Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Embracing AI and Workforce Transformation to Shape Healthcare’s Future with Peter Banko

Transcript

Embracing AI and Workforce Transformation to Shape Healthcare’s Future with Peter Banko · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
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  helping you and improving health care for everyone.
• 0:05
  That means building stronger teams and delivering sustainable
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  solutions that truly make a difference.
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  We offer a full spectrum of talent and
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  technical services and deliver cross industry expertise
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  to bring you innovative best practices to solve
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  the problems that we face in health care.
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  We're not just promising you results, we are
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  delivering them. Visit us at insightglobal.com.
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  This is Ella Jeffries reporting live at the
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  Becker's Healthcare twenty twenty six annual meeting. I'm
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  I'm here with Peter Banco, president and CEO
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  of Baystate Health.
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  Peter, thank you so much for joining us
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  today. Thank you for having me. Great. Could
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  you briefly introduce yourself, your role, and the
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  scope of your organization, and what's currently commanding
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  most of your intention as a leader?
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  Peter Banco, president and CEO of Baystate Health.
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  We're
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  the community safety net academic medical center in
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  Western Massachusetts. If we don't do it, nobody
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  does. So large physician group, over 1,300
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  academic community doctors
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  for hospitals, including a children's hospital inside our
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  big academic medical center, and we we have
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  our own health plan.
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  Great. Thank you.
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  Now in a year marked by very rapid
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  change, what recent decision or pivot required the
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  most leadership conviction from yourself,
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  particularly when it came to aligning people, resources,
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  or capabilities?
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  Yeah. We we've been struggling like most organizations
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  in the IT realm. And, in the fall,
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  I my mind was down one path, and,
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  two execs and five docs went to meet
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  with an IT partner, and it tore
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  in the course of a day, the physicians
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  and our one of our chief nursing leaders
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  totally changed my mind about direction. Right? And
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  so we're
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  we're doubling down on,
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  AI. Our semantic layer is being put in
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  now, and so we view AI as a
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  a big opportunity. And I would tell you
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  six to nine months, I was not thinking
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  down that path from a technology end, but
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  we're really
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  gonna implement,
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  new technology
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  tools and AI across our entire platform from
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  clinical all the way to finance and supply
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  chain and HR.
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  Great. Wow. That's awesome.
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  And how did that moment challenge your assumptions,
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  and what did it change about how you
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  approach decision making, talent, or organizational readiness today?
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  Yeah. I was so
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  I thought we were so far behind on
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  the IT piece, and
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  the physicians grabbed onto it immediately. And that
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  so I was a little skeptical, and I
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  kept questioning them. And,
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  they convinced me that this was the past
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  path to go and and leapfrog,
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  but it you're right. It does change The
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  path we're headed down changes
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  everything about us.
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  And I found the physicians and clinical leaders
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  were more receptive than the kind of the
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  business leaders, which convinced me where we're right
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  down the right path. But it's gonna it's
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  gonna change our workforce.
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  It's gonna change how we do work. It's
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  gonna change how we make decisions.
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  And and we're and we're ready for that
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  path, but it's gonna take a lot of
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  change in transition management to get there. Mhmm.
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  Definitely. And I'm sure you're not alone in
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  that along with other health systems.
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  Now when you think about the forces reshaping
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  health care right now, where do you believe
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  leaders need to be more decisive,
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  especially when balancing speed, risk, and having the
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  right teams in the right place? Yeah. We're
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  I think we're in a leadership crisis across
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  all industries, but especially health care. You know,
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  Gallup survey a couple years ago, one in
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  five
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  American workers describe their work environment as miserable.
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  That's the word, and that's a really strong
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  word to describe your work.
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  And I saw a recent Becker's published a
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  b e Smith survey where two thirds of
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  execs
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  were gonna be looking for a job and
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  one third in the next twelve months. So,
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  people are looking for
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  strong leadership,
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  strong teams,
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  and,
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  and recognition and support. So,
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  we've
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  where we need to be more decisive is
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  with our workforce. Right? Supporting teams,
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  nurturing and developing teams, spending time with them,
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  communicating,
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  helping them with change.
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  And, when when things aren't necessarily working, being
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  able to,
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  have the sense of accountability and action to
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  make a change in in people.
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  Definitely.
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  And as sir as uncertainty
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  has become the norm, what leadership habit or
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  mindset has been most critical in keeping your
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  organization and your people moving forward?
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  Yeah. About a year and a half ago,
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  we said, well, what's our view of the
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  world? So we we asked a lot of
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  people, board, community, others, and we developed five
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  things that we thought were pretty certain about
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  the future to hold on to. Mhmm. And
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  and that's been a good guidepost for us.
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  So,
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  you know, we talked about competition and care
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  models, and, we're we're 70%
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  plus government payer mix. So how's that gonna
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  change our world? How do we care for
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  the Medicare, Medicaid population? And those are all
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  fairly certain things that we can all grab
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  onto onto. So it's helped our board
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  say with all the changes and uncertainty at
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  the federal government,
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  most notably. It's just helped our board and
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  leadership and physicians and our team members grab
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  on to something. So we we know here's
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  our here's the five things we think are
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  gonna happen. And and if we just charge
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  towards those directions, we'll be fine. Mhmm. For
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  sure.
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  And, you know, speaking of the future, looking
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  five years ahead, how do you expect global
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  labor dynamics to shape the health care workforce,
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  and what strategic shifts are you making now
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  and to say ahead of that change?
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  I mean, AI is the biggest one. So
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  a lot of those positions in law and
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  finance or answering phones or,
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  people
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  programming are are gonna change.
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  So, you know, we're working we have a
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  lot of low colleges and universities in our
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  area. So we're working with them to to
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  create programs that don't exist anymore. So AI
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  or,
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  certain software based certifications
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  so that we can retool our workforce, but
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  then,
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  ensure we have a workforce of the future.
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  Because there's so many colleges,
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  we're we're growing our own. So we're expanding
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  our med school class. We're expanding our residency
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  programs,
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  expanding partnerships with UMass Amherst and other local
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  universities
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  just to train the right people that we
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  need because we don't think unless we grow
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  our own, we don't think there's gonna be
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  the workforce to do what we need to
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  do. Mhmm. Yeah. No. That's really great important
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  initiative. So glad to hear that. Well, thank
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  you so much, Peter, for joining me today.
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  It was great to have you on the
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  podcast, and enjoy the rest of your annual
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  meeting. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.