In this episode, Yellow Brick CEO and President Kelly Guzman sits down with Danielle McCarthy, DNP RN, to sip some Buddha's Blend tea and talk transition. Danielle is the Director of Nursing Ambulatory Surgery for Kaiser Permanente with over 20 years in healthcare. Her diverse nursing background includes roles in various healthcare departments, including cardiac, labor and delivery, maternal-child health, and surgical services. Danielle has also served as a Transition and Activation Planning Project Specialist since 2012, bringing expertise, lessons learned, and best practices to the facilities she serves.   

During the episode, Danielle and Kelly discuss what led Danielle to pursue a healthcare career, her experience activating a greenfield facility, and balancing family, school, personal care, and work. The two discuss staffing strategies for transition projects and how to combat burnout. Enjoy!

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In this episode, join Yellow Brick CEO Kelly Guzman, as she chats with Lynn Aguilera, the Administrative Director of Strategic Space Planning and Transition Strategy at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford over a cup of chai tea. During the episode, this dynamic duo discusses Lynn's transition from bedside nurse, to consultant, to hospital administrator. Lynn also shares her tips for those interested in starting their career in transition and space planning. In addition, the pair reminisce about their first Dress Rehearsal event and Lynn shares her favorite phase of the transition and activation lifecycle.  

Lynn has over 25 years of healthcare experience. She has led the activation of the new Packard 2.0 main tower and treatment center in 2017 and 2018. The 521,000-square-foot, 149-bed facility includes six new surgical suites, a nuclear medicine department, three new imaging units, and four diagnostic units including a cardiac “hybrid” angiography suite.  As a Transition Planner for over 10 years, Lynn has worked with over 30 healthcare facilities to plan and implement Dress Rehearsal events and move or activate the new facilities. Lynn is the lead author of “Using Interdisciplinary Dress Rehearsal Events to Ensure Staff Readiness When Opening a New Healthcare Facility”, Health Environments Research & Design Journal, July 2019, and a contributing author to Yellow Brick's 2021 book, A Guide to Healthcare Facility Dress Rehearsal Simulation Planning.

As a nurse and educator, Lynn understands the clinical perspective of projects, adding a unique value when planning future design, workflow, operations, and training.

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For today’s Transition Tea podcast, Mary and Yellow Brick Consulting CEO and Founder Kelly Guzman talk about Mary’s career over Breakfast Blend tea, and how it has come full circle with her current role as an educator for nurses interested in surgical nursing. Mary and Kelly discuss healthcare design and transition planning, which both hold close to their hearts. Mary also shares how she continues to apply her experiences and lessons learned from previous nursing roles and as a facilitator for Yellow Brick to be the “voice of calm” and advocate for inclusivity for her students and the staff executing a Dress Rehearsal or a Move. We hope you watch the podcast and bring home some practical takeaways.

Mary Rivera is an operating room nurse and educator with over 30 years in Perioperative Services, including Pre-Op, OR, PACU, Endoscopy, and Hybrid Cardiac Cath Labs. Mary started in healthcare as a surgery scheduler and went back to school to pursue Nursing as a second degree. Since then, she has worked as a staff nurse, gradually ascending to leadership positions as a charge nurse, Unit Manager, and Perioperative Director in charge of five departments at USC Keck University Hospital, USC/Verdugo Hills Hospital, El Camino Hospital, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital. At Yellow Brick Consulting, Mary joins our project teams as a Facilitator/Project Specialist for transition and activation milestone events at our client partners.

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In 2021, Loma Linda University Health activated the Denis and Carole Troesh Medical Campus, a new 17-level, 989,167 square-foot replacement, and expansion hospital project. The project included two separately licensed hospitals, a 320 adult inpatient bed tower and 128 children’s inpatient bed tower, 20 operating rooms, six adult interventional radiology rooms, two pediatric interventional radiology rooms, adult and pediatric emergency departments, GI Lab, and radiology department. Adult tower services include hematology, oncology, neuro, cardiac, and surgical intensive care and progressive care floors, and medical-surgical floor for cardiac and neuro patients. Pediatric tower services include a full floor dedicated to maternity care and neonatal care and acute care floors.

Allison Ong, Assistant Vice President-Clinical Operations & Space Management, was responsible for the Transition and Activation activities for Loma Linda's Campus Transformation Project. She received her Bachelor’s and Master of Nursing degrees from Loma Linda University and her Doctorate of Nursing Practice from Duke University. In her latest role directing the transition of the adult and children’s hospitals to the newly-constructed, million-square-foot facility, Allison worked with the construction team, department heads, physician leadership, and hospital leadership to ensure that transition plan benchmarks were met on schedule. Allison is a change champion within her organization and is passionate about how leaders drive and inspire change.

During Episode One of Transition Tea, Kelly and Allison will discuss the education and experience that made her successful in her role. They will discuss aha moments and resources required to support a project of this magnitude while enjoying a cup of Dark Chocolate Orange tea. 

Click here to watch the video interview on YouTube.

Enjoy!

Welcome to Transition Tea, the podcast dedicated to demystifying the complex world of Transition and Activation Planning. Each episode Yellow Brick Consulting President Kelly Guzman will sit down with healthcare leaders from across the country, as they spill the tea on all things transition. You are not going to want to miss this. Cheers!