Transcription:

Tom Brisse (Guest):  It’s important for us to have a brand and image with our employees and their leaders face forward and for the community to get to know us and really, for us to be out in the community so we can hear from the community about the types of challenges and medical conditions they are face with so, that we can be better prepared to address their needs when they come to the hospital.

Michael Carrese (Host):  As regional CEO of the Southeast Michigan Region for McLaren Healthcare, Tom Brisse knows being engaged in the community makes McLaren Macomb a better hospital. And it allows him to draw on his deep local roots. This is McLaren Leadership podcast. I’m Michael Carrese.

Tom:  You would want to know I was born and raised in Macomb County and so spent almost my entire life living in the same residence. I was raised at 19 and Clinton River, I married my high school sweetheart, I’m a product of the Utica Community Schools. My wife and I bought my parents home and we raised our two daughters in the same home. So, literally spent the first 45 years of my life being raised and raising my family in the same home. And so, after a couple of degrees from the University of Michigan, I spent a long time working for another health system, ran a hospital on the west side of Macomb County and about five years ago, had the good fortune of joining McLaren Macomb and have now been working to deliver the best healthcare possible to Macomb County from the east side of the county.

And we’ve done a lot of great things in terms of bringing new services into the hospital as a first in Macomb County. As an example, we are the first and only to offer an epilepsy monitoring unit for patients who suffer from seizures. We are the first and only to offer something called transcatheter aortic valve replacement TAVR which is a Structural Heart Program that has really done some great things for the community. We are in the process of building a brand new emergency center that’s going to open in about eight months and just got approval to build an 18-bed inpatients rehab unit. So, lots of stuff going on.

Host:  And obviously, a community hospital like that is the color of the community and when they come to you, you are offering all of that, but you also are interested in going to them, getting yourself out there and employees out there. So, talk about community engagement. Maybe first of all, tell us how you would define it. What does it look like to you?

Tom:  For me, it’s easy because this is my community and every day, I run into people in the hospital that I went to school with or grew up with, my kids went to school with. But I think given my role as the President of the Hospital; I think it’s very important that I get involved in other community activities, so I participate on five or six different boards for organizations in the community. A couple of examples is Baker College, I’m on the board. Advancing Macomb, which is an economic development organization for Macomb County, I’m on the board. So, it gives me an opportunity to be aware of all that goes on in our community. It gives me an opportunity to promote the things that the hospital is doing to other community leaders so that I have those relationships and can draw from them when the hospital needs help as a nonprofit organization. Keeps me connected and keeps the community connected to us.

Host:  What do you think it does aside from developing those connections and sort of adding to the bank of goodwill as they say; how does it help you as a hospital and support your brand as a hospital?

Tom:  A lot of people in the community aren’t exactly aware of all the full capabilities of our hospital. Through these board opportunities, I get chances to make presentations to some of the civic groups, community groups and people are quite surprised when I tell them about the level and sophistication of care that we deliver in the hospital. The recognition that we receive nationally for some of the things that we do, being the first and only in many categories. People don’t realize that we have that capability here at McLaren Macomb Hospital. So, the hospital gets some very good notoriety and recognition and awareness about our capabilities.

Host:  And I would imagine you also have the opportunity to hear what people think of you guys and maybe incorporate some of that into your decision making as a leader.

Tom:  I do. We get a lot of community feedback. We actually have community groups that we bring into the hospital to solicit feedback from them so that we know we have the voice of the public telling us what things we can improve upon, areas where they would like to see us expand. So, that’s a way for us to stay connected to the community in terms of our future growth and development.

Host:  Are there any challenges that you face as a senior executive directly involved in community engagement activities do you think?

Tom:  A lot of executives surprisingly tend to be shy people but it’s part of the job description to have to be face forward in the community. As an example, I was recently honored to be an inductee into the Macomb County Hall of Fame. My personality style had me wanting to say thank you but no thank you. But I thought it was very important for the community, for our hospital, for our employees to see that my involvement gets the hospital recognized. So, obviously, I accepted the award. But really no challenges. We are all passionate in healthcare about what we do. To have the opportunity to get out into public forums and brag about the great things that go on at our hospital, to me is a privilege.

Host:  Where do you see opportunities for your employees to get involved? What are some issues or activities out there that you’d like to see your employees dive into?

Tom:  Actually, our employees are already very involved. We do a lot of community education. We do health and wellness events, screening events, things like that at senior citizen complexes, churches. We actually have a mobile outreach clinic that we dive around into areas where there are people that have no ability to pay for healthcare and we deliver that healthcare on our mobile outreach clinic. Out employees have opportunities to sign up and participate in events when we decide to get involved. But I would encourage all of our employees, if they have some passion for being involved in something that I would always support them and help them become part of the events that we sponsor.

Host:  So, really, you can see the impact coming right back around to patient care.

Tom:  It absolutely comes back to patient care because at the end of the day, we are a business of people taking care of people and so it’s important for us to have a brand and image with our employees and their leaders face forward and for the community to get to know us. And really, for us to be out in the community so we can hear from the community about the types of challenges and medical conditions they are faced with so that we can be better prepared to address their needs when they come to the hospital.

Host:  Well, right and that also in this era of value-based care, population health, that becomes even more important, right?

Tom:  It really does. One of the cool things about McLaren is probably 30 years ago now, McLaren had a mission statement that talked about delivering the best value in healthcare. Most hospitals and health systems weren’t talking about value 30 years ago, but McLaren has embedded into its culture for decades now that we want to make sure that the people who use are services and who pay for our services recognize us as being high quality, high service, cost efficient.

Host:  That all sounds great to me. Is there anything that I’m not asking you? Something you really want people to walk away from this interview understanding?

Tom:  I want to say thank you for the privilege of serving the healthcare needs in Macomb County. We consider this job to be a tremendous responsibility but also a privilege to be able to do so.

Host:  You’ve been listening to Tom Brisse, Regional CEO, Southeast Michigan Region for McLaren Healthcare. Thanks very much for joining us.