How Rapid Growth in Healthcare Comes from Access, Collaboration, and Innovation

[0:17]  Welcome back to another episode here on the Heart and Hustle Podcast. Today with Miss Kristen. How you doing today, ma'am? I'm excited. You were just telling me how this weekend you were at a soccer fest. What team are you rooting for? Maybe it's not US, maybe it is. And how is your experience at the soccer fest?

[0:22]  Good, how are you? definitely US, but it was England against Panama, so I t I picked England. I love the British accent. I might pulp into it occasionally. so we we had a really good time. They had all sorts of vendors and all sorts of things for the the kiddo and I to do. So it was really nice to see City Hall Plaza all decked out for it.

[0:40]  Let's go, yes. I love it. Are you a theater kid?

[0:58]  No, I'm well, I mean I did some theater, I did some acting and some modeling when I was younger. I just I love accents, so really enjoy trying. My next one is the Scottish one. That's hard though. I don't know how I'm gonna do that one. but I can do a British one. British. Yeah.

[1:13]  Yeah, okay. What what is your favorite accent? it is as a bit okay, okay, okay. All right. Listen, you all the reason I ask is 'cause you have to have some sort of theater or some sort of like to just go into that accent the way you did. So easy, so genuine, like you've done this before or something.

[1:28]  Lo lots of practice, lots of practi

[1:33]  What organization are you representing today?

[1:35]  Northeast Health Services were the Massachusetts market for the transformations care network.

[1:42]  Love it. And your role with the organization?

[1:43]  I'm the market president.

[1:45]  How long you been doing it?

[1:47]  Four years. I started here in twenty two, August of twenty two.

[1:50]  Yeah, and then what is the growth you've seen? I always I enjoy when someone starts somewhere and then where they're at today I can imagine it's very different. Where were you when you started? Where are you today?

[1:59]  The organization when I walked in had eight outpatient clinics and now we have forty-one. we are just opening our forty forty first next week, so law of growth in four years.

[2:09]  Holy crap. How does that happen? Like just communication? Is it planning? Who how does you get so big so fast?

[2:20]  really the guiding principle is access to care. So our mission is to provide care to all levels of services that we can, to all the folks we can. We take every insurance, right? That's really the guiding principle to the growth is really serving as much as we can to the people in our community. I have a whole host of people that help me. We have a real estate team, I have a facilities team, I have a regional director team. we it is just constant, constant work together, collaboration, communication. We are a well oiled machine now around reviewing floor plans and hiring and you know, supporting the infrastructure. it's it's a lot of people's hands to be able to even put up one clinic, never mind the the thirty something we did.

[3:09]  Yeah. What is a day in your your shoes actually look like? Going to work on a Monday, what is it looking like today?

[3:16]  so I have it's sort of different ways I manage things. but for me number one is I always are making sure I'm up to date on all my teams and all of my outlook. So we are a very large organization and I have clinics that are two and a half hours away from me, right? At any given time from where I'm sitting. So number one is making sure that I'm responsive. that is number one for me. The other is accessible. my door is always open, virtual or not.

[3:16]  Okay.

[3:43]  and then whatever projects that we might be working on, whether it's floor plans or policy and procedure, continuous improvement, we have regular cadence meetings that I'm part of, but a Monday is really just making sure, you know, finishing up whatever I couldn't get to on Friday and you know pushing through all the different projects that we have going at the time.

[4:08]  I love it. It seems like you're a busy person. You go home and just pass out or something.

[4:12]  No, I definitely couldn't do that. My mind is racing too much, right? So I can't just, you know, shut it off. I I do things to help me reset and get into sort of home. and you know, whether that's music or playing mind-numbing silly games or watching, you know, you know, Netflix or Hulu or, you know, the bear just came out then the last season, so I have one more episode to go.

[20:35]  Yeah, yeah.

[20:40]  So I can't just shut off. I i there's a there's a there's about an hour of time where I have to sort of process and, you know, sort of decompress and compartmentalize.

[20:45]  Yeah. Yeah. I at that point I realized that recently it's like I just don't know how to sit down sometimes. and yeah, you're right, some good music. You mentioned music. What is your go to music?

[20:50]  Mm-hmm. Dave Matthews band, he's my favorite.

[20:55]  That's what that's what just kinda soothes the soul, huh? I love it. my god.

[21:00]  Yeah, I actually see him in two weeks, so I'm really excited. but I also really love blues guitar players. So Joe Bonamasa, Eric Gales, you know, any of any of those really, really, you know, blues guitar player sort of vibes. I really love the guitar, really love the drums. So if you have a good drummer and a good guitar player, I'll I'll go see ya.

[21:06]  Love it. And you mentioned forty one locations. I can imagine is very it are they all the same? Like how does the communication happen? So people may need to go to one or are they all very similar?

[21:11]  So we staff each clinic as its own little microcosm. So we have the way the organization is structured is I have four regional directors. Those are broken up by geography. Those regional directors support the clinic directors in their region. So it's north, south, mid, and Boston. Those are our four regions. And those RDs or regional directors are supporting the clinic directors. The clinic directors really manage their clinic. They're responsible for all four walls. Hiring supporting, training, onboarding, all the different pieces. And then we have shared services that help get us the the talent we need or the marketing or the you know we have an outreach team that goes knocks on doors for us to make sure people know who we are and where we are. So it's a very much a little sort of microcosm of the larger scale. I'd say that about 80% of the things we do are standard, right? They're standard policies, standard procedures. But those clinic directors and the the providers that work for them have about 20% of their own practice, right? The way they manage things, how they deliver that policy and procedure might look different in one clinic to another. Every clinic has a vibe, every vine you know, sort of has a culture, and that's really driven by the clinic director and the team they have around them. so we really wanna give folks flexibility and the ability to practice the way they'd like to with a good eighty percent standard sort of way and expectations to do those things.

[21:16]  Got it, got it. It's almost like a franchise, but not a franchise. Or is it?

[21:21]  It is i it's not a franchise. We do have other markets in the country though, right? And our goal is to spread across the country as much as we can. So right now we're in Washington State. We're in the DMV, West Virginia, Philadelphia or Pennsylvania, right? We're moving into Ohio at some point next year. and then eventually here in, you know, closer to the Massachusetts borders, we're exploring New Hampshire and Rhode Island as well.

[21:26]  Mm. Not it. This is so cool. Did you know this was in plan when you started or this is just kinda evolved?

[21:31]  It's a very interesting situation, so I got a email from LinkedIn from a recruiter saying, do you know anybody that would fit this bill? And I wasn't looking for a job at the time. And I looked at the fit the bill criteria and I like, I could do that. So I before I responded to him, I went and looked up the leadership. I had never heard of this organization before. I've lived in Massachusetts my whole life. In the leadership are people I've worked with before. Many of them come from a large insurance agency that previously was called Beacon Health Health Options.

[21:37]  Mm-hmm.

[21:42]  now it's called Well Sense. But many of those folks I had worked with before, I still had some of their cell phone numbers. So I texted one, I'm like, what's Transformation's Care Network? Right? And then here I am, interviewed and knew that we wanted to do 20% year-over-year growth. and my own personal mission is access to care. And I said, All right, let's do it. and that's how I got here.

[21:47]  Wow, I love it. A and why why is that your mission?

[21:52]  I've been sort of in this ever since high school. I I wasn't a a real like fan of high school. I loved the sports. I was really into sports and all of those and clubs, right? But You know, high school wasn't my jam in terms of work and and you know, school work and homework, right? And then I took a psychology class and I just I fell in love with it, how the brain works and all the different things that we don't know and we do know. and you know, it's just been my passion is is therapy and psychology.

[21:57]  Yep, yep. Well

[22:02]  I started out as a therapist. I still am a licensed mental health counselor in the state of Mass and I realized that I can, you know, see eight or ten clients a day. and then I, you know, as I grew in the field, got my license because I started out as a master's level, got my license and you know, a few years in was able to supervise folks and that's really rewarding, right? Is supervising folks to go out and do more work. So I was like, well, if I have tons of supervisees, then they're seeing eight or ten clients a day.

[22:08]  Uh-huh.

[22:08]  Then I was like, Well I could direct a program, and then there's like 30 clinicians providing eight or ten hours of work a day. And then I just sort of grew with that, knowing that my passion was to grow the field with wonderful therapists out there, and you know, maybe someday run an agency that has lots and lots of therapists out there, and I can only do so much. And if I have 30, 40, or you know, eight hundred therapists now doing the work out there that's good work, that provide good access and

[22:08]  Wow.

[22:08]  quality care. It doesn't really get much more re rewarding than that.

[22:08]  Yeah, that is passion, purpose, over paychecks all day. I love it. so you're not practicing at all anymore?

[22:08]  Mm-hmm. I don't do any more direct care, no. I stopped doing

[22:08]  Do you miss it?

[22:08]  Yes, I y I do. I do get times every single day. just this morning I talked about a case, consulted on a case, chatted a little bit about some interventions that might be possible, right? So I do get to have that. I sit in the you know, our our our staff get group supervision every week and individual, but group particularly, I'll go and st we'll staff a case together and you know, I have some, you know, my own specialties when I did direct care so I was able to sort of support Folks and do that all the time. So I'm not, you know, behind a closed door anymore, but I offer, you know, sort of guidance and support where I can clinically.

[22:08]  I always feel it's like natural is is just what you do. Right? Would you say that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. w how about innovation? Like where are you guys with innovation?

[22:08]  Yeah, it it's part of who I am. Right, right. So many different levers. I think you know one of the things that we did was centralize our intake. That was years ago now. But now all we only have one front door for our clients. Makes it easy, accessible. We answer the phone 95% of the time live. And that is amazing in this field. When we don't answer the phone the 5%, we're outreaching over six times to those folks to get them in the door.

[22:08]  Mm-hmm.

[22:08]  a web form too so people will come in that way and you're usually getting those people scheduled anywhere between 48 and 72 hours from when they submit the form. To me that just feels like good practice but it is innovative because many of the folks out in the world especially in Massachusetts there are large large wait lists and for us to be able to get folks in the door right away is something I pride myself on. You call in today I can get you in and seen depending on what you need within 14 days.

[22:08]  Mm-hmm.

[22:08]  so that to me is really truly innovative in the fact that most other places can't say that and I'm very proud of that. I think the other thing that for me that we do that is very different is we offer two particular service lines here, which is TMS, which is transcranial magnetic stimulation, and then the other is ketamine or spravado, right? That's the name brand for ketamine, and that's for treatment-resistant depression.

[22:08]  Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[22:08]  They're not new services, but there's never been an outpatient clinic, in my knowledge, in Massachusetts that offer those service lines along with traditional psychiatry and therapy. And we're seeing tremendous results for many, many, many people that have depression. And we all know someone in our family or friends or colleagues that have been through it and to see some of the the changes in their lives from these. These two treatments I would say is probably another piece that I'm very, very proud of.

[22:08]  I've listen, the just speaking of that you're doing today and just the happiness and the excitement and the passion, it it comes across as you're just proud of the work that you do. What keeps you so proud after all these years? Is it seeing the wins? Is it knowing that you're not done? What is it?

[22:08]  Yes and yes. I also get to see younger career graduates just walk out the door and this is their first job. And some of those folks were our interns. Now they're our supervisors. I have clinic directors now that were interns here years ago. So I get to see folks grow in their own career. So I think that's super rewarding. The fact that I serve over 80,000 individual clients in the place where I live, my mission's been access to care since as long as I can remember. It doesn't get any better than that.

[22:08]  Yeah.

[22:08]  for me, I don't know where they would go if we weren't here. and so that just makes me want to build more and do more and get more languages and more services and more specialties and it's that's that's what fills my cup is knowing that, you know, my neighbor could be getting services from one of my clinics.

[22:08]  Yeah. Yeah. True, true, no for sure, especially knowing that you're doing that home. Now it's super exciting just just talking to you and just hearing all this. And I can imagine that it wasn't something that you were probably maybe you were born with it, but who's pouring into you? You know, when you talk about leadership skills, it is so hard, especially as a woman probably in this space. Like, where do the leaders who are your leaders, if you don't mind sharing it, and what are they pouring into you that keeps you going after all these years in a time that it could be difficult, challenging.

[22:08]  Absolutely. There's been people in my life throughout my life, psychology teacher in high school, still remember Mr. Murphy. he's the one that made me fall in love originally, right? And then I've had three or four amazing, amazing supervisors throughout my life. one was a Dr. Scott Andrews, he's out of Fitchburg. I was a office manager, an intern. I sort of did it all and learned the back end of the business all the while getting my master's degree, right? I learned how to do testing from him. I had another supervisor, Stephanie Judy, out of the mentor network, really taught me a little bit about how to use situational leadership and meet your personnel where they're at, right?

[22:08]  Yeah.

[22:09]  all of those people are in the field and have been licensed in the field, which is also helpful to have that. Now I have a COO, Maggie Tapp, who's also a social worker. And being able to have a social worker who leads operations is someone I looked up look up to dearly and admire so much. And she's taught me a lot about how to sustain the growth, to support continuous improvement.

[22:10]  Yeah.

[22:10]  And the the thing here at Transformations and Northeast is you use your voice and and and the C suite listens. and that is very, very critical for the largest market in the network to be able to sort of we always blaze the path. We're always first, right? And having a leader I can lean into and say, I'm gonna pull this lever, I'm gonna change how we manage that, or constantly improving our systems for efficiency. So I've I've been lucky enough to have some really good leaders that have really supported my understanding of not only good clinical quality care, but also all the operations behind it, because it's not just what happens behind that closed door. That is the most important thing, but it takes a lot of work to get that person behind that door, whether it's our staff or the client, right? So it's just been folks that have sort of given me all the pieces I would need to, you know operationally as well as clinically succeed and I've been very, very lucky.

[22:11]  Hell yeah. Have you ever called any of the leaders that you don't talk to and just say thank you?

[22:11]  all the time. it's funny, I had an interview with somebody the other day that is working for one of my previous supervisors, Stephanie Judy. I'm like, I'm I'm hot, I'll hire you now. I knew right away. right. So, you know, we occasionally we're sharing referrals or, you know, sending me a a a a a candidate or maybe a referral source, right? So it's constantly doing those things. and at any given time, random thank you messages, whether it's LinkedIn or Facebook or Insta, it it is it is and it's nice too. I get that sometimes too, from my previous folks that I've supervised. That that makes makes me feel amazing to have them reach out and say thank you to me. but I wouldn't be here without my leaders, so

[22:12]  Yeah. Yeah. It's always cool. I think from a leadership perspective, we don't realize how we pour into people. You know, and sometimes either we will never know, because we never may come across that person again. or we will because they will tell us, right? Or the seeds that we plant. I've had people talk to them years later and they said, Because of you I actually received a text message today from a friend, and it's actually my friend's husband and he just you know, from a man to man, first of all, it doesn't happen, but

[22:13]  Uh-huh.

[22:14]  It's just like, man, like thank you. You don't realize it because that is just who you are, right? When we talked about that's just kind of who you are. but it is cool, you know, and I I think about even our teachers. You mentioned Mr. Murphy, how to write him down and forget. Why was Mr. Murphy different? Clearly there was a lot, was it his teaching style, the way that he seen you for who you were? What was what was different about him?

[22:16]  Well, he made it interesting. and I do wonder I think back a little bit, maybe it was just the topic that interests me and so now I automatically associate that with him. 'cause I at all the other classes in high school I was just like, is it time to is it lunchtime? Like I wasn't I'm done, like I don't wanna do geometry. I'm all set.

[22:18]  Got it, got it, got it. Ha ha yeah.

[22:20]  And that was the only class I looked forward to. And even the first class, I remember he was sort of giving us a picture of the brain. I don't remember what the topic was. Jeez, this is hundreds of years ago. and I was just I I just I was sort of staring at the the chalkboard, because that's what we used back then. and was in it just totally enthralled. and then every time after I was looking forward to it. And I remember letting him know when I graduated that

[22:22]  my god, stop. Yeah.

[22:24]  You know, he he he helped me figure out what I wanted to do in life. and it and I I don't know if it was him or it was just the content or maybe it was the the both. Yeah.

[22:26]  Amazing. A little bit of both. Yeah. I mean, being able to facilitate, I realize that there's different ways of teaching, right? There is the just boring way, as you mentioned, my God, I wanna get out of here. But there's those that really make it make sense. You know, because we're all also different type of learners. Like where there's a hands on, there's the listening learners, like there's so many different ways. So yeah, I refer back to some of the teachers where I took the same class, just two different educators, and one educator made it make sense to me.

[22:28]  Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[22:30]  And I'm like, my I get it now. So a lot of the times it's just teaching. So that's why I I was even asking is because there's educators that really love what they do, you know, and try to just make it make sense. And that was my motto when I used to facilitate today's, I just wanted to make it make sense. Please ask any question. I'm gonna teach you three different ways so that you figure it out. And it looks like that's what Mr. Murphy was doing for you to make sure that you understood it. So and not that we weren't smart kids. I like I like how you said school was it's not that we weren't smart, it's just school wasn't our as your word would say, not our jam.

[22:32]  Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's not my gym. Not my gig. and then I went to college and just fell in love with it 'cause it was all the things I wanted to know. I w I wasn't sitting in a math class. That wasn't my favorite. but you know, college I I ended up, you know, walking in with a psychology major. I was declared right away for that reason. And then I actually ended up double majoring. I loved school so much, right? in in sociology and criminal justice. So,

[22:34]  Kristen. I love it. Yeah.

[22:36]  really, really changed as I walked out of high school because of this. I walked into college, you know, head down. I mean my father said, my mom and dad will say it all the time, we either thought you were gonna drop out within the first, you know, semester or you'd be running the school by the end of the first semester. and so yeah, every club, everything I could get in involved in I was.

[22:38]  I love it. That so cool. what made the d what made the difference between 'cause to me, I felt that like I was dumb in high school, but then when I got to college, I was like a three point five student. I'm like, holy crap. What do you think the difference was there?

[22:40]  my father telling me he's paying lots of money for school. No, that's probably some of it. but you know, I I I I decided that okay, this is up to me now. It's not here, do this worksheet, turn it in, take a multiple choice test to have your memorization tested. It's very different in college. You're reading, you're having discussions, you're writing papers of your own opinion, thought, and research, right? more autonomy.

[22:40]  yeah.

[23:09]  That's who I am. I like to be autonomous. I'm absolutely a team player. but in college I was able to sort of be and do who I wanted to be and, you know, did the things I was doing because it was specifically psychology. So I just had more investment in it.

[23:19]  Love it. you said you had a son or daughter?

[23:30]  I have two sons. Mm-hmm.

[23:32]  Two little boys. How not little boys. How old are these kids?

[23:34]  Gavin is nineteen and Maddox is fifteen. Gavin is nineteen in age, but he has a very rare chromosome disorder that less than two hundred and seventy people have in the world called Alfie syndrome. So Gavin, even though he's nineteen in age, is more like a four or five year old in sort of how he interacts with the world.

[23:58]  Yeah. Still the light of the party.

[24:00]  gosh, he's the sweetest kid ever. very not a behavioral kid in any any sort of way. you know, wouldn't hurt a fly. Very gentle, very very happy child most of the time. but yeah, he's he's a joy to be around and and taught me a lot about patience and how I view the world.

[24:20]  Love it. Mm. I love it. And I love you mentioned patience. You know, one of the b things I felt like kids taught me, I two. I'm very early stages, so I have a two and a five year old. and they both don't act their age. They both think they're grown. And but it is patience. It truly is patience. and and what a what a joy it is. You know, the work that we were doing, we were always doing, but then to know that you have these kids and you're really pouring into them, which is kind of what led me to this question is when you think about your kids, what do they you want to them to remember about their mom? Like

[24:34]  Mm-hmm.

[24:48]  Who she was as a person.

[24:51]  I want them to know if I had to ask them in, you know, thirty years, what do you remember about who I am and what I was to you is that I was always there. no matter what the situation, good, bad or ugly, I could always count on mom to support, guide, to pick up the pieces, right? I think that's one I've so much love. get I give them constantly love and kisses and texts and you know, I love you, how you doing, right? Even those little touch points. I think if I could You know, that would be my legacy of that I was always there and that I gave them so, so much love.

[24:51]  Love it. Moms are underrated. I don't think that I had the experience of some that some may have with their moms growing up. I definitely am more grateful for her now as an adult. But seeing the work that my wife puts in out with these two kids, every day is a new day. you know, you still gotta show up no matter what's going on in your life, right? And that's what you mentioned. I was always there. No matter if something was going on in my life mentally, I showed up. you know, were we perfect? I don't know that anybody is so.

[24:51]  Yeah.

[25:55]  Yeah, Kristen, I I I love it. What what good words. and to see your colleagues, those that may be in a space of asking themselves, Why am I still why am I still doing it? What is your words of encouragement for them to keep going?

[26:08]  There is always a why behind the reasons we do the things. And for me, we talked about sort of that access to care and providing the care to folks that really need it and deserve it. So that's my why. You have to have your own why in this field. you have to have a good oper, you know, sort of a good operative, you know, operative self-care. I the word self-care is not my favorite, but there has to be a place in which you Find a way to create boundaries for yourself, compartmentalize yourself, fill your cup up. and why is because someone out there you change their life. Even if it's one person behind a closed door, don't give up. There's another person that you're they'll you'll change their life as well. but being able to have good self-care routines, really have good boundaries and always remembering your why, right? And there are times every once in a while. Where I'm like, it's been a day, it's been a week, it's been a month, and I'll just remind myself there's eighty thousand people out there getting services. So what that your teams went down for the day. there's eighty thousand people out there that are getting services because of the clinics we've built, and I just try to remind myself every day, to keep going and it's worth it. It's worth it in the end.

[27:28]  I love it. And what a conversation we had today. What could people find more information about what you guys are doing in the mass area?

[27:33]  So they can go to our transformations care network dot com. There's a website there. It shows you all of our locations. there's a web form if you're interested in services. It'll also show you some of our clinics. There's plenty of pictures of our therapists and prescribers on there, and we have a central intake phone number they can give a call anytime to refer.

[27:56]  I love it. Guys, these are the conversations that we're having with leaders that are just like you, that understand that every day is not gonna be a good day, but you still gotta show up 'cause eighty thousand people are getting that services because of you. and people like Kristen. So thank guys so much for watching. Make sure you guys do subscribe, like and comment. I'm Ephraim. This is Kristen. We'll catch you on the next one. Latest.