Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Dr. Miriam Parsa, Chief Pediatric Medical Officer at Cottage Children’s Medical Center

Transcript

Dr. Miriam Parsa, Chief Pediatric Medical Officer at Cottage Children’s Medical Center · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

• 0:02
  At athenahealth,
• 0:03
  we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier, a
• 0:06
  healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier 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
  Most? That's where athenahealth can help.
• 0:18
  Our AI native all in one solutions reduce
• 0:21
  administrative burdens,
• 0:22
  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
• 0:32
  lines. Practicing medicine is complex, but running a
• 0:35
  practice can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
• 0:38
  See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.
• 0:43
  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris
• 0:46
  Sosa, your host, and I'm thrilled to be
• 0:48
  joined today by doctor Miriam Parsa. She is
• 0:50
  a pediatric rheumatologist and the chief pediatric medical
• 0:53
  officer at Cottage Children's Medical Center in Santa
• 0:55
  Barbara, California.
• 0:57
  She joins us to discuss her organization's work
• 0:59
  with Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
• 1:01
  Miriam, thank you for joining us today. Thank
• 1:03
  you for having me. It's a privilege to
• 1:05
  talk about the work that we are doing
• 1:06
  and will be doing.
• 1:08
  Excellent. Miriam, for those in our audience who
• 1:10
  are not familiar with you and your work,
• 1:12
  could you just please introduce yourself and tell
• 1:14
  us a bit about your background?
• 1:16
  Yes. No problem. I'm a pediatric rheumatologist,
• 1:20
  and I always introduce myself first as a
• 1:22
  pediatric rheumatologist even though I have two jobs
• 1:25
  at the moment.
• 1:27
  I came here about eleven years ago,
• 1:29
  and, I've been the sole practitioner
• 1:32
  here covering,
• 1:33
  three counties, but, actually, probably a little bit
• 1:35
  more as we get referrals from these other
• 1:37
  counties as well.
• 1:39
  But I'm speaking to you today as the
• 1:41
  chief pediatric medical officer,
• 1:43
  and I assume this role
• 1:45
  almost three years ago now.
• 1:47
  And,
• 1:48
  I really wasn't looking into a leadership position,
• 1:53
  being the sole pediatric rheumatologist.
• 1:55
  However,
• 1:56
  it just
• 1:57
  happened to be that my predecessor, doctor Steve
• 2:01
  Barclay, retired a few years ago.
• 2:03
  And, he really encouraged me,
• 2:07
  to consider this administrative opportunity,
• 2:10
  because I love the work that we're doing
• 2:13
  here. It's quite inspirational. I, again, appreciate this
• 2:16
  opportunity
• 2:17
  to share the the great work that we're
• 2:19
  doing in the partnership,
• 2:21
  with CHI that's allowing us to talk today.
• 2:25
  Miriam, what is there anything that you've learned
• 2:26
  about yourself so far having jumped into this
• 2:30
  administrative role?
• 2:32
  Great question. I've learned so much
• 2:36
  about the process,
• 2:37
  about what goes on beyond
• 2:40
  patient care,
• 2:41
  the complexity
• 2:43
  behind it.
• 2:44
  I don't take for granted that I work
• 2:47
  in its institution that is mission driven,
• 2:50
  and that is a rare commodity
• 2:53
  these days considering the pressures that we face
• 2:55
  in health care, financial pressures.
• 2:58
  I have learned
• 2:59
  that this isn't easy.
• 3:03
  That's a perfect segue, I think, into what
• 3:04
  we talked about or mentioned at the top,
• 3:07
  Miriam, and that is the work that you
• 3:09
  your organization are doing with, Children's Hospital Los
• 3:12
  Angeles. So let's get into that. Could you
• 3:14
  let us know how that collaboration with the
• 3:16
  organization evolved?
• 3:18
  Yes. This happened actually predated me. Started the
• 3:21
  conversation,
• 3:22
  with administration
• 3:24
  several years ago. So there are,
• 3:26
  you know, several sole providers such as myself
• 3:29
  that's providing care for many
• 3:31
  families along the Central Coast.
• 3:34
  We understand that that's a challenge, and so
• 3:37
  we really were looking forward to develop developing
• 3:40
  a partnership
• 3:41
  that would allow us to make
• 3:43
  the
• 3:45
  care here locally a little bit more robust.
• 3:48
  So number one, it probably would be,
• 3:51
  especially to support in creating that depth.
• 3:55
  I'd say the other part is that we
• 3:57
  know we can't take care of all complex
• 3:59
  diseases and problems here.
• 4:02
  What's best for the families
• 4:04
  is to provide local care
• 4:07
  the best we can and when we can't
• 4:09
  provide that local care to have a consistent
• 4:11
  partner.
• 4:13
  And that was another great reason. We wanna
• 4:15
  keep our patients, but we understand we can't
• 4:17
  keep all patients here,
• 4:20
  because of our size.
• 4:22
  Miriam, I'm also curious what changes with respect
• 4:25
  to this collaboration
• 4:26
  are exciting you most?
• 4:29
  There's a lot. It's almost overwhelming, all the
• 4:31
  potentials.
• 4:32
  And I think I had mentioned
• 4:34
  first creating depth
• 4:36
  to my colleagues,
• 4:38
  and that will be through potentially joint hires,
• 4:42
  a little bit more streamlined,
• 4:45
  coordinated care,
• 4:46
  also opportunities
• 4:48
  for additional training.
• 4:50
  CHLA is a tremendous organization
• 4:53
  with
• 4:55
  hundreds of specialty,
• 4:57
  specialists,
• 4:58
  at this Courtenay care hospital.
• 5:00
  So we'd like to take advantage
• 5:02
  of that educational opportunity for nurses,
• 5:05
  for physicians. We have a pediatric residency program
• 5:08
  here, which will stay at the Cottage Campus.
• 5:12
  However, maybe there is some interest in the
• 5:14
  future
• 5:15
  in additional educational opportunities.
• 5:19
  We also are just very family centric here.
• 5:22
  So we want to take care of our
• 5:23
  patients here, And so having a reliable
• 5:26
  partner
• 5:27
  will allow us to bring them back when
• 5:29
  it's time for them to come back.
• 5:32
  Miriam, clearly, this
• 5:34
  partnership is something you're very much looking forward
• 5:36
  to, and, hopefully,
• 5:38
  many people at your organization are being able
• 5:40
  to take advantage of this.
• 5:42
  As someone who's gone through this partnership
• 5:46
  and locking it all down,
• 5:48
  what advice would you give to other systems
• 5:50
  that are pursuing
• 5:51
  similar partnerships?
• 5:52
  Yeah.
• 5:53
  Several things come to mind. I would say
• 5:55
  first, making sure both organizations'
• 5:58
  missions align.
• 6:00
  And on day one, that was very clear
• 6:02
  with CHLA
• 6:04
  that CHLA
• 6:05
  and Cottage, we take care of every pediatric
• 6:08
  patient that needs care locally.
• 6:10
  The second really is,
• 6:12
  making sure your administration is aligned with the
• 6:15
  clinicians.
• 6:16
  We have a great relationship,
• 6:18
  the clinical leaders as well as the administrative
• 6:21
  leaders.
• 6:22
  They really were open and listened to us.
• 6:25
  I think that's
• 6:26
  really important. And
• 6:28
  and lastly,
• 6:29
  relationship building.
• 6:31
  Relationship building comes up frequently when we are
• 6:34
  having these joint calls.
• 6:37
  They CHLA needs to know who we are
• 6:39
  and the excellent work that we're doing here,
• 6:42
  and so that starts with Zoom meetings. So
• 6:45
  within PEAS, we've had every unit meet, and
• 6:47
  that will continue.
• 6:49
  So when there is something that comes up
• 6:50
  with a PICU patient,
• 6:53
  my PICU knows who to call on the
• 6:55
  CHLA side.
• 6:57
  So, really, that relationship building, I think, is
• 7:00
  really gonna be
• 7:01
  paramount and foundational
• 7:03
  to the success of this relationship.
• 7:06
  You mentioned the Zoom meetings, Miriam. So how
• 7:08
  often are
• 7:09
  are you on the grounds of CHLA and
• 7:11
  and vice versa? How often does does that
• 7:13
  exchange take place?
• 7:16
  We were at CHLA through the interview process
• 7:20
  of the coronary care.
• 7:22
  We started with an RFI. We had a
• 7:24
  consultant help assist with the process.
• 7:27
  So so far, it's just been through the
• 7:29
  site interviews,
• 7:31
  but we have a
• 7:33
  a lot of work to do as stated,
• 7:35
  and so Zoom, that is so much easier
• 7:38
  to start with. Right. Right. We're anticipating
• 7:40
  some on-site visits. But, you know, with,
• 7:44
  LA traffic, that's not the easiest thing to
• 7:46
  do.
• 7:48
  No. For sure. Thankfully, you know, digital
• 7:51
  means allow you to
• 7:53
  collaborate much more efficiently
• 7:55
  than that. But I was curious because, you
• 7:58
  know, you are in the the same state
• 7:59
  and, yes, you're tens of hundreds of miles
• 8:02
  apart, but, you know, I'm sure that
• 8:05
  part of this collaboration means seeing each other's,
• 8:08
  work, you know, firsthand.
• 8:10
  Does that make sense?
• 8:11
  That's right. Yeah.
• 8:13
  Miriam, is there anything else about your
• 8:16
  partnership that you want to tell the audience
• 8:18
  about?
• 8:20
  That the
• 8:21
  state of pediatric care
• 8:24
  is
• 8:25
  a bit tenuous.
• 8:26
  We're talking about workforce
• 8:28
  shortages.
• 8:29
  You know, as a pediatric rheumatologist, we had
• 8:32
  about half of fellowship,
• 8:34
  programs,
• 8:36
  filled.
• 8:37
  So, we have to be efficient
• 8:40
  with limited resources.
• 8:42
  And this program development, I think,
• 8:46
  strategic
• 8:47
  partnerships
• 8:48
  are an efficient way to work with the
• 8:51
  resources we do have.
• 8:53
  That makes sense, Miriam. Thank you so much
• 8:55
  today for joining us and adding your insights.
• 8:58
  We know our audience cannot wait to hear
• 9:00
  them. We can't wait to share them with
• 9:02
  them. Miriam,
• 9:04
  I'm very much looking forward to the next
• 9:05
  time our paths cross.
• 9:07
  Thank you, Chris, so much.
• 9:11
  At Athena Health, we know your ambulatory practice
• 9:14
  wants healthier,
• 9:16
  a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
• 9:18
  patients.
• 9:19
  But the complexities of modern health care tech
• 9:22
  make it hard for you and your care
• 9:23
  teams to focus on what matters most.
• 9:26
  That's where athena Health can
• 9:28
  help. Our AI native all in one solutions
• 9:30
  reduce administrative burdens,
• 9:32
  streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
• 9:35
  when clinicians need it most. That means fewer
• 9:38
  clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom
• 9:41
  lines.
• 9:42
  Practicing medicine is complex,
• 9:44
  but running a practice can be that much
• 9:46
  simpler with athenahealth.
• 9:48
  See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.