Episode 20

020 Sara Well - Reducing Cost, Improving Care and Impacting Thousands of Patient Lives

Sara Well is the Founder & CEO of Dropstat, an organization that solves staffing issues in hospital systems in a way that ensures safe patient care and delivers better outcomes.

Today, Jeff and Sara discuss her truly unique journey from critical care trauma nurse to SaaS Founder. Sara highlights the risks associated with understaffed hospitals and healthcare centers, the value she places on taking care of her employees, and the benefits of being a founder with intimate internal knowledge of the industry.

Episode Sponsor

Small Fish, Big Pond – https://smallfishbigpond.com/ Use the promo code ‘SaaSFuel’

Champion Leadership Group – https://championleadership.com/

Key Takeaways

01:05 – Jeff introduces today’s guest, Sara Well, who joins the show to share her unique two-phase journey from healthcare to tech

11:13 – How short staffing impacts patient care

16:16 – How Dropstat is helping to solve the critical issue of short staffing in healthcare

27:53 – Benefits of being a founder with intimate internal knowledge of the industry and challenges Sara has encountered throughout her journey

36:42 – Jeff takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Champion Leadership Group

37:15 – Sara’s proudest accomplishment as a founder and the importance of valuing your team

44:30 – How Sara balances everything that goes into running her own company

47:13 – Best practices Sara implements to improve as a leader

48:45 – The value mentors have provided to Sara

54:39 – Is access to capital different for female founders than it is for male founders?

1:00:32 – How Sara persuaded initial investors

1:02:08 – The most crucial lessons Sara has learned from her experience as a founder

1:05:10 – Advice Sara would give to her younger self

1:06:48 – Jeff thanks Sara for joining the show and lets listeners know where to learn more about Dropstat

Tweetable Quotes

“My downtime was all focused on what’s happening in the markets and learning about how the leading companies are solving problems and making decisions.” (07:52) (Sara)

“Every time you give a nurse more patients than what’s called the ‘Safe Staffing Ratio,’ assuming they’re all critical care patients, each patient has a seven percent increased risk of mortality.” (12:04) (Sara)

“The way that we help solve this solution is we created the first total staffing supply chain management product. So, the typical process is, ‘I can’t find staff. There’s a number of solutions. I’m going to call or ‘textuade.’ If that fails, I will go to two-sided marketplaces or expensive, outsourced staffing companies, or I’ll hire travel staff. Dropstat says, ‘Hold on a second. You have an entire inventory that you not even accessed.” (17:57) (Sara)

“When you have better staffing, that is the most cost efficient decision that you could make. You’re driving revenue. You’re driving better reported quality of care. And, today, patient satisfaction scores actually drive the reimbursement for hospitals.” (24:37) (Sara)

“I think a huge challenge in this staffing shortage is also going to be - not even so much the pay - it’s going to be a lot of how do we build a culture that really nourishes people.” (35:31) (Sara)

“We’re constantly creating ourselves as leaders. And, we’re constantly building the team around us as well. The leaders that we were yesterday shouldn’t, ideally, be the leaders we are tomorrow.” (46:07) (Sara)

“The right piece of advice can be worth so much more than a really good investment.” (51:37) (Sara)