Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Kerri Webster, Vice President and Chief Analytics Officer at Children's Hospital Colorado

Transcript

Kerri Webster, Vice President and Chief Analytics Officer at Children's Hospital Colorado · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:00
  Exciting things are happening at Becker's Healthcare. Stay
• 0:04
  ahead of industry trends with the new Becker's
• 0:06
  CFO plus Revenue Cycle podcast,
• 0:08
  your go to source for insights from top
• 0:11
  healthcare finance leaders. Tune in wherever you get
• 0:14
  your podcasts.
• 0:15
  And don't miss the tenth annual health IT
• 0:18
  plus digital health plus RCM conference, happening September
• 0:22
  30 to 10/03/2025
• 0:24
  in Chicago.
• 0:25
  Join thousands of executives, engage with industry leaders,
• 0:29
  and explore the future of health care innovation.
• 0:32
  Learn more about our upcoming events at beckershospitalreview.com.
• 0:36
  See you there.
• 0:38
  This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:40
  podcast.
• 0:41
  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Carrie
• 0:42
  Webster, vice president and chief analytics officer at
• 0:45
  the Analytics Resource Center for Children's Hospital Colorado.
• 0:48
  Carrie, it's a pleasure to have you on
• 0:50
  the podcast today. Thank you.
• 0:52
  Now I'm really looking forward to speaking with
• 0:54
  you further about what you're doing at Children's
• 0:56
  Hospital and really how health technology is changing.
• 0:59
  But before we dive into my questions, can
• 1:01
  you tell me a little bit more about
• 1:02
  yourself and your background?
• 1:04
  You bet.
• 1:06
  As you know, I'm the vice president, chief
• 1:08
  analytics officer at Children's Hospital Colorado,
• 1:10
  but I'm a nurse by training. I've been
• 1:12
  in health care over forty years,
• 1:15
  from the bedside in the ICU and labor
• 1:17
  and delivery and into the IT community and
• 1:21
  finally in analytics.
• 1:23
  And I've been serving at Children's Hospital
• 1:25
  for almost seven years now.
• 1:28
  Oh, that's amazing to hear. And I can
• 1:29
  imagine that background in nursing really helps you
• 1:32
  understand how to work through some of the
• 1:35
  big challenges that I can imagine come up
• 1:37
  on a regular basis on the technology side
• 1:39
  and, you know, really is beneficial for your
• 1:42
  current role.
• 1:43
  I think so. I I like to think
• 1:45
  I'm a great translator,
• 1:47
  translating the needs of the clinicians and the
• 1:49
  patients into,
• 1:51
  analytics or techno technological
• 1:54
  solutions that can support the best possible outcomes.
• 1:57
  Well, it's amazing to hear. Now could you
• 1:59
  tell me about the most successful projects in
• 2:01
  the last year or two that you've had?
• 2:03
  What did you do, and how did you
• 2:04
  measure the results?
• 2:06
  I love that question, and it's it's gonna
• 2:09
  be really difficult to just come up with
• 2:10
  one.
• 2:12
  But I think,
• 2:13
  as I think about what I do and
• 2:15
  how we add value to the organization,
• 2:17
  the thing that is most top of mind
• 2:19
  to me is our work that we've done
• 2:20
  with our patient flow team in predicting census.
• 2:25
  And this project is
• 2:27
  kinda has two arms. It's the ability to
• 2:29
  predict the census in the hospital,
• 2:32
  in near term. So four hours, eight hours,
• 2:35
  twelve hours, up to seventy two hours out,
• 2:38
  which really enables our frontline staff, our leaders,
• 2:41
  our house supervisors to make sure that we
• 2:43
  are adequately
• 2:44
  staffed for the patients in the hospital at
• 2:46
  the time. And we are doing that with
• 2:49
  a a precision that enables us to be
• 2:51
  within one or two patients, which is pretty
• 2:53
  significant.
• 2:54
  We're also using that same technology to predict
• 2:57
  eighteen months out,
• 2:59
  and we are within five five patients eighteen
• 3:02
  months out. And what that enables our nursing
• 3:05
  and physician leaders to do is really plan
• 3:07
  for the future
• 3:08
  in case we need traveling nurses or other
• 3:11
  support or need to think about flexing space
• 3:14
  to add more space during our busy season.
• 3:16
  That really enables us to have a forward
• 3:19
  thinking approach
• 3:20
  so that we are doing this thoughtfully
• 3:22
  and in a way that,
• 3:25
  you know, isn't isn't panic or reactionary. We're
• 3:27
  really planning for the future.
• 3:29
  And, we've measured our results in two ways
• 3:32
  for this. One is, you know, just the
• 3:33
  accuracy of our prediction so that we are
• 3:36
  really aligned with our staffing,
• 3:38
  making sure that we have the the staff
• 3:39
  that we needed to take care of the
• 3:41
  patients.
• 3:42
  But also,
• 3:43
  in our contracting that we've been able to
• 3:45
  go to market earlier
• 3:47
  for,
• 3:48
  contract labor because we have,
• 3:50
  a fair idea of when we're gonna need
• 3:52
  them. So we're able to,
• 3:54
  go and and they're not sensing that that
• 3:57
  we're in an urgency, so we have some
• 3:59
  time and ability to negotiate those contracts.
• 4:03
  Got it. That's great to hear. And certainly
• 4:05
  exciting types of technology to be able to
• 4:08
  incorporate into the hospital.
• 4:10
  And, really, having that, you know, ability to
• 4:12
  be a little bit more predictive, I can
• 4:13
  imagine, is really helpful.
• 4:16
  When you're applying technology like that, how do
• 4:19
  you do that operationally?
• 4:20
  Is it pretty seamless and easy to get
• 4:23
  people the information they need and have the
• 4:24
  technology integrated in the work flows, or does
• 4:26
  it take some time and, you know, culture
• 4:29
  change management as well to really rely on
• 4:31
  something like this, to to,
• 4:34
  think through census and and really help with
• 4:36
  your strategy?
• 4:38
  Right. That's a good question, and I think
• 4:40
  technology is often the easiest part of any
• 4:43
  project. And I think it's the it's the
• 4:46
  relationships, the processes,
• 4:48
  and the partnerships that really make, projects successful.
• 4:53
  And understanding,
• 4:54
  as a technologist, understanding what the problems are
• 4:57
  trying that are trying to be solved, approaching
• 4:59
  it from where they are, I think is
• 5:01
  really beneficial.
• 5:03
  And it it is it is a partnership.
• 5:05
  It isn't about just, oh, hey. Here's a
• 5:08
  project. Turn it on. No. No. It's understanding
• 5:12
  how how do you work? How do you
• 5:14
  conceptualize
• 5:15
  this in what you do every day? What
• 5:17
  makes the most sense? And you hit hit
• 5:19
  the nail on the head.
• 5:21
  We have three guiding principles, and it it's
• 5:23
  automate,
• 5:25
  integrate, and innovate.
• 5:26
  And we like to think about doing things
• 5:28
  seamlessly. So we're taking those tasks out of
• 5:31
  people's hand that don't need to be manual.
• 5:33
  So automating them, but integrating them, putting them
• 5:36
  in the workflow so they don't have to
• 5:37
  go and search for things. It's automatically there
• 5:40
  when they need it so they don't even
• 5:42
  have to think. And then, of course, innovate,
• 5:44
  doing things creatively,
• 5:46
  in a way that might not have been
• 5:47
  thought of before.
• 5:50
  I love that. Automate, integrate, innovate. I feel
• 5:53
  like I need, you know, that mission statement,
• 5:55
  above my desk here. I love that. Get
• 5:58
  above my sticker.
• 6:00
  Exactly.
• 6:01
  Exactly.
• 6:02
  So I I love that mantra. And, you
• 6:04
  know, looking into the future, what do you
• 6:06
  see as being some of your top priorities
• 6:08
  over the next twelve months or so?
• 6:10
  Sure. I I, you know, I can't have
• 6:12
  a conversation about analytics and technology without saying
• 6:15
  AI. Right?
• 6:17
  So, I mean, we're looking more for more
• 6:19
  predictive models. We're looking at large language models
• 6:22
  to do some,
• 6:24
  analysis both on our research and on our,
• 6:27
  operational front. But we're also looking at governance.
• 6:30
  And I think,
• 6:32
  as,
• 6:33
  health care,
• 6:34
  I feel a a higher calling to be
• 6:36
  good stewards of the data that we own
• 6:38
  and to make sure that we're using it
• 6:40
  to make the right decisions. So putting a
• 6:42
  framework of governance on how we use the
• 6:44
  technology and the data, I think it's incumbent
• 6:47
  upon us, and we need to make sure
• 6:49
  that we're front and center on that. So
• 6:52
  all the things.
• 6:55
  Yeah. That's that's a huge undertaking. And I
• 6:57
  can imagine, especially looking at AI governance, it
• 7:00
  seems like to be top of mind for
• 7:02
  so many health systems right now. But where
• 7:04
  do you tend to be
• 7:06
  in thinking through that governance process?
• 7:09
  What is kind of the top or or
• 7:11
  forefront, you know, the the number one guiding
• 7:13
  principle that you're taking as you're trying to
• 7:14
  put some guardrails around
• 7:16
  AI, which can expand very quickly?
• 7:20
  Yeah. I think, you know, we're in health
• 7:22
  care, so the first thing that comes to
• 7:23
  mind is first do no harm.
• 7:25
  So, you know, thinking about hallucinations,
• 7:28
  thinking about,
• 7:30
  bias, thinking about ethics. I think first do
• 7:33
  no harms. We are here for our patients
• 7:35
  and we are, here to make sure that
• 7:37
  no matter what we do that they are
• 7:38
  safe and well cared for. So that that
• 7:41
  is top of mind in our governance process.
• 7:44
  That makes a lot of sense.
• 7:46
  Perfect. And, you know, before we wrap up
• 7:48
  here, I'm wondering, how do you anticipate your
• 7:50
  role in teams will change in the next
• 7:52
  year or two here? What do you see
• 7:54
  as being elevated in importance, and what do
• 7:56
  you need more of? How will things change?
• 7:59
  Yeah. That's a good question. And I think,
• 8:01
  if you've ever talked to me at any
• 8:03
  lengths, you'll know I'll stand on the soapbox
• 8:05
  of the transition from my role from transactional
• 8:09
  to transformational.
• 8:11
  And I think it's no longer, hey. I'm
• 8:13
  gonna put in a request for data or
• 8:15
  analytics, and you're gonna give me a report
• 8:17
  or a dashboard and more about those partnerships
• 8:19
  that I talked about earlier with our project.
• 8:22
  It really is
• 8:24
  myself included and all of my team members
• 8:27
  really need to understand
• 8:28
  the business problems, the health care problems,
• 8:31
  and the technology and the convergence of which.
• 8:34
  So it's partnering. It's partnering. It's partnering.
• 8:39
  Absolutely.
• 8:40
  Partnering and definitely, like you mentioned, having those
• 8:43
  business relationships. And when you talk about that,
• 8:46
  making that transformation from a transactional,
• 8:49
  leader, somebody who's dealing with a lot of
• 8:51
  requests and and kicking off the list to
• 8:53
  then becoming transformational, becoming more strategic,
• 8:56
  and and really elevating in how you are
• 8:58
  working with other leaders within the organization as
• 9:01
  well as building,
• 9:03
  growth and development for the future.
• 9:05
  How do you
• 9:06
  see yourself elevating in that space? What do
• 9:08
  you need to do differently one to two
• 9:11
  to three years now, to make sure you're
• 9:13
  building those right relationships and thinking through and
• 9:15
  building that foundation for additional
• 9:18
  strategy as health care becomes more digital?
• 9:21
  Yeah. I think it it becomes,
• 9:23
  it's incumbent upon me to be a listener,
• 9:26
  to understand,
• 9:28
  the landscape in which we live,
• 9:30
  our operational
• 9:31
  and strategic imperatives,
• 9:33
  and to really to really listen
• 9:37
  and, you know, understand almost at the DNA
• 9:40
  level what what problems we're trying to solve
• 9:43
  and then, reach out,
• 9:45
  and have,
• 9:47
  that deep understanding can help me transform
• 9:50
  into solutions that that really make a difference.
• 9:54
  Fantastic. Well, Carrie, thank you so much for
• 9:55
  joining us on the podcast today. This has
• 9:57
  been such a fun and informative discussion, and
• 9:59
  I look forward to connecting with you again
• 10:00
  soon.
• 10:02
  Thanks so much for your time.