Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Transforming Health Information Exchange in Vermont with Randy Farmer

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Transforming Health Information Exchange in Vermont with Randy Farmer · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings health care
• 0:04
  leaders together to unpack the most pressing issues
• 0:06
  facing the industry.
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  And every year, those conversations shift in profound
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  and unexpected ways.
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  This April, more than 3,500
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  healthcare executives will return to Chicago
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  for Becker's sixteenth annual meeting.
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  Seven ninety five elite speakers will offer new
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  lessons, new case studies, and predictions about what
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  comes next.
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  Join us April 13 through the sixteenth.
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  For the agenda and event details, visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right.
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  This is Scott Becker with the Beckers HealthCare
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  podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by a
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  leader I've had a chance to talk to
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  several times over the years on the podcast.
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  We're joined today by Randy Farmer, Randall Farmer.
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  Randy, for years, led up the Health Information
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  Network in Delaware and did an amazing job
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  rolling that out, one of the great health
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  information exchanges in the country. He he now
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  has taken a new role as the president
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  and chief executive officer of the Vermont Information
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  Technology Leaders,
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  and and he and we'll talk about what
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  he's doing with with this organization,
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  Vital, and and the goals for that organization
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  and why he chose to make the move
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  at this time. And, again, Randy's a fantastic
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  leader. Randy, let me ask you to take
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  a moment to first introduce yourself, and then
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  we'll talk about what you're doing with VITAL
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  and and the future of of that.
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  Well, you know, thank you, Scott, and thank
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  you again for the honor to be able
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  to join you and speak with you. You
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  you guys are fantastic in the health care
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  space, and it is just a real, real
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  privilege to be able to speak with you.
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  And so thank you for that. So, yeah,
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  joined Vital,
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  back in December prior to that. As you
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  mentioned, I worked as a chief operating officer
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  at, the, the, the, Dollar's Health Information Network.
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  And then,
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  before that, you know, Scott, I I've I've
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  worked for about thirteen years in financial services.
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  And, I had the opportunity actually of working
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  in at Chase card services,
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  majority of the time was with JPMorgan
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  Chase. And I gotta tell you, the the
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  the that in and of itself was a
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  great learning experience. It's a results oriented culture.
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  I got to work with some of America's
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  top brands on the partnership side, got to
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  manage a billion dollar p and l, and,
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  work with just some extremely
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  talented,
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  smart,
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  of of making results oriented people. And I'd
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  like to say that that's kind of an
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  unofficial master's degree. I'd like to say I
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  got an unofficial master's degree from JPMorgan Chase
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  because I feel like I learned probably as
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  much there as I did in any other
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  kind of formal educational
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  standpoint. And it's amazing to me
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  how much the skills that I learned in
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  financial services,
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  are are really
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  applicable in terms of the the health care
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  and health information exchange space.
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  Thank you. And JPMorgan,
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  one of the great companies in America and
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  and one of the great training companies in
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  America as well, so great place to learn
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  and grow.
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  Talk for a second,
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  Randy,
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  about the new role at in Vermont. And
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  are you living in Vermont now? Because Vermont's
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  beautiful.
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  Tell us a bit about the new role.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Actually,
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  this is a really unique opportunity because DIN
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  and Vital were very close cousins. They had
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  very similar supplier,
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  DNA, if you will.
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  And,
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  there's some things that were
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  lined up really well and that the organizations
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  would consult with each other on in terms
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  of, like,
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  who to, work with as a in on
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  the supplier side, but there were some really
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  big differences in terms of the business model.
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  One of the big challenges at at at
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  Vital is that they're currently
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  are highly dependent upon,
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  the single source support. We'll just put it
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  put it that way.
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  A little single threaded there, and it's, government
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  related.
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  And we, you know, we we drive a
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  lot of value. We drive a lot of
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  value to a lot of different stakeholders.
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  And,
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  and, you know, on on that,
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  we think it's important that we tell
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  an even more effective story in terms of
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  the amount of value that people are getting
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  out of the network
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  so that it can be understood and appreciated.
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  And maybe we can evolve the business model,
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  you know, so that it's it's not
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  centered in terms of of a one particular
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  entity, you know, covering the cost for the
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  organization.
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  There's so much more that can be done
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  there to help this organization
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  transition from what it does really well and
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  is highly penetrated that in terms of being
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  a connector, being a central nervous system for
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  health care data, but to shift to becoming
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  a health intelligence network. And that's the kind
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  of the distinction I think between those two
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  organizations,
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  the Delaware's HIE and Vermont's HIE.
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  Vermont is at an inflection point of helping
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  of possibly, you know, going forward and making
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  that that shift where you the so many
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  more constituencies
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  can get more insights,
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  actionable insights in terms of how to improve
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  care and reduce cost because of the the
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  nature of the data that's, you know, traversing
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  through, the organization on a daily basis.
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  Thank you. And talk about as you take
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  on this role
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  and you look at this year ahead,
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  what are you most focused on and excited
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  about as as you get going here in
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  setting direction and goals?
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  Yeah. In in terms of, like, what I
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  think is really important here here, Scott, and
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  I think these are just basic tenants. And
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  then I'd like to think that anybody that's
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  starting in a role like this could probably
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  take this away and make it part of
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  their playbook.
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  Number one, I think it's important for us
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  to be, well, relationship centric.
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  An organization cannot maximize its potential and leverage
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  its full capacity if it is not relationship
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  centric. And, you know, by that, I mean,
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  it's like being in tune with the relationships
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  of, like, our customers, our board, our stakeholders,
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  but also our employees.
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  If you're not focused on your employees inherently,
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  those relationships,
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  they're gonna impact the users. It's gonna impact
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  our customers.
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  And
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  ultimately, those relationships will suffer. Right? And so
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  we're we're looking at building a culture that
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  is even more focused on results,
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  Built let's,
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  like, out risk compensation
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  plans that are tied to both corporate goals
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  as well as personal goals. Help ensure everybody's
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  pulling in the same direction and that they're
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  rewarded accordingly for that. So that's one of
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  the the the big things that we're looking
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  at. We've also recently launched a really exciting
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  customer experience
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  project and deep dive.
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  We've contracted with the firm that has great
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  experience in this area and there's a six
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  month it's a six month engagement
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  reviewing and analyzing our customer touch points,
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  where we have winning interactions and where we
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  have pain points.
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  A 2024
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  watermark consulting study found that over the previous
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  sixteen years customer experience leading organizations, those those
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  organizations with like a NPS scores net promoter
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  score of 65 to 80, they actually outperformed
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  the broader market
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  generating a total return of over two sixty
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  points higher than the S and P 500
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  index. On the other side of this of
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  the scale those organizations
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  that had NPS scores of zero to 20,
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  they,
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  were more than a 175
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  points lower than the S and P 500
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  index. So, I mean, there's real business implications
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  here for this type of of effort and
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  whether you're a nonprofit or a for profit
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  organization.
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  You know, Scott, you know as well as
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  anybody, we are all in the same business
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  of making money and staying in business, and
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  this is an important part of of making
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  sure that, you stay in business.
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  You know, a 100%. And and if you
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  keep great people and grow with great people,
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  you end up getting better net promoter scores.
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  You get better customer feedback, better service, and,
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  ultimately, the the business goes well. Is that
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  is that, Randy, is that a fair sense?
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  Well, I've Scott, I know I'm preaching to
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  the choir.
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  I have to say, quite frankly, when I
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  go to a Becker's conference,
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  I'm going to be working with people that
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  are gonna be graded in the nine and
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  ten categories of of an NPS score. So
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  I I I I know that you and
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  your culture
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  embrace these tenants, and, it's, you know, it's
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  one of the the things that I I
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  really appreciate in being able to speak with
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  you about that stuff. So I know if
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  anybody gets it, you certainly
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  do. Well, no. We we we believe in
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  it. We believe that you gotta have great
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  that there's no such thing really as a
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  solopreneur. It's all about great teams and great
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  people,
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  and then those great people being action oriented
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  to take care of great customers. And at
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  the end of the day, business should be
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  pretty simple. Great people, great customers, and solving
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  a problem for those customers or whoever you're
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  working with and trying to do so. It's
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  not it it it's hard, but it should
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  be clear and simple. But it but it's
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  hard, of course.
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  Yeah.
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  Talk a little bit about in the health
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  information exchange world with artificial intelligence,
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  with all these sort of things going on,
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  what are a couple of the things that
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  you have your eye on that you're watching
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  closely? Oh, boy. That's that's a great question.
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  You know, in terms of artificial intelligence, I
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  think we're like a lot of organizations,
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  and we're looking to do to one dip
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  our toe into the water, but do it
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  in the safest, most reasonable, and responsible way.
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  And,
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  I think where we have some low hanging
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  fruit is seeing where we could leverage AI
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  to help us with some
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  administrative type task, you know, some basic kinds
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  of of things that could help us in
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  with back office operations quote, you know, and,
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  you know, maybe in terms of, like, helping
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  to facilitate timekeeping. You know, if I look
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  at having, like,
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  AI that can look at, like, our,
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  patterns of, behavior,
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  with email and our calendars to be able
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  to kind of provide suggestions, right, in terms
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  of the types of projects that you spent
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  your time on and the types of,
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  ways that you spent your time and make
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  it easier for the, you know, the the
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  organization to complete their time cards on time.
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  You know, it's it's I think that that's,
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  where we are,
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  probably,
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  best suited to get good learnings,
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  to have low risk in terms of, like,
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  applying AI,
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  and then can,
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  take that and hopefully,
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  build on it, for some additional, you know,
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  kind of opportunities to make even more substantive
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  improvements that could be more customer
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  facing. So, yeah, that's I think that's where
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  a lot of organizations like like mine are.
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  And and I think actually,
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  universities
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  and computer science organizations within universities
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  are a great resource for organizations like ours
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  to try and partner with to find,
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  ways to to do this stuff and again
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  to do it safely. You know, which is
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  again kind of dipping our toe in water
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  and refining policies as as it pertains to
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  to to to AI. So, yeah, that's that's
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  kinda how we're looking at it.
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  Thank you. And and, Randy, besides artificial intelligence,
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  when you look at the information exchange world
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  and what you all do,
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  one other big trend or thought that you're
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  looking at?
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  Obviously, at the rules at the national level,
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  you know, driving policy on how health care
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  data can and should be shared,
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  the rules around TEFCA and the overarching rules
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  in terms of interoperability,
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  and staying close to what the evolving needs
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  are of our state and stakeholders.
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  How can we, help make health data even
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  more useful so that it drives more value
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  to the hospitals and labs and payers and
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  providers and ultimately help to advance the cause
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  of medicine.
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  I mean, health data services are to health
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  care what steel is to the construction industry,
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  what steel is to the auto industry,
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  and states that have a strong and highly
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  penetrated central nervous system for health care health
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  care data like VITAL. Well, they have a
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  valuable asset that helps to improve care and
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  reduce cost, and it's a valuable asset to
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  help drive
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  important insights. One of the things that we
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  did at Delaware was look at, like, the
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  incidences
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  of brain trauma
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  and what the outcomes were for brain trauma
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  patients in certain areas of the state. And
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  what did we find with those areas that
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  did not have the resources or the services
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  that help to better support care close to
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  where people were living?
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  They had a trend of having worse outcomes
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  and then higher costs downstream in terms of
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  additional care for those patients. So then the
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  state could make a decision and healthcare providers
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  could make a decision to say, you know
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  what? These are areas where if we put
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  some more
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  resources for care coordination
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  to help support folks that had suffered a
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  stroke or to help support folks who had
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  suffered,
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  an accident that involved, head trauma,
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  we're gonna actually have
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  reduced cost and better outcomes for those patients.
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  And it, you know, it's a way of
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  like, you know, spend a little money now
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  to save a lot more money later and
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  then people are gonna be healthier, you know,
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  downstream.
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  So this is part of the power and
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  part of why me and folks like me
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  that work in the industry are so passionate
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  about the power of of of our types
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  of make networks.
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  No. And I I absolutely
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  love that, Randy. Randy, you've had this great
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  career.
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  Terrific person.
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  Give me one or two thoughts, advice that
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  you would give to emerging leaders wanting to
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  have impactful careers.
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  Oh, I love that question,
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  Scott, and I appreciate the chance to to
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  to provide that perspective.
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  One, change is your companion.
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  Embrace it. It is foundational to growth. Learning
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  and success for your organization is dependent upon,
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  navigating and supporting and embracing change. It helps
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  to develop dynamic results oriented cultures that iterate
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  with feedback, that iterate with changes in our
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  industry,
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  and, better enables us to serve our customer
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  needs. Secondly, I would say is that, hey,
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  remember this, problems don't age well, and make
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  sure that your people understand and embrace that
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  tenant. Organizational cultures need to feel empowered to
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  raise and act on issues, not hide or
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  minimize them and hope no one notices. That's
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  a bad plan. And lastly, you know, in
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  terms of what I've learned over the years,
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  you know, you can't fake it. Be straight
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  with your people, be straight with your boards,
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  your customers,
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  and you will earn their benefit of the
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  doubt when you need it. To do otherwise
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  puts at risk the goodwill that is essential
• 14:20
  for everyone to believe in the mission and
• 14:22
  for everyone to pull in the same direction.
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  So, you know, those are three three three
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  things that I would throw out there that
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  I think could be pretty pretty good tenants
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  for any leader. No. Randy, I love that.
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  I love this particular concept that problems don't
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  age well. Yeah. So don't let them simmer.
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  Try and take care of them. Try and
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  move forward. I just absolutely love that. Randy,
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  it gets always I wanna thank you for
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  taking the time to join us in the
• 14:42
  Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  You're a phenomenal person, a phenomenal leader. Thank
• 14:46
  you for joining us. My pleasure. We'll look
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  forward to seeing you in April.