Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / AI, Speed to Value, and Building the Right Team at Jefferson Health with Luis Taveras

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AI, Speed to Value, and Building the Right Team at Jefferson Health with Luis Taveras · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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  - pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - Hi. This is Ella Jeffries reporting live from
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  - Becker's Healthcare twenty twenty six annual meeting. I'm
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  - here with Luis Tavares from Jefferson Health.
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  - Could you please introduce yourself and your role
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  - and the scope of your organization as well
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  - as what's currently commanding most of your attention
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  - as a leader? Sure. And thank you for
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  - having me here today.
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  - Luis Tavares, as you mentioned, and I serve
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  - as the chief digital information officer
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  - for Jefferson Health, but also for Jefferson in
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  - total.
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  - So Jefferson Health is one of the three
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  - business units that we have. One is the
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  - university,
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  - the health plan, and then Jefferson Health. So
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  - it's three separate organizations.
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  - Perfect. And what's currently commanding most of your
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  - attention as a leader?
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  - No. Believe it or not, well over 50%
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  - of my time today is something AI related.
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  - Right?
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  - And it's getting to be more and more.
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  - So that's just the nature of of where
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  - we are.
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  - So lots of different
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  - AI solutions review,
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  - AI governance,
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  - AI implementations that we're going through. So many
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  - in those those AI related things, including cybersecurity
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  - related to AI. Right? Because we can't forget
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  - that. Definitely an important aspect for sure.
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  - Now any year marked by very rapid change,
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  - what recent decision or pivot required the most
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  - leadership conviction from yourself,
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  - particularly when it came to maybe aligning people,
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  - resources, or capabilities?
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  - So I would say we were working with
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  - a potential partner for quite some time on
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  - a partnership.
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  - And as we got further and further along,
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  - we thought that they were the right organization
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  - to be our partner. It was an AI
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  - partner.
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  - And,
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  - I ended up shifting that
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  - and making a different decision,
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  - and I think it was the right one.
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  - But it was a big decision because it's
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  - a big partner,
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  - but we needed to it was more of
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  - a codevelopment
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  - type of arrangement that we were working on.
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  - And I think we have,
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  - really the impetus for speed to value, and
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  - and I didn't wanna go to the code
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  - development because you don't know what's gonna happen
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  - at the end of that. So I went
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  - with a vendor that is really top of
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  - the heap when it comes to that solution
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  - instead of sign a codevelopment agreement with somebody
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  - else. But that was a big decision. Yeah.
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  - Nice. Yeah. No. That makes a lot of
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  - sense. And how did that moment challenge your
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  - assumptions,
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  - and what did it change about how you
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  - approach decision making,
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  - talent, or organizational readiness today?
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  - It it really is
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  - based on what are the drivers. So to
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  - be very clear on the drivers,
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  - we're looking for alternative sources of revenue,
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  - but that's not the main reason why we
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  - have these partnerships.
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  - The main reason is what is the solution
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  - you're bringing to us, How is that gonna
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  - impact our colleagues and, ultimately, our patients and
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  - their families or our students or our health
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  - plan members? Right? So that's gotta be the
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  - focus. It's just going back and reminding yourself,
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  - what's the reason for doing this? What's the
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  - main reason for doing this? And the other
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  - thing is what I mentioned earlier, which is
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  - speed to value. We're looking for value very
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  - quickly,
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  - because of financial conditions and other reasons that
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  - are driving that. And that was a major
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  - a major decision making point that we would
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  - not really focus on as we have these
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  - discussions.
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  - Definitely.
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  - And when you think about the forces reshaping
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  - health care right now, where do you believe
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  - leaders need to be more decisive,
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  - especially when balancing speed, risk, and having the
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  - right teams in place?
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  - I think it's always about people.
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  - So the focus has to be on having
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  - the right team. If you have the right
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  - team, all these other things you mentioned, we
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  - can deal with. But you gotta make sure
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  - you have the right team. Because if you
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  - don't, you're gonna end up wasting a lot
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  - of time, wasting a lot of effort, and
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  - with people that are not gonna not gonna
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  - make it. Definitely. And as a leader, what
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  - components do you look for when making that,
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  - you know, right team as you mentioned?
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  - Really, people that are
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  - dedicated to the mission,
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  - people that are willing to do
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  - two x of what they're expected to do,
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  - people that are willing to
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  - really take people under their wing and create
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  - new leaders for the future because we're not
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  - gonna be here forever. So we have to
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  - make sure that we focus on who's the
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  - next generation of leaders that we're creating. So
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  - those are key key things that we're that
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  - I look for in in the next set
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  - of leaders. Definitely.
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  - And as uncertainty
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  - has become more of the norm, what leadership
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  - habit or mindset has been most critical in
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  - keeping your organization and your people moving forward?
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  - Discipline.
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  - You have to really have a disciplined approach
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  - to what we do today.
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  - For example,
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  - we don't have all the money in the
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  - world just to really invest in every solution
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  - that's out there, whether it's IT or otherwise.
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  - So we have to really be
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  - wise investors
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  - of the dollars that we're steward of.
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  - So that's that's really a major focus. Make
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  - sure that we invest wisely
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  - and that we're doing absolutely the right thing
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  - where we're gonna get the biggest return for
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  - the organization.
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  - And that return is not always financial.
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  - It has other components too. As I mentioned
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  - before, how is it gonna impact the colleagues?
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  - How is it gonna impact our patients? How
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  - can I expect that everybody else that we
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  - serve? Do you have any specific examples of
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  - things that you guys have implemented where you've
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  - seen that positive return that you mentioned?
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  - I would say Ambient Technologies
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  - have been
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  - a major, major factor in the well-being of
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  - our clinicians.
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  - And, again,
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  - it's not about ROI. It's about value, which
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  - a component of value could be ROI, but
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  - it doesn't have to be. So that's a
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  - solution where we invested significant dollars, significant resources,
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  - and we're seeing the benefits. We're reaping the
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  - benefits of that solution when it comes to
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  - our clinicians.
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  - Great. Well, that's great to hear. And, well,
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  - thank you so much for all these insights.
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  - It was great to connect, and thank you
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  - for joining us today on the podcast. Thank
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  - you so much for having me. Appreciate it.
• 6:32
  - Great.