The Client - Phoenix Children's

Phoenix Children’s is one of the nation’s largest pediatric health systems. The enterprise includes pediatric specialty and urgent care centers, community-based pediatric practices, outpatient clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, and community-service-related outpatient clinics throughout Arizona.

Phoenix Children’s has more than 6,700 employees, including at least 1,175 pediatric primary care providers and specialists who deliver care across more than 75 subspecialties.

The Challenge

Prior to COVID, PCH partnered with a local university to deliver an in-person leadership education program for their Division Chiefs. The previous format included monthly three hour lectures for eight months. Feedback on this program was mixed and the organization’s development sponsor was worried that knowledge was not transferring effectively into practice.

Additional challenges were the cost of hosting in-person events and difficulty in scheduling such events with executive leaders. Coming out of COVID, Phoenix Children’s wanted to try a new model for its Leadership Academies.

The Solution

OpusVi implemented an innovative and scalable Executive Leadership Academy for 24 physician leaders (e.g. Division Chiefs, Section Chiefs, and Medical Directors). OpusVi quickly assembled a hybrid program utilizing its world-class executive education curriculum with the University of Arizona’s Eller Executive Education and Duke CE where participants alternated between online modules and in-person sessions.

Participants engaged with a world-class university curriculum and senior executives experienced a structured, hybrid program that focused on the transfer of knowledge into practice on topics such as leadership, healthcare economics, and finance, as well as organization-specific topics.

The Impact

Graduates completed a customized capstone project that earned them a Certificate in Executive Leadership in Healthcare as well as 12 CEUs.

• Greater collaboration between Phoenix Children’s and external partners to design, build, and deliver an enhanced, customized program tailored to the needs of the organization and the audience
• Improved engagement of participants, application of concepts, and long-term knowledge transfer of topics compared to the previous lecture-oriented model
• Increased cross-departmental collaboration through structured asynchronous discussions and in-person networking and learning opportunities.