Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Driving Quality and Patient Experience at RWJBarnabas Health

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Driving Quality and Patient Experience at RWJBarnabas Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  This is where health care leadership comes together.
• 0:04
  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
• 0:07
  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
• 0:10
  speakers to Chicago April.
• 0:14
  This series event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
• 0:17
  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
• 0:20
  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
• 0:23
  visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:25
  and click on the events tab in the
• 0:26
  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
• 0:29
  in Chicago.
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  This is Lauren Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  doctor Andy Anderson, chief medical officer and chief
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  quality officer at RWJBarnabas
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  Health. Doctor Anderson, it's a pleasure to have
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  you on the podcast today. Thank you for
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  the opportunity.
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  Absolutely. Now I'm looking forward to our discussion
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  because I know you're doing some fascinating things
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  at our WJBarnabas Health, and especially as you're
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  looking at how the system has grown over
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  the last several years and, you know, really
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  the potential ahead,
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  is exciting. So I I'll look forward to
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  getting into that more. But before we do,
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  can you introduce yourself and tell us just
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  a little bit more about the health system?
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  Yeah. Absolutely.
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  I'm a general internist
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  and
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  still very connected to to being a physician.
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  I'm the chief medical officer, chief quality officer
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  at RWJBarnabas
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  Health, and,
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  we
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  are the largest
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  integrated
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  academic health system in New Jersey.
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  We have a comprehensive network of hospitals,
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  physician practices, you know, ancillary services,
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  and truly
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  want to improve the health of our communities,
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  in New Jersey. We have the vision of
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  being the premier health care destination
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  that delivers the highest possible
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  quality care to our patients and families.
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  And we also want to be the very
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  best place for people to work. Our team
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  members,
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  the engagement of our employees is is critically
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  important. The other piece is we have a
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  strong
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  partnership with Rutgers University, and that academic partnership
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  is critical for training the future generations of
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  health care professionals as well as to conduct
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  research and and really be state of the
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  art in what we're delivering to our communities.
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  That's amazing to hear. And I know all
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  facets of the enterprise
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  truly depend on one another in order to
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  be that destination place to care for the
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  community in the right way and continue to
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  have a strong pipeline of talent coming into
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  the system.
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  So when you think about the last year
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  or so, what was the most important initiative
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  that you led? What did you do, and
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  what were the results?
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  Yeah. There's two things in my mind that
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  have been most important. And we've been working
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  on them now for a few years, and
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  we accelerated both
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  significantly last year. And we'll keep working on
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  them this year too. The two are are
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  mortality and improving mortality outcomes.
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  And then patient experience, giving our patients and
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  families the very best possible experience when they're
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  in our health system.
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  For mortality, we've worked hard on the observed
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  mortality,
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  the percentage of of patients who come into
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  our hospitals and pass away to make sure
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  that we're doing everything possible to prevent that.
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  We've done
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  a lot of great work on
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  detecting when someone is getting very sick very
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  quickly. We've used EPIC, our electronic health record,
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  and something called the deterioration index to be
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  able to identify those patients. And then we
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  better organized around our rapid response teams to
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  make sure that we're acting quickly, that we're
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  addressing issues that can help save lives.
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  A lot of work on things like sepsis,
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  a lot of work on palliative care hospitals
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  to make sure we're having those conversations as
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  appropriate with families.
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  And we've also worked quite a bit on
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  documentation improvement to make sure that we're accurately
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  characterizing and capturing patients and and how sick
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  they are. So a lot of progress there.
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  We've improved significantly. We're gonna keep working on
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  that. And then even more important in my
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  mind is that patient experience, making sure that
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  our patients and their families get the very
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  best possible experience in our hospitals and all
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  of our settings of health care.
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  And we've done a number of things related
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  to our our nursing's leadership, our physician leadership.
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  We've structured,
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  something called senior leader rounds to make sure
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  they were actively out in the the field,
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  you know, looking and listening and trying to
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  make improvements
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  and a big focus on rounding to go
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  to the patient's bedside to ask key questions,
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  to solve problems real time, to make sure
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  that we're
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  helping patients get better, helping patients feel better,
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  helping patients have the very best possible outcomes.
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  That's incredible to hear. And I know all
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  are so so important in terms
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  of, thinking about that patient within the health
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  system and making sure that they stay,
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  have the best outcome possible as they're coming
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  in, and especially as you mentioned for those
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  who
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  are deteriorating quickly and what you need to
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  do to stabilize them and bring that together.
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  I'm curious. For the clinical care teams, how
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  much change or adjustment needed to take place
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  in order to, get this on track? I
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  can imagine that some of it is incorporating
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  some technology,
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  into the processes of workflows. But what else
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  did you do to make sure, you know,
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  that those goals are front and center for
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  the team and and the culture changed along
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  with it? That's a great question. We had
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  to, you know, reorganize,
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  and reprioritize.
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  And so certain things
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  might need to change in terms of of
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  the daily work that, for example, our physicians
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  do when they round on patients, the things
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  that they're
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  doing historically
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  needed to change in terms of things like
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  sitting down, making eye contact, asking the right
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  questions, and making sure the patients heard. And
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  some of that's just changing the the habits
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  and and changing the way that, you know,
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  our physicians are are doing their work. And
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  the same thing with our nursing leadership and
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  the areas that they are focusing on in
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  their daily work, you know, much more include
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  that focus on that individual patient solving problems
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  real time. That's made a huge difference with
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  our rapid response teams and mortality. We've had
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  to reorganize. Some of our hospitals didn't have
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  highly functional rapid response teams. We had to
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  reorganize who is doing rapid responses, how they
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  were doing it. We've had to hire some
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  folks. We've had to add employees. We've had
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  to change job description. So, yeah, a lot
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  of work
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  to to implement.
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  And part of how we did that is
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  we piloted and then repiloted and then continue
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  to scale this to make sure we were
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  optimizing it at all of our sites.
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  That's helpful to understand. And, you know, I
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  really appreciate all the work that goes into
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  a transformation like that. But, ultimately,
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  as you said, you can see the results.
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  You can see how patients are having a
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  better experience or experiencing stronger outcomes, and so
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  that's incredible to see. Looking ahead, what are
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  some of your big priorities and headwinds that
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  you're focused on for 2026?
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  Yeah. We'll continue to push to our top
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  quartile performance in key areas such as mortality
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  and patient experience.
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  One of the areas that we have a
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  lot of work to do on is readmission.
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  So that's gonna be a big focus for
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  us in 2026 and beyond and making sure
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  that
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  episode of care is highly coordinated, making sure
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  that if a patient comes in with heart
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  failure or COPD,
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  that we're following best practice gold standard care
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  and making sure that patients get quick follow-up,
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  make sure they have easy access to resources
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  if things start to go awry, and make
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  sure that we're paying really close attention, monitoring
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  those patients to prevent them from being readmitted.
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  So a lot of work there coordinating our
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  hospital environment, our our case management function, our
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  ambulatory medical group environment,
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  centering on the patient and the patient's family,
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  trying to keep that care highly coordinated. So
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  a lot of work
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  there to do that we'll be focusing on.
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  The other big bucket I just wanna mention
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  is we're gonna, you know, double down on
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  our culture, making sure that
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  kindness, respect, teamwork, accountability, all those things are
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  at the center of everything that we're doing.
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  We have implemented the the Vanderbilt professionalism program,
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  which enables us to have a more structured
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  approach to issues when they come up and
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  to give, you know, good feedback to make
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  sure that if there are behaviors that don't
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  fit our values, that we're addressing them quickly.
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  That's another piece of our culture that's been
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  highly effective and really helped us build that
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  team environment.
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  That's helpful to understand. And I think that
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  really focus on culture is,
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  you know, fantastic
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  in something that I have heard from a
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  lot of c suite leaders in in thinking
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  through, you know, especially,
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  given the last couple of years, the challenges
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  that have been facing health systems and looking
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  ahead of what's gonna need to happen, you
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  know, really needing entire teams to buy into
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  what the health system's trying to do and,
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  create that great culture. And so when you
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  look at some of these efforts that you've
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  been able to do to give the feedback
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  to help people understand the behaviors that need
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  to change and then move forward in a
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  unified way to have that right culture,
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  how do you really approach on those conversations
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  when you are trying to make adjustments or
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  or make changes? And then,
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  you know, what do you do to to
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  make sure that it it's something I can
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  imagine sometimes are, you know, a lot of
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  emotions and feelings in it. So how do
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  you really approach those types of things and
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  put your teams in the best position possible
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  to succeed?
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  Yeah. I mean, part of that is just,
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  you know, transparency
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  and and giving, you know, constructive
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  feedback, letting people know how they were perceived.
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  Some of that
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  is enabled by data, you know, showing physicians,
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  for example, how they compare to other physicians
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  on things like patient complaints can help influence
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  their their mindset
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  and their thinking. And and sometimes it's just
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  telling good stories, having people understand the impact,
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  having people understand how patients and their families
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  are affected, and and that can also be
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  a highly influential
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  lever to change behavior.
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  That's helpful to understand. Thank you so much
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  for sharing some of those examples. Now when
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  you look at 2026 as well, what do
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  you think is the hardest thing that you'll
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  have to do in in the coming year?
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  Yeah. I think, you know, getting to to
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  where we've gotten to now
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  is one thing. Getting to a place where
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  we are truly exceptional,
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  where we are top quartile across the board,
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  I think that's hard. And, you know, part
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  of that is you have to go in
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  with the mindset that you're not satisfied with
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  being average or above average, you can only
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  be satisfied when you're exceptional, you've got to,
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  you've really got to push the boundaries, you've
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  got to provide experiences
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  that stand out, you've got to embrace innovation.
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  You have to, you know, try things, not
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  be afraid to try things, not be afraid
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  to fail, you know, learn from those things.
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  And then when you do have initiatives that
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  work,
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  you need to rapidly scale them. There's no
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  reason why, you know, all of our sites
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  of service shouldn't be doing something that really
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  works well. So that
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  standardization of best practices and and scaling them
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  across the system, you know, that's the sort
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  of the magic
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  to get rapid,
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  improvement
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  and get to the place where you are
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  delivering those very, very best outcomes.
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  I really appreciate that. And having that standardization
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  approach makes a lot of sense,
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  I think when you've got a best practice
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  or you got something that works and and
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  works well. I'm curious in that perspective, when
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  you are putting together some of these,
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  best practices, what do you anticipate or what
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  areas do you see as being some of
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  the biggest,
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  spaces where you can make headway in, standardization
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  or
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  finding and implementing those best practices? What aspects
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  of the clinical,
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  clinical practice as well as the entire organization
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  seem primed for these types of opportunities?
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  Well, I think a lot of it's the
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  daily work that we do and understanding how
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  to be most efficient and effective in that
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  that daily work. Some of it goes back
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  to what we spoke about before with rapid
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  response teams and standardizing the way that that
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  they get data, the way that they approach
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  rapid responses, the way that that they document
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  and communicate.
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  So we have tools to to to help
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  with this. You know, things like our electronic
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  health record are very important.
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  We're on the visit clinical database, which is
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  another way for us to standard standardize the
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  way we we measure and compare ourselves to
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  others.
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  We also are using, you know, platforms like
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  our event reporting platform through press scanning, which
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  enables us to intake event groups in the
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  same way and then categorize them in the
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  same way and then
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  collate them to understand, are there themes? Are
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  there things that that we could do better,
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  you know, across the system? Another example would
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  be our mortality review process where we go
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  through patients' deaths, understand was something
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  preventable. And if it was,
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  learning from that, going back to the individuals
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  involved in the case to give them feedback,
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  but also collating results across the larger system
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  and then sharing those
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  to enable others to learn from those and
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  and really hardwire best practices to prevent future
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  deaths.
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  That makes a lot of sense. And, it
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  really is helpful when you boil it down
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  to, you know, the goal of the goal
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  is to have those preventable deaths prevented and
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  continue to,
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  care for patients.
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  Before we wrap up, I wanted to talk
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  about growth as well. Where do you see
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  some of the best opportunities for organizational growth
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  at RWJBarnabas
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  Health? What is top of mind for you?
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  Yeah. Well, first, I'll say that as we've
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  become better integrated and
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  coordinated and standardized, it's so much easier to
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  grow when you're walking in with a platform
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  that works. So
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  merging with other hospitals,
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  growing into different communities, all those things are
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  enabled by having a integrated,
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  highly functional health system. And so a couple
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  of places I know that will grow. One
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  is attracting and retaining patients. Some of that's
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  our existing patients that we may serve, for
• 13:25
  example, in primary care. And we wanna make
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  sure that we're providing services to them across
• 13:27
  other areas, such as we wanna make sure
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  that we're providing services to them across other
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  areas such as specialty care, tertiary, coronary services,
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  physical therapy services,
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  ancillary services, like radiology and laboratory, etcetera, really
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  providing
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  that comprehensive
• 13:42
  care network for patients. That's an opportunity to
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  grow the volume of our services by providing
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  that comprehensive coordinated care. The other way that
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  we're gonna grow, I think, is just by
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  retaining employees and and and and really recruiting
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  and retaining that very best workforce,
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  that's gonna enable us to be more efficient,
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  more effective, present ourselves in a a more
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  standardized, you know, best facing way to the
• 14:06
  patients and families and communities. And that's gonna
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  accelerate our growth because everybody's gonna look at
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  us and say, hey. They're doing things the
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  very best possible way at RWJ Barba's Health,
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  and that's where I wanna go. That's where
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  I wanna go for my health care. That's
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  where I wanna go to work. So that's
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  what we're after, really being the very best
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  at what we're doing.
• 14:25
  That's amazing to hear. Doctor Anderson, thank you
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  so much for joining us on the podcast
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  today. This has been such a fun discussion,
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  you know, to really dig a little bit
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  deeper into everything that you're doing at RWJBarnabas
• 14:35
  Health and and learn from,
• 14:37
  all your of your experience.
• 14:39
  And I look forward to seeing you as
• 14:40
  well at our annual meeting in April. I
• 14:42
  know you'll be a speaker in sharing additional
• 14:44
  perspective and insights on,
• 14:46
  all the things that you've been up to
• 14:48
  and spotlighting some of the great programs you
• 14:49
  have there. So I look forward to seeing
• 14:51
  you then. Thank you. Enjoy the conversation.