Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Amit Patel, MSN, NI-BC, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Tampa General Hospital

Transcript

Amit Patel, MSN, NI-BC, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Tampa General Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:01
  The Becker's team is excited to announce the
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  launch of our new CFO and Revenue Cycle
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  podcast.
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  Tune in for conversations with finance experts from
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  the top hospitals and health systems. We'll discuss
• 0:13
  key trends and ideas to drive meaningful change
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  in the industry. Look for Becker's CFO and
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  Revenue Cycle podcast wherever you listen to episodes.
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  This is Laura Duda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Amit Patel, chief nursing informatics officer at Tampa
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  General Hospital. Amit, it's a pleasure to have
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  you on the podcast today.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  Now I'm looking forward to our conversation because
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  I know, Tampa General is such a innovative
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  health system and really cool things that you've
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  been able to accomplish over the last few
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  years and then some big things ahead as
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  well. But before we dive in there, I
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  was wondering, could you tell me a little
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  bit more about Tampa General Hospital and what
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  makes it unique?
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  Yeah. Tampa General Hospital is a private, not
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  for profit hospital,
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  here in Central Florida on the West Coast.
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  The main hospital is almost a thousand bed
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  facility, level one trauma center. We're an academic
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  health system partnering with USF Health. And
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  we really pride ourselves on the quality and
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  innovation that we do here.
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  And some of the good accomplishments as we've
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  had over the last year was we just
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  got to number one status in transplant volume
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  in the country,
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  doing
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  a little over 900,
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  transplants in in total. And we also just
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  got our fifth, consecutive magnet designation for nursing.
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  So we're truly proud of of that,
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  accomplishments.
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  Well, that's amazing to hear what great accomplishments
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  you've been able to achieve at the recognitions
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  in the last few years. Now I'm wondering
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  if you think back last twelve months or
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  so, for you in particular, what accomplishment are
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  you most proud of?
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  Yeah. You know, we we've done a lot
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  of work over the last year. You know,
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  we have a lot of projects going. But
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  the the big one that stands out for
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  me and my team is, we acquired three,
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  hospitals just north of us in the in
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  north of the Tampa Bay area
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  community sites. And,
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  we spent the last ten to eleven months
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  converting them
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  to our our EMR and and the rest
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  of the systems that we we handle. So
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  in total, we converted almost 70 plus systems,
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  including an EPYC integration.
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  And so
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  the team's really worked hard
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  and to get them onto our platform so
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  we can really start to transform care in
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  our area
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  and really become
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  more more of a health system than we
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  were previously with some of just the main
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  main hospital.
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  I know that's no small feat and and
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  really to
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  to bring those hospitals that have been acquired
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  onto that IT system and the EHR,
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  it requires a lot on the technology side,
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  but I know also on the people side
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  as well. What have you learned or that
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  worked well,
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  in really integrating that change management and and,
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  bringing Tampa general culture to to three new
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  hospitals?
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  Yeah. It's it's really getting out there and
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  and and getting to know those people up
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  in the new hospitals.
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  You know, they they already had a great
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  sense of culture and we're just kind of
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  adding to it.
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  That, you know, we all have one one
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  goal and that's, you know, to make sure
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  the patients get what they need and and,
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  you know, get in, get out as as
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  best as they can and and have great
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  quality care and experience. So
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  having that common goal and and really integrating
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  them into
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  our system has been a a great experience.
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  I I'd say that
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  they were more than glad to have some
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  some upgrades with their technology. So that made
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  the transition a little bit easier,
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  from what they were coming from. So
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  they they were really engaged in in the
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  projects
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  and and helped us kind of achieve our
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  goals of of getting them up on our
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  systems.
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  That's so helpful to know. Thank you for
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  digging a little bit deeper there. Now
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  looking ahead, where do you see some of
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  the big growth opportunities for your team in
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  the next twelve months or so?
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  Yeah. So the organization is just growing at
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  a rapid pace. You know, over the last
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  six years, we we we started with our
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  one main hospital site and,
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  about 15 or so clinic outpatient clinics. And
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  and now we're almost at six hospital sites
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  in over 150
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  locations. So
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  as you know, IT is kind of the
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  glue that keeps everything together.
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  And so
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  in our on our shop, we're really trying
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  to meet the demands of the organization as
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  we as we grow internally and even externally.
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  So
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  making sure the team has the tools and
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  things that they need to to help support
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  our operational partners and clinical partners.
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  So in terms of that, we're we're really
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  looking to help standardize some of our workflows,
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  establish some governance committees that, you know, need
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  to expand out past the main hospital now
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  that we've got up to six hospitals now
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  under our belt.
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  So it's really kind of create that health
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  system and the cohesiveness
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  that needs to happen between all of that.
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  You know, the
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  the challenge is is we have one big
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  academic medical center, which we've kind of
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  modeled everything under,
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  because that was what we had at that
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  point in time. But now that we have
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  community hospitals now and we have a behavioral
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  health hospital standing up here the next month
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  and we have a rehab hospital,
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  it's really about how do we make
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  the standardization really work for all the different
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  sites because they all have different needs. And
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  so that's really the challenge that we're we're
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  looking to to keep moving on.
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  That's helpful to understand. And, you know, I
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  I think really,
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  cool to have the opportunity
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  to then bring everybody together, standardize as where
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  it shows us workflows, establish what you need,
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  and,
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  move forward.
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  I know there's a lot of opportunity there,
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  but also challenges.
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  What are some of the things that you're
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  anticipating
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  and planning for over the next year or
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  so, that you have to navigate through?
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  Yeah. It's it's really about the technology and
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  pace of change right now, especially within the
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  AI space. You know, things are are rapidly
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  changing. But just overall with
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  with all of the cybersecurity
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  concerns and and kind of the infrastructure
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  pieces that a lot of our platforms
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  depend on.
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  Really just try to keep up with that
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  and and making sure we're agile enough to
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  change when we need to. We're we're gonna
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  continue to grow and move at a at
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  a rapid pace. So we as an organization
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  and as an IT shop have to keep
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  up with that pace and and and make
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  sure our end users understand that because I
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  think
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  a lot of that is dependent on them
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  and understanding why we're doing what we're doing.
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  And sometimes, you know, not everyone loves change,
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  but it's it's a necessary evil in this
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  day and age, especially with our IT infrastructure
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  pieces.
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  That makes a lot of sense. And, you
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  know, you, for the pace of change piece,
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  I think it it definitely takes, a specific
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  approach, as you said, being nimble in order
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  to keep up.
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  How do you build that into the larger
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  organizational culture as well as the IT team
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  in general,
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  in knowing and understanding that things are changing
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  quickly and it's not slowing down anytime soon
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  and potentially could get quicker?
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  Yeah. Yeah. I think it's really about education
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  and and understanding the why. Right?
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  If you if you communicate with your team
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  members even down to the lowest levels, and
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  they understand the the vision, the the strategy,
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  and
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  communication channel open. They'll understand
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  the reason for for the change, and and
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  it won't be as much of a pushback
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  necessarily if if we have to rapidly,
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  move from one technologies to the other.
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  One good example of that right now is
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  we're we're really looking at our telehealth infrastructure
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  and
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  and seeing what can really kind of set
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  us up for the future. We've got some
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  disparate systems at the moment.
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  And really, how do we how do we
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  set ourselves up for the future so that
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  as the technology and the environment changes, we
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  can we can transform with it without having
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  to to rip everything out and start over
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  again.
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  You know, our main campus is almost 100
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  years old. And so if you have to
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  rewire rooms and things like that, it's just
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  not economical or or, you know, time wise,
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  you don't have the time to do that.
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  So
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  we're really trying to make sure we set
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  ourselves up for the future.
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  That's helpful to understand. And, you know, and
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  really, really
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  smart, I think, in terms of having the
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  strong communications and understanding
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  what it takes, to be transformative and and
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  think through,
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  what's gonna be best for the future. So
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  I appreciate your time there. Before we wrap
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  up, I'm wondering, if you could talk about
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  what the number one thing is you're doing
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  right now in order to set yourself up
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  for long term success.
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  Yeah. We're really trying to maximize,
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  our use of of technology and especially in
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  the AI space.
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  We wanna make sure our our team members
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  are are working at the top of their
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  licenses. So
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  using things like ambient technology on the clinical
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  side for for the doctors, but we're, you
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  know, looking at other disciplines to to roll
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  that out in because it can really take
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  away some of the non value added work
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  that they do today
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  and really focus them in on patient patient
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  care.
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  And then also setting our team members up
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  for kind of a digital transformation.
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  So,
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  you know, digital transformation is really the the
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  look of the future. And and how do
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  we set our team members up from a
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  educational standpoint to make sure that they know
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  what's coming,
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  why it's coming, and and really let us
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  be nimble,
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  to to take that technology to the next
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  level. You know, we we wanna make sure
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  our team members are not scared of things
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  like AI not gonna replace their jobs or
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  take away duties that that they feel that
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  they're important to the to themselves. So it's
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  really about making sure that they feel comfortable
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  with the technology that they're gonna be using
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  on an everyday basis.
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  That's amazing to hear.
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  Thank you so much for joining us on
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  the podcast today. This has been a really
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  fascinating discussion, and I look forward to connecting
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  with you again soon.
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  Thank you. Appreciate it being on.