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At athenahealth,

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we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier, a

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healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier patients.

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But the complexities of modern health care tech

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make it hard for you and your care

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teams to focus on what matters

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most? That's where athenahealth can help. Our AI

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native all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,

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streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights

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when clinicians need it most. That means fewer

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clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom

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lines.

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Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice

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can be that much simpler with athenahealth.

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See how simpler is healthier@athenahealth.com.

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Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.

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I'm Scott King joined by a very special

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guest today, Karen Hunter, chief nursing informatics officer

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with Adventist Health. Karen, how are you doing

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today?

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I'm great, Scott. How are you? I'm good.

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Thanks so much for joining us. I think

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we're gonna have a a great discussion on

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a lot of kinda key topics and things

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going on in in health care right now.

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But before we dive into questions, wondering if

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you could just please tell us a little

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bit about yourself and your work in health

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care.

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Absolutely. I am a nurse by background, and

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I worked, in the at the bedside and

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in operations for,

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fifteen years before going into informatics.

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Since then, I've been,

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leadership and, clinical informatics

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while, implementing

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multiple EHRs,

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across the country.

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And, most recently now, CNIO at Adventist Health

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as we are on an epic journey to

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convert

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our sites to one epic instance next year.

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That sounds great. Thanks so much for sharing

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that background information.

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And, you know, getting to some of these

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kinda key issues in health care, I know

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nearly half of medical practices reporting using AI

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in some capacity last year.

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It's still still a key topic

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for health IT leaders. From your perspective, what

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are the use cases that are making a

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difference right now, and how are you leveraging

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them for your health system?

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Absolutely.

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So AI has been around for quite a

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while. We just may not have been aware

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of it or calling it out.

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And in the nursing space, we are using

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it right now. We've had a partnership with

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the company for about five years,

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emergency department

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triage,

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assisting a nurse in that initial assessment where

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they're making snap decisions

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on how critical a patient is and whether,

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you know,

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when to move them through the system and

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how many resources

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to to assign.

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And we found that,

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very helpful.

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We've identified that it, reduces

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time in the ED.

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Overall, it ensures that our sickest patients get

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moved back faster and seen faster.

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And we're even kind of exploring correlation to

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decreased length of stay in patient, meaning that

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we got the right care to the patient

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at the right time and that affects their

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overall course of care.

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So that's one use case.

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Our physicians are leaning into this, of course,

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with ambient listening. Very excited. We've got that

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actively going now,

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and we're looking forward to, in the next

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year, bringing in nursing to ambient listening as

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well.

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And just to follow that, in terms of

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all the kind of the practical uses of

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AI and health systems,

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have you found that, ambient listening maybe

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takes, like, the least amount of human,

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you know, interaction, human kinda correcting.

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Is ambient listening kind of,

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pretty trustworthy at this point?

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You know, I

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am only watching from afar on that topic.

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So we have not implemented yet.

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I have my opinions, but I have not

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no practical experience.

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I think that's fair.

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You know, as as virtual care expands

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from AI enabled tools, remote monitoring to broader

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digital health platforms,

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Introducing new technology kinda brings challenges. What advice

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do you have for leaders

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navigating everything from governance to patient engagement? And

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can you share an example of how your

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organization has balanced

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innovation with

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some of the operational constraints a lot of

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systems are seeing?

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Sure.

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I think first of all, you know, my

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experience as a nurse, I always,

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tried to be boring.

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Right? Didn't wanna excite my patients, didn't wanna

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overreact to a situation. It was my job

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to be calm,

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prescient, and and see through. And I say

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that applies here as well. Often, we think,

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oh, shiny object, this cool new toy,

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and that sort of thing. But we really

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have to stay focused on what is the

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problem we're trying to solve,

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what is the evidence of that problem,

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through metrics or value capture dollars, whatever that

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may be, and continue to,

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evaluate against those metrics. Is this solving the

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problem,

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as we expected in tracking to that? I

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know people hate the word pilot anymore, but,

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really, we need to practice with this new

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technology.

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I think about my mother and a smartphone.

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She wanted a smartphone so badly, but you

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know what? When she got it, she still

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sat in the kitchen next to the landline

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to make her calls because, yeah, just adapting

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her, you know, her living experience to that

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new technology, and it takes time to do

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that. And we in health care, we have

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to do that as well.

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I think that's a great point, a a

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great story. You know, people like

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practical things that, you know, they have

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experience with, you know, like, I was like,

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The Landline. Or it's it's sometimes it is

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hard to adapt,

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to this new technology the way the health

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systems are are having to do right now.

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How are you seeing recent legislation,

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both state and federal, affect health care organizations

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and and health care IT specifically?

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Have you adjusted strategies in response to that?

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Yes. An organization we have where where it's

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very top of mind right now, and Adventist

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Health is a, community based organization,

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faith based, and we serve the most vulnerable

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populations in sort of a lot of rural

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areas, remote areas.

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And, we're we're high,

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like, around 80% government pay. And so we're

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very much watching the policy changes

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and, proactively

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making,

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internal changes.

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For example, we've outsourced some some positions and

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that sort of thing looking to be most

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cost effective.

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So it will affect our technology

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road map long term, but we are full

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on with Epic

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looking for greater efficiencies from a standardized single

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platform,

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that we haven't had in the past. And

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looking at the data

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that we will gather from this will help

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inform us,

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on how to be most effective in our

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practice

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and our operations and, of course, financial management.

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You mentioned Epic. You know, we obviously hear

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so much about,

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what people like about Epic in in health

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care and what they use it for. What

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are yours what are your some favorite, favorite

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uses of yours with Epic?

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For me, I think the integration, right, that

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it's one platform and the patient information is

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seamlessly moving through.

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But I've been in prior organizations where we

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messed that up. Right? So, you know, Epic

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is not infallible.

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It's, we need to build it and maintain

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it in a standardized way, and I believe

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Adventist Health is approaching it in the right

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way.

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If you had to give one piece of

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advice to health care leaders as they kinda

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prepare for

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more advancements in technology and the rising demands

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for care, what would that be?

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I would say it's boring, but

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continue to follow fundamentals.

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What is the problem we're trying to solve?

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Do we have evidence that it's doing that?

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Can we measure those outcomes?

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What is our, you know, adoption? What are

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our end users saying?

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And follow that path just like we do

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with our patients. We assess our patients. We

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look for abnormalities,

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vital signs, that sort of thing, and we

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treat,

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to those symptoms. And we have to do

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that in health care too and not just

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get excited about,

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new toy, but, stay

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calm, be boring, and and stick to our

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fundamentals.

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Yeah. I think that's great advice to kinda,

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you know, just keep it simple and and

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all hands on deck for for one,

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one most important thing there. Something else I

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wanted to ask you, Karen, for our final

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question, something I like to ask all the

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leaders we talk to on the podcast is

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how do you think you're evolving as a

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leader?

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That's a great question. I,

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was reflecting on this recently, and I I

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think in such a time of massive change,

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like, in our organization, it's a time to

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be bold.

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I

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have a lot of experience in this area,

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and I I can't assume that my colleagues,

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share my knowledge and experience. So it's important

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for me

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to speak up and be bold and share

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information

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and help educate as we go so that

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we can make informed decisions based on evidence,

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based on, research,

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as we move forward and not just, again,

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what feels right or

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may,

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again, be a shiny object. Sorry to harp

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on that so much.

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Karen, thanks so much for joining us on

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our podcast. I think it was a great

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discussion. I look forward to working with you

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again soon. Thank you, Scott. It was my

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pleasure.

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At athenahealth, we know your ambulatory practice wants

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healthier,

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a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier

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patients.

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But the complexities of modern health care tech

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make it hard for you and your care

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teams to focus on what matters most.

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That's where athenahealth can help.

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Our AI native all in one solutions reduce

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administrative burdens, streamline billing and payments, and deliver

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critical insights when clinicians need it most. That

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means fewer clicks, more time for patients, and

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stronger bottom lines.

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Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice

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can be that much simpler with athenahealth.

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See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.