Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / How Health Systems Can Cut Through Technology Hype to Build Leaner, More Sustainable Operations

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How Health Systems Can Cut Through Technology Hype to Build Leaner, More Sustainable Operations · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - Hello, everyone. This is Erica Spicer Mason with
• 0:02
  - Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning
• 0:05
  - in to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
• 0:08
  - So today, we have a special guest joining
• 0:10
  - us. We have Theresa Meadows, the CIO at
• 0:14
  - Simpler.
• 0:15
  - Theresa and I are going to walk through
• 0:17
  - how health systems can cut through technology hype
• 0:20
  - to build leaner,
• 0:21
  - more sustainable operations,
• 0:23
  - whether that's application rationalization
• 0:26
  - or reducing administrative burden on clinicians.
• 0:29
  - We have a lot to walk through, a
• 0:30
  - lot of good things to talk about. And,
• 0:32
  - Theresa, just wanna take a moment to welcome
• 0:34
  - you to the podcast. Thank you so much
• 0:35
  - for making time for this today. Hey, Erica.
• 0:38
  - Thanks so much. I'm so happy to be
• 0:39
  - here. Oh, we're so glad to have you.
• 0:42
  - And before we get into the discussion,
• 0:44
  - I wanted to see if you could share
• 0:46
  - just a little bit more about your background
• 0:48
  - and how your experience in health care has
• 0:50
  - really shaped your approach to your work at
• 0:52
  - Sempler.
• 0:53
  - Sure. I'd love to I'd love to do
• 0:54
  - that. I
• 0:56
  - am a long time health care veteran. I
• 0:59
  - started my career,
• 1:01
  - as a cardiac nurse at the bedside and
• 1:03
  - interventional cardiology cardiology
• 1:05
  - transplant. And,
• 1:07
  - the hospital where I worked
• 1:09
  - was implementing physician order entry for the first
• 1:12
  - time.
• 1:13
  - And they asked if if nurses from the
• 1:15
  - nursing units would come into the team and
• 1:17
  - actually be the physician support team. And so
• 1:20
  - I thought this was gonna be a temporary
• 1:22
  - IT
• 1:23
  - position where I would do a project. I'd
• 1:25
  - finish the project, and,
• 1:27
  - I'd go back to my nursing
• 1:29
  - role. And twenty years later, I'm still in
• 1:32
  - IT. I'm not sure I'm not sure how
• 1:34
  - that happened. And so I've spent, you know,
• 1:36
  - the last twenty years in various roles,
• 1:39
  - in consulting firms and a couple software companies.
• 1:44
  - My last role, I was the chief information
• 1:46
  - digital officer for a pediatric health system for
• 1:49
  - sixteen years
• 1:51
  - prior to becoming the CIO at Simpler. And
• 1:53
  - so
• 1:54
  - have really spent my career trying to improve
• 1:57
  - health care, health care operations,
• 2:00
  - and just make nurses, doctors,
• 2:02
  - people who work in health care their lives
• 2:03
  - easier,
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  - through the use of technology. So it's it's
• 2:07
  - been a it's been a whirlwind career, but
• 2:09
  - it's been it's been very fun and rewarding
• 2:12
  - over the last many years.
• 2:15
  - Teresa, thanks so much for sharing more about
• 2:17
  - yourself, and I love hearing how people got
• 2:20
  - to where they are today. And,
• 2:22
  - you know, this perspective that you're bringing
• 2:24
  - from the clinical standpoint,
• 2:26
  - kind of how that contributes to the health
• 2:29
  - IT and the technology
• 2:30
  - experience,
• 2:31
  - not just on the back end, but what
• 2:32
  - clinicians are experiencing. I know that's such a
• 2:34
  - valuable perspective to be bringing to your work
• 2:37
  - and also to this conversation. So, again, just
• 2:39
  - really happy to have you with us. Yeah.
• 2:41
  - Thanks.
• 2:42
  - Yeah. And I know we recently,
• 2:45
  - saw you at Simpler's health care operations summit
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  - in Chicago.
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  - And at that event, you told leaders that
• 2:52
  - one of the most expensive myths in health
• 2:55
  - care is that
• 2:56
  - technology solves everything.
• 2:58
  - And I just thought that was such a
• 3:00
  - great quote. And so I wanted to know
• 3:02
  - if you could elaborate a little bit more
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  - on that and what it means for how
• 3:05
  - leaders should really be thinking about building sustainable
• 3:08
  - operations.
• 3:09
  - Sure. You know, I think we've all fallen
• 3:12
  - for the myth even in our personal
• 3:14
  - lives where we download a app to our
• 3:16
  - phone and we think it's gonna change,
• 3:19
  - you know, how we how we do how
• 3:21
  - we do things.
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  - And even with those personal experiences,
• 3:25
  - we find that a lot of times we
• 3:27
  - don't change other things. So there's all in
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  - every technology implementation,
• 3:31
  - there is a people
• 3:33
  - component and there's a process component. And if
• 3:36
  - all three things don't align,
• 3:39
  - then the technology initiative fails. And so
• 3:42
  - I think it's one of those things as
• 3:44
  - we look at how do we improve operations,
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  - it's highly critical to ensure that we're including
• 3:51
  - the people who are involved in the day
• 3:52
  - to day work in the decision making, but
• 3:55
  - also looking at the process in ways we
• 3:57
  - can improve the process along with
• 4:00
  - the technology implementation.
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  - And and when three those three things align,
• 4:05
  - you end up having a very successful
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  - implementation. And I think that's where we fall
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  - down a lot as we rely so heavily
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  - on that functionality is gonna is gonna make
• 4:15
  - the needed improvements. And, really, it takes all
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  - three things to be successful.
• 4:20
  - Absolutely.
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  - And, you know, that idea of people process
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  - and technology
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  - needing to align, as you mentioned, Teresa, it's
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  - something that we hear
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  - throughout the industry, and I think it's a
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  - common refrain for a reason. It it's a
• 4:34
  - simple concept, but it seems to be tried
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  - and true. So we'll get a little bit
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  - more into that. And and I wanted to
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  - also take us in a direction where we
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  - explore
• 4:43
  - kind of what the health care CIO priority
• 4:46
  - landscape is looking like right now.
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  - We know that research from the College of
• 4:50
  - Health Care Information Management executives
• 4:53
  - or CHIME
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  - found that application rationalization
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  - is a key priority for nearly 80% of
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  - CIOs, but very few, only one in five
• 5:02
  - have a place have a plan in place
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  - to do something about it. So from your
• 5:07
  - perspective and with many health systems managing a
• 5:10
  - ton of overlapping applications,
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  - What's the best place to start in identifying
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  - opportunities for efficiency?
• 5:17
  - Yeah. You know,
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  - I think application rationalization
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  - consolidation is something that, you know, everyone has
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  - attempted to work on,
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  - including myself in my previous role.
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  - And, really, the first step always is to,
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  - you know, figure out
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  - what your problem actually is. So having a
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  - good application
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  - inventory,
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  - and really knowing what the application's
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  - function is,
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  - who uses the application,
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  - and are they utilizing the application effectively is
• 5:48
  - really the first place to start because you
• 5:51
  - don't really know. You have a problem until
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  - you assess what's in your environment and what
• 5:54
  - are the things being used.
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  - So most organizations
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  - sometimes fall down on that application inventory because
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  - it can be a very daunting process. I
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  - mean, my in my previous organization,
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  - we did it, and we had about 600
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  - applications
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  - across the whole organization.
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  - And there was lots of duplication in that
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  - inventory. So I think the first is just
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  - understanding,
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  - you know, how big your problem is. Is
• 6:18
  - it, you know, a bread box or a
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  - Mack truck?
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  - And so that's the first step. And then
• 6:24
  - I think it's been looking at the applications
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  - holistically
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  - and working with the your con counterparts,
• 6:31
  - and operations
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  - about
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  - how do we begin to rationalize the applications.
• 6:37
  - And many organizations
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  - have
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  - what they call a platform approach, and a
• 6:41
  - good example of that could be your electronic
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  - health record could be a platform.
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  - Your Microsoft Office suite could be a platform.
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  - And if the platform can accomplish the task,
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  - then
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  - maybe you defer to the platform because you
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  - get a lot of benefits from a platform.
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  - You get integration. You get shared data. You
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  - get
• 7:01
  - easy access to all the applications in that
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  - in that platform suite. So that's a good
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  - place to start.
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  - And then as you begin to chip away,
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  - you find more and more things that you
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  - can consolidate
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  - into either a platform
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  - or into something that maybe isn't just being
• 7:18
  - underutilized, and maybe you don't need it as
• 7:20
  - much as you thought you thought you did,
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  - or it doesn't do the thing that you
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  - thought it was gonna do initially when you
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  - purchased it. So those are really the good
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  - first steps.
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  - Mhmm.
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  - Appreciate you outlining those initial steps, Theresa. So
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  - helpful.
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  - And as we're talking through application rationalization
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  - and consolidation, it made me think of another
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  - concept that we're hearing a lot in the
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  - CIO space, and that is
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  - AI readiness. And so
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  - as you're working with partner organizations
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  - to
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  - help them innovate,
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  - and as organizations are aiming to roll out
• 7:55
  - AI initiatives,
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  - how should leaders assess
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  - whether their data foundation is actually ready to
• 8:01
  - support some of those bigger initiatives?
• 8:04
  - Yeah. Erica, that's a that's a great question
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  - because the foundation of any good AI
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  - is is the data that's being used in
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  - the algorithms. And so
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  - I do think it's important to, you know,
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  - use trusted sources of data.
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  - They don't have to be perfect sources of
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  - data. And I think sometimes we get caught
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  - in that trap that if the data is
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  - not perfect,
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  - then we can't use it. And I'll give
• 8:27
  - you a an easy example.
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  - In your scheduling data, for example, in in
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  - nurse scheduling, staff scheduling,
• 8:34
  - there could be days or errors where the
• 8:37
  - stat the schedule that's in the system
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  - isn't exactly what happened because we made changes
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  - and we didn't update the system.
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  - But the data in that system is directionally
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  - accurate,
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  - and that using that data in the system
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  - will help us produce an algorithm that works
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  - over time. And so
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  - you typically wanna look at data over an
• 8:57
  - over a, you know, extended period of time,
• 8:59
  - couple years, three years worth of data. That
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  - way, you can weed out some of the
• 9:03
  - variation that occurs, but the dataset doesn't need
• 9:06
  - to be perfect. And I think we try
• 9:08
  - to get to perfection before we do anything.
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  - And we make decisions every day on imperfect
• 9:12
  - data, so you don't want it to be
• 9:15
  - totally inaccurate, but you do want to
• 9:18
  - you don't wanna delay doing things because your
• 9:20
  - data is not perfect. Mhmm.
• 9:23
  - Yeah. That that makes a lot of sense,
• 9:24
  - Theresa. It sounds like there's almost this kind
• 9:27
  - of nuance or this balance that leaders should
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  - take in that approach
• 9:31
  - of getting started,
• 9:32
  - and doing what they can to get started
• 9:34
  - on strong footing, but acknowledging that it's not
• 9:36
  - going to be
• 9:37
  - absolutely seamless and perfect Yeah. Along the way.
• 9:40
  - Percent.
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  - And there's still a lot to learn there
• 9:42
  - in the AI space. I think we're all
• 9:44
  - learning together at this point.
• 9:47
  - Mhmm. Oh, absolutely. Things are changing so quickly,
• 9:50
  - and so I appreciate that perspective.
• 9:52
  - And I know at the top of the
• 9:53
  - conversation, I shared a little bit of outside
• 9:55
  - research from Chime, but I understand Simpler does
• 9:58
  - quite a bit of its own research on
• 10:00
  - the industry.
• 10:02
  - Simpler's 2025
• 10:03
  - Compass survey found that clinicians spend an average
• 10:06
  - of nearly ninety minutes a day on administrative
• 10:09
  - tasks that could be automated.
• 10:11
  - So going back to that idea of
• 10:14
  - people process technology,
• 10:16
  - how do you think clinical IT and operational
• 10:18
  - leaders should work together to ensure that new
• 10:21
  - tools and processes work for everybody rather than
• 10:24
  - just adding to burnout?
• 10:27
  - Yeah. As a clinician,
• 10:29
  - it makes me sad to know that an
• 10:31
  - hour and a half of my day is
• 10:32
  - spent doing something
• 10:34
  - that could be automated with technology
• 10:37
  - because that's an hour and a half that
• 10:38
  - a patient or a family member or a
• 10:40
  - coworker is not getting, you know, the time
• 10:43
  - needed to take care of patients.
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  - And so I think, really, it boils down
• 10:48
  - to something super simple, which is collaboration.
• 10:51
  - IT
• 10:52
  - technologists,
• 10:54
  - we need to see the work happening.
• 10:56
  - So going out to the nursing units, going
• 10:59
  - to where physicians practice,
• 11:01
  - seeing their workflows,
• 11:03
  - and including them in the technology decision
• 11:06
  - is where we have to get to. I
• 11:08
  - think a lot of times,
• 11:09
  - historically,
• 11:11
  - we've implemented things without a lot of input,
• 11:14
  - and it was because it was driven either
• 11:16
  - from a regulatory standpoint
• 11:18
  - or from an organizational standpoint. And so those
• 11:21
  - those systems didn't always get the most adoption
• 11:24
  - that we wanted because they weren't included in
• 11:26
  - the decision making.
• 11:27
  - And so as we begin to deploy more
• 11:29
  - advanced technologies like artificial intelligence,
• 11:32
  - I think it's really important for us to
• 11:34
  - include clinicians,
• 11:36
  - operational leaders from the very beginning,
• 11:39
  - not only in the system selection, but them
• 11:41
  - understanding how the algorithms work and us working
• 11:45
  - hand in hand in in developing the right
• 11:47
  - system.
• 11:48
  - I think their input is highly critical in
• 11:51
  - the success of
• 11:53
  - of of the implementation
• 11:55
  - because
• 11:56
  - because as you noted earlier,
• 11:58
  - these AI technologies are evolving rapidly,
• 12:01
  - and they will be the the people who
• 12:03
  - see it firsthand
• 12:04
  - on the front lines when something's not working.
• 12:06
  - So having them engaged as early as possible
• 12:09
  - in the process
• 12:10
  - is critical.
• 12:12
  - It makes a lot of sense. And just
• 12:14
  - curious, Theresa,
• 12:15
  - when it comes to engaging clinicians and engaging
• 12:18
  - the frontline teams,
• 12:19
  - what's one concrete question or
• 12:22
  - action step that leaders can take to do
• 12:24
  - that? Because I think many leaders are aware
• 12:27
  - that that's something that's important, but maybe
• 12:29
  - taking that next best step is a little
• 12:31
  - more complicated.
• 12:33
  - Yeah. I,
• 12:35
  - I found that, you know, institute and rounding
• 12:38
  - is a good first step. So having
• 12:40
  - the technology teams rounding
• 12:42
  - on the nursing units, rounding in physician practices,
• 12:46
  - and then talking to them about technology and
• 12:48
  - technology changes
• 12:49
  - is the first step in building that collaboration.
• 12:52
  - I think I think since COVID, we've spent
• 12:54
  - a lot of time behind the screen,
• 12:56
  - so people don't feel as connected
• 12:59
  - to their IT counterparts.
• 13:01
  - So I think being visible, introducing yourself,
• 13:05
  - going through that
• 13:07
  - gimbal walk if you're a lean person,
• 13:10
  - really getting to know your your counterparts and
• 13:13
  - building that relationship
• 13:15
  - is how you begin to build that process
• 13:17
  - of trust.
• 13:18
  - And that you're actually there to help and
• 13:20
  - not not to hurt
• 13:22
  - the process. Because I think we sometimes skip
• 13:24
  - that step and go straight to, hey. We
• 13:26
  - have a new product. We're ready to implement
• 13:28
  - it. We think it's gonna change these things.
• 13:30
  - And we haven't really taken the time to
• 13:32
  - learn
• 13:33
  - each other's workflows and what's what's truly needed
• 13:36
  - at the end of the implementation.
• 13:38
  - So I think building that relationship upfront is
• 13:40
  - important
• 13:41
  - and then agreeing on what success looks like.
• 13:44
  - At the end of an implementation, we both
• 13:46
  - want to be able to agree that this
• 13:48
  - was this was success or this was failure
• 13:51
  - or this was somewhere in between that it
• 13:53
  - still needs some optimization or improvement.
• 13:55
  - So building those metrics together, I think, is
• 13:58
  - also critical.
• 13:59
  - Yeah. Great advice. Well, Theresa, again, it's been
• 14:02
  - great having you on the podcast today. Thank
• 14:04
  - you so much for making the time.
• 14:06
  - Yeah. Thanks, Erica. I appreciate it. Yeah. And
• 14:09
  - we'd like to thank our podcast sponsor for
• 14:11
  - today as well, Simpler.
• 14:13
  - Listeners, be sure to tune in to more
• 14:15
  - podcasts from Becker's by visiting our podcast page
• 14:18
  - at beckershospitalreview.com.