Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Shannon Becker, Vice President of Information Systems, Clinical Systems at Sentara

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Shannon Becker, Vice President of Information Systems, Clinical Systems at Sentara · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  - This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Shannon Becker,
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  vice President of Information Systems
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  and Clinical Systems at Sentara.
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  Shannon, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  - Thank you. - Now, I know we've got a lot to talk about,
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  and I'm looking forward to digging deeper into some
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  of the really cool things that you're doing at Sentara.
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  But before we do that, can you please introduce yourself
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  and tell us just a bit about your background?
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  - Sure. Um, as you said, my name's Shannon Becker.
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  I work with Sentara Health. I've been here about two years.
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  I have, um, had a pretty diverse career in healthcare.
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  I started off as a clinician, I was a respiratory therapist,
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  and then finished my master's in health informatics
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  and kind of started from the ground up in healthcare.
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  It. I started off as a super user
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  and worked my way through 11 different epic applications
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  and wanted to find a way in which to
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  help our communities at a much more strategic level.
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  So I came to Sentara working in the revenue cycle
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  applications, and now find myself in this position over all
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  of our clinical applications here at Sentara.
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  - Well, that's amazing to hear.
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  And you know, certainly a, a great career journey from
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  that time as a respiratory therapist into doing
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  so many other, um, aspects of healthcare systems,
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  and as you mentioned, being able to influence, um,
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  the system on a really strategic level is amazing.
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  So, with that in mind, could you tell me a little bit about,
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  um, your most successful project from the last year or two?
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  What did you do and how did you measure the results?
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  - So for us, I don't think it's about
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  large projects over the last two years.
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  I think that we at Sentara have had a goal for seamless
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  secure healthcare systems that, that really keep our
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  consumer at, at the focus.
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  So we've done a lot of small things, um, to really,
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  to really enhance that, that consumer experience,
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  and additionally begin to decrease the, um,
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  administrative load that's on our physicians to really help
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  with cognitive fatigue.
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  So just a, a little bit about all of the different things
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  that we're doing in that space.
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  We've been, we've just recently launched our Dax co-pilot
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  for our physicians with the ambient listening
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  to assist in more accurate notes.
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  We are working through some self-scheduling initiatives
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  to make that consumer experience much more seamless
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  and less frustrating.
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  I think everyone can relate to the fact that, you know,
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  my physician orders an MRI, I have
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  to call this phone number,
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  and then they transfer me here, they transfer me there,
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  and that can take up to an an hour just just
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  to make an appointment.
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  So we're really focusing on ways to
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  take the frustration out, out of accessing care.
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  Um, in addition to that, we, um, here at Sentara are very,
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  very focused on meeting our health consumers, patients,
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  community members where they are.
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  So we go out in the community and we talk to them,
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  and our, our focus groups have really found that
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  we have some healthcare deserts in our communities that,
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  that we're looking to really find ways to connect
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  with our communities as it relates to
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  meeting their needs in multiple spaces in one encounter.
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  So we, we've got our mobile care units
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  that are out providing care, um,
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  in places in which our community members gain access
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  to food pantries and other things of that nature.
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  - That's really great to hear.
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  And certainly, you know, having that ability
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  to look at the one big goal, um, for the system
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  and making sure that you've got a patient at the forefront
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  making the, um, the experience seamless
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  and secure for them is really cool.
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  And then looking at, as you mentioned, being able to care
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  for the caregivers as well as, uh,
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  community members in increased access is really so,
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  so crucial these days.
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  So, you know, when you are, are looking at some
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  of those things and then looking ahead to what are some
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  of your top priorities for the next 12 months
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  or so, what do you have top of mind?
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  - So, um, over the next 12 months, our, our top priorities
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  for our patients
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  and health consumers are to continue down the path
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  of a more seamless journey.
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  Um, we are working with our clinical access center
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  to have a one stop shop, no matter the need of the patient.
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  So that would include managing appointments,
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  managing billing, um, nurse triage and,
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  and other things like that.
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  We really wanna take the,
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  the difficulty out of accessing care.
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  We've always been, you know, at the forefront
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  of offering a great clinical experiencing
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  and providing care in that acute
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  situation in which you need it.
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  But, you know, historically I think healthcare has,
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  has focused on providing the tools for our clinicians
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  to do the work, the tools for our physicians to document
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  and document more appropriately.
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  But we haven't always been the best
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  at designing our solutions to make healthcare easy
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  or to make healthcare transparent.
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  So over the next 12 months, that's where we're going
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  to continue to focus to streamline that experience
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  for our consumers.
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  - That's really great to hear. And you know,
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  certainly having that, um, experience front of mind in,
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  in making things easier, um, is,
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  is such an important thing right now and very admirable.
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  When you look at, um, the idea of being able to create a,
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  um, a a better experience for patients, um, what are,
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  are some of the pain points that you're trying to solve for?
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  Um, or, or how are you really tackling
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  that from a strategic level?
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  - Right, so here at Sentara we have health planned
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  and provider services.
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  So we're really trying to find ways to consolidate
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  that experience and,
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  and provide a more just seamless journey.
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  So enhancements within the MyChart experience
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  and our Send 1-800-SENTARA portal are, are ways
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  that we're focusing on that.
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  And really it's a patient empowerment
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  and education thing as well.
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  I think we sometimes expect consumers just to know where
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  to go and how to find things.
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  So creating a much more user-friendly journey
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  for our patients with, with how they like
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  to interact with healthcare.
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  You know, when you think of it generationally, you know,
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  my children would much rather never talk to anyone
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  and just have a text
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  and web-based experience, whereas other groups, depending on
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  what they need at any given moment, might want to flex.
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  So really that omnichannel experience that's catered to
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  the way that, as I stated
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  before, our consumers want to access healthcare.
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  - That makes a lot of sense.
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  And you know, it seems like these days, um, as much
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  as you can, having that choice
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  or the ability to, um, you know, curate,
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  I guess the healthcare experience right on, um,
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  the patient's preferences is really important.
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  Before we wrap up here, I'm wondering,
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  could you talk a little bit about
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  how you anticipate your role in teams will change as some
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  of these, um, factors and trends continue on in healthcare?
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  - Absolutely. So here at Sentara, um, I've already done some
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  rearranging, I'd say of my teams.
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  I don't anticipate that my teams will have new roles,
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  but it's just an elevation of,
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  of their knowledge in certain spaces.
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  I think, you know, the recent security breaches and,
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  and healthcare, it have been terrifying.
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  And, you know, many times we work in a siloed fashion,
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  and I think what we're going to see, um, change in, in
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  our roles and our teams is just a higher level of,
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  of education and knowledge in multiple spaces.
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  So it's not just enough to to know the specific space
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  that you work in, be it, you know,
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  surgical scheduling, be it pharmacy.
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  It's having that security lens, it's having
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  that consumer lens.
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  It's just a much more broad and holistic view of healthcare
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  and how our landscape is changing.
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  And then always making sure
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  that you understand those connection points
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  as we in the IT space build out our solutions.
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  - Yeah, that, that's such an excellent point.
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  And, you know, really, um, kind of gets to the bottom
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  of having that more of interconnected experience, not only
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  for the patients,
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  but um, having that kind of view of it, um,
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  no matter who you are on the team.
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  And that's not an easy change to, um, bring about or,
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  or an easy thing to inspire in, in people
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  to help them really see the big picture
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  and connect the dots in a meaningful way.
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  Um, is, is there anything that you do
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  with your team in order to get them in that right mindset
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  or really, um, prime them, um,
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  in a way to make that transition?
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  - Absolutely. So, um, we do a lot of cross training, uh,
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  across our application teams.
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  We do lunch and learns with security.
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  We really try to take, uh, uh, an approach that
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  that is collaborative.
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  We're always trying
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  to learn a little bit about the other people's spaces.
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  And, you know, for me growing up, my, my grandfather
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  is actually from Austria
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  and he, he instilled, instilled in me at an early age
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  that it's always important
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  to learn the language of your neighbors.
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  So that's the approach I've taken here at Sentara, um,
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  with leadership and, you know, trying
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  to provide the best experience I can for all of our teams.
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  - I love that. Learn the language of your neighbors.
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  What a powerful, uh, way to think about, um, all of this
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  and, and really grow in a meaningful way.
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  Shannon, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the Becker's podcast.
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  This has been such a great conversation.
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  Um, I really appreciate your time
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  and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
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  - All right. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure
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  to be here, .