Dr. David Feinberg is rarely satisfied and that’s a good thing when you’re trying to reinvent the healthcare system. Feinberg, one of America’s top 100 healthcare leaders, will lead Google’s health strategy beginning in January.
Feinberg is currently the CEO of Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health, but Feinberg’s reputation as a transformative leader began the day he took over as CEO of the UCLA hospital system in 2007. Feinberg turned around a highly complex organization with low patient satisfaction scores, and he did so an astonishingly short amount of time. The lessons he learned will serve him well at Google, and provides a roadmap for any leader.
UCLA Health ranked in the 38th percentile for patient satisfaction when Feinberg agreed to run the system. During his tenure, UCLA’s patient satisfaction scores skyrocketed and catapulted UCLA to the top 1% of all academic hospitals in the country. And Feinberg still wasn’t happy. Statistically, ranking among the top hospitals still meant that 15 out of 100 patients were unsatisfied. Although most CEOs in any industry would be thrilled to land in the top one percent, Feinberg isn’t like most leaders. “I wanted to know why 15 patients didn’t receive the highest level of compassion and empathy,” Feinberg told me.
David Feinberg’s turnaround strategy for hospitals is like watching a master class in interpersonal communication.
Listening tours sparked a new mission statement. When Feinberg stepped into his role as CEO of UCLA Health, he went on a listening tour. He spent two to four hours a day knocking on doors, sitting on patient’s beds, and asking questions about the quality of their care. In a move that stunned his colleagues, he gave patients a business card with his personal cellphone number.
Feinberg learned two things from his listening tours. First, UCLA’s healthcare providers performed medical miracles every day. Second, he learned that the organization had focused so much on procedures and technology that it had forgotten “the face of the patient.”
Feinberg’s 3-step transformation strategy. Feinberg’s first step was to redirect the ship was to create and communicate a new mission that would serve as a guide for the organization’s 7,000 employees. The new mission read: “Healing humankind one patient at a time by improving health, alleviating suffering and delivering acts of kindness.” Feinberg told me that it was the first time an academic hospital in America had put “kindness” as the core of its mission. Some didn’t buy in immediately. Feinberg was told that it would be impossible to raise patient satisfaction scores because of the complexity of the procedures the hospital performed. Feinberg wasn’t deterred.
Feinberg’s second step was to walk the talk. He didn’t delegate the transmission of the mission to HR or marketing. Feinberg himself consistently communicated the mission in his words and actions. He put “the face of the patient” in every discussion and every meeting. Monthly leaders meetings no longer started with metrics and financials. Feinberg began every meeting with patient stories in the form of letters, feedback, or visits by actual patients. “Storytelling is the key leadership tool,” Feinberg told me. “I think of myself as the chief storytelling officer.”
Feinberg’s third step was to create a communication structure that all employees could follow as a guidelines. The acronmyn—CICARE—detailed specific behaviors that would lead to an exceptional experience for patients and their families. I explained the formula in this column based on my first interview with Feinberg. The communication formula that Feinberg and his team developed at UCLA is now used at some of the world’s leading healthcare organizations, including Stanford Health Care.
According to CNBC, Feinberg will report to the head of Google’s artificial intelligence division. In an interview for my column, artificial intelligence expert Kai-Fu Lee, author of AI Superpowers, said leaders who are best positioned to lead the future will be creative, empathetic, inspire teamwork, and communicate effectively. Based on Lee’s leadership qualities, Feinberg seems like an excellent choice to lead Google’s health initiatives.
While we don’t know how exactly how Feinberg will organize Google’s health strategy, when he takes over in January, we do know how he’ll approach his work. Feinberg will go on a listening tour, he will communicate his vision clearly and consistently and, most important, he’ll remind everyone that humans do not serve algorithms; algorithms serve the humans that created them.