Five Questions With: Meryl Moss

"One of the keys to managing change is for all stakeholders to have a voice."

Meryl Moss is chief operating officer at Coastal Medical and recently graduated from the Executive Master of Healthcare Leadership program at Brown. Her research project for the degree was “Building the Primary Care Practice of the Future.”

PBN: What is special about the Brown EMHL program – do you recommend it to peers?
MOSS:
I highly recommend the Brown Executive Masters in Healthcare Leadership program. When I initially applied to the program, Coastal’s Board had made the decision to move to population health management and specifically, “the triple aim.” This concept consists of improving the patient experience, enhancing quality outcomes for patients and reducing overall health care costs. I felt that I needed a new array of tools to do my job and in conjunction with Dr. Kurose, Coastal’s CEO and Dr. McGookin, Coastal’s Chief Medical Officer, make the board’s vision a reality. The Brown EMHL program gave me those tools and so much more.

PBN: Have you been able to apply the degree to your daily work already?
MOSS:
Absolutely. All our work here at Coastal is a team effort. We have been in the midst of change for more than a few years. Brown’s focus on leading change in organizations provided us with new ways to think about how to manage that change. I shared relevant class readings with multiple members of Coastal’s team and we developed our own mutual understanding of how to proceed. The Brown work helped inform us all.

PBN: Coastal has been ground-breaking in the health care field since its inception. Are you finding a high degree of openness to some of the ideas that you have brought back from the program?
MOSS:
One of the keys to managing change is for all stakeholders to have a voice. The Brown program emphasized this form of participation at all levels of the organization. At Coastal, stakeholders include physicians, advanced practitioners, office managers, medical assistants, secretaries, nurse care managers, pharmacists and corporate staff. We need everyone to stand up and be heard. The Coastal board created the vision and strategy, but all layers of the organization had the ideas to make positive change happen. That is the reason our quality metrics are so good. Staff believes in the work we are doing.

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PBN: Are you a Coastal patient yourself? What do you observe from that vantage point, if so?
MOSS:
I am honored to be a Coastal patient. I have access to so many unique health services and I feel our patient-centered medical team really cares about my health. We answer the phone “Do you need to see a provider today?” and we mean it. I know that I can see my primary care doctor or advanced practitioner during office hours or go to Coastal 365 on the weekend or evenings. I don’t need to go to the emergency room for non-urgent issues. Access to a pharmacist and the diabetes management team has also been a big plus for me. I don’t feel that I’m going it alone in terms of my health, and I hope our patients feel the same.

PBN: What are some of the biggest changes at Coastal on tap for the coming year?
MOSS:
Coastal has been developing the primary care practice of the future, modeled on the patient-centered medical home concept. We have made huge strides, but know that the right technology can advance us even further. Being connected to our patients, especially those with chronic conditions, is essential to our success. Technology will help us get there. We want to improve our connections with other providers in the community, continuously upgrade our patient portal, move some important services to the homes of our frailest patients and introduce telemedicine.

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