Ep. 204: How to Lead a Multi-Location Urgent Care Team and Build Strong Culture - Interview with Megan Bell from FastMed

PCMP (00:00)
Hey, what's going on everybody. You're listening to another episode of walk-ins welcome. am fired up about our interview today and we'll get into the details of that in just a minute, but I'm fresh back from Memphis. Just popped off of a plane, grabbed the bite to eat, came in here. We are in the studio and then I'll be back in headed to North Carolina at some point. But for this episode today, we got a special guest. We do have a special guest.

I'm impressed you've already brought pilot into the episode. do it quick. That's funny. I did it before you did it. Yeah, exactly. I usually bring it up. Yeah. So we have a special guest today. What's exciting about this is we love having guests from Urgent Cares. Yes. Actual Urgent Cares. just that. They're getting it done. They're experiencing the like they're in the trenches type of thing. And this is what we're all about because, we can, bring vendors on all those things, but when we hear it from another Urgent Care person, it sticks. That's right.

And this is going to be cool because we're also going to talk about leadership inside of urgent care as well and careers inside of urgent care. So this is a great episode. I'm just building up at the moment. But anyway, so who do we have today? So we have Megan Bell from FASMED. FASMED is out in North Carolina area, lots of locations, lots of people. It's Megan, spelled like Megan. We learned that the hard way. I certainly did. We'll talk about your goals with the name later in the podcast.

Megan R. Bell (01:19)
I'm sorry.

PCMP (01:22)
But real quick, is the, now this is a big title, we were joking about earlier, Director of Enterprise Performance Excellence. I'll let her explain what that fully means because I don't fully know, but she's been in the healthcare space for over 11 years. She knows what she's doing. One of the things that brought, maybe wanted to have her come on, she's like, I like having fun meetings. personality, man. Yeah, and then we were laughing and cutting up multiple meetings now. And she talks about graceful leadership, which,

I think it's a fantastic phrase for sure. we're excited for this episode. Megan, thank you for coming on today. welcome to the podcast. Say hello to the fam and tell us one thing about you that nobody else knows.

Megan R. Bell (02:00)
Well, thank you for having me. It's very exciting. terms of something others don't know, I have actually met face-to-face Kermit the Frog. It was amazing. I have to say it's one of the greatest moments of my life to be in the presence of a great like Kermit the Frog. And I have photographic evidence of this moment.

PCMP (02:21)
So I have to be

that I wasn't expecting you to say that one, but, but I need clarification. this Jim Henson's Kermit the frog?

Megan R. Bell (02:25)
You

⁓ it was his son. So it's, it's, it's son of Kermit Kermit. So pretty authentic. Yeah. Yeah.

PCMP (02:33)
Yeah. Perfect. So it was a handsome. Yeah. No, that's, that's

legit right there. And that is, got it. I might, I might have a little celebrity. What do they call it? When you see a celebrity. ⁓ yeah. You know what I'm talking about? When you like crush out on him or something, I may do that. So what was that like? You got to go deeper on this. I need more.

Megan R. Bell (02:47)
You

Well, I know, right, Privet? So ⁓ I was at a ⁓ conference that was for all the cable broadcast networks. And so each network had brought in some type of celebrity to promote their network. For example, Aaron Brockovich was there for Core TV. And so for a children's network, they had Kermit the Frog. And you want to know whose line was longer?

PCMP (03:15)
That's cool.

Megan R. Bell (03:23)
Kermit the Frog. Tom Selleck was there. Like, there were names, but who had the longest line? Kermit. And was it worth it? Yes. I mean, my gosh, he plays a banjo. He's a frog. He talks. He doesn't walk. Why wouldn't I want to meet him?

PCMP (03:35)
Thanks.

That's kind of, I love this so much. ⁓ we, can dig into that. Yeah. But if you can't already tell, if you can't already say like the current, the front, this is going to be a fun episode. first interaction just in prepping for this in the first place, when we first met Megan, ⁓ we're on with some of your coworkers and they're even chuckling and laughing in the background. Anyway, I don't want to oversell here.

Megan R. Bell (03:42)
Yeah.

I'm sorry.

PCMP (04:03)
Kermit the frog is awesome. So let's get into the podcast. We're to be talking about leadership. We're going to be talking about urgent care leadership in urgent care. First of all, we have to lay it up right. FastMed is no joke. FastMed has 44 locations all across the state of North Carolina. You guys dominate in North Carolina. Tell me how it started, how it's going. Tell me about FastMed first, and then we're going to talk all about you.

Megan R. Bell (04:28)
Sure. ⁓ So FastMed has actually a pretty long history in the state of North Carolina. ⁓ It was started by a provider in a town that's in the center of North Carolina mostly. He was very successful. He added locations, continued to grow. That growth led to some mergers, other acquisitions. So at one point, it was actually in multiple states. ⁓ But then, know, times change.

the needs and what each of those different locations across all those states needed was different. And there was an opportunity and that opportunity was around protecting access to care in the state of North Carolina, specifically rural areas. so Blue Cross North Carolina saw that opportunity, looked at it, investigated, wanted to make sure they understood what that possibility was and to guarantee that there was that highest priority of

quality care across the state and especially in areas which may not have other options or this was their primary access to care. So in January 2024, Blue Cross acquired FastMed and only the locations in North Carolina. In terms of how I connect to all of this, ⁓ I was at Blue Cross and working with a group that leads diversified business, including acquisitions.

And so I was part of that initial invest, looking into the possibility of that acquisition, understanding what FASMED was, the place it played in the history of North Carolina in healthcare access across the state and was through that role, was able to meet the executive team that was selected to lead this new version of FASMED. And the conversations with them, you you mentioned leadership.

I really was excited by what they saw and the energy and the passion they brought to this. And if you look at my career, it has not been a straight path. And the thing that will get my attention is this is an opportunity that has the potential to help others and to make a difference. And this just seemed really, really high and all those things that I look for. And so

PCMP (06:43)
like that.

Megan R. Bell (06:52)
An opportunity opened, I went for it. They were kind enough to believe in me. And so I've now been at FastMed, this version, the North Carolina only version, for one year.

PCMP (07:03)
Okay. That is a heck of a transition going from Blue Cross Blue Shield ⁓ over to the urgent care side, because even though they work together from the standpoint of payer and payee and all of that, completely different business models. Yeah. So I want to talk about the transition a little bit, right? Because now I don't know what you did at Blue Cross Blue Shield.

but I know what you're doing at FastMed. So making that transition from one to the other mind game, how did that work for you mentally?

Megan R. Bell (07:38)
Ooh, I like mind game. That's right. It's like I had to like channel something, like get something really deep in there. ⁓ I, right. I'll take that one over the law and order one, cause then that's a whole other situation. So all the rights are memorable. ⁓ I'm going to take us a step back. So I actually majored in radio TV and motion picture. And as long as that title is, you'll notice nowhere in there is the word healthcare.

PCMP (07:39)
There you go.

We'll put the NCIS theme in the background whenever we can.

That's funny. ⁓

Megan R. Bell (08:09)
Nothing like it.

PCMP (08:09)
But the Kermit

the Frog thing starts to make even more sense now. starting to come together.

Megan R. Bell (08:13)
There

is a path that's just not immediately apparent. ⁓ majored in radio TV motion picture, I've had the opportunity to work in broadcast TV, also talk radio. I've worked at creative agencies. I've also worked in higher education. And the path through that is around how do I get the information that that group of people needs to be able to do their job better, to get their degree.

to be able to be a successful whatever it is they are. And so it's really about finding those stories and how to connect people to the information that will have the greatest impact in the best way for them. So in terms of how I got into Blue Cross, that was an opportunity to lead at the corporate mentoring program. And so that was really tapping into my skills I have in terms of project management, stakeholder relationships of

planning something, an event, a facilitation. So it was this combination of skills and experiences. And so that helped open the door to a career I didn't even know was there. And so to your question of mindset, that's to me really what it is. Instead of chasing a specific title, it's more about looking at what is the potential of something? Will I find it exciting? Who do I get to work with? And what could I possibly do there? And I think that

is a huge difference because if you get stuck on I have to be this title, you're going to be disappointed, especially in today's world where titles change and things shift around. It really has to be what am I going to do and with who? And that can keep things interesting.

PCMP (09:56)
So we need to pull that little clip out right there and just play it on loop here in the office. It's who you get to work with, not what you wear. It's not the title that you put on yourself. It's funny because you're talking to two people that titles don't mean a whole lot. Yeah. mean, obviously it means something somewhere to somebody, but at end of the day, are you doing the work you're supposed to be doing? Are you interacting with the people the right way? And honestly, are you lifting up the other person?

Megan R. Bell (09:59)
Thank

You

PCMP (10:23)
because if you're just there in a selfish manner, who cares? That's right. But I want to go back into your work history a little bit, not to dissect too much, but somewhere back there in radio, television, print, agency, ⁓ you name it, fine arts, you've taken some of that energy and you've pulled it into a, I don't mean to be rude, but kind of a sterile, boring place, right?

And I'm here for it. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a non-creative industry. There you go. There you go. Look, I'm not, I'm here for it. I love it. But digging into that past a little bit, where are you taking things that you've learned from these other non-associated industries and bringing that energy into the urgent care space?

Megan R. Bell (11:12)
I'm a unicorn. I know it. I embrace it. I like it. But I think there is that element of when you are having a meeting in its own way, like you are trying to keep people's attention. You're trying to engage them. And we're in a world where there are so many distractions within work alone, but plus all the other things going on. And so in terms of tying those things together, I think there is that element of

PCMP (11:13)
Okay.

Megan R. Bell (11:43)
not just storytelling, but story storyteller and bringing a level of energy so that other people look forward to, OK, I'm not exactly sure where this is going. But at the end, I'm going to feel better. And I'm also going to know what I need to know to go do my job. So it's not just, hey, let's all have fun for a while. But there is a purpose to it. And I never lose sight of why are we together? What information do we need? What are we working towards?

But that doesn't mean I need to be stuck on a bullet list that we just read the bullet list and everyone goes, uh-huh. And then they wander off to their corner. So I think it's that blend of being aware.

PCMP (12:22)
Right.

Megan R. Bell (12:29)
of the energy you bring and the way you approach it. If you look at something like this is a challenge, even if it's hard, and you should fully admit if something's hard, but how you come at it, that mindset of, you know what, this is hard, but I'm going to destroy it. I am going to own this thing. That's a very different space than, ⁓ I give up. This is so hard. We shouldn't even.

PCMP (12:56)
Right. I love that approach. You just brought up something though, that I have to, I have to go down a rabbit hole on. And that is the fact that you had a meeting. I know that's funny or a meeting about meetings. I know that's funny and I get that, but, here's what I know about most urgent cares that we deal with anyway, is they don't meet regularly. No, they don't have staff meetings. They don't get together and give feedback or

Megan R. Bell (13:11)
Yeah, yeah.

PCMP (13:26)
just try and solve problems. They just come in, do their work, leave, go home and, and, and see, and there's no, there's no, there may be initial training, but there's no ongoing development and strategy. And you mentioned the meeting. So I want to talk about what your meetings look like at any level you want to discuss, because I want to go down leadership. But the fact that you're having meetings regularly with your team, I want to talk about that. Tell me about your meetings. Tell me how you're leading them.

Megan R. Bell (13:54)
Okay. They're the greatest meetings ever. There's a wait list. ⁓ People beg me to let them in, but I'm like, no, no, there's a process. You have to get vetted. I just don't let anybody into my meetings. ⁓ That's part of how you make it interesting. You have a vetting process. I do think there is, this hits into among my toolkit, I also have project management.

PCMP (13:59)
Yeah, I'm sure.

That's funny. love that actually. A little exclusivity going on there.

Megan R. Bell (14:25)
I have often described how I think of, approach things with both left and right brain, right? There is the project management side, the what are we here for? I've got 15 minutes. What do I need to know? What do you need to know? And when is all of this supposed to happen? But then there's the element of the creative side, which is I'm going to find a random graphic. I'm going to put it at the beginning of this meeting and we're all going to take a moment and look at it.

I recently ⁓ used AI to create a waffle version of the company logo. That didn't really have a purpose other than it was funny and interesting. And so it tied into what we were talking about, but also gave it a moment of levity and unexpectedness. But the key part of it is it also helps people remember things. And so when you bring ⁓ not only structure and

point to things, but give people the space to have their own input, to have their own reaction to things, you create a much more powerful dynamic and people are more likely to remember what was said in that meeting than if you just stuck to the agenda, super tight, nothing else, only the facts. When you let a little personality come into it, people will actually remember it.

PCMP (15:50)
So this is where the leadership really comes into play. I just stepped on you and I'm sorry, but this is important. I apologize about that. So servantly. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. your question down because I want you to get to it. ⁓ It's one thing, Megan, to have that meeting with the energy and the personality and the excitement. But it's the leadership that's going to carry it to 44 locations. How are you distributing that energy from one meeting to a group?

Megan R. Bell (15:58)
No fighting!

Mm-hmm.

Well, I think that gets into the broader question of communication and style and having a voice. Now that there's the actual voice, right? We're at a podcast. We're all speaking, but there's also the voice that you project in how you interact. We use Teams. So how I'm interacting in those chat forums, how am I, what are my emails look like at the same time?

I'm not going to put a waffle graphic in a formal board report or meeting, right? There isn't knowing where it makes sense and toning it up or toning it down. But being mindful of how you communicate in all those forums, I think, is how you're able to expand that style and vision further. And I think there's also that element of every time you interact with someone, it shouldn't just be go do this or have you done that.

because that is a very transactional dynamic. And then when people see your name or see you coming, most likely their eyes are going to roll all the way back in their head like, what? But if you have some level of how are you as a person, that's a very different conversation interaction than just why isn't this done? And so I think in terms of your point of how to carry it further, it's being mindful of

PCMP (17:19)
Yep.

Right.

Megan R. Bell (17:48)
All those different ways you present and interact, big, small, with one person or with 100, are how you can help set an example that hopefully can be carried further.

PCMP (18:00)
That's good. I tell you this sounds more like a leadership podcast today than it does anything else. is this is really good because the things that you're saying like I can totally see this. I can apply this. It's like when I listen to a Greg Rochelle podcast like I can see this. I can apply this. But one of the couple things you said that stood out to me. One is like. You know you obviously it depends on the meeting, but most of time you're kind of saying, well, let's not be too serious about this. We're here to get something done, but not.

Megan R. Bell (18:04)
You

PCMP (18:29)
become so transactional with it that nobody's going to listen orders of fear of the meeting or of the interaction with the leader because it becomes a do what I say and don't question me. And then, well, nobody likes to follow that. Like they rather not. Like they'll do it out of like begrudgery. Like they don't want to deal with it. ⁓ But no, this is great because I think a lot of people miss that. I think in the urgent care space specifically,

you know, doctors are very good about like, patient, need to do this, do this nurse, need to do this, do that. And it's transactional because they're in the mindset is like, I don't have time to be more than transactional. I just got to lay it out and go. But you lose leadership because of that because then it becomes like, don't want to, I, the follower don't want to go the extra mile for you because it feels like you're not going to go the extra mile for me ever again. And so like,

That's just where my mind goes. It's kind of fantastic to hear you say all this because you're not dealing with a single location either. You're dealing with lots of locations, lots of people, lots of personalities, lots of meetings. And so you're able to apply this to different layers and you're seeing the benefit of it. Or you're seeing what happens when you do it wrong, at least for sure. And how it can turn against you really fast. So this is good stuff.

Megan R. Bell (19:49)
Well, I want to call out one of the things you said in terms of that urgent care environment. And I think there's a huge part of this that if you are right, like you are you just came from a very hard patient ⁓ care situation, you have a full weight room, right? Like that that is a lot. And so there are times that it is completely appropriate to just yes, no, right. To get to the point and being mindful of

PCMP (20:09)
Yeah.

Megan R. Bell (20:19)
Hey, this isn't, you know, a reflection of what I think of you or what you think of me. This is just a moment where we need to stick to the facts. But it's that that isn't the only way you interact. And I think to what you were saying earlier, that's part of how it goes from a I'm just here to do my job to a I get to work with these people. It is an intense environment and there are life and death moments and those should not be trivialized or ignored.

But at the same time, everyone's got their own background and life and history that they walk in with every day. And just because you cross that threshold doesn't mean that all those other things are instantly gone. We all have good and bad days, and you need to have the space to have those. But if you can provide that space and partly through how you communicate, then that is a better environment for everybody. And that gets back to that whole, you know, what can you do?

to make the world a better place. And it may not be Nobel Prize worthy, but if you can create an environment where other people can be successful and their job is delivering care, that's a beautiful thing.

PCMP (21:28)
Yeah. So tell me something about your culture that's unique to you, to your company. And then how do you keep that alive across 44 locations? Or protected, right? Protected and alive. I'll just say it that

Megan R. Bell (21:49)
I think one of the things that is a strength, but will always be a challenge in having locations across a state, especially one as geographically diverse as North Carolina, is that there is an element of everyone's in North Carolina, but their day to day and their living environment is very different. We are a state that has a coastal area. We have a Piedmont and we have the mountains.

PCMP (22:16)
Mm-hmm.

Megan R. Bell (22:19)
people will talk about like, are you a mountain or beach person? Because they are different environments. And so when you think about each of the clinics in those areas and the communities they serve, they are different. Now, weirdly, there was a hurricane in the mountains last year because that just was, it just happened. ⁓ So.

PCMP (22:24)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Megan R. Bell (22:45)
Typically you think of hurricanes impacting our coastal area more, but it can happen anywhere. But even in that, what happened with a hurricane in the mountains does not look and was not at all how that feels and looks in a coastal region. So in terms of that culture, I think there is the element and the importance of leadership in terms of conveying how we treat each other, what's important, and never losing sight of the important role.

that those in the clinics are playing for their communities and how their communities count on them. I think that's the commonality. But in terms of culture, there's also the element of, right, those people are coming together in that geographic region, you know, their favorite pizza joints this, and that's where they have, you know, their meetings or whatever it may be. And so giving that space of creating something specific to where they are, but not losing the connection

of the other ones.

PCMP (23:45)
Right. Now that makes total sense. allowing people to be themselves within a greater, I hate to say hive, but like you have your own personality and each, what you just described sounds like Alabama. You have the coast, you have Birmingham, and then you have the mountains, right? So.

And it just, reminds me very much of how we are over here. We just go from north to south. You go from west to east. That's it.

Megan R. Bell (24:07)
Right.

Exactly,

exactly. We're shaped like this way. Yeah.

PCMP (24:18)
Yeah, that's right. And then I'm originally from Tennessee

and it's just like a whole big kerfuffle over there. But Tennessee is like its own. It's like four different states. is. There's no commonality in that state whatsoever. ⁓

Megan R. Bell (24:23)
you

But that's

something you know by living there. And I think that's a key part of it, that there isn't a distance, right? It isn't there's a group of leaders or owners in one place, and they're sending out orders for a place they've never seen or been. I think that makes a huge difference in that culture. So even if I don't live in the mountains or the coast, I live in the middle. But when I'm interacting with people in those areas, I have an innate understanding of what they're talking about or referencing.

because I am from this state. And I think that helps in terms of culture. I know what is the correct barbecue and that's really important.

PCMP (25:08)
That will be debated. I'm originally from Memphis and I'm a barbecue snob. And then we have Birmingham barbecue. That's really good too. And ask any Texan what the real barbecue is. ⁓

Megan R. Bell (25:16)
it's so cute, but the correct answer is over here.

PCMP (25:22)
Okay. So, uh, yeah, I feel like, I feel like we got darts, some barbecue tip darts going on. All right. I'm going to like, that's fun. And I want to stay here and talk barbecue for a while. Um, and I will. So let's just do this for a second. What do you consider pulled pork? Are we, are we talking pulled pork? Are we talking about ribs? Are we talking about brisket? Because I need to know what you consider barbecue.

Megan R. Bell (25:25)
Jock's wired, my friends.

We have so many spinoffs, that's what you need to take notes on, all the spinoffs.

You

it's pulled pork.

PCMP (25:51)
Okay, good. So that would be the battle of, of Memphis and Birmingham and North Carolina. But if you go to Texas, it's brisket. Yeah. You know, so, so they're talking about something completely different when they say barbecue. That's like when you go up North and ask for a Coke or a Pepsi and you come to Alabama and they asked for a Coke and they ask you what kind. So it's just different.

Megan R. Bell (25:54)
you

Yes, which is great. I do enjoy it.

I know.

Well,

my tea is sweet.

PCMP (26:18)
Our tea is very sweet here. Yeah, that's something we

can agree on that. I actually live within 10 minutes of Milo's tea factory of sweet tea.

Megan R. Bell (26:22)
Okay.

Oh

my gosh. You know, in terms of living near something in my childhood when I was taking violin lessons, I know that happened. My violin teacher grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and he would talk about the smell. I was like, that sounds amazing. Apparently, if you live there, it gets old. But I'm like, no, I'd love to live in the town where chocolate is made.

PCMP (26:29)
Yeah, so I'm not far.

Yes.

⁓

Yeah.

It doesn't get old. Go ahead. What's your about to say? Our office here in river chase, which is Hoover, Alabama. We have buds, best cookies. That's about half a mile from here. And they, and they make little cookies, little cookies, face that looks a lot like cookies. so every morning, almost every morning when we get here, you can smell the cookies cooking.

Megan R. Bell (27:07)
Yeah!

PCMP (27:16)
And it smells like funnel cake to me, but it smells like an extra 10 pounds to me. But, no, yeah, we don't, we have gone way off on this podcast. that's okay. I'm going to go, I'm going to go down two different directions. One, I want to talk about AI just a little bit. And then two, you asked three great questions on here on the quick hits. And I really want to get to those cause I think they're good. Yeah. And we'll, so we'll end on the quick stuff because that will, we always like the end of an episode to have nuggets to give out some action points. So I have three different questions around.

Megan R. Bell (27:27)
you ⁓

Okay.

Okay.

PCMP (27:45)
And I'll let you fire those off because I've talked a whole lot this episode. Megan, ⁓ AI, all right? I know there's some things that we don't want to get into in too detail. Okay. And we don't have to, but I do want to talk about AI to a degree. So as a single location clinic, it's easy to experiment with AI. You you can, you can get Scribe or you can start using

Megan R. Bell (27:56)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

PCMP (28:08)
a solver and X parity or an urgent IQ and, and, and start using the AI and it's rapid. I can get it in. I don't like it. I can pull it out. When you start looking at AI at scale though, one, how are you, how are you thinking about it? Using it, adopting it and, and kind of spreading it through the organization to the degree that you feel like talking about.

Megan R. Bell (28:33)
I mean, AI is a pretty deep and wide project. I will say that I recently spoke at a project management conference about AI. And that was around a healthy dose of AI and really being incredibly aware of the power, but also responsibility, which is kind of like a Spider-Man reference with great power comes great responsibility. You're welcome. ⁓

PCMP (28:37)
Yes.

Yes, thank you for making that reference. I'm here for it.

Megan R. Bell (29:03)
But I think that's really key. It's not just, OK, we were told AI is great, jump into it. But really working and being mindful of the bias that's inherent in a lot of it, not just blindly accepting what is said, of knowing when it is helpful and when it is not. So I think there is a part of this that is making sure you are really solid on

⁓ the legality on the ethics of it before you just jump in and like, okay, we're going to use this tool. That will be great. And I think there's also a key part of this in terms of the transparency that when and where and how it's being used is very clear to your employees, to your patients, to your providers, that it's not something in the shadows, but it's upfront. Because I think that is also one way to reduce

some of the potential risk in terms of where did this come from, should I trust it, but being very clear about when and where and

PCMP (30:12)
That's good. I've seen you talk talked about transparency and letting people know when you're using AI and when you're not. Just recently it passed overseas. I want to say China. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I I didn't read the article. I was talking about our team wine. I think was talking about it. Yeah. So anyway, ⁓ they just passed a law. I want to say China. If I'm wrong, send me hate mail. It's fine. Naked patient. Anyway, ⁓

If you're writing AI content, you, or writing an AI ad or using AI in some kind of a content piece that's being produced and put out to the public, you legally now have to state that as AI. That is not here yet. But I did notice like even on TikTok is now getting, is giving that flag of this was made with AI. Yeah. Well, that's because of overseas stuff that's trickling through. so even like, ⁓ when my

Megan R. Bell (30:55)
Mm.

PCMP (31:08)
Samsung device makes an image at the bottom left corner, it says produced with AI, which and I just naturally crop that out and nobody knows. you know, we're living in wild times when it comes to AI. mean, nobody knows what they're doing. No government knows what they're doing with it. We're all convinced rabbits were jumping on a trampoline all together at one time. That's right. And then, then now we have healthcare that is starting to, it's adopting it slower, which I'm grateful for, by the way. It's adopting AI slower.

but I think it's inevitable for the adoption. And that's what I was curious about. It's one thing for a clinic to get scribe and put it in and ⁓ is something entirely different to get scribe, put it in, test it, roll it out to the next set of clinics, roll out to the next set of clinics. ⁓ Turning a wave runner is very, very, very fast. Turning a cruise ship, not so much, right? ⁓ So really just kind of thinking about that application and how you're trickling it through the organization as you...

Megan R. Bell (31:58)
Yes.

PCMP (32:05)
as you allow. So that's that's where I was going with that. I want to hear your fire off questions, man. Let's do this. Yes. So to the kind of close up the episode because we're running on that time there, I want to know I want the audience to know just a tad bit more about you personally. Right. And it's just like your quick thoughts on so you can go as deep or not as deep as you want to on these three questions. And I haven't given you questions prior. So here we go. So who has been a big influence on your leadership style? And it could be an author, a book or somebody that

Megan R. Bell (32:28)
Okay.

PCMP (32:35)
was a leader at some point. It could be Kermit. You never know Jim Henson. But if there was a if you're going to pinpoint a big influence for how you do leadership now, what would that

Megan R. Bell (32:47)
I mean, Kermit is a great leader. mean, have you seen the crew that he has to work with and he has to produce a live show? That's pretty, that's challenge there. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, that's a different episode. Okay. So I would say that there really hasn't been a single person, but it's really been a combination of experiences, but probably in terms of style.

PCMP (32:54)
Yeah, he also landed Miss Piggy.

Megan R. Bell (33:17)
I really like Captain Picard. I like how he looks for the input of his team, that he's willing to go in. I like that he is the calm when everything else is going around, which now that I say that, probably is also like Kermit, but I'm going to go with Captain Picard.

PCMP (33:34)
Yeah.

So, so Megan, I'm currently in season two of the new Picard show. like that's why.

Megan R. Bell (33:41)
We'll talk. And then there's Strange New Worlds. That's a whole new series.

PCMP (33:44)
I'm loving that. I bet those can't come out fast

enough. We just lost our whole audience. Let's get that. You lost me. So it's okay. I'm a drunkie. There you go. So what's next one is there's one, one lesson that you've learned. Urgent care that was surprising to you. Like it just did not expect it, but urgent care threw it at you.

Megan R. Bell (33:49)
Okay, okay. Good luck in Prosper, but okay.

I think, ⁓

I think I've been really, it's really been meaningful to hear all the different ways people have found their path to urgent care and those motivations because, you know, it can be, I've always wanted this or it can be there was an event and that really turned them towards wanting to be in healthcare. But that's.

That's really been something I found fascinating because before coming in this space, I thought of it as a very clear cut. Well, everyone else knew exactly what they were going for. This is exactly what they wanted to do. And the fact that there are different ways to come into urgent care has, I found it inspiring.

PCMP (34:59)
Love it. Nice. And then this is always the, like we try to get this out of most of our guests. But if you were going to give a piece of advice to someone who was starting in healthcare today, or were given the healthcare leadership position, ⁓ what would that piece of advice be? To tell your younger self, like, I wish I knew this now, or knew it then.

Megan R. Bell (35:24)
might my younger self or someone trying to break in the industry? I feel like those are two different questions.

PCMP (35:28)
They are. If you give one piece of advice to somebody starting in urgent care today, what would it be?

Megan R. Bell (35:36)
Admit when you don't know something.

PCMP (35:38)
That's good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That'll play across all platforms.

Megan R. Bell (35:40)
It's okay

to ask. And in fact, it shows your willingness to be vulnerable, which is actually a strength.

PCMP (35:51)
real. mean, the idea of just being okay to ask a question, because there's so many people just have that pretend I know the answer and I don't and then I create a very large mess that could have been easily fixed. ⁓ No, that's good stuff. think it also, you know, there's a power in asking the right question ⁓ that could change the directory of how you do things. So I think asking questions isn't just I don't know, it opens up possibility as well.

Megan R. Bell (36:05)
Yeah. Yeah.

yeah, and then depending on the answers you get, it can take it to a whole other level because someone will share their experience or they will say, I don't know, but this person does. And so you've now expanded your network, you've expanded your connection points and gotten to an answer. So that's part of it. You need to be willing to ask and then open to the answer.

PCMP (36:28)
Right.

I love it.

I can't think really of a better way to end a podcast than asking you how people can connect with you better. The layup. Yeah. You like that? That's, that's called a segue.

Megan R. Bell (36:56)
We did set that up, didn't we?

It's

like you're pros in the business. Okay. Okay. I am on LinkedIn. I will not offer autographs. Okay. Well, I was going to say I cannot offer autographs of Kermit the Frog, but I can be found.

PCMP (37:06)
⁓ We've tricked them all No, we want people to be able to we want people to be able to pick your brain I didn't mean to interrupt you go ahead. I'm sorry

That's a shame. Yeah. Well, we want people, can drop a link to your LinkedIn profile or an email if you prefer. But let's get a way for people to be able to connect with you if they just want to learn more about honestly, just leading and having a good time and leadership. I think that for me, we didn't spend enough time on that in this episode. So we'll have another one down the road. But leadership is supposed to be a challenge, but it's also supposed to be fun. And I feel like you would be a fun person to be led by.

Megan R. Bell (37:28)
I know that's going to impact.

All right, well, I will think of things to tell you to do. We'll see if you ⁓ enjoy my leadership.

PCMP (38:00)
Okay. I feel like that will not be a problem.

I feel like that will not be a problem. If you tell me the bad news in a good way, we'll be all right. There you go. There you go. All right. Megan, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. And we're going to find another time to get you back on here. Have some more laughs. Learn some more about urgent care and Kermit. Yep. Yep. A more out Kermit. Yeah, absolutely. All right. So we'll talk to you on the next one. Okay. Thanks for coming on.

Megan R. Bell (38:07)
You

Okay.

Thank you so much.

PCMP (38:27)
All right.