Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Dr. Patrick McGill, EVP and Chief Transformation Officer at Community Health Network

Transcript

Dr. Patrick McGill, EVP and Chief Transformation Officer at Community Health Network · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's Health
• 0:02
  Care podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined
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  by doctor Patrick McGill, chief transformation officer at
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  Community Health Network. Doctor McGill, it's a pleasure
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  to have you on the podcast today.
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  Thanks you. Thanks for having me on.
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  Now I'm really looking forward to our discussion
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  because there's so much happening in health care
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  right now, and specifically just looking at technology
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  and how it's transforming the health care space.
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  And so I I'm looking forward to your
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  perspective. But before we dive in, can you
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  tell us a little bit more about yourself
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  and your background?
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  Absolutely.
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  So like you said, Patrick Miguel, I'm the
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  chief transformation officer at Community Health Network.
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  I've been here about 15 years. I'm a
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  family physician by background, still practice
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  patients,
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  clinically.
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  As the chief transformation officer, I have a
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  broad range of responsibilities.
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  I oversee everything from IT and analytics, population
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  health, value based care,
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  health equity. I have some operational areas
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  such as
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  home care,
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  hospice, palliative care, geriatrics.
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  And then recently, we started personalized medicine. So
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  I have personalized medicine,
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  that rolls up to me as well.
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  Wow. There's quite a variety of accountabilities
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  that you have that, you know, really, I
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  can imagine they all weave together very much
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  when you're thinking about the entire spectrum of
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  patient care.
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  Yeah. You're exactly right. Then we've organized ourselves
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  in order to
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  be able to deliver on bringing these things
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  together.
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  And,
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  and and and you're right. When they roll
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  up to one vertical, it's easy to break
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  down some of those silos,
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  resource constraints,
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  and really, deliver on, you know, our brand
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  promise of exceptional care simply delivered. It's easy
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  to
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  allocate resources and have a common vision and
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  strategy
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  and just really move things forward.
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  Well, that's great to hear. Now from your
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  perspective, what are the opportunities and headwinds that
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  you have your eye on right now?
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  I think there's a lot of opportunities.
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  You know, a lot of talk around technology.
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  You know, there's a lot of skepticism on
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  technology. So I think it's a huge opportunity.
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  And one of the things we always talk
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  about is the technology is only gonna continue
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  to get better. So how do we lean
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  in and really see that as an opportunity
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  to,
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  drive that patient experience, drive the caregiver experience,
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  but really,
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  you know,
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  drive down the cost of care,
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  and just really make the entire
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  health care platform
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  better. You know, I think there's from headwinds,
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  I think there's some short term headwinds.
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  Certainly, what's gonna happen in the regulatory
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  space with the upcoming election,
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  artificial intelligence,
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  Medicare Advantage, that's been in the news quite
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  a bit. Certainly,
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  any changes in the economy,
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  the challenges that we've had recently from the
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  pandemic and after with the workforce, those challenges
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  and headwinds
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  continue. I think there's some long term headwinds
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  that we have to address. You know, what's
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  happening with our population, the aging population, and
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  is the health system gonna be able to
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  sustain,
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  the aging population? And how do we configure
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  ourselves,
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  to be able to do that, especially with
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  provider shortages, nursing shortages, and some of the
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  other challenges that we have?
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  Absolutely.
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  You know, I know there's, as you mentioned,
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  just across the board so much that, you
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  have to think about right now as a
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  leader in health care and really, you know,
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  technology, it seems like, gets into many of
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  those spaces and can be,
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  in part, potentially a solution in some ways,
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  whether it's looking at,
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  you know, the staffing challenges or how you're
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  utilizing
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  it with the revenue cycle or operations in
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  in clinical care. And I know you mentioned
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  precision medicine too,
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  funneling up to you. And and so,
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  it's it's really cool to just kinda think
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  about how all of those
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  areas are are really touching the technology side
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  of things as well.
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  Absolutely. You know, there's a lot of,
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  a lot of moving pieces and parts. And
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  so, again,
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  health care historically has really been
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  vertical vertically organized. You know, it's been primary
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  care, specialty care hospitals, ERs, outpatient.
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  Really, patients expect us to be
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  horizontally
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  integrated,
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  especially when you start to think about,
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  cancer screening, early detection of cancers,
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  treatments,
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  screenings, all these health equity, all these things
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  really coming together.
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  And you're right. The common thread through all
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  of that is technology.
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  Technology is gonna make it easier. We laid
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  the groundwork and the framework
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  many years ago with with, you know, with
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  the implementation of enterprise EMRs, and I think
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  now it's the next evolution, the next wave.
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  And I I'm actually personally
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  very bullish on AI and where AI is
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  gonna take us,
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  in the in the near and long term
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  future.
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  That makes a lot of sense. You know?
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  Really, just fascinating to see how fast AI
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  has grown and make a huge impact on
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  the health care space and, you know, possibilities
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  almost seem endless at this point.
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  But how are you thinking about growth and
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  adding value to, Community Health Network overall?
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  Well, I think the the number one thing
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  that we have to do to really add
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  value and and growth is we have to
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  address the cost of care. The health care
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  is expensive.
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  It's unaffordable for many people.
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  Our our first and foremost thing, we have
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  to address,
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  and bring down the cost of care. You
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  know, when we're thinking about growth, you know,
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  growth is predicated on on being able to
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  have,
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  access for patients. If patients can't get in
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  to see their primary care or specialist,
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  you know, there's no there's no growth. And
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  so how do you open up access but
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  deliver on that exceptional experience?
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  How do we think about opening the funnel
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  for on demand care, that virtual care, whether
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  it's urgent care or other convenience care. So
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  that's how we really feel like we're gonna
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  be able to grow
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  and add value. And, again,
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  technology is woven all throughout that,
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  to be able to deliver on on that
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  growth,
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  but also adding value.
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  That makes a lot of sense. And, you
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  know, it really just,
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  speaks to the mission of health care overall
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  and being able to expand access to care,
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  provide
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  the health care needed, in any many ways
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  for,
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  the folks across the community.
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  And so that primary care challenge, you know,
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  really is, something that I know a lot
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  of hospitals and health systems are trying to
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  figure out and troubleshoot for their own communities.
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  And so being able to leverage that virtual
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  care,
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  in other ways, you know, to to connect
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  with patients and and their providers,
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  seems like a really big opportunity.
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  Absolutely. We we made so
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  much progress through the pandemic with telemedicine and
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  virtual care, and I think we just have
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  to continue to build upon that. You know,
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  certainly, there's a regulatory,
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  component, which, you know, luckily, many many of
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  those regulations have been extended or the rules
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  have been extended.
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  But I think it's it's really how do
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  we drive continued adoption,
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  by patients. You know, a lot of patients
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  still prefer in person face to face care,
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  which is absolutely great. How do we continue
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  to deliver
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  high quality face to face care with with
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  supporting,
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  virtual and telemedicine
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  at the same time?
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  And that it definitely seems like, you know,
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  that striking the right balance for your community
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  and patient base, you know, is definitely
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  top of mind, I can imagine, for a
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  lot of, providers out there. Now, you know,
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  I know right now, as we talked about
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  a bit earlier in the conversation,
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  it is challenging, on the financial side for
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  many hospitals and health systems, you know, from
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  the pandemic to see margins tighten and and
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  not the kind of growth that we've had
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  in the past. And so, you know, when
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  you you look at
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  needing to make the right investments,
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  even on a tight budget, what's still worth
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  investing in this year?
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  We really you know, we're in the process
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  of moving our EMR. We have an enterprise
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  EMR. We're in the process of moving it
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  to the cloud. We really feel strongly about,
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  you know, where technology is moving, where AI,
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  that's gonna,
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  really set us up for the technology platform
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  of the future. So we're very excited.
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  You know, we're also investigating,
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  an enterprise
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  ERP platform. And I think that as we
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  think about workforce and planning
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  and bringing how do we bring down
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  overhead cost and and be more efficient as
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  a business,
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  that's important. And so those are those are
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  2 that like, you're right. You know, the
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  margins are tight,
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  but we've got to make some investments so
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  that we can grow. And then, again, how
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  do we invest,
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  smartly
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  to really,
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  place our bets to open up growth, improve
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  access,
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  lower the cost of care. So we've got
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  some specific technology,
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  investments on patient engagement and outreach. We've got
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  some investments on understanding that patient journey.
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  Those are,
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  those are really where we're focusing,
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  in, you know, late 24 moving into 25.
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  Got it. That makes a lot of sense,
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  and, I just love the focus on the
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  patient, the journey, and the experience there. Is
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  there anything in particular that you're excited about
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  or,
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  feel like has really yielded some good results
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  within those initiatives to just engage patients and
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  and really think smartly about how they're moving
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  through the system?
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  Yeah. We're really excited about a couple partnerships.
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  We've got a partnership with,
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  a company, Lyrio, about precision engagement,
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  precision nudging to get patients into the system.
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  And we've got another partnership with Notable to
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  really outreach the patients and engage them. Super
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  excited about,
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  our partnership with Nuance on ambient listening in
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  the exam room to help make the clinicians
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  more efficient. We just got a lot of
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  a lot of things going on that are
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  that bring a lot of excitement, and I
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  think it's it's an exciting time to be
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  in health care. It's a a scary time
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  to be in health care, but everybody always
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  says that. But I think that we have
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  a lot,
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  to be,
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  forward and a lot to be, the the
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  future is very promising.
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  And I think that we just have to
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  stay focused. And, again, we keep that patient
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  at the center
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  and and and stay true to our values.
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  I think we can deliver on
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  on on those promises.
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  I love that. I think it makes so
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  much sense. Now before we wrap up here,
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  I'm wondering, where do you see some of
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  the best opportunities for growth in the future?
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  I think there's a lot of opportunities.
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  We know that we can't do this alone,
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  so we're we're very excited about many of
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  our partnerships.
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  And so that's a huge opportunity for us.
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  We have to also,
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  through those partnerships, really reimagine how care is
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  delivered,
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  including pushing it closer to home. A lot
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  of patients
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  are gonna want care closer to the home
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  or in the home, so we've got to
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  reimagine how we function as a health system
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  to really move that care closer to the
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  home. And, again, that's that's predicated on some
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  partnerships, and so partnership are predicated on how
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  we train our physicians and nurses and others.
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  And so I think we see a lot
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  of opportunities,
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  in in pushing care closer to the home,
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  making it more patient centered,
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  and really,
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  again, improving access and leveraging technology
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  throughout the entire system.
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  That's amazing to hear. Doctor Miguel, thank you
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  so much for joining us on the podcast
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  today. This has been just a fun and
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  fascinating conversation, and I look forward to connecting
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  with you again soon.
• 11:48
  Absolutely. It's always a pleasure, and I really
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  appreciate the invitation.