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Follow The Brand Podcast with Host Grant McGaugh
Are you ready to take your personal brand and business development to the next level? Then you won't want to miss the exciting new podcast dedicated to helping you tell your story in the most compelling way possible. Join me as I guide you through the process of building a magnetic personal brand, creating valuable relationships, and mastering the art of networking. With my expert tips and practical strategies, you'll be well on your way to 5-star success in both your professional and personal life. Don't wait - start building your 5-STAR BRAND TODAY!
Follow The Brand Podcast with Host Grant McGaugh
Dr. Mauvareen Beverley: 9 Solutions for Health Equity & Cultural Competence with Grant McGaugh
Curious about bridging the cultural gaps in healthcare? Join us as we sit down with the pioneering Dr. Mauvareen Beverley, who brings groundbreaking insights from her latest book, "Nine Simple Solutions to Achieve Health Equity." Dr. Beverley unpacks her person-centered philosophy and introduces the revolutionary concept of the "bridge team," designed to improve communication and understanding in patient care. Discover how recognizing and respecting individual cultural identities can lead to significant health outcomes.
In a deeply moving segment, we uncover the transformative journey of an 18-year-old sickle cell patient who challenges our preconceptions and shares her poignant story of loss and systemic failures. Her experiences led to the creation of a much-needed support group for sickle cell patients, emphasizing the urgent need for holistic care and better family counseling. We also question the term "sickle cell warriors" and advocate for comprehensive support systems that address both physical and mental health.
Cultural competency in healthcare takes center stage as we recount Dr. Beverley's collaborations with Dr. Irene Duanca and their work on addressing disparities in clinical trials. Through compelling stories and historical context, such as the migration experiences of elderly African-American patients, we highlight the importance of culturally competent care teams. Learn how understanding and humanizing patient care can bridge gaps and lead to improved health outcomes for diverse populations. Tune in for an episode that promises to inspire and educate healthcare professionals committed to achieving true health equity.
order the ebook now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D73NNN2V
Get the paperback on Juneteenth: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D73NNN2V
Check out my website: drbeverley.com
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest marketing trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates from us, be sure to follow us at 5starbdm.com. See you next time on Follow The Brand!
Welcome to another episode of Follow the Brand. I am your host, grant McGaughan, ceo of 5 Star BDM, a 5 Star personal branding and business development company. I want to take you on a journey that takes another deep dive into the world of personal branding and business development using compelling personal story, business conversations and tips development using compelling personal story, business conversations and tips to improve your personal brand. By listening to the Follow the Brand podcast series, you will be able to differentiate yourself from the competition and allow you to build trust with prospective clients and employers. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make it one that will set you apart, build trust and reflect who you are. Developing your five-star personal brand is a great way to demonstrate your skills and knowledge. If you have any questions from me or my guests, please email me. At grantmcgaw, spelled M-C-G-A-U-G-H at 5starbdm B for brand, d for development, m for masterscom. Now let's begin with our next five-star episode on Follow the Brand. Welcome to another exciting episode of on Follow the Brand. Welcome to another exciting episode of the Follow the Brand Podcast. I am your host, brent McGaugh, ceo of Five Star BDM, where we help you to build a five-star brand that people will follow. And today we have a truly special guest joining us, dr Marverie Beverly. And for those who missed her powerful insights the last time, dr Beverly is a healthcare trial blazer who has dedicated her career developing innovative care management programs at leading New York hospitals. Her first patient approach and focus on cultural competence have positively impacted thousands of lives, and there couldn't be a more fitting day than Juneteenth to welcome Dr Beverly back to discuss her highly anticipated new book, nine Simple Solutions to Achieve Health Equity. This guide promises to revolutionize how healthcare professionals engage with diverse patient populations. And as we celebrate the end of slavery and the resilience of the African-American community, dr Beverly will share nine deceptively simple yet profound solutions for bridging cultural gaps in healthcare. Cultural gaps in healthcare. Her person-centered philosophy addresses the root causes of why certain communities face poor health outcomes despite having access to care. From compliance issues to unconscious biases, communication barriers to systemic inequities, dr Beverly's Solutions Tackle it All Through the Lens of Human Experience and Empathy. Your book is a powerful call to action for healthcare workers to truly see and understand their patients as individuals first. So get ready to be inspired, as we hear directly from the innovative mind behind nine solutions. Dr Beverly's words are sure to open eyes and change perspectives on what true health equity looks like in practice. All this and more right here on the Follow Brand Podcast, where we are building a five-star brand that you can follow.
Speaker 1:Welcome everyone to the Follow Brand Podcast. I am Grant McGaugh, and I get an opportunity to bring back a very, very popular guest, dr Maureen Beverly. She was on our show about a year or so ago. We gave just a great discussion around sickle cell, around how to work with patients when they're not culturally competent, about some of the people that you're working with. Now she's writing a book and the book is coming out very quickly I think it's going to be announced here on Juneteenth, as a matter of fact, and that's going to be wonderful and so I want to bring her to the stage talk about why she wrote this book and why it's so important. So, dr Beverly, would you like to introduce yourself?
Speaker 2:important. So, dr Beverly, would you like to introduce yourself? Thank you, grant, and I'm honored again to be on your podcast. So my name is Dr Maureen Beverly and currently I'm a consultant in a consultant role. I'm a consultant for Maureen Beverly, mdplc Patient Engagement and Cultural Competence Training.
Speaker 2:Prior to my current position, I was at three public hospitals in New York, which was Elmhurst and Queens and King's Hospital, which was part of New York City Health and Hospital, and I was responsible for developing the first care management program. And within that care management program was the concept of the bridge team and the whole idea about the bridge team bridged the gap. I don't care what the gap was. It was an opportunity because the bridge team would have a little extra time to speak with patients and family, to be able to better understand who there were as individuals and what were some of their concerns. And the bridge team was amazing and it was a combination of care managers, case managers, social workers and myself and because of the care management program, I was able to speak with over a thousand patients from all race and ethnicity and I came to the concept of recognizing that solutions are simple and if we solve the simple, it doesn't have to escalate to the complex are simple. And if we solve the simple it doesn't have to escalate to the complex. And I will go further into some of the solutions, the simple solutions and how we came to have that concept.
Speaker 2:So in Elmhurst it was a large, more diversified population. There were Asians, hispanic, indian population and a growing Russian population there. The black population there was very small as compared to Queens where there was a large black population and the second population was Indians. But they were not from India, they were from Guyana, the Caribbean. And just on a side note, I came up with the concept of the lookalike syndrome. And what do I mean by that? So we went in to see a patient at Queens and the bridge team and one of the nurses said oh so we're in India, you're from? And he said I'm not from India, I'm Caribbean, I'm Guyanese. So that's when I realized that what I call the lookalike syndrome.
Speaker 2:I do presentations which I've done at various institutions and medical schools British person, they're Irish. And see how far you get. Go tell a Japanese, they're Japanese. Go tell an Indian, they're Pakistani. Go tell a Jamaican, they're Trinidadian. And go tell a Nigerian, they're Ghanaian. And, most important, go tell a New Yorker they're from New Jersey, you know, and I think that's important because in the same geographic locations and their similarities, but from a patient engagement and a cultural competence perspective, we need to understand the unique differences when it comes to healthcare and be able to have a conversation with patients.
Speaker 2:And, as I said in my various roles in New York City Health and Hospital, as Associate Executive Director, I developed the first care management program and when I was Deputy Executive Director at Kings County, which is in Brooklyn, new York, and is what I-American population and the Spanish population was not from your typical Puerto Rico, dominican Republic or Mexico. They were from Panama and under colonial rule, the British sent the English-speaking Caribbean islanders to Panama to build a canal. Phenotypically, they look black and their names are not English and Spanish. Their names are not Maria Rivera or Jesus Garcia. Their names are Ronaldo, austin, antonio, martin, and their primary language was English. And the Caribbean population in Brooklyn, the top islands were Jamaica, trinidad, haiti and Guyana, and so the second language outside of English was Haitian, creole, and it's based on my talking to over 1,000 patients from all ethnicities that I came to the concept of simple solution and it was a result of what I refer to as stopping my tracks moments.
Speaker 1:This is so important to understand is you have a unique perspective on health equity, your book, that you've written Nine Simple Solutions to Achieve Health Equity a guide for physiciansicians and Patients, and in our previous discussions and you just alluded to it right now that we've got to understand the people more than or just as much as we understand the disease because of how it needs to be treated and you get better outcomes. Talk to us more about what you've learned when it comes to health equity and your particular take on how you feel this will be a solution for physicians, especially if they read your book and can get better outcomes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So just a correction. The book is entitled Nine Single Solutions to Achieve Health Equity a guide to healthcare professionals and patients, not just physicians, it's everybody in the clinical could be social workers, could be nurses and so forth. My understanding of individual human beings and the value of individual human beings from all ethnicities and race. Because if you don't value me, my health care is going to go south. But if we have a concept of what I define as the common thread, the human experience, and what do I mean by that Once accurately diagnosed, there's no human being on planet Earth to give it back, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language spoken.
Speaker 2:The billionaire can't say, oh, I'll give you a million dollars to take the cancer back. Oh, that's not enough, I'll give you five million. It's the same circumstance. As a billionaire, as a homeless individual, it's non-negotiable. In life, we make changes, we can make changes. You know, if we don't like our school our kids go to, we could change. If we don't like our jobs, we could leave. If we don't like our family, we could leave. If we don't like our family, we could go to another stage, you know.
Speaker 2:But once accurately diagnosed, it's non-negotiable period. There's no culture that says, oh, in our culture we don't accept diabetes, you know. So maybe health systems would be more empathetic and less judgmental if they recognize the concept of the common thread, and for us also to recognize the bulk of us taking care of patients never laid in a hospital dead. Those that do are women delivering life and in certain circumstances, patients are trying to prevent death, and so to me, that's the common thread, that's one of the simple solutions. Adopt the common thread, and so it will also increase the value of the human being, particularly the African American population, who are less than considered in the same category as being valued as a human being.
Speaker 1:Now, you also mentioned you just spoke about it stopping your track moments. And you know, when I see that I get this image, I have to see myself. You know on my daily commute or whatnot, and you hear that stop track moment, get that one call or something occurs. It just changes everything in life and what's important, talk to us more about what your experience is when you say stopping your tracks, can you?
Speaker 2:explain. Yes, I'll give you an example of what I refer to. So the bridge team in Queens, we were told the most vulnerable population of us, patients with sickle cell disease. So we were told to look, go see this 18-year-old. She is just attitudinal, disrespectful, she's always in the emergency room, readmitted, and so forth. So then you know, I'm thinking what 18-year-old is not attitudinal without a life-threatening condition and let's give her the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 2:So the bridge team and I, and these stop-in-my-tracks moments always happen at Monday morning 9 o'clock. So we went to see, we're about to enter her room and Grant, the statement is forever embedded in my brain. She said she went like this I'm on my phone, okay. So the team is whispering, that's what we're talking about. She's so disrespectful. So I said give her the benefit of the doubt. So when she got off her phone, we're about to enter the room, and here is her statement If you have a cure, come in, if you don't. And she pointed, keep walking. And I was literally, was I expecting that Monday morning 9 o'clock. So I literally remember putting my foot back on the ground and then the next statement is almost I became the child and she was the adult. Why do I say that? She said did you hear what I said? I'm going to repeat myself one more time. Isn't that what we tell our children when they're not following directions? If you have a cure, come in. If you don't keep walking? And I said oh, I had no idea what to say, to be honest with you. Then I finally said I don't have a cure, but let me think about what you said and I'll come back and speak with you. I went back to see her at 5 o'clock that evening. I went back to see her at 5 o'clock that evening. This person, who I met at 9 o'clock Monday morning, is, from my perspective, is an individual who the system created when I went to see her in the evening. This is who this actual person is.
Speaker 2:She was very analytic, very thoughtful in her conversation and very honest. And she said another powerful statement. She said you doctors don't teach me about sickle cell. Sickle cell teaches me. And I said tell me about it. And she was 18. 16-year-old, her mom got off the bus from work, developed chest pain and taken to a hospital and died of a heart attack At 17,. Her sister, who was admitted for sickle cell crisis and sepsis, died in a hospital. She's now 18 and she lives with her uncle and you know the way she describes him. He's a food, clothing and shelter type of guy, you know. And I said to her have you ever been referred to a therapist for depression screening or to speak to a therapist at all? She said no and we hugged each other and literally teared up, you know, and she was the stop in my tracks moment, an example of that.
Speaker 2:That led me now to go directly to the head of the emergency room and develop a program for when patients came in with sickle cell, we would need to have a sickle cell support group and if they agreed to be a part of the support group, sign them up. And if they agreed to be a part of the support group, sign them up. And that's what happened when we signed up patients for the adult sickle cell support group and we had the meetings once a week at 12 o'clock lunch. We provided lunch and it was an hour before hematology clinic and when you heard the stories it was humbling and there was a therapist on the team, their peer managers, case managers, social workers, a therapist and myself on the team, as well as this patient, and it was unscripted.
Speaker 2:Patients could say whatever they wanted to say, whatever their concerns were, and I heard the word hate a lot and I said, oh my God. So one of the patients said, listen, it was very touching. She said, oh, I hate my mom. I said, oh my God, as a mom, how do you hate your mom? She said, oh, no, no, I don't hate her now. I know she loves me over the moon and she wants me to just don't have any more pain. And she cared about my health. But I never understood when I was younger why she sided with the doctors to keep me in so much pain. Why didn't they just let me die, you know?
Speaker 2:And then the other last story about the hey, my brother hates me. Why does your brother hate you because I suck up all the oxygen in the room? I said tell me more, explain it. And she said well, the brother. She had sickle cell, her brother did not. And so in a family where one has a life-threatening condition and the other sibling does not, it can create conflict. And so she said the brother was on the basketball team and the team never went anywhere. All of a sudden they made it to the semifinals. Let's say the finals is tomorrow at 1 am in the morning.
Speaker 2:She developed sickle cell crisis and the mom and dad had to take her to the hospital and he had to go to the game by himself. And that's when I realized that there was no family counseling offered to patients with sickle cell disease. And it was. It should be a mandate, you know, and currently patients with sickle cell the adults, they're living midway through their life expectancy now and they have to consider themselves sickle cell warriors and everybody thinks it's a great term, but I have a problem with that term. If you have a life-threatening condition, why do I have to be a warrior? What does it tell you about the health system? Patients with cystic fibrosis don't have to be warriors. Patients with leukemia and other cancers don't have to be warriors. So why does this population have to be a warrior when they're midway through their life expectancy? But I'm happy to tell you that the sickle cell support group is still in existence today and now it's by Zoom.
Speaker 2:After COVID it's by Zoom, but we have changed the dynamics and elimination of the word drug seekers was eliminated from the emergency room and the head of the emergency room. That have physician assistants who saw patients, and I've developed a whole transition of care process from adolescent to adult. The last thing I'm going to say on this is I know the time is up is that you know there is in the literature. There are patients in their 30s who still stay with their adolescent docs because they don't want to go to the adult, because they are treated so poorly. And my last statement is from Dr Zemsky, a pain specialist in Connecticut. He said difficult patients are not just born, sometimes they're created through the medical system. Not only the system failed to cure, it may have done unpleasant things to make matters worse, and so that's one of the simple solutions that came about as a result of this individual. As I say, stopping my tracks moment, that's a great stop me.
Speaker 1:Stop me in my tracks, because at first it taught me that you're a great listener, that you listen and truly uncover the story and the underlying causes of certain situations. As you said, you couldn't solve sickle cell, but you obviously could solve some of the other effects that occur when a person has this type of disease the impacts around family, around relationships, around isolation and that type of thing. I think you did a fantastic job of talking us through that. Now you talk in your book. You say nine simple solutions. You just gave us one simple solution. Now is your book about nine steps? Is it more around different stories and experiences? Tell us more about what your book is about.
Speaker 2:I think the nine simple solutions. One of the major solutions is. One of them was the common thread. You know accepting the common thread. The other is the negativity in the medical records.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you heard the word noncompliant about 20,000 times. So now there's a nicer word, nonadherent. But how many times have you heard the associated why? So we don't know why John Brown didn't take the medication, but we're going to refill the same medication he didn't take and call it non-compliant, and non-compliant written in the medical records two or three times. That patient is honored to help us and nobody cares about them. So whatever happens is their fault.
Speaker 2:There's an article came out from, I think, the University of Chicago Medical School, where this this an article on noncompliance and in the article it stated that it was more geared towards African-Americans, particular males, and. But there was no why in that article. And in my question my team had to ask why, why doesn't somebody follow directions or take their medication? Because if they didn't know, if they didn't know why they said, we've got to ask why Dr B is going to. That's why they call me Dr B, dr B is going to bug out. So I'll give you a typical story. And when we ask why, for the these are patients with heart failure 60 year old african-american male recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure returns two weeks later heart failure decompensated due to non-compliance. So when that patient gets admitted up to the unit, is anybody going to care about that person?
Speaker 2:and one of the nurses in the unit said, oh, so he just got diagnosed with a life-threatening condition and doesn't follow directions. I got other things to do. My team had to ask why and I'm glad you're sitting down, guys. So when we asked him why, why don't you take a medication? I can't take the water pill, which is a diuretic that flushes fluid out of the body so the heart can pump better and it makes you urinate a lot. Why can't you take the water pill? Because I drive the number seven train, so you can't say, oh, the train is delayed because the driver has to find the bathroom. So we said when is your shift? 11 pm to 11 am? What do you do when you get home? I do my chores, I make breakfast, I take some of my medication, but if I'm on my tour, if I'm going to be on my shift, I don't take the water pill.
Speaker 2:So we brought in the same cardiologist who was ignoring him as well and that's why I'm saying you could change systems, culture, you know and he said okay, take the water pill when you get home, but we are aware it may wake you up during the sleep, I mean during your shift. It may wake you up during the day when you take a nap, but if, once you get to your shift, you'd have less of a reason to urinate. But to the degree that you do, we're going to give you a cubicle so you can use in the private space when the train stops. And you know what the patient said. If I knew I had to choose between peeing and breathing, I would have chosen breathing, but just to expand the conversation and the concept.
Speaker 2:So you know, without the why question, he would have been readmitted multiple times and the more he gets readmitted, the more people are going to ignore him and be judgmental. And if he were to pass at mortality, it would have said die due to noncompliance. A simple solution ask the why question and I tell patients and I give instructions in my book. If you're in the hospital or a doctor's office or wherever you are, and a doctor asks you, did you take your medication or did you follow direction? And wait a couple of seconds, and if you don't hear the why question, say do you want to know why I didn't take my medications? Let's say and then I instruct. And I really want patients to really follow this because I think it could be a change in health system. And then the next statement should you please don't write noncompliant in my medical records without asking me why, because it could have a negative impact on my health outcomes.
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Speaker 1:That is so important to understand that. It's a big question why I think most people would choose breathing over the alternative and if they are not compliant. I think that what you just brought up a simple solution ask why and there's a lot of reasons and once you find out those reasons, maybe now you do have some solutions that you can implement. That will be much better. I really appreciate you saying that. I'm interested now in your journey of writing the book. You have been a requested speaker, you have done a lot of different webinars, you have been involved with a lot of different clinicians clinicians, physicians and physicians and nurses and I want to know your journey of writing this book. What actually? What was that like? I mean, was this over five years, three years, one year? Tell us a little bit more about that, I think it probably was over, probably started in 2019 at some point.
Speaker 2:You know, and you know it took different paths, you know, and as I, since I'm a new writer, I've never written a book before. So I joined a lot of webinars to understand the process involved and the chapters. And you know, it was interesting. And the editor that I got, she was amazing. She was Dr Irene Duanca. She was chief medical officer at IBM and she was on a webinar and so I connected with her and I told her about my book and would she be interested in editing my book? And she said yes, and so she, because she wrote a book on, she edited a book on clinical trials and disparity. So I just thought she would be a good, excellent person. She understands the medical field and she's also an editor. So how better could it be? And she was amazing. And she, you know, she introduced me to a lot of different ways of approaching certain topics, you know, and I'll just give you an example.
Speaker 2:So there was an Asian mom when I was at Elmhurst and you know I passed her and the baby was in the NICU and my office was about the next door. So I said she looked so sad on her face, you could see the sadness and the pain and the suffering. And she said I said, which one is your baby? So she pointed to her son. Long story short, the baby had a cardiac surgery at Mount Sinai, at the affiliate hospital, and so now they brought the baby back and a week later the baby has to go back to Mount Sinai. And she did not know why the baby had to go back and obviously the feeling about it was that the surgery went bad or something went wrong. You know, and she resonated with me. I felt her pain because and the chapter is in my book about my son at 17 months who had brain surgery, you know and so, as a mom, so I went into the team and I said please explain to her why the baby has to go back, you know.
Speaker 2:So the team said oh, we're waiting for our husband, and I'm glad. I said oh, he must be parked in the car, you know. So they said no, this is 8 o'clock in the morning. He went back at 6 pm from work. I said what You're going to wait for, 12 hours for her? So I said what You're going to wait for 12 hours for her? So I said no, he said in the Asian culture, the man makes the decision. So that's what they're waiting for.
Speaker 2:So I said no, the mommy culture rules. Okay, regardless of where you are, the mommy culture rules. Race, ethnicity doesn't matter, the mommy culture rules. Go explain to her and let her tell you to wait for her husband. And one of the corrections that she made, which is interesting. She said well, in all cultures the mommy culture doesn't rule. So you know, that was it. So I changed it to in hospitals, the mommy culture rules, you know, but this is just shedding light to a wider audience, you know. And she said well, I don't know, the mommy culture rules all over the all over this land, you know, you know.
Speaker 1:So these are just yeah but it's like cultural competence is such I mean you can get a phd in cultural competence and it's so important when you marry that together with the with health care and you're talking about health equity and you're taking a such a different lens at looking at health equity. A lot of people you know you think health equity you're talking, you're talking affordability, but you're talking about it from a cultural standpoint that if you have to go through some type of hospital admittance or you're in the doctor's care and the care team doesn't truly understand you whether it's from a language standpoint or from, like you just mentioned, the cultural standpoint of how they view certain things and there's a disconnect, there's a gap and you've done thousands of interviews now You've seen the outcomes of miscommunication, misunderstanding and because of those things, they accumulate into negative outcomes. Talk to us more about cultural competency from your lens.
Speaker 2:So, from my end, cultural competence has to include American-born physicians to foreign-born patients, but also foreign-born physicians to American-born patients and American-born physicians to American-born patients, who are different than themselves. And it manifested itself in particularly at Kings County in terms of being in charge of the congestive heart failure readmission prevention program, and it's tied into what I learned and this was another stop in my tracks moment from a cultural perspective. So we went in to see a patient. I was in charge of the congestive heart failure readmission prevention patient. I was in charge of the congestive heart failure readmission prevention and I adopted, after I left Kings County and Elmhurst, I went to be Deputy Director of Health of Care Management at Kings County and I adopted the concept of the Bridge Team to the Readmission Prevention Team and it was an amazing team. We had everybody on the team. We had African-Americans, we had Caucasians, we had an amazing Jewish pharmacist, we had people from Nigeria, people from the Caribbean. You know you name. It was on our team. Understand who's African-American, who's Caribbean? And I wanted to find out are you visiting New York and you got sick or do you live here? Because the transition of care would be different. So we went in to see a patient, of course, monday morning, nine o'clock. And I said you know, good morning. She said good morning. So I said where are you from? You know, she said South Carolina. And from my clinical mind I was about to say you know, when did you come to New York? Are you visiting New York or do you live here? Because the transition of care would be different. And before I was able to get that question out, she said my parents were a step away from slavery and my grandparents were slaves. Monday morning 9 o'clock. Yeah, stop your tracks moment. Yes, she said. Tell me about it. She said, and some of them spoke in quotes Obviously, heart failure is age-related. Most of the patients, the cohort of patients, were between 60 and 92.
Speaker 2:And when you hear this story and she said my family picked cotton on a plantation that was not ours and then we had to get up at the crack of dawn and pick 300 to 500 pounds of cotton and then I had to walk 10 miles to a segregated school and, by the way, that number 300 to 500 pounds of cotton, I think, is the same number that was in that movie, 12 Years a Slave. And I said how do you walk 10 miles? And I'm thinking how do you walk 10 miles? And I'm thinking how do you walk 10 miles? We can't even go five blocks without calling an Uber. And I'll never forget her body language. I said how do you walk 10 miles? She said in a higher tone and the body language changed. Well, if you wanted an education, you had to Like what part of this? Don't you get stupid? And then I said did you have to walk back? She said no, the principal and the horse were on carriage and we had to get back before dark, before the Ku Klux Klan. I said how old were you? She said 10 years old. Could you imagine? No, I can't.
Speaker 2:She went to Voorhees College. It's a two-year black college in South Carolina, in the Carolinas, I think. It's still South Carolina. And this is now almost 60 years later. And guess what her next statement was? I didn't get into my second tribe. She was still upset with herself.
Speaker 2:She came to New York, married and in the 30s and 40s was the migration. And I had to research the migration. Why is everybody from the Carolinas? Because 90% of the cohort of African-American patients were from the Carolinas. I'm thinking Virginia is sort of down the street from Osaka. We don't get anybody. And just a quick note is after the Emancipation Proclamation, when blacks had their first representation in Congress, their community has been better than the white community. They built schools, churches, businesses. The plantation owner probably went south because nobody was picking the cotton and over the course of time the Ku Klux Klan came in and burned the whole place down and they came up the coastline to New York and there's even a documentary, the Wilmington Massacre.
Speaker 2:And she came to New York, she continued her education, married and in 30s and 40s a large percentage of Black males were either, you know, doormen, they worked on the subway system, they worked in maintenance and interestingly, I don't know if you ever heard of this school, stuyvesant High School. It's an excellent school that outshines private and public schools in New York. And her two children were two of five black children to integrate Stuyvesant High School. And you know I said to her, and she continued her education and became a dietician and she retired. I said when did you retire? She said, you know, in late 90s, early 2000. And I said, do you mind me asking you how much you made? She said $200 a week, but others made more. Read between the lines. And you know I said to her it was amazing. I said to her you know you're going to need I was going to offer her home care services and she said I don't want anything that's not mine.
Speaker 2:And then I tell my team if you don't communicate for what the patient thinks, apologize, don't take it personal. So I said I'm so sorry, maybe I didn't explain it the way I should. She thought I was offering her a handout and I said you know patients, all patients with Medicare home care services is part of Medicare. She said everyone. I said yes, she said okay. And so when you talk about cultural competence, what I realized the elderly Black population is not a part of the cultural competence conversation.
Speaker 2:And when you recognize the role of religion in this population was pivotal to their survival, you know. And when the patient said it's in God's hands and some of the people said well, she doesn't want to participate in our care because she blames God, I said no, she truly believes it. And I went to her and said I know God, you love God and God loves you. Would it be okay for us to help you with your medical condition so we could please God as well? And she said, sister, amen, shall we pray and she grabbed our hands. I'm telling you it was humbling and just a lot of the religion.
Speaker 2:And when the patient said on a Wednesday she stopped eating, she stopped paying attention to whatever was being told to her and she was depressed. And the team said, you know, she's depressed, let's get, we have to do a site referral for depression screening, which is protocol, absolutely. I said, well, find out what church she goes to and let me know and the reason I told him to do that. I went in to see her and I said do you mind telling what's important to you? And that's a key question. I asked what's important to, not what I think should be important to you. What is important to you? And this was a Wednesday. She said the fact that I will not be going to church on Sunday and I won't be able to please God. She felt guilty. The minister brought her in. The minister came in and told her you know, even if prayed with her and even if you're not discharged on Sunday, I will come back and pray with you.
Speaker 2:She was a different individual, you know, and it's a learning curve to understand that when you think of the atrocities that African-American elderly endure and experience and the fact that they have the worst health outcomes. It's unconscionable and we were able to decrease the readmission for heart failure from 30% to 18.7 in just about two years. The population didn't change the clinical care, the diagnosis didn't change. What changed was the heightened human value. He stopped with the negativity in the medical records X, y and to recognize these patients are human beings like everybody else, and it was humbling, you know.
Speaker 1:I am humbled. I tell you that, when you just described to us and how you got a positive outcome through cultural competency and to just asking the great question why then being able to communicate at that level? Now we hear from you and I'm not hearing much of a New York accent, I'm hearing a little bit of that Jamaican sound coming from you, dr Beverly, and you understand, especially in New York, such a melting pot. Before I let you go and we're toward the end of our catch, this book is being released, I believe, on Amazon. It's Juneteenth. Why did you pick Juneteenth as your launch date?
Speaker 2:Because it's a federal holiday, it's the end of slavery 1865, and it's my birthday.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:Happy birthday, okay, happy birthday and, like I say, if hospital systems adopt some of the simple solutions, because it came from patients and currently they are not considered as part of solutions. And I look at it from another perspective perception, reality. What is the perception? You know you hear HCAP scores right, and HCAP scores they do a lot of surveys. What does the patient think about the care they receive, the institutions and so forth. But how many surveys have you heard? What does the SPAD think about the population they serve? And you think that that could have an impact on the age gap scores, good or bad?
Speaker 2:And I did a survey with doctors how many are taking five medications, six medications, none. Four medications the most were taking were three. And then there was one intern that was taking one. So I said I'm going to assume it's antibiotic. He said yes, for 10 days. I said are you compliant with your medication? He said, well, you know, sometimes I forget, I'm on my shift, you know. So I said you can't take one medication compliantly. But a patient that's taking five or six medications, we now call them noncompliant. He said, well, I'm on my shift. I said, well, patients, they have shifts as well. You know what he said. You're right, I won't use that term anymore.
Speaker 2:I will ask why and when I do presentations at different institutions and there's a survey and number seven is what I focus on After hearing the presentation of Dr Beverly, will it change the way you engage patients? And 90-plus percent said yes, you know, and I think the perception reality. So what I would recommend when I do surveys, when I hear what doctors and clinical team and executives think, I ask the patient the same question. So they say why don't patients take their medication? And I ask the ED doc, the inpatient, the social worker, everybody said guess what they said, boss, the average heart failure patient is taking five or six medications three times a day on morbid condition. And what if I told you when I asked the patients in the bed why don't you take your medication? What if I told you that one person mentioned cost. Guess what the top answer was we don't take our medication because we think we're taking too many medications.
Speaker 2:I can agree with that If you're going to design a system based on cost. You see how you fail, and so what do we do From the voices of the persons who are actually in the bed? We brought our amazing pharmacist in to meet with the team to see if we could combine medication. We cut out some of the medication, you know. Let me ask you this, dr Darrell We'll turn the end of our conversation, but we cut out some of the medication. You know.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this, Dr Beverly. Yes, we're toward the end of our conversation, but I know the audience still wants. They want to get in contact with you. You have a training program. Talk to us more about your consulting business.
Speaker 2:Yes, I do training and I present for patient engagement and cultural competence training and I've done it at various institutions. I've done it at Northwell, I've done it at Toro Medical College, I've done an Institute of Healthcare Improvement, I've done it in Chicago, I've done it in a bunch of other places, university of Buffalo, and so that's just off the top of my head, and the whole idea is to be able to have the institutions change the culture and the good news is we're trained to do no harm. It's not that people are bad people. What you see are the changes that come about. It's not that people are bad people. What you see are the changes that come about. And once you give them this particular concept because it's not a blame game, you know, it's about how do we better communicate, value all human beings and improve their health outcomes. And what I do, I have demonstrable circumstance where it proven the bridge team is still aware. It's still at Elmhurst today.
Speaker 1:Guess what they have added a pharmacist. I will see that and to try to listen to you and some of these great techniques that you have, those simple solutions so, so important. If the audience needs to get in touch with you, what is the best possible way?
Speaker 2:So at this point I'll give you my email address. It's M Beverly B-E-V-E-R-L-E-Y. M like in Mary D, like in David at gmailcom, my website is being developed and it should be available before the 19th, and it's DrBeverlycom. So I'm meeting with the developers this week to finalize the website.
Speaker 1:Excellent, excellent. This has been a wonderful, wonderful discussion. I wish you nothing but the best on your release. Again, happy birthday to you, and I want to encourage your entire audience to tune into all the episodes of Follow Brand at 5 Star BDM, and that is the number 5 star B for Brand, d for Development infomasterscom. This has been wonderful and I will talk to you soon. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, man. It's an honor, it's an honor to be on this podcast with you. Thank you, have a good rest of the day, looking forward to speaking to you.
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