Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Kerri Webster, Vice President and Chief Analytics Officer at Children's Hospital Colorado

Transcript

Kerri Webster, Vice President and Chief Analytics Officer at Children's Hospital Colorado · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Hello, everyone. This is Scott King with the
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  Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thrilled today to be joined
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  by Carrie Webster, vice president and chief analytics
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  officer over at Children's Hospital
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  Colorado. Carrie, how are you doing today?
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  Doing well, Scott. How are you? I'm great.
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  You know, weather's not too bad in Chicago.
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  We missed the northern lights as we're talking
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  about before, but, you know, maybe next time
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  it comes around, we'll we'll try to make
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  it.
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  A lot
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  of great topics here to to get to
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  in health care. A lot going on, as
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  always. But before we kinda dive into the
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  questions, just wondering if you could please tell
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  us a little bit about your your background.
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  Sure.
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  As you know, I'm a nurse by training,
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  and my professional journey bridges
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  anything from health care innovation, technology leadership. But,
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  truly, I have a passion for empowering
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  organizations
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  to thrive in a digital era, helping our
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  patients. I think that's why we're here.
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  So I think the intersection between health care
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  and technology
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  helped me shape my perspective on the potential
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  and
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  responsibility that we have in Petersen hospitals.
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  Thanks so much for that background info. And
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  the first thing I I wanted to ask
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  you, Carrie, is what opportunities and headwinds in
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  health care do you kinda have your eye
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  on right now?
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  Well, I imagine that you're never gonna have
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  a conversation in the next couple of years
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  without hearing the word AI.
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  I'm I'm going to say that I do
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  think AI represents one of the most exciting
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  opportunities in our industry,
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  and that's anywhere from predictive analytics,
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  personalizing
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  care,
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  any, you know, large language models, soup to
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  nuts. I I like to joke and say
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  I've been using AI since spell check back
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  in the day.
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  But regardless, I do think that AI has
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  the potential,
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  to transform how we deliver value, which in
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  turn means we're caring for our patients better.
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  I do think these opportunities, we have to
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  be very careful. We can't,
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  use technology in search of a problem. We
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  have to really think about what our problems
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  are and how technology can can shape and
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  change those. And I think that means that
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  the challenges we're facing is we have to
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  make sure that
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  organizations
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  as a whole
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  and individuals
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  are educated about how AI works,
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  understanding
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  where where it might be limited,
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  and then help cultivate those critical thinking around
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  the output.
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  As an analytics leader, I think very critically
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  about the quality of data
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  that's feeding our, AI systems, and I think
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  that's critical.
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  And without our rigorous standards and governance,
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  we might be,
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  introducing some flood logic into our ecosystem.
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  So I think these are some of the
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  things that I think about,
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  from education and collaboration and make sure that
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  we're doing
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  hypervigilance
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  on, what we're producing with these tools.
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  Absolutely.
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  Carrie, you mentioned value. I just curious if
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  you're
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  finding ways to add growth and value to
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  your org,
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  maybe without AI, or or are you still
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  using AI AI to do those things to
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  help with with growth and value?
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  I think a little bit of both.
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  As I alluded to before, I think growth
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  comes from
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  responsible adoption of technologies. They just can't throw
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  AI problems and expect it to everything to
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  be solved.
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  But I think if you foster a culture
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  where critical thinking about any technology,
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  it helps us, across the board. And when
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  you think about adding value, I think about
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  outcomes. I think about are we changing the
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  lives of our patients. So one example where
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  we're not using AI is we've impacted
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  our CLABSI rate
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  with the analytics support. So a partnership between
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  clinical leaders and our analytics team has found
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  a way to deliver real time insights at
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  the fingertips of our clinicians that have helped
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  drive our CLABSI rates down.
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  You mentioned culture. What's a good way to
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  make sure you're
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  implementing the right culture right now with everything
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  going on and all the advances in health
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  care?
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  Oh, that's a great question. I think
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  thinking about
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  the why
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  helps keep the culture in this area of
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  rapid change. In fact, I've spoken to my
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  team about it. I I know people are
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  fatigued by
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  the changes that are coming up in every
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  day,
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  and
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  keeping
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  in touch with why you're here is paramount.
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  And so
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  I think I'm very deliberate about my culture.
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  I make sure that
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  we have, keep our why front and center.
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  We understand that we're here for the kids,
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  and we talk about,
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  practicing ruthless self care. We talk about diversity.
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  We talk about
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  work life balance. And so I think those
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  things are important.
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  Yeah. I think those are all great things
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  to focus on for that culture.
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  Carrie, I also wanna ask you, what do
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  you think is one risk or investment right
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  now,
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  worth making for your system?
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  I don't know if this is a risk
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  or not, but I think and it's not
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  gonna be a very sexy answer. I think
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  we need to start investing
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  in the education,
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  of the citizen data consumer, especially in this
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  digital age.
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  And that means,
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  helping them understand
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  what outputs are coming out, questioning everything,
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  under helping them do prompt engineering as we
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  talk about agentic AI and increment you know,
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  investigating the data.
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  So I think that is it's worthwhile. It
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  might not cost a lot of money, but
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  it is time and people are busy. So
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  I think maybe a little risk because you're
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  taking people away from their jobs, but I
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  think it's worth the investment.
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  No. I I think that's a good answer.
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  With everything going on and how quickly things
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  are moving, just to make sure people understand
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  what they can do and and results.
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  Carrie, where do you see the best opportunities
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  for growth in the future?
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  I think growth in the future relies on
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  us fostering
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  a we talked about culture, a culture of
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  thoughtful engagement with technology. As I said before,
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  clearly understanding what problems we have and how
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  we can leverage that technology to our best
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  advantage.
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  I think,
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  our organization
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  will be able to adapt rapidly and deliver
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  these services
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  if we think about these things problem first,
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  not technology first. And the
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  the growth of technology
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  is is always there. It is gonna keep
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  growing and growing and growing. I think we
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  really need to be problem centered and then
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  adapting
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  that technology
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  to those problems versus the other way around.
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  Hey, Carrie. The last thing I wanted to
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  ask you, I I think, obviously, right now
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  with with systems and and the industry
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  in general and health care, leadership is so
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  important. And there there's so much changing. There's
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  so much at stake. Can you talk a
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  little bit about your leadership journey and and
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  how you evolved as a leader?
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  Yes. Thank you. I, I'm not gonna tell
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  you how long I've been in health care,
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  but a very long time.
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  And,
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  I've learned from the best of the best.
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  And and I think
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  from anywhere from being a charge nurse in
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  a night shift ICU
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  to being a a clinical educator leader to
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  a technology leader, I think authenticity is key.
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  And,
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  just letting people know what is,
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  what's happening, why it's happening, what their roles
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  are. I also believe in having fun. You
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  have to love what you do, and you
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  have to,
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  take that love of what you do and
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  combine that with your passion to make amazing
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  outcomes.
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  Well, Carrie, thanks so much for joining us
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  on the podcast. It was a great conversation.
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  I appreciate all your your expertise, and your
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  insight, and I look forward to working with
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  you again soon. Thanks, Scott. Great to talk
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  to you.