Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Colleen Mallozzi, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Jefferson Health

Transcript

Colleen Mallozzi, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Jefferson Health · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago, April 13 through the sixteenth.
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  in Chicago.
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  Hi, everyone. You're listening to the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast.
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  I'm Erica Carbajal. Thank you so much for
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  tuning into this episode today. We're honored to
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  have Colleen Malozzi, senior vice president and chief
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  nursing informatics
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  officer at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia joining us
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  today. Colleen, welcome to the podcast.
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  Thanks so much, Erica. Excited to be here
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  with you. Yeah. Thank you so much for
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  for taking the time.
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  To get us started here, can you give
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  us a brief overview of your background in
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  health care and your role at Jefferson?
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  Absolutely.
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  So I've been at Jefferson for just over
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  three years as the CNIO.
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  Prior to that, I spent twelve years at
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  Penn Medicine
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  working.
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  I I cut my teeth as a nurse
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  at Penn in the beginning
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  in electrophysiology
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  and then transitioned into informatics,
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  eventually working for the chief medical information officer
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  for the health system. I spent a significant
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  amount of time working on
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  large scale initiatives during the COVID pandemic that
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  really helped to
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  escalate my interest
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  in the intersection of of clinical care technology
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  and,
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  dealing with big, huge problems.
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  So
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  I I did make the transition over to
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  Jefferson a bit after we stabilized post COVID,
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  and I'm now overseeing
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  a team that covers our 32 hospital academic
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  health system.
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  Jefferson does span across New Jersey and Pennsylvania
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  and goes from Philadelphia up to the Poconos.
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  It truly has a a deep commitment to
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  innovation, which feels makes it the right spot
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  for me because my role sits at the
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  intersection of nursing technology,
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  quality, and operations,
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  but with this very specific focus on clinical
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  bedside work and how technology impacts it.
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  Yeah. No. Thanks for sharing that. Certainly, no
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  shortage of of big huge problems, especially right
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  now. And and at the intersection of tech
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  and and clinical,
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  I know that you had mentioned,
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  earlier this year, not too long ago in
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  a recent interview with Becker's, you talked a
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  little bit about
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  how you spent a lot of 2025
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  digging into how nurses interact with the EHR
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  and how small but meaningful changes, like things
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  like reducing clicks and cleaning up documentation
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  pathways
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  can make a a real difference. So
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  can you walk us through some of those
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  Jefferson has made in this area and the
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  difference that it's made so far?
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  Absolutely.
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  Whenever I'm talking about time with nursing, it
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  it must be at the shoulder with them.
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  So my team and I get out there,
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  and we see what day to day actually
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  looks like. Because as we move further away
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  from the bedside, it's really important that we
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  have the nurse's voice represented in the work
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  that we're doing.
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  So when we're out there, it's easier to
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  see the small things that just add friction
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  and noise to their day.
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  It's
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  technology. It can't it can't be a friction.
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  It has to give time back. If it's
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  not an innovation, then it really becomes noise
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  in their day to day.
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  And by going out and finding
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  small tests of change and looking at small
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  opportunities, it really does add up to a
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  greater good for them. So we had launched
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  a project. We called it very lovingly Project
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  Starlight,
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  and it grounded us in a purpose
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  of looking for the small things, the the
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  nonnegotiable
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  challenges that they're finding
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  that we need to fix.
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  So we went out and we looked at
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  what is the build in the EHR, but
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  then what's the day to day interaction that
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  they're having and focused on
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  really narrowing
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  the amount of time that they're spending.
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  After about a year's worth of work and
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  digging through flow sheets and pick lists and
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  everything else, we're about we were able to
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  take it down about fifteen minutes per nurse
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  per shift. And we're just getting started. We
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  have big huge initiatives coming up. They're gonna
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  help us really,
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  in my opinion,
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  revolutionize the way that our nurses are practicing
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  and documenting in the EHR.
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  So
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  I have a heavy focus on on giving
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  time back to them. Our caregivers deserve to
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  be caregivers
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  and not,
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  you know, technicians that are entering things into
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  a computer. It needs to serve them. Information
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  good information in, great information out.
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  Yeah. Definitely. And and it certainly has been
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  interesting just to hear, you know, over the
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  past year or two even just how you
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  know, there's been so much focus on administrative
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  burden and documentation
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  workflows on the physician side and now really
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  seeing that extend over to the nursing side
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  because there is still much still so much
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  burden there, and it's just a lot of
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  opportunity to to take that down.
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  And I know that,
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  yeah, I know that Jefferson has you mentioned
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  giving caregivers time back and giving them time
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  to be able to to do what they
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  entered medicine to do, which is to deliver
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  care.
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  And, you know, to that point, I know
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  that Jefferson has set a pretty bold goal
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  of giving clinicians back, I think it was
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  10,000,000
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  by by 2028.
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  And, obviously, a big part of that starts
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  with reducing documentation burden. So
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  as you look to 2026,
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  how are you planning to build on that
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  work? What what priorities are top of mind?
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  What headwinds do you anticipate as you look
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  to scale some of these efforts?
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  You are absolutely right. I I do love
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  the homework that you've done with ten million
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  hours by 2028.
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  Boils down in many different ways. But when
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  it comes to nursing, we look at that
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  as thirty minutes per nurse per shift.
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  So an hour a day that we give
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  back to nurses. And
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  and I I wanna be very clear that's
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  not to hand them more patients. It's to
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  let them take a lunch. It's to allow
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  them a breath. It's to help with their
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  well-being
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  and really create a more holistic experience of
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  being a nurse.
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  So
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  ambient listening is a big, huge thing that
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  is going to help us get there. We
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  are set to launch on our first unit
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  on January the week of January 26, and
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  it's taking time, but purposeful
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  design time with our staff. So
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  we are extremely excited to get this technology
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  out there, and what it does is really
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  enable nurses to have a device that's listening,
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  that's gonna help them file documentation into their
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  flow sheet. So have an open, authentic conversation
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  with the patients
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  to allow them to
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  look them in the eye, engage with the
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  family,
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  explain to them the medication that they're holding
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  or the experience that they're going through, coordinate
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  their care
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  instead of having to do all of that,
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  write it down on a piece of paper,
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  and then go sit down and document it.
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  It is it is time, and time is
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  one of the most meaningful things in our
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  lives. So we are very excited to give
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  time back to our nurses.
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  Yeah. No. That's that's great to hear.
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  Are there any, I guess, barriers or challenges
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  you're you're anticipating
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  in rolling this out or even on the
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  the angle of, you know, change management and
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  culture change, anything you're anticipating
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  and trying to plan ahead for on that
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  front?
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  Erica, all of the above.
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  So this is
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  actually a small technology change. The the company
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  who is
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  the company Eats, who have created this, have
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  done the heavy lifting on figuring out the
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  immense and incredible
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  AI behind it. We just put the device
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  down. It is all about change management and
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  cultural
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  shift. So what we're doing and why we're
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  putting the time in, every single nurse will
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  go through simulation
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  of how to do this, how to do
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  what, to nurse out loud.
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  They're going to have to come to three
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  or four one hour sessions to practice. Because
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  right now, nurses do this in their head
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  very, very often, especially the newer to practice
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  nurses who are still getting their bearings, getting
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  that maturity, and,
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  practice
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  nurses who are still getting their bearings, getting
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  that maturity and confidence in how they assess
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  their patients.
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  They are less likely to do it out
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  loud with their patients, and ambient requires nursing
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  out loud.
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  So we are taking that hands on time,
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  that hands on approach to manage the change.
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  We
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  start by working with the manager, and, actually,
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  we start by looking at the data. So
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  we jumped into our epic data to figure
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  out where we have great opportunity. We looked
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  at our workforce data to figure out, do
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  we have a stable unit who hasn't had
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  a lot of turnover?
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  Do we have a unit that has a
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  mix of new to practice nurses as well
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  as more mature nurses who have had some
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  time under their belt? And then because we
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  want both. We need both opinions in this,
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  but we need strong leadership from a nurse
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  manager perspective. So we've really honed in on
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  the right people
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  at the right time.
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  And as we get on calls with them
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  and as we get on the unit and
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  start working with them, we're hearing good pushback
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  of, oh, jeez. This feels like this is
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  gonna take me more time. We're like, okay.
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  Good. We need to hear that feedback. It's
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  not. I promise. But the fact that you're
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  thinking that means we need to be clearer
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  about how, why, and when this is gonna
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  have a positive impact on you. And if
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  it doesn't,
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  then we're not doing it.
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  So I am unapologetically
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  going to be saying no in the new
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  year to things that don't serve us, don't
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  serve our nurses, and don't serve our patients.
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  Yeah. And that that's such a relevant and
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  interesting point too just on the the fact
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  that there's such a shift in terms of
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  having to do it out loud and document
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  out loud. I think that's an aspect that
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  we don't hear a ton about, so I'm
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  glad you glad you mentioned that. Mhmm. And
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  I know you said, so planning to launch
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  on a unit in January 2020 this coming
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  year. So and thank you for walking through
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  just helpful to hear about the actual
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  kind of preparation that's going into this and
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  the the sessions that are being held to
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  practice. So is that something that's already been
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  going on or that's something that's starting in
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  the new year?
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  It is January.
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  We start the training of our staff to
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  help train on these simulations. So we're right
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  in the heat of it at this time,
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  with a plan go live with the actual
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  technology at January.
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  So we are living.
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  We are living on this unit,
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  engaging with this staff, and I I can't
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  thank my team enough because they truly have
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  rolled up their sleeves. They are outrageously
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  excited to bring this technology, but really, it's
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  not about the technology. It's about the change
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  in how we practice and engage with staff.
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  We handed our group an EHR. The EHR
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  revolutionized
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  clinical care. Right? Lots and lots of positives,
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  but there are some negative there are some
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  negatives that came with it. Two and a
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  half hours of documentation
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  per shift is a long, long time to
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  either be sitting or in front of a
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  computer
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  just entering information or trying to,
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  get information out of the chart.
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  So we wanna give that we wanna give
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  that back.
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  Yeah. Certainly.
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  Well, Colleen, what do you see as some
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  of, like, the best opportunities for organizational growth
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  in the year ahead and how this work
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  ties into growth
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  across the system?
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  I think from a a growth perspective,
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  I mean, there's
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  there's lots to be figured out. There's a
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  lot of financial pressures, but we really need
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  to acknowledge more of the workforce shortages
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  that are challenging us. I think we've stabilized
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  from a turnover perspective post COVID.
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  But from a growth perspective, it has to
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  be
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  keeping and retaining
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  people and being able to manage that we
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  may have patient care tech shortages or EVS
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  workers.
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  And how do we keep keep a stable
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  environment
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  with those potential shortages coming in in all
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  different areas?
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  We have pressures in our supply chain that
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  may make it hard to get the resources
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  that we need.
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  I I think AI sits at the center
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  of all of that. It helps us to
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  be able to plan and react and be
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  more nimble
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  from a business process perspective.
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  It helps us to get the reimbursements that
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  we need to be able to get a
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  bottom line that's sustainable
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  to keep our doors open.
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  I think AI has huge potential to unburden
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  the administrators
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  who are overseeing large groups of
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  clinicians. So we think about our nurse managers.
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  Our nurse managers could have anywhere from, you
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  know, 30 to a 100 direct reports,
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  and they need to be present for those
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  individuals that they oversee while also sitting in
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  all of these meetings and doing payroll and
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  making sure that the supplies are where they
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  need to be. So I think we have
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  a great opportunity for artificial intelligence to unburden
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  people, to allow them to do the thing
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  that they signed up to do.
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  And, I I'm really excited to see it.
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  We're seeing a lot on the revenue cycle
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  side, gaining efficiencies very quickly from a billing
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  and coding perspective
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  as we work with our payers to make
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  sure that we're appropriately being reimbursed.
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  And then the coordination of patient care. We
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  have to get people to the right resources
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  in the right place at the right time
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  for them or it's not useful for them,
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  and they'll be right back in our emergency
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  department suffering from the same issue. So technology
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  can help us be smarter
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  at the right point in time.
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  Yeah. Certainly. So much more to come on
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  that front. Colleen, thank you so much for
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  joining us today. It's a pleasure.
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  Thank you. Thank you so much for thinking
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  of me and having me on. I I,
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  I'm really happy to be able
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  to be the voice of so much great
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  work that's going on
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  and talk about the risks and the wonderful
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  potential ahead of us. Things are moving very,
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  very fast,
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  but we are
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  running alongside of it, trying to do the
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  best that we can for our people.
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  Yeah. Love that. Well, it was so great
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  to learn more about the work you're leading
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  at Jefferson and certainly look forward to following
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  up on the Ambient Nursing rollout as well
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  later in 2026.
• 14:37
  Awesome. Alright. Well, thank you so much. Thanks,
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  everyone, and thanks to our listeners.