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- This - Is Kate Cruz, recording live at the eighth annual
Becker's Health, it Digital health
and RCM conference in Chicago.
I'm sitting here with Michelle Stansberry.
Michelle, can you please introduce yourself
and tell us a bit about your background?
Sure. Well, one, I appreciate, um, you having me on, um,
have always appreciated the podcast that you all put on.
They're very, very good. But this is Michelle Stansberry.
I am the Vice President of Innovation
and IT applications at Houston Methodist, of course,
that's in Houston, Texas.
Um, very large, um, health system that, um,
provides services to the Houston
and surrounding communities.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing and I'm excited to learn more.
Can you share some about your growth
strategy for the next couple years?
Sure. It, you know, it, um, and,
and I'll speak to it from the innovation perspective
'cause uh, you know, traditional it, I also take care of
with all the application suites,
but very excited about what we're looking at
overall with an innovation.
And there's kind of three populations
that we are really focused in on.
And one, it's our patients.
Um, how can we make sure that the journey they experience
with Houston Methodist is one the way that they want it?
Because everyone's journey is slightly different
and that the ease of gaining services from us is
as easy as possible.
So, and that could be many different ways.
And so we're really focused in on the problems of,
of ensuring the ways that we're doing that for our patients
and our new consumers are the best.
The other is our clinicians
and the EMRs have been really, really great.
They're great for data .
I, yeah, I know, I, I can, I can, you know,
probably if a physician was sitting right here next
to me going, I don't think so,
but you know, we, we've had some, we had someone describe it
as a pure disaster that that was a .
I dunno that I would say it's a pure disaster.
What I would say is it provides the opportunity to, um,
work in an environment that is
guiding you on best practices.
Mm-Hmm. . And it's also the data
that is collected
of what's putting in has been a tremendous help overall
for the healthcare community.
Definitely. So I would say that, yes.
Now , is it a burdensome to our clinicians
because they're the ones having to put in all the data.
Um, and hence what I'm, what one of our other pieces is
how can we ease that journey
and make it more efficient for our clinicians
and allow them to do what they went to school for,
which was to take care of patients.
They didn't go to learn how to type
and enter in data into a computer.
Mm-hmm, , right. For the EMR.
But if you can make that process easier for them, either
through voice, so they're having a, a conversation
with the overall patient
and then the data's automatically collected into the system
form, wouldn't that be great?
Mm-Hmm. . Um, so those are the, the, one
of the other things is how can we increase the efficiencies,
um, by automating things
that make it easier for our clinicians.
And then the other is,
I would say we're really just looking at
efficiencies as a whole.
So everyone's heard about ai.
Um, I think everyone's exploring how can they use ai.
Um, the interesting part is AI's been around for a while.
It's not like it's brand new.
I think everyone's just now exploring about chat GBT. Yes.
And everything else that's out there.
But the other pieces of AI and machine learning
and large language mo, those have been around.
And so a lot of vendors have really captured ways in order
for you to use that information.
And we're doing that in order
to increase overall the efficiencies
by not having humans have to do those things,
but having the systems be able to capture that
and provide back data that allows them
to make the right decisions.
So there's probably three big areas
that we're being focused on overall in, in our innovation.
And I really see that expanding as we continue on on
that journey from probably the next couple of years.
Yeah, that's really interesting.
Thanks for kind of breaking that down.
I have a question about kind of like
that patient demographic that you mentioned.
You said, and you know, 100% accurate how, you know,
patients have different preferences for
how they receive care, how they schedule, how they,
you know, interact with the healthcare
system and its technology.
I mean, there's a million different ways that
that can transpire, right?
How is, is there, you know, specific technology
that has helped kind of sift through some of that?
How are you figuring out a person's preferences?
Are you just asking them,
is there technology that helps with that?
Well, um, I will say we do have focus group sessions
where it is that we learn from some
of the things from our patients, some of the items we pilot,
um, new technologies that we bring in.
One, I will give you just an example.
Now it's a little bit older. We've used it for a while.
Um, and I know one of my colleagues was here this yesterday
talking to she, so she might've brought this up.
But we've become a society
who likes instant gratification on whatever it is
and using our cell phones to be able to do that.
No one likes to have
to be on a computer if they don't have to.
Most of us are really busy.
So we've gotten very used to texting.
Well it used to be a while back you would get your
reminders by telephone.
Um, and no one really liked those either.
It was like, oh, as soon as you'd
hear it, you just delete it.
I don't need to. Well, guess what?
A lot of times what happened then you would forget about
your appointment and we'd have a lot of no-shows.
So we found a solution that could do texting,
text reminders, and you tell if, if that's your preference.
If you want text, you want email
or you still want phone,
most people do prefer the text reminders.
We quickly put that in.
It really helped with our no show rate.
But the thing that we transitioned very quickly was we made
it bidirectional texting.
Okay. So not only did you get the reminder,
but it didn't work.
We will now allow you to, you could cancel it,
you could reschedule it, you could do all of that.
And now here recently we're working on
how can you just schedule an appointment by texting?
Yeah. The other piece that we um,
are working on is text base.
We're really, we're, we're starting
to delve into what does it look like?
Is text-based care? Mm-Hmm .
Now there's other kind of individuals
or organizations who are out there doing it.
Um, but we wanna make it seamless.
You start off in text-based care,
maybe they can solve your problem.
If not, do you need to go to one of our same-day clinics
or do you need to go to an urgent care center or whatever.
That whole process. Then if you didn't need to go,
well let's go ahead and schedule for that appointment so
that you can get in right away for our same day clinic.
So that's what I'm talking about.
Everyone's wanting that convenience
and that instant, how can I get the care that I need
and the way that I want it.
And I think you're always gonna find, there's certain people
that want the phone call.
Of course I'm just comfortable with the phone calls.
So we just wanna make sure
that we're providing all aspects of that.
Yeah. And that's really important to remember just
because like you said, there are still people who want
that phone call and maybe there's someone
first an email .
So I mean, and if that's the case,
then you wanna reach them there.
So, and I'm like you. I'm like,
no, no, no, just send me the text.
Yeah, that's all I need. I mean, to each their own ,
can you tell us about the most exciting
and impact initiative
or project you're working on right now?
I, I would probably say it has to do with our care redesign.
Um, and most organizations, right
after COVID had really suffered from staffing, right?
And keeping nurses and having enough nurses.
And that's kind of how it generated.
We'd already been working on looking at a couple
of different solutions, um,
that would provide some functionality.
But it really kind of have, has taken off.
And I would say it's in really kind of three parts.
One is, um, providing virtual services
to our patients.
While in-house, and I wanna caveat this, a lot
of these solutions, most people are starting off with doing
hospital at home or providing home care services.
We knew we had to provide
nursing services or type services that nursing would handle.
So we said, why not try these solutions in
house, learn from them.
If we get the process down very easily, we'd be very,
we'd set up to be able to do this other process at home.
So when we started off with the virtual nursing
and it was basically, we already have a virtual command
center set up in our hospital that manages, um,
our virtual ICU program.
It also offers, um, teles sitting services.
So we said if we were to take some
of the nurses from the floor
and they did a time study to see what caused that nurse
so much, you know, things that they were having to do well,
they found out that admits
and discharges to coming in your admin, I'm having
to ask you all these questions to find out
and discharges, let's go
through all your instructions and everything.
It's normally taken about 45 minutes.
And it was only because they were
being interrupted all the time.
Nurse call, they've gotta go to another room.
So they said, let's take that off
and let's provide it virtually
while the patient's in the room.
You log in, we go through your admits and discharges.
They're now able to get through it within 10
to 12 minutes and it's dedicated.
Um, nurses love it and our patients absolutely love it.
So that's one, creating efficiencies now that most
of in those tasks is what I remember.
I talked about it being taken off.
The nurses can do what they like.
The other piece is, is we're really looking now,
how can we expand it since we have it.
The other is, um, biomed, biomed devices.
So we're working with an organization.
They've got a device
that's about the size of a half, half dollar.
It's a patch puts onto you
and it collects vital signs information.
And so it, instead of we're looking at Q4 vitals, who wants
to be woken up in the middle of the night when they
have to take your vital signs?
This is taking your vitals.
We get it every hour on the hour.
It has an alert watch that basically if you go out
of parameters based on those vitals,
our virtual command center is watching it.
Um, so if something happens, they're able to quickly
to respond to see what's going on with the patient.
So it's another way taking, trying to take some of
that burden off but still collecting the data
and understanding the patients that we need to.
And the very last, as I would say it tell is this AI
component and we're utilizing it in our ORs.
And so we're trying to create the efficiencies in our ORs.
And what it is, it's camera technology.
It's constantly watching
and it's seeing how long has it taken you to set up the,
or get all the equipment, everything else set up,
the case rolls in, you finish it, then
how long is it taking them for ev them
to get everything cleaned up and turn around.
So it provides data.
One, it has to learn the,
or learn all the equipment in the or.
But then it begins to tell you, here's opportunities for you
to gain efficiencies so that then you could turn that or,
and be able to do more cases.
Those are like three promising technologies for us
that we are absolutely looking at.
And how can we expand it and use it for other things.
Those are just three that we know it's today.
But once you have it, you can begin to really look at
how you can, um, expand it across your organization.
Well, and something that really stuck out to me, you know,
in each of those examples is the
strategic implementation of it.
Especially with your virtual nursing.
You know, you mentioned starting that at the bedside first
or like in-house
and you know, I feel like a lot of people are trying to,
you know, reach people in their homes right away.
But obviously that, you know, creates issues that Mm-Hmm.
, there's not someone there in person to solve.
And so kudos to you
and your team for being smart about that.
And it sounds like it's really been paying off.
Michelle, I've loved our time speaking today.
Before I let you go,
what is the most important thing healthcare executives
should do now to make sure
that their organizations are successful down the road?
I would say stay focused on solving the problems
that you're having in your organization.
I know sometimes people can, um,
get excited about new technology that's out there
'cause it looks very promising.
But if it's not solving a problem
that you currently have in your organization
today, put it on a shelf.
Don't discard it because it's actually,
if it looks promising technology,
but put it on a shelf in case you look at it, you look
and you need it, um, afterwards.
But I I, I find that, you know,
if you're not really focused on
what the problems in your organization, then
what, what are you doing?
What is innovation about?
How are you trying to transform your,
your overall health system?
And I would say, um, I keep telling everyone
that's the biggest driver for us in our organization.
'cause look, healthcare has got lots of problems. It does.
Mm-Hmm. . And, um, I think if we could all
collectively work together
and one of the things that we've done is
that we hold periodically these open houses
and have people come in and learn from us.
'cause we all should be sharing too. Yes.
And seeing how we could help Yep.
Instead of just holding it internally. Yeah.
And that's been one of the amazing things about this
conference that's been going on is all the knowledge being
shared and you know, I feel like, you know,
in the conversations I've had, it's incredible
to hear all the perspectives.
That is the one good thing about I think conferences
going back into person now.
Yes. That we've all missed. Yes.
I mean, is being able to hear the sessions, you know, talk
with colleagues afterwards.
Yeah. Um, and get to know each other.
I mean, I, you know, so I have no background in healthcare
other than like a college data entry job.
Mm-Hmm. . And I hear, you know, I'm walking by
and I'm not eavesdropping, but I hear a clinician,
or I don't know if they're clinicians,
but you know, an attendee here talking to someone else.
And you know, I hear them like talking about
how they're just one-on-one, like technology has
come about different things that they've used.
And I'm like, that wouldn't happen. It's the sharing. Yeah.
It's the sharing of the stories
and then sharing information and then going back.
Yep. So you've shortcutted that process
of maybe potentially find a solution
for your own organization Yeah.
Or a problem you're trying to solve. Yeah. I, I am.
I think it's great that we've all been able
to come back in person and I'm hoping Covid doesn't come
back significantly again or we learned how to deal with it.
Yes, we have, we have again,
no background in healthcare.
. Well, Michelle, thank you
so much for your time today.
It's been a pleasure. Pleasure speaking with you.
Well, thank you for having me. Really appreciate it.
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