Julia K Mason Of The MetroHealth System: Lessons I Learned From Last Year To Take Our Organization to the Next Level in 2024
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Focus on wellness. As a leader I was not a good role model, but strongly encourage time off by my team. My Nursing Leadership team has developed a 4-day work week for Nurse Managers and Assistants which has positively impacted satisfaction.
This series aims to discuss the experiences and lessons learned by top executives over the past year, and how these insights are shaping the landscape for change and innovation in 2024. The past year has been a time of unprecedented challenges and opportunities, requiring adaptive leadership and innovative strategies. We believe that sharing these experiences can inspire and guide others in their endeavors to drive positive change in their organizations and industries. I had the pleasure of interviewing Julia K. Mason, DNP, MBA, RN, CENP.
Julia K. Mason Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer for the Hospital Division at The MetroHealth System in Cleveland, OH. Dr. Mason’s oversees nursing care teams at a safety-net academic medical center, an inpatient rehabilitation hospital, a behavioral health hospital, and the Cuyahoga County Correctional Medicine Clinic. She has served in progressive nursing leadership roles over the past 14 years and has practiced nursing in critical care for over 20 years.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share a little about your background and what pivotal moments led you to your current position as an executive?
I practiced nursing at the bedside in Critical Care for 20 years which prepared me for making important decisions using critical thinking and fully embracing working with a team. Key moments that led me to formal leadership opportunities included being part of a team that opened a new hospital in 2011 and leaders giving me the opportunity to utilize my skills at an operational level. I was the beneficiary of several “taps on the shoulder” to step into roles that stretched by scope.
What were the early challenges you faced in your career, and how did they shape your approach to leadership?
As a bedside critical care nurse, I was often the expert; moving into leadership roles that were interdisciplinary, I needed to listen more to the experts in their field. I was used to making quick decisions and in operational leadership I needed to slow down and be deliberate in the process to decisions.
We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one that you made that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?
My role as a Chief Nursing Officer has expanded from smaller hospitals to large, academic centers. In the smaller hospitals, communication was easier, as I was in front of the staff and leaders more often. As I have moved into larger organizations, I have had missteps in properly communicating to staff. Communication is the most important task for any leader, and I continue to develop this expertise by improving my verbal, written, and electronic communications skills as well as how to best ensure people properly understand the information and know what to do with it. I have also learned that you need to deliver messages multiple times through different channels to ensure it is effective.
As an executive, how do you define success, both personally and for your organization?
Success for me personally is knowing that I have done my best to inspire and develop the next generation of leaders. Mentoring and feedback from those leaders fuel my passion for nursing practice. Organizationally, success is when the front-line staff feel that they have the tools and opportunity to provide exceptional care to our community. When that happens, the metrics follow in decreased patient harm and increased patient experience.
Reflecting on 2023, what was the most unexpected challenge you faced, and how did you navigate it?
Workplace violence, both verbal and physical, has escalated at healthcare institutions across the nation. Staff express that they are worried for their safety. We have been fortunate to have wearable panic buttons, onsite police, weapons screening devices where visitors and staff enter, and have invested in training for how to manage people who are exhibiting threatening behaviors. However, our organization, like others, has many points of entry, offsite locations with less resources, and the unpredictability of some violent behaviors. This is one of the things that keeps me up at night.
What was a significant risk you took this year, and how did it turn out?
Implementing a team-based nursing care model that included RNs, LPNs, and patient care nursing assistants. With the current workforce shortage, we did an evidence-based review of best practices and trialed this on one patient care unit with a strong nurse leader that embraced the opportunity to be innovative. The implementation was successful, and we have expanded this throughout the medical and surgical care units.
How has your company’s mission or purpose affected its overall success? Can you explain the methods or metrics you use to evaluate the impact of this purpose-driven strategy on your organization?
Our mission is dedication to hope, health and humanity. We strive to become as good at preventing disease as we are at treating it. For example, our Institute for H.O.P.E.TM focuses on helping families become healthier by screening for Social Drivers of Health (SDOH) and intervening when a gap is found. We also are implementing transformative knowledge and education initiatives such as our Men’s Health Fair and our Multicultural Women’s Health Fair and Expo. In addition, we drive innovative practice through our research and collaboration with academic institutions.
Have you ever faced a situation where your commitment to your purpose and creating a positive social impact clashed with the profitability in your business? Have you ever been challenged by anyone on your team or have to make a tough decision that had a significant impact on finances? If so, how did you address and reconcile this conflict?
Our mission to serve our community, regardless of their ability to pay, could be seen from the outside as having a negative impact on profitability, but we see this as an opportunity to provide enhanced access that can bring more patients to our institution. For example, in 2023 we opened a Blood and Marrow Transplant program specifically to serve those community members who may have been turned away by other programs. We are very proud of this program and plan to continue to grow.
Could you list the top five things you’ve learned in 2023, with specific examples of how these lessons impacted your decisions or strategies?
1 . Trust your team: As someone who was newer to the organization I hesitated in “letting go” of things. My direct team saw the hours I was working and came to me and told me they wanted to own things and would be accountable to them.
2 . Listen, repeat, listen again.
3 . When there is a problem that needs to be solved, bring the front-line users to the table to design a solution that works for them utilizing LEAN processes. We have adopted a “flipped classroom” problem solving approach where a facilitator guides the front line through process mapping, identifying decision points and roadblocks, then streamlining and developing solutions, followed by implementation and evaluation.
4 . Focus on wellness. As a leader I was not a good role model, but strongly encourage time off by my team. My Nursing Leadership team has developed a 4-day work week for Nurse Managers and Assistants which has positively impacted satisfaction.
5 . Streamline priorities. In 2023 I had 15 priorities and needed to develop a more focused approach.
How have these top five lessons from 2023 changed your outlook or approach for 2024?
Trust your team: In 2024 I am now more easily giving people stretch assignments like I had been given early in my career and they are succeeding!
Listening: I have scheduled dedicated rounding time with no agenda but to go to each unit and listen to the staff.
Flipped Classroom: We are developing a plan to expand LEAN training to more front-line staff to build our strength in process and quality improvement.
Focus on wellness: We were able to procure massage chairs for staff use that will be at multiple locations and units, we have increased our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) team and they are now participating in scheduled rounding in the targeted areas, and we have expanded our Pet Pal program at the request of the staff who love to love on our therapy dogs.
In terms of innovation and adaptation, what’s one change you implemented in 2023 or plan to do in 2024 that you believe will be crucial for the future of your business?
The nursing leadership team is focused on reducing the burden of work on the front-line staff. We implemented a Virtual Registered Nurse (VRN) support program where VRNs assist with completing admission and discharge documentation and teaching. This started in one unit and has expanded to multiple inpatient areas with a few more to go. Additionally, we are adapting the program to support our RNs in the county jail to conduct health screening questionnaires. The ability to take nursing processes that do not require hands-on care and move it to our virtual team is a big win.
As a leader, how do you foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement within your team or organization?
I am always encouraging my team members to explore opportunities where they can learn. We support multiple staff to attend conferences, we have several managers who started their DNP and Ph.D. programs this past year, and we offer internal educational opportunities for everyone to learn and bring innovation back to our organization. I role model this through my continuous education at Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing Marion Shaughnessy Fellowship and through my connections with local universities.
Looking at the broader industry landscape, what emerging trends do you think will be most influential in the coming year?
Virtual nursing and virtual care will continue to expand. We need to utilize technology to remove additional burdens from the front line and move toward more integration with the electronic health record. Voice transcription for documentation by nurses is coming into play as it has been for providers for years. AI will also have rapid growth in machine learning that can improve time to diagnosis and ultimately patient outcomes.
If you and I were having a conversation one year from now, and we were looking back at the past 12 months, what specifically has to happen for you to be happy with your progress?
I would love to see our succession plan in action: raising up our young leaders into roles where they can connect their passion to operational and patient centered improvements.
How can our readers further follow your work or your company online?
The MetroHealth System (Cleveland, OH): My Company | LinkedIn
This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com.
Julia K Mason Of The MetroHealth System: Lessons I Learned From Last Year To Take Our Organization… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.