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Be Seen. Be Heard. | Healthcare Leadership Communication Gap

Ever feel like you or your team is screaming into the void? That you’re raising real problems, backed by data, and leadership isn’t listening? Right now, the organizations making real progress in healthcare today share one trait: they listen to the people closest to the problem.


This challenge isn't just a public health problem; it's the same pattern I see in every healthcare organization where frontline teams bring data-validated problems to leadership and get silence in return.


Stories Worth Sharing:

I’ve spent the past few weeks working, volunteering, and engaging with organizations doing mission-driven work trying to address some of healthcare’s toughest problems.


As a member of King County’s Public Health Reserve Corps, I spent a day doing something I’d never thought I’d do. Health Intervention Tool (“HIT”) kits are small utility bags for drug users to perform sterile methods of use. Funded by taxpayer dollars and distributed through Public Health – Seattle & King County, the kits included harm reduction supplies. The efforts here are focused on reducing risk of overdose and disease spread (sterile needles were previously included but removed based on user feedback and usage data showing a shift from intravenous to smoking). After peaking in 2023, University of Washington data shows a promising 32% decline in fatal overdoses from 2023 to 2025 due to harm reduction efforts like HIT kits. This progress came from policy open to innovation and persistence in pursuing solutions. It also required patience, allowing experimentation to run and the data to emerge before claiming victory or failure. Now that 45% of the public feels progress is being made, the real work begins. How do you keep the community informed and motivated to serve the cause?  You continue to stand up, speak up, and advocate.

King County Public Health Health Intervention Tool (HIT) kits.
Just a portion of the HIT kits packed.

Over the course of four hours Dr. Betsy (retired anesthesiologist) and I packed an estimated 1,000 HIT kits to be distributed at shelters, farmer’s markets, and other known areas frequented by drug users. And I’m sharing, speaking, and advocating to you here. I’m sharing because the problem isn’t solved (we’re still at 2x the fatal overdose rate we were prior to the pandemic), and I hope this story motivates you to take action.

 

I also had the privilege of attending the Northwest Rare Disease Coalition’s Seattle Rare Disease Fair. The fair was a two-day event focused on sharing progress, panel discussions, and collaborative problem-solving around the more than 10,000 rare diseases that impact at least 1 in 10 U.S. families that rarely receive any attention. This coalition and fair were born from, and is led by, families, practitioners, and researchers trying to improve the lives of their loved ones living with these diseases. The challenges these individuals face are astronomical:

  • The average length of time for a diagnosis is 5.6 years

  • Between 80% and 90% of marriages supporting a rare disease child end in divorce

  • Currently Washington State (unlike 27 other states) does not allow parents of minor children to serve as paid caregivers

  • The federal changes to HR1 and Medicaid beginning in 2027 are estimated to drop over 250,000 people from insurance (per NW Rare Disease Coalition fair panelist)

  • The concerning trend in healthcare professionals looking to leave the U.S. for Canada (per KFF Health News, the number of doctors creating accounts on physiciansapply.ca has increased more than 750% over the past seven months)


The list continues. And yet, here they were. Sharing their stories, fighting, all while remaining open to anyone who wanted to join. Per NW Rare Disease Fair panelists, their efforts are starting to pay dividends, as seen with research and technology advances in their areas of concern (some estimates suggest AI-powered tooling reducing diagnostic time by half), rare disease patients are living longer, and the coalition started in the Pacific Northwest is rapidly expanding to other states (CO, NC, OK, etc.). Despite these challenges, meaningful progress is happening, and it’s coming from communities that refuse to wait for top-down solutions. What I walked away most impressed with was the organization’s ability to build a coalition of allies to advocate for common causes. Like the best performing teams, these families, providers, and researchers figured out where they overlapped and how they all benefit despite the unique challenges each group faces.


In my work advising healthcare organizations and technology companies, and from my own time in the field as a combat medic, I've seen this pattern repeat. Here are a few lessons leaders shouldn't ignore.


Key Recommendations:

  1. Elevate Frontline Signals Before They Become Crisis. 86% of employees feel their voices are not heard equally (UKG/Workplace Intelligence), and 63% of staff feel ignored by their managers. How will leaders know where the next crisis, or its antidote, is simmering if they can’t figure out how to look, listen, and learn? King County Public Health has leaned into this approach, and progress in addressing the overdose epidemic reflects it.

  2. Build Cross-Functional Network Credibility. University of Maryland research (Venkataramani & Bartol) found that an idea is taken more seriously when it comes from an employee with a diverse network within the company. The NW Rare Disease Coalition does this, and they’re gaining momentum because of it.

  3. Leverage the Power of Personal Stories. In research by Stanford's Jennifer Aaker, when students delivered one-minute pitches, 63% of the audience remembered the stories while only 5% could recall a single statistic.  The Coalition leads with real stories from real people and is seeing real results because of it.

  4. Don’t Give Up. McKinsey's data shows that by the trough of the 2009 recession, resilient companies had grown EBITDA by 10% while their peers had lost nearly 15%, a 25-point performance gap. The difference wasn't strategy. It was that people in those organizations kept talking, kept surfacing problems, kept proposing solutions, even when it felt like no one was listening.


I am grateful that I reside in an area filled with people and organizations trying to solve complex problems and that welcomes all who want to help them do so. What stood out most over the past few weeks is this: progress in healthcare rarely starts in boardrooms — it starts with people closest to the problem who refuse to stop pushing for solutions.


Progress takes persistence, and the Seattle & King County Public Health and NW Rare Disease Coalition display both.


You may learn more about serving and supporting the King County Public Health Reserve Corps on their website here.


I would encourage you to learn more about the NW Rare Disease Coalition and support their causes. You may find more information on their website here.


Cheers,


Adam Peddicord


I work with healthcare and SaaS organizations where the data says one thing and leadership hears another. If you're seeing a disconnect between frontline reality and executive decision-making, I’d be interested to hear how your organization is approaching it.


 

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