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How AtlantiCare Is Transforming Care Delivery with a Connected Health System & AI Powered Clinical Workflows · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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Hello, everyone. This is Erica Spicer Mason with
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Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning
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into the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
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Today, we're going to talk about how AtlantiCare
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is transforming care delivery with a connected health
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system
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and AI powered clinical workflows.
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And joining me for this conversation is Jordan
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Ruck, the CIO at AtlantiCare.
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Jordan, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so
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much for being here today.
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Thank you, Erica. Happy to be here.
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Really happy to have you. And before we
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learn a little bit more about AtlantiCare and
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some of the transformation going on at the
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health system, can you share just a little
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bit more about yourself and your work in
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this space?
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Sure. I'm happy to. So my name is
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Jordan Ruck. I am the chief information officer
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at AtlantiCare.
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I lead our
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organization's
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IT, including all of our technology
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and data,
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AI, and IT operations. So everything from
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cybersecurity and core infrastructure
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to
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our EHR and ERP strategy and adoption.
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I've spent
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more than twenty five years in health care
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IT across
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community hospitals,
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integrated delivery networks,
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and academic medical centers working
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really at the intersection
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of technology
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and strategy.
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I've had the opportunity to grow
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through every layer of health care IT. I
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started my
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career as an h l seven programmer,
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and moved to project management
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and ultimately began leading enterprise wide transformation initiatives,
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which has kinda stuck with me since then.
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Over the course of my career, I've been
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a
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chief innovation officer,
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a chief technology officer, and now, CIO. I
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think what's
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what's remained really constant for me is my
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passion for using technology to improve patient care.
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Well, it's so great to learn more about
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you, Jordan, and to have your expertise on
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the line with us today. What an impressive
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background you have.
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And I think I'd like to start a
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little bit high level here and talk about
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AtlantiCare's
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significant transformation
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that's taking place.
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I understand that transformation is part of its
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vision 2030 strategy.
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So I'd love for you to briefly touch
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on this initiative,
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maybe give our listeners a little bit more
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context there.
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And as CIO, from your perspective, what role
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has Oracle played in helping guide the organization
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through this transformation?
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Vision twenty thirty is AtlantiCare's strategic plan to
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redefine health care delivery in our region
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through
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innovation,
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workforce empowerment, and community centered care
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are
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programs built on four pillars,
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serving the community,
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workplace excellence,
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accelerating transformation,
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and growing market share.
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And Vision twenty thirty is really what drew
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me to AtlantiCare.
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It's
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has tangible
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community focused goals. So it's not an abstract
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strategy.
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It has very clear targets like
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in like goals for reducing unsheltered homelessness
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by 20%
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and
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expanding life expectancy
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in our in our community by five years.
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And from my perspective, that level of commitment
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is is rare in health care. So it
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was really exciting.
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From a accelerating transformation
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standpoint,
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one of the four pillars,
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Oracle's been a really critical partner.
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So together, we're implementing
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Oracle's latest EHR.
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We're implementing
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Oracle Fusion, the ERP platform,
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Oracle Health patient accounting,
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life sciences,
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and and others. In total, we're delivering
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more than 20 new solutions
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and more than 60 capabilities
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across six work streams.
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We're moving most of our on premises data
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center applications
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to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
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And
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right now, we're about halfway through,
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the overall program.
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So we have a six wave transformation, and
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three three of the six waves are done.
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Really, the the through line across all of
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this work is
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a connected,
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secure data foundation that
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improves outcomes,
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simplifies
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our workflows across clinical and administrative,
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and enhances
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the day to day experience for clinicians, staff,
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and patients.
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So, Jordan, I know you mentioned a big
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part of this transformation
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is creating a more connected system across clinical
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and operational workflows.
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And I'd love to know kind of at
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a more ground level what that single connected
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system, what it actually means for AtlantiCare,
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and how does having more connected data and
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technology
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actually help improve the experience for both physicians
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and patients?
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Yeah. The the connected data and technology
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is really where it gets exciting. So for
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AtlantiCare,
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a single connected system means
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seamless integration
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between our enterprise resource planning systems
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and our electronic health record.
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And the integration is foundational, so not just
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to operational efficiency,
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but to keeping patient care
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at the center of everything we do.
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I think, as you know, health care has
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made
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incredible advancements over the past decade,
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but the reality is most health systems still
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operate with deeply fragmented business processes.
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So
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supply chain,
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HR,
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revenue cycle,
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ancillary systems, and the EHR
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largely function in silos across the country.
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Point solutions
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have helped, but
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no health system
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has truly achieved end to end integration across
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these domains.
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And AtlantiCare,
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in partnership with Oracle, is gonna change that.
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And it's not just a technology initiative. It's
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it's a transformation
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in how care and operations are connected.
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So by
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deliberately aligning ERP and EHR capabilities,
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we're able to link demand to staffing,
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supply chain, and financial operations,
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and it creates a more responsive,
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resilient, and patient centered health system overall. So
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let me give you a couple practical examples.
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That always helps me understand a little bit
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better what what the impact will be.
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So the first one is workforce optimization.
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So with integrated data,
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we can make smarter decisions based on patient
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acuity,
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department workload,
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clinician skills,
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credentials,
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and availability.
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We're moving forward toward smart scheduling
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that aligns clinical demand from the EHR
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with workforce management data infusion
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and even predictive scheduling models that
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anticipate volume based on seasonality
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so we can proactively address staffing shortages before
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they have an impact.
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Another practical example is our global item master.
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So today, most health systems maintain
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multiple versions
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of the same item
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across many different systems in in their environment.
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So take the example of a pacemaker.
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We have a record of the pacemaker
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in our supply chain system, and we have
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the supplier information. We have the cost. We
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have the manufacturer,
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how many on hand.
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We have another copy of the pacemaker in
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the EHR
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to track the procedure,
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who's performing the surgery,
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the implantable device information,
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the documentation for the procedure, etcetera.
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Many many health systems also have a third
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or fourth copy
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of that same pacemaker in the dedicated
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cardiovascular
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information system
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and another copy or two in the finance
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and billing systems.
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So
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by standardizing
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on a single Oracle platform,
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we reduce complexity
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and eliminate a a lot of redundancy
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and ultimately support safer, more efficient patient care.
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And this this same paradigm, I think, applies
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to any industry, not just health care. If
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you have four or five copies of the
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same item,
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you're not operating in an efficient way.
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Yeah.
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Jordan, appreciate the examples.
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They did a really nice job of giving
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our listeners some really rich detail here. And
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I know you had noted in your first
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example
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this idea of workforce optimization.
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And so I wanna touch on administrative burden
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as it relates to workforce optimization.
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We know that's a major priority across health
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care right now is reducing that burden.
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And AtlantiCare recently implemented Oracle's clinical AI agent.
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So I'd love to know what that experience
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has been like for your providers so far
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and any impact that you've seen in on
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things like documentation time, satisfaction,
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and the overall patient visit?
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Yeah. CAA has really been a great story
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for AtlantiCare, and
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we were the first customer
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to deploy the clinical AI agent. And we've
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been part of that journey with Oracle since
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2024.
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The impact's been really significant. So
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since
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implementing the technology, we have a few metrics
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that we've been tracking.
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And we look at the amount of time
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spent in the EHR overall,
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and we look at the amount of time
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spent specifically in documentation.
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And we measure it per provider, per patient
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before the use of the technology
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and obviously after the use of the technology.
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And what we've seen
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is a 40% reduction
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in documentation
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time
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and a 30%
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reduction in EMR time.
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So really significant numbers. The feedback
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from the tool has been
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overwhelmingly
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positive.
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So clinicians
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consistently tell us they're able to focus more
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on the patient
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and less on the computer, which is really
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exactly the outcome we're we're hoping for.
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Based on that success on the ambulatory
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side,
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we've already rolled out the clinical AI agent
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across all of our emergency departments as well.
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We're We're preparing to go live with the
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clinical AI agent for nursing in the coming
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months, and it's especially exciting because it extends
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those same benefits to nurses.
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And at most health care organizations, nurses are
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either near or the majority of the work
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force, so really big impact on our on
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our ability to be efficient.
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But our nurses are gonna be able to
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use
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voice enabled documentation,
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intelligent prompts, and have streamlined chart navigation
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to support their assessments,
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their rounding,
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and their ability to search the chart.
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So we see this as
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redefining the nurse EHR relationship, and I think
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that work is long overdue.
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Yeah.
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It's an exciting next step, Jordan, and I
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appreciate all the details you've shared about the
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transformation with our listeners so far. I think
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we've got a really nice view of what
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that is looking like on the ground at
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AtlantiCare right now. And as you look ahead,
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how do you see AI continuing to shape
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care delivery and operations at the health system?
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And beyond clinical documentation,
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where are you seeing the biggest opportunities for
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AI and more connected tech platforms to really
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transform care in the next few years.
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Yeah. Erica, there's no shortage of AI agents
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in the market right now,
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which is why strong governance is critical. So
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we have a formal governance committee
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that
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evaluates where AI
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can deliver real value
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and where AtlantiCare is gonna invest. So our
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our governance committee has representation
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from across our health system,
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and we're all extremely excited about the future.
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But we're taking the time to ensure that
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the solutions we're deploying have been fully tested
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and validated before using them in production. That
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that's a really important point in health care.
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However, we're planning to roll out agents
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across
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clinical operations,
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finance,
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HR, supply chain,
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patient experience, and in our command center.
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I'm particularly excited about
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agents that focus on where clinicians spend the
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most time
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in the EHR. So when we started this
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program,
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we laid out the areas in the system
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where the most time is spent.
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And areas like
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searching for a piece of documentation, maybe a
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scanned document that isn't indexed in a way
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that makes it easy to find,
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or discharge planning,
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these are areas where
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there is a lot of time spent in
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the system. There's a lot of clicks. And
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we've been able to improve, as I mentioned,
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documentation
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time
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on the ambulatory
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side by 40%, and I I wanna see
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the same thing happen across other areas.
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I'm also looking forward to our ability to
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make improvements to administrative functions,
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like prior authorization
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and predictive scheduling,
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patient throughput, OR utilization,
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and on the HR side, our process for
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onboarding and employee retention.
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There are agents to support all of these
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functions,
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similar to on the clinical side, but on
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the administrative side.
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And another the third area that I'm really
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excited about
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is AI for patient engagement.
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So Oracle's made major investments in the new
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portal,
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which aligns
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very closely with AtlantiCare's priorities and our our
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vision to create a more
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connected
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consumer grade health care experience. So our, you
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know, our patients and our communities are looking
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for their interactions with health care to be
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like their interactions with retail
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and with other industries, and, you know, we
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wanna help get there.
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The next generation portal
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is going live in October for AtlantiCare, and
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it's gonna streamline how our patients interact with
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AtlantiCare.
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We wanna make the process to navigate their
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records intuitive.
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We wanna offer convenient registration and check-in,
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help making appointment scheduling easy, and all of
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those workflows
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are really supported with AI
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and
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guide the patient through those experiences.
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So in summary, I'm ultimately,
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AI, when it's paired with a connected platform,
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I think particularly when it's fully integrated,
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you know, all of these are native solutions
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in Oracle,
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which is a big differentiator. It
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all of this allows our team to
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free up from administrative work so they can
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focus on what matters most. And I think
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one thing we can all agree on is
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that's caring for our patients and improving the
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health of our communities.
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So well said, Jordan. And, I mean, it
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sounds like there is just an incredible amount
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of innovation going on at AtlantiCare. So I
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appreciate you breaking it all down for our
15:45
listeners, telling us more about Vision twenty thirty,
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where Oracle support has factored in. It's been
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a really great conversation, and I just wanna
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thank you again, Jordan, for making the time.
15:55
Yeah. My pleasure. Great talking, Erica.
15:58
And we'd also like to thank our podcast
16:00
sponsor for today, Oracle Health.
16:03
Listeners, be sure to tune in to more
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podcasts from Becker's by visiting our podcast page
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at beckershospitalreview.com.