Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Securing Supply Data and Staff Experience in Rural Healthcare With AI

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Securing Supply Data and Staff Experience in Rural Healthcare With AI · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, everyone. This is Erica Spicer Mason with
• 0:02
  Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning
• 0:05
  into the Becker's Healthcare podcast series today.
• 0:08
  So today, we're going to focus on talking
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  about how Owensboro Health is navigating surgical service
• 0:14
  challenges through innovation and AI.
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  And we'll learn about their focus on enhancing
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  performance, improving workflows, and empowering care teams.
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  And Beth Steele, the chief operating officer at
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  Owensboro Health, is going to walk us through
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  this transformation.
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  Beth, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so
• 0:30
  much for making time for Becker's today.
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  Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
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  We're really happy to have you. And to
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  get us started, would you mind sharing just
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  a little bit more about your background, your
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  work at Owensboro Health, and really what's driving
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  your focus as COO today.
• 0:46
  Yeah. Happy to. So Owensboro Health is a
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  three hospital
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  health care system in Western Kentucky. We do
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  serve,
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  a pretty rural area. We have what we
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  call 11 core counties, but a much larger
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  service area than that.
• 1:01
  My background is I'm a nurse by trade.
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  Very proud of that. And,
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  I grew up in surgery, so I've been
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  a nurse for about twenty seven years
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  and, have a love for the surgical services
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  spaces
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  and how to improve those areas. They're vitally
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  important right now, especially to health care systems
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  and to hospitals,
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  especially as we are navigating our financial headwinds,
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  surgery becomes incredibly important.
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  And so for us, the focus right now
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  is to ensure that we're operating
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  as well and as efficiently as we can
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  using the resources we can. And so I'm
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  excited to talk to you about this today.
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  We're so excited to get your perspective, Beth,
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  especially as a smaller rural system. I think
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  this is a really important,
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  it's something very important to highlight that that
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  rural and smaller systems can transform
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  and innovate as well. So I'm excited to
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  have you walk us through that. But I
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  wanna back up briefly just to acknowledge something
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  you'd mentioned in your introductory remarks. You you
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  mentioned how rural and regional systems are navigating
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  some pretty significant
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  financial pressures or headwinds, as you said,
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  as well as operational pressures. So I'd love
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  to know within surgical services,
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  what have been the most pressing challenges for
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  you at Owensboro, and how are you addressing
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  them right now?
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  Sure. So, I mean, operational efficiency is going
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  to to always be really important, but right
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  now,
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  you know, it comes down to how how
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  do you optimize your revenue and how you
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  how do you decrease your expense. And some
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  of the biggest challenges as everybody knows,
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  and this is rural and urban alike, right,
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  is workforce issues. We have definite,
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  concerns around,
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  keeping our team members, not just not just
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  recruiting them, but also retaining them, making sure
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  that their workflows and processes are really efficient
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  and they feel like they have a part
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  in the team.
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  And then our providers,
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  we we have an opportunity
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  right now to really
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  be competitive within the market for providers. And
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  so both those things are are
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  really challenging us from a workforce standpoint.
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  But then the other issues that we're we're
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  facing are supply costs.
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  I think everybody's very well aware what's happening
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  with inflation. I don't think I have to
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  really give that economic,
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  update, but I
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  incredibly important, especially within the OR. And then
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  the technology and equipment piece,
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  there's so many things that we could purchase,
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  so many opportunities out there and knowing which
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  ones and what's the best direction to go.
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  Anything that helps us with
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  really building that plan and becoming
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  as efficient as we can, those are the
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  things that we know are challenging us and
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  and where we need to go as far
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  as what kind of solutions we need.
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  Beth, thank you so much for sharing, and
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  I'm sure the workforce
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  issues and the supply cost challenges that you've
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  mentioned are,
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  I'm sure many systems
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  relate to those challenges. And I'd love to
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  know how AI has played a role in
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  navigating those issues.
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  And if you've leveraged AI at Owensboro Health,
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  how what impact have you seen so far
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  on performance,
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  workflows, or even staff experience?
• 4:22
  Yeah. So,
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  I I'm happy to discuss the the work
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  that we've done with AssistIQ.
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  So,
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  this technology has allowed us to really be
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  what I call pioneers in this space.
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  So we're using AI in,
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  a really
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  new and cool way, I I think.
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  As a as a person who has been
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  in the operating room and understands how difficult
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  it is to document and capture supplies,
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  This system has allowed our team to do
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  it in,
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  probably about as easy a way as you
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  can imagine. It doesn't include barcodes. It's completely
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  a visual system.
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  It picks up on the packaging. So
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  our circulating nurses really just have to put
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  a piece of the package in front of
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  the field, and it not only picks up
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  on what that supply is, but it documents
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  it within our electronic medical record.
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  It decrements it from our supply system,
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  and it also allows us to then capture
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  a lot of data on the back end,
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  to become more efficient. So all those things
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  with just a quick capture,
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  and as simple as using an iPad. So,
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  it's about as easy as a a process
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  can be.
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  What that has done for us is it
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  has got us to a 99%
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  accurate supply and implant capture rate, and I
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  did say 99%.
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  It was,
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  as we went live with this technology, it
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  has allowed us to be 12%,
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  higher in our billable revenue.
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  We've had a 90% reduction in our inventory
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  depletion error, so our supply chain team loves
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  us for this.
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  And we've had a 48%
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  reduction in monthly expired products, And you can
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  imagine 48%
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  reduction in expired products, that is 48%
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  reduction in waste.
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  So really great outcomes.
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  Yeah.
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  Fantastic.
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  And I I appreciate how you also clarified
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  99%
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  supply and implant capture rate,
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  among the other metrics, Beth. Really compelling numbers
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  that you're seeing as a result here.
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  And I I'm curious to learn more a
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  bit a bit about the partnership as well.
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  I know when you're a smaller
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  system, especially one that may be less resourced
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  compared to some of the bigger multistate, multiregional
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  health systems, you really have
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  to be selective with who you're partnering with.
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  So how did Owensboro approach evaluating the tech
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  partnership and and determining that it was the
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  right fit?
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  Well, I think for us, it's who who
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  has similar values and similar goals.
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  And then the other big piece is who's
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  willing to listen to what our challenges are
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  and help us find joint solutions. So our
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  team is incredibly nimble. I think you talked
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  about the rural health systems and our place
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  in innovation.
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  I think we're we have the opportunity
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  to be without some of the,
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  hoops
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  that larger systems have. And so, you know,
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  my team is very connected to our administration
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  team. We're very connected to our board. And
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  so we're able to be incredibly nimble and
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  to be great pioneers.
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  That being said, we want a company and
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  a group that's gonna come along with us
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  and really listen to what our team is
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  trying to do. And that's really what we
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  got with AssistIQ
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  was a team that
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  wanted to have excellent results. They had shared
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  goals,
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  and they listened when we said, hey. This
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  is a workflow we need we need to
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  to get right before we go live, and
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  they did that.
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  It's great to hear. Thank you, Beth.
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  And I I appreciate your note about how
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  your teams are are so very connected and
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  sounds like you have a lot of great
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  internal collaboration going on as well.
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  So how did you prepare your teams, especially
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  surgical staff, for that shift to AI enabled
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  workflows, and what lessons or surprises came out
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  of that process?
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  Well, I think, you know, you you mentioned
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  collaboration. So it's it's really important to get
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  the team that's gonna be using it and
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  the teams that know this work the best
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  involved very early. So I always say get
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  them involved in the beginning, the middle, and
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  the end. Right?
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  Because they need to have every opportunity.
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  I am not down in the operating room
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  at this point, so I need my team
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  who's there to be the ones, the experts
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  helping
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  explain their work their current workflows and how
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  it could be better.
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  So definitely having them involved in the scenarios,
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  asking for upgrades.
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  And then, you know, the lessons we learned
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  along the way is
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  definitely
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  every time you're working with not only a
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  vendor
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  and then our own team, there's also the
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  complexity of making sure that you're integrating it
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  with your EMR or others help other systems.
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  And so really just understanding how you're bringing
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  all those teams together,
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  making sure that the communication's,
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  wide open
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  and that everybody has has the opportunity to
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  to raise a flag if they need to.
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  Yeah. Wide open communications. That's definitely a through
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  line I've heard in other
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  conversations about embedding new tools, especially,
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  AI capabilities.
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  So appreciate you outlining those best practices, Beth.
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  And to kind of close this out, I
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  wanted to take a moment to reflect on
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  how, you know, you've had very granular and
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  hands on
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  work and experience in the surgical space, and
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  now you're you're leading
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  teams that are in the OR, and,
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  you kind of have that high level perspective
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  now as well. So I'm curious to know
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  when you reflect on everything that you've done
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  in this space, what do you think will
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  most distinguish
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  future high performing ORs from from those of
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  today, especially as we're seeing policy and reimbursement
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  dynamics evolve pretty rapidly?
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  Sure. So I do I do think it's
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  the teams who are going to be able
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  to
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  have excellence in all of their areas, and
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  it's not just, you know, who's doing the
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  latest and greatest technology. It's really how are
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  you building your culture so that it's a
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  place that people want to work. So,
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  you know, making it ease of use, making
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  it, a wonderful environment to work in. I
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  think it's ensuring that you have quality and
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  safety at the forefront,
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  watching your patient experience, and then finally, you
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  know, making sure that you're you're making smart
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  decisions along the way. So, I mean, to
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  me, it's the whole package. It's really what
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  we all know to be true, which is
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  operational excellence
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  really gets you to a great space financially,
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  but you have to have all the components
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  in play.
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  I think that for the future, our teams
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  are going to have to always keep an
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  eye on what's your return on investment, and
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  it can't just be looking at the numbers.
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  It has to be the whole package. So
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  that's my
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  adoption
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  mantra for the future.
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  I I think it's such a a sound
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  observation and and one that I think our
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  listeners will will certainly take back and reflect
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  on. So, Beth, it's been a real pleasure
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  getting to know you on this podcast and
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  hearing
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  your experiences.
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  Anything else that we didn't touch on today
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  that you wanted to highlight for listeners or
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  a final thought?
• 11:44
  No. I'm just really thankful thankful for the
• 11:47
  partnership and encourage everyone out there to to
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  be working just like this on collaborating and
• 11:52
  ensuring that they're they're talking to their teams
• 11:54
  and seeing what those barriers are and then
• 11:56
  how do they solve those problems one at
• 11:58
  a time.
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  Beth, well, thank you again for making time
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  for this conversation and for your insights today.
• 12:04
  I really appreciate it. Thank you.
• 12:07
  We'd also like to thank our podcast sponsor
• 12:09
  for today's episode, AssistIQ.
• 12:12
  Listeners, be sure to tune in to more
• 12:13
  podcasts from Becker's by visiting our podcast page
• 12:16
  at beckershospitalreview.com.