Sue Schade, CIO, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Partners Healthcare
As hospitals in other countries look to expand their health IT presence, they often look to organizations like Partners Harvard Medical International for guidance. It’s precisely why Brigham and Women’s Hospital CIO Sue Schade recently took a trip to India. For Schade, however, sharing her expertise on IT planning helped open her own eyes to both the similarities and differences between healthcare in the United States and India, and helped her develop a better understanding of the strategies employed by major US-based vendors. In this interview, Schade, who has been CIO of the 793-bed hospital since 2000, talks about the experience she had with PHMI, and the value of taking time away from work.
Chapter 2
- The importance of taking a proper vacation
- Finding a sound work/life balance
- Building a staff that allows you to take a break
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I shut off completely, and people know that I shut off completely. I’ve got great people on my staff and my management team who take care of things while I’m gone, and they are able to live without me for that period of time.
For our own mental health, we have to continue strive to achieve some type of balance, and I think that the true rest time and vacation time and experiencing other things is a really important part of it.
The person who you leave in charge must have very strong credibility with your leadership team. So when I go to my boss and I say, ‘I’m gone for the next two weeks, here’s who’s in charge,’ they have no problem. They know that person is credible and they know that person will deal with things.
Guerra: We talked about something your trips—the two week vacation for example, and I always like to hear that; it makes me feel good. You get my survey that I sent out to the survey panel, and you know that I like to talk to people about the idea of work-life balance.
Schade: Yes, I saw your recent post on that.
Guerra: Right, on people not working themselves into the ground. There are people out there who have half the amount of things on their plate than you do who work seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and haven’t taken a vacation in years. What advice can you give them? How do you do it? I always say that the best and the brightest are the ones who do it, and it’s the others who sometimes just can’t stop from being overwhelmed by everything.
Schade: That’s a great question. For me, dealing with the work-life balance is tough, no question about it. I’m a workaholic; my husband will be the first to say that. He told me years ago, ‘I’ve accepted that you’re a workaholic, as long as you’re working for organization that you like and respect, and that you’re doing a job that you love. That’s good. If you’re not working in that situation, then it’s really bad to be a workaholic.’ I have taken two-week trips over the years, primary if I do go out of the country. I don’t think you can do effectively in less than that. I shut off completely, and people know that I shut off completely. I’ve got great people on my staff and my management team who take care of things while I’m gone, and they are able to live without me for that period of time. Now do I have a lot of stuff to catch up on when I come back? Absolutely. Did I have a lot of my play before I left? Absolutely. It doesn’t go away. You just have to continue to make sure you’re focusing on the highest priorities and recognize that you can’t probably get it all done.
One my former bosses used to say to me, ‘Time off is the longest running soap opera, and we’ll all be here when you get back.’ Now on the one hand, that’s kind of a negative comment, because things do seem to move slower than we like at times, but in the grand scheme of things, being away for two weeks is certainly doable. It’s interesting in an academic environment, it’s usually August when many, many people do take certainly a full week if not two full weeks of vacation, and things slow down a little bit. I tend to not take my time then. It’s a time when a lot of meetings are cancelled and I can catch up on a lot of work, so if take my week or my two weeks at a different time and I’m out of touch, it’s here when I get back, and I do the best I can to get back in on the priorities. But for our own mental health, we have to continue strive to achieve some type of balance, and I think that the true rest time and vacation time and experiencing other things is a really important part of it. My two weeks in China was certainly not relaxing—we were up every day at 6 or 6:30 a.m. for breakfast and then on the tour bus, but I had a fascinating two-week experience that was unlike my normal long day here.
Guerra: Right, well I think two points you made there are critical. One is the length—the two week length, and being able to totally shut off. If you take a few days and you never shut off, how much were you able to recharge that battery? But a real two-week break, that sounds like the way to go, if you can.
Schade: Yeah, I think a strategy of long weekends and a few days here and there—they’re not very restful. Because you work so hard before you’re gone and so hard afterwards and probably are in touch during the break because it’s just a little blip so you feel like you should stay in touch—that’s not real rest.
Guerra: The other point you made that I think is the most critical and probably the best lesson for people that find themselves overwhelmed, is that I’m guessing that they have not spent the time to develop the key staff that will allow them to be away from the work place and not stress about it. And that’s something you have to focus on; that doesn’t just happen. And you also have the confidence to delegate and not be insecure and you want to do everything yourself.
Schade: Absolutely. And the other piece of it is that the person on your management team who you leave in charge and trust must have very strong credibility with your leadership team. So when I go to my boss at Brigham and Women’s and I say, ‘I’m gone for the next two weeks, here’s who’s in charge,’ they have no problem. They know that person is credible and they know that person will deal with things.
Guerra: And you have to make that happen by the previously moving that person up—making that person invisible and giving him or her a chance, right?
Schade: Absolutely.
Guerra: You don’t want to turn over the reins and they say, ‘Who?’
Schade: Yeah, ‘I never met that person yet. Who’s in-charge?’ You don’t want that.
Guerra: Right, and just my last question. It sounds like this opportunity with PHMI was very exciting—like it really invigorated you. Would you be open to doing more of this?
Schade: If the opportunity comes up and I can fit it in, then certainly I’m open to it. I have a big day job, and similar to being invited to be on panels or speak conferences, you have to pick and choose and decide where can you give the time? Where does it make sense to give the time? It’s like I’d asked to do something like this again, I’d put it into that same mix. Can I give the time right now? Does is make sense to?
Guerra: Alright, Sue, that is all I had for you today. Is there anything else you wanted to add?
Schade: I don’t think so. It’s always the pleasure to speak with you, and I’m glad we had a chance to talk about this, which was a little bit different topic for you.
Guerra: It’s always a pleasure, and I look forward to talking with you again soon.
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