Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Lisa Stephenson, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer, Cedars-Sinai Health System

Transcript

Lisa Stephenson, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer, Cedars-Sinai Health System · 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 Lisa Stevenson who
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  serves as the chief nursing informatics officer at
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  Cedars Sinai Health System.
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  Lisa, thanks so much for joining me today.
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  Let's have you start off by sharing a
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  little bit more about yourself and your work
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  in health care. Well, sure. Thank you for
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  having me. I have been
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  a nurse for almost twenty five years now,
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  and
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  more than half of that now, I've been
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  in informatics.
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  I've worked at, several major health systems throughout
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  The US,
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  now landing in Cedar Sinai.
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  Wonderful. Well, thanks for being here. And let's
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  start our conversation talking about AI as nearly
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  half of medical practices
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  reported using AI in some capacity in the
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  last year, and it remains a key topic
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  for health IT leaders. So from your perspective,
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  what are the use cases that are making
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  a difference right now, and how are you
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  leveraging them within your organization?
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  Yeah. I think it's a great question. I
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  I think it's important to remember that
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  AI has been around for a while in
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  different forms. I think the predictive analytics, for
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  example, and giving clinicians really that, decision support
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  when they need it has been critical.
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  And as as we're developing with AI, it's
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  improving, so I'm excited to see how that
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  will continue to develop.
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  The other thing I think that's more recent
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  with generative AI is the summary of the
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  chart. So we're using Epic, for example. They
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  have several
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  models at this point to really bring all
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  that data we've been putting into the HR
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  into different summarization type formats for clinicians, which
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  helps them save some time looking through the
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  chart and and make sure that they're kind
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  of bringing the information they need key to
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  that patient's care,
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  front and center for them. I think the
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  other thing that I'm really excited about that
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  that we're currently working on is the ability
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  to have either voice or ambient documentation for
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  nursing.
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  From my perspective, that's been something that's taken
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  a while, and and AI was really the
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  key component to being able to link those
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  verbal recordings to the actual discrete flow sheet
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  rows versus just a narrative note like providers
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  usually do.
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  So that's been really exciting.
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  We're currently piloting and actually about ready to
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  really broader expand our AVA
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  nurse assistant, which is able to record those,
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  observations from nursing and and do that documentation
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  for them. They've really enjoyed
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  the time savings that they're seeing
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  with the tool,
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  as well as we've actually been able to
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  demonstrate some hard ROI with, decreasing
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  incremental overtime.
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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 these new technologies does bring challenges. So
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  what advice do you have for leaders navigating
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  everything from governance to patient engagement? And can
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  you share an example of how your organization
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  has balanced innovation with operational constraint?
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  Yeah. Absolutely.
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  There's definitely a lot of that. We're also,
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  been piloting for the last few months a
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  virtual nursing program,
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  virtual care, which is has several different operational
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  key components, I think, on top of just
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  not even the infrastructure,
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  restrictions we've met and having to look at,
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  you know, do we use some mobile cards
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  because we can't hardwire in these rooms. One
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  kinda component of it, but more from the
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  operational and people perspective, I think really getting
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  the key stakeholders engaged,
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  early in the process to make sure you
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  have all the different components
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  figured out. We've got a steering committee involved
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  for a virtual care program that we meet
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  with on a regular basis to help guide
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  direction, make sure we're focused on the right
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  use cases and the goals and problems that
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  we wanna
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  achieve.
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  And then there's also making sure that you
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  have,
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  the other folks engaged early in the process,
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  like legal, risk,
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  regulatory,
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  our marketing and communication folks. So to your
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  point around some governance and patient engagement, you
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  know, we've got the marketing folks engaged to
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  make sure that there was really talking points
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  developed for nurses on how to communicate with
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  the patients with this new technology in the
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  room. What's this camera? What's it doing?
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  As well as there was the consent component.
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  So our legal really wanted to make sure
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  that patients also realized
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  that we were gonna be using this technology
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  and and have a separate consent
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  drawn out for as the patients are admitted,
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  have the nurse talk them through that and
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  get that consent.
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  So working through those operational challenges,
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  was was, you know, doable because we had
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  the right people at the table,
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  early enough in the process to make sure
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  we have the process figured out.
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  100%.
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  And shifting gears just slightly,
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  I'd love to know how you're seeing recent
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  legislation both at the state and federal level
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  affect health care organizations and health IT specifically,
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  and if you've adjusted any strategies in response
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  to this?
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  Yeah. I think bottom line is it's, you
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  know, it's been a concern certainly from a
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  reimbursement perspective.
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  So financially, just making a lot more conservative
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  decisions, really focusing on do we you know,
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  the technology we're looking at, is it solving
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  a problem?
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  What's the potential ROI?
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  I've had to, for both the programs I've
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  mentioned, AVA and and virtual nursing, really look
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  at what is that ROI and present it
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  to our finance folks because we do need
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  to make sure,
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  that we're we're using our money wisely and
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  we're focusing on the right things.
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  I think there's also a a continued drive
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  and even more of a push to be
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  efficient with
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  the people and the tools we already have.
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  So looking at the applications we already have
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  in our portfolio, can we use those?
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  Are there any that we need to maybe
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  rationalize out of the,
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  portfolio just to to truly be conscious of
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  the dollars we're spending?
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  And as we wrap up our conversation, I'd
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  love to know your top piece of advice
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  for health care leaders as they prepare for
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  further advancements in technology and rising demands for
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  care.
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  Yeah. I think really the key because
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  AI, virtual care,
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  so many of the changes that are coming
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  are very exciting, but they're
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  really fundamental changes to how we deliver care,
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  and and
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  requires people to think differently.
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  So I think it's key that you've got
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  the people being impacted by the change, clinicians,
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  operations
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  involved in the process to get that buy
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  in upfront,
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  and you've got their leadership, their direct leadership
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  really engaged in the project and helping to
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  continue to drive it because it is something
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  that we've had to continue to iterate on.
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  It's not really perfect when it first gets
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  out there. It is newer technology,
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  and we don't always know the best way
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  it will fit within workflow. So working with
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  them to partner and continue to refine and
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  improve, but keeping them engaged really requires that
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  direct leadership to continue to support the staff,
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  and make them feel like they're being heard
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  and that we are,
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  you know, we do have their interest as
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  well as the patient's,
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  best interest in mind.
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  Well, Lisa, thanks so much for taking the
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  time to join me today on the Becker's
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  HealthCare podcast and share these insights. Again, we
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  are recording live at the tenth annual health
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  IT, digital health, and RCM meeting. Thank you.