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Join Anjani Mahabashya, a physician advisor, as she shares her remarkable journey from hospitalist to her current role. Discover how hope, networking, and empathy played pivotal roles in her transformation. Explore the power of compassionate leadership in times of adversity and gain valuable insights into the world of health care and leadership.

Anjani Mahabashya is a physician advisor.

She discusses the KevinMD article, “The art of compassionate leadership during employee turmoil.”

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Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast and get CME for this episode by clicking on the CME link in the show notes. Today we welcome Anjani Mahabashya. She is a physician advisor. Her KevinMD article is titled “The art of compassionate leadership during employee turmoil.” Anjani, welcome to the show.

Anjani Mahabashya: Hi, Kevin, and hi, everyone. Thank you for having me here today, Kevin, and thank you for creating this wonderful platform. I’ve heard many of the episodes and the remarkable journeys of many people, which are quite inspirational. It gives you hope, it gives you some direction and it gives you some tips and tricks. You remember things, and you think, “You know what? If they did it, I can do it too.” So thanks for creating this beautiful platform for health care providers. I’m amazed how many health care providers are coming out, telling their stories and humanizing the things they are going through, the journeys they are going through. So what you’re doing is very, very remarkable.

Kevin Pho: Well, thank you so much for coming. I’m looking forward to hearing your story and journey, so let’s start there.

Anjani Mahabashya: I was born in India, and I’ll start with the reason why I wanted to become a physician in the first place. I was very attached to my father, and I lost my father to a medical illness when I was 12 years old. Because of the pain I was going through, I didn’t want anybody else to experience that pain, and at that tender age I decided I wanted to become a doctor. I stuck to it, worked very hard and planned everything in my life in order to achieve that dream, and I became a physician. I went to med school in India, did part of my clerkships in the United States and went to residency in Michigan, after which I practiced for three years in Iowa, in a waiver position. After that, I moved to another job, again as a hospitalist, in Pennsylvania.

One year into that job, about four years after my residency, I was injured on the job. I fell in the hospital, and I did not think it would be such a long recovery. One thing kept adding to another, and eventually I couldn’t perform the duties of a hospitalist, which are pretty much being on your feet 12 hours a day, seven days, sometimes longer stretches. I couldn’t do that anymore. So after six months of waiting, the hospital obviously had to replace me with another provider, and I had to find something that fit my physical ability in a very compressed time frame. At the same time, I was going through all the complexity of the transition, which was just unbelievable, and I pivoted to physician advisor during that process without knowing what it was. Now I’m a physician advisor. It’s been exactly three years: I was offered this role in September 2020, and here we are in September 2023. So that’s where I am. I’m a physician advisor.

Kevin Pho: All right, so for those who aren’t familiar, what exactly is a physician advisor?

Anjani Mahabashya: A physician advisor is a bridge role. It’s a partly administrative role that forms a bridge between leadership and the physicians, a bridge between the hospital and the insurance companies, and a bridge between the other entities in the hospital, let’s say revenue management or CDI. Each hospital lays out its physician advisor role in a particular way, but this is mainly a bridge role where you’re facilitating the flow of health care. It’s more on the business side of health care, where you’re understanding the compliance issues, how the hospital is paid, what the right status is to keep the patient in and how to utilize resources to optimize that care. It’s more like value-based care, and sticking to the insurance companies’ expectations and Medicare rules. So you have to know pretty much everything. It’s fluid; it keeps changing all the time, so you definitely have to keep yourself updated on what’s going on around you.

Kevin Pho: All right, let’s talk about your KevinMD article, titled “The art of compassionate leadership during employee turmoil.” Tell us how your article came together.

Anjani Mahabashya: I’ve spoken about my journey on many platforms, and I wanted to pen my thoughts too. Sometimes it’s good to write things as well, and that’s how I wrote this article. I sent it to you, and you were kind enough to accept it, so thank you for that. A lot of people read it, and I really felt it was one of the ways we could reach out to people, not only through podcasts. Sometimes people connect to what you write, and sometimes people are able to connect to what we speak. I think there are different channels of communication we can use to tell our story, so that’s how the article came together.

I think, with my journey, the leadership mattered the most, because my transition was not just a transition of titles, where one day I decided, “OK, I’ll go from hospitalist to physician advisor.” It was a very, very complex transition, and I was totally heartbroken when I lost my position, because I just cannot tell you how good my former boss was. Her name is Dr. Brad. I was on a fantastic team of hospitalists, and I didn’t expect that something like losing that would happen. She was compassionate enough to step out of her boss’s shoes and listen to me for an hour. I was crying, I was bargaining, I was in denial, I was angry. I went through all those phases, and she just stayed with me for that one hour. I remember one thing she said that stuck to my soul in that hour: “Everything happens for a reason, and you will know it one day.” And three years later, Kevin, I am very happy where I am, with my job and with everything around me. So I think a leader showing that pathway to somebody who is really struggling was very essential to me at that point, because I was walking into uncertainty. I didn’t know what my current boss would be like. I didn’t know what team I was walking into. I did not know the place, the system, nothing.

When I first met my current boss, he was waiting for me as soon as I got off the shuttle. He drove down just to meet me. And as I mentioned in my article, he saw me on crutches, smiled at me and slowed down his pace to walk with me. He never made me feel rushed to catch up and walk faster. Those little things really stayed with me. I could never forget how I was treated in that initial transition phase, because obviously I had to change all my health care providers. It was a very complex transition, so giving the employee time for that complex transition, and adjusting to their human side as well, was very critical at that time.

My first year was very rough, because I was still going through a lot of pain on the job. But because of the leadership, I was able to learn everything on the job. I learned from everybody, from the nurses, from my colleagues, from revenue management and from other systems. Everybody contributed to my growth, and that was very critical at that point. I don’t know; it just evolved. I always say that leadership is pretty much like parenting. Kids are not always going to be the same. They have their good days, their bad days and their worst days, and you create a safe environment where the kid feels, “I can come and tell you something if it’s a bad day for me.” My current boss always created a safe space for me, where I could say, “I am in too much pain today,” or “I need a mental break.” I think communication goes both ways, and the communication flowed so easily. And I think, as a leader, you have to take that first step, because you’re in the position of power. I should be welcomed into that kind of space, and then I can start my communication process.

So it’s been such a beautiful journey with such great leaders, and I want to emphasize that it’s very critical to create that safe space for somebody who’s struggling. You might just bring really great things out of your employees if you create that safe space. In my first year, Kevin, all I wanted was to take care of my pain and protect my career. That’s the dream I’d had since age 12. In the second year, I was expanding: I got involved in the community, got involved in a nonprofit and started doing projects in the system. And in the third year, I’m growing more and more. So empathetic leadership also allows you to adapt to your employee. In the first year, all my boss had to do was support me through my pain and my journey. Now he’s supporting me as I’m growing. Recently, I was appointed to the board of directors of the American College of Physician Advisors. When I said I wanted to apply, he said, “Go for it,” and I was selected. He saw me grow in these three years, just like a parent sees their child grow, and I think the credit should definitely go to such wonderful leaders, who allow you to grow and support you during the rough times, the good times and the bad times. This is really for all the administrators out there: Provide support, and see how much a person can grow under your umbrella.

Kevin Pho: Now, I’m sure that as a physician you have worked with many leaders before. This particular compassionate leadership you wrote about in your article: Do you think that’s atypical of health care leaders today, or do you think it’s relatively common?

Anjani Mahabashya: Unfortunately, it’s not common. I think we all get quite caught up in numbers and perfection. Everything is important; I deal with numbers all the time, and I’m dealing with data all the time. But I also make sure the humanity, the human aspect of it, is not taken away. So when I read an email, I’m not just trying to respond to the data question; I add a little bit of humanity: “Are you not well? I hope you get better soon. But this is what I want on the agenda.” Those are the things I make sure to do time and again. I don’t think it really exists much, and we all have to make a conscious effort. It’s very intentional.

Kevin Pho: After the compassionate leadership you observed made such a difference for you, how did it affect your own leadership style? Because, like you said, being a physician is inherently a position of power. How did the leadership you experienced influence your own leadership?

Anjani Mahabashya: Thank you so much for that, Kevin. Again, every relationship requires empathy, not just at work or in a position. I think you can touch any person and help them feel understood and heard, and they will walk with you. You can bring people along; you can seal deals, just by understanding anybody’s perspective. I think that has helped me. I’ll give you a couple of examples. I picked up that amount of warmth and compassion from my boss, and he actually made me the chair of a committee in the second year of my journey. When I’m running the meeting, at the end of the meeting I pick one person on the team and appreciate them if they have gone out of their way to do something. Appreciation, showing people that their work is seen, is something I’ve somehow naturally developed, and I do it. The person I’m picking doesn’t know I’m going to pick them that month, and they’re so happy; you can hear it in the meeting. Most of the time, because we’re remote all the time, you have to make that extra effort to catch somebody’s tone of voice. It’s difficult to know what somebody is going through in email. So making that effort is something I learned from my boss, and I take every opportunity. We’re not perfect. Sometimes I do miss things, but when I realize I missed something, that I was not empathetic or that I missed a chance, I go back and correct it. I definitely make sure I do that when I realize it.

Kevin Pho: So when you say empathy is such a huge part of leadership, give us an example of the kinds of questions we can ask our team members to really ensure that empathy comes across. What are some specific things health care leaders can do better to show that empathy?

Anjani Mahabashya: I would ask, “Is there anything I could do to help you perform better?” or “Is there anything I can do to help you elevate your own idea?” This role requires a lot of pitching of ideas in order to smooth out the health care system, and I observe that when my boss is not particularly excited about an idea, he always gives me the why. Those things are very critical. When you’re turning down an idea, you always have to explain why, so that the person comes back to you with another idea. Those are the really little things I picked up from him. And definitely ask, “What is something I can do to help you grow?”

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Anjani Mahabashya. She is a physician advisor. Her KevinMD article is titled “The art of compassionate leadership during employee turmoil.” Anjani, tell us some of the take-home messages that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience.

Anjani Mahabashya: Kevin, let’s do something different here. Instead of a take-home message, I would ask all your audience a question: How would empathy change your life for the better? Would it make you a better partner, a better parent, a better leader? How would it change you? There was a beautiful story in one of your podcasts, from Dr. Chloe Lee, a medical student who went through a lot of partner abuse. When you listen to that video with empathy: In the first half, I’m human too, and I’m thinking, “Kid, what are you doing? You’re so smart, so beautiful.” But then she goes into the part where she talks about hope, about manipulation and about shame, and that’s when you understand why she was stuck in that relationship. That is empathy: understanding how to listen and to understand another person’s perspective. It just increases your worldview. It elevates your own life; it makes your life better. That is why empathy is so important.

Kevin Pho: Anjani, thank you so much for sharing your story, time, and insight, and thanks again for coming on the show.

Anjani Mahabashya: Thank you, Kevin. Have a great day. Bye, everyone.