Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Gregory Bryant, IT Director at North Texas Medical Center

Transcript

Gregory Bryant, IT Director at North Texas Medical Center · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Philips.
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  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Health Care
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  podcast recorded live at the 9th annual health
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  IT digital health and RCM conference.
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  I'm joined today by Greg Bryant, IT director
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  at North Texas Medical Center.
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  Greg, to get us started, can you please
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  share a little bit about yourself, your background,
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  and your role at your organization?
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  Oh, yeah. Sure. I've actually it's a fairly
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  new role for me.
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  I've been a CIO previously and a director
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  at other facilities.
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  We are a
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  small rural hospital in Gainesville, Texas, about 50
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  beds
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  total. We do acute care for the community
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  and surrounding areas.
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  Okay.
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  So, you know, AI adoption is exploding in
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  health care. In your view, what's the most
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  significant or promising application of this technology right
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  now? And how is this informing your organization's
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  innovation strategy?
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  So I think for us, it's gonna be
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  more on the operation side. Mhmm.
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  Patient experience always is forefront. So Mhmm. We
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  are looking at ways to maybe use AI
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  to kind of
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  bridge the gap for the patient and the
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  provider.
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  Will it replace, like, nurses or for us?
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  No. No time. Not that will not happen.
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  But Mhmm. If we could find it to
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  be make the patient experience better, that's kinda
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  where my mindset is with that.
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  So in a in a smaller organization like
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  yours, how do you feel, you know, the
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  role of the future of AI is different
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  than it may be at, like, a bigger
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  health system?
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  So
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  at a smaller facility like ours,
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  we don't have the financial resources that these
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  big Mhmm. Huge facilities have that you see
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  around here at the conference. So we have
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  to kinda be more strategic in how we
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  deploy
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  Mhmm. Different technologies.
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  We can't get the best and brightest all
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  the time that we wanna get. Mhmm. But
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  maybe we can find a start up or
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  maybe find a way that we can bring
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  something to the community that hasn't been seen
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  before. Mhmm. So Mhmm. It is it you
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  have to kinda think outside the box, which
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  I like in my job. Right. It's easy
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  being at a big facility with the unlimited
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  paycheck. I've been at roles where I've had
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  an unlimited paycheck, and it gets boring after
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  a while also. So with a small organization,
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  you really have to tap into your own
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  innovation and create Yeah. You have to get
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  real creative real fast. Right. Right. That's fascinating.
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  So, you know, on a daily basis, health
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  care leaders are managing greater volumes of data
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  and more devices across a growing number of
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  care settings and populations.
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  In this complex environment, what clinical data integration
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  tools or practices are you seeing drive improvements
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  in patient outcomes and operations? And do you
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  have any examples you wanna share? So, we
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  have a kind of a hybrid environment with,
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  with a cloud provider. So we we use
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  both on prem and cloud based solutions to
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  kinda leverage,
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  our data integrations.
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  Mhmm. It helps us out because my team
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  is not the largest team. Mhmm. So I
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  can rely on on a cloud group or
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  analysis group to kinda handle
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  some of the situations.
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  We use a SOC,
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  for our network security because I don't have
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  enough people on staff. And it's not for
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  the hospital, it isn't worth us having extra
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  IT staff where we can pay a company
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  to do the role of 3 people,
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  year round 247. Mhmm. So for us, we
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  have to kinda like, back to that thinking
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  clearly and think outside the box to get
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  Mhmm. What we need as an organization.
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  Right.
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  And, you know, how can health care organizations,
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  better support IT and clinical teams as they
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  carry out some innovation efforts?
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  And do you know or what what kind
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  of pitfalls are you seeing here?
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  Most of the pitfalls we have are either
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  financial resources or human resources.
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  Being in a smaller area,
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  financial talent I'm not trying to tell you.
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  Human talent Mhmm. Is kind of the issue
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  we have where if you're looking for a
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  certain particular role,
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  that role may not be available to you
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  in a small area. It may be a
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  larger facility or a larger metro area to
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  look for so that you can try to
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  attract someone
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  from a big city Mhmm. To come into
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  your small area and do the job you
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  need done. So that's
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  that's one part. The other part is the
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  financial it it's money. And that's all of
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  the small hospitals are dealing with. It's either
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  using that money for other capital expenditures like
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  infrastructure
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  Mhmm. That were they could use more or,
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  you know, pours the patient experience. So Mhmm.
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  You're always playing that role of, what's best
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  for the patient and what's best for the
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  organization. It's not easy. Mhmm. Mhmm.
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  And so what would you say your top
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  piece of advice for other health care leaders
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  is,
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  as they prepare for further advancements in technology
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  and greater demands for care?
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  That's a good question.
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  I I would my advice is to, you
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  know,
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  keep it simple. Mhmm.
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  The the the technology is great, and it's
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  all shiny and new and, you know, everybody's
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  saying gen AI and AI and all that.
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  But sometimes simplicity is best. It's okay
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  to not have to have the best and
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  brightest technology
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  upfront. Mhmm. Give it some time to work
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  itself out. Maybe something something will work for
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  your organization. I'm speaking from a small organization.
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  Mhmm. We you know, we're not gonna have
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  everything you see here on the floor at
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  this conference because it's it's not practical for
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  us. Mhmm. But there may be something a
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  little piece of something somewhere where we can
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  kinda gravitate to Mhmm. And be able to
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  enhance the patient's experience better than what we
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  have today.
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  So, you you know, you talked about being
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  in a smaller organization and how you like
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  that that creativity and extra innovation.
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  And I'm genuinely curious. You know, oftentimes, you
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  know, when you talk to bigger pea people
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  at big organizations, they talk about what what
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  technologies they're most excited for for the future.
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  And I'm curious. Do you feel like, you
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  know, some of the technologies that they're looking
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  for, you know, maybe 5, 10 years down
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  the road differ is different from, you know,
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  you at a smaller organization, what you're excited
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  for? And do you see anything,
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  you know, on the forefront that you're really
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  looking forward to that best could be a
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  real game changer for some of these smaller
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  and community based hospitals? So I think some
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  of the technology is to scale.
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  Some of the the big organizations look at
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  something. We can look at something, but maybe
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  at 1 tenth of the, of the capacity
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  that that the big organization may do.
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  Bringing up AI like earlier,
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  we
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  are looking at we can look at it
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  to help maybe with a chatbot Mhmm. To
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  help with patient experience
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  or with automated check ins for ER patients
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  Mhmm. Or or for outpatient, you know. Mhmm.
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  That those kind of things that can help
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  us bring the patient more, you know, closer
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  in and and get them through the check-in
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  process quicker. Because a lot of ERs around
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  the country have been complaining about wait times.
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  Mhmm. So any kind of way you can
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  reduce something like that is better for the
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  patient and Right. And get them to come
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  to your facility more than maybe going down
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  the road to the big facility. Mhmm. So
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  it's it's it it's gonna differentiate based on
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  the technology, but
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  I'm not saying I'm just totally
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  not gonna worry about anything here. Right. Right.
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  It's just maybe to scale, what can we
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  do at Armacelets? Mhmm. Mhmm.
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  And so with that, you know, Greg, I
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  feel like we've had a great conversation.
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  You do you have any final thoughts you
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  wanna leave our listeners with today?
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  I I any leader listening right
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  now, go back to your pay you know,
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  your community and see what's the needs are.
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  It it's great to bring in technology, but
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  the community needs to understand what you're bringing
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  in. Mhmm. And you need to be the
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  your job as a leader is to be
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  that conduit between Mhmm. The patient Mhmm.
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  And the provider
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  and the organization
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  to let bridge that technology and be able
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  to explain it in all three aspects Mhmm.
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  Be it town hall meeting or in a
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  in a meeting with providers or meeting with
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  staff, be able to put in layman's terms
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  what they're trying to do with the organization.
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  Mhmm. Well and and, again, just to to
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  before we wrap it up, you know, you
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  being one of these smaller organizations, you know,
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  your patients are people that that you're gonna
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  see on a daily basis at the grocery
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  store and things like that. So, I mean,
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  do you feel like that gives you a
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  better ear to the ground about what the
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  needs are in that community than someone who,
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  you know, might not be running into, like,
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  their Exactly. I got it. Our CEO has
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  has mentioned how he's, you know, gotten
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  both praises and complaints from people that live
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  next to him. So
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  in the same capacity, I could be at
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  a grocery store and all of a sudden,
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  they find out I work at a hospital.
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  Oh, well, I'll I waited 4 hours in
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  the ER for this. Well, I I apologize,
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  but we are gonna try to do the
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  best we can to reduce that wait time
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  and figure out why that wait time took
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  place anyway. Right. Right. Right. Well, Greg, thank
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  you so much again for joining us today.
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  It was a great conversation. I hope you
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  have a lovely rest of your day. Thank
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  you.