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Philips is a health tech leader focused on

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innovation that improves the health and well-being of

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people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions

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help care teams diagnose, treat, and manage more

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patients with greater precision, speed, and confidence across

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the care journey. With Philips, clinicians are empowered

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with streamlined insights in the moments that matter

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for every patient. Better care for more people.

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Philips.

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Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Health Care

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podcast recorded live at the 9th annual health

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IT digital health and RCM conference.

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I'm joined today by Greg Bryant, IT director

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at North Texas Medical Center.

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Greg, to get us started, can you please

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share a little bit about yourself, your background,

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and your role at your organization?

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Oh, yeah. Sure. I've actually it's a fairly

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new role for me.

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I've been a CIO previously and a director

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at other facilities.

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We are a

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small rural hospital in Gainesville, Texas, about 50

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beds

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total. We do acute care for the community

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and surrounding areas.

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Okay.

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So, you know, AI adoption is exploding in

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health care. In your view, what's the most

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significant or promising application of this technology right

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now? And how is this informing your organization's

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innovation strategy?

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So I think for us, it's gonna be

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more on the operation side. Mhmm.

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Patient experience always is forefront. So Mhmm. We

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are looking at ways to maybe use AI

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to kind of

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bridge the gap for the patient and the

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provider.

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Will it replace, like, nurses or for us?

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No. No time. Not that will not happen.

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But Mhmm. If we could find it to

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be make the patient experience better, that's kinda

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where my mindset is with that.

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So in a in a smaller organization like

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yours, how do you feel, you know, the

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role of the future of AI is different

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than it may be at, like, a bigger

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health system?

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So

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at a smaller facility like ours,

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we don't have the financial resources that these

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big Mhmm. Huge facilities have that you see

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around here at the conference. So we have

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to kinda be more strategic in how we

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deploy

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Mhmm. Different technologies.

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We can't get the best and brightest all

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the time that we wanna get. Mhmm. But

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maybe we can find a start up or

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maybe find a way that we can bring

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something to the community that hasn't been seen

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before. Mhmm. So Mhmm. It is it you

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have to kinda think outside the box, which

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I like in my job. Right. It's easy

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being at a big facility with the unlimited

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paycheck. I've been at roles where I've had

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an unlimited paycheck, and it gets boring after

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a while also. So with a small organization,

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you really have to tap into your own

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innovation and create Yeah. You have to get

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real creative real fast. Right. Right. That's fascinating.

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So, you know, on a daily basis, health

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care leaders are managing greater volumes of data

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and more devices across a growing number of

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care settings and populations.

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In this complex environment, what clinical data integration

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tools or practices are you seeing drive improvements

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in patient outcomes and operations? And do you

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have any examples you wanna share? So, we

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have a kind of a hybrid environment with,

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with a cloud provider. So we we use

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both on prem and cloud based solutions to

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kinda leverage,

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our data integrations.

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Mhmm. It helps us out because my team

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is not the largest team. Mhmm. So I

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can rely on on a cloud group or

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analysis group to kinda handle

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some of the situations.

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We use a SOC,

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for our network security because I don't have

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enough people on staff. And it's not for

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the hospital, it isn't worth us having extra

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IT staff where we can pay a company

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to do the role of 3 people,

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year round 247. Mhmm. So for us, we

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have to kinda like, back to that thinking

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clearly and think outside the box to get

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Mhmm. What we need as an organization.

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Right.

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And, you know, how can health care organizations,

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better support IT and clinical teams as they

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carry out some innovation efforts?

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And do you know or what what kind

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of pitfalls are you seeing here?

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Most of the pitfalls we have are either

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financial resources or human resources.

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Being in a smaller area,

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financial talent I'm not trying to tell you.

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Human talent Mhmm. Is kind of the issue

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we have where if you're looking for a

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certain particular role,

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that role may not be available to you

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in a small area. It may be a

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larger facility or a larger metro area to

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look for so that you can try to

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attract someone

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from a big city Mhmm. To come into

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your small area and do the job you

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need done. So that's

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that's one part. The other part is the

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financial it it's money. And that's all of

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the small hospitals are dealing with. It's either

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using that money for other capital expenditures like

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infrastructure

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Mhmm. That were they could use more or,

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you know, pours the patient experience. So Mhmm.

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You're always playing that role of, what's best

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for the patient and what's best for the

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organization. It's not easy. Mhmm. Mhmm.

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And so what would you say your top

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piece of advice for other health care leaders

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is,

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as they prepare for further advancements in technology

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and greater demands for care?

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That's a good question.

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I I would my advice is to, you

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know,

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keep it simple. Mhmm.

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The the the technology is great, and it's

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all shiny and new and, you know, everybody's

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saying gen AI and AI and all that.

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But sometimes simplicity is best. It's okay

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to not have to have the best and

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brightest technology

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upfront. Mhmm. Give it some time to work

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itself out. Maybe something something will work for

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your organization. I'm speaking from a small organization.

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Mhmm. We you know, we're not gonna have

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everything you see here on the floor at

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this conference because it's it's not practical for

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us. Mhmm. But there may be something a

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little piece of something somewhere where we can

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kinda gravitate to Mhmm. And be able to

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enhance the patient's experience better than what we

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have today.

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So, you you know, you talked about being

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in a smaller organization and how you like

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that that creativity and extra innovation.

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And I'm genuinely curious. You know, oftentimes, you

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know, when you talk to bigger pea people

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at big organizations, they talk about what what

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technologies they're most excited for for the future.

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And I'm curious. Do you feel like, you

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know, some of the technologies that they're looking

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for, you know, maybe 5, 10 years down

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the road differ is different from, you know,

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you at a smaller organization, what you're excited

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for? And do you see anything,

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you know, on the forefront that you're really

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looking forward to that best could be a

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real game changer for some of these smaller

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and community based hospitals? So I think some

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of the technology is to scale.

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Some of the the big organizations look at

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something. We can look at something, but maybe

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at 1 tenth of the, of the capacity

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that that the big organization may do.

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Bringing up AI like earlier,

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we

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are looking at we can look at it

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to help maybe with a chatbot Mhmm. To

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help with patient experience

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or with automated check ins for ER patients

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Mhmm. Or or for outpatient, you know. Mhmm.

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That those kind of things that can help

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us bring the patient more, you know, closer

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in and and get them through the check-in

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process quicker. Because a lot of ERs around

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the country have been complaining about wait times.

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Mhmm. So any kind of way you can

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reduce something like that is better for the

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patient and Right. And get them to come

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to your facility more than maybe going down

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the road to the big facility. Mhmm. So

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it's it's it it's gonna differentiate based on

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the technology, but

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I'm not saying I'm just totally

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not gonna worry about anything here. Right. Right.

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It's just maybe to scale, what can we

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do at Armacelets? Mhmm. Mhmm.

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And so with that, you know, Greg, I

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feel like we've had a great conversation.

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You do you have any final thoughts you

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wanna leave our listeners with today?

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I I any leader listening right

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now, go back to your pay you know,

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your community and see what's the needs are.

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It it's great to bring in technology, but

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the community needs to understand what you're bringing

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in. Mhmm. And you need to be the

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your job as a leader is to be

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that conduit between Mhmm. The patient Mhmm.

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And the provider

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and the organization

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to let bridge that technology and be able

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to explain it in all three aspects Mhmm.

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Be it town hall meeting or in a

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in a meeting with providers or meeting with

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staff, be able to put in layman's terms

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what they're trying to do with the organization.

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Mhmm. Well and and, again, just to to

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before we wrap it up, you know, you

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being one of these smaller organizations, you know,

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your patients are people that that you're gonna

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see on a daily basis at the grocery

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store and things like that. So, I mean,

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do you feel like that gives you a

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better ear to the ground about what the

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needs are in that community than someone who,

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you know, might not be running into, like,

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their Exactly. I got it. Our CEO has

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has mentioned how he's, you know, gotten

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both praises and complaints from people that live

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next to him. So

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in the same capacity, I could be at

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a grocery store and all of a sudden,

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they find out I work at a hospital.

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Oh, well, I'll I waited 4 hours in

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the ER for this. Well, I I apologize,

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but we are gonna try to do the

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best we can to reduce that wait time

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and figure out why that wait time took

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place anyway. Right. Right. Right. Well, Greg, thank

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you so much again for joining us today.

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It was a great conversation. I hope you

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have a lovely rest of your day. Thank

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you.