In this special episode of our podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kimberly Grana, the Vice President of Valley Oaks Medical and the newly appointed President of the Healthcare Leaders Association of Nevada. Kimberly shared insights into the formation of the Healthcare Leaders Association and its focus on local healthcare efforts.
We delved into the importance of community in healthcare, discussing how collaboration and communication among healthcare providers can significantly impact patient care. Kimberly emphasized the value of having a strong network of healthcare professionals who are dedicated to putting patients first and working together towards a common goal.
The conversation also touched on the significance of creating a positive work culture within healthcare organizations. Kimberly highlighted the importance of leadership, transparency, and accountability in fostering a supportive and engaging work environment. She shared her experiences in managing teams and emphasized the role of effective communication and resourcefulness in problem-solving.
Additionally, we discussed the upcoming “Beating the Odds” annual conference hosted by the Healthcare Leaders Association. The conference aims to bring together industry leaders, subject matter experts, and healthcare professionals to discuss key topics such as billing, culture, staffing, and industry trends. Kimberly expressed her excitement for the event and highlighted the valuable insights and networking opportunities it will provide for healthcare leaders in the community.
Full Transcript
DIEGO TRUJILLO:
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Diego Trujillo, the CEO of Las Vegas Heels, here with a special episode, a good friend of mine that is joining me from Valley Oaks Medical. She is the vice president, Kimberly Grana. How are you doing today?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Very good. Yeah. A longtime friend and Las Vegas native, much like you.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Las Vegas native. You know what’s funny? I just, the last person I interviewed was also a Las Vegas native, but we always get very excited.
KIMBERLY GRANA: My, my family, my children are the third generation born and raised.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So funny thing. We said the exact same thing because he was first generation. I was like, you know, you never meet anyone that’s a Las Vegas native. He goes, and when I told him, I was like, when you do, they have three, four generations here. And we started laughing and sure enough, what lands into the studio? Well, it’s fantastic having you here today. How has, uh, how’s your morning been? Your commute went well?
KIMBERLY GRANA: I’m right down the street from you, so it’s actually lovely.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: It’s wonderful. Have you been a lot of stress? We have some announcements that we want to discuss today, right? Because we saw something pop up regarding the Healthcare Leader Association of Nevada. It is. And so we saw your recent appointment as president. Is that correct? Yes. And I immediately thought, hmm, I don’t know anything about this. I would love to learn more. And I figured if I knew about it, I’m sure people would like to learn a little bit more about what the Healthcare Leaders Association is. when it was founded, what you guys do, and kind of digging a little bit about what you guys have cooking along.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Thanks for bringing me in. I appreciate it. The Medical Group Management Association, the MGMA, has a national organization and then we had a small local following. They’ve kind of taken a pivot where they’re going away from local and they’re focusing more on national and organizational memberships. And so as an organization and a local, I was the president of the Nevada MGMA, we felt that really local healthcare and having that local presence is so detrimental to what we do on a day-to-day basis, that we actually broke away from that and started the Healthcare Leaders Association of Nevada. And we just view this as an incredible, just incredibly exciting opportunity for us as healthcare leaders to step to the front and come together as a profession to lead our community. We have decided to make this change because Healthcare is local, and it’s important to keep education and efforts at a local level.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And I couldn’t agree with you more, especially when you’re talking about Las Vegas. And you’re born and raised here. We have a different mentality culture kind of growing up, but when it comes to healthcare and just the industry in general, it’s always very interesting to watch people come in from the outside. because they’re very confident, rightfully so, because we dominated Texas, and then we went into New Mexico, and then we hit Arizona, and they just come and make a splash, try for two years in Vegas, and just, what’s wrong with this place, right? And it’s not that there’s anything wrong, we’re just very localized. There’s a lot of preferences, people, et cetera, of how we operate. So having grown up here in Las Vegas, do you feel that gives you insight into how that looks? How did you end up at this position? I wanna take a step back with the healthcare leaders of America.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Association. Geez, it’s like three degrees of separation. It’s a very, very small healthcare community here in Las Vegas. There’s what, over three million people, but a very small healthcare community. And I think people have long memories. And when you have proven that you are good at what you do, that you can prove that you’re going to do what you say you’re going to do, that resonates and having that trusted partner that you can rely on is invaluable. I think that’s anywhere.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Is this something that as a child even you were like, you know what, I need to be a person that does what they do. What was your formation in that? How did you land in this role? What did you find yourself? We mentioned earlier, right, the vice president of Valley Oaks. Is that where you started in healthcare?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Oh, absolutely not. I was going to change the world. I was going to be a doctor. I was going to save everybody and everything. And then I was working at St. Rose Hospital, DeLima, because that was only St. Rose open way, way back in the 90s. And I was working bed control and admitting.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Was this your first job in health care?
KIMBERLY GRANA: It was my first job in health care, and I was studying for my MCATs that weekend. And an OB-GYN came in, and she was sobbing. And she was like, I never see my family. She’s like, do anything else in health care. You saw the cost. Like struggle.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah. Is there another way to save the world?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Yeah. So I pivoted. I went into ultrasound. My degree is in ultrasound. I started working for, um, at St. Rose hospital. I worked into ultrasound for many years. I worked there for, um, for 13 years and then I worked for a cardiologist for, um, 18 years and I just, I grew up through healthcare.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: At what point—so you’re now the president of the Leaders Association, the Healthcare Leaders Association. At what point did leadership become something that you either found an interest or a talent or a knack? At what point did you start realizing, huh?
KIMBERLY GRANA: It was so funny because I was just doing ultrasound in someone’s office and they’re like, you have it together. You’re raising your family. You have these great kids. You can run my practice. That’s just an easy transition. You can just go from running your home to running a medical office. But I jumped in with both feet. And I’ve always kind of been extra. If you’re going to do something, do it 110%. Go for it. So I just took that in. And I right away joined the MGMA, the HFMA, the ACAG. And I formed my community. I’m like, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to need resources. I’m going to need family. I’m going to need a community. That’s very interesting.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So you immediately identified the need to have that support system in place to help you grow.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Absolutely. And so I started on this journey and I went and I found subject matter experts. I went to people who are industry leaders already. How did you do that? What do I do here? What do I do in this situation? And they really helped mold me into the leader that I am. And I think that our Healthcare organizations as a whole, the Nevada Healthcare Forum, I’ve been on that board for six years. They have an incredible organization. They do a wonderful event every single year. They bring the community together and they help educate and kind of create just the next leaders in healthcare in Las Vegas and I appreciate that.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And I think that community is incredibly important. I mean, and aside from the, it’s lonely at the top, and all those, right, more traditional sayings, when you’re shaping a community, right, you typically have two groups of people. The ones that will, you know, complain about it, right, which we’ll see. I think it’s funny, we were just talking, someone posted something on Facebook, like, doing nothing but complaining, and someone shared it to me. And I was like, wow, I wonder what they’re actually doing, aside from making a post, right? So all you’re doing is kind of complaining in public. And there’s people that go, man, something has to be done, right? And kind of roll up their sleeves. And you find yourself frustrated. I know for me, sometimes I feel like the little red hen, just asking, who will help me pick this weed? Who will help me? And then it’s just, who will help me eat the bread? Oh, yeah, yeah, we’ll help you eat the bread, right? And so it gets a little frustrating, but being around like-minded people, what environment did that create for you? Where do you think that really started? Did it change your thought process, your mentality? Was it the resources? What do you feel was the most important at connecting with those communities?
KIMBERLY GRANA: I’ve always been the kind of person where there’s a problem, there’s a solution for every problem. There just is. We just have to figure it out. And if you get really bright people in a room, you can sort through. I really don’t think there’s anything you can’t work through. So I have always believed that. And having this forum full of really bright, intelligent people who are problem solvers, who know the landscape, because healthcare becomes, you know, putting out fires. And I want to, and while that’s necessary, there’s also a point where you can be proactive and learn from people who’ve already been there, done that. And I’m big on, Especially in Las Vegas. Yeah. I don’t want to make my own mistakes. I want to learn from your mistakes. I’m going to make my own. I know it.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: What was the expression? A wise person. What is it? A fool learns from their own mistake. A wise person learns from other people’s mistakes. Correct. So it’s good to be in that environment. At least you’re able to learn from those experiences. So what landed you eventually at Valley Oak? So you’re telling us, right? You were for 18 years in a cardiology office?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Yes, and then I went and I started consulting on my own. I moved around a little bit and I had a very, very good friend named Sherry who decided to take on this private equity group. Someone had just gone and bought a bunch of medical practices with You know, just thinking that’s how you do it. You just go and you buy medical practices, right? There’s no standardization. There’s nothing that has to go into it. They’ll run themselves. No. So she brought this incredible team together and we dug in and really cleaned it up and then that individual sold. Valley Oaks to Apollo Medical Holdings, which is a billion dollar company that’s publicly traded out of California. They have IPAs mainly. So they’ve been in that market. And we were their first like clinic group.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And IPAs for everyone listening that might not recognize what an IPA is.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Good question. It is an independent physician association. So it’s a group of physicians that come together and create a small, narrow network to provide really great care. Some people would refer to these as HMOs, but common ones here in Nevada, just as a basis of comparison, would be like P3. Optum, and so you have the certain providers that are within that network, and you stay to your network. It’s like a referral.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: What’s the benefit of staying within that network out of curiosity? Some people find frustration in that, right? They find it limiting, and I want to have choice, but there are benefits to having that network, correct?
KIMBERLY GRANA: 100%.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Well, what are some of those benefits?
KIMBERLY GRANA: So the benefits are, so we participate in value-based care. And everybody talks about value-based care. What is value-based care?
DIEGO TRUJILLO: We only have four hours for the podcast.
KIMBERLY GRANA: No, I’m kidding. I’m joking.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: You’re like, let’s dive in. No, but this is very important stuff.
KIMBERLY GRANA: So value-based care? So the government, for so many years, had done this fee-for-service, where you’re sick, and you go to the doctor, and they’ll reimburse you for whatever services you provided. that’s
DIEGO TRUJILLO: For me, right, my parents are both Colombian, and I was around a lot of Hispanics, and there was always this perception of, yeah, all they wanna do is just treat you, treat you, treat you, treat you, and I would, even now, they’ll bring that up, I’ll be like, yeah, that may have been the case in some places at some time, this is the reason why value-based care is kind of changing that, and I’ll explain, right? The incentive is, did they get healthy? Do they need to come back every week for a Band-Aid? Something’s wrong, why is it not healing, right? So a lot of questions, get asked, instead of treating patients would being the incentive, the main incentive shifts over, right? Where it starts focusing more on what are the outcomes? What are you doing? Do you find that to do much easier in a group?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Oh, absolutely. Especially having the backing of, you know, your corporate partner. We’re opening an innovation clinic just down the street.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: That sounds very exciting. We just did an episode on innovation mentality here in Las Vegas.
KIMBERLY GRANA: I love it.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And we’re having, they’re bringing in an innovation expert. from Sweden to come speak on the mindset that it takes to be innovative as a city, as a society, as a culture, and as a business.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Just now that you bring that up. So I already love the name. Yeah, I will definitely be part of that.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And this is recorded at the Blackfire Innovation Center, right?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Nice! Okay. That’s exciting.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So what is your innovation clinic? I’d love to hear more about this.
KIMBERLY GRANA: So what we did is we took our corporate office of Valley Oaks Medical Group, all the primary care clinics, the MSO, this supports services for the clinics. We provide billing, medical records, prior auth and referrals, things like that, the services to take out the administrative burden from the office. So we provide that at our corporate office. And then we also have a clinic. And so let’s think of something. Oh, we had this company who was like, we can help you provide this incredible service to your really, really high risk patients by putting devices in their home that listen to their habits. It’s not, we’re not looking, there’s no cameras, they’re nothing. They’re just microphones that listen to how many times they flush a toilet, that listen to their cough and listen to the cough progress. And then they notify us and we take action immediately, almost like a chronic care management to the next level or something. And they use smart home technology. to do all these incredible things and help improve longevity and improve patient outcomes.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: must be a little challenging seeing that older generations read the book 1984. So you want me to put microphone. I think once you explain the benefits of it, they’re like, okay, this actually makes sense.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Well, that’s just something like we’ve been fed. There’s all these really cool, innovative ideas. That’s just something else. There’s also scribes where it’s AI listening to you do your notes. So you literally are just focusing on your patient, talking to them, having a conversation, and then AI is generating your note and closing those gaps.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So you’re just executing on new technologies.
KIMBERLY GRANA: And new technologies and then also automating things. There are so many things we do in life that can be automated.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yes. You know, there is someone I’ve been working with for a while and I kept telling him about technology. There was kind of a fear and apprehension of like wanting to learn the technology. I was like, look, if you just learn, I know just watch a 12 minute YouTube video and just look up tips and tricks on this application. And sure enough, the person calls me the next day and they go, oh my God, you’ve been telling me this for months. I just watched the video. I’ve been copying this over three different times and writing it down and blah, blah, blah. And I was just like, yeah, technology can make your life a lot easier. I think everyone’s learning that with AI.
KIMBERLY GRANA: I think so. And I think there’s that unknown factor there. And I think I like to explain it to people where I’m like, OK, remember the very first time you got a smartphone. And every time you get a new smartphone, and there’s that intimidation factor, but like after a few weeks, you’re like the pro of that smartphone. You have mastered everything. You’re constantly finding new tips and tricks, and it’s just, that’s how everything will be.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So I do that every time a new iPhone comes out. Every time the operating system updates, I’ll look up tips and tricks videos, and people are like, I didn’t know the iPhone could do that. Yes, you know they’re paying people billions of dollars to make this thing better constantly, and you’re trying to use the two-year-old version of it. So that doesn’t make sense. Right. So you’re applying this mentality then, right? This innovative mentality. What are new technologies? How can we make patients’ life safer? How do we make it easier? How do we provide better care by listening to how many times they flush the toilet? Which may sound like something very inert, but there’s a lot of things you can do with that data.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Yeah, kidney disease, renal disease, you can tell their volume overload, they’re having to run to the bathroom, you can save them before. There’s so many things, right? And so many ways that you can help improve something.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Is there anything like this in Las Vegas right now?
KIMBERLY GRANA: No, not that I’ve ever heard of before. That’s why you have the name Innovation Center. How exciting. It’s just, that’s just one thing. And there’s tons of things. Honestly, we get approached by multiple companies and we get fed people through our corporate offices that are like, oh, I heard about this thing. And they’re at the East Coast and they’re nationwide. So they’re all over, and to be honest, Las Vegas is like 10 years behind the time, or the Wild West out here for sure. I’ve always heard that.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah. You know, this is the one exciting thing, and I will make this, because people always bring up the low numbers, and well, you know, 48th in the nation. I’m like, you know, the nice thing in knowing that is a very small effort will really move the needle. I mean, getting from 48th to 30th is a lot easier than getting from 7th to 3rd, right?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Yeah.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And so it’s very interesting because you have these new technologies that you’re kind of getting fed from around the country, being able to apply them. I’m very curious to do a follow-up in a couple of years to see what the data is reflecting and what you guys are showing in your patient population. That’s got to be very exciting to kind of pioneer that.
KIMBERLY GRANA: It’s so exciting. We’re looking forward to all of the innovation and bringing these things on. And having that one clinic where you pilot it, you don’t just set it out for all of your 20 clinics all over the Valley. You pilot it in this one. You really get some feedback. And it takes a special person to be at our innovation clinic who’s willing to work with us and give us the feedback. And we want to do what’s right for our patients and for our employees and our physicians, everybody as a whole.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So do all of your clinics refer a specific patient with a need? Do they try to tell them, hey, you know, we have an innovation clinic. If you’d like to try that out, they have this new technology? Or does the innovation clinic work with all your clinics?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Kind of both. I think all the things. We have a really cool integrated health model where we have doctors and mid-level providers who really specialize in different things. And so we advertise that all over our website and let them know, hey, if you need women’s health services, we have somebody who loves that and specializes in this. If you need joint injections and trigger point injections and knee injections, we have a doctor who loves doing that. And so you can pinpoint what you need, we can have referrals from within, or you can just look at the clinic that’s closest to your house and we have amazing providers.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: That’s got to be one of the exciting things about having this IPA that you had mentioned, right? This group of providers is that each one of them can specialize in a different area or push in a direction. And not just that, but as we learned in Las Vegas, right? How do you communicate that to other people? Do you need to pay someone $75,000 a year to run around and drop off flyers? Will that be effective when there is a really good solution? It’s easier to just have that network and let everyone know, hey guys, I’m doing this now. If you have any patients that can do this, right, they’re able to get the information out. It makes it more effective and more efficient.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Absolutely. And then being able to communicate that via online portal, like just you have your website, you have Instagram, you have LinkedIn, and you’re getting out the awareness. You’re making sure that the public knows about you, knows where you are, knows the services that you offer. It’s not just everybody kind of offers some things, but who offers specific things? If you don’t know, you end up going to, you know, A jack-of-all-trades. Yeah. Or some very expensive specialist for something very small that could have been done at a primary care clinic. Like, oh, I have to get this. I have a skin tag, and I want it removed. A lot of primary care doctors can do that. I could just walk in. And we have some that love cryotherapy, and they’re doing all these cool different things. But how would you know that? Yeah. And then besides letting people know how all the services that you offer, getting the feedback from them on how they like the services. And technology has arranged for… Look up our clinics. We all have 4.8 Google star ratings and hundreds and hundreds of them. People like the services.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Where can they look up your clinics?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Well… Let’s do that shameless… Let’s do the shameless flag. We are at valleyoaksmed.com.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Valleyoaksmed.com. That’s where they can find out about all these technologies, the innovation center, the locations of the clinics.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Absolutely. And actually Valley Oaks has been super supportive of the MGMA and the HLA and they host events. So we have monthly meetings at the Valley Oaks conference rooms. You can come on up. and get free education for healthcare leaders and executives, managers, supervisors about lots of different healthcare topics. We just went over HIPAA compliance and security at our last meeting, and we had an incredible subject matter expert come in and just speak to everybody. Scare everyone? Yeah, it’s true.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Everyone’s like, wait, yes, it’s that serious.
KIMBERLY GRANA: I know, I never thought of this. And it’s so great because there’s so many people participating that they’re like, oh, I did this. And you’re like, oh my gosh, I never thought of that. Just so many different things. I’ll give you a for instance, just for anybody listening. For those of you who don’t know what a business associate agreement is, you should have business associate agreements with everyone. And we went through. People didn’t know they should probably have one for even the drug reps that come in their office because when you’re talking to your physician, you’re going to say something about one of their patients that they happen. So get the business associate agreement with them. Get it with your IT company. Get it with your cleaning crew. Get it with all these different things. You can never be too safe.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, and it helps to protect. And I think the nice thing about subject matter experts is they kind of paint sometimes the worst, because they see the worst stories on a continuous basis. So things that would never occur to you. And they’re like, well, actually, there was this doctor in Michigan. And then you go through and you’re like, oh, my God. Yeah, I don’t want that to happen. And it’s very small things that you could do that could really improve the safety of your operation.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Absolutely. It’s those things. And then it’s just learning tips and tricks for just medical group management and just being part of a medical group or a small doctor’s office to help manage it better. Because you’re surrounded by a community of people who’ve been there, done that for years and years. So you can benefit from their knowledge and the things that they’ve been through.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And what you were saying earlier, for the people that are just starting early in their career, right? To be able to get connected to a community of people that really face the same problems, just because you’re new doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t know what you’re talking about or you don’t have any good ideas. We all learn from each other, and I think that’s kind of the critical part.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Absolutely. I love that. I love when somebody comes in. Well, in school we talked about, really? I never learned that in school. I had to learn it on the job. Now we’re teaching. Yeah, it’s pretty great.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So you guys have an event coming up. You mentioned that Valley Oaks has supported you with your work inside of the MGMA, which is the Medical Group Management Association, as well as the HLA. Now that the HLA is kind of pushing, I’m seeing you guys had an event. And that’s what kind of sparked. I was like, well, you should come talk about the event and share. Yes. For the people listening. So you have the Beating the Odds annual conference that’s coming. Tell us a little bit about the conference.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Oh, it’s pretty amazing. We have subject matter experts in all aspects of leadership and healthcare and the things that you should know. And there’ll be vendors there giving away prizes and getting to network with local healthcare leaders all over. There’ll be incredible panels of industry leaders. And we’re very, very excited. Yeah.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Is there any specifics that have really caught your interest? You were very excited. What is one speaker or someone that, well, we’ll say within the top three so you don’t single anyone out. Is there any subject that you’re like, oh, this is very exciting. We have this person sharing.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Yeah. Billing. I think anytime you hear about billing and collections and things like that, that’s always a big draw. People want to know about that. I’m talking, myself, I’m a speaker, talking about accountability, culture, and staffing. So then you do have a favorite speaker. Right. No, not myself, for sure.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: No, you mentioned culture. Sorry to interrupt. Culture, staffing.
KIMBERLY GRANA: And then we have an industry panel. I’m super excited about that. So we have Senator Fabian Donate is going to be on the panel. And we have another CMO that we’ve invited. I can’t say who yet. And a hospital CEO who will probably be on it. And we’re going to put together this incredible panel for you just to know what’s going on in this health care, this local health care community.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, I think that’s where the key is, right, is what distinguishes us because we can go online and there’s a tremendous amount of resources, but we’re not in those places. I think one of my most frustrating, you know, when you look at the legislative sessions move and they go, well, you know, California has the cap set. And I was like, well, Do they have the same challenges as us? Like, I understand we want to base ourselves off someone, somebody else here. You know, we don’t want to pioneer brand new laws. But at the same time, are we taking into account the differences in our community, the challenges in our community? You mentioned while you were speaking that you were speaking on culture. And I’d like to dig in a little bit because I’ve dedicated the last three years of my life at Workforce Pipeline. And along the way, one of the challenges that I have seen is just the cultural and generational change in values when it comes to jobs. And so for me, and I always explain this to people, for me growing up, every job always felt like, well, you’re very lucky that we give you a paycheck. All right, you’re very blessed to have this job, so you don’t want to mess this up for yourself, right? And I feel like the younger generation doesn’t seem to have that same value. I mean, we see that with the great resignation. We see that in a lot of younger people just disengaging as a whole. You mentioned culture. That has to play a huge part. And I see the culture. I mean, when you post photos and the teams and everyone, how important is that? Give us a little teaser of what you’ll be talking about.
KIMBERLY GRANA: So culture can make or break your organization, to be honest. So many people have come and gone in organizations, and it’s because they don’t provide that culture. Within our organization, we pride ourselves in our retention rate. So the national health care retention rate is about 22%. at Valley Oaks. We were 4% as we’ve grown and gotten so much bigger. We’re now at 6% but that’s still an incredible retention rate. People want to work there and I think that to provide a place where people just want to go to work and they want to be involved in what everyone else is doing and they feel that leadership is very transparent and that you’re all here for, you know, the betterment of the community, of providing a good, like, work-life balance and kind of family culture. Again, I’m big on community. And that’s just, so it’s from the top down, our CEO, our CMO, myself, and it’s just creating that community where we have our big corporate office that’s like the aunts and uncles and cousins and then each individual you know medical clinic is your own little tight-knit family because at the end of the day you’re with your work family more hours of the day than even your home life. So make those important, make those meaningful.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And I think like something that you said, right, is creating the family environment. Because I used to get very bothered when companies would say that and be like, you know, we’re like a family. I’m like, okay, do we all share in the profits? Are we all eating off of this? Yeah, no, we’re not. We’re not being included, right? I never was able to buy in because they were just saying it. They weren’t creating an actual environment. And there have been other places I have worked at where there was that loyalty stemming from the leader. that would really show that not just with me, but with every employee would share that interest. And just to, you know, it’s funny that you bring that up, because I do have some data on that. On this book that I was reading called Connectable, they were talking about the isolation and disconnection. And it makes your team seven times more likely to disengage, five times more likely to miss work, three times more likely to underperform, and three times more likely to quit. And that’s just because you did not create an environment. And sometimes when I consult with different companies and speak with them and you ask them these questions, it’s always put off on the employees. And the frustrating thing for me, I think the leader always takes responsibility. It should always be that way. Someone walks away, even if it wasn’t your responsibility at the end of the day, if they didn’t follow you, then you didn’t lead right, right? And so there’s always a lesson to be learned as a leader. And sometimes that could be a little rough. I don’t know if you’ve gone through that.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Absolutely.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yeah, you have people walking when you’re like, but why are they? man, I really messed up in this. Maybe I was too demanding, or I didn’t create that environment. And so, they talked about team belonging. At this conference, I was, or in the book that I was reading, and as they were discussing, right, with recruitment, 167, when they engaged their team, 167% were more likely to recommend their employer to work. They had a 56% increase in job performance, 75% reduction in employee sick days, and 313% had less intent to quit their job. And this is fascinating because as I’m speaking with we started a human resources task force within heels because I realized. If I’m going to build a pipeline from the school district right and the post-secondary educators to the workforce and the employers catch the ball and fumble it nonstop and so I started putting the group together and I kind of asked. As I was building the strategy, it was very funny to me. I was speaking with one of the facilities, and the HR manager goes, why would I want to hand off my employee to somebody else? And I was like, you know, the fact that you would even refer to them as if they were a possession that you own, I think that from right there, your attitude, you’re starting from the wrong place. Why wouldn’t you incentivize them to stay with you over anybody else, right? And then there was arguments. No, well, people will leave for a $0.25 an hour raise. Will they? Because the data doesn’t really reflect that, right? And the person came back, no, no, they tell me for 25 cents more, they have to leave because they make more money, 25 cents more. And we’re like, we understand they tell you that. Yeah, that’s what they’re saying. So you’ll be delving into all these things in culture. I think for me, this is probably one of the greatest challenges in the city. And I’m very excited to hear you address this. Because I realized early on, someone needs to work with the different people within HR. We need to reframe our perspective and the way we’re approaching, because we’re leading a completely different generation.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Yeah, I’m really excited. I’m actually on one of your committees or task forces. Yeah, you are in the HR task force. Yes, I’m super excited. They’re incredible leaders on that. We had some great discussions and one of the moderator who was kind of running the whole meeting was like, why is this important to you? Why would this matter? And I sat there and I was like, These are my future people. These are my team members. These are the people that I’m going to bring into my organization. And when I see they’ve gone through your training and they’ve actually been part of this program, I’m going to pluck those people out so fast because those are the people that are dedicated to making a better health care community.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And there’s something to be said for creating a leader versus hiring a leader. And that in hiring a leader, you become a step in somebody’s path, in their career path. But when you develop a leader, there’s a loyalty there that goes very, even if they leave the organization, they’re still very loyal. And I say that because I’m still that way. Yeah, I had one one boss when when I was younger and I still to this day, right? I’ll write her. Hey boss. How you doing? I’m not your boss anymore. Yeah, I know but you always cared about my interest and there came a point she would always tell me, you know, if you ever get a better job offer at least give me the opportunity to try and match it and one day I walked in I said, hey somebody offered me this she read over the letter and she said hey you’re a single dad, this is an incredible opportunity, I can’t match this, you need to take this opportunity. And that told me everything I needed to know, which is why I’m still loyal to that person. If I ever had to go back, absolutely, I would join that team. And so when you look at being able to empower those employees, and not just empower, because HR is not simply hiring, and their job is not necessarily empowering, their function within an organization can be very, very critical. to that corporate feel. For me, as a younger person, as a millennial, I, for me, I was always, yeah, do not trust HR. HR is just there to defend the company from anything that you could ever do. And that was the perspective that I always had, which is why I realized we really need to shift the perspective. And this is something that I read on an online forum one time. So I was like, yeah, that is kind of how they are. And, uh, I realized that we need to retrain HR to start appearing or working as an ally with employees and understanding that you’re standing in the gap, that you’re a bridge. It’s not just a one-way road. Have you experienced those struggles as you’ve worked?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that creating the conversation that HR just makes recommendations. The HR laws are set up actually to protect employees. Oh, we’re going to clear it up here. All right. From their organization. They just are. And as health care leaders, we rely on HR to help make recommendations. So that’s all they do. The HR doesn’t say, oh, this is how it has to be, or they say, Here are my recommendations in my organization. This is what I recommend. We can take those or we can go out. I mean, there’s a lot of you take it to your board of directors or your leaders in your organization and say, okay, here’s what the laws are. Here’s what HR’s recommendations are. What do you think? And you can decide to, you know, go with what they recommend or you can choose your own path, but then stand by that. And now you’ve set a precedence and now you just be consistent with whatever you’re doing.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Have you ever been frustrated in an HR position after you made recommendations?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Oh, 100%. Absolutely. We won’t make you name names. No, but you’re trying to do what’s best for the organization and you’re trying to do the right thing and then they’re just kind of fighting against it. Sometimes they don’t see it. Yeah, or maybe don’t realize you know, that’s okay for right now in this one instance, but you have to think about five years from now, and now you’ve set a precedent, and things like that.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So even in HR, you have to lead the leadership, yeah? It’s how you present the information, how you guide them.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Yeah, you have to be fair, and you just have to think about, you have to really put that non-partial kind of hat on that, okay, I don’t know this person. This is, you know, someone walking on the street, What would I tell them if this person worked at Albertsons? What would I tell them? How would I instruct them on what to do? And just not be partial and really be fair.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Okay, and how are you going to prevent yourself from going crazy organizing this event and then also being a speaker at the event?
KIMBERLY GRANA: I have an amazing executive assistant. She’s absolutely wonderful and she helps keeping me on track. And you know, just again, community. Community. You lean on the right people. Yeah, my husband, he’s a retired fire chief. OK. And he helps me out at home while he’s going through pilot training. He wants to be a pilot. Good for him. Yeah. All right. I commend him on that. Super exciting. And so he supports me at home. Then I have my incredible team at work. They just are. We have a bunch of just the A-team, high performers that we don’t micromanage. We just appreciate them, let them loose, trust that they’re going to do their job, and they do, and they do what they say they’re going to do.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: That’s a wonderful attitude. Again, talking about leadership, right? People want to do a good job. They want to be empowered. There’s nothing like snipping your wings like a micromanager, someone being on top of you. Even with my teams, I can tell when people come to work on a team, They’ll come to work on my team, and when they work with me, well, should I change this font? Listen, I don’t care about the font. Whatever you feel is best. If you make a drastic error, please let me, like, we’ll sit down and we’ll discuss it. But other than that, just do what’s best and make sure that if I ask you, well, why did you make that decision, that that’s justifiable, that you were making that decision for the good of the company or the organization or whatever the vision is. And so it’s important when you have that, it’s very difficult to let go if you’re a perfectionist. But once you find that rhythm and you start seeing people reach their potential, it’s even more exciting than doing everything perfectly yourself. In addition to being able to actually scale. So how did you convince your husband to be a pilot?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Right? We see what the real angle is here. Oh, he loves it. He just loves it. And I love it. I’m the paparazzi. You’re documenting the trips. Yes, I document everything. I love flying with him. It’s just wonderful.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Do you feel like your attraction has grown since he’s been a pilot?
KIMBERLY GRANA: I’m going to sell everyone on aviation. Absolutely. I mean, come on. He was, listen, he drove fire trucks. He had the whole suit and everything, and that was hot. Okay. This is the next level.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Oh, I also fly planes.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Yes. I mean, come on.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Yes. So you got to work on yourself. We’re giving some relationship advice now as well, right? If you work on yourself, then the relationship will improve.
KIMBERLY GRANA: I think so. I think that, again, having your community and having everybody that’s good at something. Everybody has to be the boss. So I’m the boss of my area. You’re the boss of your department. My husband’s the boss of our home. He’s our event coordinator. He takes care of things. He’s the CFO and the CEO there. And then I have my work, and I’m the master of this domain. And I think everybody having their thing that they’re responsible for, they take ownership of, and they do what they say they’re going to do, and that’s how you become successful.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: I think that’s the key. I mean, you really hit on something. I almost want to ask you, at what age you realized that? Because when it comes to problem-solving and doing what you say you’re going to do, so those were things that I just kind of figured everyone did. I even remember an email signature. Someone would send an email. At the end, they would always put, I was put on this earth to solve problems. And in my head, I would kind of roll my eyes and go, well, that’s kind of dumb. Like, weren’t we all? And then I started meeting other people, and I was just like, wow. Like, well, yeah, but I can’t do this because of this one barrier. Okay, well, then do it this way. Oh, okay. Or not even when you have the solution, I would tell them, well, I hired you. All I’m going to do is Google it and then give you the answer, or you could just Google it. And then they’d be like, all right, all right, I’ll look it up. I’m like, yeah, solve the problem, right? People hit these challenges and immediately just freeze.
KIMBERLY GRANA: I think it’s part of your leadership style, right? You’re confident in saying, okay, everybody, come on, Google. We have Google, we have Alexa, you have Siri, you have all these things. You have resources at your fingertip, but you’re creating an AI community. It all comes back to your community.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: It’s something that’s very interesting, and I agree with you fully. So when we founded Vegas Healthcare, the other organization that I run, that was the one thing that was, you know, bringing community back into healthcare. It didn’t, at the ground level of the healthcare workers, it didn’t feel like there was a community. It was competition and, you know, If four marketers went on a referral, they would stand outside of the room, the patient’s room, and just scowl at each other the entire time, until each one would be called in one at a time. And I thought, this is ridiculous. This person’s dying. Whoever provides the service that they need, that this family, not everyone does the exact same thing, that’s the person that should take care of them. It would make sense. I mean, we’d all, you know, and I would find the irony in talking to people, and they would be like, oh no, this company that I’m working for now, this is the best company. I have ever been. And then they were in another company six months after, and I’m like, oh no, but these guys are just incredible. I’m like, could it be that multiple companies do multiple good things, right? That we have differences? And so it was very eye-opening to me once you saw the community begin to function when it came to coordination of care. And we’re talking on a more lower level, right? Not so much the leadership that we were talking about earlier of developing vision and strategies and how do we want to develop health care in our city. But this is looking at it from a different perspective of right on the ground level, the coordination of care, but it all comes down to just human beings working together. I mean, I recently read a study that, or a report that the reason physicians, the residents didn’t want to stay in Las Vegas for the first time, it wasn’t the Medicaid rates, it wasn’t reimbursement, it was coordination of care. And for me, I felt like I was getting punched in the stomach. as a native-born Las Vegan, because that’s not a grant issue. That’s not that they haven’t funded it enough. We just need to know each other and know what everyone does.
KIMBERLY GRANA: It’s a shortage issue, and again, that’s the benefit. We talked about having IPAs. We talked about narrow networks. We talked about having your referral community. That’s the benefit of that. Any one of my doctors or even my front desk could call a cardiologist and be like, oh, so-and-so has this patient. They need you to get in. I mean, they need you to see them right away. And they’ll get them in. And so having that, having those people, having those partners that are just dedicated to putting patients first and doing the right thing.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And they all know they have the same goal and objective of doing what you just said, right? Putting patients first, and they know what their lane is. Hey, this is about where I get. If you go to this person, he can help you a little bit more. And being able to have that communication, being able to have that discussion, being able to call the other doctor, text them, hey, this is the issue. This patient came in and said, you said this. Oh, no, no, no. What’s happening is, right, having that clear explanation, because sometimes it’s not so clear. So then doctors are just kind of trying to guess, well, what did the other guy mean, right? When I have a cell phone number, I can just ask them, what did you mean by this? It makes it a little bit easier. I’m assuming, right? I’ve not been in your role.
KIMBERLY GRANA: 100%. I always tell people, because I’ve had people ask me, how did you get here? How do I sit in your seat? And I’m like, I’m not the smartest person in the room. I never, ever, ever claim to be at all. But you have Google. No, I’m kidding. I am resourceful. Yeah, absolutely. You’re right. That’s not a joke. It’s absolutely true. I am super resourceful.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And I’m the same way. So I grew up building computers, and people are like, man, you’re just so good with computers. How do you know this? Well, I just type whatever the problem is into Google. Really, and that’s it? But what do you write? What is it doing? That’s what I write. And they’re just, they’re blown away. I’m like, you realize, again, this company spends billions of dollars to give you the right answer. So even if you mess up on the question, more than likely, you’ll be able to find the right answer, or at least know how to ask, right?
KIMBERLY GRANA: Absolutely.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: So it’s being resourceful in that area. And a lot of people, They just hit that wall and they just don’t know where to where do I get the information. And it’s always good to be around resourceful people, not because they always give you the answer, but because they teach you to be resourceful. They teach you to go seek out the answer and how to filter through answers. How exciting. I’m really looking forward to this conference. Again, ladies and gentlemen, it’s April 12th. This is the 2024 annual conference called Beating the Odds. by the Healthcare Leaders Association of Nevada. And with us today was President Kimberly Grana. Thank you very much for coming on.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Thank you.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: And what day are you going to be speaking all day? You’ll be there all day.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Yeah, I’m the keynote speaker and I opened the conference.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Fantastic. So make sure to get there early and stay till the end, ladies and gentlemen. Is there anything else you’d like to tell the audience today as we say goodbye?
KIMBERLY GRANA: We’re always looking for healthcare professionals to join in support of the organization, volunteering for a position on our board or one of our committees. Everyone is welcome. We want you to be part of improving the local landscape of healthcare in Nevada. So please join us, join us at the conference, join us at our monthly meetings. We meet the second Wednesday of every single month and you can look at our website www.hlanv.org
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Fantastic. And that’ll have all the contact, the LinkedIn, all the information will be there for everybody.
KIMBERLY GRANA: Correct. Thank you so much for having me, Diego. I really appreciate it.
DIEGO TRUJILLO: Thank you very much for coming on, and I definitely want to go on the plane when I get a shot. Absolutely. No, that’s very exciting for me. Thank you very much for listening, ladies and gentlemen, and we will see you on April 12th at the Beating the Odds conference. Have a great day.
