Lily Jung-Henson, MD, is the chief executive officer of Stockbridge, Ga-based Piedmont Henry Hospital.
Dr. Jung-Henson will serve on the panel "Confronting and Eliminating Gender Bias in Healthcare" at Becker's 10th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference on Nov. 7-10 in Chicago.
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Becker's Healthcare aims to foster peer-to-peer conversation between healthcare's brightest leaders and thinkers. In that vein, responses to our Speaker Series are published straight from interviewees. Here is what our speakers had to say.
Question: What is the smartest thing you've done in the last year to set your system up for success?
Dr. Lily Jung-Henson: Two things. The first is getting back to the basics concerning our quality initiatives. We were very distracted by COVID-19 and temporary staff who didn't know our safety culture. We went back to what had been successful previously to improve the quality of care for our patients. Secondly, paying attention to our expenses (particularly around contract labor) and reacting quickly to control overall expenditure while focusing on strategic growth.
Q: What are you most excited about right now and what makes you nervous?
LJH: Our hospital serves a region that has been growing by leaps and bounds, so we need to be able to keep up with servicing their needs. Like everyone else, we need to find staff to help us provide these services.
Q: How are you thinking about growth and investments for the next year or two?
LJH: Growth is so important — we are looking carefully at each service line to decide where the biggest yield would be.
Q: What will healthcare executives need to be effective leaders for the next five years?
LJH: At Piedmont, one of our core values is "embracing the future." We are operating in a new world and being able to embrace the new challenges and develop viable solutions is critical. We cannot hope to return to a pre-pandemic market, so looking at the future with open eyes for opportunities is key.
Q: How are you building resilient and diverse teams?
LJH: I am blessed to work with a very diverse team - our very different backgrounds help us look at issues from all different directions and I think we end up with great decisions as a result. We all respect and value each other and that close relationship makes the tough job we have doable and fun!