Transcription:
New CEO leads Norton County Hospital

Prakash Chandran: In October 2021, Brian Kirk was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer for Norton County Hospital. He has more than 25 years of healthcare executive leadership experience for hospitals and health systems throughout Kansas, Texas, and Louisiana. And his experience ranges from serving small rural communities to large teaching hospitals. Today, we'll get to know more about Brian and his plans for Norton County Hospital moving forward.

From the plains of rural Northwest Kansas to you, this is Health in The Heartland, presented by Norton county hospital, where medical experts aim to empower health at any stage of life. I'm your host, Prakash Chandran.

So, Brian, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate your time. I'd love to get started by you telling us a little bit about your background and what exactly led you to Norton County Hospital.

Brian Kirk: Yes, thank you. I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and I completed my bachelor's degree, majoring in accounting from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. I went on to obtain my Master's Degree in Business Administration from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. I'm also a certified public accountant, a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a fellow of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, as well as a certified medical practice executive.

I've got 25 years of healthcare experience and I've worked across the state of Kansas as well as Texas and Louisiana. And part of what led me to Norton County Hospital is that my wife, Stephanie, is from this county and her parents, Roger and Joanne, long lived in new amla, which is 26 miles Southwest of Norton. We were actually married 32 years ago in a new ammo at the St. Joseph Catholic church there. And we have three grown sons and our first granddaughter.

Another influencing factor of why I'm here is after graduating from Texas A&M, my wife and I moved back to Wichita and I went to work for the CPA firm of Baird, Kirsten Dobson at the time, which is currently known as BKD. Norton County Hospital was one of my first clients. And I worked here for several years as the auditor. And at that point, that is where I met Mr. Rich Miller, who was the administrator here for about 40 years. I was really impressed with Mr. Rich and he made a big impression on me and he is considered a legend in hospital leadership in Kansas. And I consider him a friend and mentor. So I'm very glad to be here. And last summer, when we were in town visiting family, we heard about the position opening and we were very excited for the opportunity and really welcomed the ability to move back to our hometown.

Prakash Chandran: Wow, thank you so much for sharing. You have quite an illustrious background and congratulations on your growing family. I'd love to know now that you're here, what are some of the challenges and rewards of working in rural healthcare and leading a critical access hospital?

Brian Kirk: Yes. So in my opinion, there is no more noble profession than to help people heal and recover from their injuries and illness. And it takes a really large and diverse multidisciplinary team to cover all the function and operations of a hospital. Everyone needs to collaborate and work together for the positive outcomes and good results.

Our mission here at Norton county hospital is to meet the evolving healthcare needs of our region and provide an exceptional staff and patient experience to empower health and wellness at any stage of life. I find working towards these goals both challenging and rewarding. Witnessing these things like healthy babies being delivered and people recovering from life-threatening accidents and illness gives purpose and drive to what we do in healthcare. It is a worthwhile work. And it is pretty awesome to be able to make a positive difference in people's lives.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, that is incredible. As the CEO, oftentimes there are so many things that you have to focus your attention on. You know, there's the revenue side of things, there's culture, there's, you know, internal management issues. So could you talk to us about the top three items that you're focused on as the new CEO?

Brian Kirk: Absolutely, yes. Our goal is clearly to make Norton County Hospital the best place to work, the best place to receive healthcare and the best place to practice medicine. In healthcare, your employees, your patients and your medical staff are the three-legged stool of healthcare and providing healthcare. And if all three of those are satisfied and balanced, it makes for the best possible hospital and the best outcomes. And that is what we're focusing on. And the plan that we're utilizing to get there is a program called Hardwiring Excellence. And that program was developed by Quint Studer, who is a healthcare leader and executive who created his own consulting company. And that program is being utilized by probably more than 600, 700 hospitals throughout the United States. In fact, most of the hospitals I worked at use a phase or our form of this program Hardwiring Excellence. But again, it's about trying to create the best possible environment and being the best hospital we can possibly be.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, I really love the analogy of the three-legged stool, the employees, the patients, and the medical staff. Because it's only natural that if you focus your attention on those three groups, that you're going to achieve success and you're going to accomplish that mission that you articulated so well. You know, along this journey of kind of achieving this mission of really helping more people recover from their illnesses and achieve those positive outcomes, we have been in the midst of a pandemic, right? And that has really just flipped the world upside down. So I'm curious if you could talk about some of the lingering effects of COVID-19 and how Norton County Hospital is addressing those specifically.

Brian Kirk: Absolutely. Yes, COVID really taxed our staff. I mean, we had times when many of our team members were out sick and everyone had to pull together to take care of our patients. And of course, this happened during a staff shortage anyway, so concurrently, and it did create some burnout for some of our employees, some of which who left healthcare altogether or retired. And healthcare is a wonderful field and then it's an exciting and rewarding time to become a nurse these days. The pay is great. And Colby Community College has a program right here in Norton. There are so many scholarships and financial aid available that one can literally go to school for free and come out with no debt and a professional high-paying job. So we're struggling to replenish the staff that we lost, but there's great opportunities. And again, we're collaborating with local programs to help make opportunities available, and we're letting you know. We went over to Norton County High school last week and was sharing with the students some of the opportunities that are available and these scholarships opportunities are just fantastic. You know, it's a great career, great profession to be in. And we're really working to make sure we've got enough employees for our future.

Prakash Chandran: It sounds like there is so much opportunity for things moving forward. I guess let me just expand on that a little bit. Have there been any changes around how the hospital is run or how staff and the nursing staff is treated since COVID-19, because it was just a crazy time, so much work. Like you said, there was just a lot of burnout. So have there been any things from a procedural standpoint that's worth mentioning?

Brian Kirk: Well, one of the things that happened in the staff shortages, we had to resort to some agency staffing and the agency staffing is making state and federal news these days. Costs are just going through the roof. I received proposals for a registered nurse at over $200 an hour, which is just off the spectrum of, I guess, salaries and benefits expectations. That's more than a lot of doctors make. And that's just something that Norton County Hospital couldn't sustain. So we kind of collaborated with our team and we created a compensation package to pay our existing team, to cover these hard-to-fill shifts. We adjusted our staffing levels to more appropriate staffing. And effective this month, the end of this month in March, we have eliminated all agency contracts from our hospitals, which is going to be a great help to making our ends meet and making our budget and staying financially viable.

We would much rather pay our local employees than pay some exorbitant fees to traveling and agency nurses. And it's really not best practice either. These people come in for a few weeks or a month or a few months or whatever, and then they come and go and it's a revolving door. And here at Norton County Hospital, we want to develop that personal relationship with our family, friends and neighbors and provide the best possible care that we can. And part of that is getting to know them and their needs and their medical situation. So we're very excited for those changes and enhancements to our operations.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, absolutely. And I think to your point, you know, the people that are just transient coming in to do a job and leaving don't really get a chance to build the community that I'm hearing is so important to the way Norton County Hospital is going to operate and the focus areas that you just mentioned. So it kind of leads me to my next question, having a resource like Norton County Hospital seems like an amazing boon for the community, right? So how can the local community support the hospital and clinic to ensure its success in the region and beyond?

Brian Kirk: Yes, absolutely. So we truly want to be the best critical access hospital in Kansas. And we really want to achieve our goal as to be the best place to work, receive healthcare and practice medicine. So, we certainly want to know from all of our patients and visitors, if there are things that we can do to improve and enhance, we definitely want to hear that, because we can't fix what we don't know about number one. And then secondly, and probably more importantly is we want to be the healthcare provider for our communities. So we want everyone to receive their healthcare right here at home. So, so we would just encourage people that, if they're receiving things that could be done here, please give us a chance and we want to take care of them and we want to provide the best care. So, give us that chance, collaborate with us and, together. we can make Norton county hospital the best hospital around.

Prakash Chandran: I love it. And just final question before we close, Brian. You talked about that three-legged stool, employees, patients, and medical staff. A mix of them will be listening to this podcast and I would love for you to share any final thoughts or just things that you would like them to know before we close here today.

Brian Kirk: Yeah. So, again, the Hardwiring Excellence is the tool that's going to help us to achieve these goals of being the best place to work, practice medicine, and receive healthcare. And that truly, it's not a cliche. It's not a saying. We truly mean it. And again, it takes a collaboration from all of us working together and I just recall the old sporting TEAM acronym, together everyone achieves more. We truly believe that here. We're striving to be the best. And we recognize that it can't be done by one person. It takes a team, it takes collaboration and it takes a lot of effort. And that's what we're working towards. That's the culture we want to create here at Norton County Hospital and that's what we want to draw and attract both patients, employees, and the community to support us and achieve our goals.

Prakash Chandran: Well, Brian, I think that is the perfect place to end. Teamwork makes the dream work. Thank you so much for your time today.

Brian Kirk: Thank you.

Prakash Chandran: That was Brian Kirk. He's the chief executive officer for Norton county hospital. Thanks for listening to this episode of Health in The heartland. You can find out more about Norton County Hospital at ntcohosp.com. I've been your host, Prakash Chandran. Take care of yourself and others, and be well.