This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Reed
Smith, chief consumer officer at Ardent Health. Reed,
it's a pleasure to have you on the
podcast today.
Yeah. Thanks for having me. Now I'm excited
to, have you in on this discussion because
I know you're doing some really cool things
at Ardent Health and certainly will be excited
to learn more about how you're thinking about
growth in the future as well. But before
we dive in, I'm wondering, could you tell
us a little bit more about Ardent Health
and what makes it unique?
Sure. Absolutely. So, yeah, Ardent Health, we're based,
in Brentwood, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville, but
have,
30 hospitals, another couple hundred sites of care,
scattered around the country. We're in six states,
eight different markets,
and,
and provide
care to about 1,200,000,
unique lives every year.
Oh, it's amazing to hear. Certainly a big
responsibility, but an important service to the broader
community. Now I'm wondering, could you talk a
little bit about, the accomplishments that you're most
proud of from the last year or so?
Absolutely. So, you know, in my in my
role as we think about consumer centricity or
consumerism
or however you wanna define that.
You know, we're we're hyper focused on
the needs of our communities, the needs of
consumers that we serve.
And I think, you know, for us,
it's been really neat to see some of
those advancements that we've been able to drive
forward,
in these communities
around,
you know, trying to remove some of the
friction points for,
for patients, for consumers as they
search for care, schedule care, check-in for care,
you know, things like that. Right? So,
you know, trying to make it a little
bit easier for folks, let it look like,
the rest of their life to some degree.
You know, how to use your mobile device,
for example, to,
not just search for care, but schedule online,
check-in online,
you know, join a wait list to look
for an earlier appointment time, things like that.
So we've been able to,
add some things, like a wait list and
backfill
opportunity for those that have scheduled care with
us. We've seen folks move up their
appointment time last year, an average of a
little over twenty eight days,
for those that that did that.
And and, again, just, you know, allowing,
the consumer to, you know, be in charge,
I guess. So a lot of neat opportunities
and and more to come.
Absolutely. That's, you know, really cool to hear.
And I I think especially when you look
at that consumer experience and how technology
is playing a big role in easing a
lot of these processes and making things more
efficient as well as,
you know, a better experience for patients. I'm
curious,
if you think about how the digital,
landscape is changing and and especially for health
care, what are you really seeing as some
of the big growth opportunities and,
ways that you're hoping to continue to evolve
in the next year or so?
Yeah. I I think, you know,
as more time goes by, the expectation
it it it moves from just, hey. This
is nice or this is helpful to more
it's expected.
Right? So we talk about online scheduling.
We talk about the ability
to accomplish most of your care,
you know, in the palm of your hand,
you know, through the patient portal,
you know, virtual care even. You know, obviously,
we saw a big spike during the pandemic.
But,
now that things are back to the more
the way that we remember them, you know,
what is the role for virtual care? Right?
So is the lower acuity services that may
be needed,
you know, how are we able to help
individuals
if they want
to launch an on demand video visit,
right now, right, versus going to an urgent
care clinic versus waiting for a scheduled appointment.
So, you know, it's gonna be required that
we have all of these options available to
the consumer,
and we make it easy for them to
to find the care that fits their lifestyle,
their
level of illness? Obviously, folks that have chronic
conditions have a very different,
view of the world and and a very
different need. And then, ultimately, how do you
take into account,
you know, some of the chronic care management,
including social determinants of health. You know, how
do we make it easy for people,
to get to us, to find us, to
have more of a proactive or wellness based
approach,
outside of just the traditional, you know, I
guess, maybe definition of even population health. Just
how do we serve these communities.
So I think folks are gonna want care
on their own timeline
in the way that they want it. And
it's, it's gonna become more of an expectation
of organizations
than it is,
kind of a unique,
piece of an organization that you may
see. Got it. That's helpful to know and
understand. And I think that's a really important
point that you made about,
technology
becoming the expectation
versus the, really cool thing or nice to
have. And I can imagine, you know, trying
to keep up with whatever the the next
thing is going to be,
can be a challenge, especially as you're trying
to solve some really big issues.
And as you mentioned, looking at where chronic
care makes the biggest, difference, population health management
is a huge, huge,
transition. And so, you know, when you you
would think about what's coming and what's ahead,
are there any technologies that you're looking at
right now, or or considering,
and where do you really see things headed
over the next three to five years or
so?
Yeah. It's a great question. I think,
there's certainly a lot of technology out there.
There's a lot of opportunities, which is exciting.
Right? And,
you know, as we think about
the evolution of our technology or technology stack
within our organizations,
it's gonna be important.
You know, people talk about interoperability,
and you've seen a lot of the,
articles and and kind of insights even around
privacy and security as of the last couple
of years.
These are all big topics to solve for.
I think the interoperability
piece, especially from,
I guess, an opportunity or even a a
challenge or a hurdle,
again, how do you reduce those friction points,
and and how do you make it easy
for individuals? We can't,
you know, have an organization full of a
bunch of point based solutions
that don't talk to each other.
You know, they've gotta be able to hand
off. The consumer doesn't need to have to
know where to go. It should guide them
intuitively and and allow them a path to,
again, search, schedule, find care, receive care.
All of those things have to, you know,
be strung together in a way that that
makes sense and is easy. You know, how
do you make we talk a lot about
the ease here, you know, ease of use,
ease of experience, ease of access.
And so
I think what I'm most excited about is
the blurring of the lines between the different
parts of the organization.
So,
someone like myself that maybe is over a
lot of our, you know, outreach and engaging
the consumer,
all the way through the experience piece. So
how do we attract someone to the organization
and and provide them a a positive or
a a great experience?
There in between those two topics is care
delivery.
And so if you look at things like
wearable, if you look at things like remote
patient monitoring, some of the other virtual care
services,
it just becomes part of one one thing.
It's just, you know, how people,
receive care and the experience they ultimately have.
And so I think that's what's the most
exciting part to me is being able to
work with our operators, with our clinicians,
to develop and kinda architect these care solutions
in these experiences
and these journeys, quite honestly.
And I think technology
allows us to do that.
And so, again, we're at a really unique
time.
If you look at, all the technology that's
come out over the last few years and
what they're talking about coming down the down
the path to really create a journey that's
just that much more,
impactful and serves the communities that we're in.
That makes a lot of sense and, you
know, really helpful to understand the process and
seeing how you look at and evaluate new
technologies and new opportunities and then,
really have that patient focus and community focus
in mind.
Another thought I had is, you know, lots
of really cool things ahead, but I can
imagine challenges as well. What are some of
the the challenges or headwinds that you have
top of mind today?
Yeah. So I think,
you know, one of them is just philosophic
you know, philosophically
thinking about the idea of opportunity.
There's no shortage
of ideas or processes or technology
out there that, you know, would help,
in in ideas and,
even points that you want to go solve
for.
But where do you start? How do you
prioritize? You know, you you get into the,
you know, the idea of just
resourcing.
You know, there's only so many hours in
the day, so to speak. So, you know,
what is gonna be most impactful for the
communities that you're in? You know, somewhere,
you know, our organization may be different than
another organization. It doesn't make it right or
wrong. They're just different.
And, so, again, you know, trying to think
through that. So that that that is one
big hurdle because, again, there's no shortage of
of good ideas.
Right? And so how do you,
leverage those,
to, you know, serve the communities that you're
in? So that that's a big one. I
mentioned interoperability
a few minutes ago.
So how do you tie all of these
technologies together?
And, ultimately, how do you use the data
that you're receiving
to actually create insights that allow you to
better a process,
and drive back and hardwire things? And so,
again,
some of the processes and things like that
and even the workflows that we've thought about
for years,
how do you keep that front of mind
as new technologies come into play?
And then certainly, you know, not losing that
human touch,
not using,
losing, you know, what what the caregiver provides
to the equation.
How do we use technology to eliminate some
of the administrative burden? Right? But how do
you create a culture
and a a pathway,
for those that are providing care,
to do that in the most impactful way
possible? Then how do us, on the more
administrative
side, support those individuals
and make it a place everybody wants to
work? So, again, I I think there's a
lot out there that we need to assess,
and there's a lot of, you know, hurdles,
if you will.
But the biggest
is prioritization
and then, interoperability,
and then support,
around the the clinicians and the caregivers that
we have.
That's great to hear, and and certainly,
makes a lot of,
sense in terms of having the ability,
to support your team in,
incorporate technology in a smart and meaningful way
without,
as you mentioned, having it be,
depersonalized.
I know health care is such a a
personal industry, and and those relationships really do
count and matter.
Yeah. Absolutely.
It it again, it's it's about people at
the end of the day. And so the
technology has to work. Our CEO says all
the time, we're starting to get to a
place where the technology works for us,
versus we're working for the technology.
And, so I think that's, you know, some
of what we're starting to see. You know,
we're kinda cresting the hill
because of some of the advancements
that a lot of really smart people in
this space have made
over the last several years. And so, again,
you know, how do we use this
technology,
to better,
the care that we're providing to the communities
that we serve?
Fantastic. Well, Reid, before we wrap up here,
I'm curious.
To look into,
balancing, you know, the current needs as well
as future planning, what is the number one
most important thing that you're doing right now
to set Arden up for long term success?
You know, a lot of it,
I I think the biggest thing that we're
doing right now,
to really drive towards that long term success
is looking at the prioritization
and the ability to support those
that provide care,
to our patients, to our consumers. And so,
again, how do we make their life easier?
How do we, unburden them,
from some of the issues,
more administrative, you know, that that people have
been saddled with for some years? And I
think that's really where technology has, an opportunity.
So you think about the things like, you
know, the ambient listening,
around being able to scribe, you know, notes
and things like that. You know, how can
you look for ways to, you know, give
some of the human aspect of care back
where a clinician can engage with a patient
and not have to worry about, you know,
you know, typing away, pecking away on a
on a keyboard the entire time. And so
I I think, you know, we're we're investing
in those areas around patient care.
We're also investing in the ways to reduce
those friction points and make it easier for
people to access the system in the first
place. And so,
again,
reducing wait times, getting people where they need
to go, and that could be on the
phone, it could be in person,
giving them optionality around how they receive care.
Again, all creating kind of that ease of
access and ease of use within our communities.
I love that. Rean, thank you so much
for joining us on the podcast today. This
has been a really enlightening conversation, and I
look forward to connecting with you again soon.
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.