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In partnership with one of the premier children's hospitals in the Midwest, Children's Nebraska, InterScripts has been deploying AdaptCare and the award-winning Project Austin Emergency Medical Plans for medically complex and medically fragile children to community hospitals and emergency services throughout Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa. The initial round of community partners are listed below. In total, around 700 hospital and emergency service deployments are planned in phases.

Fire & Rescue / EMS
City of Lincoln, NE
City of Omaha, NE
City of Papillion, NE

Hospital Systems
Bryan Health
Cherry County Hospital
Columbus Community Hospital
CommonSpirit Health (CHS)
Fillmore County Hospital
Franciscan Healthcare
Kearney County Health System
Mary Lanning Healthcare
Memorial Community Hospital & Health Systems
Myrtue Medical Center
Sidney Regional Medical Center
Thayer County Health Services
Unity Point Health
York General Hospital

Learn more about AdaptCare.
Learn more about Project Austin.

You can be a kind, empathetic, educated, experienced and skilled leader, and still fail to reach every member of your team. This can inspire emotions within you such as sadness, anger, disappointment, and concern. You can choose to let it consume you, or you can lead with empathy. This sounds exhausting but it is, after all, your job. The human connection becomes even more important when there are challenges that arise. Empathy is a powerful tool for leaders to use when dealing with difficult employees. By demonstrating empathy, a leader can create a safe and supportive environment for their team members, which can help to diffuse tensions and improve communication.

Here are some ways a leader can use empathy to deal with difficult employees:

1. Listen actively: When an employee is upset or struggling, it's important to listen actively and attentively to what they have to say. This means giving them your full attention, making eye contact, and responding with empathy and understanding.
2. Put yourself in their shoes: Try to imagine what it might be like to be in the employee's situation. This can help you to understand their perspective and respond in a more compassionate and effective way.
3. Validate their feelings: Let the employee know that you understand and appreciate their feelings. Acknowledge their frustration, disappointment, or anger, and show that you care about their well-being.
4. Provide support: Offer your assistance and support to help the employee overcome their difficulties. This might involve providing additional training, resources, or guidance, or simply offering a listening ear and a sympathetic shoulder.
5. Set clear expectations: While empathy is important, it's also important to be clear about your expectations and standards for behavior and performance. Be firm but fair in your communication, and let the employee know what you expect from them moving forward.

By using empathy in these ways, a leader can help to create a positive and supportive workplace culture that encourages communication, collaboration, and growth.

What Happens When You Try Everything but Fail?

“Now what, genius?” You may ask, “I’ve done everything to build the team, and work with the difficult employee and still nothing works!” While empathy is a powerful tool for dealing with difficult employees, it's important to recognize that it may not always be effective. Some employees may be resistant to empathy or may simply be unwilling or unable to change their behavior. In these cases, a leader may need to explore other strategies to address the situation.

Here are some things to consider if difficult employees do not respond to empathy:

1. Document the behavior: Keep detailed records of the employee's behavior, including specific examples of when and how they have caused problems. This documentation can be helpful if more formal action is required down the line.
2. Provide feedback: Give the employee clear, specific feedback on their behavior, and explain how it is impacting the team and the organization. Be firm but fair in your communication and provide specific examples of what they need to do differently.
3. Set consequences: Be clear about the consequences of continued problematic behavior, such as disciplinary action or termination. Be sure to follow through on these consequences if the behavior does not improve.
4. Involve HR: If the employee's behavior is particularly problematic or if they are resistant to change, it may be necessary to involve HR or other relevant stakeholders to help address the situation.

Ultimately, dealing with difficult employees requires a combination of empathy, clear communication, and consequences. By taking a measured and consistent approach, a leader can help to create a positive and productive workplace culture that supports the success of the team and the organization. However, it is important to not allow the rest of the team to suffer and realize how this also impacts the rest of your team.

Leading A Team Impacted by a Toxic Employee

Empathy can play a key role in helping a team damaged by one toxic employee to heal and rebuild. When a team member is behaving in a toxic or harmful way, it can create a sense of mistrust, conflict, and tension within the team. By demonstrating empathy, a leader can help to create a safe and supportive environment where team members can feel heard, understood, and valued.

Here are some ways empathy can help a team damaged by one toxic employee:

1. Rebuild trust: When team members have been hurt or offended by a toxic employee, it can be difficult for them to trust each other or work together effectively. By demonstrating empathy, a leader can help to rebuild trust and restore positive relationships within the team.
2. Foster open communication: Toxic behavior often arises from a lack of understanding or miscommunication. By showing empathy and encouraging open communication, a leader can create a safe space for team members to share their thoughts and feelings, and work together to resolve conflicts.
3. Address underlying issues: Toxic behavior is often a symptom of deeper underlying issues, such as stress, burnout, or personal challenges. By demonstrating empathy and understanding, a leader can help the toxic employee address these underlying issues and work towards a more positive and productive attitude.
4. Encourage collaboration: Toxic behavior can create a sense of competition or conflict within the team, which can be detrimental to team cohesion and productivity. By promoting collaboration and teamwork, a leader can help the team work towards a common goal and rebuild a sense of unity and shared purpose.

By using empathy in these ways, a leader can help to transform a damaged team into a stronger, more cohesive unit, with a shared sense of purpose and a commitment to working together effectively.

Team Empowerment

Whether you are building or rebuilding a team, you can empower your team to use empathy in a variety of ways. By fostering a culture of empathy, you can create a workplace environment that values and promotes understanding, cooperation, and mutual respect. Here are some ways you can empower your team to use empathy:

1. Lead by example: As a leader, your behavior sets the tone for the rest of the team. Demonstrate empathy in your interactions with team members and model the kind of behavior you would like to see from your team.
2. Promote understanding: Encourage team members to learn about each other's backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. This can help to promote understanding and empathy and create a more inclusive and supportive workplace culture.
3. Provide training: Offer training or resources to help team members develop their empathy skills. This might involve workshops, online courses, or other educational materials that can help team members develop their emotional intelligence and communication skills.
4. Foster open communication: Encourage team members to share their thoughts and feelings openly and honestly and provide a safe and supportive environment for them to do so. This can help team members to understand each other better and work together more effectively.
5. Recognize and reward empathetic behavior: Acknowledge and reward team members who demonstrate empathy and understanding. This can help to reinforce the importance of empathy in the workplace and encourage others to follow suit.

By empowering your team to use empathy, you can create a workplace culture that promotes collaboration, cooperation, and mutual respect. This can lead to higher levels of employee engagement, greater job satisfaction, and improved overall performance and productivity. If you lead with empathy and empower your team to use empathy, you will have fewer personnel issues and be prepared to face the challenges you are presented with.

Leadership and the Human Connection: Where to Start?

You will read a thousand feel-good memes about leadership, and all of them have the same basic characteristics; they appeal to the humanity of both the employee and the leader. On the surface, it seems like simple business-sense and feels a lot easier when you are reading it than it can be in practice. How many times have you clicked ‘like’ on an insightful quote, and then recalled how you or a co-worker had not been treated with fairness or respect?  If you understand that you are the only person who you can change, and the only time you can make those changes is now, then you are already doing better than many others. It is often hard to know how to begin, particularly when you are in a crisis. That answer is as simple as clicking ‘like’ on an insightful meme: make your next choice the best choice, one choice at a time.

Leadership is a tough balancing act between business and relationship, and the people who struggle to lead often focus too hard on one or the other. The first step is to truly understand your role in the team. You are not above them; you are merely a decision-maker that is ultimately accountable for the deliverables they produce. You need your team to produce and, often, you need them more than they need you. With this mindset intact, it is easier to be grateful for their effort and offer genuine praise instead of hollow pleasantries.

Objectives do not complete themselves and, as a leader, you aren’t always expected to know the nuances or technical aspects of each role. Yet, as you understand your role, you need to understand the role each employee holds. “That’s easy, I wrote the job description, I hired these people,” you might think. This is a common trap, because a job description is not doing the work, a human being is providing a service. Take the time to speak to each staff member individually, and learn what their daily workflow contains, and any struggles they have. This not only keeps them accountable but will also give you insight into challenges you may not have known about otherwise. More importantly, however, is to build the human connection.

Common advice is that leaders should not pretend or try to be friends with their team members. While the spirit of that is true, a leader who leads with their heart will be nearly indistinguishable from a friend. It is possible to remain at a professional distance while maintaining a desirable team culture that produces superior results. It is up to you to set the expectations with your team for how you will manage, what you expect of them and what they can expect from you. I often like to say that I treat everyone in my team like my best friend and, as such, I often speak the hard truths. If you are genuine with your team, and they understand your responsibilities, then the rest is rapport building and maintenance.

Simple pleasantries are a good start, but these begin to ring hollow without depth. Not everyone is comfortable sharing personal details of their life, and that must be respected. On the other hand, not everyone is comfortable or interested in hearing the details of YOUR life. There are always risks when a leader tries to be too open, or asks too many personal questions, so you will have to exercise discretion. In addition to the awkwardness, you may also run the risk of appearing like you are trying too hard. However, there are always opportunities to build relationships even without knowing a life story.

Details matter, and leaders who pay attention to those details are valued. Remember the small details provided by your team and give them feedback. For example, if they express a hardship or a challenge, ask them for updates, even just to ask how they are doing. When they share good news, remember it and comment on it thoughtfully, more than just a simple, hollow “congrats!” If a team member has to take time off, pay attention to the clues they provide. For example, you don’t want to tell them that you hope that they had a relaxing vacation when they spent their time off caring for a sick family member. A little empathy goes a long way.

In addition to getting to know the team and maintaining the relationships, make yourself available if they have anything they need to discuss and ensure that they understand how grateful you are for their support. It does not have to be a constant display of unicorns and rainbows, simply acknowledge the humanity of the individual team members, and allow yourself to be seen as just another part of the team. It’s not an exercise in humility, it’s a conversation involving good business sense and accepting the reality that the work doesn’t get done without the team, and an exceptional team dynamic will produce exceptional results.

You’ll notice that I’ve spent very little time talking about directing the team on tasks, guiding them to achieving their milestones or pushing them to achieve more. When you focus on the human connection with your team members, and you maintain a shared understanding of responsibilities, you will find that your team will surprise you. They will work together, provide superior customer service, and proactively keep you informed of challenges that they have had. If they know you support them and care for them, they will do their best to support you.

When you discuss the concept of support, that relies less upon the relationship and more upon the result of that relationship. Recognize that their world does not revolve around the job. You need to push them to take care of themselves and their families—because that is what really matters to them. This is not as delicate of a balancing act as it may seem. If you have set the expectations of the job, they understand everyone’s role on the team, and the relationship has been maintained, it provides an environment of mutual accountability. I’ll grant the cynics the fact that this does not work in every situation, and it could be abused by bad actors who decide to take advantage of the opportunity too often. As a leader, it is your responsibility to maintain the team, even if this means replacing team members who are unable (or unwilling) to perform their duties.

Not all approaches will work with all employees and teams but, if you lead with your heart, that will lead to the most success possible. Whether you are a seasoned leader, or just getting started, it helps to reaffirm the foundations of leadership. If you support those in your care, the objectives will often seem like they complete themselves, and you will feel much better about the efforts involved – and your team will too!

--C. Colin Schultheis

Improving Healthcare Quality Metrics with Custom-Developed Tools for Health Systems

The healthcare industry is constantly striving to improve the quality of care delivered to patients. One effective way to achieve this goal is by utilizing custom-developed tools for health systems. These tools can help healthcare providers track and measure critical metrics, identify areas that need improvement, and streamline workflow processes to enhance overall patient care.

One of the most significant advantages of custom-developed tools for health systems is that they allow healthcare providers to collect and analyze data specific to their organization. This is important because every healthcare facility is unique in terms of its patient population, services offered, and the delivery of care. By customizing tools to collect data that are most relevant to a specific health system, providers can obtain a more accurate picture of the quality of care they provide.

With the right custom-developed tools, healthcare providers can also monitor important quality metrics in real-time. This means that issues can be identified as soon as they arise, and healthcare providers can take swift action to resolve them. For example, custom tools can track hospital readmission rates, allowing providers to see which patients are being readmitted and why. Providers can then take steps to improve care quality and reduce readmission rates, resulting in better patient outcomes and more efficient healthcare delivery.

Another benefit of custom-developed tools is that they allow healthcare providers to streamline workflow processes. These tools can automate routine tasks, freeing up staff time to focus on more complex aspects of patient care. For example, custom tools can be designed to create patient educations materials automatically, freeing up nursing staff to focus on more critical care tasks.

Finally, custom-developed tools can help healthcare providers to identify gaps in their current practices and implement new strategies for improvement. By analyzing data and quality metrics, providers can pinpoint issues that are impacting care quality and develop evidence-based interventions to address them. These interventions can then be tested and refined using data collected with the custom tools, ensuring that healthcare providers are constantly evolving and improving their care practices.

In conclusion, custom-developed tools are essential for healthcare providers looking to improve quality metrics and deliver better patient care. These tools can provide real-time insights, automate routine tasks, streamline workflows, and help providers implement evidence-based interventions to improve care quality. By adopting custom-developed tools for health systems, healthcare providers can achieve more efficient, effective, and patient-centered care delivery.

Improving Patient Engagement Via CRM Implementations

Hospitals can improve their marketing efforts by implementing a CRM (customer relationship management) system. A CRM system can help hospitals target their marketing efforts more effectively, gain insights into patient behavior, and improve patient engagement. Here are some ways CRM implementation can improve hospital marketing:

• Improved Segmentation: A CRM system can help hospitals segment their audiences based on various criteria such as age, location, medical history, and other demographic information. This information can help hospitals deliver targeted marketing campaigns, focused on specific groups of patients or potential patients, ensuring that their messaging is more relevant and effective.

• Enhanced Personalization: A CRM system can also help hospitals personalize their marketing campaigns through the use of demographic and behavioral data. By understanding patients' preferences, interests, and behaviors, hospitals can tailor their marketing messages, delivering content that is relevant to each patient's unique experience and needs.

• Enhanced Patient Engagement: A CRM system can help hospitals improve their patient engagement efforts through targeted communication and content creation. Hospitals can use CRM data to understand patient preferences, needs, and behaviors, developing personalized content that encourages patients to take an active role in their healthcare.

• Improve Promotions and Campaigns: With a CRM system, hospitals can develop more effective promotional and marketing campaigns with detailed analytics to track their effectiveness. This data can help hospitals to optimize their promotional efforts through A/B testing, analyzing customer trends, or satisfaction rates.

• Improved Service Quality: CRM implementation also benefits hospitals by improving the service quality offered to patients. By collecting data on patient history and preferences and keeping a centralized record of all interactions, the hospital can provide a consistent experience across multiple touchpoints, ensuring their patients receive high-quality care.

Overall, CRM implementation can help hospitals optimize their marketing campaigns and enhance patient engagement by leveraging data and analytics to personalize and target their messaging. With the right implementation of CRM, the hospital develops a deeper understanding of patients' needs, preferences, and behaviors, ensuring that they provide the best possible care to their patients while reducing overall costs.

Why Chat Bots are Extremely Important for Hospitals and Clinics

In today's digital age, more and more businesses are turning to chat bots as a means of improving their customer service and automating routine tasks. Hospitals and clinics are no exception, and many healthcare providers are now implementing chat bots into their operations to improve patient experiences and streamline administrative workflows.

Here are some of the key reasons why chat bots are extremely important for hospitals and clinics:

1. Improving Patient Experience

Chat bots can provide a responsive, personalized, 24/7 experience for patients, helping them find the information they need quickly and without delay. Patients can use chat bots to book appointments, ask simple medical questions, get test results, and much more. This can reduce the time patients spend looking for the clinic's contact details or waiting on hold to speak to a representative, as well as providing a more comfortable, stress-free environment for any patient with social anxiety during face-to-face appointments.

2. Enhancing Efficiency

Chat bots can handle routine tasks such as scheduling appointments or providing information about symptoms. These tasks can require significant administrative resources, which chat bots can automate, allowing staff to focus on more critical tasks. Chat bots can also screen patients before they arrive for appointments, helping to ensure that they have the right documentation and prerequisites before their appointment, ultimately reducing additional administrative tasks post-appointment.

3. Minimizing Healthcare Costs

By automating simple tasks and providing basic information, chat bots can help reduce healthcare costs associated with human labor, which in turn can provide significant savings to the provider. This cost-effective strategy can enable medical staff to use their time more efficiently and focus on the more complex aspects of patient care.

4. Ensuring Accuracy and Consistency

Chat bots interact with patients in the same way every time, ensuring consistency in communication and consistent responses to routine questions. This reduces the chance of human errors, ensuring that patients always receive accurate and up-to-date information.

5. Boosting Engagement

Using chat bots within the health system can engage patients actively seeking medical care, providing a more dynamic patient experience. As they interact with the chatbot regarding scheduling, appointments, and other medical queries, the chatbot can direct a personalized experience for the patient to better understand their healthcare needs and provide the necessary services.

Overall, chat bots are essential for hospitals and clinics looking to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance the patient experience. As technologies continue to advance, the use of chat bots will only become more prevalent, providing significant benefits to healthcare providers and patients alike.