Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Craig Richardville, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Intermountain Healthcare

Transcript

Craig Richardville, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Intermountain Healthcare · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  Would you like to exchange best practices and ideas to improve care,
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  and address financial challenges with your peers?
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  Becker's Healthcare is facilitating these conversations at their eighth annual
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  the description. We are excited to welcome you in October.
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  This is Laura Ddo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Craig Richard Ville,
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  chief Digital and Information Officer at Intermountain Health. Craig,
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  it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  Hi, Laura. It's a pleasure to be here.
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  Now, I always appreciate you having you on the podcast.
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  It's been so fun to have conversations throughout the years.
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  But for our listeners who are just joining us or have just started listening to
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  the Becker's Healthcare Podcast,
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  can you tell a little bit more about yourself and your background and really
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  what brought you to Intermountain?
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  Yeah, sure. Well, um, initially I, uh,
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  began my career in healthcare over in ProMedica Health,
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  and I spent 11 years in ProMedica based out of Cleo, Ohio.
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  And then I moved to North Carolina and was with Carolina's Healthcare System,
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  which became h e m Health and now Advocate Health.
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  And I was there for 21 years. Uh, I came out west and, uh,
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  with s e L Health, uh, about four years ago. Spent three years with them,
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  and now with the merger with Intermountain Health and S E L Health,
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  uh, been near a little bit more than a year.
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  Fantastic. Well, in thinking through, I,
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  I can imagine it's been such a busy year, especially with that, um,
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  merger and connection with S E L Health and bringing that into the Intermountain
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  umbrella. So, how are things going? How has that integration been and, you know,
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  what do you really, are you looking forward to in the future?
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  Well, you know, there's a,
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  there's a big difference between merging organizations and acquiring
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  organizations. I know a lot of people talk about m and a work,
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  but really the m and the a's are quite different. And, uh,
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  this is an m this is a merger.
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  So there's a lot going into making sure that we ensure that we develop
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  or that we bring to life the best practices of each organization across
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  the combined entity, the new Intermountain Health,
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  and also look to the outside and where there's something on the third party
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  perspective that we can bring in that would actually benefit, uh,
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  the new organizations and the different components that came together.
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  We do that as well. So it's extremely, uh, challenging. It's a lot of fun.
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  Um, the contributions we made are, uh, quite spectacular and a lot more,
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  a lot more to come.
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  Absolutely. That's great to hear. Well, uh, you know,
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  from your vantage point in perspective, what are the big opportunities,
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  things you're focused on right now,
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  as well as the headwinds that you have your eye on?
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  Yeah. You know, the things that, um, that we like to make sure is, you know,
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  part of the vision of Intermountain Health is to be the, um,
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  model of healthcare. And with that comes, you know,
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  an opportunity and a challenge to, uh,
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  continue to be on the leading edge of certain things. Uh, for us right now,
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  we're focusing a lot upon data, focusing on interoperability,
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  making sure that we can capture data coming in from a variety of, of different,
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  uh, sources both inside of our healthcare system, which we have a lot of,
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  as well as externally in bringing that in, uh, making that data.
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  And then also the big focus on digital. Now, how do we differentiate ourselves?
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  How do we make ourselves easier to work with? Uh,
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  that's a focus on, uh, the caregiver side.
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  So how do we make lives or bring back the joy of practicing medicine easier
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  for our caregivers?
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  We also focus on our patients and our members and our consumers.
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  So all the things that are external facing to allow access into our
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  systems. And then the third category right now is really, uh,
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  a lot about what I would call digital health, a lot more about the therapeutics.
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  So some of the things regarding, uh, the prevention, early detection, you know,
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  diagnosis, treatment, bringing all that into the, uh, digital realm as well.
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  Got it. Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. You know,
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  it really seems like it's, uh, a place with a lot of,
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  in innovation and a ripe to, um,
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  really make a difference in healthcare and healthcare delivery going forward.
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  Are there any challenges or, or roadblocks that you're,
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  or that you're planning on in, in, what is your, does your response look like?
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  Yeah, you know, we're not immune. You know, we're,
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  we're going through a lot of the similar challenges, uh, that the industry is,
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  and we hope we can, uh, uh,
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  shed some light to others and learn from others that are also kind of
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  progressing through these times. Uh, the workforce, you know, is,
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  is a component, you know,
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  how do we maintain ourselves with getting the best and the brightest people to
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  be part of Intermountain Health, uh, expense management, you know,
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  another big focus, you know, our revenues in healthcare don't change much.
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  So when people see other impacts of inflation hitting, uh, their industries,
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  you know, the price of eggs, the price of gas, the price of other things, they,
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  they can raise their prices and to bring that onto the consumers,
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  ours does not change that much. So we have a very constant, uh, revenue stream.
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  So we've gotta make more with what we have, uh,
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  and manage our expenses appropriately.
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  That's really helpful to know and, and definitely, um,
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  love to think through what that actually takes,
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  and I'm sure a lot of discipline, but also, you know, really, um,
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  exciting to be able to improve healthcare in,
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  in that way with digital technologies and whatnot. So, you know,
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  when you look at growth and development,
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  and as you were just talking about with the workforce, um, you know,
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  resources are, are certainly scarce across the board.
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  So what does it mean to you to add value to the organization?
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  How do you think about that, especially during the time we're in right now?
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  Yeah, you know, if you look at your, uh, classic value equation, you know,
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  it's cost plus quality, plus the experience.
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  We've always had a very high quality of services that we provide.
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  So maintaining and continuing to hit on the, uh,
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  top decile across the country is a, a continued focus of us. Uh,
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  we talked a little bit about the cost side of how we're looking to try to manage
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  some of that with some of the newer technologies coming in. But really,
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  I think the big difference for us, and that's both internal and external,
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  is gonna be the experience part of value. You know,
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  how can we make sure that the experience that we're giving to our patients,
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  to our members of our health plan, to consumers,
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  people looking for service as well as for the caregivers, so that we can retain,
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  uh, the caregivers that are here and also recruit, uh,
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  when we have opportunities. So the experience to me is,
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  is one of the places that we'll be spending a lot of time on.
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  That's great to hear.
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  And definitely something that I know is so important to really make a difference
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  in and attract patients and get them to a space where it's really easy,
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  simple and seamless to go through their healthcare journey. And to that point,
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  where do you see some of the big opportunities, um, and,
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  and risks or investments that are worth making this year?
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  And and to your point earlier, you know,
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  I know a lot of organizations are dealing with financial challenges,
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  whether it's from inflation or, um, other shortfalls that, you know,
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  have been coming about for all industries this year.
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  So where do you really see places that are still important to focus and not lose
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  sight of, um, even in a year o of some cutbacks?
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  You know, you've, uh, you mentioned a little bit that in, in your, uh,
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  recent response. So from our c e o, you know, he wants to focus on simplicity,
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  you know, really taking out some of the complexities.
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  Sometimes we have a tendency to over-engineer overthink things
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  and bringing things really to be simple, you know, for those, again,
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  patients and members are consumers,
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  but also simpler for our caregivers and how they, uh, provide, uh, service,
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  uh, to those that, um, that are seeking our, our, our services. Uh,
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  that's one piece. And I think the other one is the experience side. You know,
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  we became clear from our board that caregiver and patient experience are two
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  things that, uh, we should be focusing on and, and, uh,
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  be weighted a little bit heavier than any the other goals that we have.
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  So we are looking to, uh, expand and, and to increase, uh, the experience,
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  uh, that's gonna come with a lot of, uh, digital investments. Uh,
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  a lot of the things that I would say, you know,
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  whether you believe or don't believe in the hype curve and how people kind of
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  work through that, you know,
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  I think there's some realization of some actual opportunities, uh,
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  within the artificial intelligence space within generative
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  AI and conversational ai. And we are, uh,
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  certainly jumping in with both feet to make sure that we can, uh,
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  take the positive aspects of that work and bring it in for those that, you know,
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  may need a little bit more caution, um, to,
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  to take those and move 'em in the sandbox and help develop what that looks like.
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  And that will really, I think,
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  expand our opportunities to provide excellent services 7 24
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  by allowing the machine to do a lot of that work for us.
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  It's not displacing the workforce by any stretch of the imagination.
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  We can't find in some cases, you know, the right talent, uh,
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  within the industry. There's a shortage. So how do we, how do we allow, uh,
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  the machine to do some of that work and what I would term to,
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  to be creating a digital workforce? You know,
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  how do we either compliment or supplement, uh, those caregivers, uh,
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  on our side, but also how do we provide tools to our, uh,
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  patients and members to help them self-service? It's kind of similar, Laura,
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  to what you do now and whether you want to purchase a product in,
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  in retail or whether you wanna, you know, go ahead and pay a bill. You know,
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  in the, in the, uh, financial services industry,
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  you just pull some things out of your pocket and you do it at three o'clock in
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  the morning if you so desire. Uh, those tools have all been,
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  they've gone through those industries,
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  have gone through the digital transformation and have put a lot of those tasks
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  back upon it's customers who want to do it,
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  but you gotta have easy to use tools. They gotta be, uh, very precise,
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  accurate, um, and we wanna be able to provide those to, um,
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  our patients members and caregivers as well.
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  I think that makes a lot of sense. And, you know, I,
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  I love that kind of focus on that patient experience and really making sure
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  people have what they need to make it easy. And, and just really, like you said,
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  get into a space where, um, more and more, you know,
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  things can really fall in line and have the data infrastructure and platforms
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  and technology to, um, bridge everything together. Now,
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  before we wrap up our conversation,
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  I wanted to look into the future a little bit too.
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  Where do you see yourself growing and developing as a chief information and
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  digital officer? What does that role look like, uh,
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  one or two years down the line and,
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  and how your team's growing to meet the needs of their patients and the
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  organization?
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  Yeah, this is where, you know, in, in my opinion, you start to, uh, you know,
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  tap into your network. You try to, uh,
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  try to grab some of the good things that are happening across the country and be
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  able to bring those in. There's no need to, you know, recreate the wheel, uh,
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  as an old example that people have used. Yeah.
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  Take some of those good ideas inside the industry and outside the industry and
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  bring those in and personalize 'em for, uh,
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  your environment and what that comes in my opinion, a lot of partnerships,
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  you know, working with some of the, uh,
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  larger companies and how to continue to advance their product into new areas and
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  modules.
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  But also there's a very crowded space with a lot of new startups coming into
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  this, uh, digital health, uh, type arena.
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  So to be able to selectively go through and filter through and find the best
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  partners for you, uh, they're very, uh, there's a lot of talent out there.
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  There's a lot of investments being made in some of these companies.
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  So how can you bring that in and be able to accelerate, you know,
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  the contributions that they'll be making, uh, to your, to your patients,
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  your members, and your, and your caregivers. So, you know,
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  partnerships is a big thing for me as well as networking and, uh,
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  really sharing some of the good ideas and then learning from others.
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  I love it that that really is the bottom line is being able to partner and
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  connect and learn from others.
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  Has there been anything recently that you've learned or something that's really
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  interesting that's crossed your desk that you feel like would be, uh,
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  helpful to share with other chief information officers and digital leaders
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  across the board?
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  Yeah, you know, the, the thing that I would highlight in terms of, uh,
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  specificity would be just the continued, uh, growth of, uh, the Microsoft,
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  uh, ecosystem including, uh, not only their Azure environment,
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  but really the nuance acquisition and how we've been able to take some of that
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  ambient intelligence and bring that into the physician space.
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  And now we're looking at bringing that into, you know,
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  the nursing space and other allied health, uh, members.
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  So the continued part of taking some of the artificial intelligence that's being
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  put out there. And there was another friend of mine once told me,
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  don't call it artificial intelligence, call it advanced intelligence. And so,
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  uh, i, I will start to lean more towards that way cuz it's not fake.
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  It's a reality in bringing that in and continuing to advance it. And again,
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  you know, when you strive to be the model,
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  once you start proving these things out and getting some good returns,
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  how do we then allow other markets and other, uh,
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  healthcare systems across the country to take advantage of some of the learnings
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  that we have?
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  I love it. Craig, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been a fun conversation as always,
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  and I'm really looking forward to having you live in person at our Becker's
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  Health IT digital health, the revenue cycle event in October.
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  I know you're always a big part of the great conversations we have there around
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  technologies and innovation and really how the digital space is changing for
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  healthcare providers and patients. So I'm looking forward to seeing you then.
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  Yeah, thank you Laura. And, uh, we'll see you soon.
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