Quoteworthy
In order to make tough decisions easier, I have learned to include staff in decisions, to seek support from leaders, and to take care of myself.
Jennifer Jones

Most Recent
It's Not About the Brain - It's About the Heart

Charles Saltzman, chair of orthopaedics, believes that academic practice is about passion, not just intelligence. He tells Accelerate about what he’s learned while training and leading some of the most talented physicians in the country. There’s a common thread among the greats: They are drawn to academic work because they feel they can make a difference.

Sam Finlayson Interviews Best-Selling Author Greg McKeown

We jumped at the opportunity to interview best-selling author Greg McKeown when he visited U of U Health last November. We were even more excited when professor and chair of the department of surgery Sam Finlayson agreed to lead the conversation. Listen (or read) the interview to learn the why, how and what of Essentialism.

Invest In Your Team: Listening and Storytelling

University of Utah Health was an early adopter of bundled payments. Accelerate’s Mari Ransco sat down with Ryan VanderWerff, one of the first in our health system to participate in payment innovation, to learn firsthand what it takes to lead a team in turbulent times.

Why Rounding Demonstrates Respect for Patients and Teams

Rounding–the act of connecting with patients and staff–is a leadership best practice. While few find rounding easy to start, those who master it are hooked. It is a daily habit that improves patient care, experience and engages the team. Susan Clark and her medical director, Dr. Dana DeWitt, have taken the practice one step further by rounding together as a leadership dyad, resulting in a more connected and authentic team.

Making Valuable Work Visible

Vascular surgeon Brigitte Smith is about to start her second year leading a value improvement curriculum for surgery residents. She believes you can’t be a great provider until you’re ready to lead a team to improve care delivery. Here, Smith shares the importance of recognition in motivating residents (and their teams) to learn to improve.

Teamwork Must-have: Compelling Vision

Accelerate frequently chronicles the hard work of building and nurturing teams because we believe that real teams are the antidote to the chaos of modern medicine (in the words of Dr. Tom Lee). Here, we highlight a necessary ingredient of high-performing teams: compelling vision.

Cynthia McComber’s Antidote to Uncertainty

Positive beliefs build energy, caring and creativity and can increase resilience and influence bottom line results.* As senior director of endoscopy, medical and specialty clinics, Cynthia McComber believes that meaning is necessary for leading change. McComber talked with Accelerate’s Chrissy Daniels about how to build connected, authentic and resilient teams.

A New Kind of Great Save: Value Improvement Leadership

We all love the “great save” stories. But heroism in the context of health care improvement isn’t always so exciting. When you’re pursuing more reliable, more patient-centered, and more affordable health care, providers have to rely on a different kind of gratification.

The Wisdom of Crowds: Effective Feedback

Want to be part of a thriving culture? Feedback is key. Director of ENT and dental clinics Kirk Hughs asked over 500 University of Utah Health leaders to share what makes feedback effective. Their top two? Timely and sincere feedback.

Eight Behaviors to Cultivate Trust

Employees in high-trust organizations are happier, more collaborative and stay at their jobs longer. But what builds long-term, sustaining trust? Director of strategic initiatives Chrissy Daniels highlights findings from an article in Harvard Business Review. The answer: Eight behaviors.

The Bobcast with Dr. Mark Eliason

Chief Medical Quality Officer interviews Dr. Mark Eliason, Department of Dermatology’s chief value officer. Dr. Eliason talks about what he has learned about engaging the entire team in improvement and how he is trying to make the clinical lives of dermatologists a bit easier.

Utah's Resident Expert Hailey Bandy Explains "Repeal and Replace"

The process to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is confusing to say the least. That’s why we're lucky to have Hailey Bandy as an interpreter. As Associate General Counsel, she watches health care policy and analyzes its impact on U of U Health. Medical Group contributor Isaac Holyoak interviewed Bandy about the big changes afoot.