Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Linda Stevenson, Chief Information Officer at Fisher-Titus

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Linda Stevenson, Chief Information Officer at Fisher-Titus · 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 Linda Stevenson,
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  chief Information Officer at Fisher Titus.
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  Linda, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  - Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
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  - Now I'm looking forward to our conversation
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  and just really diving into more of
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  what you're doing at Fisher Titus and some of the big trends
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  and themes in health it right now.
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  Before we dive into that discussion,
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  can you tell us a little bit more
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  about yourself and your background?
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  - Sure. I have, uh, had the pleasure
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  of being the CIO here at Fisher Titus, which is located,
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  by the way, in Norwalk, Ohio.
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  It's a rural healthcare organization.
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  I've been here for five years
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  and, uh, been in my entire career in healthcare in the
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  Cleveland area at various large and small organizations.
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  Really my passion lies in,
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  in being in the community hospitals
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  and connecting to the patients in the community.
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  So, um, pretty excited
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  that I get to do that here in Norwalk.
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  - Absolutely. And, you know, where does
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  that passion come from for community health and,
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  and really being in a smaller town or providing care
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  and access to the more rural communities?
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  - Well, I think it's too, it's a couple things actually.
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  Um, when you're at a community organization,
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  you have a deeper connection
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  to what's going on with the patients.
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  You're there, you're on site, you see everything.
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  Uh, you get involved with the community in terms
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  of community events and the health of the community.
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  Um, it's also the ability to make change.
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  I think when you're at a smaller organization like the
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  community hospitals, um, we have the ability to,
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  to turn things around pretty quickly and make decisions
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  and make changes as opposed to a larger organization
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  where there's a lot of layers.
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  And while there's sometimes more resources, it's,
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  it's exciting to see how quickly we can do what we need
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  to do to improve things for the patient.
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  - That's such a good point,
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  and definitely seems like, you know, you're able
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  to do a lot there fist titis.
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  So from your perspective, what are the biggest issues
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  that you're following right now, um, in healthcare for 2024?
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  - Oh, gosh, so many of them,
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  but I would say top of mind, uh, we start
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  with the challenges financially.
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  It's a continued challenge for us to survive
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  as a standalone,
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  and we're one of the few in this area,
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  standalone community hospital supporting, um, this area in
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  that our reimbursements are low, the costs are high.
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  Uh, it's a continued effort with every,
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  or every area of the organization to try
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  and find opportunities to improve that.
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  It's also, um, the need
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  and the challenge of finding the right roadmap
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  for technology that helps our patients,
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  helps our caregivers.
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  Um, there's never an end to a need for more technology to do
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  that, whether it's AI or other,
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  and just finding the amount of resources we need to do that.
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  - Absolutely. I can imagine, you know,
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  as you were mentioning, sometimes the bigger health systems
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  and academic centers have the resources to do, you know,
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  more, um, big projects.
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  But being at a a rural
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  and community hospital, you know,
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  it definitely takes a little bit more in order to, um,
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  bring in some of the sophisticated technology.
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  When you're looking at AI
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  and some of the other digital transformation efforts,
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  how do you prioritize
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  and think through, you know, what's going
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  to be most essential for me,
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  especially on a potentially limited budget, um,
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  from the hospital system?
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  - Yeah, I work really closely
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  with the leaders in the other departments.
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  So being a CIO is no longer just managing a bunch
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  of technology behind the scenes.
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  It's, it's much more
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  of a business partnership than it's ever been.
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  We meet on a regular basis to say,
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  what are the challenges you're having
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  and what are the opportunities that I can bring a solution
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  to improve for you?
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  Uh, so we do a lot of that
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  and then bring it all together on the roadmap to say, okay,
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  across the organization, here's the resources I have
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  from a people perspective, and here's how we can
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  and put that roadmap together to get the,
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  the biggest rocks first.
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  Right? We need to solve the biggest problems first so
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  that we can continue to fund other things
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  and continue to improve quality.
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  Uh, and you just have to wait each of those
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  with the leaders coming together at the table.
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  And I think that's been the beautiful thing about Fisher
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  Titus is our senior leadership team works so closely
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  together to align priorities across the
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  board, not just for one area
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  - That makes sense.
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  And it, you know, it is really helpful
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  and encouraging to hear.
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  Um, when you look into the next year,
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  what are you most excited about and what makes you nervous?
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  - Well, the finances make me nervous.
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  Um, but the bottom line is just trying to get, um,
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  as many things automated as possible
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  to reduce the burden on all of the staff is going
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  to be helpful, uh, given that, uh, concern of course.
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  And the next thing is the amount
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  of people I have to do all those things.
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  So, so that's the biggest concern.
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  The biggest opportunities, I think are our ability
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  to make a difference in that automation.
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  Um, helping both nurses
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  and our revenue cycle ease their
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  burden and the work that can be done.
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  And then also, uh,
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  the digital transformation with our patients.
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  Putting the patient at the center,
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  allowing our digital changes to impact the patient,
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  get them more engaged in their care,
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  streamline their ability to come here,
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  give them great access.
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  Um, I'm really excited about that.
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  - Absolutely. That's great to hear.
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  And certainly, you know, a lot
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  to be excited about when you think through, um,
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  the opportunities and how a technology can be leveraged in
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  different ways and, and really automation can
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  support so many different efforts.
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  Um, one of the things you mentioned kind of stood out to me,
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  um, in terms of looking at, you know,
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  having the team in place to do what you need to do, um,
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  how do you think about growing
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  and developing the IT team and capabilities?
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  What do you do in-house?
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  Is there anything that you are outsourcing
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  or partnering with others to, um, try to get done?
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  Um, what's your strategy there?
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  - Yeah, I think that there's a couple of things that we do.
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  I'm, we have, uh, a team of only 40 people,
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  and I, I, they're fabulous.
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  I, you know, I encourage education.
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  I encourage them to do research
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  and we very rarely rely on outside resources
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  because I think that my goal for them is dig in,
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  do the research, figure it out,
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  and then they learn by doing that.
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  Actually there's some of the best resources around in terms
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  of the knowledge of the system, even at the point where some
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  of the vendors look to them to say, how did you do that?
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  Which is awesome. Um, you have to encourage them to say,
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  you know this, you can do this.
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  Give them the education, give them the support.
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  There are times when we need to reach out
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  and do out, uh, use outside resources.
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  I try not to, but we have to occasionally.
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  Um, and then the other thing is, um, looking at
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  training them in areas to support to,
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  for cross training in areas
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  that they don't normally support,
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  which would makes them a more well-rounded resource.
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  - Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
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  And, you know, are most of them local in the community
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  or have you expanded it
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  and just have a more hybrid virtual team?
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  - Well, yes and no.
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  So we, most of our staff is remote.
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  Uh, they are, well, it's a hybrid.
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  They're on site about one one day a week,
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  sometimes two days a week,
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  depending on the type of role they have.
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  They all, however, are local, not maybe local to Norwalk,
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  but local to northeast Ohio.
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  So they do have the ability to come on site as needed.
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  But I, you know, I think it's important to give them
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  that flexibility for work-life balance of, of being able
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  to work in whatever environment suit them best.
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  We have explored having people outside of the state and,
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  and, and would, are still open to that.
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  We've been blessed in that most of the,
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  the opportunities have been filled with local talent.
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  So it's been great. And working in a rural hospital,
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  the culture is here that it's nice.
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  People like to see people.
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  And so having people local whenever possible is our goal.
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  - I a hundred percent agree.
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  I, I think that's amazing, you know, feat
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  that you've been able to accomplish in terms
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  of building the team that you have to really support, um,
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  the hospital locally and, and, um, people by
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  and large being, as you mentioned in the Ohio area, so that,
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  you know, um, they're really connected it seems like,
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  to the hospital and to the mission.
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  Um, when you look ahead, you know, are, are there,
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  what skills do you see needing your team to expand or grow
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  and continue to develop, um,
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  to make sure you're supporting the things like artificial
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  intelligence and other, um,
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  potential technologies coming into the system?
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  - Yeah, I think there's a couple of areas we're working on.
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  Obviously some dependency on data
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  and analytics is, uh, we're really pushing for a few
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  of the team to be more involved in learning data, you know,
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  app applications of data scientists, um, different types
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  of cloud enhanced application, things like that.
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  Uh, pushing some people in that regard,
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  but also some of the others.
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  I think the goal is to really educate them on what it's like
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  to be more of a business partner than just an analyst.
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  I don't want team to be the people
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  who just take tickets and requests.
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  I want them to be business partners
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  with the departments they support,
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  where they're gonna be more proactive in reaching out
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  and proposing solutions.
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  So that's a little bit of work
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  'cause it's a change in how they've been thinking all
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  of the, all of the years they've been here, um,
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  working a lot on that.
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  And it's not a technical training,
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  but more of a shift in thinking.
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  - That makes a lot of sense.
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  You know, and it's such a helpful way to think about
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  that sea change of kind
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  of the cultural transformation within the IT department
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  and integrating that into the broader system.
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  When you're looking again, um, you know,
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  over the next couple years we've talked a lot about some
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  of the changes that are happening in the healthcare space
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  as well as what technology can bring.
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  Um, what do you will most effective healthcare leaders need
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  in order to be successful over the next two to three years,
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  especially given some of these changes
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  and capabilities that are becoming available?
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  - Um, if I had to pick one thing I have,
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  I'd have to say it's data.
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  They need data. They need analytics
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  because there is such a need to really manage
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  so closely your budgets
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  and your work that if they don't have the right information,
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  how can they effectively do that
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  and make suggestions on changes.
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  So I think that is the number one thing we're spending time
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  and resources on.
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  And then beyond that, it's getting those same leaders,
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  the education on data literacy so they can,
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  they understand what they're doing.
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  - Absolutely. And I can imagine
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  that can't come quick enough.
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  - Absolutely. - Linda, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been such a fun and informative conversation
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  and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
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  - Thank you so much for having me,
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  and I look forward to future conversations.
• 10:57
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