Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Jeff Gautney, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer at Rush University System for Health

Transcript

Jeff Gautney, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer at Rush University System for Health · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:00
  - This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Jeff Ney,
• 0:05
  senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Rush
• 0:07
  University System for Health.
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  Jeff, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
• 0:12
  - Great to be on. Laura, thanks for inviting me.
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  - Absolutely. Anytime. I know we're excited to have you on
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  and, and for this conversation,
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  because I know Rush is doing
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  so much in the digital health space
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  and certainly on the forefront of
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  how transformation is happening in the healthcare.
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  But before we dive into our broader discussion,
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  can you tell us a little bit more
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  about yourself and your background?
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  - Uh, sure. Yeah. I am, uh, CIO here at Rush.
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  I've been for the past three years.
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  Um, prior to that I was a managing director at Deloitte
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  and a partner at Ernst and Young,
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  and sandwiched in between those two was a stented,
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  Northwell Health for about eight years
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  running IT operations.
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  So I've had a, you know, a chance
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  to sit in the vendor chair, a chance to
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  sit in the professional services chair
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  and as chance to sit in the operations chair.
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  And I think it kind of gives you a unique perspective.
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  So, uh, three years of rush and joining just
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  after Covid is definitely an interesting, um,
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  was definitely an interesting experience.
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  I, I did an orientation session this morning
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  for new employees at Rush,
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  and of course when I joined, none
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  of those things were in person.
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  In fact, my whole department was remote, so I showed up
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  and it was like a totally empty floor in an office building.
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  , which was the laptop sitting on my desk .
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  It was sort of like the matrix, like,
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  open this up and join us.
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  So it was, uh, it was fun.
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  - Oh, that's great to hear.
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  And certainly, you know, when you think about all, um,
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  the different experiences you've had throughout your career,
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  I can imagine bringing that into now, you know,
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  how you're running things at Rush, um,
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  and through the pandemic as well.
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  It can just, should just be a unique experience.
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  What are some of your top priorities right now
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  and what are you spending most of your time on?
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  - Yeah, you know, I think, um,
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  I think probably the same things
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  that many people are spending their time on.
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  There's a certain amount of sort of legacy.
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  You know, it, it's kind of like anytime you own something,
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  whether it's a house or a car
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  or an IT apartment, there's always some sort of erosion
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  and decrepitude that's that, uh, sneaks in.
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  So we, we've spent a lot
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  of the last two years trying to fix that.
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  'cause it had been somewhat neglected.
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  There was a lot of infrastructure
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  and continues to be a decent amount of infrastructure
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  and cyber, um, investments that had to be made to sort
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  of bring the whole place up to code.
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  We're getting much closer to that.
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  Um, the last big thing on the application side is an ERP
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  project, which we've just launched, um, past month.
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  And so we'll be replacing our ERP solution
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  and that'll really get us to the place that we need to be
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  as far as being very current with our systems
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  and our infrastructure.
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  Um, so there's that.
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  There's, um, always cyber
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  and, you know, never more so than the last few months.
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  And unfortunately here in Chicagoland, we have one
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  of our close partners that was attacked with Lurie children.
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  So that's put everyone on, you know, super high alert, um,
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  and made us all rethink our
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  architectures and our protections.
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  Are they adequate? Uh,
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  and I would say, you know,
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  they're never completely adequate.
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  You're never really completely safe.
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  And so we've taken , you know, taken a posture
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  that every outage
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  or every incident that occurs is a cyber incident
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  until it's proven not to be that.
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  So that's consuming an awful lot of, it's, its a lot
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  of resources to remain that vigilant
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  and sort of always be, uh, you know, waiting
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  for the fire bill to ring.
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  And then on the positive side, you know, looking
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  beyond those two things, we're carving out a lot of time
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  and a lot of resource towards improving our digital
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  health presence and reimagining our business models
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  with digital as kind
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  of a digital first view, um, of things.
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  And that's taken, you know, all kinds of different, um,
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  forms, whether it be improving our text, text, um,
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  capabilities to engage with patients so, uh, via text
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  and allow them to do, um, self-serve in a lot
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  of different ways using just text to, um,
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  co-developing a new application with a, a startup company
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  to adding in features like the ability to, uh,
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  let people know about wait times
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  and deflect them to other places.
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  We have a very nice Starbucks here on campus,
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  and we know there's a 15 or 20 minute wait at the campus.
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  You may get an alert from us to go grab a cup
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  of coffee on us at Starbucks while, while we clear the,
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  the queue, and then we'll let you know when
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  it's time to come back up.
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  So we're focusing a lot on sort of low tech features
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  and the digital experience that have, that are real patient
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  and, and, and, uh, customer satisfiers.
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  And then of course, AI is, you know,
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  a very large priority for us.
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  And again, I think trying to, what I call kind
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  of lunch pail ai.
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  So, you know, using AI
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  and kind of simple ways to improve our effectiveness
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  as opposed to vast, you know, deep ai, um,
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  projects we're trying to do, small ones
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  that have real payback and um,
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  and are integrated, most importantly,
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  integrated with the workflow.
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  And we never want service of AI to force people
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  to step out of what they're doing.
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  It should make them more efficient
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  and more effective than, than less so.
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  So those, those things legacy that cyber, digital
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  and ai, they are probably taking up 90% of my
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  - That's fascinating to hear.
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  And certainly I can imagine, as you were talking
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  through all this, I mean,
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  obviously cybersecurity is a huge challenge in, in trying
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  to figure out how to manage the resources there
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  to the most effectiveness possible.
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  Um, is is great.
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  And then, you know, when you look at, um,
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  as you were just mentioning AI
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  and, um, some of the simple ways that you're able
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  to apply it, um, into the organization
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  and operational efficiencies.
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  I mean, can you share one
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  or two examples of ways that you've really been able
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  to use artificial intelligence, um, in, in some of those,
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  um, aspects, I guess, of the health systems
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  to improve effectiveness?
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  - Yeah, we, and we take a pretty broad definition of ai.
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  So I know Gen AI is sort of the darling in the moment,
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  but, um, you know, we've been using AI in, for instance,
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  diagnostic radiology for a long time.
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  And what we've done just recently is, um,
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  established a partnership with Bayer Klan
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  to which really offers a framework
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  for using artificial intelligence protocols.
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  Many of them, you know, from multiple vendors in the care
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  of a, of a patient, um, that sort
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  of lets you click those modules in
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  and provides a consistent interface for the radiologist
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  and data interface for the AI module.
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  Um, and we think that's gonna have a big impact on,
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  you know, both quality as well as speed
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  and effectiveness of our, um, diagnos diagnostic,
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  uh, radiologists.
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  We were an early adopter of nuance for ambient listening,
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  and we're intrigued by the idea
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  of using ambient listening in a lot of other settings,
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  not just in the clinic and not just for clinician notes.
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  How could it be used in nursing?
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  How could it be used in, um, other diagnostic areas?
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  How could it be used potentially with patients?
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  We have a AI enabled integrated voice
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  and response system that sits in front of our access center
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  so that patients are able to use their voice to self-serve,
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  um, a bunch of different functions.
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  And we've had some success with that.
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  So how do we extend that when it comes to ambient listening?
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  Uh, and then on the gen AI front, say we're,
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  we've been working pretty closely with, um, epic
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  and ServiceNow,
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  and, uh, we'll be working pretty closely with Salesforce
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  around their Einstein tool set to apply some
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  of those technologies to our stack, big stack vendors,
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  big box vendors, um,
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  and then standing up our own AI chat, GDT
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  and, you know, large language model
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  environment later this year.
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  So we can begin to experiment in a more structured way
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  with some of those tools.
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  We're currently prototyping copilot, um, Microsoft's copilot
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  for Office 365.
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  Also let people, you know, try out the tech
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  and get a better understanding
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  and adjust their expectations of what it can do
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  and what it isn't so good at.
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  Because, uh, regardless of what you may read,
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  it's not not gonna solve all problems .
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  So, although I sure absolutely would,
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  but it's not, not likely to. Yeah.
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  - Yeah. Wouldn't that be nice just
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  to have a button you can press, um,
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  and AI will deal with everything that comes up.
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  ,
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  - I think the button exists
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  and I think it will deal with it,
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  but it doesn't mean that it'll deal with it correctly.
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  . And that's what we're, you know, that's
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  what we have to be cautious about is
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  'cause I do think, unfortunately there is a button
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  and unfortunately it will deal,
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  but, uh, making sure it does it safely and ethically
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  and doesn't create, you know, more inequities, uh,
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  and health access and so forth, there are all the things
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  that we worry about and spend time on, you know,
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  to make sure that it's, it's a useful tool
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  and not one that potentially causes other issues.
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  - Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. Um, well, perfect.
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  Well, you know, in, in given,
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  whether it's artificial intelligence, digital health or,
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  or some of the other areas that are really, um, emerging,
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  um, for patient self service
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  and the patient experience,
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  how do you see Rush evolving over the next
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  two to three years or so?
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  What areas are you continuing to zero in on
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  or are there any, uh, new spaces
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  that you expect to get into?
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  - Yeah, I think our, our strategy, our,
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  our digital strategy really has these three
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  major pillars to it.
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  There's one that's very focused on the consumer,
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  and I say consumer
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  because in addition to being a healthcare organization,
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  we're also a university.
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  We have students, we have applicants, um,
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  and then we have employees, you know, that also want
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  to interact and need to interact with us.
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  So it's a, it's a consumer focused strategy.
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  And then there's another pillar that's
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  around care transformation.
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  So how do we change, how do we change how we deliver care,
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  either in augmenting it
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  or in supporting completely different models
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  for delivering care using digital technology.
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  And then the third pillar is really
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  around operations efficiency.
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  How do you use this technology to become more efficient
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  and find ways of either, um, accelerating steps
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  through like robotic process automation as an example,
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  or removing steps entirely from the work flow, um, like, uh,
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  automated chart reviews is there.
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  Um, so they have, we have these three pillars.
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  And then within the con the consumer strategy, there's sort
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  of two parts to that.
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  One is making ourselves very easy to access.
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  So streamlining the process
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  and letting people choose their, their journey.
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  And, um, you know, having a multi-channel view of that so
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  that people can engage with us through an app,
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  through the web, through a phone call, text message,
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  through any different which way, whatever,
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  whatever their preferred way of communicating.
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  And then the second part that supports
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  that is creating a very personalized experience, folks so
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  that they, not just a generic one them, but,
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  but actually somebody who's engaged with them on a trusted,
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  uh, source of information
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  and advisor to them as they plan their care
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  or plan their student experience.
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  - That makes a lot of sense.
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  And, you know, really, um, sounds like it'll be exciting
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  to see how all of that evolves and grows and,
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  and, um, you know, can, can lead to that better experience
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  for patients and healthcare consumers as well as, you know,
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  the, the team within the health system at large.
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  Um, I, I'm wondering
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  before we wrap up here, could you talk about one change
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  that you or your team has made recently
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  that yielded great results?
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  - Um, sure. I, I, I think maybe two changes, um,
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  uh, if you don't mind kind of related to one another.
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  Um, first is we just recently completed implementation
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  of a new customer, kind of 360 architecture.
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  So the idea that we have all of this information
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  and puddles of data all across the health system, each one
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  of which you may have some of your data
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  and maybe you were a student,
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  maybe you've given money to us before.
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  Maybe you were part of our, one of our community programs.
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  Maybe you've been a patient, maybe a family member's,
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  been a patient, really all of those encounters
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  lived in different databases until very recent.
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  Just put in this infrastructure to connect all of that,
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  to give us a much more holistic view of
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  who our customers are, what their preferences are,
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  what their experiences have been, so that at that point
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  of contact, we're able to bring all of that knowledge
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  to bear and sort of suggest
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  what the next best action could be.
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  And that could be very kind of subtle.
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  For instance, a person
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  who called into the call center the other day was calling in
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  for one particular thing,
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  but they had three referrals
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  that they had never followed up on.
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  And we were able to surface that information.
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  And so the agent was able to actually help them schedule all
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  of the care so close that care gap
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  know in, in one phone call.
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  So it, it could be subtle, but it could be major.
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  And then what's related to that is really taking
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  how our staff is organized
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  and how they think about what they do
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  and turning it on its side.
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  Which is to say, you know, traditionally, like most other
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  epic shops in particular are,
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  are folks have been primarily in swim lanes.
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  They're, you know, experts atomos module
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  or they're experts at Epic,
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  but they're not generally thinking about things
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  outside of that swim lane.
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  Have to really turn that on its side
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  and say, no, no, let's think about the whole workflow.
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  'cause it's not just an epic workflow anymore.
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  Now there's half a dozen other things that light up that
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  and make that work.
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  You have to think about those tools
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  and think about how they enable the workflow different way.
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  And that's, you know, it's been a challenge
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  because like I said, we have trained people to be really,
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  really good in their swim lanes
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  and now we're asking them to think about the whole pool.
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  And sometimes that's, uh, that's a challenging transition,
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  but I think that's the one that'll bear the greatest fruit
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  for us as we go forward.
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  'cause I think that's the reality, you know,
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  particularly in digital
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  and AI, is you really do have to think across those silos.
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  - That makes a lot of sense.
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  And, you know, it is just fascinating to kind of think
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  through how the technology is now
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  enabling so much more to happen.
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  But you know, really truly now, um, knocking down some
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  of those silos that we've been talking about for years,
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  needing to, um, be more integrated between teams.
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  When you go about that process, um, of trying to change
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  how people are thinking about their day-to-day
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  responsibilities and what growth looks like,
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  and, um, really truly, you know, uh, get them, um,
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  thinking differently about how the organization runs in,
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  in the connective tissue there, is there anything
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  that you have found particularly effective in communicating
• 15:47
  that and really, um, uh, inspiring change?
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  - Um, I think the, probably the thing
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  that's been most effective is to make people aware that
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  that's how it's going to be going forward.
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  And inviting them to be part of the planning
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  and design process so that folks feel invested in,
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  they don't feel left behind.
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  So I think a lot of communication,
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  of course, that's a challenge.
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  We're a hybrid, um, workforce, largely remote.
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  We have folks part of our workforce
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  that work in more than 20 different states.
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  So in the old days of pulling people together in a room
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  and then kind of whiteboarding things out
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  are very different today.
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  So how we engage with people
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  and how we inspire them had
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  to adapt from the last three years significantly.
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  So over communicating is, um, definitely part of it.
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  And then I would say, you know, some formal training
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  and some assignments, the projects that are stretch projects
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  where they may not know everything going in, um,
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  but learn on the job, the old, you know,
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  toy people into the deep end of the pool, most
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  of them do learn to swim.
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  Few do sink .
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  So we want to save them because,
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  because we need, we need the whole,
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  we need everybody in the village,
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  not just some people in the village.
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  Yeah. Um, but, uh,
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  but for the most part, you know, I think this,
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  there's the training you can do,
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  there's the communication you can do,
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  but there's no real remedy for real experience.
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  So we try to put people into safe spots
• 17:19
  where they can participate in projects and grow.
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  Um, and that's been so far pretty successful.
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  There's lots more room to continue to do that,
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  but I, I think it also signifies to the rest of the staff
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  that we have a commitment to continually investing
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  and continually growing them.
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  And I want us to be thought of as a place
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  where people can come and grow their career
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  and not just, you know, do the one thing
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  that they're really well known for over and over again,
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  but can branch out and, and learn new things
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  and participate, you know, in, in, uh, change.
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  Because our, that's the one constant right in our health.
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  It is, uh, is change.
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  - Absolutely. That's such a great philosophy
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  and way to approach things.
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  Jeff, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
• 18:05
  This has been a fascinating discussion.
• 18:07
  I, you know, really learned a lot.
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  It made me think a lot about
• 18:10
  how technology is really evolving in the healthcare space.
• 18:13
  Look forward to, um, having you back again soon
• 18:15
  and it'll be great to see you, um,
• 18:17
  speaking at our live events as well upcoming here.
• 18:20
  - Thanks Laura. Really looking forward to it.
• 18:22
  And I, thanks again for the opportunity.
• 18:24
  I really appreciate it. Always enjoy, uh, working
• 18:26
  with Becker, so thank you.