26 S G M A G A Z I N E | FA L L 2 0 1 8 the hospital. It’s a highly structured stand-up meeting where leaders report on staffing, census, quality and safety data, daily schedules and areas requiring assistance. It’s had an impact because it’s helped us lower our length of stay, continue to focus on quality, improve communication and reinforce how we all connect to each other. We also started a journey several years ago to hardwire excellence throughout our health system, adopting best practices in the things we say and do. It’s really a blueprint for doing things the right way for our patients, visitors, and colleagues in every interaction. I believe it’s helped make Archbold an even better place to work and practice medicine, and in turn, an even better place to receive care. SGaMag: What is Archbold Medical Center doing to recruit and retain a viable healthcare workforce? Mustian: There’s a nationwide physician shortage, both in physicians- in-training as well as those available to hire. We’ve taken several steps to enhance our physician recruitment efforts, both in staffing and in tactics. One of the things I think we do really well is take the approach of recruiting the whole family, not just the physician. It’s really a highly personalized process. If a physician has a family, we make the effort to ensure everyone in the family feels welcome and that making the transition to a new community isn’t simply about the job, it’s about finding a sense of place. We connect families to individuals and groups who would make a good fit, and it works. We also try to nurture home-grown talent, identifying those who want to have a career in medicine further upstream and actively engaging them as they progress towards a career in medicine. We’re using our medical staff to reach out to their contacts, from med school to present day, to help as well. Our relationship with Florida State University’s College of Medicine has been beneficial for us, too. We’ve hired a number of physicians from that program. SGaMag: How does Archbold Medical Center stay in the forefront of the healthcare industry? Mustian: Part of our job is understanding and adjusting to the environment around us—nationally and locally. This includes participating in relevant hospital associations and partner organizations, attending conferences, keeping up with health media sources and listening to our medical staff and community. I’m the former chairman of Vizient Mid-South, and serving in that role provided many opportunities to learn and share with peers. It also really reinforced that we’re all basically in the same boat, experiencing the same challenges no matter where our hospitals are located. We’re also blessed to have a Board that is highly educated and focused. They share the things they learn at trustee conferences, seek information from a variety of sources and provide helpful input. SGaMag: What would you consider to be the top issues Archbold Medical Center is facing? Mustian: Archbold is experiencing what most hospitals are experiencing across the country, and especially in this region: The landscape of healthcare is changing. The changes that are now taking place in healthcare are driving the most profound and fundamental restructuring of the financing and delivery of care in the past 100 years. Healthcare is moving from payment for volume to payment for value. Risk is being transferred to consumers and providers, and the government continues to reduce reimbursements. Those challenges, when compounded with rising costs, decreasing operating margins, little population growth and large amounts of uncompensated care, mean that hospitals must continue to innovate and grow. We also must reduce costs and operate far more efficiently at every level of our organization, and we’re committed to doing that. At the end of the day, it’s all about our patients. Everything we’re trying to do is about ensuring our patients have access to a sustainable local model of comprehensive and sophisticated care now, and decades from now. When you belong to an organization that’s been considered a leader for over 90 years, it really puts things in perspective. Those before us have made Archbold a regional healthcare leader and outstanding place to receive care, and we owe it to current and future generations to carry on that legacy. www.archbold.org