Trust. That’s what we want. We want to earn and keep the trust of every patient. We want them to trust that we provide the best possible medical care. But more than that, we want them to trust that we will respond to their needs, coordinate our efforts, and provide them with available options. We want them to trust that we will answer our phones, explain their treatment, and value their time. The exceptional patient experience is an enterprise-wide system designed to deliver a singular output: trust. And, this enterprise-wide system is built on trusting our providers and our teams.

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.

There are two big buzzwords in healthcare – one is value-based care, and the other is population health. In this podcast, Chief Medical Quality Officer Bob Pendleton interviews Dr. Peter Weir. As executive medical director of population health, it's Dr. Weir's job to set the tone and direction for pop health, moving it from buzz to action. This is no small feat.

Real teams are the antidote to the chaos of modern medicine. “Real teams know each other, feel loyalty to one another, trust one another, and would not want to disappoint one another” (Tom Lee, NEJM Catalyst 2016). Practicing are conversations between real team members about why the work matters. Our goal is to preserve and share the stories of the teams at University of Utah Healthcare.

Chief Pharmacy Officer Linda Tyler thinks broadly about the leadership skills needed to deliver reliably safe care. Here, she shares an article about the importance of psychological safety—the #1 success factor identified by Google’s Project Aristotle, which studied hundreds of Google’s teams to figure out why some stumbled and some soared.

We believe that improvement in healthcare needs more connection to what makes this hard work meaningful. That’s why we ask every person who contributes to Accelerate – how did you get into healthcare? There are easier jobs out there, so what keeps you here? Here are a few of our favorite answers.

In this podcast, Utah’s Chief Medical Quality Officer interviews Brigitte Smith. A vascular surgeon who joined the University of Utah in 2015, Dr. Smith has quickly become a thought leader in transforming training for future physicians in value (both medical school and residency programs). Their conversation pinpoints an inconvenient truth—we may be a generation away from a culture of value-driven healthcare.

Lawrence Marsco, Director of Inpatient Nursing at Huntsman Cancer Hospital, shares this candid reflection about his tumultuous journey in health care. Today, he relies on shared governance, transparency and shared decision making to lead others through their journey.

Sarah Sherer is the Director of Employee Relations. We know her as the sounding board, place of last resort and coach for leaders throughout the organization. We asked her to share her wisdom on engaging employees of different ages. What she said might surprise you.

Not even the most gifted leader can lead change alone. No one person can come up with the strategy, communicate across the organization, eliminate all the barriers, and manage dozens of change initiatives. In order for transformation to succeed, you need a guiding coalition.

With so few organs available for transplant, living-donor transplantation introduces improved organ quality, reduced wait times, predictable scheduling, and reduced risk of rejection. But it isn't easy—the investment and risks are huge. Robin Kim, University of Utah Transplant Division Chief, shares his commitment and the complexity of his practice.

Health care is made up of people — creative, passionate people with big ideas who are often too busy to learn from one another.