Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Puneet Freibott, System Chief Nursing Officer, Beth Israel Lahey Health

Transcript

Puneet Freibott, System Chief Nursing Officer, Beth Israel Lahey 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 Bikers 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 Puneet Frybhat, who
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  is the system chief nurse officer at Beth
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  Israel Leahy Health. Puneet, thanks for being here.
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  Let's start off by having you introduce yourself
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  and share a little bit more about your
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  work in health care.
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  Thank you. It's it's a pleasure being here.
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  So I have been a nurse for almost
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  thirty years, so three decades in this space.
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  And, you know, from being at a bedside
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  and transforming health care,
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  in that space all the way to being
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  assistant chief nursing officer, I do believe
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  that
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  nursing leadership as a part of the interdisciplinary
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  team has the power to truly transform health
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  care. And over the years, I've had the
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  opportunity to work across many areas,
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  which has really shaped how I think about
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  care, people, and innovation.
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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 reported using AI in
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  some capacity in the past year, and it
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  obviously remains a key topic for health IT
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  leaders.
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  So from your perspective, what are the use
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  cases that are making a difference right now,
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  and how are you leveraging them in your
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  organization?
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  That's such a great question. And I think
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  what's exciting about AI right now is that
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  we're starting to see it move from concept
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  to meaningful
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  real world impact.
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  One of the clearest examples of of that
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  in our organization is ambient listening technology,
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  some virtual
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  nursing, patient safety attendants, and we're using it
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  both across our medical and nursing workflows.
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  For our clinicians, it's helping us reduce our
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  documentation burden
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  and, more importantly, the psychological burden
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  by automatically
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  capturing conversations and generating structured notes directly into
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  the electronic health care record. It's a game
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  changer because this allows our teams to refocus
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  their time and attention on the patients and
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  not on screens.
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  For nursing, we're starting to see tremendous value
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  in using ambient tools to document assessments,
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  care coordination,
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  and capturing one on one professional development conversations
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  in real time,
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  which not only saves time, but also improves
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  accuracy and completeness of the record.
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  It's it's also giving us a better insight
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  into what's happening at bedside so we can
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  identify opportunities for quality improvement and care redesign.
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  At its core, AI should never replace human
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  element. Right? We all we all know that.
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  We're all trying to strive towards that, but
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  it should really enhance the caregiver experience.
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  And what we're learning is that when we
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  thoughtfully integrate technology
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  like ambient listening and virtual nursing, we create
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  space for our clinicians to reconnect to their
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  purpose,
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  caring for people while building a more sustainable
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  and joyful practice environment.
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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, introducing new technologies often brings 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 constraints?
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  Yeah. Absolutely.
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  Introducing new technology in health care must start
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  with clarity of purpose,
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  ensuring every innovative
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  innovation aligns with our mission, improves patient outcomes,
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  and supports our clinicians
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  rather than adding the burden. So really understanding
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  that ROI,
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  in all in all sense. No. Not just
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  financial, but also psychological and workload.
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  My advice for leaders is to establish strong
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  interdisciplinary
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  government governance early, bringing together
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  your clinicians,
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  IT,
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  operations,
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  compliance, and patient experience leaders to evaluate
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  not only for functionality,
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  but also for clinical revel relevance,
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  workflow integration, and equity.
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  From nursing lens, engagement at the point of
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  care is so critical.
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  The voice of the bedside teams and patients
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  must shape adoption. They should not be at
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  the end of the of the adoption process,
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  but really at the beginning of it. Because
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  what we've learned that when clinicians are co
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  designers, implementation
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  is smoother,
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  and technology is embraced as an enabler rather
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  than an imposition.
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  For example, in our system, we recently implemented
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  a remote patient monitoring program for chronic disease
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  management.
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  We balance innovation with operational constraints
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  by starting with a small pilot with high
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  risk populations,
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  integrating data directly into the EHR, and aligning
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  staffing models to support follow-up care. This measured
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  approach allowed us to demonstrate value,
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  build trust, and and scale sustainably.
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  And how are you seeing recent
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  legislation,
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  both state and federal, affect health care organizations
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  and health care IT specifically? And have you
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  just adjusted any strategies in response?
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  Yeah.
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  This is a
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  a loaded question, but, yes, I'll try to
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  definitely answer this. So recent legislation has underscored
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  an importance of data transparency,
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  interoperability,
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  and equitable access.
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  For both state and federal levels, mandates
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  across price transparency,
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  health information
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  exchange,
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  AI governance, and patient privacy
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  have required health systems to take a more
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  integrated approach to digital strategy.
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  From a clinical operational perspective, we have adjusted
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  by strengthening our government structure
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  to ensure compliance and proactive readiness.
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  For example, as a reg as regulatory expectations
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  around AI
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  and digital health evolve, our system established a
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  digital
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  health council committee
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  with nursing representation
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  to ensure clinical safety, ethical use, and a
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  and alignment with evidence based practice.
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  We're also leveraging
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  legislation momentum to advance health equity using digital
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  tools to close the gap in access and
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  outcomes,
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  especially for those remote and underserved population.
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  Legislation often brings challenges, but also opportunities to
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  accelerate transformation
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  when we align our strategies early.
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  And final question as we wrap our conversation
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  up, what is your top piece of advice
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  for health care leaders as they prepare for
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  further advancements in tech and rising demands for
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  care?
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  My top advice is to lead with people
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  and not products.
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  Technology will continue to evolve rapidly, but for
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  our enduring foe but our enduring focus must
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  be on how it improves the human experience
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  for our patients, our families, and our workforce.
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  Leaders should foster a culture of digital literacy
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  and curiosity,
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  ensuring that teams feel empowered and capable of
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  leveraging tools that enhance care delivery
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  rather than being overwhelmed by them.
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  Invest in change management and education.
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  Embed nursing and your other clinical frontline voices
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  in every stage of design and adoption, and
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  keep equity at the forefront.
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  Technology
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  should never widen the disparities.
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  Finally, pair innovation with operational design and discipline.
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  Pilot thoughtfully,
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  measure outcomes, and scale that works.
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  The more the most successful organizations will be
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  the ones that balance agility with accountability,
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  ensuring every advancement drives value, safety, and joy
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  in practice.
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  Wonderful. Well, Punit, thanks so much for joining
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  me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast and
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  sharing these thoughts. Again, we are recording live
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  at the tenth annual health IT, digital health,
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  and RCM meeting. Thanks for having me here.