Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Balancing AI Innovation With the Human Side of Healthcare with Dr. Patrick Woodard

Transcript

Balancing AI Innovation With the Human Side of Healthcare with Dr. Patrick Woodard · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - Every health system executive right now is being
• 0:04
  - asked to do something that has no useful
• 0:06
  - precedent,
• 0:07
  - make durable technology decisions in an environment that
• 0:10
  - looks meaningfully different every six months.
• 0:13
  - The pace isn't slowing,
• 0:14
  - the vendor landscape isn't getting simpler, and the
• 0:17
  - cost of missteps
• 0:18
  - keeps rising.
• 0:19
  - Becker's eleventh annual IT and Revenue Cycle Conference,
• 0:23
  - The Future of AI and Digital Health, exists
• 0:25
  - for exactly this challenge.
• 0:27
  - Here, you'll find more than 2,500 executive level
• 0:30
  - attendees,
• 0:31
  - 600 plus speakers, and four days of sessions
• 0:34
  - built around the questions leaders are actually wrestling
• 0:36
  - with.
• 0:37
  - How to scale AI responsibly,
• 0:39
  - how to protect increasingly complex systems,
• 0:42
  - how to wring more performance out of the
• 0:44
  - revenue cycle, and how to make tech investments
• 0:46
  - that hold up over time.
• 0:48
  - Join us September fourteenth through the seventeenth at
• 0:51
  - the Hilton Chicago.
• 0:53
  - You can register on our events page at
• 0:55
  - beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:57
  - by clicking on the events tab in the
• 0:59
  - upper right.
• 1:00
  - Hello, everyone, and welcome to Becker's HealthCare podcast.
• 1:03
  - I'm Scott King. Thrilled today to be joined
• 1:05
  - by a very special guest, doctor Patrick Woodard,
• 1:08
  - chief information officer with Monument Health. Doctor Woodard,
• 1:11
  - how are you today?
• 1:12
  - I'm great, Scott, and thanks for having me.
• 1:15
  - No. So glad to have you. Definitely gonna
• 1:16
  - lean on your expertise for a lot of
• 1:18
  - kind of trending topics and and things going
• 1:20
  - on in health care. But before we do
• 1:22
  - that, I was wondering if you could please
• 1:23
  - just tell us a little about yourself and
• 1:25
  - your organization.
• 1:27
  - Yeah. Happy to do so. So, great to
• 1:29
  - be here again. I'm Patrick Woodard. I serve
• 1:31
  - as the chief information officer
• 1:33
  - here at Monument Health. Monument Health is, around
• 1:35
  - a $1,500,000,000
• 1:38
  - system based in Western South Dakota and Eastern
• 1:41
  - Wyoming.
• 1:41
  - I myself have been here a little over
• 1:43
  - three and a half years, and it's a
• 1:45
  - great community that I found myself in.
• 1:48
  - Our community
• 1:50
  - is served by Monument and has been for,
• 1:53
  - decades now. And
• 1:55
  - one of the
• 1:56
  - reasons that I love being here is that
• 1:58
  - if you miss our ER, the next big
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  - ER for you to visit is 350 miles
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  - in any direction, which really makes it important
• 2:06
  - to me as a physician
• 2:08
  - and a member of the community myself for
• 2:11
  - Monument to provide high quality care and to
• 2:13
  - continue to be here for generations to come.
• 2:15
  - It's
• 2:16
  - it's,
• 2:17
  - really, it's a linchpin in the community. And
• 2:19
  - for that reason, it really provides me personally
• 2:22
  - with a reason to come to work every
• 2:24
  - day and to make sure that what we
• 2:26
  - support, especially with, you know, in my role
• 2:29
  - leading IT and some of the the technology
• 2:31
  - changes that have happened over the last couple
• 2:33
  - of years and continue to happen,
• 2:35
  - really make sure that we're supporting our caregivers,
• 2:38
  - our physicians, our providers
• 2:39
  - regardless of whether they're in the big hospital
• 2:42
  - here across the street or in one of
• 2:44
  - our smaller facilities in a small town of
• 2:45
  - just 5,000 people.
• 2:47
  - No. I appreciate that background information. It's really
• 2:50
  - interesting, especially here about the geography. You you
• 2:52
  - certainly have a a community depending on on
• 2:55
  - your system there. So thank you for sharing
• 2:56
  - that. Also, curious, doctor,
• 2:59
  - what do you think are the most powerful
• 3:01
  - forces shaping digital health
• 3:03
  - and, IT, over at Monuments? And the second
• 3:06
  - part of that question, how do you anticipate
• 3:08
  - they will evolve in the next year?
• 3:11
  - We've taken a really measured approach.
• 3:14
  - You know, I don't think it'd be possible
• 3:16
  - to answer that question without using,
• 3:18
  - artificial intelligence in the answer somewhere.
• 3:21
  - For us,
• 3:22
  - that's that certainly plays a role. We were
• 3:25
  - fairly early adopters of ambient documentation, which has
• 3:28
  - been a real game changer for our physician
• 3:30
  - satisfaction and the ability for patients to actually
• 3:32
  - communicate with their provider and physician face to
• 3:35
  - face instead of having that doctor, you know,
• 3:37
  - searching in the,
• 3:39
  - the electronic health record or taking notes,
• 3:42
  - while they're talking. So huge patient satisfier, huge
• 3:45
  - physician satisfier.
• 3:46
  - It's not a transformative technology just yet. I
• 3:49
  - think the underlying
• 3:50
  - elements within AI will eventually demonstrate themselves to
• 3:54
  - be transformative, but I think there are a
• 3:56
  - couple of early wins that we can all
• 3:58
  - take advantage of, but, we have to be
• 4:00
  - fairly measured in how we do that. I
• 4:02
  - mentioned our size
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  - rather intentionally
• 4:05
  - to to to demonstrate really that we have
• 4:08
  - enough
• 4:09
  - cash to be able to make the investments
• 4:11
  - that we know to be
• 4:13
  - important
• 4:13
  - and,
• 4:15
  - deliver an ROI, but we don't have so
• 4:17
  - much extra cash that we can just try
• 4:20
  - everything and see what sticks.
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  - So we have to be quite thoughtful working
• 4:25
  - with our medical staff, working with our caregivers
• 4:28
  - to see really
• 4:29
  - what is it that does make a difference
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  - in in the way that we deliver care
• 4:34
  - and what are the things that we should
• 4:35
  - kind of take a wait and see approach
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  - for.
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  - To that end,
• 4:39
  - we have really been thinking about how do
• 4:42
  - we make the most of the systems that
• 4:43
  - we already have in place.
• 4:46
  - We've been lucky that over the past decade,
• 4:49
  - really,
• 4:50
  - the system has made
• 4:51
  - the right investments in terms of the right
• 4:53
  - electronic health,
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  - record platform,
• 4:56
  - the right ERP,
• 4:57
  - some other back office type solutions. And so
• 5:00
  - we have the right platforms in place.
• 5:02
  - But the question that we should ask ourselves
• 5:05
  - is are we using those to the max
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  - extent possible before we start making an additional
• 5:09
  - investments that might be duplicative?
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  - And so our focus
• 5:14
  - here as a strategy
• 5:15
  - and as a efficiency play is really around
• 5:20
  - maximizing those tools, making sure that if there's
• 5:22
  - something that we can do in a platform
• 5:24
  - that helps support our our
• 5:27
  - patient care efforts,
• 5:29
  - that we do that first. And I think
• 5:31
  - we've demonstrated some really nice success over the
• 5:33
  - past, let's say, twelve to eighteen months, and
• 5:35
  - I'm looking forward to what we have in
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  - the next thirty six.
• 5:39
  - Yeah. Yeah. You kinda tee me up for
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  - the next question there. In getting to the
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  - investments that you mentioned, some of those, and
• 5:45
  - which ones may have
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  - worked out or not, what's a a big
• 5:48
  - swing you took in the last year that
• 5:50
  - paid off? And what did you do, and
• 5:52
  - and what were the results?
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  - We
• 5:55
  - spent a lot of time and effort helping
• 5:59
  - the organization
• 6:01
  - at large
• 6:02
  - understand
• 6:03
  - what capacity looks like, especially in the outpatient
• 6:06
  - side of things,
• 6:08
  - which doesn't seem like something that would take
• 6:10
  - a lot of change management.
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  - But
• 6:12
  - when
• 6:13
  - everyone feels like they're burning the candle at
• 6:16
  - both ends,
• 6:17
  - but then the data shows that there's actually
• 6:19
  - probably an additional 20 or 30% that you
• 6:21
  - can squeeze
• 6:23
  - out of, an existing resource, whether that be
• 6:25
  - a clinic room or the staff that we
• 6:28
  - have.
• 6:29
  - There is a bit of a mismatch between
• 6:32
  - the feeling and the data.
• 6:34
  - And so really trying to understand
• 6:38
  - what's causing the mismatch
• 6:39
  - in terms of how people feel and then
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  - also helping people to feel comfortable that if
• 6:44
  - we are going to try and change our
• 6:46
  - fill rates in our capacity,
• 6:48
  - that we can do so in a way
• 6:49
  - that doesn't make people feel like they're even
• 6:51
  - more burned out.
• 6:52
  - So over the past year, we've been embarking
• 6:55
  - on what we are calling our Care Connect
• 6:57
  - program,
• 6:58
  - which is really designed to increase patient access
• 7:01
  - and improve our utilization
• 7:03
  - throughout the system. We started in some of
• 7:06
  - our more engaged areas, Heart and Vascular Institute
• 7:08
  - and in our, endocrinology areas, and we've seen
• 7:11
  - really great success.
• 7:13
  - You know, as I mentioned, we made the
• 7:15
  - right investments in the EHR platforms, but we
• 7:19
  - didn't necessarily we haven't always been turning the
• 7:21
  - dials up to to 11
• 7:23
  - in every particular area, and so online scheduling
• 7:26
  - was one of those that we had a
• 7:27
  - fair amount of opportunity.
• 7:29
  - In just the first couple months of being
• 7:31
  - live in our Heart and Vascular Institute, we
• 7:33
  - were able to go from no patients scheduling
• 7:35
  - online
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  - to nearly 15% in some weeks of our
• 7:39
  - patients being able to fully schedule online. And
• 7:41
  - we reduced the number of consultations that needed
• 7:44
  - a manual review from 700 every month to
• 7:46
  - three fifty every month,
• 7:48
  - which really reduces that time
• 7:51
  - to schedule. We had patients that would be
• 7:53
  - waiting weeks at a time to even hear
• 7:55
  - from somebody, not because there was any it's
• 7:57
  - not like they didn't need to be seen,
• 7:58
  - and it's not like we were letting people
• 8:00
  - go without care.
• 8:02
  - But when you have that volume coming in
• 8:04
  - of new consults just every single month, it
• 8:07
  - does take some time. But by automating those,
• 8:10
  - it really reduced that time to schedule from
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  - weeks to really instantaneously. As soon as that
• 8:14
  - referral is placed, you're able to schedule your
• 8:16
  - your appointment with your cardiologist.
• 8:18
  - In the next couple months, we'll be moving
• 8:21
  - that into a primary care, which will impact
• 8:23
  - probably about a third of our total patient,
• 8:26
  - visit volume,
• 8:27
  - which really will have a a nice impact
• 8:30
  - for the patients in our community who are
• 8:31
  - looking to find primary care. Maybe they're following
• 8:33
  - up. Maybe they're looking for care for their
• 8:36
  - kids. They'll be able to do all of
• 8:37
  - that online. You know, it's, it's something that
• 8:40
  - people expect today. Consumers are savvy. They,
• 8:43
  - they bank online. They buy their airline tickets
• 8:45
  - online. They book their hotels online.
• 8:47
  - And, patients, regardless of where they live, should
• 8:50
  - have that same ability to do that with
• 8:51
  - their medical care. And that's something that we're
• 8:53
  - committed to really delivering on.
• 8:55
  - Hey. I know reducing that check-in time is
• 8:58
  - is a huge thing that a lot of
• 9:00
  - systems are trying to do, and it makes
• 9:01
  - a big difference when they're able to do
• 9:03
  - it. What's another
• 9:04
  - issue
• 9:05
  - or, you know, an important problem you're trying
• 9:08
  - to solve with AI and technology right now?
• 9:11
  - We're really exploring what's possible in the back
• 9:13
  - office.
• 9:15
  - It's not necessarily something that is exciting for
• 9:18
  - patients, but,
• 9:19
  - if your bill is more accurate in the
• 9:21
  - first place and if if we as a
• 9:23
  - health system are able to bring dollars in
• 9:25
  - quicker and more accurately, then that certainly makes
• 9:28
  - our CFO happy.
• 9:29
  - To that end, we're doing a fair amount
• 9:32
  - both on the inpatient side,
• 9:34
  - with
• 9:35
  - how we're
• 9:36
  - documenting.
• 9:37
  - They're using a tool called Regard. That's an
• 9:40
  - AI based technology that helps surface diagnoses,
• 9:43
  - for the hospitalist team that cares for those
• 9:45
  - patients. And then on the outpatient side,
• 9:48
  - both adding some, AI coding technologies
• 9:52
  - that we're just about to go live with
• 9:54
  - that we expect to be able to fully
• 9:56
  - automate.
• 9:57
  - Probably,
• 9:59
  - we're optimistic that we can get above
• 10:02
  - 70%
• 10:03
  - of of our outpatient claims fully,
• 10:06
  - automated. It the vendor claims a little bit
• 10:09
  - more, but I think we're we're taking a
• 10:10
  - little bit more realistic approach,
• 10:12
  - which it really enables
• 10:14
  - our staff to focus on
• 10:17
  - what are the other areas where a human
• 10:19
  - is needed. So if we're kind of taking
• 10:21
  - feeding the low hanging fruit to a computer
• 10:24
  - and letting our humans do the more complex
• 10:25
  - things, then that really will help us bring
• 10:27
  - in revenue faster,
• 10:29
  - but also provide a little bit more of
• 10:31
  - a human touch in the other areas where
• 10:33
  - there is more complexity or people need help
• 10:35
  - answering questions about their bill, those types of
• 10:37
  - things. So,
• 10:38
  - you know, regionally, where we are, we don't
• 10:41
  - necessarily have a large labor pool to draw
• 10:43
  - from. And so,
• 10:44
  - from that perspective, we do wanna be mindful
• 10:47
  - that our staff are focused on the right,
• 10:49
  - things, that patients are able to get human
• 10:52
  - answers to human questions when they come about.
• 10:55
  - And so from that perspective,
• 10:57
  - freeing up people to be able to do
• 11:00
  - the more meaningful work is really how we
• 11:02
  - view
• 11:03
  - these AI enabling technologies.
• 11:07
  - Absolutely. I know, human answers are always appreciated
• 11:10
  - by everyone.
• 11:11
  - I have a bit of a, an open
• 11:13
  - ended question for you, but I know with
• 11:15
  - your role, you're very forward thinking. So I
• 11:16
  - wanted to ask, what are you most curious
• 11:19
  - about for the future?
• 11:21
  - That is an open ended question.
• 11:24
  - You know,
• 11:26
  - the future and the future begins can from
• 11:29
  - now until forever.
• 11:30
  - I think in a human profession,
• 11:33
  - I'm curious about where do we land
• 11:36
  - with what we want AI to do.
• 11:40
  - Because there may be a point at which
• 11:42
  - AI is capable of doing many things,
• 11:45
  - but we may choose
• 11:47
  - intentionally
• 11:48
  - to not allow it to do so.
• 11:51
  - And it's not because of accuracy
• 11:55
  - or speed, but because sometimes we want a
• 11:58
  - more human approach.
• 12:00
  - You know, I was in New York recently,
• 12:03
  - and you can't go to New York without
• 12:05
  - seeing,
• 12:06
  - the horse drawn carriage, which is not an
• 12:08
  - efficient way to travel.
• 12:10
  - And you don't see any locals,
• 12:12
  - traveling via horse drawn carriage. And yet there's
• 12:15
  - lines of people who are waiting to take,
• 12:17
  - the horse drawn carriage.
• 12:19
  - And
• 12:20
  - I think
• 12:21
  - there are reasons why people do that. It's
• 12:23
  - more expensive, but there's some charm about it.
• 12:26
  - And I think in a human profession like
• 12:28
  - health care,
• 12:29
  - there
• 12:30
  - will be some things that we will want
• 12:33
  - to choose to take the slower, more expensive,
• 12:36
  - more hands on approach.
• 12:38
  - Maybe that's in
• 12:40
  - the perinatal area where people are actually excited
• 12:43
  - to be part of the health care journey.
• 12:45
  - Or maybe it's in more traumatic scenarios where
• 12:48
  - there's a new cancer diagnosis or,
• 12:51
  - in in palliative care.
• 12:53
  - Those are the types of areas where we
• 12:55
  - will we as health care leaders will need
• 12:57
  - to be making conscious choices about, yes, you
• 12:59
  - could probably save some money and do things
• 13:01
  - faster by taking humans out of the equation.
• 13:03
  - But is that what we should be doing?
• 13:05
  - So I guess my curiosity about the future
• 13:08
  - is what are the areas where we, as
• 13:10
  - human health care leaders, choose to intentionally keep
• 13:13
  - humans, not because we're faster or more correct,
• 13:16
  - but because
• 13:17
  - we're able to bring more humanity into the
• 13:19
  - business that should be one of the most
• 13:21
  - human industries.
• 13:23
  - I think it's a great thing to be
• 13:24
  - curious about. I appreciate the, the human thought
• 13:26
  - there.
• 13:27
  - And doctor Woodard, the last thing I wanted
• 13:29
  - to ask you, you know, you kinda touched
• 13:30
  - on leadership a little bit there. I love
• 13:32
  - to ask leaders in health care just about
• 13:34
  - that leadership journey.
• 13:36
  - Just curious how you've evolved as a leader,
• 13:39
  - or if there's any kind of advice you
• 13:41
  - you've gotten from leaders maybe early in your
• 13:43
  - career that's kinda stood with you.
• 13:45
  - I, early on,
• 13:48
  - was asked by a chief medical officer when
• 13:51
  - I was going to get my master's degree
• 13:54
  - and go to business school.
• 13:56
  - And I had finished residency not that long
• 13:58
  - before, and I'd gone to med school and
• 14:01
  - gone to college. And I thought, you know,
• 14:02
  - I don't need any more schooling.
• 14:05
  - I can just learn most of this on
• 14:07
  - the job, which is probably true. I probably
• 14:09
  - could have.
• 14:10
  - And I ran into him a couple years
• 14:12
  - later
• 14:13
  - at a conference. He sat down next to
• 14:15
  - me on the bus. I wasn't even paying
• 14:16
  - attention.
• 14:17
  - And he's like, hey, Patrick. I was like,
• 14:20
  - I looked up, and I was blown away.
• 14:22
  - I said, oh my gosh. Hey. And he
• 14:24
  - asked me, when when I was starting business
• 14:26
  - school.
• 14:27
  - I said, I don't know. Dennis, let me
• 14:29
  - think about it.
• 14:31
  - And I didn't do anything about it. And
• 14:33
  - I ran into him again at the same
• 14:34
  - conference a year later,
• 14:36
  - and he asked me again.
• 14:38
  - And
• 14:40
  - I, that week, went out and started applying.
• 14:43
  - And it wasn't because this is I hate
• 14:45
  - I didn't even work with him anymore. Yeah.
• 14:49
  - But I think
• 14:51
  - what I learned from that
• 14:53
  - was
• 14:54
  - not that you need more education. Although I
• 14:56
  - think for young leaders, having some sort of
• 14:59
  - structure
• 15:00
  - and
• 15:01
  - to your way of thinking is helpful. And
• 15:03
  - certainly, if you come from an atypical path,
• 15:05
  - most physicians don't go to finance class. They
• 15:07
  - don't have an accounting degree. And so I
• 15:08
  - think those are the types of things that
• 15:10
  - that for me as a physician,
• 15:12
  - helps kind of tighten up my business acumen.
• 15:16
  - But for me,
• 15:17
  - the the fact that a leader that I
• 15:19
  - hadn't worked with for a couple of years
• 15:21
  - at that point still cared about my personal
• 15:23
  - growth
• 15:24
  - really does still stand out to me. And
• 15:27
  - I I think our job as leaders is
• 15:29
  - to think about
• 15:30
  - even for those people that you may not
• 15:32
  - work with now,
• 15:33
  - how can you support them in their career
• 15:35
  - journey? What are the things that you can
• 15:38
  - help them with? It might just be encouragement.
• 15:40
  - It certainly was,
• 15:42
  - in that in my particular case. So
• 15:45
  - with your own teams, how are you supporting
• 15:47
  - them? And if their growth leads you leads
• 15:51
  - them to choose to find a a career
• 15:53
  - in a different organization,
• 15:55
  - that means that they've graduated and you helped
• 15:57
  - support them to in their career journey. So
• 15:59
  - it's not a failure point that someone chooses
• 16:01
  - to leave. It's that you've actually helped them
• 16:03
  - graduate and find their their next place. So,
• 16:06
  - it to me, it's about support and it
• 16:08
  - doesn't it's completely
• 16:09
  - divorced from this is your boss or this
• 16:12
  - is someone that you work with. It's how
• 16:14
  - can you support those
• 16:15
  - amongst us. Health care is pretty small.
• 16:18
  - You tend to run into people over and
• 16:20
  - over again, and,
• 16:21
  - and if you can help create that next
• 16:23
  - generation of leaders, then you probably have a
• 16:26
  - bit of obligation to do so. So what
• 16:28
  - is it that you're bringing and helping,
• 16:30
  - support that next generation?
• 16:33
  - Yeah. Thanks. A lot of times when I
• 16:34
  - ask that question, you you get some good
• 16:36
  - philosophies or or thoughts on on supporting
• 16:39
  - teammates. That's such a great personal example and
• 16:42
  - so interesting that they took an interest, like
• 16:44
  - you said, like, even after you stopped working
• 16:45
  - together. So, yeah, just that idea of really,
• 16:48
  - you know, caring about someone's leadership journey and
• 16:50
  - and checking in with them. That was a
• 16:52
  - a great story. Thank you for sharing. And
• 16:54
  - thanks so much for your time, doctor Woodard,
• 16:55
  - on this podcast. Really appreciate it, and looking
• 16:58
  - forward to working with you again soon.
• 17:00
  - Yeah. It's my pleasure, Scott. Thanks so much
• 17:01
  - for taking the time.