Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Garrett Olin, CIO of Shasta Community Health Center

Transcript

Garrett Olin, CIO of Shasta Community Health Center · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Philips.
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  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Health Care
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  podcast recorded live at the 9th annual health
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  IT Digital Health and RCM conference. I'm joined
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  today by Garrett Olin, CIO at Shasta Community
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  Health Center. Garrett, to get us started, can
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  you please share a little bit about yourself,
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  your background, and your role at your organization?
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  Oh, sure. Yeah. As you said, I'm with,
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  Shasta Community Health Center, in Redding, California. It's
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  in Northern California.
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  My background, I've been a chief information officer
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  for 30 years or so. Also oversee the
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  quality and informatics
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  for the organization.
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  We're a federally qualified health center
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  and outpatient clinics.
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  We have 8 throughout Shasta County.
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  We do primary care, dental, behavioral health,
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  podiatry,
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  chiropractic,
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  optometry,
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  a little bit of everything.
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  Okay.
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  So AI adoption is exploding in health care.
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  In your view, what's the most significant or
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  promising application of this technology right now, and
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  how is this informing your organization's, innovation strategy?
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  So it is exploding.
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  The most significant or promising,
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  you know, some of the the vendors here
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  being able
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  to use AI in imaging,
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  detecting, you know, cancer or tumors or
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  brain bleeds and and what have you. I
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  think that's that's
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  pretty, pretty impressive
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  for ourselves. You know, we're looking at it
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  and other ways that we can being outpatient
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  clinics,
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  how we can
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  make our providers more efficient, you know, reduce
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  the pajama time, things like that.
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  Being able to increase patient access, patient engagements,
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  and just, you know, trying to
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  to get better patient outcomes overall.
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  So on a daily basis, health care leaders
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  like yourself are managing,
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  greater volumes of data and more device ac
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  across a growing number of care settings and
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  populations.
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  In this complex environment, what clinical data integration
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  tools or practices are you seeing drive improvements
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  in patient outcomes and operations?
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  And do you have an example or 2
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  you can share?
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  Yeah. I don't have a data integration tools
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  per se, but a practice you know, we're
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  looking at health equity. You know, we serve
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  an underserved population,
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  and health equity is always on our mind.
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  And
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  one of the things that we have tried
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  and, and it's showing great improvement for patient
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  outcomes, as far as getting screening, cancer screenings,
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  things like that,
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  instead of using,
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  just interpretation
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  services
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  is actually hiring native language speakers,
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  and doing outreach to get them into the
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  clinic, scheduling appointments, getting their screenings done, things
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  like that.
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  We've actually increased our scores from, you know,
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  patients being maybe
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  55, 60% compliant into the high seventies.
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  So coming from, an FQHC
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  with an underserved population,
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  you know, how would you say
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  especially in your role, like, how does your
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  outlook
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  on, you know, new upcoming technologies differ from
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  that of maybe somebody from a larger health
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  system? Like, what additional challenges or I mean,
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  are there things you see that maybe excite
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  you in somebody, like, coming from an organization
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  like yours that might not be as exciting
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  or might be, you know what I mean,
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  different to someone from one of those bigger
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  organizations?
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  Yeah. Obviously, you know, the the bigger organizations
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  for for us, we're about a $75,000,000,
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  you know, budget organization,
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  not a lot of resources,
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  whether it's human or cap or money. Right?
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  Financial.
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  But
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  what excites me is
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  with some of these technologies,
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  I can see how we can improve patient
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  outcomes. Mhmm. Mhmm.
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  One of the things that we're looking at,
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  we just aren't quite there yet, is
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  using AI. You know, we get a new
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  patient in.
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  We want their health records Mhmm. Wherever they
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  come from. And it might be a 500
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  page PDF. Right. Right. Right. Right. The clinician
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  is not going to take the time to
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  look through that document.
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  But using AI,
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  we can summarize what's in there Right. And
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  give the clinician, put that into the EHR
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  as a note Mhmm. Of here's their medical
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  history
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  that maybe has their late their their
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  most recent
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  labs,
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  diagnostics, etcetera. Mhmm. And it gives them a
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  quick overview that they can look at Mhmm.
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  Before they see the patient. Mhmm. And instead
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  of scheduling that 1 hour appointment,
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  maybe we can get it done in 30
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  minutes
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  Right. Which will help patient access. Right? Because
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  now we can see more patients if that's
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  the case. Right. And, hopefully,
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  that can,
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  again, help in patient outcomes in the long
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  term.
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  Can you talk a little bit more about
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  how,
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  technology
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  and AI or other tools might, you know,
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  help that underserved community, like, with the social
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  determinants of health and kind of, you know,
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  help these underserved communities in ways that it
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  might not in, like, a traditional setting?
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  Yeah. Well, we also have a street medicine
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  program. So,
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  you know, talking about interpretation services and things
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  like that, you know, we have our clinicians
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  go out into the woods to the camps.
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  Right? Mhmm. But we have some patients that
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  are are deaf. Mhmm. But using technology interpretation
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  services with an iPad that has cellular services
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  Right. We can now bring an ASL interpreter
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  Right. With video online to That's awesome. Yeah.
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  That connection with the patient and be able
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  to communicate with them in the field. So
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  That's really cool. That's really cool.
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  So how can health care leaders and organizations
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  better support their IT and clinical teams, you
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  know, as they carry out some of these
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  innovation efforts? And, you know, what are some
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  of the common pitfalls here?
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  So I think the the biggest thing is
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  to manage expectations.
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  Mhmm. Right? Mhmm.
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  The the common pitfall, I think, is scope
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  creep.
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  Right? Because we start with, you know, here's
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  our goal, and
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  as we approach it, they keep moving the
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  goalposts. Mhmm.
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  And managing the expectations,
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  you know, with the clinicians
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  on the the business side of things,
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  understanding that, you know, maybe
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  we we have to do this piecemeal. Right?
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  Phase 1, phase 2, etcetera.
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  And it's gonna take some time because
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  there's you always have projects that you're working
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  on, and then there's always something that comes
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  up that is a priority due to some
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  regulation change or what have you. Right.
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  And it may take you away from that
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  project for a little bit, and, and then
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  you have to come back to it again.
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  So just managing those expectations of, you know,
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  are we making progress?
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  And, you know, don't don't move the goalpost.
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  Just, you know, let's let's complete this step
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  and then start the next.
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  So, you know, again, being from an FQHC
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  in your role, do you feel like some
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  of the challenges that go along with that
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  force you to be, you know, maybe more
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  creative and more innovative than, you know, people
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  in your in your similar role, like other
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  larger organizations?
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  Oh, I think so. You know,
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  having having few resources, right, is we have
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  to think
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  of innovative ways,
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  alternate ways to get something done Mhmm. Or
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  negotiate a really good contract. Right. Right. Right.
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  And and we've done that too for for
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  some vendors.
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  You know, we've had some contracts cut
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  67%
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  just so we could just so we could
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  afford to put it in. Right?
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  So we're always, you know, thinking of
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  how can we, you know,
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  we we want the whole pie, but if
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  we can't get the whole pie, how big
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  of a piece can we do Right. With
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  what we have now? Right. And then maybe
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  we have to wait a year and we
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  get the rest of it next year's budget.
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  Right?
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  And like I say, just kinda
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  do what we can Mhmm. And then do
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  the next phase later. So, you know, you
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  said you've been in your role for, what,
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  30 years? Well, I've been a CIO for
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  30 years. Okay. I've been with Shasta Community
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  Health Center for just over a year. Okay.
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  Okay. So in in your years of experience,
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  if you were to talk to, you know,
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  younger leaders in health care or, you know,
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  emerging leaders, you know, what would be your
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  top piece of advice,
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  you know, as they prepare for further advancements
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  in technology
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  and greater demands for care?
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  I think the greatest advice I can give
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  is is never stop learning. Mhmm. Right? You
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  have to be a lifelong learner, be curious,
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  be
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  adaptable
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  because, you know, I I I look at
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  it as,
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  again, right,
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  with the resources that we have Mhmm.
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  I'm always trying to think ahead of what
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  are we gonna do in the future Mhmm.
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  And
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  expect that you're not going to get what
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  you really need. Mhmm. So think of how
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  you can find those alternatives.
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  Right. So I'm
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  always open to talk to vendors. Right? Because
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  I never know who may give me a
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  call or come across my path.
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  And that has actually helped us in in
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  so many different ways. So Mhmm.
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  In
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  my various careers, if you will, because I've
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  been in different industries
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  that that being open to to listen, learn,
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  and and just be prepared that Mhmm. When
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  the time does come, you you can pull
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  the trigger to do that project because you've
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  prepared yourself for that. Mhmm.
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  Well, Garrett, I really appreciate you sharing your
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  expertise,
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  today. Do you have any final thoughts you'd
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  like to leave with our listeners?
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  If you haven't attended, you should come to
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  Becker's conference. It's awesome.
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  All right. Awesome. Well, thank you so much
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  for joining us today on the Becker's healthcare
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  podcast, and you have a lovely rest of
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  your day, sir. Thank you. Thank you.