Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Using Data to Transform Surgical Operations and Patient Access

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Using Data to Transform Surgical Operations and Patient Access · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:03
  - Podcast.
• 0:04
  - We're thrilled today to be joined by a
• 0:07
  - brilliant leader. We're joined today by Jennifer Venator.
• 0:10
  - Jennifer Venator is a is a a nurse.
• 0:13
  - She's a master in in science in nursing.
• 0:16
  - She's got several different titles.
• 0:18
  - She's also the executive director of surgical services
• 0:22
  - at Providence Saint Jude Medical Center in Fullerton,
• 0:25
  - California.
• 0:26
  - We're gonna talk to her about
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  - operations,
• 0:29
  - operating rooms, logistics,
• 0:31
  - access to surgical care, and a lot more.
• 0:35
  - Jennifer,
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  - to kick us off, can you take a
• 0:38
  - moment to tell us about yourself and about
• 0:40
  - your career and work in health care?
• 0:43
  - Thank you, Scott. Thank you for having me
• 0:44
  - on today, first of all. And, gosh, that
• 0:47
  - sounds like a long list of things to
• 0:48
  - talk about. But, just a little bit about
• 0:50
  - me. I am an OR nurse by background,
• 0:53
  - so I I've spent the past twenty years
• 0:57
  - of my life serving in surgery
• 0:59
  - in some capacity.
• 1:01
  - I've taken care of patients at the bedside.
• 1:04
  - I've helped educate our teams,
• 1:06
  - and I've been a leader in multiple different
• 1:08
  - areas.
• 1:09
  - Currently, I am the executive director of surgical
• 1:12
  - services at Providence Saint Jude Medical Center in
• 1:15
  - Fullerton, California,
• 1:17
  - where my responsibility
• 1:18
  - is
• 1:20
  - honed around all surgical
• 1:22
  - and GI procedural areas.
• 1:25
  - And so my responsibility
• 1:27
  - is really to help our patients have access
• 1:30
  - to care.
• 1:31
  - And surgical excellence has been a passion of
• 1:34
  - mine for for a very, very long time.
• 1:37
  - I strive for to help create an environment
• 1:39
  - in which we can provide the highest quality,
• 1:41
  - safety,
• 1:42
  - latest technology for our patients,
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  - and we wanna make sure that our surgeons
• 1:47
  - and care teams have the best environment to
• 1:49
  - do their best work.
• 1:51
  - But a big part of my job involves
• 1:54
  - data, and data just
• 1:56
  - drives a lot of the decisions
• 1:58
  - that we make as a team, as a
• 2:00
  - leadership team day to day.
• 2:03
  - Thank you. Let's talk about that. You spend
• 2:05
  - a lot of time
• 2:06
  - on working on patient access and supporting your
• 2:09
  - surgical care teams,
• 2:10
  - and and and trying to make sure you've
• 2:12
  - got the right throughput
• 2:14
  - and making sure everything works well in the
• 2:16
  - best for the clinical team and for the
• 2:18
  - patients.
• 2:19
  - Talk a little bit about how that data,
• 2:22
  - you know, be more reliable
• 2:23
  - post perioperative
• 2:25
  - data
• 2:25
  - has changed your ability to lead and how
• 2:28
  - you lead and how you make decisions day
• 2:30
  - to day?
• 2:31
  - So data as a whole is very important.
• 2:35
  - Right? And,
• 2:36
  - I like to work smarter, not harder.
• 2:40
  - And what has really been very helpful in
• 2:43
  - the past few years, you know, health care
• 2:44
  - is changing, and we have the advent of
• 2:47
  - of new technology
• 2:49
  - helping us with our data.
• 2:51
  - And it's it's really great when you have
• 2:54
  - easily accessible data at your fingertips.
• 2:58
  - It gives me a very clear picture of
• 2:59
  - our operations
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  - without having to manually assemble a story.
• 3:04
  - So, you know, prior to, you know, having
• 3:07
  - access to this type of technology,
• 3:09
  - our teams were doing a lot of deep
• 3:12
  - diving
• 3:12
  - in, you know, pivoting spreadsheets and doing things
• 3:16
  - very very manual tasks to try and tell
• 3:18
  - the story
• 3:20
  - about what was happening in our department.
• 3:22
  - And so now when there's a clinical question
• 3:24
  - or a question about our efficiencies,
• 3:27
  - I can quickly look.
• 3:29
  - The team can quickly look and figure out,
• 3:31
  - you know, where's our capacity?
• 3:34
  - Where do we potentially see opportunities to improve?
• 3:37
  - Where are we very successful?
• 3:40
  - And so,
• 3:41
  - instead of relying on somebody's opinion
• 3:45
  - or, you know, a one report from one
• 3:47
  - dataset or another report from another dataset,
• 3:50
  - we really have one source of truth for
• 3:52
  - what's happening with our teams.
• 3:54
  - And since we implemented this, we have seen
• 3:58
  - multiple
• 3:59
  - changes and advantages
• 4:02
  - in our case volume,
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  - our patients' access to our department,
• 4:06
  - improving measures, you know, as far as, you
• 4:09
  - know, our efficiencies,
• 4:11
  - how we're starting our rooms, how we're starting
• 4:13
  - our cases,
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  - and how we're overall just allowing access to
• 4:16
  - our department. So very important, and,
• 4:20
  - it it has gotten easier over time.
• 4:22
  - And let me ask you this question. You've
• 4:24
  - been at Providence for literally twenty five years,
• 4:26
  - I think,
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  - or more. And and we always talk about
• 4:29
  - people that have been at the same place
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  - for twenty five years or that kind of
• 4:31
  - way at the time.
• 4:33
  - They both have to be very competent,
• 4:35
  - and they both have to be likable. Because
• 4:37
  - you you can't get somebody for twenty, thirty
• 4:39
  - years
• 4:39
  - and make too many enemies because sooner or
• 4:41
  - later somebody throws you out or you get
• 4:43
  - upset with somebody in service. You gotta be
• 4:44
  - both competent, very good at what you do,
• 4:46
  - and likable, which is remarkable.
• 4:48
  - I'll take you back to the subject at
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  - hand. How has the use of data changed
• 4:52
  - over the last twenty five years in managing
• 4:55
  - surgical care, managing surgical throughput,
• 4:58
  - and and and how you manage your teams?
• 5:01
  - Yeah. You know, data hasn't always been reliable.
• 5:05
  - You'll have a a system or a report
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  - that's built by one person,
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  - in in the past, you know, years and
• 5:12
  - years ago where where,
• 5:14
  - actually, we couldn't really rely on what we
• 5:16
  - were seeing.
• 5:17
  - And, you know,
• 5:19
  - working in health care, there's a lot of
• 5:21
  - relationship building. Right? And you surround yourself with
• 5:23
  - the people that that do a really, really
• 5:26
  - great job
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  - and everybody who trusts each other and collaborates
• 5:30
  - well together. And as we as we work
• 5:33
  - together over time, we've seen, you know, people
• 5:36
  - trust us. They trust our knowledge. And so
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  - we wanna make sure
• 5:40
  - that what we're leaning on is correct.
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  - And so,
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  - you know, with data specifically,
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  - we used to not be able to trust
• 5:50
  - it. And and now,
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  - with the advent of, you know, all of
• 5:54
  - these new computerized systems and and patient access
• 5:58
  - systems, we're able
• 6:00
  - to to look into, like, the real time
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  - documentation
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  - in in our patients' charts,
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  - and, it will pull data for us that
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  - we know is what actually happened clinically
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  - because we can track it, and we can
• 6:12
  - go back to the source of that data.
• 6:14
  - So, it that's been very that's been very,
• 6:17
  - very helpful. And,
• 6:19
  - when we have that data, when we particularly
• 6:22
  - trust that data, and then when others trust
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  - us,
• 6:25
  - then we can have really clean conversations
• 6:28
  - about how to improve everything for our patients.
• 6:31
  - And and and thinking back in that subject
• 6:34
  - of the trust in the data and how
• 6:35
  - you work with the data,
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  - your team now brings together
• 6:39
  - operations, finance, business development
• 6:42
  - around a very shared view of performance based
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  - on that data
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  - rather than working in silos.
• 6:48
  - How has that changed the conversation having that
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  - all in one place
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  - in reliable and trustable data?
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  - Change the conversation across your hospital, and what
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  - have you learned?
• 6:57
  - And then how does it help you to
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  - implement best practices
• 7:00
  - having that shared view of the data and
• 7:02
  - performance?
• 7:03
  - Yeah. So, you know, going back to, you
• 7:06
  - know, trust and collaboration
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  - and working with others. Right?
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  - Oftentimes
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  - and and I've seen this happen before where
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  - where they're you know, these areas, people in,
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  - you know, the operational area,
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  - the business development area, and the finance area,
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  - you know, our jobs are interconnected
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  - because
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  - the operational
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  - leader, you know, it's my job to make
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  - sure that our patients can come into our
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  - doors, and and we welcome everybody, you know,
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  - for whatever need they have. Right? Our business
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  - development team, you know, they really are important
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  - because they recognize, you know, what gaps we
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  - might have and services that we may or
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  - may not be providing to our community
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  - and
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  - help us drive decisions
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  - based on, you know,
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  - how we can better serve our community.
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  - And our finance team helps us keep the
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  - doors open and the lights on so that
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  - we can continue to do that work. And
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  - so working together in collaboration is very, very
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  - important.
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  - And data in itself,
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  - when data is simple
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  - and everybody understands
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  - what they're looking at,
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  - it actually can help us work together to
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  - collaboratively,
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  - make decisions on, you know, what tactics we
• 8:29
  - need to better serve our community.
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  - And then that, you know, that kind of
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  - translates across the bigger groups. So,
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  - once as far as, like, a health system
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  - goes, you know, health care's changed. We have
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  - we have
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  - multiple large health systems now, and we are
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  - part of a big health system that provides
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  - care in multiple different states. Right?
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  - And when we as collectively,
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  - as a group of people and as a
• 8:56
  - team,
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  - through Providence have have decided on the source
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  - of truth for our data,
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  - that becomes the reliable source that everybody can
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  - lean on. And then in our local areas,
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  - what we do
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  - is we're able to share best practices with
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  - each other, you know, and what works at
• 9:16
  - one place may not work at another place.
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  - No. Because our community is different. The populations
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  - that we serve are different.
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  - But
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  - when we when we have kind of a
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  - one dataset
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  - that helps all of us, that can help
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  - drive, you know, what the next thing is
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  - that we're going to work on and how
• 9:35
  - we work together collaboratively
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  - to, you know, create more room for our
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  - patients.
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  - So,
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  - as a whole, you know, I think I
• 9:44
  - think collaboration
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  - and, working together is the most important part
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  - of how we do this and how we
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  - drive our decision making.
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  - Thank you. In increasingly
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  - using the data
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  - in one on one conversation
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  - with physicians,
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  - surgeons, gastroenterologists,
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  - How does that look? And talk to us
• 10:05
  - about that and how important is the data
• 10:07
  - being right to have those conversations go well.
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  - Yes. If that is a 100%,
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  - it the data has to be right. Right?
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  - And once you know it's right and you
• 10:17
  - know that it's easy to access
• 10:19
  - and you know that you can pull it
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  - up at a moment's notice,
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  - when something comes up, you know, and you
• 10:27
  - need to have a conversation with somebody,
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  - you can do it on their terms. You
• 10:31
  - know, I can I can sit with with
• 10:33
  - somebody, you know, whenever they need to sit
• 10:36
  - with me, and I don't need to do
• 10:37
  - some complicated meeting or complicated,
• 10:40
  - you know,
• 10:41
  - data pull? I can sit with them, you
• 10:43
  - know, in real time on their terms, and
• 10:45
  - we can talk about what the data says.
• 10:49
  - And when, like I said, when it's something
• 10:51
  - that's accepted widely,
• 10:53
  - the the surgeons, you know, our physicians, they
• 10:56
  - also trust that data.
• 10:58
  - So, you know, one of the things as
• 11:00
  - an example, one of the things we've worked
• 11:02
  - on, you know, really hard is is creating
• 11:04
  - our,
• 11:06
  - access to our surgery department, specifically with efficiency,
• 11:11
  - and
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  - data has really driven that. So
• 11:15
  - starting on time is really important. If you
• 11:16
  - start your day on time, you get your
• 11:18
  - day off on the right foot. Everybody depends
• 11:20
  - on it. It increases patient satisfaction,
• 11:23
  - staff satisfaction, physician satisfaction.
• 11:26
  - And,
• 11:27
  - in order to do that, we really need
• 11:29
  - to understand,
• 11:31
  - you know, what the best interventions are
• 11:34
  - to to making that successful. Right? And so
• 11:37
  - one thing that we did with starting our
• 11:39
  - day on time, first case on time start
• 11:41
  - was
• 11:42
  - created an an automatic report in which
• 11:45
  - that report is sent to me, and I
• 11:47
  - can send that report off to our physicians
• 11:50
  - and the leaders of our physicians. So that
• 11:52
  - way, we all can be on the same
• 11:54
  - page as far as, you know, the accountability
• 11:57
  - piece of it as well. So everybody starts
• 11:59
  - on time means, you know, we can accurately
• 12:02
  - predict our day so that our patients have
• 12:05
  - reliable care. And so, that's been very it's
• 12:08
  - been very important to have something that everybody
• 12:11
  - trusts.
• 12:12
  - No. That's that's so important too. I mean,
• 12:15
  - it seems so
• 12:17
  - fundamental,
• 12:18
  - but getting the search to start the first
• 12:20
  - case on time
• 12:22
  - makes it much easier to set the day
• 12:23
  - up for success.
• 12:25
  - And if you have a track record where
• 12:26
  - somebody's regularly late and they've just gotten to
• 12:29
  - that sort of notion,
• 12:31
  - what sometimes they don't realize statistically is where
• 12:33
  - they're at,
• 12:34
  - and then they have to actually care that
• 12:36
  - they're impacting everybody else too. But that's part
• 12:38
  - of those discussions. And much easier of those
• 12:40
  - discussions, if you have good data, not just
• 12:42
  - anecdotally, you know, doctor x, you're always late
• 12:44
  - compared to other people. You're causing some trouble,
• 12:46
  - and we'd like you on time or as
• 12:49
  - close to the time more often. And having
• 12:51
  - great data is probably really helpful for those
• 12:53
  - difficult conversations. Right. And, you know, the the
• 12:56
  - that particular data point is multifactorial. Right? It
• 12:58
  - it doesn't always just depend on the surgeon.
• 13:00
  - It depends on everybody.
• 13:02
  - It depends on the patient being ready. You
• 13:05
  - know, how are we gonna make sure that
• 13:07
  - our patient is ready? And we're all on
• 13:10
  - one team working together for that goal.
• 13:12
  - And so it it's and, you know, we
• 13:15
  - all contribute to it as well. So when
• 13:17
  - we find an outlier or see an outlier,
• 13:19
  - we we kind of help with that, you
• 13:21
  - know, bringing that awareness, you know, sharing that,
• 13:24
  - you know, oh, we're all watching, but we're
• 13:26
  - all here for you. We're all here to
• 13:28
  - support you as well, and,
• 13:30
  - this is what it looks like. So it's
• 13:32
  - it's been very helpful.
• 13:34
  - Love that. And talk about what is sort
• 13:37
  - of next
• 13:38
  - in terms of
• 13:40
  - data and what you're doing. What what are
• 13:42
  - the next things in the agenda for perioperative
• 13:45
  - data and and systems and and and sort
• 13:48
  - of how you
• 13:50
  - can improve optimization
• 13:52
  - and any new capabilities that you're particularly excited
• 13:54
  - about?
• 13:56
  - Yes. Oh, I'm so excited about some some
• 13:58
  - great stuff coming up. I like I said
• 14:00
  - before, you know, we like to work smarter,
• 14:02
  - not harder. Right?
• 14:04
  - And the more minutiae you can pull out
• 14:06
  - of somebody's day, the better. It can use
• 14:09
  - their brain to focus on the important tasks
• 14:12
  - at hand, which is specifically, you know, caring
• 14:15
  - for our patients in real time instead of
• 14:17
  - making phone calls or sending text messages,
• 14:20
  - working, you know, hard to to make sure
• 14:23
  - that our staffing looks good for the next
• 14:25
  - day. There are some great technological advances that
• 14:29
  - are going to help us with those kind
• 14:31
  - of administrative
• 14:32
  - tasks and that administrative burden that our team
• 14:35
  - has. And so
• 14:37
  - looking, you know, to implement
• 14:39
  - across we've already actually already done this across
• 14:42
  - all of our procedural areas. So, you know,
• 14:44
  - Cath Lab has the same access to data
• 14:47
  - as as a surgery department does, and and
• 14:49
  - our GI lab does as well. And and
• 14:51
  - so that's that's opening up more conversations for
• 14:54
  - efficiencies in those areas.
• 14:56
  - Understanding what things look like in real time,
• 14:59
  - you know, having real time communication in in
• 15:02
  - an automated system in which a physician or
• 15:05
  - a technical representative
• 15:07
  - or the team itself can can receive text
• 15:10
  - messages that says, you know, your room is
• 15:12
  - running on time, your room is running behind.
• 15:14
  - Surgery can be unpredictable. So we're not always
• 15:17
  - perfectly on time. Right?
• 15:19
  - So that that has that could actually be,
• 15:22
  - very, very helpful so that our clinicians can
• 15:25
  - focus on what they need to focus on,
• 15:28
  - which is our patients.
• 15:29
  - And then making sure that we have, you
• 15:31
  - know, we have AI tools
• 15:33
  - that will help us determine,
• 15:36
  - you know, who is the best person to
• 15:37
  - help the surgeon with the with the specific
• 15:39
  - case. You know, how can we how can
• 15:41
  - we put the right surgical tech in the
• 15:43
  - room, you know, for this specific very complex
• 15:45
  - case? Or, you know, who needs more training,
• 15:48
  - and how can we completely develop our team?
• 15:51
  - And, I am really excited to see how
• 15:53
  - that's gonna pan out for everybody.
• 15:56
  - It it it really is, Jennifer Venator. A
• 15:59
  - a tremendous pleasure to visit with you. It's
• 16:01
  - an incredible sort of
• 16:03
  - ability and thoughtfulness
• 16:05
  - you take to management and leadership,
• 16:07
  - and it and it shows so clearly, and
• 16:09
  - it and it's so nice to talk to
• 16:11
  - you about it. Congratulations on the mission that
• 16:13
  - you're on and quite frankly how well it's
• 16:15
  - going.
• 16:16
  - Thank you so much for joining us today
• 16:18
  - on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. What a pleasure.
• 16:20
  - Thank you very, very much. For having me.