Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / John Henderson, Vice President & CIO at Children’s Hospital of Orange County

Transcript

John Henderson, Vice President & CIO at Children’s Hospital of Orange County · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:00
  - Prepare to dive into the forefront
• 0:02
  of healthcare innovation at our 14th annual meeting coming
• 0:05
  up on April 8th
• 0:06
  through 11th at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, with thousands
• 0:10
  of industry leaders converging over four dynamic days
• 0:13
  of discussions on crucial topics from health IT
• 0:17
  to executive leadership.
• 0:18
  It's where the future of healthcare takes shape.
• 0:21
  We can't wait to connect with you in person
• 0:24
  and engage in these important conversations.
• 0:27
  - This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
• 0:30
  I'm thrilled today to be joined by John Henderson,
• 0:32
  vice President and Chief Information
• 0:33
  and digital officer at Children's Hospital of Orange County.
• 0:36
  John, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
• 0:39
  - Thanks, Laura. Happy to be here. Glad to talk to you.
• 0:43
  - Absolutely. Now, you know, I'm really excited
• 0:45
  to get deeper into some of the different things
• 0:47
  that you're doing at the hospital.
• 0:49
  I, I know there's a lot happening in digital health right
• 0:51
  now, and in particular looking at
• 0:53
  how you can drive efficiencies
• 0:54
  and continue to, um, you know, grow the system.
• 0:58
  But before we dive into that conversation,
• 0:59
  can you tell me a little bit more
• 1:00
  about yourself and your background?
• 1:04
  - Sure. Um, as you mentioned, uh, I'm
• 1:06
  with Children's Hospital of Orange County.
• 1:07
  I've been here just over seven years.
• 1:10
  Uh, spent the majority of my career in pediatric healthcare
• 1:12
  ip, um,
• 1:14
  and as I've been out here in southern California, um,
• 1:18
  we are a two hospital pediatric health system.
• 1:21
  Um, we have, uh, five centers of excellence, uh,
• 1:24
  focused in cardiology, cancer, orthopedic, uh,
• 1:28
  the neurosciences, and also research organization, um,
• 1:31
  30 plus specialties, uh, as well as 30 plus primary care.
• 1:36
  - Oh, that's amazing. And really impressive, especially, um,
• 1:39
  for a children's hospital to have such a breadth
• 1:42
  of specialists in, in, um, coverage area.
• 1:46
  - Yes, yes. You know, we are, you know, we are big, uh,
• 1:49
  on population health.
• 1:50
  We have a large geography to cover.
• 1:52
  Uh, and, you know, we're really focused on trying
• 1:54
  to create the healthiest community, uh, for peds,
• 1:57
  uh, all across Orange County.
• 1:59
  - Fantastic. Well, with that in mind, you know, I,
• 2:02
  I am excited to learn more.
• 2:03
  And, and from your perspective,
• 2:05
  and looking back over the last year
• 2:06
  or so, what is one change that you've made
• 2:08
  that has really yielded some great results?
• 2:12
  - Oh, wow. Great question. Um, so
• 2:15
  what I would say is it's a combination of
• 2:18
  creating our digital team
• 2:20
  and the different results that we've been able
• 2:23
  to, uh, deliver.
• 2:24
  And so by digital team, I mean bringing in leadership
• 2:27
  that's solely focused, uh, on automation,
• 2:31
  but also, uh, with mobile apps
• 2:33
  and solutions to serve, uh, to serve our organization.
• 2:36
  So we've created this team, uh,
• 2:38
  and we've had a heavy emphasis on, uh,
• 2:41
  robotic process automation.
• 2:43
  Um, we've, uh, been able to deploy over, uh,
• 2:47
  just over think 10, 11, uh, automations,
• 2:50
  uh, into production.
• 2:52
  Um, and it's focused on a, a variety of different areas, uh,
• 2:55
  some administrative areas, um, some clinical areas, uh,
• 3:00
  focusing on how do we take manual, uh,
• 3:04
  tasks from operations
• 3:06
  and really put those into an automation, uh, capability so
• 3:10
  that they can be more effective, uh,
• 3:12
  and remove some of those mundane day-to-day process tasks
• 3:15
  that, that they've been, that they've been focused on.
• 3:18
  Uh, so I'll say that's been what, uh,
• 3:20
  I'll say the biggest change we've made
• 3:22
  that's yielded some really, really strong results.
• 3:26
  - Absolutely. That's, you know, fascinating and,
• 3:28
  and cool to hear that having that leadership,
• 3:31
  building out a team that is focused on automation
• 3:33
  and, um, can really have a,
• 3:36
  a big impact on the system at large.
• 3:38
  Is there anything in particular, um,
• 3:40
  that you've done in terms of being able
• 3:43
  to zero in on a project or,
• 3:44
  or something that has, um, led to success or,
• 3:48
  or, um, I guess describe what happened and what you did?
• 3:52
  - Sure, sure. So there's been a couple of things we've done.
• 3:55
  Uh, one of the, one of the products we worked on was
• 3:59
  for our electronic prescribed, uh, controlled substances.
• 4:02
  How do we provision our providers, uh,
• 4:04
  that come into the organization to gain access
• 4:07
  to, to those capabilities?
• 4:08
  So we built an automation that, uh,
• 4:11
  really provisions the providers, uh, and really gets them up
• 4:15
  and running much quicker than, uh,
• 4:17
  what we would historically have.
• 4:19
  Three different teams have a step in that process.
• 4:22
  And the length of time it would take could be anywhere from
• 4:26
  three business days to 10 business days.
• 4:29
  So that's really anywhere from one to two weeks to get
• 4:32
  that physician physician that, that access.
• 4:35
  Where now with the automation, we're able to turn that
• 4:37
  around, uh, within a couple of days consistently.
• 4:41
  Um, another, another project, uh, that we have, uh,
• 4:45
  was focused on how do we, uh, remove access for our,
• 4:50
  our, our patients who turn 18 from our patient portal.
• 4:54
  So because of regulatory, uh, guidelines, as soon
• 4:57
  as a a patient turns 18, we have to be able to,
• 5:02
  uh, uh, terminate access for, for parents, uh, uh,
• 5:06
  because they're no longer a minor.
• 5:08
  Uh, so we've put in automation to automatically do that.
• 5:12
  Um, and that's been, uh, one that's, uh, saved us time,
• 5:16
  but also, uh, we're able to really monitor that
• 5:20
  and have a whole monitoring, uh, program
• 5:22
  that's solely focused on keeping us compliant with
• 5:25
  that particular regulation.
• 5:26
  Um, there's been a number of other items
• 5:28
  where we've done some lead screening
• 5:30
  that our population Health
• 5:31
  and Utilization review group, uh, they have to, uh,
• 5:34
  perform quarterly lead screenings now it's monthly.
• 5:38
  Um, and basically they'd have to go out to, uh,
• 5:41
  to a website, uh, look up information
• 5:44
  and then document, uh, that they've performed that, that,
• 5:47
  that, that lead screening.
• 5:49
  So we've taken that, uh, and deployed automation.
• 5:52
  So we have a bot that goes out
• 5:54
  and performs that entire function, uh,
• 5:57
  and provides the results to that team.
• 6:00
  So lots of different, uh, areas we're focused on,
• 6:03
  but, uh, those are just a few projects that,
• 6:05
  that we've been able to deploy and sealing some pretty
• 6:08
  significant, uh, time savings each month.
• 6:11
  - That's fascinating to hear
• 6:12
  and definitely makes a big difference on the time side in
• 6:15
  terms of, you know,
• 6:16
  having those administrative tasks automated so
• 6:18
  that the team can focus in on other areas
• 6:20
  where really their, their skills and in person
• 6:23
  and person interaction is so vital.
• 6:26
  Um, you know,
• 6:27
  and kind of given your focus, especially as you're talking
• 6:29
  through more population health
• 6:30
  and some other areas where, um,
• 6:32
  really you can make a difference.
• 6:34
  What are some of the top trends
• 6:35
  that you're following in healthcare?
• 6:36
  What's top of mind for you?
• 6:39
  - So right now, the, the digital health is still one
• 6:43
  of the biggest trends,
• 6:44
  but we're really looking at, uh, the ambient technologies
• 6:48
  that can take natural, uh, language, uh, as part of a visit
• 6:52
  and really, uh, looking at the solutions that can transcribe
• 6:55
  that into a good solid note
• 6:58
  and then be able to integrate that back into the EMR
• 7:01
  to really, uh, increase the efficiency of the physicians,
• 7:05
  reduce their, their cognitive burden,
• 7:07
  but also, uh, give them the ability to
• 7:10
  have a more engaging conversation with their patient.
• 7:13
  I'm looking at those types of technologies and those trends.
• 7:16
  AI is, is, is so prevalent with large language models,
• 7:20
  gen ai, uh, under trying
• 7:22
  to understand what's happening there
• 7:24
  and how do we take advantage of those types of, uh,
• 7:27
  capabilities at the,
• 7:28
  but at the same time making sure
• 7:31
  that we can do that, uh, safely.
• 7:34
  I think one of the other areas, uh, in trends, uh,
• 7:38
  really is, is, is focused on how do you, how do,
• 7:42
  how do you really look at, um,
• 7:45
  shifting your organization's talent profile, um,
• 7:50
  to meet the coming needs of large language models and the,
• 7:55
  and the type of talent you need
• 7:56
  to really take advantage of those capabilities.
• 7:58
  Uh, the digital, uh, programs
• 8:00
  and platforms that, uh, been so prevalent, uh, looking
• 8:05
  for, uh, product managers, uh, low-code developers,
• 8:10
  so you have the right mix of talent to really be able
• 8:13
  to drive forward the strategies
• 8:15
  that the organization is looking forward
• 8:17
  to become more and more digital.
• 8:19
  Uh, those are kind of the things that, uh, that,
• 8:21
  that, that we're really following.
• 8:24
  And then of course, consolidation.
• 8:26
  Um, um, you know, particularly with a lot
• 8:29
  of the startups in, in, in a number of spaces, uh,
• 8:32
  just trying to understand and,
• 8:34
  and see where we think there may be consolidation, uh,
• 8:37
  with some of these, uh, vendor platforms, particularly some
• 8:40
  of the, uh, the, the early, uh,
• 8:42
  early platform developers in,
• 8:44
  in the ambient technology space.
• 8:48
  - Fascinating. Yeah, I, I I think especially as, you know,
• 8:52
  the, um, very much the digital health, uh,
• 8:56
  industry continues to grow and, and change
• 8:58
  and, um, really evolve, um, the ability
• 9:01
  to have those connections
• 9:02
  and then too to understand, as you said, how um,
• 9:05
  companies are moving and what that means for organizations.
• 9:08
  Um, you know, definitely important
• 9:10
  to stay top of mind there.
• 9:12
  Um, I'm wondering
• 9:13
  before we wrap up here, how are you thinking about growth
• 9:15
  and development over the next 12 to 24 months?
• 9:18
  What do you really see as being spaces
• 9:20
  where you can continue to build out
• 9:21
  and, uh, grow, um, your accountabilities on the digital side
• 9:25
  as well as, um, the hospital overall?
• 9:29
  - Uh, so, um, right now I, I think our growth is going
• 9:33
  to be in call center platforms.
• 9:37
  So we have a huge access and carry design journey we're on.
• 9:41
  And so as part of that, part of it is how do we, uh,
• 9:45
  improve access to care in our specialty clinics?
• 9:48
  And so as we, as we look at that particular program,
• 9:53
  we looked at it from not only a, a technology,
• 9:56
  but a people in process aspect of it, so that
• 9:59
  that journey will, will wrap up in the next 12 months.
• 10:04
  And if we are successful,
• 10:05
  and I believe we will be, that will
• 10:08
  increase our ambulatory specialty clinic volume
• 10:10
  significantly gives us more capability, more capacity
• 10:14
  to see more patients.
• 10:15
  Um, and so with that, uh, our new specialty clinic tower
• 10:19
  that's coming online in June of 2025, um, we really have
• 10:24
  to be in a position to offer more digital capabilities.
• 10:27
  So Cloud-based call center platform with a lot of, uh,
• 10:31
  digital assistant, virtual assistant capabilities, uh,
• 10:34
  that allows us to handle more volume
• 10:36
  and not have to grow, uh, the staffing.
• 10:39
  Uh, looking at implementing
• 10:41
  and enabling, uh, some gen EI capabilities, uh,
• 10:45
  particularly focused, uh, on, uh, on how do you take,
• 10:50
  uh, a large language model that towards some
• 10:54
  of our key insights and information
• 10:56
  and leverage that to improve our access,
• 10:59
  improve our efficiency,
• 11:01
  and really be able to tie some of those capabilities into,
• 11:04
  uh, some of the digital capabilities with our call center,
• 11:07
  but also with, uh, our, our patient portal.
• 11:10
  We're building, uh, currently a mobile solution.
• 11:13
  We call it My Shock, um, that really takes a lot
• 11:17
  of the wealth of information in a patient portal,
• 11:19
  but really building out, uh, ability that are beyond
• 11:23
  what a traditional patient portal offers.
• 11:26
  So in addition to, uh, the ability to, to
• 11:29
  to schedule your appointment, see, see your record,
• 11:32
  we're promoting and producing content that's, uh,
• 11:35
  that will be specific to the patient
• 11:37
  and what they are coming to, uh, see us for, for services
• 11:41
  and how do we take that, that platform,
• 11:45
  leverage these large language models, uh, really offer, uh,
• 11:49
  enhanced services that our patients
• 11:51
  and patients families, uh, really want.
• 11:54
  Um, so growth in those areas. Uh, I see.
• 11:56
  Um, I also see growth in data science.
• 11:59
  Uh, we have a data science team at CHOP that is doing, uh,
• 12:03
  several predictive models at the point of care
• 12:06
  that we integrate, uh, into the EMR
• 12:08
  and looking to continue to grow that team, uh,
• 12:11
  and the services, uh, really, really, uh, take us to,
• 12:15
  to more advanced outcomes
• 12:16
  and really help with continuing to kind of
• 12:20
  support our care delivery process for our physicians, uh,
• 12:23
  which we hope will also, uh, play a significant role in,
• 12:27
  in reducing uh, kind of the physician burnout that, uh,
• 12:31
  still continues to be on, not only for us
• 12:34
  but also across the country.
• 12:37
  - And John, that's fascinating to hear.
• 12:38
  Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
• 12:40
  This has been a really great conversation.
• 12:42
  I learned a lot and certainly a lot to think about,
• 12:45
  you know, when we're looking to the future.
• 12:46
  I appreciate your time today
• 12:48
  and excited to have you, um,
• 12:50
  speaking at our Health IT Digital Health
• 12:51
  and Revenue Cycle event this October.
• 12:53
  It'll be great to be able to continue these conversations
• 12:56
  and, uh, talk about many of these themes,
• 12:58
  um, at that point as well.
• 13:00
  - Alright. It's been great talking to you
• 13:02
  and looking forward to Becca's in October.