Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Michael Saad, SVP & Chief Information Officer at The University of Tennessee Medical Center

Transcript

Michael Saad, SVP & Chief Information Officer at The University of Tennessee Medical Center · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Michael Sod,
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  senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at the University of
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  Tennessee Medical Center. Michael,
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  it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  Thank you, Laura. I appreciate you having me back.
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  Now, I know we've got a lot to talk about.
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  There's so much happening in technology as moving rapidly in the healthcare
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  space, but before we dive into my questions,
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  can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and your background?
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  Sure. So I am the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at the
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  University of Tennessee Medical Center. It is located in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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  I have just passed my seven year mark there now. Uh,
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  prior to that I was with a consulting firm that did healthcare consulting, uh,
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  a number of healthcare organizations across the country, and then prior to that,
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  really cut my teeth in healthcare at Henry Ford Health System based out of
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  Detroit, Michigan.
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  Excellent. Well, we're excited to have you here today. Now,
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  what are some of the big opportunities that you're seeing right now at the
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  University of Tennessee Medical Center and the headwinds that you had your eye
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  on too?
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  Yeah, I think from a headwinds perspective, you know,
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  we're seeing the same thing a number of health systems are seeing in that as
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  just financial pressures that are continuing to increase almost quarter by
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  quarter right now.
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  Many of those are driven by things that you're very familiar with, whether it's,
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  you know, supply chain, uh, inflationary costs, or, you know,
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  staffing costs. All of those are, are factoring into that healthcare is,
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  as you well know,
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  is an industry very somewhat unlike retail and other industries where we cannot
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  necessarily pass on those additional costs to our consumers. Right.
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  So that puts us in an interesting place where we have to either take that out of
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  our bottom line or find ways to become more efficient and offset some of those
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  costs. So, you know,
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  every health system across the country I know is dealing with these same
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  challenges and,
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  and I think it's trying to figure out how do we look at what tools are
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  available to us to, to perform some of that. Now from a technology perspective,
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  of course I'm biased and I do think that technology certainly can help with that
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  and aid in a lot of the optimization that, uh,
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  has the opportunity to take place across health systems in the country.
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  And University of Tennessee Medical Center is,
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  is a great example of that as well.
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  We're leveraging technology and certain and very specific and targeted areas
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  to really help and assist with, uh,
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  some cost containment and helping us to understand where we can drive additional
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  efficiencies that have an impact on our bottom line.
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  Absolutely.
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  I think that's a really great point and definitely something that you said a lot
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  of healthcare organizations are trying to troubleshoot. So, you know,
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  when you look at what that looks like from a technology standpoint, um,
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  bringing in additional, um, tools or, or technologies that can help with,
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  um, the the organization overall,
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  what does that mean for growth and development and, and for you as a,
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  the c I o adding value to the organization overall?
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  Yeah,
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  I think we are somewhat in a unique position from a growth perspective in that a
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  number of my colleagues that I speak with at other health systems during covid
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  took that opportunity to slow down some of their facility expansions. Uh,
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  we did, we,
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  we'd have a very different take on that and we actually in many ways accelerated
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  our facility expansion.
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  So we are just getting ready to open our first freestanding emergency
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  department. We have several regional health centers that have opened this year,
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  and a number of partnerships,
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  whether they're joint ventures or trives in areas like, uh, imaging,
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  behavioral health and, uh, rehab and patient rehab.
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  So we continue to expand in that space and,
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  and I think it delivers value in a number of ways as one enabling
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  all of those, uh, strategic priorities to happen.
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  And it's everything from infrastructure to applications to project management,
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  IT security, kind of all the facets of it.
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  And then it's also ensuring that those digital initiatives and other things that
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  are not necessarily facility driven still take place and that that work doesn't
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  necessarily slow down because we're doing these type of expansions.
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  So I think it can bring value to the organization in both delivering the here
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  and now,
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  but also setting us up for future success and making sure that we enable the
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  organization to be successful going forward.
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  Absolutely. I, I think that's a really great point and um,
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  definitely love that focus on making sure you've got the, um,
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  priorities in place. When you're looking at the broader team,
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  how do you communicate what's going to be most important for them on any given
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  day or week or, or, or month in terms of their projects,
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  and then how to make sure, as you were saying,
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  the other things that they're responsible for still get done, um,
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  especially in an environment where there's so much happening, um,
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  and change happens so quickly?
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  Yeah, that's a great question. I think one tool that we found very helpful is a,
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  is a roadmap. I mean, essentially it's,
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  it's communicating very clearly with the teams,
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  with the leadership in IT and making sure that's cascaded down and then directly
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  with the team members themselves to help them understand, one,
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  the mission and vision and value of the organization and how the work that they
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  do is integral to helping our patients.
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  Because sometimes when you're not at the bedside, you can lose sight of that.
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  And I think it's so important that even the support services like it,
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  for example,
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  feel that they can make a contribution and an impact in the lives of our
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  patients and the caregivers. So I think that's certainly one piece of it.
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  And then that roadmap where it's clearly laid out,
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  we know quarter to quarter or year to year, here's our focus and we can,
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  we can stay focused on the priorities on at hand and if there are other
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  strategic priorities that pop up, cuz that does happen from time to time,
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  it then gives us the opportunity to look and prioritize and reprioritize based
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  on our governance structure, what we should be focused on.
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  But I think having that roadmap and letting our staff know,
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  here's what is we're working on, here's why,
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  here's the value that we're going to bring to our community by doing these
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  projects. I think that really helps, um, them stay focused.
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  Absolutely. I love that. And you know, in, in along those lines,
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  you have the roadmap and you've got the team really focused and ready to go
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  other spaces that are gonna be most impactful for the organization. Um,
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  but when you look ahead,
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  what is one risk or investment that's still worth making this year,
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  especially thinking through some of the challenges and then I, in many cases,
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  um, you know, wanting to use the healthcare resources,
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  whether time or dollar as well.
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  From an investment perspective,
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  I think investing in the expansion of digital platforms and,
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  and that can be kinda all things digital platform,
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  and I know that's an all-encompassing term, you know,
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  we hear terms like digital front door and that can mean different things to
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  different people,
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  but what we're hearing from our patients and from our consumers is that,
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  you know,
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  60% of consumers expect digital healthcare experience to mirror
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  their retail experience or their experience in other sectors.
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  And we have a lot of work to do from a healthcare industry to get there.
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  So I think technology specifically, like, you know, telehealth,
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  I'm still very bullish on telehealth. Uh,
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  I think we have a lot of opportunity in that space. Uh, behavioral health,
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  rural health.
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  I think there's a tremendous opportunity in underserved areas for telehealth.
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  And if you look at who's making investments in that space right now, you know,
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  the payers are making significant investments in that space. Um, pharmacies,
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  you know, the CVSs, the Walgreens,
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  and then some of the large retailers like on Amazon.
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  So they continue to make investments in that space. So I,
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  I know some organizations have dialed back their telehealth strategy. I,
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  I think we still need to push forward.
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  I'm very bullish on that and think there's, there's a lot of value in doing so.
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  But, you know, digital registration and check-in process,
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  those type of things that, again,
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  we're familiar with from a consumer perspective. I mean,
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  you can have sit on your couch and literally order your food and have it
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  delivered right to your door and take care of the tip and everything.
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  And I think that level of convenience is what consumers are looking for and
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  frankly, starting to demand from their healthcare providers. And, you know,
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  you asked about the risk and the investment, I think the risk is not doing that.
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  I think organizations that are not venturing into that digital health space are
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  going to fall behind and do so pretty quickly and it will be hard for them to
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  catch up.
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  Absolutely. That's a really great point. And, you know, so, uh,
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  important in looking to the future and having that, uh,
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  digital health and the telehealth platform as you mentioned. Um,
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  is there anything when you think through, you know, policies or regulations, uh,
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  you know, could change at any point, , um, so you know,
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  when you're diving into some of these strategies that might be a little bit
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  uncertain, um, from the regulatory reimbursement perspective, uh, how do you,
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  uh, control for that, I guess if it's possible in, in, uh,
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  where do those discussions go when they're having,
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  you're having them at a high level?
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  Yeah,
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  and that we're very cautious in that space if you take things like hospital at
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  home, right?
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  I think that's one area where we're very cautious and trying to understand from
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  a legislative perspective what that looks like.
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  And that can change from election cycle to election cycle.
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  But I think some of those type of things were,
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  were more cautious and kind of dipping our toe in the water to make sure that
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  we're not expanding a lot of effort in that area only to later find out that it,
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  it it financially is not feasible or, or doesn't benefit our patients.
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  Some areas like telehealth, I think we're far enough down the road now. I,
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  I think that really is cemented into, uh, the, the payer process. And again,
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  if you look at some of the large payers they're requiring and,
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  and they're doing millions of telehealth visits themselves a year. So I,
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  I think from an incentive perspective,
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  they are certainly incentivized to keep that program moving forward.
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  And the federal government from a payer perspective is doing the same thing.
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  You know, the digital registration, all of that. I,
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  I don't know that that's necessarily impacted by legislation,
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  but you do make a good point, I think in some of those areas,
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  like hospital at home is a great example that we do need to understand from a
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  legislative perspective what that looks like before I think we kind of go all in
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  on that process.
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  Absolutely. Great point. Thank you for, for sharing a little bit on that. Now,
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  um, before we wrap up our conversation,
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  I wanted to look into the future as well. Um,
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  what do you see some of the best opportunities for growth and development,
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  whether it's for yourself as CIO or the teams that you lead most closely?
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  I I think expanding their skillsets from a team perspective is very important.
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  Um, especially, you know, it is unique in healthcare in some ways, um,
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  and in other ways it's not unique. What I mean by that is if you are a nurse,
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  you work in healthcare as a nurse,
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  now you can work at a skilled nursing facility,
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  you could work at an outpatient clinic, you could work in a hospital setting,
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  but you do work within healthcare, typically speaking in it,
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  unless you are a Epic or Cerner or something kind of focused on those type of
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  specific healthcare systems, you can work in any industry.
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  So if you're on the infrastructure team or the systems team,
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  you can go work in any industry. And so, uh,
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  and the same thing even on the application side or you know,
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  the e r P system support. So I,
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  I think it's important to continue to invest in our staff and help
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  them, uh, grow and educate and learn more about, uh,
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  the tools and technologies that are out there.
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  Because just as we're pushing healthcare forward to embrace digital,
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  that also means that we need to shift some of our skill sets in it to be able to
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  enable that. And, you know, as we move more towards the cloud, for example,
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  that means that we have less on-premise servers,
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  systems storage that we need to support.
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  But how do we refash those positions and take that skillset and make it so that
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  they now can support the cloud systems or pivot to more of a cybersecurity
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  posture. So I think those type of things,
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  I think we're gonna have to continue to constantly look at the workforce and
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  understand where is technology going and making sure that we've got the
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  expertise in the house that can help deliver on those, uh,
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  goals and strategic priorities.
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  That's a really great point. Michael.
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  Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been a really fun and interesting discussion and I look forward to
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  connecting with you again soon.
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  Thank you having me, Laura. I appreciate it.