Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Amy Trainor, CIO, Ochsner Health

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Amy Trainor, CIO, Ochsner Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Philips is a health tech leader focused on
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  innovation that improves the health and well-being of
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  people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions
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  help care teams diagnose, treat, and manage more
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  patients with greater precision, speed, and confidence across
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  the care journey. With Philips, clinicians are empowered
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  with streamlined insights in the moments that matter
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  for every patient. Better care for more people.
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  Philips.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  tenth annual health IT digital health and RCM
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  meeting. I'm currently joined by Amy Trainer who
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  is the CIO at Ochsner Health. Amy, thanks
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  for joining me today. Would love to have
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  you start off by sharing a little bit
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  more about yourself and your work in health
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  care. Awesome. Thank you guys for having me.
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  I am really excited to be here. It's
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  actually my first time at a Becker's conference,
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  so,
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  I'm joined myself, meeting lots of new people.
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  So thanks for having me here, to do
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  the podcast.
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  As you mentioned, Amy Trainer, CIO at Ochsner.
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  I have been CIO for almost,
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  eighteen months or nineteen months, I would say
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  now, but I've been in Ochsner for fifteen
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  years in multiple different roles. I am a
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  nurse by trade, so love bringing my clinical,
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  chops to the technology world. But I've been
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  working in health care IT for around twenty
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  years.
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  Really excited to talk more about all of
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  the things AI, but also we really focus
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  at Asher on,
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  reforming our teams.
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  Happy to talk about that too. Really thinking
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  through, like, how do we focus on what
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  the experiences we are delivering,
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  whether that's a patient experience or a physician,
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  provider experience, or a nursing experience, but really
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  thinking through, like, how can we use technology
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  and tools to really help, what that looks
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  like for our physicians, clinicians, and patients. So
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  happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
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  Wonderful.
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  Well, let's start our conversation talking about AI
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  as nearly half of medical practices reported using
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  AI in some capacity in the past year,
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  and it does remain a key topic for
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  health IT leaders.
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  So from your perspective, what are the use
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  cases that are making the biggest difference right
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  now, and how are you leveraging them in
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  your organization?
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  Really great point. I mean, AI
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  is no longer a buzzword, I would say,
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  through my career in tech, like, there's been
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  so many buzzwords. This one is real.
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  We are using we're being very thoughtful on
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  our use of AI. I would say the
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  easiest and the fastest place that we are
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  really trying to, expand is using, ambient technology
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  for physicians.
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  While not a hard ROI, the,
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  work life balance or work like life,
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  harmony, as I like to call it, is
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  really amazing, and the and the docs really
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  do love it. So they're like, easy peasy.
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  Let's do it. We're in spread and scale,
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  base right now for that.
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  We've been using our own homegrown models and
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  some, standard models from,
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  our EHR vendor for quite some time,
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  really helping us with, managing sepsis and,
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  other quality measures throughout the organization,
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  which it really helps, because it it follows
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  our purpose and and the why behind that.
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  I think,
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  lots of also,
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  smaller summarization
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  tools from within some of our EHRs,
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  but we are also targeting,
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  we kind of think of this in two
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  different buckets. So it's clinical or patient facing
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  and then,
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  back office
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  and really evaluating the risk associated
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  with each. Right? So in the clinical patient
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  facing, physician facing, nurse facing, we wanna make
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  sure that that is following all of our
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  principles. We're QA ing it. We understand
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  how good is this. We're making sure it
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  doesn't have bias to the best of our
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  ability.
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  And, like, is this accurate enough to put
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  in front of our clinicians and physicians?
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  On the administrative side of things, not so
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  much. Not that we don't care about the
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  accuracy, but more so the risk is so
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  much lower.
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  If we are, you know, prioritizing
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  a, authorization or a status that's not affecting
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  someone's care. So, really, how can we go
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  all in on back end, rev cycle,
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  administrative burden things,
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  test it out as fast as possible?
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  So we are with lots of different vendors,
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  and then really making sure we're being,
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  very pointed and careful in the clinical
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  AI space. And not that we wanna be
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  slow or laggards, just really that we wanna
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  make sure we are delivering
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  high quality AI to our clinicians and physicians
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  because it's care that they're delivering. So
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  really excited about the work we're doing in
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  this space.
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  We are doing some really great rev cycle
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  pharmacy authorization
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  automations
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  that's saving our pharmacists a ton of time,
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  which is kind of opposite of what I
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  just said. Right? Because pharmacy
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  is clinical, but the work that they were
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  doing was administrative. So, like, how do we
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  summarize the data that they need to get
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  those medication authorizations
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  to get the patients to the medic to
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  the the meds to the patients faster? So
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  while clinical, very low risk as far as,
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  like, reviewing, sending authorization,
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  request men so request request.
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  So,
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  really exciting. I I can only imagine if
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  I was saying this next year
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  what that would look like. Right? Like, alpha
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  we would probably double the things that we're
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  using AI for, but I I think it's
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  really important that we're very strategic,
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  making sure, you know, in the in the
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  in the world we live in, in South
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  Louisiana,
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  our our paramedics is,
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  not very much commercial. So, like, how do
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  we make sure we're spending our dollars that
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  gives our physicians, clinicians, and our patients the
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  best use of health care and technology?
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  Absolutely.
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  And as virtual care expands from AI enabled
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  tools and remote monitoring to broader digital health
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  platforms,
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  introducing new technology can bring challenges.
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  So what advice do you have for leaders
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  navigating everything from governance to patient engagement? And
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  can you share an example of how your
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  organization has balanced innovation with operational constraint? Really
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  great thought. We have an enormously
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  large virtual care program for our not just,
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  telehealth or outreach, but also for for nursing.
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  And,
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  that has been a work in progress. I'd
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  say we started that probably in 2019
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  at our first hospital, have scaled to over
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  600 beds now. That was a when I
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  say a work in progress,
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  we learned very quickly it's really just not
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  about technology. The people in the process, especially
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  on the operational side, matters so much.
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  I really think in the world of AI
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  and virtualization
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  and all the things we're doing,
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  we have to really make sure we are
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  not automating
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  bad processes.
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  It's very easy to say, like, hey. We're
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  doing this this way.
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  Let's just automate it. And it wasn't necessary
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  in the first place. So simplicity is really
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  important to to us at Asher as well
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  as, like, making sure we have the buy
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  in from our front end staff and nurses.
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  We know that when we do that with
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  all the things technology, whether it's virtual care,
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  whether it's AI,
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  we get the buy in and adoption so
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  much faster. And adoption is the key to
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  success, in AI deployment for sure and in
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  virtual care. From a governance perspective,
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  really being thoughtful and close to our government
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  relations team, making sure we're up to date
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  on all the latest and greatest regs, and
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  then use utilizing technology to guide the physicians
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  and clinicians
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  in the right space for those are huge.
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  So,
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  really, a close collaboration with that team makes
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  that work a a a little bit easier,
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  for us from a technology perspective.
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  I would say
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  virtual care at Ochsner
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  means a lot of different things. So,
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  we really care about making sure our patient
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  we're delivering to our patients what they are
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  asking of us. So
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  virtual care could mean a virtual video visit.
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  It could mean an asynchronous
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  evisit where they're sending in a message with
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  pointed questions, and we're giving them a result.
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  It could mean, on demand virtual care,
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  from a urgent care provider.
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  So many different thing. Virtual care from a
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  nurse, in the nurse in in the inpatient
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  setting,
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  virtual consults.
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  We really wanna make sure that we are
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  supporting,
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  our patients in the ways they wanna be
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  supported,
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  similar to how we communicate with them as
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  well. So whether it's in text message or
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  phone or, you know, really honoring their preferences
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  and and their ways of wanting to communicate
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  and then, utilizing that to the best of
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  our ability.
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  100%.
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  Shifting gears slightly, I would love to know
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  what recent legislation shifts,
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  both state and federal, have affected health care
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  organizations
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  and health care IT specifically, and then if
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  you've adjusted any strategies in response.
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  Well, absolutely. I think the the virtual care
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  geography,
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  as of yesterday Yeah. Was a big strategy
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  change for us. But in general, I think,
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  we really just wanna make sure that,
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  like, take take into two different buckets. So
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  from an AI perspective,
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  we created our own principles that really align
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  well with with the guidance that's coming from
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  the federal, government. And we play a really
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  close role with our state government to make
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  sure that we're all on the same page
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  as far as, like, hey. This is what
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  we see from the federal government. This is
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  what we're doing,
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  to really abide by those rules at Asher.
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  How can we help influence other health care
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  organizations in the state, but also smaller community
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  facilities as well? So
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  really having that I know I keep going
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  back to the alignment. Really being aligned with
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  the resources that are out there is really
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  important.
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  I would say from a from an AI
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  perspective, we early on took a
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  a pretty hard stance on, like, we need
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  guiding principles for AI. Like, what are our
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  nonnegotiables,
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  about,
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  like, highly scientific,
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  you know, no bias when possible, and how
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  do we prevent bias, making sure that we,
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  feel good that there's a human in the
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  loop from a clinical perspective.
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  We while we know that might not be
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  forever, but for now, these are things that
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  we find to our core,
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  of
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  we don't feel like these are nonnegotiables.
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  These or these are nonnegotiables.
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  We we don't want to,
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  explore and move away from them. We wanna
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  feel good about that. So
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  lots happening, I think, in the in the
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  government space where I
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  hope to see is,
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  more focus, if I'm being honest. Like, I
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  think we've kind of touched
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  on cyber from a regulatory perspective. There really
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  needs to be more coming down, and I
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  think there will be, on, like, what do
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  we need to do? What are the minimum
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  requirements, not just for
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  health care providers, but for vendors and for
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  HIEs and others that host our patients' data?
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  How do we make sure that that stays
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  protected?
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  So I would say maybe opposite than the
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  question. Right? Like, the your question was, like,
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  how is it affecting you? I want more
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  in that space. I wish there were more
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  guidelines and rules that we can all really
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  get aligned in behind in there because we're
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  all
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  really, you know, worried about what that looks
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  like in the future.
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  A 100%.
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  And then final question as we wrap our
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  conversation.
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  What is your top piece of advice for
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  health care leaders as they prepare for further
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  advancements in technology and rising demands for care?
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  Great question.
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  I would say the people process in technology.
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  I know that's like an old school saying.
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  It's so important today. Really understanding
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  where there are gaps,
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  where you can use technology or not. Yeah.
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  And I think that it's really hard on
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  we're here to, you know, a rev cycle,
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  but technology and digital conference,
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  sometimes the best technology is
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  removing,
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  making it less complicated.
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  We've seen that really hold hold true in,
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  some of the ways that we were doing
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  online appointments
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  and offering you know, restricting,
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  how established patient versus new patient. And, like,
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  is that really needed? How do we really
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  look at that and open that up a
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  little bit more? So,
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  really, that would be my
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  one advice. People process technology. The people in
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  the process drive the technology, not the opposite.
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  We've gotta understand what that means. And an
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  operational buy in is could not be more
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  important.
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  AI education,
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  basic education about what does AI mean for
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  health care jobs of the future, whether it's
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  clinic patient facing clinical jobs, back end jobs,
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  or in IT jobs.
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  We've got to have those hard conversations. And,
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  what I've seen so far is, like, the
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  more open and transparent we are about it,
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  the more people are
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  willing to adopt and re and and look
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  at the tools that we're giving them. So
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  I would I couldn't explain more that getting
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  in front of what that of that is
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  the best thing you can do. Really, two
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  great examples quickly, and then because I know
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  we only have five, ten minutes.
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  We have a pharmacy,
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  AI solution that was really owned and spearheaded
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  by our chief pharmacy officer.
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  It was amazing, adopted a 100%
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  in
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  wonderful ROI.
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  And then we have a solution in one
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  of our other specialty spaces that were was
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  a IT solution that we gave to the
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  service line versus the service line
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  giving it to us with low adoption,
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  not much,
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  trust in the product
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  because we don't have that buy in. So
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  just right there, if you really bring it
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  along at the whole way, your operational counterparts,
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  the the road to success is much shorter,
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  and that would be my other piece of
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  advice.
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  Absolutely. Well, Amy, thanks so much for joining
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  me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Again,
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  we are recording live at the tenth annual
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  health IT, digital health, and RCM meeting. Awesome.
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  Thanks for having me.