Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Teresa Ash, Director of System Operations for Digital Health at UC Health

Transcript

Teresa Ash, Director of System Operations for Digital Health at UC Health · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:02
  At athenahealth,
• 0:03
  we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier,
• 0:06
  a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
• 0:09
  patients.
• 0:10
  But the complexities of modern health care tech
• 0:12
  make it hard for you and your care
• 0:14
  teams to focus on what matters most.
• 0:16
  That's where athenahealth can help.
• 0:18
  Our AI native all in one solutions reduce
• 0:21
  administrative burdens,
• 0:23
  streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
• 0:25
  when clinicians need it most.
• 0:27
  That means fewer clicks, more time for patients,
• 0:30
  and stronger bottom lines. Practicing medicine is complex,
• 0:34
  but running a practice can be that much
• 0:36
  simpler with athenahealth.
• 0:38
  See how simpler is healthier@athenahealth.com.
• 0:44
  Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
• 0:47
  This is Scott King thrilled today to be
• 0:49
  joined by a very special guest, Teresa Ash,
• 0:52
  system director of digital health with UCHealth.
• 0:56
  Teresa, how are you doing today?
• 0:58
  I'm great, Scott. How are you? I'm good.
• 1:00
  I'm good. You know, we actually got a
• 1:01
  little rain. It's actually cooling down in Chicago
• 1:04
  a little bit. We have, had some kinda
• 1:06
  like an extra summer
• 1:08
  Yes. I think you could say. So it's
• 1:09
  definitely Same thing here in Cincinnati. We're we're
• 1:11
  dealing with the rain now, but it's a
• 1:13
  it's a welcome change. It is welcome. It's
• 1:15
  gonna feel like fall. It's gonna feel like
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  Halloween, but any hoot and holler, let's get
• 1:19
  down to health care. Okay. I know there's
• 1:21
  a lot we wanna we wanna dive into,
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  a lot of kinda important trends and and
• 1:26
  topics. But, Teresa, before we get started with
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  all that, can you please just tell us
• 1:29
  a little bit about yourself and your background
• 1:31
  in health care? Sure. Yeah. I'd be happy
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  to. First of all, thanks for asking me
• 1:36
  to participate in this, podcast. Health care,
• 1:40
  is something I'm passionate about, specifically
• 1:43
  looking at digital health operations.
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  And it's such a growing field
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  that I'm
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  always willing to take the opportunity
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  to jump in and share my experience.
• 1:57
  So, my background's
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  unique in the health care digital world.
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  My training is in pharmacy. I am a
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  pharmacist
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  and started out as a clinical pharmacist
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  working, for a health care
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  system,
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  specifically focusing in chronic disease management
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  and ambulatory
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  care.
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  And through that focus, which was
• 2:21
  unfortunately longer ago than I would like to
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  admit, twenty years ago,
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  when that was really still
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  just kind of in its infancy,
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  having pharmacists work in those areas,
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  I was able to be on the front
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  end of developing some digital technologies
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  and digital
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  applications and interfaces
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  to help manage chronic conditions for patients.
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  That
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  paved my way into an interest in overall
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  digital
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  applications and programs
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  and
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  products
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  that help manage care
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  for patients
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  or enable the workforce to better care for
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  patients.
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  So my current role is as
• 3:06
  system director of operations for digital health.
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  So I always like to say I I
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  serve as the
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  Rosetta
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  Stone
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  between
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  clinical
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  and
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  IS and T or digital health teams
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  to help implement those tools
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  or improve those tools that we're going to
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  leverage to make patient care easier
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  or make our
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  employees on the front lines more effective and
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  more efficient to allow them to do the
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  best work they can when caring for patients.
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  So it's been an interesting journey to this
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  point, but
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  I'm in on the front line of some
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  really cool initiatives right now as we look
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  forward to the future in digital health.
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  Thank you, Theresa. It sounds like you're kind
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  of at the forefront of of helping
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  with an emerging digital health tool. Can you
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  kind of give us a little bit of
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  those specifics there, and and how rewarding was
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  that to be a part of that? Sure.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. So
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  the current tool that I'm I'm really working
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  on right now is, you know, utilizing AI,
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  to help improve the digital,
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  patient experience,
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  and also improve our efficiency for the workforce.
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  That is obviously the future and where we're
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  headed. And, you know, we're really focusing our
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  current use case that's,
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  most recently out of the box is looking
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  at,
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  disposition planning for patients who are admitted into
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  the hospital and moving
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  that
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  plan, and that initial
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  request for placement
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  up earlier in the patient's hospital stay
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  to prevent,
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  you know, week long hospital stays that are
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  only there so we can get approval
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  to transition someone to post acute care.
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  Utilizing
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  AI tools and
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  data learning and machine learning, we're able to
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  identify those patients
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  upon
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  admission who would be good candidates
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  for placement
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  in,
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  post acute care, such as rehab facilities or
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  into
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  skilled nursing facilities,
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  and really guide that transition
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  much quicker
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  and provide the patient and the family caregivers,
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  with some clarity on where
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  the planned discharge is to allow them to
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  prepare for that, but also get them discharged
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  from the hospital much sooner as we don't
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  have to wait on those approvals,
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  to come through.
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  Yeah. You know, we we hear with
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  people utilizing AI in in systems that, obviously,
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  there's
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  an increase in efficiency, and and you get
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  more time to do other things you need
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  to do. But this is your practical use
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  case that kinda talks about more than just
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  efficiency and saving yourself time. You're actually saving
• 6:02
  beds and times when those beds will be
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  used and better uses for them. So,
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  certainly certainly a lot of rewards there.
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  Yeah. Absolutely.
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  Let me ask you. As
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  virtual care expands from you, like AI enabled
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  tools that kind of been discussing and and
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  remote monitoring monitoring to
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  broader digital health platforms,
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  introducing new technology brings challenges. So what advice
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  do you have for leaders navigating everything from
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  governance to patient engagement?
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  And can you share an example of how
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  your organization has balanced innovation with some operational
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  constraints?
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  Yeah. Absolutely.
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  So I, you know, I think the first
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  thing that we've done to balance innovation with
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  operational constraints
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  is to create
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  the position that I'm in. So this is
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  a new position
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  to UCHealth,
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  and the position was purely created to help
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  streamline the process of getting these digital technologies
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  and the digital tools
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  to the frontline staff.
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  My background in pharmacy and hospital operations allows
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  me to have a really robust understanding of
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  what the end users are experiencing
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  with these technologies
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  and how to better leverage them to make
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  them as efficient
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  and as useful as possible.
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  The other piece is, you know, with rapid
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  innovation
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  comes the need for
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  rapid change management
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  and control
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  of the overall process of implementation.
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  There has to be some strategy
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  behind
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  why we're moving forward with specific tools at
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  specific times.
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  And it seems like every time we have
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  an AI governance
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  team meeting,
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  we have another
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  five or six
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  AI tools that may be native to other
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  applications or stand alone tools that get brought
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  forward for review.
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  Everyone, no matter what department or what team
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  you're on, is getting inundated
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  by AI tools,
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  to utilize.
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  And so that's where it's important to have
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  that really robust steering committee.
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  And the way that we've rolled it out
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  is to be intentional about including
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  a wide swath
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  of stakeholders
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  in the steering committee.
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  We're not just looking at
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  operations. We're not just looking at, folks in
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  digital health or folks in,
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  clinical care, nursing or imaging.
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  We've included membership from human resources,
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  information technology,
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  case management, capacity management,
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  finance and and revenue cycle management,
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  patient safety,
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  and strategy,
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  in order to make sure that we're making
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  the best decisions
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  when we move forward with a product
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  that will
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  match our overall strategy for UCHealth,
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  but also will provide the most benefit
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  for each dollar we're spending with
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  these new technologies.
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  You said your role is new,
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  the the system director of digital health position.
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  I'm just curious. What do you see as
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  your biggest responsibility in that new role, and
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  have you kind of seen other systems adapt
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  the same role? Yeah. I think my biggest
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  responsibility is to help drive that strategy
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  to meet the overall strategy of the organization.
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  We tend to think of ISNT as kind
• 9:34
  of firefighters in the past,
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  where if there was a problem
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  with a system, we could go in and
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  fix it. But there wasn't always a roadmap
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  to the future
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  there. And, I think there has been an
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  EMRs, but not necessarily in some of the
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  other applications. And I think that's a big
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  component of my position
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  that's
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  been really beneficial to bring in,
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  to the overall organization.
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  And I was recently at the Becker's conference
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  in Chicago just last week
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  where I met,
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  several other people who were in similar positions,
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  as me at other organizations,
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  and they said exactly the same thing. The
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  benefit
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  of this position is that we've got one
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  foot in strategy and one foot in digital
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  health, so we can really drive change and
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  leverage
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  the tools that we're using,
• 10:29
  to meet our strategic goals.
• 10:32
  Well, that sounds great. I'm so glad you're
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  able to have those conversations at the HIT
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  and RCM event last week. Yeah. It was
• 10:38
  great. Certainly AI and all this emerging technology
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  was a a big topic over and over
• 10:43
  again. I had some great conversations
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  as well.
• 10:47
  Just you kinda touched on this a little
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  bit, but how are you seeing
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  recent legislation both at a state and federal
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  level
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  affects
• 10:55
  health care organizations and and health care IT
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  specifically,
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  have you had to adjust some strategies in
• 11:01
  response?
• 11:03
  Yeah. Obviously,
• 11:04
  you know, legislation is gonna continue to to
• 11:06
  push and drive health care and IT strategy.
• 11:11
  One thing that we did pretty quickly was
• 11:14
  make sure we had our legal team
• 11:17
  involved with our AI
• 11:21
  steering committee
• 11:22
  to make sure that we were meeting
• 11:25
  the requirements of the current laws
• 11:28
  and understanding the legislation that was coming down
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  the future.
• 11:32
  Those were the big things. The other big
• 11:35
  piece is strengthening I. T. Security
• 11:38
  to align with, you know, reporting requirements or
• 11:42
  just overall safeguards for data.
• 11:45
  Data is obviously a hot commodity. And, you
• 11:48
  know, we continue to evolve our data governance
• 11:52
  here at UCHealth in order to make sure
• 11:54
  we're utilizing that data ethically,
• 11:57
  and by following all
• 11:59
  required laws,
• 12:01
  to make sure that it's safe and protected.
• 12:05
  Absolutely. And my last question for you, Theresa,
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  what's your top piece of advice for health
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  care leaders as they prepare for further advancements
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  in technology
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  and rising demands for care?
• 12:16
  Yeah.
• 12:18
  That's a great question. So I think the
• 12:19
  biggest
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  thing is we have to remember,
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  at the end of the day, that these
• 12:25
  tools are just tools.
• 12:28
  They can't fix a broken process.
• 12:31
  So a lot of what we do with
• 12:32
  the digital steering committee is
• 12:35
  question,
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  is this where we need to put a
• 12:37
  tool or is there a process opportunity here?
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  So
• 12:43
  we will deploy, you know, front facing engineers
• 12:46
  or process engineers to overall
• 12:48
  look at the process for a specific activity,
• 12:52
  determine if there's opportunity to improve the process.
• 12:55
  If not,
• 12:57
  design what the new process looks like when
• 12:59
  we have the tool on board. The tool's
• 13:02
  only gonna be as good as the process
• 13:04
  that it's
• 13:05
  partnered with. So if you don't adjust the
• 13:08
  process to utilize the tool, the tool won't
• 13:11
  be utilized, and it'll be ineffective.
• 13:13
  So I think that's the the biggest thing
• 13:16
  is to make sure we're
• 13:18
  not just looking at the tool or the
• 13:20
  investment that we're making from a digital health
• 13:22
  standpoint,
• 13:23
  but working with our partners,
• 13:25
  to identify the process and what that process
• 13:28
  should look like so we can make sure
• 13:29
  the tools are effective.
• 13:31
  That means a lot
• 13:33
  of forward
• 13:35
  thinking, agile mindsets,
• 13:37
  and,
• 13:38
  cross functional collaboration to make sure,
• 13:40
  those processes are understood.
• 13:43
  Tristan, thanks so much for joining us on
• 13:44
  the podcast. It was a great discussion. I
• 13:46
  look forward to working with you again soon.
• 13:48
  Absolutely. Thank you.
• 13:52
  At athenahealth, we know your ambulatory practice wants
• 13:55
  healthier,
• 13:56
  a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
• 13:58
  patients.
• 13:59
  But the complexities of modern health care tech
• 14:02
  make it hard for you and your care
• 14:04
  teams to focus on what matters most.
• 14:06
  That's where athenahealth can help. Our AI native
• 14:09
  all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,
• 14:12
  streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
• 14:15
  when clinicians need it most. That means fewer
• 14:18
  clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom
• 14:21
  lines.
• 14:22
  Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
• 14:25
  can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
• 14:28
  See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.