Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / AI, Smart Hospitals, and Innovation at Houston Methodist with Michelle Stansbury

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AI, Smart Hospitals, and Innovation at Houston Methodist with Michelle Stansbury · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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The most important health care decisions don't happen
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Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
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0:45
This is Laura Dierdahl with the Becker's Healthcare
0:47
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
0:49
Michelle Stansbury, associate chief innovation officer and vice
0:53
president of IT applications at Houston Methodist. Michelle,
0:55
it's a pleasure to have you on the
0:56
podcast today. Oh, thank you so much. I
0:59
always appreciate being able to talk with you,
1:00
Laura.
1:02
Absolutely. Well, I'm excited for our conversation too
1:04
because I I think we always have a
1:06
chance to get behind the curtain of some
1:08
of the cool things you're doing at Houston
1:09
Methodist. I know you've got a lot of
1:10
innovation going on there, a very sophisticated technology,
1:14
AI automation, and more. And so I know
1:16
we'll get into some of that. But before
1:18
we do, for those who are just starting
1:20
to listen to our podcast, could you, share
1:22
a little bit more about yourself, your background,
1:24
and Houston Methodist?
1:25
Sure. Well, I've been at Houston Methodist almost
1:28
thirty four years now, which is just amazing
1:30
in itself.
1:31
I know I get asked all the time,
1:33
what has kept you there? And I would
1:34
say it's probably the opportunities to be able
1:37
to do so many different new
1:39
things to be able to help the health
1:41
system grow
1:43
and to help make sure that our patients
1:44
and our clinicians
1:46
are working in the best environment that they
1:48
can. So that's what kind of keeps me
1:50
there, and love what I do, and it's
1:52
just a great organization.
1:55
That's fantastic to hear. And, you know, really
1:56
having that true mission of bringing the patient
1:59
first and providing that type of great care,
2:02
to the community makes a huge difference. Now
2:04
if we could zero in on the last
2:06
year or so, could you tell us about
2:08
the most important projects or initiatives that you
2:10
were working on? What did you do, and
2:11
what were the results?
2:13
Well, it's, I think we have talked before.
2:15
We opened up our Cypress Hospital, which we
2:18
had been talking about quite a bit as
2:20
our smart hospital of the future,
2:22
which had many of the new capabilities that,
2:25
you know, everyone from AI to automation,
2:30
overall to the patient room, being smart, you
2:33
know, video capabilities across the organization.
2:36
You know, just those ease of use things
2:38
for, overall our patients.
2:40
I know we've had several people ask, well,
2:43
did you just what were their learnings from
2:45
that hospital?
2:46
But the good news is we didn't just
2:48
bring up all those technologies
2:50
just at our Cypress hospital. We had been
2:52
implementing those things across
2:54
our other hospitals. We've got eight other hospitals,
2:57
as well because,
2:59
one, we wanted to learn from them, have
3:01
our staff overall give us feedback to make
3:03
sure that it was truly bringing the value
3:05
to the organization.
3:07
There were a few things that were just
3:09
Cyprus,
3:10
because when you're building a hospital from the
3:12
ground up, you're able to build the infrastructure
3:15
needed to support certain things, like environmental controls.
3:18
It's very hard to go back and retrofit
3:20
into an older building,
3:23
but I will tell you our patients have
3:24
absolutely loved that they've been able to control
3:27
the lighting,
3:28
to,
3:29
overall, they have voice activation where it is
3:32
that they can turn on certain things, turn
3:34
it off, open the blinds, close the blinds.
3:37
You know, so those little creature comforts that
3:39
somehow we've gotten to come accustomed to in
3:41
hotel rooms,
3:43
we're now being able to do those for
3:44
our patients. And while we thought it was
3:46
a nice touch, it was really something our
3:49
patients love. They love having the ability to
3:51
be able to talk to Alexa in the
3:53
room to getting Alexa to do some of
3:55
these things for them as well. But just
3:57
the true,
3:59
overall,
4:00
that facility,
4:01
it was amazing when it opened up within
4:04
a very short time frame. It was completely
4:07
full.
4:08
So we had to very quickly turn around
4:10
and figure out how it is that we
4:12
could open up more of the space. I
4:14
think they're already looking at how they can,
4:16
add on additions to the space as well
4:19
because patients have really enjoyed,
4:23
the
4:24
services that they're getting, but also just knowing
4:27
how that the the, hospital operates. And the
4:30
staff have really embraced overall this
4:33
concept of what's next, what's new. We just
4:36
recently we've had ambient intelligence for our physicians
4:40
for quite a while and overall within our
4:42
physician practices. We've moved it so the hospitalists
4:45
are using it, but now it is we're
4:48
trying to get our nurses. And so we
4:50
just recently talked to Epic about doing,
4:53
ambient listening for our nurses, and, of course,
4:56
Cypress was, like, raised their hand. We wanna
4:58
be first. We wanna be first. We're willing
4:59
to, you know, pilot whatever is necessary.
5:02
So it's the good news when you have
5:04
so much enthusiasm
5:05
towards innovation,
5:07
to be able to find the clinicians,
5:10
the patients who are willing to be able
5:12
to see and test out those things because
5:13
it makes it easier on us overall as
5:16
an organization.
5:17
But that was one. The other is we,
5:20
have been working on a workday go live.
5:23
So that was a two year project that
5:25
just went live January 1 for our supply
5:28
chain, HR, finance,
5:30
and our research institute. It has gone
5:33
extremely well. I'm so very proud of that
5:35
team. I wish I could give them all
5:37
kudos here right now.
5:39
We made our first payroll.
5:41
No issues.
5:42
We've been able to order supplies and get
5:44
them into the hospitals. Very little issues, and
5:47
we're working through our very first month in
5:48
close right now. So the big, big initiative,
5:51
anybody that goes through these big massive projects
5:54
like installing Epic
5:55
or installing a new ERP system. You know,
5:58
it's just a big the thing that excites
6:00
me the most, I will tell you, is,
6:02
back at the,
6:04
Workday Rising Conference, they,
6:06
had showcased all of their new AI capabilities,
6:10
especially over in supply chain and then with
6:12
finance,
6:13
and even within HR. So I'm excited to
6:15
sort of bring those and start to embrace
6:17
them overall within the organization to be able
6:19
to help in those processes that we can
6:22
utilize AI for.
6:24
The other was really system access.
6:26
We've been really on this journey for the
6:28
last couple of years,
6:30
and have really done well with overall,
6:33
having our patients now, you know, with the
6:36
texting cape bidirectional texting capabilities, allowing them to
6:39
be able to,
6:40
you know,
6:41
create new appointments just by text based solutions.
6:45
Overall, having the, voice technology that,
6:48
allows them to
6:50
be able to talk with an agent and
6:52
then an artificial agent and then be able
6:55
to get to where that they need to.
6:57
So, you know, it it's interesting to see
6:59
the dynamics and the evolution
7:02
of how
7:03
different departments
7:04
work with these newer technologies that are out
7:07
there. Sometimes it's a little challenging, sometimes it's
7:10
not.
7:11
I would say when we brought overall camera
7:14
technology with AI to be
7:16
able to help us see where we have
7:20
the opportunities to open up more OR time.
7:23
That was a little challenging with our physicians.
7:25
I kinda liken it back. I tell people
7:27
all the time. I'm like, well, how would
7:28
you feel if I told you I was
7:29
gonna put a camera in your office? Right?
7:31
Because I need to see where it is
7:33
that we can, you know, increase increase efficiencies
7:35
and so forth.
7:36
So, everybody, it's like, yes. That you could
7:39
see where that can make people nervous. But,
7:40
you know, once the physicians really saw the
7:43
opportunities that was bringing to get them back
7:45
OR time, One of our biggest cardiovascular
7:49
surgeons who was
7:50
not real happy in the beginning, to hear
7:52
him come back later and really describe how
7:55
that is overall
7:56
helped him and the organization,
7:58
that was like a win win.
8:00
So,
8:02
you know, it's that was only kind of
8:04
a few. I think the last piece was
8:06
this past year, we,
8:08
while in 2011, we came up with our
8:11
12 bets for the hospital of the future.
8:13
We came up with our 10 new bets
8:15
for our health care intelligent health care system
8:17
of the future,
8:19
which really is just playing on the things
8:20
that we've already done and how can we
8:22
make them better
8:24
overall,
8:25
as an organization.
8:26
But that's just kind of a few things
8:27
what Mhmm. Been keeping us a little busy,
8:30
overall,
8:31
for the last year.
8:33
Oh, that's amazing to hear. And, you know,
8:35
that is a lot going on and a
8:36
lot of, positive change happening, especially when you
8:39
think about, you know, how much it takes
8:41
not only to bring the technology in and
8:43
and integrate that into workflows and processes, but
8:46
then to, to your point in being able
8:49
to work with the team, and have them
8:51
adopted and feel comfortable with the technology
8:54
and willing to move forward, you know, that's
8:56
incredible to have that kind of buy in
8:58
too. So,
9:00
yes. I I think there's a lot of
9:01
work, for you and your team, but it
9:03
sounds like it's gone really well so far.
9:05
No. It's it's I I will tell you,
9:07
it's the one thing that I appreciate so
9:09
much because we have such operational engagement on
9:12
everything that we do. Right?
9:16
And during our initiatives on anything that working,
9:18
you're seeing
9:20
operational
9:21
individuals and IT. They're partnering. They're like one
9:23
team.
9:24
And that's what the exciting part is is
9:26
when you see that happen that there is
9:28
no more of, well, IT needs to handle
9:30
this. Well, no. We'll take care of it.
9:32
It is no. They are kind of one
9:34
group that is working on all of these
9:35
things together, and how can they quickly,
9:38
you know, come to resolution that it is
9:40
bringing us value into the organization then, oh,
9:42
okay. Now we need to, like, roll it
9:44
out.
9:46
That's what it is exciting to see is
9:47
when the team comes together, it's amazing what
9:50
they can accomplish.
9:51
And,
9:52
I have just, you know, seen it time
9:54
and time again and just think that we
9:56
are very fortunate the way that we are
9:58
set up to be able to do that
9:59
for Houston Methodist.
10:02
Absolutely. That that's amazing to hear in grade
10:04
to understand that structure that you're working with.
10:06
Now looking into the next year or so,
10:08
what are some of the top priorities and
10:10
headwinds that you're focused on? Well, I I
10:13
think one of the biggest things, and, I
10:15
love to tell people this because you, you
10:17
know, sometimes you can get so caught up
10:19
in the innovation
10:20
that you don't really stop and think how
10:22
are you really getting the greatest benefit of
10:25
all from these big transactional systems like Epic.
10:28
Right? And I will give Epic,
10:30
really kudos here that they have come a
10:32
long way with their product,
10:35
in certain areas that, you know, we're now
10:37
seeing we don't need this third party that
10:39
we were working with. We can now transition
10:41
over to Epic, which is great because
10:44
most organizations are really having to become very
10:46
financially responsible as well.
10:49
And so it is where are we looking
10:51
at that potentially we had a third party
10:53
that we're gonna be moving overall to Epic.
10:56
I will say say one of the last
10:57
things that we did not implement back in
10:59
2014 when we initially installed Epic was their
11:01
lab system.
11:03
It wasn't beaker wasn't where it needed to
11:05
be at the time, but now it is.
11:07
And so we're transitioning over to that new
11:10
labs, which is a big project in itself.
11:12
It's another two I love these big two
11:14
year projects.
11:15
You know?
11:17
But, you know, that is one piece. I
11:19
you know, we've got other systems that we're
11:21
looking at overall transitioning.
11:23
But I think the big piece overall for
11:25
us is how are we embracing overall
11:28
AI capabilities
11:29
where they're available,
11:31
to see where it's overall helping us as
11:33
an organization.
11:35
And, you know, it's I I I'll give
11:37
you an example. We use ServiceNow within our
11:40
IT organization,
11:42
and they've come out with a lot of
11:43
AI capabilities. And you can really get caught
11:46
up in the coolness factor. I almost say
11:48
it that way. Mhmm. But what are the
11:50
models? What are the things that they have
11:52
built overall with on top of that AI?
11:55
And how is our data? Is our data
11:56
clean enough for us to be able to
11:58
use and trust it?
12:00
Because it it you know, AI is built
12:03
overall
12:04
to be able to increase efficiencies.
12:06
That's what it should be.
12:07
Not overall right to overall add cost to
12:10
the organization
12:12
or add additional processes and not be able
12:14
to reduce
12:15
overall kind of the labor cost where you
12:17
can get some of those efficiencies at.
12:20
But I would say, you know, I talked
12:21
about,
12:23
we've been looking for a vendor for us
12:25
to be able to do, ambient listening for
12:27
our nursing staff for year and a half,
12:29
if not more than that.
12:31
And it kinda talked to several vendors that
12:33
were out there and never really were able
12:35
to get,
12:37
traction where we needed to. Exciting part is
12:40
that Epic is now has has that functionality.
12:42
We're getting ready to start a pilot with
12:44
them in our Cypress hospital. So very anxious
12:48
to see because nurses are just as overburdened
12:50
with documentations,
12:52
as physicians are. And so whatever we can
12:55
do to help overall that, you know, we
12:57
started our virtual visits to be able to
12:59
take admits and discharges from them, to be
13:01
able to take overall rounding activities and so
13:04
forth, but there's still just that documentation burden.
13:06
So another great piece that now we can
13:08
overall use for our nurses. But,
13:11
first and foremost, I mean, it's just I
13:13
think if you begin to look at our,
13:15
you know, intelligent health care system of the
13:18
future bets, we really need to pick out
13:20
what are we gonna focus on this year.
13:22
And we've got a retreat coming up here
13:24
very soon. I think it's two weeks from
13:25
now is where we're gonna start to decide
13:28
what are those key areas and key projects
13:30
that we're gonna focus on kind of going
13:31
forward this year.
13:33
That's fantastic to hear. And, you know, so
13:35
important to have that time to come together
13:37
together with your colleagues and make those decisions.
13:39
And, you know, I think when you're talking
13:42
about bringing in technology, AI, Ambient, and,
13:45
you know, the different partners that you're working
13:47
with and systems that you're
13:49
collaborating with. I know, you know, you've been
13:50
at this for a a good long while,
13:52
more than a decade in terms of innovation
13:54
and working with Houston Methodist. So do you
13:56
feel like you're in a time now where
13:57
you're doing more pilots? Are are you settling
14:00
in? How are you thinking about, you know,
14:02
what where you you want to identify places,
14:05
especially as you're, you know, are kind of
14:08
a mature innovation organization, but always still trying
14:10
to be cutting edge as well? No. You
14:12
know, look, I think that there is a
14:14
time and, actually, you know, Roberta, which I
14:17
know you've spoken with before, it I think
14:19
it's a time for us. We're not out
14:20
trying to look for the little niche products
14:23
anymore. I think that where we have found
14:25
overall is that we've got some really good
14:27
vendors that that we're partnering with. So what
14:30
more can we partner with to enhance what
14:32
their product does or even something new
14:35
overall within our organization instead of a pilot
14:37
here pilot here. I mean, you know, I
14:39
I think for a while, we had probably,
14:41
like, you know, 25 pilots going on at
14:43
a time.
14:44
And we're not there as an organization. We're
14:46
trying to really mature what we have, as
14:48
I said.
14:50
We know where we wanna go, but I
14:52
think it's let's make those decisions wisely instead
14:56
of just trying to pilot every single little
14:58
thing that is out there that is building
14:59
new. I mean, I would you know, look,
15:02
AI is exploding.
15:03
It is just exploding across the health care
15:05
industry and I think all over the place,
15:07
and you really gotta decide
15:09
what are you going to do. Mhmm. Right?
15:11
What are those things you really wanna focus
15:13
on that are really gonna bring the greatest
15:14
value to the organization?
15:16
And not every single little pilot. I mean,
15:18
I've got so many vendors that are calling
15:20
me, hey. I've got this, you know, niche
15:21
AI solution and this one. Can we come,
15:23
you know, and kinda show it to you?
15:25
And, you know, I I hate to say
15:27
no so many times, but I think this
15:29
is where some innovation groups can get so
15:32
overwhelmed
15:33
by so much that's coming at them. You
15:35
really have to decide as an organization
15:37
what are you gonna focus on, which is
15:39
what I said that we're gonna try to
15:40
do as an innovation group
15:42
is this is gonna be our focus for
15:44
2026,
15:45
but it's going to go in line with
15:47
what we said that we want to move
15:49
forward with our intelligent health care system of
15:51
the future
15:52
or
15:53
bring back overall, are we getting the greatest
15:56
value from the things that we've already done
15:58
or is there more that we can do
16:00
to truly stretch and get more of that
16:01
ROI that we thought that we were going
16:03
to be able to get? So that's what
16:05
I think overall our our initiatives are kinda
16:08
moving forward. So I would say, is Houston
16:10
Methodist doing all these new pilots?
16:12
No. I don't. I think what we're trying
16:14
to do is just really mature what we
16:16
have and really stretch,
16:19
to get the greatest value of what we've
16:21
got already. And don't it's not to say
16:23
that we won't because, look, we're doing the
16:24
pilot with Epic. We're doing another pilot with
16:26
some other a few other ones, but it's
16:28
not the massive things that we were doing
16:30
in the very beginning.
16:32
That makes a lot of sense. You know,
16:33
it is really helpful kind of ground in
16:35
how you're thinking about the future and what
16:37
that looks like for you. And, you know,
16:39
what do you think the hardest thing you'll
16:40
have to do in the next year will
16:42
be?
16:43
I think really and this is just probably
16:46
all health care systems. They're really trying to
16:48
really
16:49
look at what is bringing the greatest value
16:52
to the organization.
16:53
I mean, we're all being hit hard, right,
16:55
from
16:56
governmental changes to payer changes to everything else,
17:00
and yet you want to provide the best
17:02
care overall to your patients,
17:05
and having our clinicians
17:07
utilizing the best tools that will help them
17:09
do that. But you still have to remain
17:11
financially stable. So I think that's where it
17:13
is. How can we as I said, how
17:15
can we ensure that we're getting the greatest
17:18
value,
17:19
overall from our investments that we have and
17:21
what other new things that maybe we need
17:23
to focus in on that will help us
17:25
during that journey? And I think everybody's on
17:28
that journey. Right? I haven't spoken to one
17:29
health system that is not on that journey
17:31
right now. And, you know, fortunately, we,
17:35
have, as an organization, have always done well,
17:38
but it's still the one thing that I
17:40
do appreciate about Houston Methodist is if they
17:43
get some sort of an inkling, you know,
17:45
where we need to tighten our belt, we
17:47
do it right away. We don't wait until
17:49
things are really bad, you know, to come
17:52
back, and it just helps us to main
17:53
kind of remain stable,
17:56
as an organization. No. We're not just tightening
17:59
and not doing anything. Right? No. We just
18:01
need to be very conscious about what we
18:02
are doing to ensure it's bringing the value.
18:05
And I think that's where we're at is
18:06
just truly ensuring that,
18:09
the work that any of us are doing
18:10
on the innovation side is truly bringing that
18:12
value that we thought that it would. And
18:14
if it's not, we need to move on
18:16
to something else.
18:18
That makes a lot of sense. And I
18:19
and, you know, with such clarity, being able
18:21
to have that into any decisions you're making,
18:24
looking at, you know, what that value is
18:26
in bringing it front and center. I can
18:28
imagine with your partner conversation as well as
18:30
how you're thinking about, you know, new technology
18:33
opportunities as well. And
18:35
speaking of that, you know, when you look
18:37
at growth, where do you see growth headed,
18:39
especially for the innovation side? No. I I
18:42
mean, look, there's there's always I think you
18:44
always need to look out
18:46
as I said, I think this greatest opportunity
18:48
where everybody is kind of headed is how
18:50
are we
18:51
evaluating
18:52
what's the appropriate AI usage
18:55
in our organization.
18:56
Right? Because there's I think there's such a
18:58
tremendous opportunity,
19:00
which I'm very excited about. I mean, like
19:02
I said, I've seen a lot of things
19:04
that overall Workday can bring. I've seen, you
19:06
know,
19:07
Epic's already been doing some things for us.
19:10
I think some of the other vendors that
19:11
we are utilizing right now that have brought
19:13
us value in AI, how can we extend
19:16
that? How can we extend it beyond and
19:17
be thinking about other use cases?
19:20
I do know that we are really
19:22
looking at,
19:24
you know, I've said before when you look
19:26
at remote monitoring,
19:27
we took all the tools and we utilized
19:29
them in house to learn from them. I
19:31
think we're now we're trying to see what
19:33
can we do. What are the things that
19:35
we can extend beyond the walls of Houston
19:37
Methodist to really engage overall that population, be
19:40
able to truly get to a type some
19:42
type of remote monitoring of overall our patients
19:45
while they're at home.
19:47
So it's the thing that we are looking
19:48
at and trying to focus on in that
19:50
area as well. But, you know, of looking
19:52
at, you know, a truly operational control center.
19:56
Right? Because we've got
19:57
these nine different hospitals. How are we utilizing
20:00
them to our the best capacity that we
20:02
can,
20:03
in all of our clinics? You know, I
20:05
would tell you the exciting thing that we
20:07
introduced overall last year in our clinic space
20:09
was a vendor that looked at
20:12
the if they used RFID technology, right, to
20:14
put them on staff to see where they
20:16
could gain efficiencies overall in that clinic to
20:19
be able to open up more appointments.
20:22
That was phenomenal. I mean, I I would
20:24
have never guessed
20:26
that we could have gotten the efficiencies
20:28
and the appointments
20:30
that we have gained just by using that
20:31
technology.
20:32
I mean, it was, you know, when you
20:35
ask a provider, well, we need to create
20:37
more appointments, I'm already booked. There's no way
20:39
that you can. But the data and this
20:41
is what excites me the most about data,
20:43
and I've said, data doesn't fail, data doesn't
20:45
lie, data just gives you information.
20:47
To be able to have them come back
20:49
with true data to say, well, if you
20:50
would just sort of change your practice patterns,
20:53
here's where we could align more appointments to
20:55
come in overall. And that just makes it
20:57
better for the patients. It makes it better
20:59
for the clinicians. And that's what overall what
21:01
excites me the most, and I think I
21:02
told you the reason that I love being
21:04
at Houston Methodist, is we are very so
21:06
much patient centric,
21:08
you know, and trying to make sure nobody
21:10
wants to come to the doctor. Nobody really
21:12
wants to come to the hospital. But when
21:13
they do, is it in a way an
21:15
ease of use for them,
21:17
in the way that they overall their preference
21:19
and their family members? You know, I I
21:21
just think back to the video technology that
21:24
we've done that allowed family members to be
21:26
able to join those discussions,
21:28
right, overall with the physicians.
21:30
I mean, that's what the end of the
21:32
day that it comes down for me with
21:33
what excites me overall, not just the technology
21:35
piece,
21:36
but to be able to hear from our
21:38
patients and our clinicians what it's doing for
21:40
them.
21:41
I love that. Michelle, thank you so much
21:43
for joining us on the podcast today. This
21:45
has been a really fun conversation. I've learned
21:47
a ton and feel like, you know, it's
21:49
so exciting, the potential and opportunities there in
21:52
health care today. So I appreciate your time,
21:54
and I look forward to seeing you as
21:55
well. And, April, I know you'll be speaking
21:57
at our annual meeting and, really providing some
21:59
great, great insights and spotlighting, you know, the
22:02
things you're doing at Houston Methodist there as
22:03
well. So I look forward to seeing you
22:05
as always. It's such a great to have
22:06
you Great. Time to have you on. Yep.
22:08
Thank you for having me.