From spending nearly 20 years as an emergency physician to becoming a licensed pilot, it's fair to say that Patrick O'Shaughnessy, DO, has worn many hats. While no longer providing patient care, it's the skills acquired in his previous roles that helped secure for him the role of president and CEO of Rockville Centre, N.Y.-based Catholic Health.
Dr. O'Shaughnessy started at Catholic Health as an emergency physician nearly 18 years ago running one of the system's emergency rooms before migrating into the president and CEO role, which he's held for around four years. He also still flies.
"Pun intended, time flies when you're having fun," Dr. O'Shaughnessy told Becker's. "It allowed me to really develop a skill set that has served me well throughout the entirety of my career, and allowed me to also really appreciate the importance of working in teams, and I'm a big believer in that."
One particular passion of Dr. O'Shaughnessy's is making healthcare a better place by working to prevent harmful events while ensuring safe and positive healthcare outcomes for patients and healthcare workers.
The system was one of the early adopters of high reliability science in principles and practice, which has resulted in a more than 94% reduction in safety events across the organization with many events of harm being reduced to zero.
Another challenge Dr. O'Shaughnessy highlighted is the need to pivot care delivery from sick care service to healthcare service.
"We always need to be there to care for those who are sick, whether they're having a heart attack, a stroke, major trauma, those things are going to continue to plague us, and we need to do it better and safer," he said. "The only way to bend the cost curve is to bend the disease curve. We have to catch disease earlier. We have to institute more preventative screens. We have to institute earlier mechanisms to catch disease in its earliest state."
To tackle this issue, Catholic Health has invested in population health-management services and optimized its electronic health record. The health system has also worked to introduce and advance AI to help improve patient screenings and disease detection for more at-risk populations. Should disease be detected, the system then puts them in contact with the proper specialist.
While Dr. O'Shaughnessy still considers himself new to the CEO field, he shared advice for incoming healthcare leaders, and it starts with surrounding yourself with strong team members.
"You can't do it alone," he said. "I think it's imperative that the CEO continues to speak to the strategy, vision and mission of the organization, and it takes a village."