Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Driving Digital Transformation Through Governance, AI and Cyber Resilience at Christ Hospital

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Driving Digital Transformation Through Governance, AI and Cyber Resilience at Christ Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings healthcare leaders
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  together to unpack the most pressing issues facing
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  For the agenda and event details, 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 Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:40
  podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Joy
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  Oh, chief information and digital transformation officer at
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  Christ Hospital Health Network. Joy, it's a pleasure
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  to have you on the podcast today. Hi.
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  No. It's great to be here.
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  Absolutely. And, you know, I am excited for
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  our conversation because I know there's so many
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  amazing things happening in health care today. It's
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  truly a transformative time and something that I'm
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  looking forward to learning more about everything you're
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  doing at Christ Hospital and,
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  how you're thinking about the future. But before
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  we dig in, can you introduce yourself and
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  just tell us a little bit more about
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  the health system?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. So I have been here now,
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  at, TCHHN
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  as we call it for for a little
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  over a year. I was actually brought in
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  to, a new role,
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  well, before it was more of a traditional
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  CIO role. And, you know, this role was
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  created with the digital transformation aspect added
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  recognizing exactly what you had said, Lauren, that
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  the world is changing so much around us
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  and, you know, health care, we have no
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  choice but to keep up, especially in terms
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  of, you know, digitization
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  and consumerism and just, you know, really expectation
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  around
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  meeting people, you know, in the way that
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  they want to in terms of how they
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  engage with technology. And so, you know, it's
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  been really just a great, you know, little
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  over a year being here.
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  Our system is, you know, 135
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  year old health system in in Cincinnati. For
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  the past eleven years, we have been ranked
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  number one in the region by US News
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  and World Reports, which we're extremely proud of
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  that, fifth in the state.
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  And, you know, we have, two inpatients as
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  well as, you know, outpatient facilities and, you
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  know, you know, many
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  private practices,
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  you know, independent not independent practices, but, provider
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  practices. And so, you know, really proud of
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  what we've accomplished
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  and,
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  you know, just taking care of our patients
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  patients in the region. And, yeah, it's been
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  a it's a been a great ride thus
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  far.
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  That's great to hear. You know, and amazing
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  to understand that the health system have the
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  foresight to add that digital transformation
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  aspect to your title,
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  and bring that to the forefront of everything
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  that you're doing. Now I I know it's
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  been about your first year with the the
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  health system, but what was one of the
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  most important initiatives that you led? What did
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  you do, and what were the results?
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  Yeah. Absolutely.
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  So it's kinda funny. I was thinking about
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  this question, and I think one of the
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  important things
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  to call out is actually the things that
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  we didn't do. And
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  and I'll I'll go into that a little
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  bit more. So
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  when I first arrived, you know, unlike probably
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  a lot of other places and places that
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  I've been to in the past,
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  everybody was trying to do everything at once.
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  Right? And it was like, there was always
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  this, you know, shiny new technology that was
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  gonna change the world and cure cancer
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  and also, you know, find your missing socks.
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  Right?
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  And and the team was just always scrambling
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  and trying to do something, and then products
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  would be put into the environment and maybe
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  deliver less than stellar results.
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  And so there was just a lot of
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  churn and a lot of chaos. So we
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  really took a step back,
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  and my leadership team and I, along with
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  our business stakeholders, we said, really, you know,
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  we need to have
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  you know, nobody likes the word governance, but
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  we said we really need to have think
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  about a governance process that's gonna work for
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  this organization
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  and allow us to really prioritize
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  the work that we're doing and make sure
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  that it'll not only aligns
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  to the strategic goals of the organization,
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  but also can, you know,
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  deliver measurable, tangible ROI. Right? Knowing that that's
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  not always necessarily gonna be hard dollar saved,
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  but really, you know, measurable efficiency gains,
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  or, you know, change measure changes in, you
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  know, patient satisfaction for for another example. So,
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  you know, it took us a few months,
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  and we're still trying to refine the model,
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  but we really came up with a new
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  governance model, built a new steering committee,
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  and that has since actually been I I
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  you know, I'm proud to say pretty successful
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  in
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  reviewing initiatives that have come through and taking
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  a hard look
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  at, you know, is is this project
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  what is this project saying it's going to
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  accomplish,
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  as well as we're starting to now put
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  in processes in place where on the back
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  end, we're going to be looking at these
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  initiatives that were implemented to say, did did
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  they really deliver? Because I think, honestly, that's
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  that's the hardest part.
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  It's easy to say a project's going to
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  deliver $3,000,000 in value,
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  but how often are we going back six
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  months later, a year later to say, okay.
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  Did this really do what it said it
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  would do? Because otherwise, it just becomes,
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  you know, increasing tech debt in the system.
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  You know, another part that we had to
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  really work through
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  was how do we incorporate
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  AI into this governance process? Because we didn't
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  want to have
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  multiple
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  kind of prioritization initiatives,
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  you know, kind of running through our organization.
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  But the AI being newer, right, and trying
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  to understand, you know, how do you prioritize,
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  not only do you prioritize
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  AI, but how do you manage the risk,
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  of AI, especially in the context of patient
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  care? So,
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  so we, you know, we've since, hopefully, as
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  seamlessly as possible, incorporated an AI review and
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  AI risk review into that process as well.
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  And then the third thing I think that
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  that, you know,
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  makes it a little bit unique is we've
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  actually also put in
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  embedded into this process kind of an innovation
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  and a proof of concept
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  pathway, if you will. And so a lot
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  of times, I'll see organizations,
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  they kinda have a separate innovation department. Right?
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  Or,
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  and they run kind of pilots, and they
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  do the whole fail fast model. And then
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  when they decide they wanna move forward with
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  it, then they kinda kick it over the
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  wall and say, okay.
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  You know, another kind of the regular PMO
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  and the regular process kinda take over, and
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  all of a sudden you've got this disconnect
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  where now you're asking people to put something
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  in
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  and productionalize something that they have no idea,
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  you know, what's gone on with it thus
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  far, as well as it really hasn't been
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  vetted whether it will work with your current
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  systems, your current processes, your current workflow.
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  And so, you know, so instead of having
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  kind of two separate streams and teams working
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  on this, we decided to embed
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  the idea of proof of concept and pilots
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  into our governance process.
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  And so those also come through kind of
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  the same steering committee.
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  And,
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  you know, for every one of those, we
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  we require okay. What is the ROI going
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  to be, and what are your measurements that
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  you're looking to get before and after the
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  proof of concept. So we really hold them
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  to that, those KPIs that they're gonna be
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  looking for. And then after, say, the six
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  weeks or the twelve weeks or the six
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  months after the pilot, they come back around
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  through governance to the steering committee to present,
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  you know, whether they've achieved those results. And
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  then if so, then they kind of move
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  forward and and we say, okay. You've you
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  know, you kind of got the approval to
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  go forward.
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  And and so,
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  you know, I summarize it very quickly, but
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  it was a lot of work,
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  you know, for,
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  for a lot of people, many who are
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  smarter than I am. But I I I
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  am proud that we've actually seen it. We've
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  seen projects kind of get stopped. We've seen
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  proof of concepts
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  go through the process, and then it's just
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  been really exciting to see,
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  actually, our our operational partners come back, and
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  they say, you know what? This this project
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  that was supposed to be AI and technology
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  and, you know, really great, It didn't do
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  what it said it was gonna do. So,
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  you know, we're saying, oh, we we don't
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  wanna move forward. Right?
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  So often, it's always been IT has to
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  say no. Right? Or IT is the one
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  always saying no. But to really be working
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  on partnership,
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  with our operational,
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  you know, partners to to kinda hear them
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  say that because we've put the right process
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  in place, that's been really satisfying. So
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  so hopefully, you get that kind of, you
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  know, makes sense in terms of me being
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  proud of kind of what we didn't do.
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  But,
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  you know, I'll pause to see if, you
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  know, you had any questions.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. No. That's great. And I think
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  you have some very solid examples of how
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  you put that process and structure in place
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  and then the results that came of it.
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  And and as you mentioned, it's really exciting
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  to see,
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  the teams and the operational teams actually understanding,
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  you know, what's going to make a difference
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  for the system and being okay with leaving
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  things, that don't work
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  in trying something new or moving on from
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  them. And so,
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  that's that's really amazing. And I think, you
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  know, something that you said,
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  at the beginning of your answer just really
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  struck me in terms of looking at building
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  these governance structures isn't always the most fun
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  or exciting thing, but it is obviously essential
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  work to be done if you're going to,
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  continue to move forward with bringing on new
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  technologies and trying to be quick. And so
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  how do you,
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  really balance that, you know,
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  transformation, the fast moving, the innovation, and and
• 9:21
  all of that energy
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  with wanting to make sure you've got the
• 9:24
  right kind of steps and governing structure in
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  place and not moving too quickly that you're
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  missing
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  things or or approving things that aren't working,
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  but at the same time, you know, not
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  moving so slowly either. So how do you
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  balance that tension with your teams? Yeah. No.
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  That's no. That's a that's a really great
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  question. And
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  I think, initially,
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  there was that fear, right, in that this
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  governance,
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  you process with the steering committee meeting infrequently,
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  I think these are gonna, you know, kind
• 9:50
  of slow down, right, and kind of stop,
• 9:53
  you know, go to a crawl until they
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  stop. But what we found that we're actually
• 9:57
  able to move faster now
• 9:59
  because,
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  you know, we used to get
• 10:03
  this just, you know, absurd amount of noise
• 10:06
  coming into the system. The team would be
• 10:08
  getting
• 10:09
  maybe five project requests a day. Right? Let's
• 10:12
  for example. And that doesn't sound like much.
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  But when you think about each project request
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  could take up to, you know, six weeks
• 10:18
  to really vet properly,
• 10:21
  including, you know, getting the vendor engaged, and
• 10:23
  you need to do your cybersecurity review, you
• 10:25
  need to do an architecture review. Right?
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  You know, that was just taking up a
• 10:29
  lot of time. So by kind of shrinking
• 10:31
  the funnel at the top,
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  we are now able able to actually kind
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  of churn through the the really high priority,
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  high interest projects
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  much faster.
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  Right? I think also by really making a
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  dedicated
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  mechanism for these pilots and proof of concepts,
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  has really helped as well. Right? Because now
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  we kind of time box things.
• 10:54
  You know, I'm sure, you know, you've seen
• 10:56
  the examples of, like, somebody says, okay. We
• 10:58
  wanna do this pilot. We're gonna put it
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  in. Those pilots end up staying forever.
• 11:03
  Right? It's like that house gas that you
• 11:04
  don't want and ends up just sticking around
• 11:07
  in your system.
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  But kind of time time boxing these things
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  and saying, you know, after the six months,
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  like,
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  it's it's we're done.
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  That you know, setting that expectation then will
• 11:17
  after that six months, if we decide not
• 11:19
  to move forward, we kind of then we
• 11:21
  can break up with that. Right? And so
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  now we don't have to kinda keep on
• 11:25
  dealing with that and consuming resources over time.
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  And so I think,
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  you know, nobody really I think we're all
• 11:33
  hopeful that that that would be the result.
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  But, you know, to actually see it, you
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  know, come to to come to fruition and
• 11:40
  really working has has been has been really,
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  really exciting.
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  That being said, we've also tried to be
• 11:46
  flexible. Right? And so if there is something
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  really important and really urgent that we're we
• 11:51
  need to put in or that we feel
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  like we should and it's it's kind of,
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  you know, the right time, you you you
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  have to be able to have those kind
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  of decisions and kind of pivot if need
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  be, because health care is so dynamic, and
• 12:02
  it's always changing. The environment's always changing. The
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  competition's always changing. And so, you know, we
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  do have to build in some flexibility there
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  as well. But for the most time, it's
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  for the most part, I think, you know,
• 12:13
  by slowing down at the beginning, we've actually
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  been enabled ourselves to to move faster because
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  we've cut out kind of just a lot
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  of that noise upfront,
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  if that makes sense.
• 12:23
  Yeah. Absolutely. That's really helpful to understand, and
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  thank you so much for digging a little
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  bit deeper there. Now looking ahead,
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  what are some of the things biggest priorities
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  as well as headwinds you're focused on for
• 12:34
  2026?
• 12:35
  Mhmm. Yeah. No. Absolutely.
• 12:37
  So, you know, not unlike everybody else, AI
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  still continues to be a huge focus for
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  us.
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  And and so, you know, it it will
• 12:46
  continue to be so.
• 12:49
  We one of the lessons I think that
• 12:51
  we learned early on
• 12:53
  was with AI,
• 12:55
  you know, the hard ROI is actually going
• 12:57
  to be
• 12:59
  really hard. You know, I think there's a
• 13:00
  statistic. Like, 95%
• 13:02
  of AI initiatives initiatives actually don't deliver any
• 13:05
  kind of, like, measurable, you know, budget impacting
• 13:08
  ROI.
• 13:09
  And so, you know,
• 13:11
  realizing that
• 13:13
  we have taken the approach of
• 13:16
  like, we just need to keep trying things.
• 13:19
  And then if it's if it's not gonna
• 13:21
  yield results, like, we we've been letting things
• 13:25
  go very quickly. Right? So we
• 13:27
  typically
• 13:28
  have
• 13:29
  we'll have, like, six to 10 AI initiatives,
• 13:33
  kind of in pilot mode at any given
• 13:35
  time.
• 13:36
  Just because, like, when you're dealing with a
• 13:38
  traditional ROI project, right, you you need that
• 13:40
  time
• 13:41
  to kind of see if, you know, it
• 13:43
  will have those gains. Right? Because when you're
• 13:45
  thinking about ROI, especially in a health care
• 13:47
  setting, oftentimes, you have to wait till not
• 13:49
  only till after, like, you know, say a
• 13:51
  patient encounter is done, but, you know, sometimes
• 13:54
  after billing is complete, after the claims have
• 13:56
  been put through. Right? And then do you
• 13:57
  actually get that, you know, that return from
• 13:59
  from the payer? But if, you know, once
• 14:02
  we kind
• 14:03
  of disconnected
• 14:04
  and realized that, you know, AI is not
• 14:07
  going to be that kind of
• 14:09
  hard driver
• 14:10
  of budget change, we really started looking for
• 14:13
  efficiency gains.
• 14:14
  And so
• 14:16
  by doing so, you know, we were able
• 14:18
  to take this more kind of fail fast
• 14:20
  approach with these AI pilots. And so that's
• 14:22
  been really exciting. I think there's, you know,
• 14:24
  there's some that we've done that we're like,
• 14:26
  wow. This this has yielded really great results.
• 14:29
  So, like, for example, we did one
• 14:31
  where,
• 14:32
  we we we used we we partnered with
• 14:35
  Epic
• 14:36
  to do AI to detect
• 14:39
  lung nodules for, you know, potentially cancer causing
• 14:42
  lung nodules.
• 14:43
  And, you know, the results were we were
• 14:46
  able to detect lung nodules,
• 14:49
  you know, like it typically,
• 14:51
  you know, say it was, like, you know,
• 14:53
  fifty percent, you know, rate. Like, we increased
• 14:56
  it to, like, a seventy percent rate, like,
• 14:57
  an early,
• 14:59
  early catching of these, which,
• 15:01
  the sooner you catch lung cancer, the survival
• 15:03
  rate,
• 15:04
  you know, increases exponentially. It's something that I've
• 15:07
  learned that I didn't know, you know, not
• 15:08
  being a clinician.
• 15:10
  And so, you know, that was a project
• 15:11
  where it's like, well, this is a no
• 15:13
  brainer. We're gonna keep forward, you know, go
• 15:14
  forward and and kind of move forward with
• 15:16
  it. Right? But then we had another example
• 15:18
  of a project, you know, also with Epic
• 15:21
  where we said, well, okay. We're gonna try
• 15:23
  to use AI,
• 15:25
  to draft,
• 15:26
  patient,
• 15:27
  patient responses. Right? A a draft of potential
• 15:29
  response to a patient based on a, you
• 15:31
  know, inquiry that they've sent. And
• 15:34
  the results were, you know, not great. I'm
• 15:37
  not gonna lie.
• 15:38
  You know, there were there were times when
• 15:40
  the AI was
• 15:42
  recommending, you know,
• 15:44
  drugs that were, like, no longer even FDA
• 15:47
  approved.
• 15:48
  Right? It was giving medical advice that was
• 15:50
  just incorrect.
• 15:52
  You know, it wasn't
• 15:54
  speaking on behalf of the doctor even though
• 15:57
  we the AI was prompted that, you know,
• 15:59
  you are you are supposed to be drafting
• 16:00
  this, you know, kinda on behalf of of
• 16:02
  the provider.
• 16:03
  And and so we learned very quickly that
• 16:06
  kind of these kind of patient interactions, especially
• 16:08
  when there's a a message from a patient
• 16:10
  that could have multiple questions in it as
• 16:13
  well as statements,
• 16:15
  and concerns, you know, that was just an
• 16:17
  in such a complicated
• 16:19
  field such as health care and medicine
• 16:22
  that, you know, the AI really struggled, right,
• 16:24
  versus something like we were looking for AI
• 16:26
  to detect,
• 16:27
  you know, keywords, right, to to identify potential
• 16:30
  lung nodules. Right? So I, you know, I
• 16:32
  think really just figuring out how how we're
• 16:34
  gonna approach AI and how we're going to
• 16:36
  try things out as quickly as possible,
• 16:39
  and then move on to the next. If
• 16:40
  it didn't work, I think that was, you
• 16:42
  know, something we learned. And, again, you know,
• 16:44
  we had some design some things that were
• 16:46
  very successful, I think, that we continue to
• 16:48
  move forward and are still using. And then
• 16:50
  there's some that we're like, you know, we're
• 16:51
  gonna move on. And so I think that
• 16:52
  was that was exciting,
• 16:55
  and we're gonna continue to do that even
• 16:57
  this year. And so even now, we've got,
• 16:58
  you know, our slew of AI projects kind
• 17:00
  of being tested out. I think the other,
• 17:04
  thing that was that we learned a lot
• 17:06
  by doing those is
• 17:09
  the technology itself
• 17:11
  is not going to do much.
• 17:12
  Right? And so if I go back to
• 17:14
  the example of using a AI to identify
• 17:17
  potential lung nodules,
• 17:19
  it could be flagging the AI could be
• 17:20
  flagging issues
• 17:22
  all day long. Right? But what really made
• 17:24
  this project successful for us was we worked
• 17:26
  with,
• 17:28
  you know, our oncology teams and our nursing
• 17:30
  teams to make sure that there was a
• 17:33
  workflow so so that when something like this
• 17:35
  was flagged,
• 17:36
  you know, a patient would be contacted right
• 17:38
  away. We would bring them in. Right? We
• 17:40
  would kind of take all those next steps
• 17:42
  necessary. Right? We would place the appropriate orders
• 17:44
  for any additional tests.
• 17:46
  And so, you know, I think understanding that
• 17:48
  the more closely we can engage,
• 17:51
  you know, with our operational and business partners
• 17:53
  on these initiatives, I think the more successful
• 17:55
  we will be. So yeah. Yeah, so it's
• 17:57
  been really a lot of fun.
• 17:59
  I think everybody likes to see change. Every
• 18:00
  everybody likes to see things moving quickly. So
• 18:02
  I think that has
• 18:04
  really brought a lot of excitement into the
• 18:06
  organization,
• 18:07
  you know, and been beneficial for our patients,
• 18:09
  which has been really satisfying.
• 18:12
  That. And then what's great examples of how
• 18:14
  you approach AI? I know that's such a,
• 18:17
  important topic right now. There's so many health
• 18:18
  systems taking on new projects, new initiatives, and
• 18:21
  jumping in quickly, but being able to have
• 18:24
  that, mindset in that contained approach of how
• 18:27
  you're feeling fast with the things that aren't
• 18:29
  going to work out, but still trying a
• 18:31
  lot of new things and, then sticking with
• 18:33
  those things that do provide some of that,
• 18:36
  return on investment, whether it's the hard ROI
• 18:38
  or or some of the other things that
• 18:40
  can be really
• 18:42
  important to building a strong, successful health system.
• 18:45
  So I love that. And then your approach
• 18:47
  to working with your partners as well,
• 18:50
  really can make a big difference, I know.
• 18:52
  So thank you for for sharing a bit
• 18:54
  about how you're thinking about things and what
• 18:56
  it really takes in order for hospitals and
• 18:59
  systems these days to understand the the technology
• 19:02
  and get it,
• 19:04
  appropriately,
• 19:05
  integrated into their daily workflows. Now when you're
• 19:08
  looking ahead as well, what do you think
• 19:09
  the hardest thing you'll have to do in
• 19:11
  the next year will be?
• 19:13
  I think similar to many other systems, it's,
• 19:16
  you know, dealing with the constraints
• 19:18
  of,
• 19:19
  budget and resources,
• 19:22
  knowing that, you know, the health care landscape
• 19:24
  is has never been easy.
• 19:26
  But I think with, you know, regulatory changes
• 19:29
  that have occurred and, you know, continue to
• 19:32
  occur
• 19:32
  as well as, you know, payer changes,
• 19:35
  we're going to be constantly asked to do
• 19:39
  more with less.
• 19:40
  I think everybody's kinda feeling that pinch.
• 19:43
  And so,
• 19:44
  you know, I think,
• 19:46
  kind of all the things that we've already
• 19:47
  been talking about, whether it's,
• 19:49
  you know, figuring out how to
• 19:51
  kind of reduce the churn, right, or the
• 19:53
  kind of nonvalue added things that your team
• 19:55
  is working on so that you can actually
• 19:57
  keep your team size relatively flat while still
• 20:00
  do initial, you know, additional initiatives, I think,
• 20:03
  will be really important
• 20:05
  as well as how much do you leverage
• 20:06
  AI,
• 20:08
  even from
• 20:09
  a organizational productivity standpoint, I think, is really
• 20:12
  important. So, you know, another example is, you
• 20:16
  know, like like many are you know, probably
• 20:18
  we've been testing out the Microsoft Copilot
• 20:21
  tool, right, that, you know, you know, the
• 20:22
  one that works with Word and Excel and
• 20:24
  Outlook so that you don't have to deal
• 20:26
  with your you know, like me, I have
• 20:28
  probably 3,000 unread emails, but, you know, we
• 20:30
  won't go there today.
• 20:32
  But to help kind of with those things.
• 20:33
  And so it's it's not only from a
• 20:36
  patient care standpoint, but, like, how can you
• 20:37
  use technology to make our team members even
• 20:40
  more efficient and effective?
• 20:42
  And so that they can spend their time
• 20:44
  on things that that really only a person
• 20:46
  can do, right, not AI.
• 20:48
  And so I think I think that's that's
• 20:50
  a really big challenge in just being creative
• 20:51
  and thinking how you can, you know, continue
• 20:53
  to maximize the resources that you have.
• 20:56
  And then I think the second one, and
• 20:57
  we were just talking about this, you know,
• 21:00
  yesterday, was the just the increased,
• 21:03
  threat in the cybersecurity
• 21:05
  landscape.
• 21:06
  You know, we talk about AI and all
• 21:08
  the good that it can do, but I
• 21:09
  think it's evident that,
• 21:12
  you know, bad actors also have clearly taken
• 21:14
  advantage of AI, and the threats have become
• 21:17
  much more sophisticated
• 21:19
  as well as,
• 21:20
  you know, they can turn around and do
• 21:22
  these attacks so much, you know, quicker than
• 21:25
  ever.
• 21:26
  Well, before,
• 21:27
  you know, maybe it would take, you know,
• 21:28
  kind of multiple people, multiple groups to orchestrate,
• 21:31
  you know, all the steps in an attack.
• 21:33
  And now it's, like, probably one person could
• 21:35
  just do it from their keyboard. Right? With
• 21:37
  all these AI agents
• 21:38
  kind of doing the steps of, you know,
• 21:41
  reaching out to somebody and doing the phishing,
• 21:43
  right, and launching malware and and and so
• 21:45
  forth.
• 21:46
  And so,
• 21:48
  you know, how do we
• 21:50
  kind of under step one, understand,
• 21:52
  you know, kind of the different kind of
• 21:54
  maturity and sophistication
• 21:56
  with which these attackers are coming after us.
• 22:00
  And then two,
• 22:01
  once we understand that, what are we going
• 22:03
  to do about it? Right? I think that's
• 22:06
  something that, you know, again, is not exciting,
• 22:08
  but I think it's so real and and
• 22:11
  so important to recognize. And so we have
• 22:14
  been taking a great focus on not only
• 22:15
  kind of the traditional,
• 22:17
  you know, kind of phishing testing and awarenesscom
• 22:20
  campaigns, but, you know, we've also been kind
• 22:23
  of looking at what are some new technologies,
• 22:27
  that can help. You know, our team members
• 22:29
  kind of be less susceptible to
• 22:31
  to kind of these attacks. Right? So, you
• 22:33
  know, everybody always thinks of the traditional email
• 22:36
  phishing attack. But, you know, but right now,
• 22:38
  like, there's attacks that are coming through your,
• 22:39
  you know, your text messages, right, through QR
• 22:42
  codes. Like, when you scan a QR code,
• 22:43
  we just kind of blindly trust it that
• 22:45
  there's just, you know, some the thing behind
• 22:47
  the QR code is what you think it
• 22:48
  is, but that's not always the case.
• 22:51
  You know, through voice mails. Right? You know,
• 22:53
  people are getting phished and scammed, you know,
• 22:55
  from web pages, even web pages that are
• 22:58
  legitimate that you go to for your job.
• 23:00
  A lot of times, like, the ads on
• 23:02
  the side. Right? They're they're the ones that
• 23:03
  will kind of could perhaps have a virus
• 23:05
  or, you know, something that comes in and
• 23:07
  then, you know, infects a machine.
• 23:09
  And so, you know, we've we've been looking
• 23:11
  at,
• 23:12
  a lot of alternative technologies to see, you
• 23:14
  know, what might work for us.
• 23:17
  But, you know, understanding also the the cliche
• 23:20
  that, right, where everybody says it's not a
• 23:21
  matter of if, but when. We've also been
• 23:25
  doubling down on, like, if something were to
• 23:27
  happen and if we were to lose,
• 23:30
  some of our key systems such as, you
• 23:32
  know, our EMR,
• 23:33
  you know, our network connectivity,
• 23:35
  you know, communication,
• 23:37
  right, phone,
• 23:38
  are we prepared to respond?
• 23:40
  And so we've been, you know, again, partnering
• 23:42
  with our operational partners to make sure that,
• 23:46
  you know, we're not just saying we're ready
• 23:48
  to respond, but, like, how are we best
• 23:50
  you know, how are we gonna validate that?
• 23:51
  So we're gonna actually be trying something that
• 23:53
  we're calling kind of like a ghost patient
• 23:55
  exercise.
• 23:57
  And so we what we're gonna do is
• 23:58
  we have we're gonna take a a a
• 24:00
  patient scenario
• 24:02
  and kind of write down all the details
• 24:03
  of this patient. You know, Jane Doe, she's
• 24:05
  coming into the ER with these symptoms. And
• 24:07
  we are actually going to kind of walk
• 24:10
  this patient through the various departments of the
• 24:12
  hospital
• 24:13
  with the actual staff saying, okay. Right now,
• 24:15
  you don't have any access to any of
• 24:17
  your computer systems.
• 24:18
  Here is this patient.
• 24:20
  What are you gonna do? And how are
• 24:22
  you gonna capture that information? And then now
• 24:24
  how are you gonna get this patient from
• 24:25
  the ER
• 24:27
  to the lab, right, or to,
• 24:29
  imaging or, you know, to, you know, admitted.
• 24:32
  And then we're gonna kind of pull that
• 24:34
  thread all the way through.
• 24:35
  And then at the back end,
• 24:37
  take this information
• 24:39
  to revenue cycle now and say, okay. We've
• 24:41
  kind of gone through this whole scenario. This
• 24:43
  is everything that's been captured.
• 24:44
  Hopefully, it it's not like a really bad
• 24:46
  game of telephone
• 24:48
  where, like, the stuff on the end is
• 24:49
  garbage, but, hopefully, now you can take this
• 24:51
  paper,
• 24:52
  that has been through all these departments, this
• 24:54
  ghost patient Jane Doe. And now can you
• 24:56
  use this to actually,
• 24:58
  you know, submit claims
• 25:00
  and, you know, get reimbursed
• 25:02
  for the care that we provided.
• 25:04
  Right? So, you know, we haven't done this
• 25:06
  yet, but it's something that, you know, we're
• 25:07
  planning right now. And I think it just
• 25:10
  I think for us, it'll be a really
• 25:11
  great learning exercise to see,
• 25:14
  you know, in an actual situation where we,
• 25:16
  you know, for whatever reason, a cyber attack
• 25:18
  or some other technology issue
• 25:21
  lost access to our systems, you know, how
• 25:23
  well would we fare? Everyone likes to think
• 25:25
  that we'll be alright, but you kinda hear
• 25:28
  time and time again,
• 25:29
  you know, when these health systems,
• 25:31
  you know, suffer these kind of outages and
• 25:33
  attacks,
• 25:34
  They're like, you know, it's things we never
• 25:36
  thought of
• 25:37
  that that really brought us to our knees.
• 25:39
  Right? Whether it's like we didn't have, you
• 25:41
  know, enough paper, right, or prescription pads or,
• 25:44
  like, the newer
• 25:46
  residents, they didn't know how to read cursive.
• 25:47
  Right? And, you know, the older physicians were
• 25:49
  writing things in cursive. Right? And so, you
• 25:52
  know, we're you know, it's like how much
• 25:54
  can we kind of simulate in our environment
• 25:57
  for real so that we can be better
• 25:59
  prepared,
• 26:01
  you know, if something like this were to
• 26:02
  happen?
• 26:03
  So,
• 26:04
  so I think that's been that's just gonna,
• 26:06
  you know, been a huge focus on top
• 26:07
  of mind, just the whole cyber landscape, and,
• 26:09
  you know, we'll continue to focus on that
• 26:11
  as well in the coming year.
• 26:13
  Absolutely. That
• 26:15
  is so important. So interesting to hear. Thank
• 26:18
  you for walking us through it. Now with
• 26:20
  the last minute we've got,
• 26:22
  Joy,
• 26:23
  how are you thinking about growth? What are
• 26:25
  some of the opportunities you've got in the
• 26:27
  next year?
• 26:29
  Yeah. Absolutely.
• 26:30
  So I think, you know, one of our
• 26:32
  huge strategies, of course, is to
• 26:35
  really think about, you know, how do we
• 26:38
  deliver different, you know, different models of care.
• 26:41
  Right? As we you know, you kinda see
• 26:43
  this trend that's moving, you know, away from
• 26:46
  the inpatient to more of an outpatient setting.
• 26:48
  Right? So really thinking about that footprint
• 26:51
  as well as, you know, what are you
• 26:53
  know, how do we continue alternative ways of
• 26:55
  delivering care. Right? Whether it's through telemedicine
• 26:58
  or, you know, remote patient monitoring.
• 27:01
  So I think it's it's really just about
• 27:03
  being creative and, you know, understanding what what
• 27:06
  your patient's needs are and what their desires
• 27:08
  are as well as kind of what's going
• 27:10
  on in the marketplace.
• 27:12
  I think
• 27:13
  health systems have a great opportunity,
• 27:17
  to learn from one another, which is, you
• 27:20
  know, sometimes I think we don't do that
• 27:22
  enough.
• 27:23
  And and so, you know, even in thinking
• 27:25
  about expanding our footprint, you know, I think
• 27:28
  it's,
• 27:28
  you know, why reinvent the wheel. Right? And
• 27:31
  so, you know, understanding what so we like
• 27:33
  to, you know, kind of meet with our,
• 27:35
  you know, other, you know, regional as well
• 27:38
  as, you know, out of state systems and
• 27:39
  understand, well, what's working for you. Right? How
• 27:41
  are you, you you know, increasing your patient
• 27:44
  base
• 27:45
  and kind of branching out whether it's through
• 27:47
  new service offerings, new service lines, right, or
• 27:50
  just expanding the footprint you already have.
• 27:53
  But for us right now, I think it's
• 27:55
  really the big focus is,
• 27:57
  you know, the areas where we're the areas
• 27:59
  where we're doing well, let's continue to kinda
• 28:01
  double down on those. So, for example, like,
• 28:03
  you know,
• 28:04
  our musculoskeletal,
• 28:06
  our oncology, cardiovascular.
• 28:08
  You know, we wanna continue to double down
• 28:09
  on those areas of strength that we have
• 28:11
  as well as, you know, looking to, you
• 28:14
  know, how do we expand, right, whether it's
• 28:16
  geographically
• 28:17
  or,
• 28:17
  expanding the offerings that we can provide our
• 28:19
  patients so that we can offer the most
• 28:21
  flexibility,
• 28:22
  to meet their needs.
• 28:24
  Excellent. Joy, thank you so much for your
• 28:26
  time today.
• 28:27
  Really appreciate your perspective and look forward to
• 28:30
  seeing you at our annual meeting in April
• 28:32
  as well, and we'll continue this conversation.
• 28:34
  Great. Looking forward to it.