1. Tell us about your role.

As the manager of the hospital operations center at Stanford Health Care, I oversee initiatives and workflows focusing on improving patient access, patient flow and throughput, and capacity management across the adult hospital on a day-to-day basis and facilitate service line planning across the enterprise.

My team is responsible for the data and analytics related to patient volume and census, as well as various patient flow metrics. In this role, I work closely with the administrative nursing supervisors who manage bed planning.

2. What is one thing you’ve learned in the past year?

I have learned the importance of flexibility, adaptability, and adjusting to unexpected challenges. The pandemic taught me that. There’s a lot of change management and a great need to be resilient and pivot on the spot. I continue to use that approach today.

3. What inspired you to pursue a career in healthcare?

I have always enjoyed working with people.I was interested in social and clinical sciences, so a career in nursing seemed like the best fit for me. I wanted to make a difference in system practices and truly enjoyed working on improvement initiatives, so I transitioned from a clinical focus to an administrative one.

4. What do you see as the biggest opportunity to improve healthcare?

Improving patient access to healthcare by implementing advanced data analytics and AI-driven technologies. This could potentially enhance hospital operations, particularly for emergency departments, by better predicting demand to improve patient flow, discharge workflows, and resource allocation.

5. What is the greatest challenge facing healthcare?

We are seeing an increase in the demand for higher acuity and aging populations across clinical disciplines, with insufficient resources to accommodate after-hospital care, such as long-term healthcare facilities. This leads to additional strain on healthcare systems. We will likely continue to see higher acuity demand for comorbidities and their complications, as well as longer lengths of stay.

6. How do you envision technology playing a role in addressing this challenge in healthcare?

Technology can help reduce extended lengths of stay by facilitating remote patient monitoring and programs such as hospitals at home. Predictive analytics can help in early intervention to prevent the worsening of clinical cases based on risk stratification and streamlining discharge workflows. We collaborate with the analytics team, and that is the first step – to access data and try to do predictive modeling to understand our capabilities before seeking external resources.

7. What best practices have your team employed over the past year that resulted in meaningful improvement or outcomes?

We employ a capacity-management system that emphasizes data sharing and transparency across departments to help manage high patient demand for that day, as well as plan for the next day’s demand based on predictive models. This improves operational efficiency throughout the healthcare system, improves patient access, and reduces healthcare cost inefficiencies by improving resource utilization.

1. Tell us about your role.

Novant Health is an integrated network of hospitals, physician clinics, and outpatient facilities that delivers a seamless and convenient healthcare experience to communities in North Carolina and South Carolina. Our network consists of more than 2,000 physicians and nearly 40,000 team members who provide care at more than 850 locations, including 19 hospitals and hundreds of outpatient facilities and physician clinics.

I lead a team and program that identifies and addresses unwarranted care variation that impacts patient outcomes and costs of care. Our dedicated team uses a combination of improvement and implementation science strategies, data analytics and insights, and adaptive leadership principles. Using a collaborative partnership model, we work closely with clinical and operational teams to drive progress in our strategic initiatives.

2. What is one thing you’ve learned in the past year?

The importance of simplicity. My team has focused on simplifying communication so that it is clear, direct, and effective. This includes verbal communication while leading teams or giving presentations and written communication, such as emails, visuals, and graphs. When developing content, we work to understand the audience and people we work with.  The more we can be clear and concise, the more likely we are to communicate effectively.

3. What inspired you to pursue a career in healthcare?

I have always had a service mentality and a desire to make a difference and serve others. I am driven by the idea of having a meaningful impact in my community and leaving it an even better place than I found it. Healthcare is a natural fit for that.

4. What do you see as the biggest opportunity to improve healthcare?

Scientific discovery and technology are advancing so quickly in the healthcare space. One of the most important things we can do is to focus on real-world adoption of technology into workflows and translate knowledge into practice. Through implementation science, we can narrow the know-do gap, decreasing the time from discovery to real world adoption in practice and ensure more and more patients can benefit from advancements.

5. What is the greatest challenge facing healthcare?

The challenges of COVID-19 and the subsequent staffing crisis and financial pressures have made maintaining historical care models increasingly difficult. We are  learning new approaches to   delivering care in ways that are clinically effective and efficient and aim to deliver the right care in the right environment. Some of these approaches are different than the traditional hospital-centric methods, including delivery models like optimizing telemedicine, remote monitoring, hospital at home and more. We are learning how to continue providing quality service while evolving with the changing landscape of healthcare.

6. How do you envision technology playing a role in addressing this challenge in healthcare?

Ideally, technology empowers clinicians to provide the best possible evidence-based care to patients, making it easier and more efficient for both care teams and patients. This includes non-traditional care delivery models.  

Data and analytics can help us understand if the care we are providing is achieving desired outcomes or if there are opportunities to improve. Through data analysis we can link clinical and operational practices to outcomes such as mortality, complications, length of stay, direct costs and more. It provides a huge benefit as it enhances our ability to cater more effectively to the needs of our patients through a deeper understanding of the care we provide. Data insights also create a burning platform for change and align teams around a common patient-centric mission.

7. How are you leveraging new technologies, such as augmented intelligence, to enhance productivity/efficiency, quality, and outcomes?

If we fail to effectively use and integrate a tool into our workflows, it remains nothing more than a shiny gadget. It is our responsibility to determine how to effectively apply technology and the insights generated by AI in practical settings for the benefit of patients and the care teams. Utilizing AI, we recently gained a deeper understanding of high-risk patients in our emergency department and presented our findings at the Healthcare Analytics Summit (HAS). By leveraging AI technology to analyze data, we identified those at highest risk among the patients boarding to provide wrap-around services that enhanced their care.

On May 13, Health Catalyst was recognized on Modern Healthcare’s 2024 Best Places to Work in Healthcare list. This marks the 12th consecutive year that Health Catalyst has secured a spot on this esteemed list.

Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work award celebrates outstanding healthcare companies and organizations across the United States, recognizing their dedication to empowering team members to deliver exceptional care and services to patients and clients. The program evaluates organizations through employee surveys based on various criteria, including culture, leadership, employee benefits, and overall employee satisfaction.

Health Catalyst’s mission is to be the catalyst for massive, measurable, data-informed healthcare improvement. The company’s operating principles include improvement, respect, accountability, and transparency. These principles guide everyday engagements, fostering a dynamic work atmosphere defined by diversity, equity, and inclusivity, ensuring the flourishing of every team member.

In addition to the honor from Modern Healthcare, Health Catalyst received other recognitions in 2024, including being named to the Women Tech Council’s Shatter List and being recognized as one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Women and Diversity by Newsweek.

For the complete list of this year’s winners, please visit https://www.modernhealthcare.com/labor/best-places-to-work-2024-alphabetical-list.

The Catalyst Award also reaffirms Allina Health’s leadership in pioneering healthcare improvements that are both rigorous and measurable. Their data-informed innovations in pharmacy management exemplified what is possible when health systems apply data and analytics with precision and care. 

Addressing Pharmacy Supply Chain Inefficiencies

Allina Health identified costly inefficiencies and risks in their medication management, particularly with IV heparin — a high-risk medication used widely across their network. After acknowledging the complexity and widespread use of such prescriptions, the non-profit health system based in Minneapolis, MN, launched an initiative to standardize IV heparin protocols and reduce the risk of dosing errors that could lead to serious patient harm.

By forming an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, Allina Health standardized therapeutic guidelines for specialty medications like IV heparin. Their approach was rooted in evidence-based decision-making and involved reviewing current research and clinical procedures to establish a unified protocol for medication administration that prioritizes patient safety while considering cost implications.

Empowering Pharmacists in Patient Care

During this initiative, Allina Health significantly expanded the role of pharmacists, enabling them to participate more actively in MTM, particularly in cases involving specialty drugs. Indeed, their pharmacists’ expertise was crucial in developing and implementing new protocols, offering patient education, and providing oversight to ensure accurate medication administration.

To monitor the impact of these new protocols, Allina Health further implemented an anticoagulation safety analytics application within the Health Catalyst® data platform. The platform allowed for real-time monitoring and analysis of patient outcomes, ensuring that the standardized protocols effectively and sustainably promoted patient safety.

The health system’s proactive approach toward addressing the management of pharmaceuticals using new technologies and empowering pharmacists to optimize patient care and safety has successfully reduced inefficiencies associated with specialty medications, leading to improved operations. Winning an award for their high-value improvement efforts is a testament to their dedication and commitment to driving positive change within the industry, demonstrating initiatives that prioritize efficiency, innovation, and patient-centered care.

1.Tell us about your role.

As Vice President of Continuous Improvement and Data Analytics at INTEGRIS Health, I work with all levels of the organization to develop and promote a continuous improvement culture, make data-driven decisions, and plan and execute strategically aligned initiatives to provide affordable care to Oklahomans.

For me, utilizing data-driven decision making involves first confirming the problem through data before implementing any solutions. It also requires exploring various solutions and interventions to enhance the desired outcome. Essentially, we begin by defining our goals and then use data to guide our actions, identifying areas of concern and focusing on improving outcomes. This approach helps us avoid getting sidetracked by irrelevant information.

We begin by determining our destination and then analyzing the data to identify the root cause of any issues preventing us from reaching that goal. We then develop interventions to address the underlying problem rather than surface-level issues.

2.What inspired you to pursue a career in healthcare?

I was recruited into healthcare to apply improvement methodologies and training techniques, which made it very appealing to me to move from a nonprofit, mission-driven career. We are all patients, and we all deserve better.

3.What is one thing you’ve learned in the past year?

When it comes to data, its potential as a tool for addressing healthcare challenges is immense. The power of data is undeniable in identifying issues and implementing solutions.

Yet, I have also learned that it can be wielded as a weapon by influential vendors, payors, and stakeholders. The ethical use of this power raises concerns for me. Those who control the data hold the keys to power, whether individuals or groups.

This realization has recently struck me – while data can be utilized to solve problems, it must not be manipulated for personal gain or used to dominate a particular domain.

4.What do you consider the biggest opportunity in healthcare?

The key to enhancing healthcare lies in shifting away from prioritizing individual interests such as those of payors, providers, and regulatory bodies and instead focusing on the well-being of patients, their families, and communities. By fostering a culture that values collective welfare over self-interest, we can create a healthcare system that truly benefits all. Ultimately, we are all patients.

5.What do you consider the biggest challenge in healthcare?

Currently, the greatest challenge facing healthcare is having enough resources to meet demands. Reducing demand, responding differently, and removing access barriers will require different approaches.

The key challenge is helping individuals understand that transitioning from dispensable to indispensable is crucial. When someone can develop a team, process, or system to deliver, they actually become indispensable because they can be used to repeat this in other areas, in essence developing self-sustaining teams, processes, and systems.

This concept, previously known as mass customization, enables us to leverage our collective knowledge while still tailoring it to the recipient. By creating a replicable system that can disseminate this personalized approach widely, we can detach ourselves from being the sole or exclusive provider of solutions or services.

6.How do you envision technology playing a role in addressing these challenges and opportunities?

Technology has already demonstrated that it can be used to achieve successful interventions, but when payors won’t reimburse, or providers push back without the ability to cover, our patients lose.

One approach to addressing the resource supply-demand gap is by reevaluating the traditional model of healthcare delivery, which relies heavily on specialized individuals with specific certifications. This shift towards what our organization terms “humology” involves finding a balance between human intervention, technology, and automation. By exploring alternative methods that do not necessarily require a person with specific skills, we can better cater to people’s diverse needs, including those related to end-of-life care.

Technology can take on repeatable, predictable tasks that can be standardized. However, the challenge in the healthcare industry lies in the current lack of standardization. This makes automation difficult when things are not consistent. Nonetheless, technology will contribute significantly to guiding our decision making and the dissemination of solutions.

7.What best practices have your team employed in the past year that resulted in measurable improvements or outcomes?

We have a very robust strategy deployment process at INTEGRIS Health that our senior executives lead by identifying the right strategies needed to achieve excellence in core competencies and position us for the future.

The process cascades key performance indicators (KPIs) in all pillars through a Truth North statement and targets, as well as strategic and operational initiatives to close the gaps. The Continuous Improvement Analytics team provides scorecards and strategic KPI analytics to inform and direct the work.

Our data submission form is the most effective tool we have deployed. It has improved alignment for metric definitions and helped highlight data integrity opportunities, and, more importantly, identified when we need better systems and structures.

This recognition highlights Carle Health’s success in preventing costly interventions that could impact factors contributing to extended length of stay (LOS) while consistently achieving significant improvements throughout its healthcare system. By utilizing data-driven insights, Carle Health’s leadership made informed decisions supported by a strong data foundation. This enabled the efficient use of augmented intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics to enhance both short- and long-term outcomes, particularly in reducing LOS.

As an early adopter of augmented intelligence, Carle Health embraced AI technology and utilized AI-powered analytics to save approximately 1,700 hours of manual work previously spent on collecting, aggregating, and reporting data. Through strategic implementation of AI capabilities, Carle Health successfully identified key factors influencing sepsis mortality and outcomes over time. The organization’s leaders effectively used AI to improve capacity planning, manage patient care costs, and enhance quality measures.

Carle Health Adopts Services and Technologies to Improve Providers, Non-Clinical Staff Practices

In 2020, Carle Health implemented Health Catalyst’s open and scalable data platform along with the TEMS analytics model to evaluate quality and cost of care. By partnering with Health Catalyst, the Illinois-based health system transitioned team members to create a specialized group dedicated to providing analytics support and fostering innovation. Leveraging the Health Catalyst data platform allowed Carle Health to automate ongoing professional practice evaluations (OPPE), eliminating manual chart reviews in favor of generating provider scorecards on demand through analytics solutions.

The TEMS framework has been effective in reducing labor costs within the first five years of implementation by offering real-time data and reporting for healthcare providers to make informed decisions. With TEMS in place, clinicians and non-clinical staff can operate at their highest level of licensure, enabling job retention without layoffs while addressing quality issues through technological expertise. This approach leads to enhanced operational efficiency, improved patient care standards, higher employee morale, and more effective resource management for sustained financial stability without unnecessary workforce reductions.

Data-Driven Insights, TEMS Model Propels Carle Health’s Operational Success

In short, implementing data-driven insights and analytics support through a tech-enabled managed services model has significantly enhanced the efficiency and effectiveness of the health system’s operations.

Carle Health has improved patient safety and outcomes and saved valuable resources by preventing costly interventions and addressing factors contributing to extended hospital stays. These consistent improvements, acknowledged at HAS 24, underscore the importance of leveraging data-informed approaches to drive positive change and shape the future of healthcare delivery.

• Achieving cost savings of $7.1 million.
• Enabling patients to spend over 2,000 days at home through a 76.1 percent reduction in inpatient days.
• Attaining a 71.6 percent reduction in inpatient admissions.
• Realizing a 15.9 percent reduction in length of stay (LOS).
• Successfully reducing 30-day readmissions by 37.1 percent.

When The Queen’s Health System identified that a small percentage of its patient population accounted for disproportionately high utilization of healthcare resources, they addressed the matter by developing an innovative care management program that offers comprehensive services and support to patients with complex medical and social needs. Since launching its pilot program to tackle these challenges, they have significantly reduced readmission rates and costs.

Addressing Disproportionately High Utilization of Healthcare Services

By decreasing LOS, The Queen’s Health System not only mitigated the risk of hospital-associated conditions and costs but also enhanced patient satisfaction and bed availability. Their efforts are especially notable given that the average length of hospital stays has increased by about 10 percent at the end of 2021, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leveraging insights from its analytic platform to manage payer data and patient flow through data-informed capacity management plans, The Queen’s Health System adopted a unit-based model of care. They also leveraged teams for patient flow improvement and executive steering, clarifying their roles, responsibilities, and decision-making authority.

To manage patient capacity at each stage, they developed specific actions: standard operations, pre-surge, and specific-surge levels. These actions aimed to increase bed capacity and address the volume and acuity of patients requiring admission.

Additionally, geographical hospitalist assignment and standardized daily interdisciplinary rounds were implemented, which enabled teams to consistently work towards safe discharge at the standard daily discharge time by addressing any outstanding patient needs, planning for discharge logistics, medication requirements, and post-discharge follow-up plans.

Furthermore, the health system established a centralized command center, staffing it with new patient flow coordinators. The coordinators actively engaged with care teams to identify and resolve barriers in patient flow while serving as a point of contact for escalated issues.

Reducing Length of Stay Through Targeted, Coordinated Care

The Queen’s Health System also acknowledged that unnecessary hospital readmissions are often linked to the patient’s discharge plan. They attribute part of their LOS success to improving discharge planning for patients more likely to over-utilize healthcare services. Indeed, those experiencing mental health crises or homelessness are more frequently readmitted to the hospital due to illness exacerbation, the health system found. 

Their improvement efforts focusing on care coordination and wrap-around services for critical patient populations have contributed to reduced discharge delays, decreased LOS, and cost savings. The Queen’s Health System has made significant strides in addressing its patients’ needs, earning them high marks in the industry.

Should adopting new healthcare technology interfere with a doctor’s capacity to deliver high-quality patient care, it could obstruct healthcare services and lead to a less fulfilling career.

While innovations like Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have revolutionized healthcare delivery by improving access to patient information and aiding care coordination, they have also led to a surge in administrative responsibilities for doctors. Data entry now consumes 4.5 hours daily – time doctors could devote to patient interactions. This shift in priorities has lengthened work hours and stretched medical professionals thin, contributing to burnout and job dissatisfaction among providers.

With 63 percent of physicians experiencing burnout symptoms weekly, healthcare organizations must prioritize technologies that simplify rather than complicate or compete with physicians’ primary responsibilities. The following three strategies are among the many approaches health systems have undertaken to preserve patient-centered care and keep it at the core of the doctors’ profession.

1. Automating Administrative Processes

Physicians facing burnout cite administrative tasks as their primary source of stress. Introducing automation is crucial in alleviating this responsibility. For example, Carle Health adopted Health Catalyst’s Embedded Refills^TM application to simplify medication management for providers and patients.

Upon receiving a refill request, the application promptly examines the patient data in the EHR, cross-references it with Carle Health’s tailored evidence-based refill guidelines, and determines the safety of fulfilling the request. The patient contact center staff are then provided with a concise summary of the patient data and suggested actions for follow-up.

Carle Health now fulfills approximately 30 percent of refill requests on the same day, while 80 percent are completed within three days. This reduced workload associated with fulfilling prescriptions also enabled practitioners to allocate more time to tasks commensurate with their professional expertise, potentially leading to higher job satisfaction – a crucial factor in addressing burnout concerns.

Over three years, this implementation of Embedded Refills resulted in significant benefits:

• $1.6 million in cost savings thanks to automation and streamlined refills,
• Establishing refill protocols for over 200 medication classes, and
• Processing nearly 400,000 refill encounters annually.

2. Automating Patient Education and Reminders

Patient engagement technology like Twistle® by Health Catalyst can significantly reduce doctors’ time on non-clinical tasks by presetting administrative tasks such as patient education on treatment plans, and medication refills and appointment reminders. Twistle enhances patient-provider communication by sending tailored, automated messages that guide patients throughout their healthcare journey, including pre-and post-operations.

Using Twistle, healthcare providers efficiently distribute educational materials, reminders, and care instructions, boosting patient engagement and reducing the time spent on routine follow-ups. For example, a large health system incorporated Twistle and saw a 29 percent drop in calls from post-operative patients, allowing physicians to dedicate time to hands-on patient care while maintaining two-way communication between discharged patients and their healthcare teams.

3. Supplying Physicians with AI-Informed Analytics

Integrated data platforms equipped with analytics tools powered by augmented intelligence (AI) can streamline the data physicians use to make clinical decisions and enable real-time performance monitoring of patient outcomes.

WakeMed Health & Hospitals, for example, adopted the Health Catalyst® data platform and AI tools, which furnished immediate, actionable insights into cardiovascular surgery outcomes. The solutions automated data gathering and promptly provided feedback on clinical care strategies, like the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols.

Subsequently, real-time data access enabled physicians and other leaders to make timelier, better-informed decisions. This effective use of technology improved mortality rates, reduced readmissions, and empowered physicians to pursue continuous quality improvement without extensive data management and analysis.

Simplifying Healthcare Through Technology 

Recognizing the difficulties faced in today’s healthcare system, National Doctor’s Day is a reminder to address physicians’ technology and data collection concerns. Indeed, the increasing complexity of healthcare requires providers to juggle patient care alongside numerous technical responsibilities, possibly resulting in physician burnout.

Yet, healthcare institutions can ease strains and enable physicians to dedicate themselves more wholly to patient care. As the examples demonstrated, the right technologies can automate administrative tasks, simplify patient follow-up care, and give physicians real-time feedback on care decisions. Embracing such tools is essential in bolstering the medical profession and reaffirming providers’ pivotal role in promoting patient and population health.

These initiatives include the company taking ParityPledge, Health Catalyst’s commitment to interviewing and considering at least one qualified woman for every open role, vice president and higher, and a benefits package that supports a healthy, sustainable work-life balance.

The Shatter List was created to highlight efforts in diversity and inclusion, aiming to support, acknowledge, and improve high-performing workplaces. WTC evaluates companies across four key areas crucial for building inclusive cultures each year. Each area relates to demonstrable and visible activities, programming, and commitment to women working in technology at all levels of the company, from executive to entry-level.

Click the image below to view the infographic.

Health Catalyst commended CHNw for several accomplishments, including employing strategic and technology-driven strategies to reduce bleeding complications and improving quality performance for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Their efforts yielded $1.8M in cost savings.

The organization incorporated the Health Catalyst® data platform and outsourced clinical chart abstraction to Health Catalyst through Tech-Enabled Managed Services (TEMS), which led to data-informed improvement results, including an over 40 percent relative increase in the number of PCIs performed using a radial approach. The organization also reduced length of stay (LOS) by 18 percent over 24 months and mitigated bleeding complications by a relative 58 percent over three years.

How Community Health Network Leverages Tech-Enabled Managed Services (TEMS)

CHNw launched an interdisciplinary team that included the Health Catalyst TEMS clinical chart abstractors. The organization focused on enhancing bleeding events as a top priority, recognizing their potential to increase morbidity, mortality rates, length of hospital stays, and overall healthcare expenses.

CHNw leveraged actionable data and analytics from the data platform and the ARMUS by Health Catalyst clinical registry platform, extracting more comprehensive and nuanced information from its performance data concerning bleeding events.

The interdisciplinary team reviewed a year’s worth of bleeding event data, conducting deep dives into the data and identifying gaps. These efforts clarified the patient population and opportunities to define and standardize processes, engage with the national registry, identify and resolve data differences, and implement standard order sets. 

Organization Utilizes Benchmark Performance Data More Meaningfully to Improve Patient Outcomes

After evaluating benchmark data for the percentage of radial versus femoral approach PCI, CHNw set a goal to increase the overall rate of radial PCI. Meanwhile, physician leaders provided peer-to-peer education on the benefits of the radial versus femoral approach, sharing the most recent literature, best practices, and outcomes data, engaging providers in changing to a radial-first approach.

TEMS clinical chart abstractors fulfilled their role of abstracting data and monitoring performance, notifying the medical director whenever a patient did not receive the expected care. Subsequently, the medical director would engage with the respective physicians to communicate adherence to expected standards of care and improvement opportunities.

CHNw’s success in reducing bleeding events and enhancing clinical care performance metrics is a testament to the power of collaboration and data-driven decision-making. The organization also showcased how targeted interventions inform meaningful improvements in patient outcomes, particularly concerning bleeding complications, which are common in some patient populations undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.