Imagine this. You're in the heart of Chicago
mingling with the brightest minds in health IT.
You've arrived at the 9th annual Health IT
plus Digital Health plus RCM conference
taking place October 1st through 4th at the
luxurious Hyatt Regency Chicago.
Picture the excitement as you collect countless business
cards, forging invaluable connections with over 25 100
executive level attendees.
Feel the buzz of ideas flowing as you
engage in meaningful conversations about the future of
healthcare technology.
Envision yourself attending sessions led by over 415
elite speakers
gaining insights that could transform your organization.
From digital transformation and telehealth to clinician burnout
and cybersecurity,
each topic is designed to spark new ideas
and provide actionable takeaways, but it doesn't stop
there. Imagine sitting in a packed auditorium listening
to motivating keynotes from some of the biggest
names in sports.
Four time Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski,
WNBA champion and author Lisa Leslie, and NFL
legend and ESPN analyst
Eli Manning will be there sharing their stories
and inspiring you to reach new heights.
All around you, the future of Health IT
unfolds, and you're not just a spectator,
you're an active participant.
Don't wait. You can find the event website
and get registered by visiting beckershospitalreview.com
and clicking on the events page. That's the
beckershospitalreview.com
events page.
This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Brian
Carlson, vice president of patient experience at Vanderbilt
University Medical Center. Brian, it's a pleasure to
have you on the podcast today.
Hello. Thank you for having me.
I'm looking forward to our discussion and really
digging a bit deeper into what you're doing
at Vanderbilt in terms of the patient experience.
But before we dive in, can you tell
us a little bit more about yourself and
your background?
Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks again for having me
today.
So I am vice president of patient experience
at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
I've been in this role for the last
10 years. Prior to that,
I worked in the
physician group practice realm, so leading physician groups.
Started, my career at Northwestern, in OBGYN and
did some multi specialty group practice work in
New York and then came here to Nashville
and Vanderbilt,
in 2007
to help lead the ophthalmology department.
That's great to hear. And, you know,
given your experience, what are some of the
opportunities and headwinds that you have your eye
on right now?
Yeah. It's certainly an interesting time in healthcare,
but I think,
I bet if we went back in time
and listened to podcasts from years ago, we'd
probably say that every year. It seems to
always be an interesting
moment in time where we are. I think
the opportunity and the headwinds is 1 and
the same and that is the workforce.
What we do, how we do it, everything
is dependent upon humans caring for humans and
it's the ability of those humans to deliver
that care
in a safe,
quality fashion with good outcomes and good experiences.
So I think the opportunity is the investment
we have to continue to make in those
who work in the healthcare space,
but the headwind is also the challenges we
face with us.
We've got
changing skill sets, we have changing demographics,
we have
demands that far outweigh supply,
We
have burnout and the need for resilience on
the part of the workforce. So
all of those things
are certainly creating challenging headwinds,
as well as as engagement, you know, feeling
connected to the work that, that we do
in healthcare.
That really, you know, is interesting to hear,
and I can imagine, as you said, so
many different organizations
are dealing with a lot of the same
workforce challenges. When you think about, you know,
that that investment that needs to be made
today,
what is most meaningful to to put that
investment both in terms of time, manpower, and
financial resources
behind when you're looking at a workforce that,
you know,
to one side is,
potentially experiencing some burnout or or needing extra
support there. But, on the other hand, you
know,
really, a lot of organizations
are finding it challenging to recruit and retain,
team members at the same
time. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I I think
that,
you know, health care is a calling. So
we have a we have a distinct advantage
compared to other industries in the sense that
I think people come into the healthcare space
wanting to serve. They want to serve others.
They want to help others.
And that can be both whether you're in
direct patient care or
you're behind the scenes in supporting those that
are.
So I think the investments
is at a macro level.
How can organizations
support the workforce to do their jobs most
effectively? I believe
that if we give, if we give individuals
the tools to do their job and the
space and the time to do it, they
will by and large succeed. They will deliver
the good quality safe experience outcomes that we
expect in the healthcare space. But sometimes we
get in our own way and that own
way is just by nature of the demands
that we face.
Like I mentioned earlier,
the demands far outweigh the supply right now
and we continue to try to serve everybody
coming through the doors, which is the right
thing to do.
But
sometimes there's only so much you can push
through the pipeline. So
how can we continue to make investments to
diversify,
to use technology to support, to make processes
easier,
to engage patients in their own care and
personalize their care where they take control and
maybe have some opportunities
to care for themselves,
to burden some to lessen some of that
burden. I mean, those are all opportunities. And
unfortunately,
the solution is not one, it's multiple. There
is not a this is not an easy
solution, but it's a it's a multiple,
pronged approach that probably needs to be taken.
That makes a lot of sense. You know?
It's really,
it it seems like a great way to
look at this big challenge,
and how you can overcome it. Now, you
know, when you are are thinking about the
future, how do you think about growth and
adding value to Vanderbilt overall?
Yeah. I mean, I think about it in
2 ways.
First is from a personalization standpoint.
Patients who come
to see us, patients who come to see
receive care at other institutions, they want to
be acknowledged. They want to be cared for.
They want to feel like we've them in
whatever it is they're going for. And sometimes
in order to do that, we need to
we need to create a connection. We need
to get to know them and and what
are what are their needs, desires, what do
they want to walk out with. And I
think that the opportunity lies in that we're
gonna have to figure out
better, more effective tools
to learn what it means and personalize that
care for each individual. And in this case,
what I'm talking about from an experience standpoint
is a further adoption of CRM tools.
CRM has been around for many years in
many industries and it's been in healthcare for
many years, but really not in the embedded
clinical space. I see a lot of opportunity
for CRM
tools to really make an impact
on helping us navigate and understand each individual's
needs, wants,
their interactions with us and how we can
make it more efficient and effective
for them.
And then I think on the clinical side,
what we've understood from our patients is that
patients are expecting us to use their data
in a way that helps them predict and,
avoid
unnecessary harm down the line. So how can
we use their data to predict
compared to others, big data now, what's going
on? And I think that,
the AI space is exploding. There's a ton
of opportunity there. We have to be cautious.
We have to be safe. But certainly there's
a lot of development opportunities there and it's
how can we use an individual's patient data
to maybe help them understand what lies ahead
of them
and put them on paths where they could
avoid unnecessary
suffering
because of
of of their their makeup and their and
their, DNA.
That's really an exciting potential in the future.
And, you know, when you think about patients,
you mentioned,
that's really they're
wanting to have this data
out and available and and understand how it
impacts them.
I just think, you know, it seems like
a fascinating
ability, to do that. And,
from the patient's perspective,
are you seeing excitement around, you know, that
type of
depth and granularity within their health care space?
Are there any nerves about how their data
is being used? Or, you know,
I guess, any skepticism
around what that could mean for them long
term?
Yeah. I mean, I I see all of
those in play,
but what I,
an indicator for me is in in the,
kind of commercial care space. So
digital apps, you know, websites,
people are
searching for the data that they're looking for
for whatever's going on for them, and they're
willing to share their data, you know, if
it can help them and benefit them.
So just by nature of
that whole industry
and the digital health space, people are willing
to engage, people are willing to share.
Obviously they want to be
want to have assurances that it's safe,
that it's secure and they're working with a
reputable
institution like a Vanderbilt, like others in the
academic space and non academic space as well.
But they want to be sure that it's
their data is secure and safe, but being
used in a productive fashion that can help
not only them, but potentially others down the
line.
That's great to hear.
Now I'm wondering what is one risk or
investment that you feel like is still worth
making this year? I know, you know, for
many organizations, it's still finances
are tight and,
certainly
have to be mindful about how you use
your resources. So when you think about, you
know, where you're putting those resources towards, what
comes top of mind for you?
Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna take a a
maybe a a non finance approach to this
and say I think the investment is
in the workforce,
but it's in our each individual as themselves.
So,
and then
a investment in the teams that they work
within.
Healthcare
is is not an individual sport. It's an
ultimate team sport, and it requires team working
with other teams who don't maybe interact every
single day. They don't know each other. And
I think that we are so busy that
we need to continue to make investments in
creating opportunities
for teams across teams to work together to
create connection, to create understanding,
so that communication channels can be enhanced
and thus when communications hits obviously the risk
things are getting dropped, errors being made, people
being willingness to speak up
are enhanced.
So I think first it starts with an
investment in ourselves and each individual.
And then it's a connection to us each
individual connecting with those we work with and
around. And maybe not even in our direct
environment, but those teams we we intersperse with
every now and then,
to get the work done that we need
to get done to help the patients ultimately.
I hope that made sense.
Yeah. Yeah. I think that it definitely makes
sense in, you know, having that ability to,
put in the time, the effort, and then
the energy investment into the people,
within the organization, I can imagine it just
creates a ripple effect of a stronger culture
and stronger sense of belonging from them as
well.
Really, especially as we talked about earlier, you
know, with with providers having such a,
you know, still feeling a lot of stress
within their jobs, in many cases. So having
that kind of ability to feel connected, I
can imagine, is really strong.
Yeah. I mean, we are we're, as humans,
we're wired for connection. We want a sense
of community, we want a sense of of
being part of something bigger than ourselves, and
I think
the health care space certainly offers So
how
can
we continue
So how can we continue to reconnect
to the mission, to the calling
and to the sense of we're helping individuals
improve their lives, get well, get better and
get back on a path to live the
life they want to lead. And that's very
satisfying
when you feel that is just sometimes with
the burdens of the everyday,
we have to take a step back, reconnect
to that, reconnect those around us and feel
that sense of pride and awe that we
can have in the healthcare space by the
by nature of the work that we do.
That's amazing to hear. Now before we wrap
up, I'm wondering,
where do you see some of the best
opportunities for growth in the future for yourself
and the work that you're doing, around patient
experience?
Yeah. I mean, I
I, I think that,
you know, we are on, as an industry,
experience work
is vital
to to the end. You know, earlier this
year, a group of us put out a
paper on the value case of
of of experience work. And that experience work
is not just patient experience, it's also workforce
experience because it's all intertwined. Our experiences are
all intertwined.
So I think the opportunity is is that
we continue to lean into
the many, many, many hundreds of thousands of
voices that we have
and that we understand
what they're telling us, where the pain points
are and that could be at an individual
level or that can be at a systemic
level, a process issue and then how can
we continue to work to make the system
better for them and the them in this
case is both the workforce
and the patient.
Just a little sidebar something that we've done
here at Vanderbilt that I'm very proud
and that's in the recognition space. And I
believe we do far more right. I don't
the mistakes that happen and by nature we
try to focus on those and not make
those happen again, which is the right thing
to do. But sometimes that can cause us
to lose sight
of all the great things that are going
on, every single day.
So, you know, in the experience space, patients
are usually very generous about sharing with
us the good experience that they've had and
they'll even go to the extent of sharing
by name, you know, this person,
Laura was a was a great nurse.
Historically,
if if that comment was left by a
patient, it would require someone to go in
to read it. They would have to to
identify, oh, that's Laura. I know who that
is, you know, then paste, copy, put it
in an email or another document,
write it out in a handwritten note, whatever
the the case may be, and and send
it. That that takes time, and that takes
a lot of effort. And middle management health
care is probably the hardest job. They don't
have a lot of space and time really
invest in that as much as they would
like to. So we developed an algorithm here
at Vanderbilt that looks at matching
names and comments to whose access the patient's
record,
from a security standpoint. And then we have
a matching algorithm and we send those
positive
comments, positive only
to the team members directly,
sharing with them this patient left this comment
about you. Keep up the great work. We
just wanted to share and let you know
that you were being recognized by a patient.
And
even in the smallest details that can fill
someone's cup. We've gotten feedback from from from
colleagues saying, you know, I was having the
most challenging day ever. I was really questioning
how can I continue doing this? And then
I read this very heartfelt, you know, comment
from a patient, and it really reconnected me
and reminded me of of why I do
what I do and and how important it
is.
Well, that's amazing to hear it, you know,
and certainly,
just a really cool thing you're able to
do for the clinicians
working within the health system.
And thank you so much, Brian, for joining
us on our podcast today. This has been
such a fun conversation, and we look forward
to connecting with you again soon.
My
pleasure.
Thank
you.