later learned that once a person gets very relaxed, and they feel good about where they are, they can choose to go. And he chose to go with me holding his hand.
Ashton Jones:Well, I know that he really appreciated your kindness and i i can tell how much that story has impacted you just from seeing you tell it, but I'm really grateful that you're willing to share it even though it is very emotional. It really
Unknown:is. But I wouldn't change anything because it changed my life.
Ashton Jones:Well, let's go ahead and continue our discussion with a topic that I know Molly is passionate about. And that's advancing career and leadership opportunities for women at compasses. In fact, Mali played a key role in setting up a women and leadership panel at the home office recently and had had such a great response rate that we had to find a bigger space to hold everyone. So Molly, where does your passion Shouldn't stem from?
Unknown:Yeah, in my career, I've been led by mostly men. And my passion comes from my personal experiences with that. So in a company with 80%, women, I thought, maybe we're missing something with the fact that we need to get these women ready for future leadership positions, especially with the explosive growth in our healthcare space. I wanted to really create a platform for self development and mentoring for women interested in leadership. So we could really share our collective experiences and our knowledge. I want women supporting women. Yes. So instead of being in competition with one another, we could really grow our collective skills and make ourselves really indispensable, as well as creating some really great future leaders.
Ashton Jones:Yeah, well, it's true that women face different challenges in the workplace. And so how would you say that some of those challenges are unique?
Unknown:Well, I believe that we can have it all. However, many people believe that work life balance is a thing. And it's not because balance suggests that things are equal. So I like to say work life harmony, because some days your work will take you on in ways that your family dinner, maybe you ordering a pizza, and you need to finish up that report or you need to have that conversation. I think sometimes, you know, as leaders, especially, you know, with my children being grown, especially for younger leaders, we make it look easy, because we don't have the same types of of things. We don't have diapers or daycare that are gonna keep us or a sick child. So I think that with how families are changing, and how any caregiver is doing double duty, taking care of a family and having a career in leadership. I think that having mentors and opportunities for self development is so important for our future,
Ashton Jones:right? For sure. So as we said, compasses workforce is made up of mostly women, actually more than 80% women. And we were recently recognized as one of Newsweek's greatest workplaces for women. So how does that impact an organization?
Unknown:I was delighted to learn that we were recognized by Newsweek as a greatest workplaces for women. But I'm not surprised. Our focus and the work we've done, and Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and acceptance powered by belonging really does reinforce the focus that we've had for women in the workplace.
Ashton Jones:How would you describe your leadership style? And what do you think it means to be an effective leader in this space?
Unknown:Authenticity, I'm authentic ethnic, it requires a great amount of vulnerability. I think that those things build trust, I'm constantly learning new ways to be more effective. But I'm really at my best when I'm practicing that vulnerability with my team. I don't have all of the answers. And in that connection, it it does come across in a very genuine way, and never insincere. And I think that sometimes when we have to make decisions that can come off as insincere, those shared experiences and navigating difficult situations, really humanizes leadership, when you're able to say, Hey, this is what I went through once. I believe you've got to be willing to admit that trying to please people is really selfishness in disguise. One could say I'm very direct, yet I'm approachable. And I really wouldn't want to be any different. Who I am at work is who I am at home. And I think that lends itself to why I am effective in my role is because I can relate to every person on our team.
Ashton Jones:So as we come to a close, Molly, what message do you want to leave our audience with today?
Unknown:Integrated home base care will continue to evolve and compasses will continue to not only monitor those trends and shifts, but each colleague will be an active citizen, and participate in the advocacy that will support the communities that we serve. By creating a greater access to care in a way that people want it at home. We're going to continue to invest in innovation that creates efficiency and we will continue to to invest in the growth and development of our leaders for the future. And I think that's the most important thing that I can say is that the focus on now and in the future is what really sets us apart
Ashton Jones:Well, that brings us to the end of this episode of Home is where The health is today we talked about clinical and operational excellence and the importance of leadership development opportunities for women in the workforce. Molly, I want to thank you for being our guest and sharing such insightful information on Home Health excellence, and the programs that are in motion for women at compasses. For our listeners, we hope you found today's topics interesting and informative. We want to cover the content you want to hear. Do you have an idea for a future episode? Go ahead and send it to communications@compasses.com. If you liked today's episode, and you're listening on a streaming service, go ahead and give us a like and a follow. And be sure to tune in next month for another in depth discussion on innovation in the home based healthcare space with one of our experts. Until then, this is Ashton Jones with Home is where the help is. Thanks for listening