To achieve department growth, there first must be a high performing team, says Travis Christman, MSN, clinical director of HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospitals in Eau Claire, Wis.
Mr. Christman recently joined Becker's cardiology podcast to discuss how his team approaches growth, and why it matters to patients.
Here is an excerpt from the podcast. Click here to download the full episode.
Editor's note: This response was lightly edited for length and clarity.
Q: How are you thinking about department growth?
Travis Christman: The thing that I found works best is team building. Having the highest performing team within our geographic area will ultimately lead to growth. When people think about where they want to go for any type of specialty care, they want to go where they feel they're going to get the best service.
Many of our patients have types of insurance that will allow them to go to different places. They're not singled out to only go here or there. So they have a choice, and when making that choice, they're going to go where they hear somebody's gotten great care before.
I work closely with an executive who helps lead our physician recruitment, and discussing the right technical skillset and mental attitude that physicians and staff that make up that cardiac team is really crucial.
When the team is cohesive and they're all driving toward that same goal, achievement of that growth is really what's possible. Because, if I have a physician I work with who is really supportive of the team, really supportive of building the program, that's going to ultimately pull nursing along with it and help drive that piece as well.