Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Afroz Hafeez, MD, MBA, Manager of Telemedicine at RUSH University System for Health

Transcript

Afroz Hafeez, MD, MBA, Manager of Telemedicine at RUSH University System for 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
• 0:11
  speakers to Chicago, April 13 through the sixteenth.
• 0:14
  This year's 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
• 0:27
  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
• 0:29
  in Chicago.
• 0:32
  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:34
  podcast, and we are recording live at the
• 0:36
  thirteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable.
• 0:39
  I'm currently joined by Efros Hafiz, who is
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  the manager of telemedicine at Rush University System
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  for Health. Thanks so much for being here.
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  I'm gonna have you start off by introducing
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  yourself and telling us a little bit more
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  about your background. Thank you, Grace, for having
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  me, and thank you to Becker for putting
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  on a wonderful conference. My name is doctor
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  Afra Safiz Ali, telemedicine at Rush University System
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  for Health. It's a three, hospital large system
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  with, several ambulatory sites.
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  Main our main hospital is located on the
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  West Side here at Chicago,
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  a significant
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  area with socioeconomic
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  factors as well as a large life expectancy
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  gap compared to downtown.
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  Health equity is a big core of our
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  mission,
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  and we're looking at a variety of avenues
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  inclusive of telemedicine and other digital health opportunities
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  to close that gap.
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  Wonderful.
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  Well, let's start our conversation talking about strategy.
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  I'd love to know what your growth strategy
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  is over the next year or so.
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  Absolutely. We're looking at, quite a few opportunities.
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  Within our virtual care scope, we've expanded from
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  urgent care to virtual primary and specialty as
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  well,
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  closing,
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  those access gaps that we previously had. We're
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  improving outcomes,
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  with a large focus of patient experience as
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  our center piece.
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  Inclusive of this, just to get a little
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  bit more granular,
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  we have expanded
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  across state lines. We're also,
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  in Indiana. We have had a in person
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  presence in Munster specifically, but our virtual offerings
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  have explored,
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  further opportunities. So we're looking forward to growing
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  our volume and having our utilization,
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  grow in that marketplace as well.
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  We're also doing a subscription based service with
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  RushConnect plus
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  as an additional opportunity to,
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  grow across,
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  several regions, through our partners.
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  And lastly, we're looking at, an interesting scope
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  of hybrid virtual,
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  care.
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  In addition,
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  we're looking at an ED virtual care track,
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  telemedicine prods, and getting aligned with our community
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  partners, especially our community based organizations,
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  to see if there could be a staff
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  model service of increasing access,
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  within those,
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  areas of opportunity.
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  Absolutely.
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  And tell us what the most exciting or
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  impactful initiative or project you're currently working on
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  right now is. So within the scope of
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  hybrid virtual care, our preliminary data has shown
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  aligning with the CBO, a trusted entity in
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  the community, certainly improves access points,
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  for that patient population. And our findings include
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  that, sixty three percent
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  reported back in an after survey that this
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  prevented them from going to the ED. And
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  this also increased our referrals back into the
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  system with thirty three percent.
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  So, certainly an opportunity to scale, and we're
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  looking to further explore that to a variety
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  of settings across the Chicagoland area. And this
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  might be a a great model for across
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  the country as well, to really align with,
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  community partners,
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  increase access as well as ease the throughput
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  burdens that we face off the knot, especially
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  in our ED.
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  And what do you think is the most
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  important thing health care executives should be doing
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  right now to make sure their organizations are
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  successful in the future?
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  I would encourage exploring ground up with the
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  assets and resources we currently have. It'll offer,
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  cost efficiency,
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  performance improvement.
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  And the gaps that are you you'll find
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  in that investigation is when we should seek
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  out partners through our vendors and,
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  other scopes that could help kind of mediate
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  that a little bit further. So, certainly,
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  building ground up is still a possibility, especially
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  with our virtual offerings and,
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  with, several health systems already in tune with
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  that. I think it's a significant opportunity.
• 4:20
  Wonderful. Well, doctor Hafiz, thanks so much for
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  joining me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast
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  and sharing these insights. And, again, we are
• 4:26
  recording live at the thirteenth annual CEO and
• 4:29
  CFO roundtable.
• 4:31
  Thank you, Chris.