Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Dr. Sachin K. Gupta, Chief Medical Officer at UNC Physicians Network

Transcript

Dr. Sachin K. Gupta, Chief Medical Officer at UNC Physicians Network · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  events page. See you in Chicago.
• 1:16
  Welcome to the Becker's Health Care podcast. I'm
• 1:18
  Mariah Taylor, assistant editor, and I'm thrilled to
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  interview with Sachin Gupta, chief medical officer at
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  UNC Physicians Network
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  on the podcast today.
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  Sachin, thank you so much for joining me.
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  I'm excited for our conversation because you're one
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  of our upcoming panelists on the CEO CFO
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  conference, and this is such a fun way
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  to get a sneak peek into some of
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  your thought leadership. But before we dive into
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  the questions, I would love if you could
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  introduce yourself and tell us a little bit
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  about your background.
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  Sure.
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  Well, first, thanks for having me on. I'm
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  really excited to share a little bit about
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  who I am and what we do here
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  at UNC Physicians Network,
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  and really looking forward to the, conference later
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  this year. So as I said, my name
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  is Sachin Gupta. I'm, I'm the chief medical
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  officer for UNC Physicians Network
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  here
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  in Morrisville, North Carolina.
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  We're under the UNC Health Care umbrella.
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  I mean, UNC Physicians Network is the community
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  facing arm of the health care system.
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  Fred, statewide,
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  we have approximately 700 clinicians and about a
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  160,
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  clinics,
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  across the state of North Carolina,
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  helping to really to bring care to to
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  those communities that need it most and trying
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  to keep care
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  local. Our mission is really to serve all
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  North Carolinians.
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  I am a family physician by training. I'm
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  board certified and
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  a diplomat of the, American Academy of Family
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  Practice.
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  I did my training mostly up and down
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  the East Coast. I've been with this organization
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  now
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  for about 14 years. I joined in 2010.
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  Started as a a local medical director in
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  a 2 physician practice.
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  We started kinda de novo, and we were
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  out on the sidewalks trying to recruit patients.
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  And, over time, I moved into a regional
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  medical director role.
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  And then I've been in this chief medical
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  officer role now since the start of the
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  pandemic. So,
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  just over 4 years now.
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  Excellent.
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  Tell me a little bit about one of
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  your most successful projects or initiatives from the
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  last year. What did you do, and what
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  were the results?
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  Yeah. So I'm really excited to talk a
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  little bit about
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  one of the projects that we had,
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  around onboarding,
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  and optimization.
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  So launching an onboarding and optimization team here
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  at UNCPN,
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  that really helped to,
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  tackle a few different,
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  challenges that we had here.
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  It sounds very much like it it is,
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  onboarding and optimization, which we call the o
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  two team. We are giving oxygen and life
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  back to our teammates.
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  And what this is around is all of
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  our new clinics, new clinicians, and teammates that
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  onboard,
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  we have a robust onboarding process for them.
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  So using a lot of standard work and
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  standard processes
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  to get folks ramped up. This includes
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  epic support. So being able
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  to get in front of the clinician ahead
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  of their go live date, understanding what their
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  preference list might look like, what they like
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  their templates no templates to look like, and
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  creating all of those things before they even
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  start. So that way they can hit the
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  ground running, and they're not having to deal
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  with the struggles of,
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  navigating the EMR from day 1.
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  Another part of the o two team is,
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  their work that they've done around scribing.
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  To being able to deploy in person scribes.
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  We're we're also
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  taking the next iterative step around generative AI
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  scribing, so running some pilots
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  within the UNC Health Care System, virtual AI
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  scribing,
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  to decrease administrative burden.
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  And then the last part is, around a
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  centralized in basket team. So being able to
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  remove
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  those administrative
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  tasks from the clinic that don't need to
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  be done there, so things like medication refills
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  and result notes,
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  things that tend to clog up our clinicians,
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  in baskets,
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  those are the things that we're trying to
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  centralize and make the work work life balance
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  a little bit better for our clinicians.
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  The results have really been fantastic. From an
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  onboarding standpoint, we've seen our clinicians,
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  be able to ramp up at a much
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  faster clip. They're getting to their productivity thresholds,
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  much sooner than those clinicians that were not
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  put through the onboarding process. We see greater
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  cohesiveness and cultural alignment in the clinics that
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  have undergone the onboarding and optimization process.
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  We're seeing efficiencies
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  in workflows as well without with scribing as
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  well as the centralized in basket work. So
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  it's been really exciting
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  to see all of these initiatives
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  take flight and seeing how it really impacts
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  the day to day lives of our, clinicians
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  and and teammates.
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  Yeah. That is amazing. As we all know,
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  workforce issues like burnout and shortages have been
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  a really hard part for health care in
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  the last few years. So it's really cool
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  to see what you're doing to help address
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  those.
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  Looking ahead, though, what is the biggest challenge
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  you expect to face in the next year,
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  and how are you preparing?
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  Yeah. Well, I think you actually hit on
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  it,
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  right on the head, to be honest with
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  you.
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  You know, we just recently conducted our med
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  staff survey, and a lot of the feedback
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  that we got from our clinicians,
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  one of the biggest challenges remains,
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  decompression. You know, how can a clinician,
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  shut off,
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  that
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  that that seemingly,
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  unstoppable
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  spigot of clinical care and how can they
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  detach actually from work. So one of the
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  challenges that we that we continue to face
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  is how do we address this decompression
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  and how are we able
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  to really let our clinicians detach from work
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  and and be able to, achieve that work
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  life balance.
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  So what we're doing for that is a
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  lot of the projects that I just spoke
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  about, we're really trying to expand those to,
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  the larger health care system as well, bringing
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  those,
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  onboarding initiatives to the rest of the health
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  care system, being able to expand scribing
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  and expanding centralization
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  of of,
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  administrative work.
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  I think that that's gonna be, a huge
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  focus for us. Our clinicians,
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  really feel this burden of care. They feel
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  obligated to their patients, but what can we
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  be doing,
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  to make their work life balance a little
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  bit better?
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  So that's a huge focus for us and,
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  really, part of the efforts that we're gonna
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  be undertaking in the coming year.
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  Amazing.
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  Now let's look a little bit more about
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  the chief medical role itself.
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  You've been in this role for several years
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  at this point. How do you see the
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  role of chief medical officer evolving?
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  Yeah. That that's a great question. And
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  if I were to,
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  you know, talk to my past self from
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  4 years ago
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  to tell myself what kind of work I
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  would be doing now, I don't think I
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  would believe it. But, you know, I think
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  traditionally, the role has been around well, I'm
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  just gonna, focus on, you know, provider behavior
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  issues and, trying to move the needle on
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  quality. But I think it's so much more
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  than that now. There is this greater pressure,
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  to increasingly understand
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  and leverage technology,
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  in health care. I think that includes the
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  electronic medical records, how we use telemedicine and
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  data analytics.
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  I think that there's this shift also this
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  kind of ever evolving shift for value based
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  care. So as we shift from volume to
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  value based care,
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  us as CMOs, we need to be focusing
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  on improved outcomes while controlling costs.
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  And I think part of that
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  also comes with financial acumen. I think with
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  health care costs under greater scrutiny,
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  CMOs need to have a solid understanding of
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  the financial aspects of the health care industry,
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  and that means really partnering very closely with
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  our operational dyad partners, our financial partners,
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  so that we're getting the total picture of,
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  the care that we deliver.
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  I think there's also part of this around
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  crisis management.
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  You know, the recent events such as COVID
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  19 have really highlighted the impact that CMOs
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  can play
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  in crisis management,
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  really
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  trying to model our team so that we
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  can be adaptable, we can be resilient,
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  and capable of leading through uncertainty.
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  So I think that's how the chief medical
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  officer role is is evolving, and it'll continue
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  to evolve.
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  What is your advice for aspiring CMOs?
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  Yeah.
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  Gosh. I I wish I had all the
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  answers for that, but I I would think
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  that one thing that I would certainly recommend,
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  and one thing that I've really been fortunate,
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  to have
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  is being surrounded by
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  people that you, trust,
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  people that you can,
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  really bounce ideas off of, people that are
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  gonna challenge you and challenge the way that
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  you think.
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  I think we have a tendency to to
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  surround people surround ourselves with people that think
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  like us and and approach care like us,
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  but you really need to have a diverse
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  team
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  and a team, again, that you can trust
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  and delegate things to. I don't think
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  any one single person can do all of
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  the work that's required of us. So being
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  able to delegate
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  the folks that you can really trust, and
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  you respect their ideas and you know that
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  they're gonna take the ball and run with
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  it, I think, is huge. And then also
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  being able to,
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  work with those people that are gonna challenge
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  your opinions and thought, so that you can
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  move the needle forward.
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  Excellent.
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  This has been such an informative discussion. Thank
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  you so much for joining me on the
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  podcast today. You can catch more of Sachin
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  at our upcoming clinical leadership forum at the
• 10:39
  Becker CEO and CFO roundtable, November 11th through
• 10:43
  14th in Chicago.
• 10:44
  We have limited space available for attendees and
• 10:46
  sponsors, So contact us at agenda team at
• 10:49
  beckershealthcare.com
• 10:51
  to learn more.