- This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Shannon Becker,
vice President of Information Systems
and Clinical Systems at Sentara.
Shannon, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- Thank you. - Now, I know we've got a lot to talk about,
and I'm looking forward to digging deeper into some
of the really cool things that you're doing at Sentara.
But before we do that, can you please introduce yourself
and tell us just a bit about your background?
- Sure. Um, as you said, my name's Shannon Becker.
I work with Sentara Health. I've been here about two years.
I have, um, had a pretty diverse career in healthcare.
I started off as a clinician, I was a respiratory therapist,
and then finished my master's in health informatics
and kind of started from the ground up in healthcare.
It. I started off as a super user
and worked my way through 11 different epic applications
and wanted to find a way in which to
help our communities at a much more strategic level.
So I came to Sentara working in the revenue cycle
applications, and now find myself in this position over all
of our clinical applications here at Sentara.
- Well, that's amazing to hear.
And you know, certainly a, a great career journey from
that time as a respiratory therapist into doing
so many other, um, aspects of healthcare systems,
and as you mentioned, being able to influence, um,
the system on a really strategic level is amazing.
So, with that in mind, could you tell me a little bit about,
um, your most successful project from the last year or two?
What did you do and how did you measure the results?
- So for us, I don't think it's about
large projects over the last two years.
I think that we at Sentara have had a goal for seamless
secure healthcare systems that, that really keep our
consumer at, at the focus.
So we've done a lot of small things, um, to really,
to really enhance that, that consumer experience,
and additionally begin to decrease the, um,
administrative load that's on our physicians to really help
with cognitive fatigue.
So just a, a little bit about all of the different things
that we're doing in that space.
We've been, we've just recently launched our Dax co-pilot
for our physicians with the ambient listening
to assist in more accurate notes.
We are working through some self-scheduling initiatives
to make that consumer experience much more seamless
and less frustrating.
I think everyone can relate to the fact that, you know,
my physician orders an MRI, I have
to call this phone number,
and then they transfer me here, they transfer me there,
and that can take up to an an hour just just
to make an appointment.
So we're really focusing on ways to
take the frustration out, out of accessing care.
Um, in addition to that, we, um, here at Sentara are very,
very focused on meeting our health consumers, patients,
community members where they are.
So we go out in the community and we talk to them,
and our, our focus groups have really found that
we have some healthcare deserts in our communities that,
that we're looking to really find ways to connect
with our communities as it relates to
meeting their needs in multiple spaces in one encounter.
So we, we've got our mobile care units
that are out providing care, um,
in places in which our community members gain access
to food pantries and other things of that nature.
- That's really great to hear.
And certainly, you know, having that ability
to look at the one big goal, um, for the system
and making sure that you've got a patient at the forefront
making the, um, the experience seamless
and secure for them is really cool.
And then looking at, as you mentioned, being able to care
for the caregivers as well as, uh,
community members in increased access is really so,
so crucial these days.
So, you know, when you are, are looking at some
of those things and then looking ahead to what are some
of your top priorities for the next 12 months
or so, what do you have top of mind?
- So, um, over the next 12 months, our, our top priorities
for our patients
and health consumers are to continue down the path
of a more seamless journey.
Um, we are working with our clinical access center
to have a one stop shop, no matter the need of the patient.
So that would include managing appointments,
managing billing, um, nurse triage and,
and other things like that.
We really wanna take the,
the difficulty out of accessing care.
We've always been, you know, at the forefront
of offering a great clinical experiencing
and providing care in that acute
situation in which you need it.
But, you know, historically I think healthcare has,
has focused on providing the tools for our clinicians
to do the work, the tools for our physicians to document
and document more appropriately.
But we haven't always been the best
at designing our solutions to make healthcare easy
or to make healthcare transparent.
So over the next 12 months, that's where we're going
to continue to focus to streamline that experience
for our consumers.
- That's really great to hear. And you know,
certainly having that, um, experience front of mind in,
in making things easier, um, is,
is such an important thing right now and very admirable.
When you look at, um, the idea of being able to create a,
um, a a better experience for patients, um, what are,
are some of the pain points that you're trying to solve for?
Um, or, or how are you really tackling
that from a strategic level?
- Right, so here at Sentara we have health planned
and provider services.
So we're really trying to find ways to consolidate
that experience and,
and provide a more just seamless journey.
So enhancements within the MyChart experience
and our Send 1-800-SENTARA portal are, are ways
that we're focusing on that.
And really it's a patient empowerment
and education thing as well.
I think we sometimes expect consumers just to know where
to go and how to find things.
So creating a much more user-friendly journey
for our patients with, with how they like
to interact with healthcare.
You know, when you think of it generationally, you know,
my children would much rather never talk to anyone
and just have a text
and web-based experience, whereas other groups, depending on
what they need at any given moment, might want to flex.
So really that omnichannel experience that's catered to
the way that, as I stated
before, our consumers want to access healthcare.
- That makes a lot of sense.
And you know, it seems like these days, um, as much
as you can, having that choice
or the ability to, um, you know, curate,
I guess the healthcare experience right on, um,
the patient's preferences is really important.
Before we wrap up here, I'm wondering,
could you talk a little bit about
how you anticipate your role in teams will change as some
of these, um, factors and trends continue on in healthcare?
- Absolutely. So here at Sentara, um, I've already done some
rearranging, I'd say of my teams.
I don't anticipate that my teams will have new roles,
but it's just an elevation of,
of their knowledge in certain spaces.
I think, you know, the recent security breaches and,
and healthcare, it have been terrifying.
And, you know, many times we work in a siloed fashion,
and I think what we're going to see, um, change in, in
our roles and our teams is just a higher level of,
of education and knowledge in multiple spaces.
So it's not just enough to to know the specific space
that you work in, be it, you know,
surgical scheduling, be it pharmacy.
It's having that security lens, it's having
that consumer lens.
It's just a much more broad and holistic view of healthcare
and how our landscape is changing.
And then always making sure
that you understand those connection points
as we in the IT space build out our solutions.
- Yeah, that, that's such an excellent point.
And, you know, really, um, kind of gets to the bottom
of having that more of interconnected experience, not only
for the patients,
but um, having that kind of view of it, um,
no matter who you are on the team.
And that's not an easy change to, um, bring about or,
or an easy thing to inspire in, in people
to help them really see the big picture
and connect the dots in a meaningful way.
Um, is, is there anything that you do
with your team in order to get them in that right mindset
or really, um, prime them, um,
in a way to make that transition?
- Absolutely. So, um, we do a lot of cross training, uh,
across our application teams.
We do lunch and learns with security.
We really try to take, uh, uh, an approach that
that is collaborative.
We're always trying
to learn a little bit about the other people's spaces.
And, you know, for me growing up, my, my grandfather
is actually from Austria
and he, he instilled, instilled in me at an early age
that it's always important
to learn the language of your neighbors.
So that's the approach I've taken here at Sentara, um,
with leadership and, you know, trying
to provide the best experience I can for all of our teams.
- I love that. Learn the language of your neighbors.
What a powerful, uh, way to think about, um, all of this
and, and really grow in a meaningful way.
Shannon, thank you so much
for joining us on the Becker's podcast.
This has been such a great conversation.
Um, I really appreciate your time
and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
- All right. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure
to be here, .