Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Gulshan Mehta, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Blanchard Valley Health System

Transcript

Gulshan Mehta, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Blanchard Valley Health System · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
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  I'm Ryan Mohammed, writer and moderator with Becker's
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  Healthcare. And I'm thrilled to have with me
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  today, Golshan Mehta, chief digital and information officer
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  at Blanchard Valley Health System. Sir, welcome to
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  the podcast. We're very excited to have you
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  join us today. To get it started, would
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  you mind telling us a bit about you,
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  the health system, and kinda what makes it
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  unique?
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  For sure. Good morning, Mariah.
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  Again, just like you said, my name is
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  Gulshan Mehta. I'm the chief digital and information
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  officer at
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  Blanchett Valley Health System.
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  I've been with the organization
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  a little over a year at this point.
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  I've spent much of my career within healthcare
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  technology.
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  I
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  feel like I've had a front row seat
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  over the course of the last twenty plus
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  years in terms of the digitization of health
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  care, and, the innovation that it has brought
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  about within the industry in general
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  with a good part of my time that,
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  I spent at Cerner.
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  And
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  over the last seven years or so, I've
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  had IT leadership roles within
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  healthcare, you know, health systems,
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  pediatric healthcare for the first six years of
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  those,
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  within,
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  you know, in Washington, DC,
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  as well as the last year or so
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  has been within community healthcare over here within
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  Ohio.
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  The organization I work with is Blanchard Valley
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  Health System, and, it is a,
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  medium sized,
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  regional health system out here in Northwest Ohio.
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  Serves roughly a eight county region here.
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  It's about an hour south of Toledo, about
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  an hour and a half
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  west of Columbus, Ohio.
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  It is truly a special place because,
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  I know you mentioned, what's the uniqueness of
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  it. It,
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  being medium sized, it kinda has the, you
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  know, the size and the scale and the
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  ambitions of being able to drive innovation. So
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  it kinda thinks big when it comes to
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  the use of technology and being able to
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  leverage innovation as a strategic asset. While at
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  the same time,
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  it also affords the ability to be more
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  nimble with the size, and being able to
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  be more adaptable to change that innovation and
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  transformation, especially related to health care, can bring
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  about. So it's pretty neat, in that sort
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  of a sense.
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  It, punches above its weight when it comes
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  to,
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  the breadth of services that it,
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  offers within the region.
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  So from a standard,
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  you know, wellness and ambulatory care services that
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  it has, along with the inpatient care, as
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  well as post acute care services that it
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  offers within the region. It kind of serves
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  as the primary health and wellness destination for
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  those that live within the community.
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  It's extremely
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  community focused,
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  you know, prides itself in terms of, a
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  very
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  high touch and,
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  high quality care,
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  which is why it continues to get rated,
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  you know, in the upper quartiles when it
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  comes to patient experience and quality of care.
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  So, it's, it's indeed, you know, a very
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  exciting,
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  health system in terms of, what it offers
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  to the community. And, you know, it it
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  nothing beats the fact that, you know, you
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  can, you can kind of walk down the
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  street over here and
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  see the impact that it makes just in
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  terms of,
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  the, you know, the fate that the community
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  has within the services that it offers, as
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  well as, you know, the longevity that it
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  has within the, within the area in terms
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  of, the population that it has served for,
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  so well.
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  Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing that.
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  As an Ohioan and someone that, went to
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  Ohio State and the Columbus community,
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  it was very nice to hear some of
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  those things. Is there an accomplishment
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  that you would think that you're most proud
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  of for the last year?
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  Yeah.
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  So like I said, I've been here a
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  little over a year,
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  and,
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  we as an organization, as well as our
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  leadership team, we saw it as an opportunity
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  to,
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  get back to fundamentals, if you would,
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  from
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  the IT organization. So as we look at
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  what we want to build on going forward,
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  we needed to do an assessment of where
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  we are currently in terms of the capabilities
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  that we bring to the organization.
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  You know, there is
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  a certain inclination
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  of maybe bringing greater speed to value in
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  terms of,
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  new work that could be introduced. But at
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  the same time, I think that was a
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  realization
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  that let's make sure that we build this
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  on a foundation of trust. So making sure
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  that reliability
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  was front and center,
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  before we started talking about the scalability, if
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  you would, going forward. So,
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  much of the work that, we've accomplished over
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  the last year has been,
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  again, goes back to, fundamentals
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  mindset
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  of, improving our IT service management and delivery
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  capabilities.
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  So putting in place the right people, process,
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  and technology, the right structure of the organization
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  that allows us to be successful,
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  along with the right service management mindset that
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  allows us to provide, more predictable and reliable
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  service to the organization.
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  That's been a keen focus on information security,
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  making the transition from being defensive,
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  alone to being a little bit more proactive
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  as well in terms of, the work that
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  we do. You know, the controlling the controllable
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  side of things and being able to infuse
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  that within the culture of the organization as
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  well.
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  And, road mapping, planning, and governance has been
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  an essential part of this. So I think
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  there was,
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  a little bit of a sense of,
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  lack of direction,
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  if you would, in terms of
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  what can IT truly do over what period
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  of time.
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  And, I think this was an opportunity for
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  us to rebaseline
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  in terms of the capabilities we can bring
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  forward,
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  in a more predictable fashion. So being able
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  to start with a visioning exercise that allowed
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  us to have the right balance
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  of, you know, fixing the foundation while also,
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  you know,
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  working towards innovative solutions and innovative means of
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  improving care delivery as well as efficiency.
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  We created a road map, that was,
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  that's something that the organization has had a
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  chance to review and buy into, which now
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  sets us up well for what the future
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  holds. So those are, some of the, some
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  of the more important things.
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  You know, when it comes to tech, I
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  mean, I think it's, it's really important to
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  realize that it's not always about systems and
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  tools.
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  It is important that,
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  we kind of ground a lot of this
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  in trust, as I mentioned earlier.
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  And,
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  IT is seen as a partner. And I
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  think when that happens, you know, with that
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  partnership within the business community, as well
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  as the clinicians over here, good things usually
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  happen and progress
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  follows. So that's our ability to, you know,
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  kinda serve as launching pad going into the
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  future.
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  Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing all
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  of those things. Are there,
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  any big challenges that you're anticipating for this
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  year or, let's say, the next four to
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  five years?
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  So with the opportunity
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  for
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  progress, as I mentioned right now,
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  it also comes with some of the challenges,
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  if you would, and we we keep a
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  keen eye for that.
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  One of those is obviously,
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  related
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  to just overall
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  the workforce and their ability to adapt to
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  change, and adapt to new technology and transformation,
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  just because of, you know, where the industry
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  itself has been maybe over the last four
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  or five years since the pandemic.
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  Burnout is real.
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  You know, overwork is real.
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  And, staffing related challenges
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  continue to,
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  pose a threat, if you would, in terms
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  of, the adoption of some of the technology.
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  You can only go so far
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  without the right response
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  from, from the staff,
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  you know, in order to adopt some of
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  this technology and make it actually successful and
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  within the workflow. So we we manage this
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  really well. It's a challenge, but, you know,
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  this is this is something that we've mitigated
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  through effective change management within our organization. So,
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  you know, not only in terms of transparency
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  for communication. So we talked about,
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  you know, how we would build out the
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  capabilities,
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  you know, in terms of the road map
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  and what we would deploy at what point.
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  So having the appropriate communication
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  is really important,
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  and and being able to bring transparency to
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  that is is really vital. But also, at
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  the same time, being able to be as
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  inclusive as possible as far as decision making
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  goes in terms of what we work on
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  and how we work on it in order
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  to reduce the friction for the clinicians and
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  the business in general is really, really vital
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  for us. So I think that's one of
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  the big challenge. You know, we can talk
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  about the industry again at large, and we're
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  probably not immune from it. Although, you know,
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  we've been we've been able to weather the
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  financial headwinds really well over the course of
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  maybe the last couple of decades. But, right
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  now, with the margin compression that's going on,
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  I think there is a there's a keen
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  realization for all of us that,
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  you know, new projects and new solutions that
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  we implement have to be grounded in a
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  yield on that investment.
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  And we're putting the right thought process in
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  place in order to make sure that the
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  the tools that we're implementing are going to
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  yield us, you know, in the near term
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  as well as in the long term in
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  terms of some sort of a quantifiable benefits,
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  especially knowing that, you know, we don't really
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  have, too many, too many mulligans over here
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  when, when it comes to,
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  you know, being optimal with the deployment of
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  our financial resources.
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  And then, you know, cybersecurity and information security
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  is always on our mind. We've made a
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  lot of investment in that, not only in
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  terms of processes and people and culture, but
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  also in terms of tools and technology, and,
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  you know, being able to stay ahead of
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  the curve in terms of, what can sometimes
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  be a very,
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  very intimidating proposition,
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  of, being able to keep the,
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  keep the environment safe and secure, is a
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  constant,
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  is a constant in our mind, and we
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  continue to, you know,
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  work on it as as best as we
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  can. So those I mean, that's, that that's
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  maybe the perhaps the the outlook that I
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  probably put in place in terms of, you
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  know, what we think the key challenges might
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  be.
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  Yeah. No. That makes a lot of sense.
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  I definitely heard,
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  some executives say something remotely close to, you
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  know, what you're talking about.
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  What is the number one thing you're doing
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  right now to set up your organization,
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  for long term success?
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  Yeah.
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  I, I'll give you, I'll give you maybe
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  two. And I think they're sort of related,
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  in a certain sense.
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  You know, we've,
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  as I mentioned earlier,
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  there is
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  work that we're doing in terms of fixing
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  the foundation, but we're also looking at innovation.
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  And on the innovation side, some of it
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  is along the lines of AI and automation.
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  We've had some early successes just in the
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  last year or so in terms of work
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  that we've done within with the use of,
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  you know, some sort of automation,
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  within the radiology and the radiologist
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  workflows.
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  We've had some recent success in terms of
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  using AI effectively
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  effectively for clinical documentation through the ambient listening
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  tools and such.
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  We're working on the next set of priorities
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  beyond that where we think we can build
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  on some of this momentum.
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  We've built some of that trust from the
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  updating of the foundation. We talked about. We've
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  built some credibility with some of the new
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  innovation and the tooling so far. We're gonna
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  build on top of it with more,
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  automation of administrative tasks. And I think that's
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  going to be important for us not only
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  next year but into the years going forward
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  as we use that to learn,
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  and,
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  and continue to evolve.
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  The second piece of it is,
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  informing the organization and the leadership, but also
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  everyone,
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  you know,
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  that that even is at the front lines
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  with easy
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  access to data. I think there's a lot
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  of friction today in terms of being able
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  to get access to analytics and being able
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  to derive the necessary insights to not only
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  run operations, but also help in strategic planning,
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  what to do next.
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  And it's my team's role to make sure
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  that that friction,
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  is, you know,
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  removed as much as possible. We wanna make
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  that whole process of being able to get
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  to data
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  more and insights more effortless. So I think
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  that's the idea behind the work that we're
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  doing right now is we're building out a
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  centralized enterprise data warehouse solution that's gonna allow
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  us to kinda serve allow it to serve
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  as, as a single pane of glass, if
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  you would, that everyone would have access to
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  in terms of clinical quality,
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  operational
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  revenue cycle, and data in general to go
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  out and make decisions into the organization. I
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  think that's an important part of the data
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  driven
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  transformation of the culture that we're affecting over
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  here that is, that's gonna serve us well,
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  not only now, but also into the future.
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  That makes a lot of sense. Thank you
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  so much for sharing those, those final thoughts.
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  It's definitely been a very informative discussion. So,
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  again, I wanna thank you so much for
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  coming on Becker's health care, especially for the
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  first time, and I hope we have you
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  back.
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  Thanks, Mariah. I really enjoyed it and, appreciate
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  the opportunity.
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  Thank you.