Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Ethan Booker, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Telehealth and Medical Director of MedStar Telehealth Innovation Center at MedStar Health
Transcript
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- 0:23This is Laura Deda with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
- 0:26I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Ethan Booker,
- 0:28chief Medical Officer of Telehealth and Medical director of MedStar Telehealth
- 0:32Innovation Center at MedStar Health. Dr.
- 0:34Booker is a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- 0:36Thank you, Laura. Thanks for having me.
- 0:38Now, I know we have a lot to talk about,
- 0:40and I'm excited to get into the meat of our discussion because I know Telehealth
- 0:44and virtual care is something that is on the top of so many minds in healthcare
- 0:48today, and really making sure doing it right is a top priority.
- 0:51But before we dive into that larger discussion,
- 0:53could you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background? Sure.
- 0:57I think it's,
- 0:58it's useful to kind of set me within the context of my health system, I think.
- 1:03So as you mentioned,
- 1:04I'm the Chief Medical Officer for Telehealth at MedStar Health,
- 1:07which is kind of an interesting role, not a,
- 1:09not a role we needed a few years ago,
- 1:11and one that I've grown into as our health system's capabilities in telehealth,
- 1:15uh, have come along. So, um,
- 1:18MedStar Health is the largest healthcare provider in the Maryland and Washington
- 1:22DC region. Um, spread out over more than 300 locations in 10 hospitals,
- 1:27uh, urgent care clinics, ambulatory care centers,
- 1:29really all of the features of a regional, uh, health system,
- 1:34including a focus on, on the academics that we produce and research,
- 1:39education and training. Uh, and our, uh,
- 1:42when you sort of flagship academic hospital, MedStar,
- 1:45Georgetown University Hospital,
- 1:48the journey that I have had myself as I'm,
- 1:51I'm an emergency physician and I've been working clinically at MedStar MedStar
- 1:55Washington Hospital Center in DC for, uh, this will make 18 years,
- 2:00uh, now,
- 2:01and have had the opportunity to work in a variety of areas around innovation and
- 2:06improvement, um, air medical transport, uh, that kind of thing.
- 2:11And starting in 2015 began to have the opportunity to use telehealth to
- 2:16improve operations in our emergency departments. Uh,
- 2:20and so in 2017 when the MedStar Institute for Innovation,
- 2:24where I sit now, uh, chartered the MedStar Telehealth Innovation Center,
- 2:29uh, I came on board in partnership with Bill Sheehan, my boss,
- 2:33the Chief Innovation Officer, uh, now of MedStar Health. Uh,
- 2:38and we began to build the capabilities, uh, of,
- 2:41of telehealth that really prepared us for, uh, the moment, uh,
- 2:45in March of 2020 when much of what we built, uh, came to fruition.
- 2:50And I think we'll probably spend some time talking about the journey from,
- 2:54from that date onward and, and where we're at now.
- 2:58Absolutely. I think that's such a great point because for so many,
- 3:01that inflection point of the pandemic beginning really put them down, uh,
- 3:06a very fast paced journey towards virtual care and telehealth,
- 3:09and one that they weren't necessarily prepared for at the beginning,
- 3:12but you know, now are really able to lean into and become, uh,
- 3:16advanced within that technology in that space. So based on your experience,
- 3:20and especially the last two years,
- 3:21what are you seeing as some of the big opportunities as well as headwinds that
- 3:25you have your eye on?
- 3:27Yeah, I think there continues to be, um, you know, a lot of excitement, uh,
- 3:31about the opportunities that are in front of us in telehealth and,
- 3:35and using those tools really to expand the envelope of,
- 3:39of the way that we care for folks. You know, we're really excited that,
- 3:42you know, just recently in, in March of 2023,
- 3:46we surpassed 2 million telehealth encounters over the,
- 3:49that three year increment that I, that I mentioned starting in March of 2020.
- 3:54And as an, an academic health center, we're, um,
- 3:58excited about the opportunities to develop better learning in that space,
- 4:02including research that,
- 4:04that I co-lead with partners in the MedStar Health Research Institute,
- 4:08as well as partners at Stanford and Intermountain in the,
- 4:11the Connected Care Access Research Equity and Safety Consortium, the,
- 4:15the Connected Care and Safety Consortium for short, um, that,
- 4:18that is supported by grant work from A H R Q that we're just really excited
- 4:22about the opportunities to focus on safety and quality in the
- 4:27delivery of telehealth. I think those are some of the opportunities that we're,
- 4:30that we're really excited about. Lets kind of demonstrate, um, the,
- 4:35the success that one can have and really changing the care model for,
- 4:39for the way we, we care for patients. And I think that's really, you know,
- 4:43the big opportunities here are, are about creating continuity with patients,
- 4:48really creating an experience that that is,
- 4:52is or can be ubiquitous without being invasive, uh,
- 4:56to really change the, the model of care delivery and think, uh,
- 5:00really about the care delivery as opposed to the location per se. Um,
- 5:05so those are the, some of the opportunities kind of in a,
- 5:08in a global sense that we're excited about. Um,
- 5:12I think that the headwinds, as you mentioned, um, are kind of,
- 5:16they're kind of twofold in some ways, um, or at least how i,
- 5:20I am experiencing them myself in, in, in our organization.
- 5:24The major one that's external is really the evolving telehealth policy
- 5:28landscape. Um,
- 5:30and that is a really complicated one because it's not just sort of one set of
- 5:34rules. It is the rules that are determined at the federal level,
- 5:40um, by acts of Congress, by the regulatory environment, uh, of the,
- 5:43the many agencies that are involved, whether that's hhs, um,
- 5:48and Medicare rules,
- 5:49or how it is that they guide states and Medicaid implementation, uh,
- 5:53as well as other regulatory agencies like DEA regarding controlled
- 5:58substances, and then each of the states individually, uh,
- 6:03having their own, uh, rules and regulations and reimbursement landscapes,
- 6:08which really does create a significant headwind for how it is that we move
- 6:12forward. Now, the thing that's really very positive is that,
- 6:17um, the federal legislation, uh,
- 6:20that came out towards the end of the calendar year last year,
- 6:23ongoing guidance from those regulatory agencies is very positive
- 6:29as a whole, um, as is the state environment as a whole.
- 6:34Um,
- 6:34but the complexity of the interaction between the two kind of creates this
- 6:39circumstance of, of some uncertainty, um, about,
- 6:44you know, for any individual provider thinking, well,
- 6:48for the things that I do, what does that mean for me?
- 6:51And what does that mean for me in the way that I approach my patients
- 6:55cohesively? Right? Because it's not as if, particularly around telehealth,
- 6:59you're dealing only with one state jurisdiction,
- 7:01or you're da dealing only with one payer. You really have to approach,
- 7:06you know, a kind of all jurisdiction, all payer model, you know,
- 7:10in a place like, like, uh, MedStar Health spread out over dc, Maryland,
- 7:14and Virginia.
- 7:15That can create the kind of complexity that creates the second headwind,
- 7:19which is one that's internal. And this is true for all health systems,
- 7:23that complexity and uncertainty creates a,
- 7:27a sense of a conservative approach. Um,
- 7:31and so the challenge or headwind that,
- 7:33that is created by those external features comes in the internal environment
- 7:38by trying to help us, you know,
- 7:40we try to be clear with our organization what's permissible,
- 7:45what's reimbursable, uh, what's kind of safe and high quality,
- 7:50what's equitable, uh, that kind of guidance.
- 7:53And we really have to be consistent in that messaging,
- 7:56both understanding it from those external, um, parties,
- 8:00but also being able to communicate it effectively to our own people so that we
- 8:05can remove that uncertainty and that bit of hesitancy, um,
- 8:10that that can prevent us from leading as,
- 8:12as much into these opportunities as we'd really love to. Um, so I,
- 8:17I think those are the two things that kind of contribute both that regulatory
- 8:21framework that then creates the uncertainty internally that in
- 8:26some circumstances, not all,
- 8:27but some circumstances just kind of creates a hesitancy, uh,
- 8:31that is the job of our innovation institute, uh,
- 8:34to often innovate around and overcome.
- 8:38Absolutely. I, I think that's such a, a great point. And, you know, definitely,
- 8:42um, with video, that uncertainty, whether it's the regulatory,
- 8:46the telehealth or, or anything else, um, that that's happening,
- 8:49I know change is happening so quickly, and so it,
- 8:52it's great to have that kind of outline of, you know,
- 8:54how do you approach that with your team and,
- 8:56and really keep moving forward even though you know that, you know,
- 9:00there are certain things that aren't set in stone. So I,
- 9:02I really appreciate you doing that. Has the team been pretty responsive?
- 9:06Yeah, I mean, I think it's, it's a question of, of consistency, um,
- 9:11and also kind of, you know,
- 9:12the ability to get in with the team themselves and do the work. Um,
- 9:18as I mentioned, I, I've,
- 9:20I've been an emergency physician in my health system for, uh,
- 9:23for getting close to 18 years now, and I work clinically every week,
- 9:28and so experience, uh, what it is to deliver care. Uh,
- 9:32and so I think I have the,
- 9:34the great fortune of being able to engage with service line leaders and
- 9:37frontline clinicians and, and kind of say like, listen, I know this is hard. Um,
- 9:42uh, but this is, this is an opportunity for us to do, um,
- 9:46a better job of, of providing access to our patients, to,
- 9:50to connect to our patients, um, to be, uh,
- 9:54innovative and flexible about our workforce, um,
- 9:58addressing not only the demands, uh, of a really changing environment for,
- 10:03for hiring and, and retaining workforce, but making sure that that,
- 10:07that they're sort of operating efficiently and effectively and,
- 10:11and doing sort of well in the work that they're doing.
- 10:15And I think those are the things that, you know, approach that way.
- 10:19This is a way to, to improve the access to your patients.
- 10:22This is a way to improve the efficiency of our practices. Um,
- 10:26this is high quality care consistently, I do have,
- 10:31have positive results from folks,
- 10:33and we've had just terrific partnership within our system on, on,
- 10:37and not just kind of pivoting, you know,
- 10:40things we used to do in person to now we can do through a different
- 10:45modality, but really rethinking the model of how we're delivering care.
- 10:50Absolutely. I, I think that makes a lot of sense,
- 10:52and definitely it's inspiring to hear that, you know,
- 10:54you're able to really keep your eye on that goal of better patient care. Now,
- 10:59from your vantage point,
- 11:00and especially what you're doing with the telehealth Innovation Center,
- 11:03how would you really see that adding value to the organization overall?
- 11:07Where do you see big opportunities for growth and how are you measuring that?
- 11:11Sure. I, I mean, I think they come along the same lines that I just described.
- 11:15And so I'll, I'll give you an example of, of, again,
- 11:19not just replacing one thing with another, but really pivoting the model.
- 11:23So we are working with our clinical service lines on a model called
- 11:28Connected Care. Um,
- 11:29the implementation of this most in its most mature firm is in primary care.
- 11:34So in our connected primary care model, we have, um,
- 11:39a workforce and workflow transformation in which we've added
- 11:44new workforce, uh,
- 11:45including nurse practitioners and medical assistants who work a hundred percent
- 11:50remotely, uh,
- 11:51and focus on a handful of activities that we know are gonna be high impact.
- 11:56Um, those activities include same day and next day telehealth, uh,
- 12:01appointments with established patients, because as I pointed out,
- 12:04access is a critical issue. Uh,
- 12:07and so we've been able to improve access to our primary care footprint,
- 12:12um, as measured by third next available appointment. Uh, in those, um,
- 12:17practices in which we've implemented,
- 12:19we're about two thirds of the way through scaling through this implementation,
- 12:23uh,
- 12:23at which point all 360 of our employee and primary care providers
- 12:28will be supported in this model. Now,
- 12:31what was important about the change was not just inserting telehealth
- 12:36to, to drive this change,
- 12:38but we protect nearly 50% of the time of those nurse practitioners
- 12:43to do the kind of asynchronous work, um, that's really important for access,
- 12:47but also, um,
- 12:49was sometimes preventing our primary care physicians from focusing on the
- 12:54face-to-face encounters that they really wanted to be doing.
- 12:57So those activities include things like prescription refills,
- 13:02uh, portal message management, lab follow up,
- 13:05and also opportunities to be the,
- 13:09the supervising clinician for remote patient monitoring for folks with chronic
- 13:13illnesses that are appropriate for that, for that, um, type of service.
- 13:19So, um,
- 13:20the prescription refill in particular is worth pointing out as a, as a way of,
- 13:25of leveraging a remote workforce and asynchronous type of work.
- 13:30And we've also, um,
- 13:32inserted some automations into that process to make it as efficient as possible.
- 13:37And the,
- 13:38the 12 nurse practitioners who are currently in support of our primary care
- 13:42footprint have supported more than 270,000
- 13:47prescription refills that would've previously been done by primary care
- 13:51physicians, either after hours or,
- 13:54or squeezed in between the appointments where they were seeing patients.
- 13:59So in addition to the,
- 14:00the nearly 20,000 telehealth visits that we've done, um,
- 14:05which were access to our established patients,
- 14:09we were able to take the load of those prescription refills off of,
- 14:13of the primary care physicians.
- 14:15And we've measured the impact of that through a couple of different ways.
- 14:19One of them is about our cycle time to refill these prescriptions,
- 14:23which has improved significantly,
- 14:25but another one is actually after hours EHR time by the
- 14:29supported physicians.
- 14:31So we've been able to demonstrate in some of the practices that have really
- 14:34leaned into this somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% reduction and after hours
- 14:38EHR time for providers.
- 14:41So that's that 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM or 9:00 PM time that most primary
- 14:45care doctors will tell you was, um,
- 14:49every day something that they were doing, uh, and what really was,
- 14:53was not the most fun thing they could do in their practice. And so by,
- 14:57by taking that and being thoughtful about how we manage it, uh,
- 15:01we've been able to allow those primary care physicians to actually have some
- 15:04increased capacity in their day to see new patients or more
- 15:09complex patients. And so in addition to generating the,
- 15:13the novel revenue of those telehealth visits for the nurse practitioners,
- 15:17the productivity of the supported physicians has also gone up.
- 15:22This is a model that is entirely additive.
- 15:25It's not just moving fingers around from one to another. Um,
- 15:31and the impact of patients has really been significant. We,
- 15:33like a lot of health systems use press gainy to understand the experience of our
- 15:38patients, uh,
- 15:39and we've seen some really significant improvements in percentile rankings,
- 15:43particularly along the lines of access, uh,
- 15:46of our patient experience scores as we've scaled this model through our primary
- 15:50care footprint. Um, right now we're also using this model,
- 15:54not an exact replication,
- 15:56but really a framework of how we think about using these technologies, uh,
- 16:01in cardiology. Uh,
- 16:03and also we're thinking about the opportunities to use this not just as a sort
- 16:07of service line transformation,
- 16:09but to think cohesively about a disease condition or a patient population.
- 16:14So we're also applying this model to diabetes, um, as a,
- 16:18as an approach where we're looking at the opportunities to, uh,
- 16:23engage patients with a chatbot remote patient monitoring, uh,
- 16:27grouped sessions for diabetes education. And again,
- 16:32kind of leaning into the model of how it is we can optimize our resources,
- 16:37which we're a big health system. We have, we have,
- 16:41we are well resourced in many ways, but we,
- 16:44like other health systems are constrained and how do we become very efficient,
- 16:48uh, while also improving the quality of care we deliver? And that's a,
- 16:52a kind of way of thinking about how we use these tools, uh,
- 16:56to really to move forward and not just in a, um,
- 17:00incremental replacement, but really in a, a transformational way.
- 17:07I love that. I, I think it makes so much sense to, um, you know,
- 17:10think through how you can leverage that technology, um,
- 17:13to make things easier for the clinicians as well as patients and, and, uh,
- 17:17become more efficient as an organization.
- 17:19And I really appreciate the detailed way that you went through how you track and
- 17:23measure and think about, you know,
- 17:25what that return on investment for these changes and these technologies are.
- 17:29And speaking of that, I know that, um, you know, um,
- 17:33right now is a particularly challenging time for many industries,
- 17:36but healthcare in particular dealing with inflation and in short staffing from
- 17:41many organizations. And so from your perspective,
- 17:44what do you see as being an important investment or a risk that's still worth
- 17:47taking, taking, um, even as healthcare resources and dollars are precious?
- 17:53Yeah, it's a, it's a great question. I,
- 17:55I think what I laid out for you in our connected care models was focused on the
- 17:59ambulatory environment, you know, um, the, the clinic, the office,
- 18:03the patient's home. Um, but obviously we're a, we're a hospital system. Um,
- 18:08and so, um,
- 18:10there is a significant amount of opportunity in, um,
- 18:14in making smart investments in our inpatient footprint. Um, and,
- 18:20uh, we also have a, a very large, uh, nursing workforce,
- 18:23which is one of the areas that like other health systems,
- 18:28uh, is a risk. Um, and,
- 18:31and our ability to recruit and re and retain nursing staff,
- 18:36uh,
- 18:36is really an important part of where we see value for ourselves going forward.
- 18:41So, um, we think that the inpatient environment,
- 18:45starting at the patient and thinking about the patient's, um,
- 18:50autonomy and control of their environment through technology is an important
- 18:54place to be making an investment,
- 18:56but also one that we can effectively leverage to make ourselves more efficient.
- 19:01Uh, meaning, um,
- 19:03getting more technology at the bedside for the patient to
- 19:07feel connected, um, to their care team,
- 19:11to the services that we provide to their family members, um,
- 19:15as a way of staying connected to them while they're in the hospital,
- 19:18whether they happen to be, you know, just across town or across the country,
- 19:22that digital connection's really important at the bedside,
- 19:26but it also allows us to bring services to the patients such as our palliative
- 19:30care team, uh, which has a really robust capability, uh,
- 19:34and is really leaned into telehealth as a way to deliver those services. Um,
- 19:39our acute pain service, uh, is rounding on patients fairly routinely.
- 19:44Uh,
- 19:44and we're working on ways in which to deliver things like chaplain services and
- 19:49music therapy, uh,
- 19:51and case management to the bedside in a way that is efficient and effective,
- 19:56standardized and centralized throughout our system.
- 20:00So that introduction of technology at the patient bedside in the inpatient
- 20:04setting is a place where we think it's worth making an investment,
- 20:08but it has a set of risks as well. Um,
- 20:11the introduction of new technology to a workflow always comes with the risk of
- 20:16friction.
- 20:17And so kind of an additional part of the investment we've made is a group of,
- 20:21of of our associates that called Telehealth technology coordinators or TTCs,
- 20:27uh, that really grew out of a,
- 20:28a kind of redeployment and volunteer program that started during covid,
- 20:32but it's matured and formalized to be a group of people,
- 20:36non-clinical people, um,
- 20:39who can be quickly dispatched with appropriate technology to a patient's bed ti
- 20:43bedside to kind of proactively prevent that friction from
- 20:48occurring either from the patient side.
- 20:50And really importantly from the nursing side,
- 20:53we want our nurses to be focused on clinical care of patients and not doing
- 20:57these things that are, that are not clinical care, that are,
- 21:01that are not within where they should be spending their time and energy. And,
- 21:06and so the TTC gets to the bedside and facilitates that encounter to make sure
- 21:11it's, it's seamless for the patient, that it's comfortable for the patient,
- 21:15and that if you're a palliative care physician who needs to be engaged with the
- 21:20patient and the patient's family members,
- 21:22you have certainty that that connection's gonna happen.
- 21:26And you yourself don't have to do the troubleshooting as a clinician to
- 21:30make sure that it happens, but it's really all queued up for you.
- 21:34So we think there's great opportunity for an improved experience
- 21:40for patients and their families, uh,
- 21:42in the inpatient setting through greater control of their environment,
- 21:46some autonomy, more connection, more information,
- 21:49more ability to deliver education, a more seamless, um,
- 21:53transition back into the, their home in the ambulatory setting, uh,
- 21:57but also for us to be more efficient as a business to distribute
- 22:02services more effectively. But, and,
- 22:06and that may come at, you know,
- 22:09we wanna make sure it doesn't come at the cost of distracting
- 22:13clinicians from doing the work they should be focused on.
- 22:16And so we've made that investment for someone who's really proactively there to
- 22:20make sure it doesn't become an environmental full of friction.
- 22:24That's such a great point. Dr. Booker, thank you so much for, um,
- 22:28jumping in and talking through all of that. Now I know we're, um,
- 22:32ha have had a great conversation. And before we wrap up, I just wanted to know,
- 22:35is there anything else you see as great opportunities for growth in the future
- 22:38or anything else you wanted to leave us with?
- 22:42Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know,
- 22:43I started by talking about opportunities for continuity. You know,
- 22:47I mentioned this connected care environment I mentioned, um,
- 22:51talking about the inpatient environment and,
- 22:54and some more patient technology there that allows a more seamless
- 22:58transition back home, back to the ambulatory environment. And I, I,
- 23:03I think, you know, just sort of again, globally strategically,
- 23:08the opportunities to really create continuity, um,
- 23:12and what I would describe as, as a,
- 23:14a ubiquitous experience without being invasive is really
- 23:19where the opportunities are for growth. Um, and what I mean by that,
- 23:23ubiquitous but non-invasive experience would include things like remote patient
- 23:28monitoring,
- 23:29partnering with patients to understand their own consumer wearables.
- 23:35Um,
- 23:35really thinking about a cohesive approach to partnership with patients
- 23:40about the data they are collecting in many ways themselves, uh,
- 23:45and how we can create for them a climate of care, um,
- 23:50that is less dependent upon the locations where they happen to
- 23:55be for care. Um, meaning not just at home,
- 23:58but at work and in transition and as they go to visit family and friends
- 24:03and, and really being available to our patients in a way that is
- 24:08really continuous and comprehensive. Uh,
- 24:12and to do that in a way that also meets the needs, um,
- 24:16that they're likely gonna have proactively, uh,
- 24:19and rather rather than waiting reactively for an encounter to occur.
- 24:24Um, and I think there's gonna be lots of different pieces and parts, uh,
- 24:28to do that effectively. That means thoughtful change about our ehr, um,
- 24:32which is still encounter based. Uh, it means thoughtful, um,
- 24:37changes about data, data security, um,
- 24:40how we collaborate with patients on the data they're collecting themselves and
- 24:44how we visualize it, how we manage the noise of all of that.
- 24:49Um, so I think there are definitely challenges in there,
- 24:53but I see great opportunity, um,
- 24:56for application in that space of really thinking about ubiquity, um,
- 25:01and continuity.
- 25:03Absolutely. Dr. Booker, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
- 25:06This has been such a fun and interesting conversation,
- 25:08and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
- 25:11Great. My pleasure. Laura.
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