March 28, 2025 • 18 mins
Kristen Balboni speaks with Dr. Andrea Fernandez, the Regional Chief Medical Officer at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. Dr. Fernandez opens up about her passion for medicine and her journey of transitioning from a full-time practicing physician to managing her daily responsibilities, while also overseeing the role of Chief Quality, Safety, and Patient Experience Officer.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
We offer a number of different things, educational sessions, we
volunteer in the community, and we partner with community organizations
to advance awareness and understanding of the Hispanic culture and
the unique needs of this community.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to the Inspire Heer Podcast presented by Atriam Health.
This is a podcast series for Panthers fans where we
highlight admirable women from across the Carolinas as they share
stories and lessons from their lives and careers. And Joining
us today is doctor Andrea Fernandez, the regional Chief Medical
Officer for Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptists and she also
(00:36):
serves as the Chief Quality, Safety and Patient Experience Officer.
Doctor Fernandez, thank you so so much for joining us.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Thank you for having me so First.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Of all, I just I have to ask you about
this title. Wow, can you explain to me what all
of that means?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Sure? In short, it means that I'm responsible for the
quality and safety of the care that we deliver across
all all the seven hospitals in the Wake Forest market.
So that means that my number one goal is zero
preventable harm to our patients. We're a very complex system.
We have multiple parts, so ensuring a culture of safety
amongst all our teammates is critical to us being a
(01:14):
highly reliable organization.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
That's amazing and thank you for all you and your
team are doing. So I want to start with one thing.
I love asking very accomplished people. It's like, what does
your day look like from the time you get up
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Sure? So. I love on a farm, so I have
to be out before dawn. We have a donkey and
mini pony, chickens and dogs, so if their room service
breakfast is more than about five minutes late, it gets
quite loud. So my husband's buzz makes me coffee and breakfast.
I pack lunches for us, and I'm usually at work
by seven roughly. Depending on the day, I'll either be
(01:49):
in my office and start meetings around seven thirty or
on Mondays i see patients in my clinic because I'm
still a practicing og an. My favorite part of my
work morning is our daily safety huddles. So at eight
thirty every day, from seven days a week, three hundred
and sixty five days a year, we meet on our
Wednsday campus in person and on with virtual capacity, and
(02:10):
we have leaders from every department, including nursing housekeeping, security,
et cetera. And we discuss safety events that occurred over
the last twenty four hours, any concerns that our leaders
have for the day, or needs that they have to
ensure safe patient care. We always start this huddle with
safety stories and good catches and it's a great reminder
of how amazing our team is and working together to
prevent harm to our patients. So that's my best part
(02:32):
of my morning. And then my work day is it's
highly variable. I leave multiple teams here, ranging from our
CMO team, which is all my great cmas that lead
the individual hospitals, but I also lead safety and adverse
events and emergency. So my job as it changes every day,
each challenge is unique. If you say what an average
(02:54):
day is, there is no average day. But I do
have a great work family, which makes the job fun.
Sunday I'm done at six, but at least once or
twice a week I have a business diner, work dinner,
or an evening meeting with a faculty recruit, a leadership candidate,
community partner, or some other event that I need to attend.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Okay, well, we are definitely going to come back to
the farm. I can't let it go too long with
asking you about that, but I do want to ask you,
with every day being so variable and being responsible along
with your team of course, for so many different aspects,
how do you keep it all straight? And also while
being a practicing ob how do you keep it all?
Is a calendar?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Is it in your head?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
How do you do it?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So? We are very low tech at our house, my
outlook calendar. Once a week my husband and I huddle
at the breakfast table and make sure that we review
both of our calendars to know that we know where
each other are. And then we have a calendar we
put on the fridge. I mean, if there's anything obvious
that needs to be on the fridge, we put it
on the fridge because masters so we want to take
(03:53):
care of each other as well as our sometimes complex.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Jobs, absolutely asolutely. Okay, So I have to ask you
about the farm now, and we're going to get back
to all the other stuff later. What inspired you to
live on a farm.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So, in short, I grew up in Germany, and I
grew up actually half in Germany and half of the Estates.
My dad was a wide importer and so because of
that I had spent a lot of time on farms,
and my husband grew up in an apartment his whole life.
He was in an apartment his whole life until we
got married, and so he always kind of wanted to
have land. My pammy has for generations back and my
(04:34):
daughter rides. So most people get a COVID puppy or
got a COVID puppy. My family got a COVID pony.
And while Harry the hurricane, who we rescued from Hurricane
West Virginia, is a great pony, we have us saying
in our house, the closer to the ground, the closer
to the devil, and that's true for pony. So Harry
(04:56):
is a little guy, but he is quite mischievous. So
we had to get enough friend to keep him out
of trouble. And that's where Ziggy the Donkey came in.
Ziggy is a now about two year old donkey that
we rescued from South Carolina. And Ziggy is great because
when you live on a farm, and you live our
farm is actually surrounded by woods, and so we have
a lot of coyotes, we've got beyers, we've got all
(05:18):
kinds of things around us. So Ziggy is a natural
predator for those coyotes, and he keeps the pony safe.
So he is a little bit of a best friend
and also a bodyguard.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I love that. I love that. We all need a
best friend bodyguard, don't we.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Right right, It's a great thing. I wish I had one.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah. So, going back to everything that you do, you
talked about all the different teams that you work with.
What have you learned from going from, you know, just
being a practicing doctor to now being over all of
these teams. How is that transition?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Sure? So the transition wasn't something that happened over night.
My husband will tell you I should have no tattooed
across my forehead. And that's because as a practicing physician,
I would see opportunities for improvement and I would speak up.
And unfortunately, when you do that often that results in
great How are you going to help us do things
(06:10):
about it? And so, you know, early on, I realized, man,
there are things that we can do to make our
patient care more efficient, to deliver better quality of care.
I mean easy things. When I first came to Wake Forest,
we had our pregnancy clinic are so our obi clinic
was on the seventh floor, of a hospital tower. Well,
that makes a lot of sense if your labor and
(06:30):
delivery is nearby. But as it turns out, at the
time this was back in two thousand and five, our
labor and delivery was another hospital ten minutes away. So
when women in labor, they'd come in thinking they might
be in labor. They come see the doctor, the doctor checks,
someone says, yep, you're in labor. Now they have to
go down seven flights, navigate a parking deck, go ten
minutes to crowd down the road, and get to the
other hospital. So one of the first things that I said,
(06:50):
what I got there was we've got to be more
friendly to our patients, our pregnant patients, and we need
to be on the first floor of a building that
park He needs to be flat and needs to be
easy and easy out and close to where we're actually
delivering these ladies. We had some you know, interesting things
happen where women were feeling contractions, were waiting for an
elevator and couldn't get down to the first floor, so
(07:11):
they got into the fire escape and it was not
it was you know, at least once that I'm aware of,
where somebody broke their water in the fire escape, and
you don't want that to happen, right, So that's what
made us move out into our location outside of the
main medical center and allowed us to be closer to
the labor and delivery that we were delivering from. At
the time, I was also a little bit of a
rabbel rouser back then. I've gotten over that, right, But
(07:34):
as a rabble rouser, I also said, and we need
our own labor and delivery, we need our own first center.
So be careful what you wish for. Because about fifteen
years later, they tasked me and a team to go
ahead and develop that and we did. We are very
proud of the first center that we built back in
twenty nineteen, and now we can care for our patients
in the same place that we let deliver their babysot.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
That is absolutely amazing. So when you start a project
like that, like saying, okay, we all need to be
on the first floor or we are going to have
a labor center, how much of your energy goes to
those new developing projects in addition to everything that you're doing.
Are you meeting once a week or twice a week?
How does that go?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So it really depends on the project and it depends
on my role in it. So I'm you know, I'm
part of a complex health system. And while I lead
components of projects, the first center is probably the last
one that I that I had a we'll say ultimate
accountability over as it relates to you know, physician physician directorship. Now,
(08:31):
fortunately I'm more the leader of teams of teams. So
I have a great team with leaders on it that
help lead teams. So yes, I meet once or twice
a week. That gets kind of thrown into my schedule.
And a lot of what I do now as it
relates to our larger project projects is making sure that
our providers are physicians and our apps are credentialed appropriately
that you know, we're we have the right people in
(08:53):
these new projects doing the patient care. I also make
sure that from a licensing and an accreditation standpoint that
we follow all the rules of the Joint Commission and
others want us to follow so that we can be
a very safe hospital and a very safe place to
get the care that women want.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So yeah, absolutely, and yes absolutely, we talk about being
the leader of all these teams. You are also a
DEI lead in the wake forest market which for anyone
who doesn't know, that means diversity, equity, and inclusion. So
I'm wondering what does DEI look like in the medical space?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Sure? So, I am the executive sponsor of our Unidos,
which is our Hispanic and Latinx affinity group here at
Atrium Healthwick Forest Baptist. You know, we support our Hispanic
and our Latinx teammates, our patients, and the community, and
to that end, we offer a number of different things,
educational sessions, we volunteer in the community, and we partner
with community organizations to advance awareness and understanding of the
(09:49):
Hispanic culture and the unique needs of this community. You know,
I'm lucky to speak Spanish. I have the ability to
communicate effectively with my pregnant patients who speak Spanish. And
while we've made really great swich drives as an organization
and improving the health outcomes for our underserved minority patients,
such as our his planning patients, we still have a
(10:09):
lot of work to do in this space. So for me,
it's a matter of balancing quality and safety, but also
ensuring health outcomes not only in our Caucasian patients, but
of course in our underserved minorities, and so it's near
and dear to my heart for sure.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
That's absolutely amazing, And again, thank you for the work
that you are doing and your teams in that space.
Another thing I wanted to ask you about. We've had
the opportunity to speak to a lot of obi's in
this podcast and obis who have moved into an executive
role as well, and many of them that we've talked
to still want to practice. So I'm just wondering. You said,
(10:44):
you know I still see patients, I still practice, because
you could with all you have going on, say okay,
I'm going to put this aside for now. What is
it about being someone's care provider that still is close
to your heart?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, so I'll be blunt. I'm only as good a
leaders as the ability that I have to understand what
I'm leading. So if I make a decision that impacts
the way a provider provides patient care, I better be
accountable for what that feels as an And so it's
(11:19):
really important to me that I and all my cmos
are clinically active because caring for patients is changing every day.
How we care for patients changes, how we interact with
the electronic medical record, with insurance companies, etc. It does change,
and so being aware of those changes and being in
(11:40):
the trenches with my team really helps me to make
the best decisions I possibly can as it relates to
quality and safety. So for me, it's just part and
parcel of what I do, and the DEI compounding is
part of that. Quite frankly, you know, I've been married
to my Cuban husband for nearly thirty years and our
family is faced racial and cultural challenges living in North
Carolina for so long that considering the need for diversity
(12:02):
and inclusion is kind of a part of me at
this point. When we came to this organization about twenty
years ago, it was quite homogenous and honestly, the value
of diversity and it was underappreciated. So as a clinical leader,
one of my greatest accomplishments here is the recruitment of
a diverse faculty and diverse apps, and our patients have
benefited so much from this. Studies show, especially in maternal health,
(12:25):
that maternal health outcomes are improved when patients are cared
for by providers of their own race or ethnicity. So
by ensuring a diverse workforce and ensuring that we have
teammates that are of all races and ethnicities, we really
do have a better ability to improve outcomes and truly
deliver the best care for all.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
That's amazing, So many really enlightening statements that you just made.
I do want to ask you, what is one misconception
that people have about doctors or workers in the medical
field and that you'd like to see changed.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
So people think that a doctor's day ends where when
he or she leaves the clinic or the hospital, and
I don't know of a single doctor where that's actually true.
So medicine is our passion, and we often work off
hours to care for our patients. Like many doctors, I
think a lot about my patient salements, and in fact,
sometimes I'll admit it, I wake up in the middle
of the night realizing I've been dreaming about potential tradements
(13:19):
for patients that I've seen just in the day or
two prior. Doctors don't practice, you know, for income. We
practice to improve the wellness of our patients. And my
husband and I took out you know, quarter of a
million dollars of health care loans or excuse me, educational
loans to finance our education and we're still paying those
back and honestly, I have no regrets about that. But
it's the passion for medicine that makes doctors do what
(13:42):
they do, and knowing all the lives that I've touched
makes my job worthwhile and I would do it again
in a Harvey.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
You know, that's so interesting my ob that I actually
met on this podcast. I'll tell you more about that
another time. And the last podcast. She has delivered both
of my children, and she has become a good friend,
and I'll tell you what. I will text her with
a question, you know about this, or that she came
in on her off day to deliver my daughter. And
so what you're saying, I can really feel back, you know,
(14:09):
especially and she's she's an atrium help doctor as well.
But I really feel that, and I know that you
and your colleagues really embodied that as I've been the
beneficiary of it. And so I'm sure your patients would
say the same thing, which is like, thank you so
much for caring about these very very serious issues, you know,
both on the negative side sometimes and then also on
(14:29):
the positive. These these times that I will never forget
when my children are born. It is amazing to know
how much these doctors care and you're taking us through
some real highs and lows.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
So we appreated trying to say that, but it's a
two way street, right And the reason I can say
that is I'll give you an example. I was, you know,
Atrum Healthy Forest Baptist obviously is we're the academic work
of ATRIM Health and Advocate Health and so we're a
part of way Forrest University. My husband and I are
both pro well. Last night we had our first football
(15:01):
game of the season, and as we were sitting there tailgating,
I was able to, you know, kind of randomly run into, gosh,
five of the babies that I've delivered in the last
few years. So and you know, one of my seven
year oldnine year old, there was a thirteen year old
I twelve, one hundred and five. But anyway, but you know,
there's these great kids that I've delivered and they were like, hey,
doctor Fanandez you know, and it's just fun. I mean,
(15:24):
for me, that is the best part of my job
is making and creating these friendships and then seeing the
great you know, the outcome is seeing these cool kids
and what they do in life. It's pretty darn cool.
I'm lucky to have the job that I do. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Absolutely. And then finally, I love to ask this question,
and especially to someone who has so many things going on,
and you talked about your journey, what is the advice
that you would give your younger self and see maybe
at age ten or twelve.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Wow, okay, ten or twelve, Well, yeah, I think I'm
going to pick eighteen because at ten or twelve, at
ten or twelve, I wanted to be a veterinarian. So
we're gonna skip that part. So let's see at eighteen.
At eighteen, I was thinking about going to college, and
I knew at that point that I wanted to be
a doctor. My father died early in my life, and
(16:15):
I really wanted to do something for the health of people.
But I would say enjoyed the journey. I was so
in a rush to get through college, get through medical school,
and be that doctor that I think I failed to
enjoy some of the time that I had, if that
makes sense, and some of the experiences that I had.
You know, when I first entered leadership, for example, I
had goals. I thought of my leadership journey as a
(16:35):
straight line, but it never is right, and life isn't
that way. And I now realize that even the most
seemingly bizarre leadership opportunities that I've had and that have
been given to me over the years, really have made
me a better leader and made me a better doctor.
I mean, I remember, for example, being asked to lead
employee health over a decade ago, out of the blue
one day, Andrew, we need you to run employe health,
(16:56):
and that was not something I had any familiarity with,
but I learned a ton in that role. I mean,
while leading employee health, we had are Ebola crisis, right,
So learning to lead through a pandemic like Ebola then
served me well years later when I ran the COVID
task war. So those are opportunities I would have said
heck no to in my younger years, right because they
didn't match my plan. But honestly, they wouldn't have fit
(17:19):
my planned leadership journey, but they were some of the
most valuable skill sets in my career that I've ever learned,
and they've been critical to the leader that I am today.
So I think enjoying the journey is probably what I
would tell my younger self at any stage of life.
That was one of those kids that was like, I
want to do X, what do I need to do
to get there? And life's not that way, is it.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
No, that's great advice for anyone, whether they are on
a path similar to yours or not at all. Just
enjoy the journey. I absolutely love that, doctor Fernandez. I
know you're a very busy lady. I want to say
thank you so much for the time, and thanks to
everyone at HRAM Health Wake Forest Baptists.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
For all that you do.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
We are so grateful and I'm so grateful that you
took a few minutes to talk to us.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Absolutely thanks the opportunity. Have a great day.
We offer a number of different things, educational sessions, we
volunteer in the community, and we partner with community organizations
to advance awareness and understanding of the Hispanic culture and
the unique needs of this community.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to the Inspire Heer Podcast presented by Atriam Health.
This is a podcast series for Panthers fans where we
highlight admirable women from across the Carolinas as they share
stories and lessons from their lives and careers. And Joining
us today is doctor Andrea Fernandez, the regional Chief Medical
Officer for Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptists and she also
(00:36):
serves as the Chief Quality, Safety and Patient Experience Officer.
Doctor Fernandez, thank you so so much for joining us.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Thank you for having me so First.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Of all, I just I have to ask you about
this title. Wow, can you explain to me what all
of that means?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Sure? In short, it means that I'm responsible for the
quality and safety of the care that we deliver across
all all the seven hospitals in the Wake Forest market.
So that means that my number one goal is zero
preventable harm to our patients. We're a very complex system.
We have multiple parts, so ensuring a culture of safety
amongst all our teammates is critical to us being a
(01:14):
highly reliable organization.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
That's amazing and thank you for all you and your
team are doing. So I want to start with one thing.
I love asking very accomplished people. It's like, what does
your day look like from the time you get up
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Sure? So. I love on a farm, so I have
to be out before dawn. We have a donkey and
mini pony, chickens and dogs, so if their room service
breakfast is more than about five minutes late, it gets
quite loud. So my husband's buzz makes me coffee and breakfast.
I pack lunches for us, and I'm usually at work
by seven roughly. Depending on the day, I'll either be
(01:49):
in my office and start meetings around seven thirty or
on Mondays i see patients in my clinic because I'm
still a practicing og an. My favorite part of my
work morning is our daily safety huddles. So at eight
thirty every day, from seven days a week, three hundred
and sixty five days a year, we meet on our
Wednsday campus in person and on with virtual capacity, and
(02:10):
we have leaders from every department, including nursing housekeeping, security,
et cetera. And we discuss safety events that occurred over
the last twenty four hours, any concerns that our leaders
have for the day, or needs that they have to
ensure safe patient care. We always start this huddle with
safety stories and good catches and it's a great reminder
of how amazing our team is and working together to
prevent harm to our patients. So that's my best part
(02:32):
of my morning. And then my work day is it's
highly variable. I leave multiple teams here, ranging from our
CMO team, which is all my great cmas that lead
the individual hospitals, but I also lead safety and adverse
events and emergency. So my job as it changes every day,
each challenge is unique. If you say what an average
(02:54):
day is, there is no average day. But I do
have a great work family, which makes the job fun.
Sunday I'm done at six, but at least once or
twice a week I have a business diner, work dinner,
or an evening meeting with a faculty recruit, a leadership candidate,
community partner, or some other event that I need to attend.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Okay, well, we are definitely going to come back to
the farm. I can't let it go too long with
asking you about that, but I do want to ask you,
with every day being so variable and being responsible along
with your team of course, for so many different aspects,
how do you keep it all straight? And also while
being a practicing ob how do you keep it all?
Is a calendar?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Is it in your head?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
How do you do it?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So? We are very low tech at our house, my
outlook calendar. Once a week my husband and I huddle
at the breakfast table and make sure that we review
both of our calendars to know that we know where
each other are. And then we have a calendar we
put on the fridge. I mean, if there's anything obvious
that needs to be on the fridge, we put it
on the fridge because masters so we want to take
(03:53):
care of each other as well as our sometimes complex.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Jobs, absolutely asolutely. Okay, So I have to ask you
about the farm now, and we're going to get back
to all the other stuff later. What inspired you to
live on a farm.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So, in short, I grew up in Germany, and I
grew up actually half in Germany and half of the Estates.
My dad was a wide importer and so because of
that I had spent a lot of time on farms,
and my husband grew up in an apartment his whole life.
He was in an apartment his whole life until we
got married, and so he always kind of wanted to
have land. My pammy has for generations back and my
(04:34):
daughter rides. So most people get a COVID puppy or
got a COVID puppy. My family got a COVID pony.
And while Harry the hurricane, who we rescued from Hurricane
West Virginia, is a great pony, we have us saying
in our house, the closer to the ground, the closer
to the devil, and that's true for pony. So Harry
(04:56):
is a little guy, but he is quite mischievous. So
we had to get enough friend to keep him out
of trouble. And that's where Ziggy the Donkey came in.
Ziggy is a now about two year old donkey that
we rescued from South Carolina. And Ziggy is great because
when you live on a farm, and you live our
farm is actually surrounded by woods, and so we have
a lot of coyotes, we've got beyers, we've got all
(05:18):
kinds of things around us. So Ziggy is a natural
predator for those coyotes, and he keeps the pony safe.
So he is a little bit of a best friend
and also a bodyguard.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I love that. I love that. We all need a
best friend bodyguard, don't we.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Right right, It's a great thing. I wish I had one.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah. So, going back to everything that you do, you
talked about all the different teams that you work with.
What have you learned from going from, you know, just
being a practicing doctor to now being over all of
these teams. How is that transition?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Sure? So the transition wasn't something that happened over night.
My husband will tell you I should have no tattooed
across my forehead. And that's because as a practicing physician,
I would see opportunities for improvement and I would speak up.
And unfortunately, when you do that often that results in
great How are you going to help us do things
(06:10):
about it? And so, you know, early on, I realized, man,
there are things that we can do to make our
patient care more efficient, to deliver better quality of care.
I mean easy things. When I first came to Wake Forest,
we had our pregnancy clinic are so our obi clinic
was on the seventh floor, of a hospital tower. Well,
that makes a lot of sense if your labor and
(06:30):
delivery is nearby. But as it turns out, at the
time this was back in two thousand and five, our
labor and delivery was another hospital ten minutes away. So
when women in labor, they'd come in thinking they might
be in labor. They come see the doctor, the doctor checks,
someone says, yep, you're in labor. Now they have to
go down seven flights, navigate a parking deck, go ten
minutes to crowd down the road, and get to the
other hospital. So one of the first things that I said,
(06:50):
what I got there was we've got to be more
friendly to our patients, our pregnant patients, and we need
to be on the first floor of a building that
park He needs to be flat and needs to be
easy and easy out and close to where we're actually
delivering these ladies. We had some you know, interesting things
happen where women were feeling contractions, were waiting for an
elevator and couldn't get down to the first floor, so
(07:11):
they got into the fire escape and it was not
it was you know, at least once that I'm aware of,
where somebody broke their water in the fire escape, and
you don't want that to happen, right, So that's what
made us move out into our location outside of the
main medical center and allowed us to be closer to
the labor and delivery that we were delivering from. At
the time, I was also a little bit of a
rabbel rouser back then. I've gotten over that, right, But
(07:34):
as a rabble rouser, I also said, and we need
our own labor and delivery, we need our own first center.
So be careful what you wish for. Because about fifteen
years later, they tasked me and a team to go
ahead and develop that and we did. We are very
proud of the first center that we built back in
twenty nineteen, and now we can care for our patients
in the same place that we let deliver their babysot.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
That is absolutely amazing. So when you start a project
like that, like saying, okay, we all need to be
on the first floor or we are going to have
a labor center, how much of your energy goes to
those new developing projects in addition to everything that you're doing.
Are you meeting once a week or twice a week?
How does that go?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So it really depends on the project and it depends
on my role in it. So I'm you know, I'm
part of a complex health system. And while I lead
components of projects, the first center is probably the last
one that I that I had a we'll say ultimate
accountability over as it relates to you know, physician physician directorship. Now,
(08:31):
fortunately I'm more the leader of teams of teams. So
I have a great team with leaders on it that
help lead teams. So yes, I meet once or twice
a week. That gets kind of thrown into my schedule.
And a lot of what I do now as it
relates to our larger project projects is making sure that
our providers are physicians and our apps are credentialed appropriately
that you know, we're we have the right people in
(08:53):
these new projects doing the patient care. I also make
sure that from a licensing and an accreditation standpoint that
we follow all the rules of the Joint Commission and
others want us to follow so that we can be
a very safe hospital and a very safe place to
get the care that women want.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So yeah, absolutely, and yes absolutely, we talk about being
the leader of all these teams. You are also a
DEI lead in the wake forest market which for anyone
who doesn't know, that means diversity, equity, and inclusion. So
I'm wondering what does DEI look like in the medical space?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Sure? So, I am the executive sponsor of our Unidos,
which is our Hispanic and Latinx affinity group here at
Atrium Healthwick Forest Baptist. You know, we support our Hispanic
and our Latinx teammates, our patients, and the community, and
to that end, we offer a number of different things,
educational sessions, we volunteer in the community, and we partner
with community organizations to advance awareness and understanding of the
(09:49):
Hispanic culture and the unique needs of this community. You know,
I'm lucky to speak Spanish. I have the ability to
communicate effectively with my pregnant patients who speak Spanish. And
while we've made really great swich drives as an organization
and improving the health outcomes for our underserved minority patients,
such as our his planning patients, we still have a
(10:09):
lot of work to do in this space. So for me,
it's a matter of balancing quality and safety, but also
ensuring health outcomes not only in our Caucasian patients, but
of course in our underserved minorities, and so it's near
and dear to my heart for sure.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
That's absolutely amazing, And again, thank you for the work
that you are doing and your teams in that space.
Another thing I wanted to ask you about. We've had
the opportunity to speak to a lot of obi's in
this podcast and obis who have moved into an executive
role as well, and many of them that we've talked
to still want to practice. So I'm just wondering. You said,
(10:44):
you know I still see patients, I still practice, because
you could with all you have going on, say okay,
I'm going to put this aside for now. What is
it about being someone's care provider that still is close
to your heart?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, so I'll be blunt. I'm only as good a
leaders as the ability that I have to understand what
I'm leading. So if I make a decision that impacts
the way a provider provides patient care, I better be
accountable for what that feels as an And so it's
(11:19):
really important to me that I and all my cmos
are clinically active because caring for patients is changing every day.
How we care for patients changes, how we interact with
the electronic medical record, with insurance companies, etc. It does change,
and so being aware of those changes and being in
(11:40):
the trenches with my team really helps me to make
the best decisions I possibly can as it relates to
quality and safety. So for me, it's just part and
parcel of what I do, and the DEI compounding is
part of that. Quite frankly, you know, I've been married
to my Cuban husband for nearly thirty years and our
family is faced racial and cultural challenges living in North
Carolina for so long that considering the need for diversity
(12:02):
and inclusion is kind of a part of me at
this point. When we came to this organization about twenty
years ago, it was quite homogenous and honestly, the value
of diversity and it was underappreciated. So as a clinical leader,
one of my greatest accomplishments here is the recruitment of
a diverse faculty and diverse apps, and our patients have
benefited so much from this. Studies show, especially in maternal health,
(12:25):
that maternal health outcomes are improved when patients are cared
for by providers of their own race or ethnicity. So
by ensuring a diverse workforce and ensuring that we have
teammates that are of all races and ethnicities, we really
do have a better ability to improve outcomes and truly
deliver the best care for all.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
That's amazing, So many really enlightening statements that you just made.
I do want to ask you, what is one misconception
that people have about doctors or workers in the medical
field and that you'd like to see changed.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
So people think that a doctor's day ends where when
he or she leaves the clinic or the hospital, and
I don't know of a single doctor where that's actually true.
So medicine is our passion, and we often work off
hours to care for our patients. Like many doctors, I
think a lot about my patient salements, and in fact,
sometimes I'll admit it, I wake up in the middle
of the night realizing I've been dreaming about potential tradements
(13:19):
for patients that I've seen just in the day or
two prior. Doctors don't practice, you know, for income. We
practice to improve the wellness of our patients. And my
husband and I took out you know, quarter of a
million dollars of health care loans or excuse me, educational
loans to finance our education and we're still paying those
back and honestly, I have no regrets about that. But
it's the passion for medicine that makes doctors do what
(13:42):
they do, and knowing all the lives that I've touched
makes my job worthwhile and I would do it again
in a Harvey.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
You know, that's so interesting my ob that I actually
met on this podcast. I'll tell you more about that
another time. And the last podcast. She has delivered both
of my children, and she has become a good friend,
and I'll tell you what. I will text her with
a question, you know about this, or that she came
in on her off day to deliver my daughter. And
so what you're saying, I can really feel back, you know,
(14:09):
especially and she's she's an atrium help doctor as well.
But I really feel that, and I know that you
and your colleagues really embodied that as I've been the
beneficiary of it. And so I'm sure your patients would
say the same thing, which is like, thank you so
much for caring about these very very serious issues, you know,
both on the negative side sometimes and then also on
(14:29):
the positive. These these times that I will never forget
when my children are born. It is amazing to know
how much these doctors care and you're taking us through
some real highs and lows.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
So we appreated trying to say that, but it's a
two way street, right And the reason I can say
that is I'll give you an example. I was, you know,
Atrum Healthy Forest Baptist obviously is we're the academic work
of ATRIM Health and Advocate Health and so we're a
part of way Forrest University. My husband and I are
both pro well. Last night we had our first football
(15:01):
game of the season, and as we were sitting there tailgating,
I was able to, you know, kind of randomly run into, gosh,
five of the babies that I've delivered in the last
few years. So and you know, one of my seven
year oldnine year old, there was a thirteen year old
I twelve, one hundred and five. But anyway, but you know,
there's these great kids that I've delivered and they were like, hey,
doctor Fanandez you know, and it's just fun. I mean,
(15:24):
for me, that is the best part of my job
is making and creating these friendships and then seeing the
great you know, the outcome is seeing these cool kids
and what they do in life. It's pretty darn cool.
I'm lucky to have the job that I do. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Absolutely. And then finally, I love to ask this question,
and especially to someone who has so many things going on,
and you talked about your journey, what is the advice
that you would give your younger self and see maybe
at age ten or twelve.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Wow, okay, ten or twelve, Well, yeah, I think I'm
going to pick eighteen because at ten or twelve, at
ten or twelve, I wanted to be a veterinarian. So
we're gonna skip that part. So let's see at eighteen.
At eighteen, I was thinking about going to college, and
I knew at that point that I wanted to be
a doctor. My father died early in my life, and
(16:15):
I really wanted to do something for the health of people.
But I would say enjoyed the journey. I was so
in a rush to get through college, get through medical school,
and be that doctor that I think I failed to
enjoy some of the time that I had, if that
makes sense, and some of the experiences that I had.
You know, when I first entered leadership, for example, I
had goals. I thought of my leadership journey as a
(16:35):
straight line, but it never is right, and life isn't
that way. And I now realize that even the most
seemingly bizarre leadership opportunities that I've had and that have
been given to me over the years, really have made
me a better leader and made me a better doctor.
I mean, I remember, for example, being asked to lead
employee health over a decade ago, out of the blue
one day, Andrew, we need you to run employe health,
(16:56):
and that was not something I had any familiarity with,
but I learned a ton in that role. I mean,
while leading employee health, we had are Ebola crisis, right,
So learning to lead through a pandemic like Ebola then
served me well years later when I ran the COVID
task war. So those are opportunities I would have said
heck no to in my younger years, right because they
didn't match my plan. But honestly, they wouldn't have fit
(17:19):
my planned leadership journey, but they were some of the
most valuable skill sets in my career that I've ever learned,
and they've been critical to the leader that I am today.
So I think enjoying the journey is probably what I
would tell my younger self at any stage of life.
That was one of those kids that was like, I
want to do X, what do I need to do
to get there? And life's not that way, is it.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
No, that's great advice for anyone, whether they are on
a path similar to yours or not at all. Just
enjoy the journey. I absolutely love that, doctor Fernandez. I
know you're a very busy lady. I want to say
thank you so much for the time, and thanks to
everyone at HRAM Health Wake Forest Baptists.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
For all that you do.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
We are so grateful and I'm so grateful that you
took a few minutes to talk to us.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Absolutely thanks the opportunity. Have a great day.
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