Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Modernizing Healthcare IT Through AI, Optimization and Workflow Innovation with Will Landry

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Modernizing Healthcare IT Through AI, Optimization and Workflow Innovation with Will Landry · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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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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  - This is Laura Dierdahl with the Becker's Healthcare
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  - Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  - Will Landry, senior vice president and chief information
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  - officer at FMLA Health. Will, it's a pleasure
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  - to have you on the podcast today. Thank
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  - you for having me, Laura. I'm excited to
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  - be here.
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  - Absolutely. Now I'm,
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  - looking forward to our conversation because I know
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  - you're doing some really great things at FMLA
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  - Health, and, you know, we'll be able to
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  - spotlight that as well as get your perspective
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  - on the future. But before we dive in,
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  - can you tell us just a little bit
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  - more about yourself and your background?
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  - Sure. Absolutely. So,
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  - I've been with FML Health now for,
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  - six and a half years. I've been in
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  - the the CIO role for for a little
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  - over three years.
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  - Before that, I've had different experiences,
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  - with with Lafayette General Health in Southwest Louisiana
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  - and Blue Cross Blue Shield Louisiana,
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  - and Amedisys,
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  - Home Health and Hospice. There's,
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  - IT operation. I started mostly in IT operations
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  - and infrastructure and have moved more into
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  - the the IT IT side of the clinical
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  - space.
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  - But, originally, I started in the the John
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  - Deere industry, and that's where my background is
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  - all before health health care. So,
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  - but I've been in health care now for
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  - fifteen
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  - over fifteen years, and I love it. So
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  - Oh, it's amazing. You know, such a special
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  - industry. You know, very much community oriented and
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  - people focused, but at the same time, you
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  - know, interesting dynamic and and a lot of
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  - changes.
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  - So very, very exciting. Can we start off
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  - with, giving just a quick state of the
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  - union for everything you're doing at FMOL?
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  - How have things gone this year so far,
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  - and what are you focused on for the
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  - rest of 2026?
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  - Yeah. We've had a very positive year, as
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  - far as implementation our new implementations and mostly
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  - focused on optimizations. We are still,
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  - you know, from a,
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  - from a from an EMR perspective or from
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  - a systems perspective, we we've we've been very
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  - solid. Like, you know, we've implemented our our
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  - entire health system.
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  - But we've been very focused on doing community
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  - connect implementations where we're,
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  - implementing Epic at, partner facilities, mostly mostly smaller
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  - facilities and rural facilities across state, but we
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  - also have some larger partners as well too,
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  - and we're doing that across Louisiana and Mississippi.
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  - And that's been,
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  - really exciting, and we've been able to see
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  - really positive things in the communities with our
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  - providers and our patients and with those partners,
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  - and that's been a great thing that we've
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  - been doing. Also,
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  - we've been
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  - very in the last, like, eighteen months, we
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  - have, really aggressively been rolling out ambient listening,
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  - with our,
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  - within our teams. And that's that's been very
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  - successful,
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  - for the private providers. And we just recently
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  - we now have two markets, in our Jackson,
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  - Mississippi market. And now in Baton Rouge, we
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  - have units that are using ambient nursing.
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  - And both of those pilots have been very
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  - successful as well.
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  - And so there's we were a little hesitant
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  - with ambient nursing at first just because we
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  - didn't know how that was going. We didn't
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  - know where we would see the efficiencies with
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  - where with how we have flow sheets and
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  - workflows designed. But after seeing it in practice,
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  - there's been a lot of
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  - improvements or efficiencies that gained from doing documentation
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  - or ambient documentation that we did that we
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  - as an IIS did not expect.
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  - But our nursing teams have really liked it,
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  - and it's been really positive. So we we're
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  - gonna continue to see more and more,
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  - ambient listening within different areas of the clinical
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  - space. It just it it it makes documentation
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  - and using the system so much more efficient.
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  - So we're really excited about that. The other
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  - and the other two things real quick that
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  - we've been focused on
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  - is is really been optimization. Like I mentioned
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  - earlier, we've finished implementation of new MRs at
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  - our at our
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  - primary sites years ago. So we now we're,
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  - like, we're looking at tech debt. We're looking
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  - at legacy systems. We're looking at, you know,
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  - how do we optimize what we did, what
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  - we might have implement implemented five years ago.
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  - Does that still apply today? And we've been
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  - very focused on that and going back and
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  - working with
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  - our end users and our in the and
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  - our operations teams to look at, hey. What
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  - are what workarounds do you have in place
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  - that that you're going around the system that
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  - we can go and make better?
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  - And so we're we're doing a lot more
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  - of that, being very focused on being on
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  - the floors, being in the clinics, and and
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  - and seeing those work those those the use
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  - cases firsthand so that we can make those
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  - improvements.
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  - Well, that that makes a ton of sense.
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  - You know, it's exciting to have that type
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  - of technology and especially looking at Ambient
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  - to your point for the nursing teams who
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  - do so much and,
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  - really, you know, can be focused then on,
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  - how they're
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  - operating and and connect with patients and all
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  - those kinds of things?
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  - And and truly, it seems like, you know,
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  - you found a way to incorporate it in
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  - very meaningfully. So throughout the process, was there
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  - anything that you learned or advice you'd have
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  - for other hospitals or systems that are, bringing
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  - in that technology for their nurses as well?
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  - Yeah. We're still pretty early in it. I
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  - would say,
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  - some of the things that we learned kinda
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  - early on is, like anything else, making sure
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  - that we have a a lot of the
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  - right support and people on staff to be
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  - able to understand in the training. But a
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  - lot of it is, you know, we've we've
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  - been learning this over time that, like, pretraining
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  - is only only has so much value, but
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  - making sure that we're train we're there to
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  - train and assist,
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  - during the use is way more valuable than
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  - some of the pretraining. So and we did
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  - that with Ambient Nursing where we we had
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  - a lot of people on-site on the floors
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  - assisting with it, and it that went very
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  - well.
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  - Absolutely. Yeah. I love it. And, you know,
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  - it seems like a lot of,
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  - great collaborations
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  - that really brought the project to life. Now
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  - I wanted to look in the future too,
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  - and and start off with what are some
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  - of the big headwinds that you're keeping an
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  - eye on right now and preparing for as
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  - you look at 2027 and beyond?
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  - That's a great question. I think the the
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  - the biggest headwind that we've that that we're
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  - seeing as an organization, and this comes down,
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  - it's gonna impact technology and and how we're
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  - spending is gonna be
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  - is is budget pressure and reimbursement pressures that
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  - are kinda mean with, like, with the HR
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  - one changes and Medicaid eligibility.
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  - And so we're we've already started seeing that
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  - starting January 1 of this calendar year. We've
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  - started seeing a significant increase in self pay,
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  - and we are expecting that to rise again
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  - this next January.
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  - And that's that's it it's gonna have some
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  - significant budget pressures on us. So from an
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  - I from a technology perspective, what we've been
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  - looking at is
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  - really figuring out where and I mentioned earlier
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  - about tech debt and legacy systems and, you
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  - know, working on eliminating
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  - some of that and
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  - figuring and working with operations to start,
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  - to streamlining some of those so that we
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  - can, you know because when we do start
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  - getting budget pressures,
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  - we wanna make sure that we're still focusing
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  - on the right things and and,
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  - and the more efficient uses of the technology
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  - and not just carrying forward, you know, legacy
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  - systems. So
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  - that's where I definitely see, you know, this
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  - this count the next calendar year for sure
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  - is we're gonna see a lot of, we're
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  - gonna see some budget pressures for sure.
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  - Got it. Absolutely. I I think that makes
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  - a lot of sense. And, you know,
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  - having those kinds of understanding of the, you
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  - know, budget constraints and potentially other changes,
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  - coming, you know, in the next couple years
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  - or so,
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  - in technology, I know, typically,
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  - the the costs don't, decrease a ton. And
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  - so when you're thinking about what how you're
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  - going to make sure every dollar counts, what
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  - does that look like for you, and, how
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  - are you thinking about your strategy for tech
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  - investments going forward?
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  - So great question. So as we see those
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  - pressures coming in, we we need to make
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  - sure that we're optimizing what we're doing going
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  - forward. One of the things what we have
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  - been very focused on is
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  - leveraging the tools, leveraging new AI tools to
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  - get to be more efficient and to be
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  - more effective with that spend. And we've seen
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  - a lot of that already in the last
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  - couple years.
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  - I have you know, people ask questions about
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  - ROI for AI, and I I think there
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  - is a lot of soft very soft ROI
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  - when it comes to some of these AI
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  - tools because
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  - it did they're not necessarily specific to to
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  - certain service lines or specific areas. So it's
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  - it's really hard to measure. But what we
• 9:03
  - have seen
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  - and this this is also kind of a
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  - soft number, but we look at if we
• 9:10
  - look at our our our revenue like, our
• 9:12
  - health system revenue growth and our expense growth
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  - or our our net net operating income growth
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  - and versus our IT spend. Our IT spend
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  - has not has been growing it's been growing
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  - too the last few years, but it has
• 9:26
  - not been growing nearly at the same rate.
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  - And we attribute a lot of that to
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  - what we've been able how we've been able
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  - to keep up with
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  - expansion within
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  - the organization,
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  - and to be able to do more with
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  - the same and be able to leverage our
• 9:41
  - the systems whether we're automating,
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  - whether we're providing better systems for our end
• 9:46
  - users to be able to automate tools.
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  - But whether that's on the shared services side,
• 9:51
  - like with IT or within ref cycle,
• 9:54
  - we've we've definitely been seeing a lot of
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  - efficiency gains with some of these tools. Like
• 9:58
  - I said, very hard to pinpoint some of
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  - it. But if you look at, like, total
• 10:02
  - technology spend is not rising at the same
• 10:04
  - rate of of of other growth that we've
• 10:07
  - seen, and I attribute a lot of that
• 10:08
  - to the efficiencies that we've seen from the
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  - tools that we've been implementing.
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  - I love that. What a a great example
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  - of how you can think and transform about,
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  - you know, the way that you are looking
• 10:18
  - at technology, looking at ROI for some of
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  - these tools, and then being able to,
• 10:24
  - truly provide additional value to the organization overall.
• 10:28
  - And and to that point, where do you
• 10:29
  - see some of the big opportunities for growth
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  - as well? What does it look like in
• 10:32
  - the next couple years or so?
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  - I think the biggest opportunity for growth from
• 10:36
  - or at least what I'm
• 10:38
  - what I'm looking what my big focus has
• 10:40
  - been with our team has really been modern
• 10:42
  - and modernizing
• 10:44
  - our our IT organization. We
• 10:46
  - traditionally, like most other health systems, have a
• 10:49
  - kind of traditional IT organization. We have a
• 10:51
  - lot of builders. We have a lot of
• 10:52
  - infrastructure. We, you know, we have analysts.
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  - But we're gonna we're gonna those skill sets
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  - are changing, and they're changing pretty quickly as
• 10:59
  - far as what's needed.
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  - And I think we're gonna see where we
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  - need to be
• 11:04
  - way more focused on business systems, end to
• 11:06
  - end end to end,
• 11:08
  - workflow systems, like being able to go in
• 11:11
  - and and being more subject matter experts where
• 11:13
  - we've traditionally been,
• 11:15
  - like, technology experts. We also need to be
• 11:18
  - business
• 11:19
  - subject matter experts as well too or more,
• 11:21
  - like not necessarily, like,
• 11:24
  - the perfect subject matter expert, but to have
• 11:26
  - more information around, to be able to help
• 11:28
  - the business, to be able to how do
• 11:29
  - we implement technology and use it, to the
• 11:32
  - to the advantage? So,
• 11:34
  - we're gonna be modernizing our IT org. We're
• 11:36
  - gonna be we're looking at some different positions
• 11:39
  - as far as how we're gonna go out
• 11:40
  - in the future. We're gonna be probably less
• 11:42
  - focused on build
• 11:44
  - and more focused on at the elbow optimization
• 11:47
  - with workflows.
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  - Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
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  - And, you know, I think
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  - going down that point of being able to
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  - optimize and continue to find ways and workflows
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  - that are making the team more efficient in
• 12:01
  - improving patient care,
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  - it seems to make a a really big
• 12:04
  - difference. And I can imagine, in some ways,
• 12:06
  - it's easier said than done, but in others,
• 12:08
  - it makes a lot of sense why I
• 12:10
  - need to culture and everything.
• 12:12
  - Absolutely. Definitely easier said than done. We've been
• 12:15
  - I've been talking about it with my senior
• 12:16
  - leadership team now for over a year, and
• 12:18
  - we've we've made some changes in our org
• 12:20
  - structure, but, like, nothing like we thought we
• 12:22
  - would initially. But, you know, it it is
• 12:25
  - easier said than done, and you've gotta find
• 12:27
  - the right mix of moving moving moving pieces
• 12:30
  - and,
• 12:31
  - moving strategy and, you know, over time. So
• 12:35
  - Absolutely.
• 12:36
  - Absolutely. Good words of encouragement as you're going
• 12:39
  - through being able to be resilient and and
• 12:41
  - continue to to figure things out.
• 12:44
  - And, you know, before we wrap up here,
• 12:46
  - I wanted to ask you about leadership too.
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  - Who do you admire as a leader, really,
• 12:50
  - from any industry and why?
• 12:52
  - Alright. Since you said in the industry,
• 12:55
  - I'm gonna say I'm gonna go back and
• 12:56
  - just and we're gonna say any time period
• 12:58
  - too. I'll go back and say so who
• 13:01
  - I admire and I'll look into for many
• 13:03
  - reasons, but specifically
• 13:05
  - in this is is is George Washington. And
• 13:07
  - really because if I look at how we
• 13:11
  - what it's interesting how we commanded the continental
• 13:14
  - army,
• 13:15
  - like, he was if you ever go back
• 13:16
  - and read any of his stuff, like, he
• 13:18
  - was
• 13:19
  - it was it was, like, really painful for
• 13:21
  - him in the way they had to win
• 13:23
  - and the way they had to fight the
• 13:25
  - British because they kept having to retreat. He
• 13:27
  - kept having to retreat, but that's what he
• 13:29
  - had to do to win the war. And
• 13:31
  - I think about that a lot all the
• 13:33
  - the time when we the way we it's
• 13:35
  - not about the battles. It's it's not you
• 13:37
  - know, there's there's there's
• 13:39
  - there there's hundreds and hundreds of battles in
• 13:42
  - a day that we always are having you
• 13:44
  - know, all of us are having to to
• 13:45
  - work on. But, like, it's about the end
• 13:47
  - goal. It's about where you're trying to get.
• 13:49
  - Right? And it's not about the sprint. It's
• 13:51
  - about the marathon. It's about where you're where
• 13:53
  - you're trying to get. And sometimes you have
• 13:55
  - to take retreats. Sometimes you have to change.
• 13:57
  - You have to retreat all the time. And
• 13:58
  - I so I think about that a lot,
• 14:01
  - and I think it's really important, in the
• 14:03
  - way I look at it from my leadership
• 14:05
  - perspective, it's, you know, there's there's a lot
• 14:07
  - of thing there's gonna be a lot of
• 14:10
  - things that happen. But at the end of
• 14:12
  - the day, it's about it's about the end
• 14:14
  - goal that's a mine, and we gotta get
• 14:15
  - there. And, like, there's gonna be there's gonna
• 14:17
  - be a lot of losses, but there'll be
• 14:18
  - a lot of wins as well too.
• 14:20
  - And I've always admired
• 14:22
  - Washington specifically because if you go back and
• 14:24
  - read any of his his stuff, like, he
• 14:26
  - he really was tormented by this because he
• 14:28
  - wanted to win the battles, but he knew
• 14:30
  - he knew he had to lose or he
• 14:31
  - had to retreat many, many, many times,
• 14:35
  - before being able to get in a position
• 14:37
  - to win the war. So that's something that
• 14:39
  - I think about a lot.
• 14:41
  - Oh, that's, you know, an incredible analogy. And
• 14:44
  - especially when you look at,
• 14:45
  - everything that is happening in health care right
• 14:48
  - now, but but knowing how important it is
• 14:50
  - at the end of the day to be
• 14:51
  - able to survive and thrive and provide care
• 14:54
  - to the community. Right. And just keeping that,
• 14:57
  - you know, in mind, I I love it.
• 15:00
  - Thank you. Oh, well, thank you so much
• 15:01
  - for joining us on the podcast today. This
• 15:03
  - has been such a fun conversation, really informative
• 15:06
  - and inspiring to think about everything you're doing
• 15:08
  - at FMLA Health, and I look forward to
• 15:11
  - connecting with you as well this fall. I
• 15:12
  - know you'll be speaking in our events, and,
• 15:14
  - really, you know, it'd be great to have
• 15:16
  - you part of them. I'm excited to be
• 15:19
  - there, and thank you, Laura. Appreciate your time.