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The Becker's team is excited to announce the

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launch of our new CFO and Revenue Cycle

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podcast.

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Tune in for conversations with finance experts from

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the top hospitals and health systems. We'll discuss

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key trends and ideas to drive meaningful change

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in the industry. Look for Becker's CFO and

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revenue cycle podcast wherever you listen to episodes.

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This is Rosie Talago with the Becker's Healthcare

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podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by

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Greg Bryant, IT director of North Texas Medical

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Center. Greg, it's a pleasure to have you

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on the podcast today. Well, thanks for having

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me, Rosie. We have a great conversation in

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store today diving into cut some of the

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key opportunities and challenges shaping health care. But

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before we get into it, I'd love for

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our listeners to get to know Greg a

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bit better. Greg, can you please start by

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sharing a little bit about your background and

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your journey to your current role?

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Sure. Yeah. I've been doing health IT for

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over fifteen years now. I started working at

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a vendor,

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been doing consulting, then doing consulting on my

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own, and then going back to working for

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health systems. That's kinda led me back to,

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where I am today as a director here

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in North Texas.

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Great. Thank you so much for that introduction.

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Now that we've heard a little bit about

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your background, let's get into the background of

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North Texas Medical Center. So could you tell

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us a bit about your health system and

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what makes it unique?

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Yeah. So one of the unique things is

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that we're a, rural hospital in a rural

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area, but we're independent. We're not affiliated with

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any major health systems that you see around

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the country.

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So that's kind of a a different thing

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that

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we kinda strap kinda hang our hats on.

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We we we still operate as a entity

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for our community

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and not abide by any other,

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other hospitals in the major metropolitan areas.

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Great. That's really awesome to hear.

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It seems like you have a great presence

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in the community that you that you're located

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in.

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So looking more closely

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into

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what makes your organization stand out, you know,

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being that

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strong independent

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entity in your community,

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let's look at some of the key milestones

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that you've hit recently. So looking back at

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the past year, I know that you just

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started your time there, but what's a recent

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accomplishment of the medical center that you're proud

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of?

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Actually, it's something that it started last year

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and is going into this year is,

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implementing a virtual environment

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and adopting,

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using AI,

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in some of our

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day to day task. We adopted Google Gemini

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to be used, which was kind of a

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new venture for us, and we're still,

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you know, getting more and more comfortable with

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every day. The other thing is having a,

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a virtual machine,

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for our hospital, which cuts down on our

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our hardware footprint, which saves money on energy

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because you don't have the power of certain

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machines. So those are two things that we've

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done that we're I'm pretty proud of.

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Those are great achievements. It's great to see

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the impact you're making with AI and transforming

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it into a virtual environment and especially very

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cool to see the impact that it's making

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on energy as well.

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So thinking about how your

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organization can continue to grow and evolve, whether

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that be in this virtual environment or elsewhere,

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where do you see some of the big

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growth opportunities for the next year?

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I see us growing,

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service lines. I think being a rural hospital

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trying to attack patients and trying to

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get them to not go to the major

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metropolitan areas, I I want us to grow

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more service lines here to where that patient

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doesn't have to travel

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forty, fifty miles away. They can stay here

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at home and get the same care they

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would be,

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as opposed to the metro area. Now can

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we do everything that they can do in

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a big city?

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Probably not. But there's some some things that

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we can do here that,

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could improve our patient satisfaction

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and increase our volume, frankly.

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Absolutely. Having those

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goals of volume and patient satisfaction,

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really being that place patients can rely on

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in their own neighborhood and community, that's great.

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So when you're looking at becoming kind of

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that cornerstone

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or attracting patients opposed to them going to

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the nearest city, how are you preparing to

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tackle maybe the challenges

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of their decision between the two?

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Being we're a small area, one of the

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issues we have is, talent acquisition.

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It's more of just having enough people, enough

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hands to do the job.

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Especially in the IT world, you have issues

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with

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trying to keep patient or keep

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employees and staff

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in the rural areas as opposed to being

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attracted with the higher salaries of a metro

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area. So for me, the it's not always

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a fight of trying to attract talent.

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Absolutely. And what are some of the methods

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that you're using to combat that, to really

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make people want to

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be at your organization?

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You have to sell the idea that you

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can you can

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have more room to grow, which is true,

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actually. It's not a really selling idea,

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as opposed to being siloed off in a

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big facility. I've worked in big facilities, and

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you're kinda siloed off to one thing. Here,

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you can wear many hats and learn many

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things

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that you can take with you in your

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career if you're just starting out. Or if

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you're older in your career, it's gonna be

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somewhere where you may wanna retire to and

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not have built the hustle and bustle of

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a big city.

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That's great. I really like the idea of

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having more room to grow and wearing many

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hats. I think especially for the new folks

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entering the workforce,

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health care workforce, it's it's a great place

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to get a lot of experience.

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So,

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looking at

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the

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accomplishments, opportunities, obstacles we've discussed,

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when looking at staying proactive,

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to really capitalize on more opportunities

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and

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avoid some of these obstacles.

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What's the number one thing right now,

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to set your organization up for long term

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success?

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Well, I think I touched on it earlier.

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Our getting on the virtual

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platform,

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helps us out a lot, reducing energy and

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being able to be more mobile and agile

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with new systems.

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Also, we've really shared of our cybersecurity.

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It's always a threat.

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And I always say, if not if, it's

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not if, but when it happens.

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But we do everything to keep that win

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from happening

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at any point, especially in my tenure. So,

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those are the things I'm trying to set

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us up for for success is to minimize

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downtime, minimize cyber attacks,

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and get us on twenty first century technology

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to make us more agile.

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Absolutely. That's great. And I think that just

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being as proactive as possible, especially when you

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discuss the cybersecurity efforts,

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being mobile and agile is all that you

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can do at this time, and I really

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like how you said not if, but when,

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but, you know, doing everything to prevent that

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when. It sounds great.

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So thank you so much, Greg, for joining

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us on the podcast today. It's been great

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hearing your insights on Texas

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North Texas Medical Center and where it's all

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headed. So thank you again, and we look

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forward to collaborating with you again soon.

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Alright. Thanks for having me.