How two Fort Worth women are promoting more empathetic health care, with the bottom line in mind

In 2012, J.R. Labe had an idea while walking down a hospital hallway with then-President John Peter Smith Health Network.

Each employee, wearing a JPS name tag, smiled and greeted his boss, Robert Early. Labe said he always asked and answered some kind of personal question. The experience felt surreal.

“I felt like I was getting a flat tire,” she said.

Since then, Rabe has viewed that singular moment as a clear example of what the post-corona medical environment needs more: humanity and authenticity.

With these two qualities in mind, Labbe and Lara Burnside launched the CSE Leadership in February 2023. This organization is a coaching practice designed to help healthcare organizations and employees engage with patients at the highest level using interpersonal communication.

The practice, they say, addresses physician burnout, turnover, and a growing number of health care workers complaining about workplace dissatisfaction.

Physician burnout rate to rise from 38% in 2020 to 68% in 2022, according to the American Medical Association. In the 2022 survey, only 57% of doctors said they would choose to become a doctor again.

The hospital had an average turnover rate of 105% of its employees, of which 95% were voluntary turnover.

“Health care workers are all stressed and can no longer be blamed solely for COVID-19,” Labe said.

According to Burnside and Earley, Rabe spent 25 years as a journalist and another 10 years as regional vice president of JPS, and has used excellent communication skills throughout his career.

She applies these skills through a CSE curriculum entitled “Mastering the Art of Human Connection.”

“Organizations are learning the tricks of how to have conversations with others,” Labe said. “It’s also a way to learn to hold each other accountable and talk to each other. You’ll see an immediate difference in satisfaction scores.”

Survey scores for doctors, nurses and hospitals across the country are declining, Labe said. Part of the CSE curriculum focuses on educating organizations on what these scores mean.

“Some doctors take these survey scores and see them go down, but they don’t know how to turn it around,” Rabe said. “They don’t know what that means.”

Scores can influence doctors’ assessments, and a hospital’s overall score can result in tens of millions of dollars in reimbursement, Burnside said. This could mean additional refunds or losses.

Mr. Burnside served as Chief Patient Experience Officer for JPS from 2015 to 2022 and has experience in improving the performance of healthcare organizations. At JPS, she said, she created a program that has proven to involve patients as partners in her care.

Based on survey scores, from 2015 to 2020, JPS physician engagement results surged from the 19th percentile to the 73rd percentile. Patient experience ratings improved from the 3rd percentile to the 80th percentile, and employee engagement improved from the 0th percentile to the 91st percentile.

Insurers increased the proportion of reimbursements related to patient surveys in January, Burnside said. Previously, his 15% of hospital reimbursement was associated with satisfactory findings. Now he is 31%.

Insurance reimbursements, along with general income from grants, donations and investments, make up a large portion of hospital revenues.

The funding structure will make the health system listen intently to ensure patients get appointments when they need them, Burnside said.

“These providers are serious about providing quality care, and they do it right,” Burnside said.

While the CSE Leadership has the financial bottom line of the organization in mind, it also focuses on hospitals that deliver the quality care you get paid for.

“It’s very important that we understand each other empathetically and understand patients and families when they come to us during this vulnerable time,” Burnside said.

Ultimately, the aim is for CSE Leadership to be incorporated into university classrooms and curricula. In this way, future generations of healthcare workers will be better prepared for all aspects of healthcare, Labe said.

“These students aren’t being taught the business side,” Rabe said.

Until this curriculum is infiltrated into classrooms, the organization will continue to enhance human care to hospitals throughout North Texas.

“We can’t adopt a way out of the hole that we’re seeing right now,” Labe said. “If medical institutions want to keep their teams, they will have to do something different.”

Matthew Sgroy is a reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Please contact [email protected]. At Fort Worth Reports, news decisions are made independently of board members and financial backers.Read more about our editorial independence policy here.Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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