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launch of our new CFO and Revenue Cycle
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Tune in for conversations with finance experts from
the top hospitals and health systems. We'll discuss
key trends and ideas to drive meaningful change
in the industry. Look for Becker's CFO and
revenue cycle podcast wherever you listen to episodes.
This is Rosie Talago with the Becker's Healthcare
Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Khalid
Turc, chief health care information officer at the
County of Santa Clara Health System. Khalid, it's
a pleasure to have you on the podcast
today.
Thank you, Rosie. Thank you for having me.
Of course. We have a great conversation in
store diving into the key opportunities and challenges
shaping health care. But before we get into
it, I'd love for our listeners to get
to know you a bit better. Can you
start by sharing a little bit about your
background and your journey to your current role?
Yeah. My current role is
chief health care information technology officer,
serving the health system
under the county of Santa Clara.
I've been in health system for over
twenty years, started way back when as a
software engineer.
I've been
implementing EPYC systems for over fifteen years.
My introduction into the EMR realm was an
as an interface analyst, actually. I became the
EPYC Bridges analyst way back in 02/2004,
and then took different roles, project implementation,
EPIC implementation,
and whatnot. And, eventually, it led me to
the current role where I am leading the
health system technology for the Santa Clara Valley
Healthcare,
which is the second largest public health system
in California.
We serve a diverse population of over 2,000,000
residents a year.
As a safety net provider for Santa Clara
County,
we operate three acute care hospitals and more
than 20 specialty and primary care clinics,
ensuring access to high quality health care for
all. Better health for all is actually one
of our slogans,
and regardless of socioeconomic
status. So many people that we serve
would not be able to afford health care
on their own. That's what
makes us very special and my job very
purposeful.
What makes us unique here at the Santa
Clara Valley Healthcare
is our commitment to innovation in public health
care. I already mentioned we are second largest.
We have had stage seven certification since 02/2017,
and we have renewed it,
for three times.
We are heavily focused on digital transformation,
patient centered care,
and most most importantly,
equitable access.
And our health system as a is is
not just the acute care and ambulatory clinics,
but we also have a public health and
behavioral health.
And,
the way we have implemented technology here, all
the systems are integrated.
So it's a great place to be in
and a extremely public,
purpose driven job that I have.
That's great. Thank you so much for that
introduction and the background on what sets your
organization apart.
So looking at that commitment to innovation and,
you know, you mentioned digital transformation,
patient centered care, equitable access,
looking more closely
into these
milestones or accomplishments that you've hit, let's discuss
some of the specifics in the past year.
So looking back at this past year, what
is the one accomplishment that you're most proud
of?
Yeah. We do actually a lot of cool,
quote unquote, cool work in a given year.
It's it'll be really hard to pick one
thing, but I'll mention a few things.
If I may,
we continue to improve our EMR,
our EPIC EMR, what we internally call Health
Link. We implemented our EMR, or started implementing
it, in June of twenty thirteen. So it's
been
over eleven years. And those eleven years, we
started with
a handful of modules, and now we have
over 27.
Pretty much every department in the acute care
and ambulatory is covered by our EMR. So
that's a continued commitment
to the excellence that we work on.
What we have done, as I was mentioning
about HIMSS stage seven, it was due for
renewal last year. We renewed it.
We also established our disaster recovery system in
the EPIC with the EPIC in their hosting
service.
That was something that was
initially located locally here in our data centers,
and it was one of my
strategic initiatives to
expand that Doctor capabilities
and,
store them somewhere
where they will be, because we were in
the same geographic location. And now knowing that
we have a system that is available remotely
and also in the hands of Epic, that
is, huge comfort for not only myself as
the chief health care information technology officer, but
also for my customers, that if something happens,
bad happens,
be it from the security perspective or force
majeure,
we would still be able to provide services
to our care providers and be able
to take care of our patients.
Besides that,
we have multiple initiatives that we continue to
work on, which include IT infrastructure improvement
and introducing
AI in our workflows. We automated some,
messaging between the providers and the patients last
year,
and we did multiple optimization in the epic.
So it's been quite a busy year. On
any given calendar year, we do,
over 50
big and small projects.
So if I look at the,
accomplishments
or the deliveries that we have done over
the past few years, they are really enormous.
And for that,
I'm exceptionally thankful to the wonderful team that
I lead here.
Absolutely.
That's very impressive. I have over 50 projects,
and it's really great to see your impact
the team's making through that commitment to the
EMR for over eleven years and then seeing
that growth within every department. That's great.
So while it is great to acknowledge these
wins and, you know, feel so proud of
them,
Each organization is thinking about where they can
grow and evolve and move forward.
So that said, where do you see the
biggest growth opportunities for your team in the
next twelve months?
Yeah. Interesting question and very, very relevant
and timely.
Our acute care
health system comprises of three hospital, and we
provide provide over 1,100 beds here in the
Santa Clara Valley Healthcare.
Recently, our county leadership decided to acquire one
more hospital
that is currently owned by SCA. It's, called
Regional Medical Center.
And since we are
a public service organization
and geared towards safety net,
It's going to be, strategic
strategically, it's gonna be a most important
decision that the organization has made. And my
job as the technology lead for this organization
is to integrate that
hospital into our system.
This will be one of the most unique
and challenging
projects ever taken.
Generally, the mergers and acquisitions take about nine
months to twelve months, which is a norm.
We are doing that
in less than four months. We actually
closed the deal, quote, unquote, in January of
this year, '2 thousand '20 '5, and our
go live date is April 1, and that
is no joke. In four months,
we have to make sure that, less than
four months, actually, that we
migrate that organization.
It's about 258
beds hospital into our system.
So that is going to be the main
activity for us, and, obviously, there are different
stages and phases for the first quarter. We
are bringing that hospital live on our EPIC
EMR
and some other third party system,
but systems, but we'll continue to improve on
that and add more capabilities.
So that is going to be the focus
for us for this entire year of 02/2025.
Absolutely. That is quite a challenge to take
on the average being nine to twelve months,
but to do that in less than four
months.
So looking at that anticipating
challenge and being proactive,
are you preparing
to try to hit that goal date of
April 1?
Yeah. We have to make sure that we
are rightly staffed,
and we are looking at the professional services
to augment our staff, at least for a
short term, because most of our needs are
on the short term basis. We have to
make sure that our contracts are put in
place well in time, so we can engage
with the vendors, and,
integrate all the systems that are coming over
from this Regional Medical Center into our system.
I lead a team of about two sixty
people, exceptionally
talented individuals,
and though not all of them will be
working on this acquisition, but majority of the
resources are working on this. This is all
hands on deck. As I was saying, that
this will be one of the most challenging
project that any of us have taken. We
have done some remarkable work here at the
County Of Santa Clara.
We have
built up a new hospital,
and integrated our system from the technology perspective.
In less than,
eight months, we have acquired two hospital hospitals
that we did literally in eight months, which
was also a phenomenal task. And now doing
this in less than four months. So we
have some
experience,
supporting us, but the continuous focus is going
to be that make sure the scope is
very well defined. We have resources to carry
out that scope, and we have a team
that makes sure that vendors are engaged in
contractors' contracts updated in in right time.
Absolutely. I think that's a great perspective and
plan for the road ahead. I particularly liked
you saying all hands on deck, you know,
recognizing that this could be the most challenging
situation for anyone on your team, but to
really just have everyone
all hands on deck. It's great.
So looking back at these accomplishments,
opportunities, obstacles that we've discussed,
it really does highlight the importance of staying
proactive.
So with that in mind,
what's the number one thing that you're doing
right now to set your organization up for
long term success? I know we talk sometimes
about the short term, but looking at the
long term in this case.
Yeah. Thank you for that question. I think
that, healthcare industry generally and healthcare organizations, whether
public or private,
have been under the tremendous financial pressure.
If you, like me, follow all the Baker's
news that comes almost every day,
literally, there's no week gone by where you
see that certain hospital got closed or a
healthcare
organization either got acquired or closed, and mostly
due to the financial reasons.
As bad as it was with the changing
political situation, it's getting even more challenging.
So for an IT leader,
the continued focus would be to balance the
budget constraints while continuing to invest in innovation.
I believe we cannot operate just to keep
the lights on KTLO, as we call them.
We have to continue to innovate.
On one side, we have to
manage the budget constraints.
That would mean
doing more with the less resources
and continue to innovate. But when you talk
about doing more with the less resources that
many of our organizations have been doing
for years, especially post pandemic,
there is a danger of burnout, and
the retention also has some challenges.
So the human side of the healthcare IT
is going to be
an area where we have to pay close
attention.
So balance the budget
or meet the budget constraints,
continue to innovate, and make sure that we
continue to take care of the people,
whether they are in the front lines taking
care of patients
or in the back line back end, like
myself,
managing the technology,
because people are the ones that actually make
every strategy successful.
Absolutely. And I definitely think that being proactive
Absolutely.
And I definitely think that being proactive like
we talked about and noticing and anticipating these
financial challenges will help get through them. So
thank you so much today for joining us.
It's been great hearing your insights on the
technological innovation and implementation at
Santa Clara House System and where you guys
are headed. So thanks again, and we look
forward to collaborating with you again soon.
Thank you. Thank you, Rosie. I appreciate your
time.