James Glinn, Founder

Improve Productivity and Increase Access to Care while Making a Difference with James Glinn, Founder, Movement for Life

: [00:00:01] Welcome to the Outcomes Rocket podcast where we inspire collaborative thinking, improved outcomes and business success with today’s most successful and inspiring healthcare leaders and influencers. And now your host, Saul Marquez

Saul Marquez: [00:00:19] Outcomes Rocket listeners welcome back once again to the outcomes rocket podcast where we chat with today’s most successful and inspiring healthcare leaders. Hey I really want to thank you for tuning in and I invite you to go to outcomes rocket dot com slash reviews where you could rate and review today’s episode. Let us know what you thought about our guest today. Let us know what you think about the show in general because it really makes a difference. We love hearing from you. So give us that surprise give us that joy. Without further ado, I want to introduce our outstanding guest. His name is Dr. James E. Glinn. James Glinn is the founder of Movement for Life team as part of an amazing group of people and dedicated team of experts Dr. Glenn contributes to the advancement and operation of the largest employer own fitness wellness and outpatient rehabilitation team in the United States. In addition James is currently passionate about tele movement a nationwide wellness and physical therapy directed platform network delivering curated evidence in real time. He believes that movement is a core piece of health when not striving to improve the lives of those he serves. James is a former All-American swimmer enjoys surfing paddling and other water sports as well as spending time with his lovely wife and daughters gym. I really want to welcome you to the podcast today and then have you add anything else to that intro that I may have missed.

James Glinn: [00:01:51] Oh goodness. A burst of joy. It makes me sound great. Thanks so much for having me.

Saul Marquez: [00:01:56] My pleasure.

James Glinn: [00:01:57] Anything else to add. There are so many pieces to add you know as says movement being a big piece of health is really important and everything that we do and so I might add is you know recently we’ve been doing some work in St. Louis County with the public health department and looking to see how we can integrate movement as a key component for healthy communities and get healthier people so I’m really into this concept of health and health care truly being a local thing and very difficult in many ways to outsource.

Saul Marquez: [00:02:30] I think that’s such a noble cause that you’re doing their Jim and the end of the day you know you’ve been an accomplished entrepreneur and contributor and health care. Why not give locally and and kudos to you for taking that dive.

James Glinn: [00:02:44] Oh really well thank you. And the beauty of contributing locally is we all are members of our local community and so we all benefit from our contributions and so that concept of collaboration and what’s possible and all worked together is just so critical for I think what’s possible in healthcare as.

Saul Marquez: [00:03:01] So true. So why did you get started in the medical sector.

James Glinn: [00:03:04] So since I was a young boy I’ve always been around the health care sector. My father was a physical therapist in the hospital so I spent weekends yes tagging along with dad and being in the hospital. And from a young age it was really instilled in me that serving others is one of the options that we can take for our career and for our life. And that really that really struck me the concept of serving others and selfishly there’s nothing i’d rather rather be doing.

Saul Marquez: [00:03:32] That’s so cool and sounds like your dad blaze some trails there and you’ve done an amazing job just you know follow in his footsteps and in your own way. And so here you are fast forward to today. Many years have gone by what do you think Jim a hot topic that should be on every medical leaders agenda today is and how are you guys addressing it.

James Glinn: [00:03:54] Well it’s the possibilities right this idea that we can innovate further and health care. There’s there’s so much low hanging fruit and health care. I think every medical leader and goodness you know we all I think of unfortunately or fortunately have to serve as our own medical leaders so that’s on everyone’s mind I think is what health care looks like. What are these roles and responsibilities. Because there’s so much more that we can do and say there’s so many inefficiencies. So figuring out with each other how we can collaborate for the benefit of the patient you know with this patient at the center of it is is really an exciting opportunity you know so for my field if you consider in my field of physical therapy which I think is just this fantastic field where the care that we deliver has few side effects. Roughly 7 percent of individuals with health insurance. So you know that number goes down even from their access to physical therapy services. And so that’s just an illustration of something where we can make big change I think by sharing information and collaborating together so you know us what we’re working on what we’re working on right now is partnering with the Journal of orthopedic and sports therapy to take some of the clinical practice guidelines and make them more accessible for everybody. And we’re doing that through our platform which is called telemovement.com and we just launched that a little bit ago after literally decades of talk about what might be possible. I mean really I know we’re fired but we’re really excited about the possibilities a movement being efficient in this back and really making some changes in healthcare.

Saul Marquez: [00:05:25] I think that’s great. Didn’t know that statistic was so low 17 percent of insured people have access to physical therapy. That’s pretty crazy.

James Glinn: [00:05:34] Yeah it’s just a real low access. And even those that do get you know you have to imagine some of the challenges of accessing certain parts of care. And this isn’t unique to our profession or our specialty per se. You know there are all sorts of other access issues in healthcare from primary care as well as the services just living locally.

Saul Marquez: [00:05:54] I guess I just had never thought about that segment of physical therapy being solo I think you know you think that it’s something more widely used. But yeah very interesting stat. Thanks for sharing that. So give us an example Jim of a time when you guys created results by doing and thinking differently.

James Glinn: [00:06:14] Well there is what we have thought differently and essentially we only started this way is that on our team because we’re healthcare providers we always worked together to deliver this care together and so it’s always been about not just me as a provider working with patients it’s in front of me but also how can I work with this greater team of people and have a greater reach right me no bigger than yourself be able to do more and so one of the big things for us is we became employee owned in late 2015. And that employee ownership accountability piece for all of us as healthcare providers is a real big part of who we are. We really just think that we’re a better team together and we work much better as a team and we think that benefit only patients that are there. So that’s a big part of that employee owned piece because day to day on our team we’ve got people always telemovement.com and that’s super exciting what we’re doing on this great grandiose large scale here locally. Like I said we’re still working with patients face to face and so that employee ownership together and working together has been really powerful and surprisingly is not real common healthcare. You don’t see a lot of it. So you know that’s a big part of it.

Saul Marquez: [00:07:20] That’s great. Yeah and it’s it seems like in fact it’s going the other way with large systems purchasing practices and it seems like it’s going the other way right now and you guys decided to give the ownership to the employees. I don’t know. Did an Aesop over there how you executed it but I guess the bottom line is your employees own the company and they have the skin in the game.

James Glinn: [00:07:45] Exactly. They own not just the company but they own the care that they’re delivering. And so you know if if if you’re a patient thinks to delivered by God you want to be carried over by a publicly traded company. Really again there are some fantastic amazing publicly traded companies or do you want it delivered by the person right there in front of you right there that they don’t care. So it’s been really important for how we think you know as an organization and I think that’s a big area where we can really differentiate and do some hopefully amazing thing.

Saul Marquez: [00:08:14] Hey that’s cool you know and I appreciate your diving into that distinction. So as a provider we’re a provider listener. It’s not that hey you know what not only do you own your practice but you also own the care that you’re delivering. And I think this is definitely a thought that could shift a practice or an organization. So kudos to you and your leadership for doing that kind of shaping.

James Glinn: [00:08:36] Well thank you. Yeah it’s been really important to both me personally but as well to our whole team and our communities.

Saul Marquez: [00:08:42] So Jim maybe you could share with the listeners a time when you had a mistake or a setback and what you learned from that.

James Glinn: [00:08:49] Oh you know my biggest mistake particularly in healthcare and I think it’s core and what we do is when I forget you know you start looking at data and when what’s possible and it’s easy to forget that it’s all about people and so you know my biggest mistake when I forget that healthcare is a person people centered driven thing and you can really use yourself and really miss the value that you do when you start to depersonalize things and just make things data. At the end of the day what we’re trying to do in healthcare is make people healthier. Help them help them be better. You know there’s all sorts of ways to do that but it’s 100 percent in my mind.

Saul Marquez: [00:09:28] I think that’s great. And maybe you could take us to one moment in particular and let us know what you took out of that one particular time.

James Glinn: [00:09:37] There are so many particulars in terms of where it’s easy to forget about people particular as we’ve been working on this software and this platform for delivering the clinical practice guidelines and people those things but the moment to remember that the value of people is when they’re patients sitting right in front of you that person’s in front of you they’re in a vulnerable position. That vulnerability comes with responsibility on behalf of provider and so when that’s forgotten you lose all the authenticity and all the magic of what’s possible. And it’s a quite unfortunate thing for the patient and so I hate to say it but every provider right now gets bogged down with these rules and regulations and I know not to go off on a tangent but very difficult I’m sure you heard from some of your other. Yes that’s a very very difficult. Yeah you have to remind yourself that this is a people people thing we’re doing this. Yes it was data and yes it’s important and data can really guide and enhance our decisions. But still a person so that just becomes really the area where you just take yourself because pretty soon you realize you’re checking boxes or the same as the federal government you know a private insurer whomever it may be that’s not really here.

Saul Marquez: [00:10:52] Is there anything that you do to help stay centered any rituals any any symbols anything around your office that you have that help you remember when maybe you have a hard time.

James Glinn: [00:11:03] Yeah there are a number of things we believe in real simple consistent messages. So in our team we use what we call the three As and three As of really simple ability access and atmosphere ability and we deliver responsibility to be at the top of our profession of what we do access we feel people need to have access to the services that we provide. The larger the local nature a lot of it in an atmosphere you know you’ve got to do it and I think that fun healing environment. Otherwise what we do becomes very tedious and difficult. So we’ve got those symbols all over. I think we need to remind ourselves of those things all the time and when we do we seem to keep practicing balance and to deliver what I consider here at the top of practice.

Saul Marquez: [00:11:46] I think that’s so cool. Thanks for sharing that. You know I always wonder what different people do to stay focused. And if I could pull a nice little gem out of it just like shared right now that’s a success. So listeners think about ways that you could do like them Triple A. Access and the other two that he mentioned. Just think of your own ways of doing this because that’s the way that you’re sure to set up the systems to have success in delivering what you want to do most. So Jim what about your what are your most proud leadership moments in medicine today.

James Glinn: [00:12:19] All the most private moments of the shared experiences of our team and so you know the proudest moment was me because it was quite a tedious process to get there was when we finally became an employee owned health organization. That was something that we were long hard towards and as a mature is really important.

Saul Marquez: [00:12:36] Now that’s huge. Man how about an exciting project that you’re working on.

James Glinn: [00:12:40] Well you know earlier I mentioned telemovement.com and that’s where we’ve been spending a whole bunch of time really trying to take some of this data and hopefully that we’re also able to humanize that as much as possible and be able to deliver that. So we’ve got telemovement.com that are we are basically allows the individual accessing the platform the ability to sort of pick the mind of all the best research physical therapist and the clinical practice guidelines that they’ve published in The Journal and work in sports physical therapy and so really I hate to think it sounds simple but what we’re really trying to do is just acknowledge useful and so it’s been a really exciting process. We’ve got patients on the platform now and we’ve got data coming through there. I think we’ve got some great outcomes that are coming out of it now and so it’s really exciting to see what’s possible on a digital platform in what health processes are very human profession.

Saul Marquez: [00:13:35] Yeah. Jim so that’s really interesting. So tell a moment that. Who would use it who would use the platform somebody who is Love therapy.

James Glinn: [00:13:44] Absolutely yes. So someone in an area where they don’t have access to quality physical therapy or you know there are all sorts of small rural or rural areas that have great access to internet and data but there’s not a whole lot of medical and allied health professions in those areas. So you know those patients are individuals that want to learn a little bit more about aches and pains who might be having that neck pain issues. Any of those things. It’s a great place to go. And then on the provider side it’s a great place to learn more about patterns and what sort of patterns present in the Musculoskeletal world. So it works for us high as training and education to providers because some of the patterns you don’t have as you working on it and who doesn’t want to know a little bit more about ache that they have in their back or their shoulder or whatever it might be. I think it’s a pretty great resource. So listeners Jim and his team Andrew Cherry and the folks over at telemovement have put together an offer for you if you go to outcomesrocket.com.telemovement.com. You can use the access code OUTCOMESROCKET4U. That’s number four. You saw outcomes rocket number four letter you everything is in caps. You’re going to get a free 30 day trial to the tele movement musculoskeletal platform because these guys care and they want to get you healthy back moving right, Jim?

James Glinn: [00:15:10] Absolutely yeah. And we would love any feedback. This is a learning process for all of us. This is the future of the delivery of some of the services that our professor provides. So we really want to make sure that we’re thoughtful as we move forward so what we would love any feedback.

Saul Marquez: [00:15:23] Absolutely listeners, so there you go. They’re giving you a 30 day trial. Go check it out if you get a pain somewhere. Check them out and be able to help you find the source of it and maybe some solutions to it. I think this is really great. And don’t forget to give back feedback which is what they’re looking for. So this is so interesting. Let’s pretend you and I are building a medical leadership course and what it takes to be successful medicine. It’s though 101 or the ABC of the Dr. James Glinn. I’ve got four questions for you. Lightning round style and then we’ll finish up the syllabus with a book that you recommend to the listeners you ready. I’m ready. Awesome. What is the best way to improve health care outcomes.

James Glinn: [00:16:05] You have clear expectations and meaningful rewards.

Saul Marquez: [00:16:08] What is the biggest mistake or pitfall to avoid.

James Glinn: [00:16:11] Just like her. And don’t forget that it’s always about people.

Saul Marquez: [00:16:15] How do you stay relevant as an organization. Despite constant change.

James Glinn: [00:16:19] Just care you have to actually give during that to care about the people on your team.

Saul Marquez: [00:16:23] What is one area of focus that should drive everything else in your organization.

James Glinn: [00:16:28] So I mentioned those earlier. For those that’s the three is ability access and atmosphere.

Saul Marquez: [00:16:33] Boom that’s awesome. And so what book would you recommend to the listeners.

James Glinn: [00:16:38] The most recent book that people asked me a recommendation. I just really love thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman that I thought there were just so many great lessons for healthcare providers in the book

Saul Marquez: [00:16:48] Thinking fast and thinking slow listeners these nuggets of wisdom all put together in this nice syllabus along with this book. You’ll find the link to it. You’ll find all of the the show notes that we’ve discussed today go to outcomesrocket.health/drglinn. That’s D R G L I N N and you’ll be able to find everything that we discuss here today. Jim without further just the anticipation I just wanted to ask for you to share a closing thought with the listeners and the best place where they could get a hold of you.

James Glinn: [00:17:24] For the listeners. I think here are what I want is a closing thought people keep in mind this is how important the ability for all of us to work together step out of some silos that we get stuck in As healthcare providers in and anywhere in the healthcare system that you may be working on or otherwise because look we all want to be healthy whether we work in this system or not. And so you know I think more we can do to collaborate together I think there’s still all sorts of opportunity and the possibilities are endless love to talk talking more listeners. I’m Sparksman more time than I should on Twitter. I’m @jglinn and would love to have anyone reach out there and some conversations accordingly.

Saul Marquez: [00:18:04] Love the invitation listeners take advantage of that invitation. Reach out to Jim via Twitter. And don’t forget about the promo we’ll include that in the show notes as well. But just as a reminder its outcomesrocket.com.telemovement.com and you can have a 30 day free trial if you go to OUTCOMESROCKET4U all caps so go to the show notes get that information and check them out again. Jim really want to say thank you for joining us today. It’s been a ton of fun and rural looking forward to seeing this program. You guys started just flourish to success.

James Glinn: [00:18:39] Hey I sure appreciate now and thank you for offering this platform for people to have these discussions and I think they’re important it’s definitely appreciated. Thank you.

: [00:18:50] Thanks for listening to the outcomes rocket podcast. Be sure to visit us on the web at www.outcomesrocket.health for the show notes, resources, inspiration and so much more.