Bill Klaproth (host): Welcome to the ASHRM podcast, made possible by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management to support efforts to advance, safe and trusted healthcare through enterprise risk management.

You can visit ashrm.org/membership to learn more and to become an ASHRM member. I'm Bill Klaproth, and with me today is Ben Lego, Senior Director Risk Management at WellSpan Health, as we meet another ASHRM Rising Stars Award winner. Ben, welcome.

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: Hi, Bill. Thanks for having me.

Host: You bet. Great to talk with you. Always love talking with our ASHRM Rising Stars Award winners. So Ben, can you tell us about your journey into the field of healthcare risk management and how you wound your way to WellSpan Health?

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: Sure. Absolutely, Bill. So probably like most healthcare risk managers out there, I sort of fell into the field as opposed to, something that I knew I was going to get into, you know, right out of college. But, backing up, right after high school, I joined the United States Air Force and actually, had a medical specialty as part of my duties in the service.

And then after getting out of the Air Force, knew I wanted to do something in healthcare, wasn't quite sure. So, talked to a lot of friends and family. And it seemed like the nursing, career path was something that I think I could do really well in. And it was a bit of passion of mine because I enjoyed helping people.

I'm passionate about healthcare and medicine and actually have a lot of family and friends who are in the nursing career field. So it seemed like a perfect fit. So went off and got an associate's degree in nursing. Passed the NCLEX, became a registered nurse. Worked full-time night shift in the emergency department while going to school full-time for my bachelor's degree.

And then went on and got a graduate degree in public health, focusing on community health and epidemiology. And from there, I worked clinically mostly in the emergency department at various hospitals within Pennsylvania, and then did some time as a travel nurse, doing some cool assignments out in California and found that to be really rewarding.

But at that point I kind of wanted to pivot my professional career and move away from bedside nursing, but still, work within the healthcare space. So, that's what led me to WellSpan Health and kind of my first role there was as the patient safety officer of one of their small community hospitals, located in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.

And that's where I really grew to learn and appreciate safety science. Doing things like root cause analysis, patient safety investigations, event disclosure and partnering with our care teams, to help them provide high quality care. As part of that role, I then expanded my responsibilities and started doing things within regulatory compliance and accreditation.

So, all things Department of Health, licensure, Joint Commission, accreditation, and that was really helpful that I had the patient safety and clinical background to help compliment that and round it out. So at this point I'd been employed with WellSpan for about five years, and the longtime risk manager who had actually been the risk manager for probably close to 30 years, let me know that she was planning on retiring.

And, that perked my ears and I was really interested in seeing what risk management had to offer. So, the previous risk manager had retired and I put in my application. Went through the interview process and, was given the position of Senior Director of Risk Management. And it was a really interesting time because like I said, that risk manager had actually been the only risk manager WellSpan had ever had, and she had been there for 30 years.

So she had a team of herself, an associate risk manager and administrative assistant, and they all decided to retire at the same time. At that point, that's when I took on this position and started doing risk management work for WellSpan Health.

Host: What a great story. I love talking to people and ASHRM Rising Star Award winners on their career paths, and you always get an interesting story. Everybody gets to risk management a different way. I mean, this is crazy. You started at the Air Force, you got a degree in nursing, then a degree in public health.

You worked in the emergency department, you were a travel nurse for a while then patient safety officer, I mean, this is crazy. Then you were, uh, in regulatory compliance and accreditation, and then this opportunity opened up and you happened to be there, the right person for the right job at the right time. Pretty amazing.

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: Yeah. Thank you. It's been a ride, that's for sure. So I think I've been here, just over two years now in this position, and, I love it. I do, I truly do.

Bill Klaproth (host): It's so cool, Ben. I love it too. So what does it mean to you then to be, oh, you said two years as a risk manager. What does it mean to you to be recognized as one of ASHRM's rising stars, personally and then professionally?

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: Yeah, I mean, personally it's a huge honor. I never thought that I would win this type of award. And it's validating to me because of the amount of work that I've put in, just to kinda come into the office knowing that there had been this previous risk manager for 30 years, fresh set of eyes, taking a look at processes, and trying to bring them up to speed with what I thought, would be a kind of a current picture of what risk management should be today. So yeah, it's been really rewarding. So personally, I can't say enough about it. Just such an honor. And then professionally, I think it's helped to elevate me within my own workspace and recognition of what risk management has to offer, but it also puts WellSpan Health kind of on that national stage for setting at least a mark of excellence within risk management. So, you know, I absolutely would not be here today with you, talking about this if it wasn't for the support and resources that I've received through WellSpan Health.

Host: Absolutely. So I know this is still new, but how has earning this award impacted your professional development and career so far?

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: Yeah, I mean, it's relatively new. But, from a networking perspective, a lot of folks that I know within risk management, maybe locally within Pennsylvania, but also nationally, have actually reached out to me, and are really excited to kind of talk to me, see what things that I've done, bounce ideas off of me.

And I think that's just a great opportunity because I can kind of let them know about what we are doing over here, but I'm also interested in hearing what they're doing. So through that exchange of learning, I'm able to take really cool, unique things that might be happening all over the nation and bring those concepts here to WellSpan Health, and that's helped to elevate me professionally as well.

Host: Yeah, so it's expanded your network, which of course, in turn gives you fresh set of ideas from other people as well.

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: Exactly.

Host: That's really cool. So you mentioned you coming in with a fresh set of eyes. Can you share with us any example of a successful risk management project or updating that you've done since you've been at WellSpan?

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: Yeah, absolutely. So when I came into this position, so the previous risk manager and her team, they retired July 1, 2023. I came into the role probably late August, early September of the same year. So there was actually a period of time where the office wasn't truly staffed, with a risk management professional.

So once I got in there, had to dig into the work, what needed to be done right away. But also I wanted the first three to six months, just to take an assessment of what has been done historically and where are there gaps and opportunities, to make the, that work better. So, when I really did that assessment and then sat down and tried to figure out where we needed to go, I really broke down what was occurring, you know, over the last 30 years into five different areas.

I saw a lot of person driven processes, so a lot of reliance on the risk manager or the associate risk manager to kind of do everything so people would reach out to them and say, Hey, here's this problem. Here's this issue. We need to deal with it. It was very reactive, so a lot of sitting back and waiting, to see would an event happen or would a lawsuit be filed?

And then when that did happen, there was a lot of deny and defend, going on. So, not really taking any proactive steps to identify liability challenges or anything, but just taking the stance of defending and all of those claims right from the beginning. And a lot of those processes were really segregated.

There wasn't a lot of good interface or intersection with quality, patient safety, medical staff services, and the list goes on. Risk management kind of sat in its own little house and did its own thing without a lot of support from other areas of the organization. And then finally, a lot of the processes that I saw, I saw a lot of variation in their outcomes or a lot of randomization in how things were done. And it seems a bit chaotic. So based off of identifying those kind of five pillars, I made the decision that, okay, if things were person driven, they're now going to be process driven. Where things were reactive, they're now going to be proactive. Where we used to deny and defend, we now communicate and resolve.

I talked about those other departments being segregated and siloed away from risk management. Now we're very collaborative with many departments within the organization and a lot of those chaotic processes with variation, moved them to more structured, transparent and consistent processes.

Probably one thing that I'm most proud of, and I think about this in relation to how risk management was segregated away from many other departments, and now we're becoming more collaborative, is our implementation of what we call the Risk Management Council for Patient Safety, and that's a multidisciplinary committee that it meets at least weekly to review potentially compensatory events or other issues that arise throughout the healthcare system that we need to put immediate eyes on and put some mitigation strategies in place. And through this committee, we've been able to identify events earlier and put in strategies to mitigate the risk of a lawsuit or a claim, before one would ever hit the door.

And this team is made up of a lot of different folks throughout the organization, such as patient safety, quality, employee health and safety, privacy, legal counsel, operations, privacy, health information management, regulatory compliance, information security, patient experience. The list really goes on.

And then through having this pretty robust system with a lot of different stakeholders; we have just so many different eyes on problems, so that we can one, take care of that issue today, but then two, prevent that issue from reoccurring in the future, and we're just seeing such great success with it.

Host: It seems like a full overhaul. You've changed the whole way the department operates and thinks about things.

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: Yeah, exactly. And then one other thing is coming into the office for the first time, I was surprised to see the amount of paper that was in there. So a lot of trees were killed in that process. So another thing we did was completely digitize our claims management processes. No more printing out forms, to fill out forms to mail somewhere. So now we're actually utilizing technology to make these processes easier and then automate them when we can.

Host: Absolutely. Some really good things in there, Ben. I love it. You went from a person driven kind of atmosphere to more process driven. You went from reactive to proactive, from deny and defend. You said you are starting to communicate more in communication resolution and from silos to collaboration. So really great, really forward thinking.

I think so, really good work there. Let's shift gears a little bit. I'd like to ask you how ASHRM has been pivotal or instrumental in your career development.

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: I mean, ASHRM has been great and there's so many great things about that organization. And I think I've belonged to ASHRM for maybe three or four years at this point. And really my first aha moment as to how I could really leverage this organization was just through the use of the ASHRM exchange.

I'm sure you've sat down with other folks and they've talked about it, but it's a great opportunity just to throw a question out there to the wide network of risk management professionals that participate in ASHRM in the exchange. And just to get the response, that we see. You just get so many different perspectives, and then through that you're able to network and meet people, learn what they do, learn what cool things they're doing out there, and then bring that back to our organization.

So the ASHRM Exchange is a wonderful resource. Then, in addition to that, I've had the opportunity to work on two different task force or committees within the organization. So I worked on the new member task force. So we were charged with reaching out to new members, welcoming them to ASHRM, seeing if they had any questions, talking about things like the annual conference or the certification in risk management and really make them feel like they're part of the family instead of just signing up for an organization and maybe getting, you know, an email here or there. Now you have a real person, who's a real member who does risk management reaching out and making that connection, which is so cool.

And then the second committee that I was able to participate on was the chapter leadership committee. So this is a work group of ASHRM chapter officers from all over the country where we just share best practices, ideas on how to invigorate our local chapters of ASHRM, increase member engagement and just really drive that enthusiasm for risk management.

Host: Yeah. You talked about the ASHRM exchange and how you can throw something out there and get so many responses back. What a great opportunity to network there. And then being on committees. It sounds like Ben, being on committees is something you would advise everyone to do. Because it sounds like it's been very beneficial to you, not only for the work, but for the networking, the people you meet and the idea exchanges.

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: Absolutely. So, to any of the listeners, ASHRM usually sends out a call for support every year. And I would just really encourage anyone, whether you've been in risk management for a year or 10 years, take an opportunity to take a look at what committees are out there and put your application in because the work is rewarding. The people that you will meet are great and it's just an awesome experience.

Host: And Ben, while you're giving us all this great advice, thank you. Let me pick your brain a little bit more. Any advice that you have for newcomers to the field of risk management, people that are starting to come up through the ranks. Any advice for them?

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: Yeah, absolutely. I think be a lifelong learner. Risk management is such a complex and dynamic career field, whether it's in healthcare or outside of healthcare, and just as soon as you think you know it, you learn something new. So be a lifelong learner and then utilize your resources both internal and external.

So internally, I'm sure you there everyone has stakeholders or mentors that they can reach out to and talk to, but then, externally, and I think that's where you can really leverage ASHRM for the networking opportunities because, we're all in this together. We might work for different healthcare systems and maybe some of those systems are competitors.

But really in the risk management space, we're all here for the same reason. It's to protect our organizations and ultimately protect our patients and increase the safety and quality of the care that they receive.

Host: Yeah, that is well said. Ben, you mentioned mentors in that answer. Any mentors you want to give a shout out to? Was there any one person or a couple of people that helped you on your journey to where you are now?

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: There's so many people both within my organization as well as in ASHRM and in my local chapter that have really helped me grow, learn in my position, and have just been a resource. And whether it's a professional resource or maybe sometimes a venting resource, they've been there for me.

And there's just been so many folks I would feel bad missing someone. So not too many names, but when they say it takes a village, it truly does.

Host: Yeah, that is for sure true. Ben, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for sharing some time with us today. We appreciate it. Before we wrap up, is there anything else you want to add?

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: I just think to all the listeners out there, use ASHRM to the full extent. All of the resources that it has for education, networking, sharing ideas. Please get out there and volunteer. Be part of a committee, be part of a task force, because that's what makes the organization great.

Host: Well, Ben, thank you for your thoughts. We really appreciate it, and congrats again on being named an ASHRM Rising Stars Award winner. Thank you again.

Benjamin Lego, MPH, RN-BC, CPHRM, ARM, AIS, CIC, HACP: All right, Bill. Thank you so much and thank you for having me.

Host: Absolutely. Once again, that was Ben Lego sharing insights and experiences as a recipient of the ASHRM Rising Stars Award. For more information, you can go to ASHRM.org/ashrm-member-spotlight and the ASHRM Podcast was made possible by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management to support efforts to advance, safe and trusted healthcare through enterprise risk management.

You can visit ashrm.org/membership to learn more and to become an ASHRM member. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.