Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Catherine Chang, Chief Quality Officer at Prisma Health

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Catherine Chang, Chief Quality Officer at Prisma Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:02
The most important health care decisions don't happen
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in isolation.
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They happen when leaders come together.
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Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
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3,500
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hospital and health system executives this April in
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Chicago.
0:16
With 800 speakers from Ascension,
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Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit and more, the conversations get
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real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning
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for policy shifts, breaking through value based care
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barriers, and building clinical teams that translate
0:46
Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Becker's Health
0:48
Care podcast.
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I'm Mackenzie Bean, associate vice president and managing
0:53
editor of Becker's Hospital Review.
0:55
Today, I'm so thrilled to be joined by
0:57
doctor Catherine Chang, who's the chief quality officer
1:00
of Prisma Health.
1:02
Doctor Chang, thank you so much for being
1:03
here today. We're excited to have you, and
1:05
I thought we could start off the conversation
1:07
by having you just introduce yourself to our
1:09
listeners and tell us a little bit more
1:11
about Prisma.
1:12
Hi. I'm Cathy Chang. I'm the chief quality
1:15
officer at Prisma Health.
1:17
We are a large integrated delivery health system
1:20
in state of South Carolina, the largest,
1:22
and also in Eastern Tennessee.
1:24
So,
1:25
we
1:26
provide the full scope of services,
1:29
urgent cares, ambulatory surgery centers, acute care,
1:33
and a very large, medical group.
1:37
Wonderful. Well, we're so glad to have you
1:39
here today, doctor Shane. I appreciate you sharing
1:42
a little bit more,
1:43
about yourself.
1:45
I know we were,
1:46
lucky enough to have you on the Becker's
1:48
podcast
1:49
last January, and you had talked a a
1:51
good amount about reflecting on the past year
1:54
in terms of a lot of rapid growth
1:56
for Prisma and, some impressive gains in terms
1:59
of quality metrics, and you mentioned sepsis among
2:01
others.
2:02
So I'd love to sort of, like, revisit
2:04
now in January 2026 on on your past
2:07
year.
2:08
What was the most important initiative that you
2:10
led? What did you do? What were the
2:12
results? Tell us.
2:14
Yeah. Absolutely. So,
2:16
it's great to be back. Thank you for
2:17
having me. And, again, we just had, just
2:20
another
2:22
record year. It was really it was a
2:24
good year to be at Prisma Health. We
2:26
did continue,
2:27
to grow.
2:28
I think just when we had last talked,
2:31
we had just gone into the Tennessee market.
2:34
And so, we
2:35
fully completed,
2:37
that integration and have just been a great
2:39
addition to Prisma.
2:41
Really excited to continue to to watch that
2:43
part of Prisma grow.
2:45
Also, in the interim, we've added quite a
2:48
bit to
2:50
our urgent care footprint. So,
2:52
really what you know,
2:55
focusing on access, meeting patients where they're at,
2:58
that's just been a tremendous asset for the
3:00
communities where we've been able to put those,
3:03
and are on a trajectory to continue to
3:05
open more.
3:06
So that's a really wonderful thing. We continue
3:09
to add to the medical group,
3:11
and and it's just been we've been
3:13
incredibly,
3:15
fortunate in our markets and, you know, just
3:17
to have continual population growth as well. And
3:19
so, not only are we growing, but the
3:21
communities that we serve are growing.
3:24
So that's definitely been a theme of this
3:26
year for us.
3:27
In addition to that,
3:29
we've continued to really grow,
3:32
our pulse clinical operating system. So
3:35
I've seen a good bit of development there,
3:37
and, I I won't,
3:39
get into the details
3:40
of that. So there's a lot of of
3:42
work going on around that and how we
3:44
continue to just refine our operating system, which
3:47
is leading to a lot of,
3:49
our results. And,
3:50
doctor Gleason, our chief clinical officer, actually was
3:53
able to, share some of those results in,
3:56
the New England Journal Catalyst article that, came
3:58
out last month. So,
4:00
just a lot of really good exciting things,
4:02
and the team continues to grow here. So,
4:05
we've just been,
4:07
very fortunate this year, to continue doing the
4:09
work of serving our patients,
4:11
and and serving the team,
4:14
that takes care of our patients.
4:16
Mhmm. A lot of impressive growth and gains,
4:18
and as you said, a lot of work
4:20
on operational
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side too.
4:23
You know, we we have a lot of
4:24
talk about today, but I'm wondering maybe you
4:25
could just give sort of a high level
4:27
overview for folks who might not be familiar
4:28
with that initiative of really what it entails
4:30
and then maybe a snapshot of of what
4:32
impressive result you all have seen.
4:35
Yeah. So I think, I have, several areas
4:38
of focus within, Prisma Health, but one of
4:40
the things that,
4:41
I really truly enjoy and it's quite a
4:43
bucket filler for me, is really working with
4:46
our clinical advancement program. So,
4:49
that is a program,
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that encompasses
4:52
multidisciplinary,
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clinical specialty councils. We have about 20 of
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them,
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and they are focused on transformative
5:00
initiatives. So these are the things that,
5:04
really most people, I think, in health care
5:05
leadership would say these are the things that
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they want to work on,
5:09
that they really try to squeeze in between
5:11
the things that they have to work on.
5:13
So, one of the things that I've been
5:15
pleased to do is lead this clinical advancement
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program where we actually set aside time and
5:19
resources and institutional energy and focus
5:23
on, bringing some of these projects,
5:25
to fruition, really,
5:28
rolling them out across the enterprise. These are
5:30
the things that, put the patients in the
5:32
middle.
5:33
They are brought to us by our team.
5:35
So these are the things that they really
5:37
have a lot of energy around accomplishing.
5:40
It may be something around access. It may
5:42
be
5:43
a a clinical quality metric improvement project. It
5:46
may be something around patient experience.
5:49
So a few of the things that we've
5:50
been able to do,
5:52
one was,
5:53
launch a clinical specialty council focused,
5:56
around patients that may have, intellectual,
5:59
developmental, or neurological,
6:02
differences. And, you know, how can we show
6:04
up for them? How do we,
6:06
tailor our delivery of health care, to those
6:08
patients and their families?
6:10
And we just have an incredibly dedicated group
6:12
of clinicians around that population.
6:15
And so we're able to take their feedback
6:16
about what it's like, to interact with health
6:19
care and how do we respond to that,
6:22
adapt our environments, adapt our approach,
6:25
and support our team in doing that. So
6:27
that's just, one example, and we have 19
6:30
other, clinical specialty
6:35
so that's something that we all
6:36
get
6:37
a lot of,
6:38
you know,
6:40
very
6:42
significant
6:43
positive feelings from doing that. It leaves a
6:45
mark on the community, and it leaves a
6:47
very positive mark on us. So I think
6:49
those are probably the things that I've really
6:51
enjoyed. In addition to the
6:53
intellectual
6:54
developmental
6:55
and neurological
6:57
council that we have there. We've also,
6:59
done some things that really span the full
7:01
care continuum. So, really focusing on access,
7:04
all things access. So kind of, you know,
7:07
really meeting the patients where they are. In
7:09
addition to growing urgent care, we've been working
7:11
on growing access to things,
7:13
like diagnostics
7:15
and, cancer specialty care as an example. So
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we did,
7:19
a full care continuum integrated project around,
7:23
increasing,
7:24
the percentage of patients that have,
7:27
a short time between diagnosis of breast cancer
7:29
and definitive therapy if that definitive therapy is
7:32
surgery.
7:33
So we actually have, set a goal
7:35
that is,
7:37
lower than, the National Cancer Institute benchmark. So
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we're shooting for forty five days or less,
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which is a pretty complicated pathway with all
7:45
of the things that are involved in determining
7:47
if that's the right, way to go,
7:50
and then have, set a target for ourselves.
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And there are some cases, you know, where
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we're able to,
7:55
achieve about eighty percent of patients at some
7:58
of our sites getting in in less than
7:59
45.
8:00
And that,
8:01
was not how we started. And that was
8:03
a really great thing that involved coordination from,
8:06
diagnostics
8:07
all the way to an oncology office to
8:09
coordinating oncologic surgeons and plastic surgeons, and then
8:13
all of the follow-up,
8:14
including in on it acute care operating room
8:17
schedule. So that was a really great project
8:19
to do.
8:20
And the other nice thing about that is
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that we then kind of take that and
8:23
we continue to expand it out. So then
8:25
how do we even look at access to
8:27
screening mammography?
8:29
So kind of really just looking at removing
8:30
the barriers to care,
8:32
you know, especially for things that are common
8:35
and really impact our communities. So that was,
8:38
really gratifying to get that done.
8:41
I'm sure in about forty five days is
8:42
an aggressive time line, but for a patient,
8:45
that
8:46
is such an important thing and can mean
8:48
so so much.
8:50
And I think, you know, your remarks, especially
8:52
your focus on access, I think bring up
8:54
a theme I've heard a lot from other
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clinical executives,
8:57
over the past few months, which is just
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thinking through meeting the rising demand of patients
9:02
and increasing access. And, yes, that might look
9:04
like opening new urgent care centers or increasing
9:07
provider headcount, but, also, I think we're increasingly
9:09
seeing other ways to improve access through more
9:12
creative or innovative care models or thinking through
9:14
efficiencies,
9:16
exactly like you you've just mentioned. So I
9:18
appreciate those examples.
9:20
Yeah. I'm I'm curious to hear from you
9:22
now looking ahead,
9:24
to the to the next twelve months. What
9:26
are some of the big priority headwinds where
9:28
you're aiming to make the most traction?
9:31
Yeah. I think,
9:33
really looking at just the landscape,
9:35
this is just a really interesting time to
9:37
be in health care. And there
9:39
are a lot of things competing for our
9:41
attention.
9:42
So I you know, just as we're focusing
9:45
on continued growth and expansion,
9:48
but also trying to navigate,
9:51
what may be,
9:53
shifting tides or currents,
9:55
you know, whether that's on the policy front
9:57
or on the technology front, which is we're
10:00
at this very interesting,
10:02
you know, place
10:04
in in time in health care where
10:07
if if we keep going in the way
10:09
we're going and we do it right, technology
10:11
actually has the ability to really truly be,
10:15
an asset to us in in the actual
10:18
in the moment delivery of care and may
10:20
actually bring us closer back to the patients,
10:23
and take some of those technological barriers out.
10:26
And so we've had,
10:27
done some work around,
10:29
using ambient listening, which has been really just
10:32
a boon for our providers, especially,
10:35
those that have higher volumes and allowing them
10:38
to just really focus on the patient and
10:40
have conversations. And so I think one of
10:42
the things that we're looking at, you know,
10:44
is how do we, for our team's sake,
10:46
how do we be the best place to
10:47
work in health care? You know, whether that's
10:49
on the nursing front, whether it's, you know,
10:51
providers or,
10:54
you know, even in folks that, you know,
10:55
just help us take care of patients,
10:57
whether it's an EBS or something,
10:59
you know, that's in a a pair of
11:01
clinical,
11:02
discipline. So I think that that's been a
11:04
really big initiative for us is how do
11:06
we focus on our team? How do we
11:09
take care of the people that take care
11:10
of the patients? So really looking to do
11:12
more of those
11:13
types of things that bring the joy of
11:16
of work back
11:17
to the practice of medicine, especially as we
11:19
continue to grow. So, you know, how do
11:22
we help our people,
11:23
do that very important work in front of
11:25
them more efficiently? So,
11:27
we actually have
11:29
dedicated team, and an initiative, a branded initiative,
11:32
called care more, click less.
11:34
So we're really focused on how do we
11:36
get the you know, our clinicians really back
11:39
to patient care and and not behind a
11:41
keyboard or a monitor. So really looking to
11:43
expand that.
11:44
We've had really significant gains
11:48
in, you know, time back to our, clinical
11:51
teams, especially in those evening hours, you know,
11:53
where we really wanna allow people to disconnect
11:56
and go home and be with their families.
11:57
And so we actually have,
11:59
really measure and track our, pajama time, you
12:02
know, so that we're looking at, you know,
12:04
how much are people,
12:05
working if that's not their work shift, you
12:08
know, if they're, a typical especially an ambulatory
12:10
provider,
12:11
you know, we really don't wanna see you
12:13
in in there at 11:00 at night unless
12:15
that's something that you want. So, you know,
12:17
how do we continue to provide tools, to
12:19
help people be efficient during their workday and
12:21
still take great care of patients,
12:23
and expanding that to the nursing, front as
12:26
well, especially, on the inpatient side where we've
12:28
got,
12:29
such a burden on,
12:31
on teams in the inpatient space, especially around
12:34
documentation, which is so critical to get right,
12:37
and how do we make that easier. So
12:39
that's definitely something that we're looking forward to
12:41
this year,
12:42
building on that work.
12:44
Obviously,
12:45
a lot of continued focus on, you know,
12:48
quality, safety, and experience. What does that really
12:51
mean,
12:52
to bring all of those initiatives
12:55
together so that you don't have what feels
12:57
like competing priorities,
12:59
but it's just really the way that you
13:00
go about doing your work. And so that's
13:02
something that we're very focused on,
13:04
is, you know, not confusing,
13:07
or
13:09
distracting people,
13:11
from the most important thing in front of
13:13
them, which is the patient, and how do
13:15
we make it as easy as possible and
13:16
take hassles out of their day. So, that's
13:19
really continuing to to grow and develop our
13:21
pulse work flows,
13:23
such that you just really focusing on how
13:25
you do that, how you do,
13:27
how do you round on patients, and how
13:29
do you remove hassles for the patients and
13:31
remove hassles for your team, and and kind
13:33
of do that in a scaled way,
13:35
through tiered leadership.
13:36
So that's been tremendously effective for us, and
13:39
we'll keep,
13:40
building and iterating on that with our team.
13:43
So that's wonderful.
13:44
And, you know, just really looking at what
13:47
the horizon may have for us and in
13:49
terms of continued growth,
13:51
We are in a in a very,
13:53
you know, advantageous,
13:56
part of the country. We've got, just growing
13:58
populations,
14:00
everywhere that we are. That's a wonderful thing
14:02
to see. It's providing a lot of opportunity
14:04
to the community and then a lot of
14:05
opportunity for us.
14:07
And and a challenge from the community really
14:09
is, you know, for us to keep up
14:10
with them and and meet their needs
14:13
in terms of providing care in all the
14:15
places and all the ways that we need
14:17
to do that
14:18
to keep people healthy and to allow our
14:20
communities to grow as well.
14:23
Absolutely. A lot of important priorities and,
14:26
opportunities in 2026. That's for sure. And I
14:29
think, you know, it seems like the,
14:31
staff engagement and well-being piece and unburdening,
14:34
especially documentation can really go hand in hand
14:37
with quality efforts. I feel like I've spoke
14:38
with a lot of chief quality officers who
14:41
have also talked about kind of what you
14:42
alluded to of really integrating quality work into
14:45
the day to day versus having it feel
14:47
like it sits outside of it as a
14:49
tack on or an added benefit. And it
14:51
seems like perhaps if, you know, the providers
14:54
are,
14:55
a little bit freed up from some of
14:57
the administrative duties, maybe do they have a
14:59
a new sense of energy and excitement over
15:01
or over some of this work too and
15:03
perhaps some of your clinical bands and programs
15:05
play into
15:06
that?
15:07
Yes. Definitely. Whenever we have to touch something,
15:10
and by that, I mean, a work flow.
15:12
So if we're looking at something for how
15:13
do we make something better for the patients,
15:16
we always look at how do we make
15:17
it better for the team, because we know
15:19
human nature is what human nature is, and
15:22
we will all choose the path of least
15:24
resistance.
15:24
So we try to make the right thing
15:26
to do the easy thing to do.
15:28
We're also incredibly fortunate to have a,
15:31
center for
15:33
health care, human factors engineers Mhmm. So that
15:36
we're able to apply
15:38
that, their expertise as well. And that's been
15:41
a really wonderful asset to bring into our
15:43
improvement work.
15:45
So, you know, we can really better understand,
15:47
you know, the way that that humans function
15:50
with the technological
15:51
interface,
15:52
the way we also function in very complex
15:54
operational environments.
15:56
And we really try to use that to
15:58
the extent possible to design our workflows both
16:00
at the bedside
16:01
and then also as we're working, with any
16:04
type of documentation system,
16:06
you know, to really make these, all these
16:08
things that, you know, we know need to
16:10
be done,
16:11
you know, as part
16:12
of patient care or as part of the
16:14
business of health care, you know, how do
16:16
we do that as efficiently as possible? So,
16:18
we're, you know, we're really leveraging
16:22
different disciplines outside of traditional health care workers,
16:26
to really bring their expertise into it and
16:28
how can we learn from them.
16:30
And that's been a really, a really great
16:32
thing and even working on designing some things
16:34
within the EMR in terms of workflows and
16:36
visual cues, etcetera,
16:38
just to make it easy to do, easy
16:40
to do the right thing.
16:42
Mhmm. I think that's a such a valuable
16:44
perspective to to think through that.
16:47
Doctor Chang, this has been such an enlightening
16:49
discussion. I appreciate you giving us sort of
16:51
an overview of some of the big focuses
16:53
for Prisma Health and some of the wins
16:55
already,
16:56
under your belt as we get deeper into
16:57
2026.
16:58
Before we jump off, is there are there
17:00
any other final thoughts you'd like to share
17:02
with our listeners?
17:04
I don't have any final thoughts, about Prisma
17:07
in particular, but I just think that, we
17:10
are
17:11
really fortunate to be able to work in
17:13
health care. I think that it's it's just
17:15
a wonderful thing to be able to focus
17:16
on, doing the right thing for people.
17:19
And it's such a great
17:21
field to be in where you you just
17:23
never really have to wonder if what you
17:25
do matters, you know, that you know that
17:27
it does. And I think that there's that's
17:29
an incredibly valuable thing,
17:31
especially as we're trying to navigate a lot
17:33
of change in the world. I think it's
17:35
always good to be able to come back
17:36
to your true north, and that's the great
17:39
thing about working in health care is is
17:41
that you always really know what that is.
17:42
And
17:43
I think that, you know, in particular at
17:45
Prisma, we really try to to keep that
17:47
in mind as we're making our decisions and
17:49
we're doing things.
17:50
And I'm just really pleased and and very
17:52
grateful to have the team around me that
17:54
I do. I that's,
17:56
you know, just a shout out to to
17:57
the leadership team at Prisma and all the
18:00
people that I work with on a daily
18:01
basis and, frankly, just the entire health care
18:03
community.
18:04
So I'm just really glad to be a
18:06
part of that, and they're it's a special
18:07
group of people.
18:08
And so, you know, thanks for allowing me
18:11
the opportunity to share this,
18:13
with them and with you, and,
18:16
you know, and always enjoy the conversation.
18:18
Yeah. And always appreciate the conversation and your
18:20
time. We'll be excited to follow a lot
18:23
of Prisma's work throughout the year, and then
18:24
I know we're excited to see you at,
18:26
our annual meeting as well. That's alright. Thank
18:29
you so much. Thank you so much. Appreciate
18:31
it, doctor Chang.
18:33
Bye bye.
18:34
Bye bye.