Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Karen E. Hunter, DNP, RN, NI-BC, CENP, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Adventist Health

Transcript

Karen E. Hunter, DNP, RN, NI-BC, CENP, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Adventist Health · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:02
  At athenahealth,
• 0:03
  we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier, a
• 0:06
  healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier patients.
• 0:10
  But the complexities of modern health care tech
• 0:12
  make it hard for you and your care
• 0:14
  teams to focus on what matters
• 0:16
  most? That's where athenahealth can help. Our AI
• 0:19
  native all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,
• 0:22
  streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
• 0:25
  when clinicians need it most. That means fewer
• 0:28
  clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom
• 0:31
  lines.
• 0:32
  Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
• 0:35
  can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
• 0:38
  See how simpler is healthier@athenahealth.com.
• 0:44
  Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
• 0:46
  I'm Scott King joined by a very special
• 0:48
  guest today, Karen Hunter, chief nursing informatics officer
• 0:52
  with Adventist Health. Karen, how are you doing
• 0:54
  today?
• 0:56
  I'm great, Scott. How are you? I'm good.
• 0:58
  Thanks so much for joining us. I think
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  we're gonna have a a great discussion on
• 1:00
  a lot of kinda key topics and things
• 1:02
  going on in in health care right now.
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  But before we dive into questions, wondering if
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  you could just please tell us a little
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  bit about yourself and your work in health
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  care.
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  Absolutely. I am a nurse by background, and
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  I worked, in the at the bedside and
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  in operations for,
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  fifteen years before going into informatics.
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  Since then, I've been,
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  leadership and, clinical informatics
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  while, implementing
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  multiple EHRs,
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  across the country.
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  And, most recently now, CNIO at Adventist Health
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  as we are on an epic journey to
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  convert
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  our sites to one epic instance next year.
• 1:40
  That sounds great. Thanks so much for sharing
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  that background information.
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  And, you know, getting to some of these
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  kinda key issues in health care, I know
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  nearly half of medical practices reporting using AI
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  in some capacity last year.
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  It's still still a key topic
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  for health IT leaders. From your perspective, what
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  are the use cases that are making a
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  difference right now, and how are you leveraging
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  them for your health system?
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  Absolutely.
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  So AI has been around for quite a
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  while. We just may not have been aware
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  of it or calling it out.
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  And in the nursing space, we are using
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  it right now. We've had a partnership with
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  the company for about five years,
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  emergency department
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  triage,
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  assisting a nurse in that initial assessment where
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  they're making snap decisions
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  on how critical a patient is and whether,
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  you know,
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  when to move them through the system and
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  how many resources
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  to to assign.
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  And we found that,
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  very helpful.
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  We've identified that it, reduces
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  time in the ED.
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  Overall, it ensures that our sickest patients get
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  moved back faster and seen faster.
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  And we're even kind of exploring correlation to
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  decreased length of stay in patient, meaning that
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  we got the right care to the patient
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  at the right time and that affects their
• 3:01
  overall course of care.
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  So that's one use case.
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  Our physicians are leaning into this, of course,
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  with ambient listening. Very excited. We've got that
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  actively going now,
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  and we're looking forward to, in the next
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  year, bringing in nursing to ambient listening as
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  well.
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  And just to follow that, in terms of
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  all the kind of the practical uses of
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  AI and health systems,
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  have you found that, ambient listening maybe
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  takes, like, the least amount of human,
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  you know, interaction, human kinda correcting.
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  Is ambient listening kind of,
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  pretty trustworthy at this point?
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  You know, I
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  am only watching from afar on that topic.
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  So we have not implemented yet.
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  I have my opinions, but I have not
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  no practical experience.
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  I think that's fair.
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  You know, as as virtual care expands
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  from AI enabled tools, remote monitoring to broader
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  digital health platforms,
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  Introducing new technology kinda brings challenges. What advice
• 4:03
  do you have for leaders
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  navigating everything from governance to patient engagement? And
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  can you share an example of how your
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  organization has balanced
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  innovation with
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  some of the operational constraints a lot of
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  systems are seeing?
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  Sure.
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  I think first of all, you know, my
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  experience as a nurse, I always,
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  tried to be boring.
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  Right? Didn't wanna excite my patients, didn't wanna
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  overreact to a situation. It was my job
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  to be calm,
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  prescient, and and see through. And I say
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  that applies here as well. Often, we think,
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  oh, shiny object, this cool new toy,
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  and that sort of thing. But we really
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  have to stay focused on what is the
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  problem we're trying to solve,
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  what is the evidence of that problem,
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  through metrics or value capture dollars, whatever that
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  may be, and continue to,
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  evaluate against those metrics. Is this solving the
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  problem,
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  as we expected in tracking to that? I
• 5:03
  know people hate the word pilot anymore, but,
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  really, we need to practice with this new
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  technology.
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  I think about my mother and a smartphone.
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  She wanted a smartphone so badly, but you
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  know what? When she got it, she still
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  sat in the kitchen next to the landline
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  to make her calls because, yeah, just adapting
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  her, you know, her living experience to that
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  new technology, and it takes time to do
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  that. And we in health care, we have
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  to do that as well.
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  I think that's a great point, a a
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  great story. You know, people like
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  practical things that, you know, they have
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  experience with, you know, like, I was like,
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  The Landline. Or it's it's sometimes it is
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  hard to adapt,
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  to this new technology the way the health
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  systems are are having to do right now.
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  How are you seeing recent legislation,
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  both state and federal, affect health care organizations
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  and and health care IT specifically?
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  Have you adjusted strategies in response to that?
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  Yes. An organization we have where where it's
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  very top of mind right now, and Adventist
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  Health is a, community based organization,
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  faith based, and we serve the most vulnerable
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  populations in sort of a lot of rural
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  areas, remote areas.
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  And, we're we're high,
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  like, around 80% government pay. And so we're
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  very much watching the policy changes
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  and, proactively
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  making,
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  internal changes.
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  For example, we've outsourced some some positions and
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  that sort of thing looking to be most
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  cost effective.
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  So it will affect our technology
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  road map long term, but we are full
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  on with Epic
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  looking for greater efficiencies from a standardized single
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  platform,
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  that we haven't had in the past. And
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  looking at the data
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  that we will gather from this will help
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  inform us,
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  on how to be most effective in our
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  practice
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  and our operations and, of course, financial management.
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  You mentioned Epic. You know, we obviously hear
• 7:09
  so much about,
• 7:10
  what people like about Epic in in health
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  care and what they use it for. What
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  are yours what are your some favorite, favorite
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  uses of yours with Epic?
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  For me, I think the integration, right, that
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  it's one platform and the patient information is
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  seamlessly moving through.
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  But I've been in prior organizations where we
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  messed that up. Right? So, you know, Epic
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  is not infallible.
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  It's, we need to build it and maintain
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  it in a standardized way, and I believe
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  Adventist Health is approaching it in the right
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  way.
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  If you had to give one piece of
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  advice to health care leaders as they kinda
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  prepare for
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  more advancements in technology and the rising demands
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  for care, what would that be?
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  I would say it's boring, but
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  continue to follow fundamentals.
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  What is the problem we're trying to solve?
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  Do we have evidence that it's doing that?
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  Can we measure those outcomes?
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  What is our, you know, adoption? What are
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  our end users saying?
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  And follow that path just like we do
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  with our patients. We assess our patients. We
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  look for abnormalities,
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  vital signs, that sort of thing, and we
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  treat,
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  to those symptoms. And we have to do
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  that in health care too and not just
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  get excited about,
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  new toy, but, stay
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  calm, be boring, and and stick to our
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  fundamentals.
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  Yeah. I think that's great advice to kinda,
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  you know, just keep it simple and and
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  all hands on deck for for one,
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  one most important thing there. Something else I
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  wanted to ask you, Karen, for our final
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  question, something I like to ask all the
• 8:41
  leaders we talk to on the podcast is
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  how do you think you're evolving as a
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  leader?
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  That's a great question. I,
• 8:49
  was reflecting on this recently, and I I
• 8:52
  think in such a time of massive change,
• 8:54
  like, in our organization, it's a time to
• 8:56
  be bold.
• 8:58
  I
• 8:59
  have a lot of experience in this area,
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  and I I can't assume that my colleagues,
• 9:05
  share my knowledge and experience. So it's important
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  for me
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  to speak up and be bold and share
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  information
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  and help educate as we go so that
• 9:13
  we can make informed decisions based on evidence,
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  based on, research,
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  as we move forward and not just, again,
• 9:21
  what feels right or
• 9:24
  may,
• 9:25
  again, be a shiny object. Sorry to harp
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  on that so much.
• 9:29
  Karen, thanks so much for joining us on
• 9:30
  our podcast. I think it was a great
• 9:32
  discussion. I look forward to working with you
• 9:33
  again soon. Thank you, Scott. It was my
• 9:35
  pleasure.
• 9:38
  At athenahealth, we know your ambulatory practice wants
• 9:42
  healthier,
• 9:43
  a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
• 9:45
  patients.
• 9:46
  But the complexities of modern health care tech
• 9:49
  make it hard for you and your care
• 9:50
  teams to focus on what matters most.
• 9:53
  That's where athenahealth can help.
• 9:55
  Our AI native all in one solutions reduce
• 9:58
  administrative burdens, streamline billing and payments, and deliver
• 10:01
  critical insights when clinicians need it most. That
• 10:04
  means fewer clicks, more time for patients, and
• 10:07
  stronger bottom lines.
• 10:09
  Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
• 10:12
  can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
• 10:15
  See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.