Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Innovation, Workforce Transformation, and the Future of Value Based Care with Stephen Parodi

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Innovation, Workforce Transformation, and the Future of Value Based Care with Stephen Parodi · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Hi. Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm Kelly Gooch, managing editor at Becker's. And
• 0:05
  I'm thrilled to be joined here today by
• 0:07
  doctor Steven Perotti, executive vice president of external
• 0:09
  affairs communications of BRAN with the Pimenta Federation
• 0:12
  and
• 0:14
  with the Pimenta Medical Group.
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  Doctor Purdy, thank you for joining me today.
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  Really good to be with you today.
• 0:20
  Thank you. And could you, just to start
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  off with, maybe briefly introduce yourself, your role,
• 0:25
  scope of your organization, and what's currently
• 0:28
  bringing the most of your attention as a
• 0:29
  leader right now. Sure. Yeah. So I'm Steve
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  Brody,
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  an executive vice president with the Permanente Federation,
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  and have responsibility for external affairs, which includes
• 0:40
  government relations and advocacy,
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  as well as communications and branding. And that's
• 0:45
  for
• 0:46
  the eight permanent medical groups across the country.
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  So that's 25,000
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  physicians,
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  as well as another 80,000 staff that that
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  those med groups,
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  support.
• 0:57
  I'm also a practicing infectious disease physician just
• 1:00
  by trade.
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  You know, in terms of what is really
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  important now,
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  is projecting
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  both optimism,
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  but realism
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  in this context of
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  government payers as well as the individual markets
• 1:15
  reducing the amount
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  of revenue that's coming in,
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  to the health care system today.
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  And, really, that's pushing,
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  us as an organization
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  Kaiser Permanente, I think really the health care
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  industry writ large, to think about how we
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  can innovate,
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  knowing that we need to continue to provide
• 1:33
  high quality care,
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  at an affordable rate,
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  and doing that with an exceedingly challenged workforce,
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  coming out of this pandemic.
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  And so I really think that all of
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  those pieces
• 1:46
  are critically important
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  to creating
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  a culture of innovation
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  and a willingness to change. And
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  you just mentioned change. Obviously, we're we're going
• 1:57
  through rapid change across the board. And so
• 2:00
  amid that backdrop, what maybe recent decision or
• 2:03
  pivot required the most leadership conviction from you,
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  particularly when it came to aligning people, resources,
• 2:08
  capabilities
• 2:10
  across the board? Yeah. This is a great
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  question. So one of the other areas that
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  I cover is corporate development. And so Kaiser
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  Permanente's
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  decision to move into Nevada
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  has really expanded our thinking and really my
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  thinking as a personal leader,
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  about how do you bring at the, you
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  know, baseline
• 2:30
  value based care to a new market,
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  where there are really good practicing
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  clinicians as well as a plan
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  that we're merging with,
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  and and thinking about how we bring all
• 2:43
  those teams together,
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  to come up with what a new look
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  for Kaiser Permanente looks in a new market.
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  And so, really, we are working with the
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  the folks that are in Nevada
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  with multiple teams, whether it's on the health
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  plan side, the care delivery side,
• 3:01
  to think about how do you internalize services,
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  how do you keep some of the services
• 3:05
  that are already in existence,
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  intact,
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  but with an view towards preventive care and
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  preventive services,
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  as well as effective hospital operations. All of
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  that comes together with this project.
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  Yeah. And that's a really big project
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  to say the least, with that expansion in
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  Nevada. And so what do you think has
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  been maybe one one thing or moment, that's
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  just challenge your assumptions during that process? And
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  what are the change about how you approach
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  decision making making talent or organizational readiness?
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  So I think, you know, actually, your point,
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  which is leaving your assumptions at the door,
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  is really critically important.
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  So,
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  you can't assume that any one team necessarily
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  has the answers.
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  I'll I'll give you an example.
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  Thinking about how are we gonna recruit and
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  retain,
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  the best talent, and and
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  who and what is that talent? So when
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  you're thinking about, say, building a primary care
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  base,
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  does that look like the current existing systems,
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  or do we use APPs?
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  And then how do we introduce
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  technology,
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  whether it's the existing technology in that market
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  or whether we have other solutions?
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  And I'm not just talking about artificial intelligence.
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  I'm just talking about basic,
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  IT and electronic medical record.
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  How do you integrate,
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  what exists within the system today versus what
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  we could bring in,
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  with other products?
• 4:37
  Yeah. All of those pieces are so important.
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  Like you said, workforce, the technology
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  aspect, even as you pointed out beyond AI,
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  even just the general integration there. And
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  so
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  I'm curious to
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  when you
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  do think about all of these forces reshaping
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  health care and and the project you outlined,
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  similar projects,
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  where do you believe leaders need to be
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  more decisive,
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  especially when balancing speed, risk, and having the
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  right teams in place?
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  So I think that aggressively
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  pursuing,
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  change, even if that means that you're gonna
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  have to disrupt your existing
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  approach to how you're doing something, is critically
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  important. So let me give you an example.
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  We introduced an algorithm that could predict,
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  whether or not a patient was at risk
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  for deteriorating in the hospital.
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  We call it advanced alert monitor.
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  Now you would think that just introducing an
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  algorithm wouldn't be a big deal,
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  because it's certainly gonna improve care if you
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  can predict
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  and react to something before,
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  somebody has, like, a code blue in the
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  hospital.
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  But it turns out that that ended up
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  transforming
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  the nature of what a code team was.
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  So if you think about, you know, your
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  classic ER episode,
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  where you've got the team rushing in and
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  you've got your classic people that you would
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  expect, doctors, nurses,
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  and and pharmacists all reacting,
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  in this case, if you can
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  predict that that's gonna happen twenty four hours
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  in advance,
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  the nature of who's going in to talk
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  to that patient now is not that team.
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  You need social workers. You need palliative care
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  specialists.
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  You need actually an advanced practice nurse, that's
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  remote from the team.
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  So you have to integrate new team members
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  and new workflows
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  and, actually, new scripting and new conversations.
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  All of that results in actually the ultimate
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  outcome, which is that we're able to save
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  five hundred lives a year in Northern California
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  alone. That's great.
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  But we had to actually engage with the
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  teams
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  and understand
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  how their work was gonna change and take
• 6:47
  their feedback on how we could improve.
• 6:50
  Right. No. That
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  good to put out that feedback component of
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  all that as well from staff themselves.
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  And
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  as especially,
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  you know, right now, uncertainty is so
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  normal, essentially,
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  just when we talk about day to day.
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  So what leadership habit or mindset has been
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  most critical in keeping your organization, your people
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  moving forward during this time? I think one
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  of the key habits is authenticity.
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  And and so, you know, for whether it's
• 7:21
  a leader or a team member,
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  if you don't have basic trust
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  between all of the individuals that are engaged,
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  you really can't move forward. And and to
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  be honest with you, that is one of
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  the biggest challenges,
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  whether you're talking about the external environment
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  and what people are having to absorb in
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  terms of what they're reading in the news,
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  or what they're hearing from a policy perspective,
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  or when you get to the actual how
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  are we gonna deliver the care.
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  If the leader doesn't have credibility,
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  you cannot move forward.
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  And so leading with authentic authenticity,
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  being willing to listen,
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  being willing to pivot,
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  being willing to admit when you're wrong, all
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  of those things are, I think, essential in
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  this day and age.
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  Absolutely.
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  And you mentioned
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  changes and even as we talk about the
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  workforce as well, which you've mentioned. And so
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  labor markets remain tight. Right? And so and
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  care demands continue to grow. So I'm I'm
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  curious too just how you're rethinking traditional workforce
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  models,
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  including greater use of international or contingent talent
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  just to build resilience rather than just filling
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  those those gaps.
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  I think one of the key things,
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  with the workforce is thinking about how
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  world the world is changing. The the ability
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  to integrate technology,
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  into
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  our our workflows,
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  as well as thinking about, you know, can
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  we have different regions within the country? You
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  referenced outside of the country, but even within
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  this country,
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  who's reading a radiologic
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  scan,
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  a pathology,
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  report? And does that have to be restricted
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  to a geographic area? Or, actually, can you
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  follow where the sun is going so that
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  people aren't having to work at night because
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  you have other people that are awake
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  in other parts of the country.
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  And we are literally thinking about what that
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  looks like. So
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  that means you have to have the technological
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  platforms in place, but then you have to
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  think about licensing, credentialing,
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  and how do you make that more seamless
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  and easy so that a clinician,
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  can be licensed in multiple states, for example?
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  And do we have the staff that's capable
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  of making that happen quickly?
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  So that that's an example of how we're
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  thinking about it, and I gave you just
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  one discipline. There's multiple disciplines where we're having
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  to think about that.
• 9:47
  No. Thank you so much for that example
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  and also for this what an interesting conversation
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  today. We definitely look forward to connecting again
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  soon. Really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.