Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / James Newman, Vice President of Patient Logistics at Virtua Health System,

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James Newman, Vice President of Patient Logistics at Virtua Health System, · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  The most important health care decisions don't happen
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  in isolation.
• 0:06
  They happen when leaders come together.
• 0:08
  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
• 0:11
  3,500
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  hospital and health system executives this April in
• 0:15
  Chicago.
• 0:16
  With 800 speakers from Ascension,
• 0:18
  Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit and more, the conversations get
• 0:22
  real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning
• 0:24
  for policy shifts, breaking through value based care
• 0:27
  barriers, and building clinical teams that translate
• 0:37
  event
• 0:38
  details,
• 0:39
  visit beker'shospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right.
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  This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  James Newman, vice president of patient logistics at
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  Virtual Health System. James, it's a pleasure to
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  have you on the podcast today.
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  Thanks, Laura. I appreciate it.
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  Absolutely. Now I'm looking forward to our discussion
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  because I know, there's so much happening in
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  health care today, and in particular,
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  you're doing some cool things at Vertuad. But
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  before we dive in, can you tell me
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  a little bit more about yourself and about
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  the health system?
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  Absolutely.
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  So my name is Jim Newman. I'm the,
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  vice president of patient logistics for Virtua Health,
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  in South Jersey.
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  So Virtua is a, South Jersey based health
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  system. We have we have five hospitals and
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  seven emergency departments,
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  around 16,000
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  colleagues,
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  3,000 plus, medical staff clinicians,
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  just over 400 care locations,
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  and,
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  near close to 380,
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  primary and specialty care practices. So we're fairly,
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  inclusive health care system.
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  My area,
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  inpatient logistics is a is a pretty broad
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  area. It's exciting area right now.
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  I I am responsible
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  for
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  a a, many departments consisting of our,
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  our transfer center,
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  our centralized bed management and capacity management,
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  team, as well as our,
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  our EMS team, covering, mobile intensive care services
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  in in two counties in in, South Jersey,
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  as well as our medical transport division,
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  our,
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  training center for our health system, our
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  clinical and EMS training center,
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  and, our integrated dispatch center for, for those
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  areas.
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  That's great to hear. And, you know, that's
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  a lot to be accountable for. And so,
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  it's just fascinating to hear everything that you're
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  thinking about and working on on a daily
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  and consistent basis.
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  I think first and foremost, I was wondering,
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  what are some of the trends you're watching
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  currently?
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  Right. So I think,
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  you you probably talk to many health care
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  leaders, and I say probably everybody is answering
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  the same today. And when I was thinking
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  about this question,
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  I I was gonna go a different direction
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  with it, but but you really can't.
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  And
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  I think the
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  the the simplest answer is is looking at
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  AI and, you know, how how predictive
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  AI and, clinical decision support as well as
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  generative AI is going to impact us and
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  and how we can,
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  really build that into our workflows.
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  But but but as I was thinking about
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  this,
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  all of those areas that that I just,
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  spoke about are are gonna be
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  hugely positive impacts on health care. And as
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  leaders, I think we're responsible to look at
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  them. But I think the other area to
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  to to really focus it
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  on is the operational efficiencies that we can
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  get out of AI and how we how
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  we use it. And and as a leader,
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  when I look at that,
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  if I can lean into
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  AI tools,
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  that allow me as a leader to have
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  less screen time,
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  and how it can help me lead,
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  lead more focus and have more time to
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  build strategy
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  and really more time, face time with my
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  colleagues and and my people,
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  that's where I think, think, as leaders, AI
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  is really gonna be impactful to our workflows.
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  And I think the the other area that
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  the other trend that that we really look
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  at here,
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  at Virtua is is care at home.
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  And, you know, trends that we can watch
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  in how, care at home can really have
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  positive impacts on patients,
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  from our hospital at home, area
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  to our,
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  post discharge management
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  service lines as well as mobile integrated health
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  and really how we can use those areas
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  to impact length of stay, readmissions,
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  capacity, and cost to our patients.
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  That's helpful to understand. I think, you know,
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  everything you mentioned,
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  obviously, AI is huge in technology, digital transformation.
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  It is coming on strong for health care
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  organizations across the across the spectrum and figuring
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  out how they can use,
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  those tools to be more efficient and effective.
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  I know that's gonna be extremely important, especially
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  in this next year when, you know, resources
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  are continuing to be compressed,
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  within the health care system. But I wanted
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  to ask you a bit more about the
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  other trend you talked about too, the care
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  at home.
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  That's something that we hear a good deal
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  about from hospitals and systems, and more and
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  more are trying to stand those types of
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  programs up. And so what have you learned
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  through your care at home program?
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  How did you, create it, and what has
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  been some of the pivots you've made there
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  to keep it successful?
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  Yeah. I think, I think the biggest thing
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  to to keep in mind with care and
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  home models is
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  there's no cookie cutter design.
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  We at at Virtua, we really focused on
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  hospital at home as our foundation.
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  But from there, we've we've we've adapted and
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  built programs that really meet the gaps in
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  care in our region,
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  and have focused on the challenges that that
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  we have at our health system and
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  improving,
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  the care that we provide.
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  So so so my biggest advice for for
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  anyone looking at a care at home model
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  is,
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  look at the trends that other people or
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  or other systems are using
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  and
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  adapt them to your program and your specific
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  gaps, that you have in your system.
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  Got it. That's helpful to know. Now what
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  are some of the things that you're most
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  focused on and excited about right now? What
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  have you been most proud of in the
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  last six or eighteen months or so?
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  So I would say,
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  we'll start with, you know, really what what
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  I am most proud of both as a
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  department and and,
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  as as a health system, and it's really
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  been our focus on on workforce development.
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  We we as a health system has have
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  focused a tremendous amount of time and attention,
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  to to entering colleagues into our system earlier
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  in life and providing opportunities,
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  to to colleagues, and potential colleagues really early
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  in their,
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  in their careers.
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  Just an example of that is, you know,
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  we we have built,
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  programs just in my department that, you know,
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  we we can provide opportunities that that in
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  the past may not have been available or
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  may have been out of reach, to individuals,
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  to really enter into a career in health
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  care,
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  very, very early in their in their adulthood.
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  And when I go to the graduations and
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  and speak to these classes,
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  of in this area, our EMT students,
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  I speak to opportunity, and I speak to
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  this being a start a starting point for
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  their opportunities in health care and the career
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  pathways that that this has created.
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  And and we've really worked hard to create
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  pathways from from early entry,
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  into health care,
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  through,
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  our EMT to paramedic programs, through our paramedic
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  to RN programs, and, really, everything across the
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  board through our our leadership development programs and,
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  our tuition assistance programs, and it's really been
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  exciting to
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  to see us take a high school student,
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  and and, you know, as they're in high
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  school, help them build into a health care
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  career so they have, you know, opportunities in
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  life that may not have been available,
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  otherwise. So that that's been extraordinarily exciting, and
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  and we're really proud of that. And then,
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  you know, just to to build on,
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  your question about what we're we're really focused
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  on or what and one of the things
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  that that I'm heavily focused on is is
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  proactive capacity management. I think, you know, every
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  health care system around the system
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  around the country is
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  is, challenged with capacity,
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  and challenged with, with ED borders and
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  and bed wait times and turn times. And,
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  we are are highly focused on
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  how we look at tools.
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  I I mentioned, you know, AI and proactive,
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  AI,
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  how we can use that to to to
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  help manage our capacity,
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  to reduce ED borders,
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  and then reaching beyond the typical levers of
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  capacity management.
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  I think,
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  the the trends in health care have been,
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  very specific over the years on how to
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  manage capacity.
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  And, you know, we we need to to
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  understand what what levers aren't being used, and
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  continue to focus on them,
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  to to really learn how to manage capacity
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  in a in a really unique way.
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  That's helpful to understand and, you know, it's
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  so important. I know capacity is a challenge
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  across the board in trying to, figure out
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  how you can move patients through the system
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  efficiently
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  and effectively,
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  and then open up capacity to meet the
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  demands of of the community.
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  I think, your point about being able to
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  leverage AI, effectively in this way is critical.
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  How do you work with your teams to
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  make sure that they are,
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  using the technology and the tools that they
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  have in the best way possible as well
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  as knowing, you know, what value this technology
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  is bringing back into the organization?
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  I think a lot of that comes down
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  to,
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  the way that we empower
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  our our our frontline employees to to to
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  really tell us what's working for them and
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  what isn't working for them. You know, I
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  think, you know, we can we can provide
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  tools.
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  We can provide,
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  we can provide dashboards. We can provide predictive
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  technology.
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  But our frontline staff, the folks our colleagues
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  across the system that are using it really
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  need to be empowered to to tell us
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  what makes sense and what is working.
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  And we, as leaders, are responsible for making
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  sure that we're listening to that and adapting
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  to the changes to really make these tools
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  effective.
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  It it's one thing to build the tools
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  and provide them. It's another thing to optimize
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  them,
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  in a way that is really meaningful to
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  the organization
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  and the way we want patient flow to
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  operate.
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  That's helpful,
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  perspective and context. Thank you so much for
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  digging a bit deeper there. Now before we
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  wrap up, what advice would you give to
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  evolving leaders today, especially given all of the
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  changes and in complexity in the health care
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  environment?
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  You know, this is my this is my
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  area of passion. So, I I would say
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  as as I mentor leaders,
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  a few things.
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  One of the the biggest pieces of advice
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  I give to to
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  new and and current leaders
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  is to have the courage to fail early.
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  Identify issues when they're small,
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  identify issues when they're cheap,
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  and have the courage to admit, that there's
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  issues
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  and make those changes,
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  to make, you know, implementations
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  that much more successful for the long run.
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  I think the
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  a few other areas that that I, as
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  a leader, have have highly focused on over
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  the years
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  is,
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  hire people that are smarter than you.
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  Have the courage to hire people,
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  that that are have deeper technical expertise
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  in,
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  in the areas that that you're hiring them
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  for than you do,
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  and build a very intentional and purposeful team.
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  I think so many leaders and,
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  are are afraid to bring somebody on,
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  that may know more than them, and, I
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  think that's a big misstep for a leader,
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  as as you're building out a very, purposeful
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  team.
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  And and then the the the two last
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  points I'll make, you know, around,
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  purposeful leadership
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  is relationships are absolutely your strongest tool as
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  a leader,
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  and and never lose that. And then,
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  my final mantra is always get me to
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  yes.
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  Meaning,
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  you know, it's our responsibility as leaders to
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  recognize the need and find a way to
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  make it happen,
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  even if that, you know, means that there's
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  going to be significant challenges to get there.
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  That's really helpful to know, Jim. Thank you
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  so much for joining us on the podcast
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  today. I really appreciate your time. You know,
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  it's been fascinating to learn a little bit
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  more about your philosophy and everything that goes
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  into,
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  all you're doing, and I look forward to,
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  meeting with you again soon. And I know
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  you're speaking at our annual meeting coming up
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  here in April, so it'll be great to
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  have the the chance to meet you in
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  person.
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  Great. I appreciate it.