Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Dr. Sarah Pletcher, Chief Digital Health Officer at Houston Methodist

Transcript

Dr. Sarah Pletcher, Chief Digital Health Officer at Houston Methodist · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  See you there.
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  This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  doctor Sarah Pletcher, chief digital health officer at
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  Houston Methodist. Doctor Pletcher, it's a pleasure to
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  have you on the podcast today. Thank you
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  so much for the opportunity to have a
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  chat.
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  Absolutely. Absolutely. So, I'm excited for our conversation
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  because I know Houston Methodist is certainly on
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  the forefront of a lot of fascinating things
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  happening in health care innovation, in digital technology,
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  and so it'll be great to get your
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  perspective on some of the cool projects you're
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  doing right now as well as what's ahead.
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  But before we dive into that discussion, can
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  you tell us a little bit more about
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  Houston Methodist and what makes it unique?
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  Sure.
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  So Houston Methodist is,
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  a nationally
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  recognized
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  high quality health system,
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  right here in Houston, Texas,
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  which is part of the Texas Medical Center,
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  the largest medical center in the world, which
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  I,
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  learned only in the last, six or seven
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  years since relocating here. And we have a
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  network of now,
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  eight hospitals
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  around, Greater Houston.
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  That's amazing to hear, you know, and a
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  really,
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  great area that you're you're serving. So, from
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  your perspective, what is the accomplishment that you're
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  most proud of from the last year or
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  so?
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  Well, gosh. There've been there've been so many.
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  I think some of the highlights that stand
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  out,
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  you know, we've really leaned in to make
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  some big bets in terms of digital health,
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  tools and innovations.
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  So some of those include, we've completed
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  installation
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  of
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  a lot of tech. So we now have
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  state of the art virtual care and ambient
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  care sensors and cameras in every patient room
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  across the health system through our partnership with
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  Kari Eye Stryker.
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  And that includes integration with Epic,
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  to really launch
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  very cutting edge educational
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  and care team content and support through the
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  television in the room.
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  We put a wearable
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  sensor on every patient that comes into any
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  of our hospitals through our partnership with Bio
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  Intellisense
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  to do vitals monitoring.
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  We have ambient,
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  sensors in our operating rooms through our partnership
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  with Appella.
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  And really a long long list of really
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  key AI investments,
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  including
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  tools for prediction and summarization,
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  like our partnership with HDAI,
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  and Scribe documentation
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  solutions, like our partnership with
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  and many of these, are showcased across the
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  system and in particular,
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  in our newest hospital, which we've, you know,
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  we've referred to as a smart hospital, and
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  it just opened on Monday.
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  Oh, wow. That's amazing. You know, and I
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  I I know that smart hospital was certainly,
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  many years in the making. So,
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  I'm curious, you know, when you look at
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  it in developing
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  a smart hospital,
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  what, goes into that? What really is different
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  from the typical hospital that we've traditionally seen
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  that goes into making actually a smart hospital?
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  And and, honestly,
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  you know, the the a smart or smart
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  hospital is our newest
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  facility, and so where we could
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  intentionally,
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  build
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  and design,
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  around some of our new tools.
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  But really the important part is in how
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  you design the programs that leverage those tools.
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  And and that's certainly smart, but also just
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  good old fashioned,
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  hard work and protocols and education and designing
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  your programs thoughtfully.
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  So we've rolled out all of the care
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  programs that I mentioned across our whole system.
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  So the technology
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  might might look,
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  slickest in our newest facility,
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  but the care programs
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  that,
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  that are utilizing
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  that technology
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  were really developed through tried and true
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  change management,
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  process improvement,
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  you know, implementation
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  science,
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  all across our legacy hospital system.
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  That's great to hear, and I appreciate that
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  description. Now looking into the future, where do
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  you see some of the biggest growth opportunities
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  for you and your team in the next
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  twelve months or so?
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  Yeah. I mean, I think with with all
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  of these technology investments, you know, where we
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  really see the opportunities
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  is
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  I mean, it sounds,
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  sounds sort of obvious, but using the stuff.
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  Right? So,
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  really looking at opportunities
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  for care redesign and well, hey. Couldn't we
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  do this differently given that we have this
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  new highway?
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  So I think a lot of it is
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  in,
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  beginning to reorganize
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  the way we deliver care, the way we
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  think about work. You know, what can we
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  automate?
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  What can we centralize?
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  What can a virtual team do?
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  What are ways that we can reorganize,
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  the effort? You know, how can we better
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  personalize care? So rather than every patient
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  gets the same 20 things,
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  can we be more efficient and effective
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  by delivering the right five things to each
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  patient, which takes,
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  you know, unnecessary
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  work away from the care team and ensures
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  that the patients that need the services get
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  them more quickly?
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  So a lot of it is really in
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  redesigning
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  our care,
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  enabled by and empowered by these latest digital
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  health technologies. So I think that's where we
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  really see growth opportunities
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  is in
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  continuing to transform how we deliver care with
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  the use of these,
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  innovation investments.
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  Got it. That's helpful to know and understand.
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  And it really seems like a a cool
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  opportunity to continue to stay on the forefront
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  of,
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  how health care is evolving and changing for,
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  the betterment of patient care as well as
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  the care teams.
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  I'm curious. A lot of opportunities ahead, but
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  I know challenges as well. What are some
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  of those big challenges that you're anticipating for
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  the next couple years?
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  Yeah. I mean, look, like, all you have
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  to do is go to a health conference,
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  and everybody's talking about pretty much the same
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  big challenges in terms of headwinds.
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  You know, the aging population,
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  challenged populations, shifting
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  expectations, the, you know, post apocalypse
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  health care delivery system we have right now
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  in terms of cost and payment,
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  political complexities,
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  you know, all of our endangered species out
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  there in terms of workforce.
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  I mean, so there's there's plenty of big
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  challenges,
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  and there's also plenty of tools, which is
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  great, but that also brings a new
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  complexity
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  for health system leaders in trying to navigate
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  the vendor landscape.
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  So the, you know, big challenges, lots of
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  opportunities, and lots of opportunities
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  for, you know, what I call quadruple wins.
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  But
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  I think the the really the true big
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  challenge is is not the ones I mentioned.
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  It's
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  just the everyday
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  resistance
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  in terms of change management and change fatigue.
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  And that doesn't come through as a big
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  thing. It comes through as lots of little
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  things,
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  lots of little barriers,
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  communicating, communicating, communicating again, you know, project management,
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  education.
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  So, you know, the focus is often on
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  the big challenges
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  and not enough appreciation for
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  this death by a million paper cuts that
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  you can face when trying to
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  move people forward to do things differently.
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  Absolutely. You know, and I I think that's
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  a really important point you made, because I
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  do feel there's a lot of,
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  organizations struggling with, you know, trying to get
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  that people part of the change management,
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  into,
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  you know, operating as effectively,
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  as it needs to be. And,
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  I know there's a lot of complexities there.
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  And so, you know, when you look at,
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  all the change happening, all this accelerated,
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  evolution with technology, with AI,
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  with different, you know,
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  sociopolitical
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  landscape just,
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  changing very rapidly. How do you keep it
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  even keel as a leader and make sure
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  that the team,
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  you know, is,
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  kind of thinking about things in the right
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  way so that you are able to realize
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  the benefits that you need to make the
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  changes you need to make without,
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  creating a lot of stress and burnout on
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  on the team.
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  I mean, it's it's it's certainly tough. I
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  I think you do have to be
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  you do have to
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  be,
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  you know, really resilient
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  optimist. And an optimist doesn't mean you think
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  everything is great. You can be an optimist
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  and be very realistic about the challenges as
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  long as you can always see
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  some way that something could be better.
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  And a belief that if
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  if if you remember what your true north
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  is, right, like, your why,
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  and you keep chipping away and trying to
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  find little ways to make things better, that
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  that there are opportunities
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  to, in fact, make things a lot better.
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  So I think trying to trying to bring
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  a
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  realistic,
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  resilient optimism to the table helps.
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  Never forgetting the importance of why. And and,
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  again, I know that's a cliched thing to
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  say,
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  but it's surprising the number of times I'm
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  in a meeting,
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  with a group where you're just trying to
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  kinda solve some really mundane thing
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  and kinda stopping at the beginning to just
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  ask, hey, you know, do y'all know
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  why we're doing this overall project?
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  And
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  and having people say, hey, I'd really love
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  to hear, you know, to hear just a
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  few minutes and doing that level set. Say,
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  well, here's why we're trying to do this
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  and we think this will be better for
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  patients in this reason.
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  It only takes a few minutes, but
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  not kinda gatekeeping the why from all of
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  the of the distant stakeholders who only touch
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  part of it,
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  you know, kinda goes back to that theme
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  story of,
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  you know, Kennedy asking the janitor her ride
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  on the tour, and the janitor knew they
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  were putting a man on the moon, not
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  forgetting to share the why with everybody involved
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  in trying to get a project over the
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  finish line. So those are some of some
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  of the things,
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  along the way,
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  that have, I think, proved helpful.
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  I love that. Thank you so much. And
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  I'm gonna have to start using that term,
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  you know, the realistic optimism. I think that's
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  so powerful. It definitely speaks to, you know,
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  finding that opportunity or figuring out a way
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  to,
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  make a difference regardless of the challenges that
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  you see before you. So I love that.
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  Before we wrap up here, I'm curious. What's
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  the number one thing that you're doing right
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  now to set Houston Methodist up for long
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  term success?
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  I mean, well, certainly the,
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  you know, the really
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  pioneering
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  investments that we've we've made and have really
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  just kind of put into implementation
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  is is is huge.
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  You know, but I think now we're really
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  trying to remember to look just a bit
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  further ahead. So, again, with all the challenges
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  that everyone's facing,
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  you you do have to strike this balance
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  between
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  keeping your eye on the current,
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  you know, the current
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  operational design performance,
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  but also looking ahead to try to get
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  in front of where things are going. You
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  know, so thinking about, okay, we're we're struggling
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  to cover certain shifts.
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  We have to push our current team to
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  cover them. Like, right, you've gotta cover the
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  shifts today.
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  But if is that an opportunity for us
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  to look ahead and say, how can we
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  redesign this to have a more sustainable
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  workforce for this particular thing? So I think
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  that's a that's a key is leaning into
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  the bets we already made,
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  focusing on keeping current operations
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  high performance,
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  but looking at all of our challenge points
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  as opportunities to try to think further ahead
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  about what
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  transformation opportunities we have to, you know, as
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  I mentioned before, centralize, automate,
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  you know, be more precise,
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  think differently
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  about
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  how we deliver supply and demand, you know,
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  breaking free of the tyranny of,
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  integer thing. Right? Like, we have to staff
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  in ratios, we have to staff in twelve
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  hour shifts, we can only staff per unit,
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  and recognizing that with these modern tools,
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  you can deliver services very differently. So I
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  think that trying
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  to keep your eye on the now, but
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  looking ahead,
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  is is the number one thing that we're
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  trying to do as an organization.
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  That's fascinating to hear. And certainly breaking free
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  from all, you know, the
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  those things that, were traditionally the case in
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  in thinking differently and redesigning,
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  seems like a a really great opportunity again
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  to just,
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  redevelop care in a way that makes a
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  big difference for patients as well as the
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  caregivers. Doctor Fletcher, thank you so much for
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  joining us on the podcast today. This has
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  been a really fun and enlightening conversation, and
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  I look forward to connecting with you again
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  soon. Absolutely. Thanks so much for the opportunity
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  to chat.