Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Pooja Vyas, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at BJC Christian Hospital

Transcript

Pooja Vyas, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at BJC Christian Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  Hi. Welcome to the Becker Health care podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm Paige 20. I'm a assistant editor here
• 0:05
  at Becker Healthcare care, and I'm thrilled to
• 0:08
  interview. Doctor. P Via today. She joined us
• 0:11
  from Bj Christian Hospital as Vice President and
• 0:15
  Chief Medical Officer.
• 0:16
  You know, thank you so much for, joining
• 0:18
  us, but before we dive in, you know,
• 0:20
  I'd love to have Doctor. Villa, introduce themselves
• 0:24
  and tell us a bit about background.
• 0:27
  Hi. Thank you for having me. So I'm
• 0:29
  an internal medicine
• 0:31
  physician, and I practice as a hospital list.
• 0:33
  I've been at Bj since 2019,
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  and I've been in my current role as
• 0:39
  the Chief Medical Officer for the past 2
• 0:41
  and a half years.
• 0:42
  So
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  thank you for having me. I'm excited to
• 0:45
  be here.
• 0:47
  Yeah. And we're we're honestly thrilled. So can
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  you kind tell me about, you know,
• 0:52
  your most successful project initiative from the past
• 0:55
  few months or even from the past 2
• 0:57
  and a half years that you've been Cmo.
• 1:00
  I would love to. So, you know, the
• 1:02
  1 thing that I'm sure most hospitals are
• 1:05
  trying to tackle is length of stay.
• 1:08
  Last year, we started what we call the
• 1:10
  contemporary care model with our case managers and
• 1:13
  social workers.
• 1:14
  This really helped to align their rule at
• 1:17
  the hospital with what their
• 1:20
  education was that they went to school for.
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  This sort of deviation between the 2 roles
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  helped us improve our length of stay last
• 1:28
  year from I would say
• 1:31
  6.5
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  when we first started to a arrange of
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  0.2 to 5.7
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  when the year ended.
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  To add to those efforts, this year, our
• 1:40
  hospital decided to do inter
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  rounds on our floors.
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  And to just explain our inter
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  rounds are meant for the hospital list.
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  The case manager, social workers, diet,
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  pharmacists,
• 1:55
  and nursing to all come together and discuss
• 1:58
  the patient in a cuddle
• 2:00
  to make sure everybody's on the same page,
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  and, you know our big question is,
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  what is the reason the patient cannot go
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  home today. And we try to help
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  alleviate the barriers to discharge as quickly as
• 2:11
  we can to get the patients back home
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  where they really want to be.
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  So if I heard correctly, the length of
• 2:20
  stay average in days went from 6.5
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  to 5.2
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  dash 5.7
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  range. Was this gonna be expected
• 2:28
  results or product?
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  It was, you know, our overall busy index
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  length of stay dropped significantly,
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  and we're starting to see that our inter
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  rounds are also making an effect. So I
• 2:43
  think by the end of this year, we're
• 2:44
  really hoping to bring down our length of
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  stay even more.
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  Mh.
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  Yeah.
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  Statistic number in mind for that length to
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  stay average by the end of 20 24?
• 2:55
  I would love to surpass 5.2
• 2:58
  if possible, but we'll just see.
• 3:02
  Okay. Right down of my nets, less than
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  5.2.
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  Is the goal.
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  Yes.
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  So whether it's related to Length of stay
• 3:12
  or another initiative,
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  you know, what I've Bj Christian
• 3:16
  is kind of the biggest challenge you expect
• 3:18
  to face in the next coming months.
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  Biggest challenge, you know, I think for us
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  is really to help our patients,
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  get the care that they need outside the
• 3:28
  hospital set setting. We really wanna hire more
• 3:31
  Pcp,
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  get the patients the care they need in
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  the outpatient setting,
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  get them the resources that they need to
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  be able to
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  get to their appointments and help with transportation
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  or
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  get them to healthy food ops, you know,
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  where our hospital is located, we're in a
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  food desert, and it's really difficult for patients
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  to find healthy options when they really needed
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  the most.
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  We have a high diabetes
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  population, lots of patients that have end stage
• 4:01
  renal disease in heart failure.
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  So you can imagine some of these resources
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  are really important for them.
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  I know that 1 thing that we'd love
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  to do is see if there's ways that
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  we can touch those patients so that they
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  don't need to come to the Ed,
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  but the care can be taken care of
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  even at home.
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  There's 2 projects that we're really proud of.
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  1 is our chat program, which is our
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  community health access program.
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  We have community health workers, nurse practice
• 4:30
  social workers helping to reach out to these
• 4:32
  patients. And really, there is no rule. The
• 4:35
  idea is to be able to help the
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  patient in whatever they need to get them
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  the health care that they need. And another
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  program we have is our paramedic program that
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  tries to reach out to our C patients,
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  congestive heart failure patients,
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  We try to get them the care they
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  need at home as well from taking care
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  of their lower extremity edema to any issues
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  with shortness of breath, equipment issues, medication changes
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  and things like that so that they don't
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  have to travel away, and they can get
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  the care they need where they feel the
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  most comfortable?
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  And are those programs the check program in
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  the paramedic program, are those fully flush out
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  or those being launched in, you know, waves
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  or phases?
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  I will say our chat program is pretty
• 5:20
  fully launched.
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  The paramedic program is what I'll say in
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  semi pilot phase. We've done. We've started a
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  while back, and now I think we're starting
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  to
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  get more robust. We're learning from our own
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  process and, you know, just trying to continuously
• 5:36
  improve the program.
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  And I think we're off to a great
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  start.
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  Yes, I mentioned, you, growing just
• 5:44
  overall growing that outpatient, care capabilities, especially in
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  the home.
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  The stuart you mentioned having more of Pcp
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  which I know is a big struggle across
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  the Us with, you know, physician shortages and,
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  you know,
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  expectations and forecasts of, even a larger dear
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  of Pcp,
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  what has been your strategy, your thoughts on,
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  bolstering that workforce.
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  I think we really need to focus on
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  physician well being,
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  you know, to be a primary care provider,
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  it really needs
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  to
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  happen when
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  somebody
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  when somebody is able to spend the time
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  that the patient needs,
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  without worrying about the other burdens of health
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  care is when you can really have a
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  program that works.
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  And I believe that the providers will want
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  to be primary care providers when being a
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  care... A primary care provider becomes a bit
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  easier.
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  Right now, with physicians, there's a lot of
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  you know,
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  administrative burden in terms of
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  documentation and how long
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  documentation takes
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  we spend a lot of time actually away
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  from the bedside, and you rather be with
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  the patient more and be able to problem
• 7:01
  solved together and have those conversations
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  rather than be stuck behind a computer screen.
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  I think artificial intelligence, there's a lot of
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  programs that are coming out that are gonna
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  make it easier for the provider,
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  so that we can spend more time talking
• 7:16
  to the patient rather than being behind a
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  computer screen.
• 7:20
  And also be able to get the patients
• 7:22
  the care they need without having to jump
• 7:25
  through so many hurdles.
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  Do you think those Ai capabilities are viable
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  option of or viable kind of
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  pollution or kind of mitigation strategy to, you
• 7:36
  know, that time spent?
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  Patients and kind of encouraging more to enter
• 7:41
  the physician practices.
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  You know, I do. I think it depends
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  on what you use and how that Ai
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  tool is able to help you. We've piloted
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  a few at our hospitals,
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  and we've learned that
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  1, the user needs to be able to
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  use it. So if the physicians are struggling
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  to use the tool, it's not gonna be
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  helpful. So
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  instead of it, all burden, it's causing more.
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  The other thing is that Ai learns the
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  more you use it. So I do believe
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  that when you find a good product, the
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  more you use it, the more likely it's
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  gonna start to incorporate into your patient to
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  visit and
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  make it easier each, time.
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  The 1 that we use was about just,
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  you know, as scribe and Ai being able
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  to listen to the conversation and creating a
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  note for you that the provider can edit
• 8:31
  afterwards.
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  Just that basic concept is very popular because
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  providers love the idea of not having to
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  write down things or be behind a computer
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  when they're talking to the patient. This really
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  allows you to just have a conversation with
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  the patient, explain the plan, talk about what's
• 8:47
  things the next step. And then once you're
• 8:49
  done with that visit, you could quickly just
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  look at your note even on your phone
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  and and make edits if you need to,
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  and then sign it on your way to
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  your next patient's room.
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  I I feel like what I just said
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  there sounds great, but I think it it
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  will require a lot of work and a
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  lot of education to get the full value
• 9:08
  and benefit out of it.
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  Gotcha. Gotcha. Is there Anything I know we're
• 9:13
  coming up on time, but is there anything
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  that I haven't gotten the chance to ask
• 9:16
  about that you'd like to add or,
• 9:19
  like to mention?
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  Nothing in particular, You know, I think nowadays,
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  being a chief medical officer, you're you're starting
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  to think more
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  about
• 9:30
  strategically growing
• 9:32
  care and increasing access to health care. And
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  I'll say that the work that I've been
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  doing with length of stay or community health
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  or even just trying to tackle some of
• 9:43
  our metrics like quality metrics in in the
• 9:45
  hospital versus read admission rates
• 9:48
  it it really all comes down to us
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  coming out of what the typical Cmo role
• 9:53
  was and and venturing out into areas where
• 9:56
  you learn more about
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  how to really make an influence and
• 10:01
  grow
• 10:03
  financially as well as in quality realm without
• 10:07
  having to decide... Precise 1 or the other.
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  Right. Right. Well, that's all great. I wish
• 10:12
  we could talk more, but we promised our
• 10:14
  podcast
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  short. But, you know, thank you so much,
• 10:16
  For Joining me today,
• 10:18
  ensuring nurse thoughtful and insightful
• 10:20
  points. And for audience, we'd love to see
• 10:23
  you all and for hear more of these
• 10:25
  conversations happening at our upcoming clinical leadership forum
• 10:27
  at the Becker Ceo and Cfo Round table,
• 10:30
  which is taking place Chicago, November 11 through
• 10:33
  to fourteenth.
• 10:34
  There's limited space available, but please let us
• 10:36
  know if you're like to join. Alright. Thank
• 10:38
  you again so much.
• 10:39
  Thank you. In