Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Nancy Beale PhD, RN, NI-BC, FAMIA, Chief Nursing Information Officer, VP of Clinical Informatics, Catholic Health

Transcript

Nancy Beale PhD, RN, NI-BC, FAMIA, Chief Nursing Information Officer, VP of Clinical Informatics, Catholic Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Philips is a health tech leader focused on
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  innovation that improves the health and well-being of
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  people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions
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  help care teams diagnose, treat, and manage more
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  patients with greater precision, speed, and confidence across
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  the care journey. With Philips, clinicians are empowered
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  with streamlined insights in the moments that matter
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  for every patient. Better care for more people.
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  Philips.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  tenth annual health IT, digital health, and RCM
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  meeting. I'm currently joined by doctor Nancy Beal,
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  who is the chief nursing information officer and
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  VP of clinical informatics at Catholic Health. Doctor
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  Beal, thanks for being here. Let's have you
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  start off by sharing a little bit more
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  about yourself and your work in health care.
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  Great. Thanks for having me. I've been in
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  health care for over forty years. I spent
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  the first couple decades in my career
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  working at the bedside in clinical practice, everything
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  from staff nurse to director.
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  And then I moved into health care IT
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  when I went to work for Epic.
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  I worked at Epic for close to a
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  decade, about nine years, and worked with health
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  systems across the country
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  implementing healthcare IT.
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  Many,
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  many new adventures,
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  in that work.
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  Went from there, I,
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  did some consulting, which landed me in New
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  York City.
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  Started initially as a consultant and then took
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  on the role of
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  vice president of, clinical systems and integration at
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  NYU Langone Health,
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  and I was there for about six years.
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  From there, I went to, finish my PhD,
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  and now I'm back in New York,
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  working at Catholic Health in Long Island,
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  for about the last year and a half.
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  Wonderful. Well, again, thanks for being here. And
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  let's start our conversation talking about AI as
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  that is such a large topic right now
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  in the health space. And nearly half of
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  medical practices reported using AI in some capacity
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  in the past year,
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  and it remains a key topic for health
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  IT leaders. So from your perspective, what are
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  the use cases that are making a difference
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  right now, and how are you leveraging them
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  in your organization?
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  So there when people think about AI,
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  oftentimes,
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  people who are
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  not as close to it as those of
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  us in technology, think of it as one
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  thing. As we know,
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  AI is multiple things. Right? It's an umbrella
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  over different technologies.
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  And I think that some of the early
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  use cases that have been very beneficial
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  are things like automated
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  responses
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  to patient messages. That's been a huge gain
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  and satisfier for both patients
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  and providers.
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  In addition to that, now getting closer to
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  the generative
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  AI,
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  phase of things. I think that has been
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  a real patient and provider satisfier
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  to allow providers to have more face time
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  with patients and be more efficient in the
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  care that they do.
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  And as virtual care expands from AI enabled
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  tools to remote monitoring to broader digital health
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  platforms,
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  Introducing new technology can bring challenges. So what
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  advice do you have for leaders navigating everything
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  from governance to patient engagement?
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  And can you share an example of how
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  your organization has balanced innovation with operational constraint?
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  Yes. I think some of the biggest challenges
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  aside from financial challenges, right, to afford from
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  some of these advanced tools
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  are really understanding what your strategy is. What's
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  the problem you're trying to solve. Oftentimes, people
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  will bring a tool to the table,
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  looking for a problem. And so really having
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  a an identified
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  strategy that will help you navigate
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  what your progress and plan should be to
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  use that those tools. So an example of
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  that is,
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  we are expanding the use of, virtual care
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  and virtual nursing at our organization.
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  In the past, we have done some,
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  homegrown
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  virtual
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  nursing
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  to do,
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  admission documentation.
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  We've also done virtual observation,
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  with a vendor,
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  And we're now bringing a new platform to
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  bear and plan to expand that use case
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  to include other workflows,
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  such as,
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  patient education,
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  virtual rounding,
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  discharge planning,
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  and even get into the provider workspace
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  where you have a remote provider who needs
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  to consult with somebody who is on-site with
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  the patient.
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  So understanding
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  what the strategy is, what I call the
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  crawl, walk, run strategy,
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  and make sure that you have the right
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  engagement and buy in
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  from the people who are engaged at the
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  at the most basic level on the front
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  line.
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  Absolutely. And shifting gears slightly, how are you
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  seeing recent legislation both at the state and
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  federal levels affect health care organizations and health
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  IT specifically?
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  And have you adjusted strategies in response?
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  Really good question given that it is October
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  2 and,
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  provisions ended September 30 that afforded a lot
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  of
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  the telehealth support.
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  If you think back, a lot has evolved
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  and changed since COVID,
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  and that has been a lot of positive,
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  engagement,
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  positive progress to creating access to care,
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  and serving patients in a way that we
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  haven't been able to serve them in the
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  past. I think about
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  this impact of
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  rolling back some of that legislation
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  and not supporting reimbursement
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  is going to impact our patients' access to
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  care, and particularly,
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  those patients who are
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  perhaps most at risk
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  and in the most remote areas will no
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  longer have access to care.
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  I think it is imperative
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  that both the provider and the vendor communities
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  come together
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  to lobby for this important,
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  permanent support
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  of this kind of care because this is
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  where the future needs to go to support
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  our patients.
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  And final question as we wrap up our
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  conversation,
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  what is your top piece of advice for
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  health care leaders as they prepare for further
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  advancements in technology and rising demands for care?
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  Well, I think you have to keep your
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  finger on the pulse of the changes.
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  There are so many things that are changing,
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  day to day, week to week, month to
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  month in the industry. So understand what's what's
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  out there and what's coming so that when
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  you do make an investment in a technology,
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  it doesn't become
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  quickly antiquated.
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  I think also from a strategy perspective again,
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  really having an outline of what your goals
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  are and how you're going to measure if
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  you're successful with this tool or set of
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  tools
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  and whether or not they're going to solve
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  the problems that you're trying to solve.
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  Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for joining
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  me today on the Becker's healthcare podcast and
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  sharing your insights on these topics. Again, we
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  are recording live at the tenth annual health
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  IT, digital health, and RCM meeting.
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  Thank you.