Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Kevin Bidtah, Chief Information and Inclusion Officer at Evergreen Health New York

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Kevin Bidtah, Chief Information and Inclusion Officer at Evergreen Health New York · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  This is Scott King with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Kevin Binta,
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  chief information inclusion officer at Evergreen Health New
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  York. Kevin, thanks so much for joining us
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  on podcast day. How are you doing? I'm
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  doing well. It's great to join you all.
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  Appreciate you jumping on. I, you know, I
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  think we're gonna dive into a lot of
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  the big opportunities and challenges in health care
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  today. But before we jump in, can you
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  please just tell us a bit more about
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  yourself and your background?
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  Sure.
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  I'm yeah. Like I said, I'm the chief
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  information inclusion officer here at Evergreen Health.
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  Maybe a little bit about Evergreen. It's a
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  FQHC look alike. It actually started forty years
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  ago as an organization that provided
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  social
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  services for people living with HIV and AIDS,
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  and it's expanded since we expanded service delivery
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  to provide things like housing, transportation, behavioral health,
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  dental, harm reduction services, like our our syringe
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  exchange program, as well as primary care.
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  We have about 10 locations throughout Buffalo and
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  and a Western New York area.
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  As for me, I started actually about 25
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  ago here at Evergreen.
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  I started in that social
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  care space, and then
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  maybe about ten years into it, I switched
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  over to technology and data and, really built
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  the team
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  from there. So that's been my background as
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  far as providing support here and the services
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  I do.
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  What accomplishment
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  in the last year at over at Evergreen
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  Health New York are you most proud of?
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  Honestly, it's the, it's probably the the and
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  in my title, the the and inclusion officer.
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  Last year, I would say
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  we had some changes in the DEIB space
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  with our leadership, so I stepped up just
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  to help support,
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  the CEO at that time.
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  And,
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  honestly, it was really just setting up some
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  infrastructure with that team and improving process.
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  I would say we we found ways to
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  track success,
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  through both qualitative and quantitative metrics.
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  We identified three priorities for that team.
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  We called it employees, patients, and community.
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  And then in about
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  towards the end of the year, about q
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  four, I handed that oversight over as we
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  brought on, new team members on board to
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  support that work. But for me, it was
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  honestly that work.
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  The CEO felt like I
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  the way I ran my team, the way
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  I supported my team, he wanted he felt
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  like I could handle that role, and it
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  would be a natural fit. And I I
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  honestly really enjoyed doing that work.
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  I appreciate you sharing. It's nice to hear
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  about the the personal journey there. What are
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  the big organizational goals you've set for 2025?
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  Big organizational goals,
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  probably gonna
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  focus a little bit more on the technology.
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  I would say, generally, it's optimization.
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  We purchased
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  different technologies,
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  throughout the organization, and now we're we're circling
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  back. You know, we're about year three, four,
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  five on some of these
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  different technologies, and we're circling back to those
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  teams to kinda look at areas that we
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  can provide some optimization,
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  things we can do better.
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  The way I kinda describe it is, you
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  know, we we bought something that can do
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  10 things, and we we started out and
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  said, well, we wanted to only do three
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  things until we get a good handle on
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  it. So now we're gonna look at what
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  other things besides three things that we wanted
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  to do that, we can turn on and
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  and see if we can get moving forward.
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  So those are some of the bigger growth
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  opportunities for us,
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  as far as the organization.
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  And then, I would say the other thing
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  that's public that we announced,
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  recently is that we're
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  putting up a new building,
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  over in another part of Buffalo,
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  and,
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  we're pretty excited about that. It should be
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  opening,
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  mid twenty twenty six.
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  That's great.
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  What headwinds do you anticipate for the next
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  year or two?
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  For me, in particular, my team,
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  I think the biggest thing for my team
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  is is leadership development. Honestly, not even technical,
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  it's just, leadership. I think we've got folks
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  who are excellent at their technical training, their,
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  where they stand. But,
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  as they continue on their career path,
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  we've just identified that there's there's a few
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  folks there that
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  want to be better leaders for their teams.
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  And so I part of my role, I
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  feel like, is to make it my responsibility
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  to find the training, the resources,
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  all of those opportunities for them to support
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  their development and growth.
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  And so that's something that I've always done.
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  I've got 70% of my leaders on my
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  team are women.
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  About 60% of them in in the overall
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  team are women as well. So I truly
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  try to make room,
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  and standing up for them. And,
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  especially in the technology space, it's it's not
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  normal
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  for you to hear, you know, having so
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  many women in that space and being empowered
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  to grow and learn and take leadership roles.
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  You're talking about the the leadership team there.
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  For you specifically,
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  have you evolved as a leader?
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  I think it's for me, I I know
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  that
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  two things. One is,
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  how do I support my team?
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  I think for me,
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  there was definitely a shift in in my
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  approach.
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  You know, first, you you start out kind
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  of feeling some of that.
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  Maybe it's imposter syndrome, like, maybe I'm not
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  fit for this. And it's it's totally self
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  focused.
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  I mean, what what can I do for
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  myself?
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  What can I do to be better or
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  to grow?
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  At some point along the way, just in
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  talking with some of my friends, peers, and
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  and mentors,
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  I realized that if I focus on my
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  team, I really enjoy that. I really enjoy
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  spending time thinking about them and their development
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  and how I support them in getting in
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  getting the work done. So that I I
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  think that was a big shift for me
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  as far as, my own development
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  and,
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  I guess, taking a different perspective on how
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  I lead the team.
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  Kevin, thanks so much for joining us on
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  podcast today. I thought it was a great
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  conversation. I look forward to working with you
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  again soon.
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  Yeah. Thank you so much.