At athenahealth,
we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier, a
healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier patients.
But the complexities of modern health care tech
make it hard for you and your care
teams to focus on what matters
most? That's where athenahealth can help. Our AI
native all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,
streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
when clinicians need it most. That means fewer
clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom
lines.
Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
See how simpler is healthier@athenahealth.com.
This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
Jamie Weber, system director of perioperative services for
Alameda Health System. Jamie, it's a pleasure to
have you on the podcast today. Thank you
so much for having me.
Absolutely. Now I know it's such a unique
time in health care, and, it's exciting to,
you know, think about possibilities for the future,
but there's also a lot of uncertainties. So,
you know, I'll I'll be excited for our
conversation and to dig into some of the
things that you're seeing as well as your
perspective on the future. But before we do
that, can you tell me a little bit
more about yourself and your background?
Of course. Of course.
Yes. I am a perioperative
nursing leader.
I have been in health care for over
two decades,
and I have
been involved with several different areas of care
from
ER, ICU to perioperative
services as well as adult inpatient services in
both inpatient
and outpatient
services.
So I've sort of had my hand in
a lot of different things.
That's great to hear. And, you know, considering
your background and your focus on the perioperative
space, what are some of the opportunities and
headwinds you have your eye on right now?
So there's a lot of things that come
with
health care in general right now. We're hearing
a lot of buzz about AI and what
does that mean for us.
Surgical services
is definitely one of the major engines
in a health care system to generate revenue.
We have people that come in through multiple
doors,
but when it comes to reimbursements
to keep the hospital running,
a lot of that is generated through surgical
services.
So keeping that in mind, we always have
to be sort of at the forefront of
everything that's going on
and be extremely productive
in what we do to make sure that
we stretch every little penny that comes through
our door
and every opportunity.
That said, with all of the different
elements
and technologies
that are coming around, AI is definitely a
word that we hear thrown out a lot.
Now does that mean that we're going to
get rid of nurses?
No. Absolutely not. Nurses are required.
Patients need physical care that
there's no way
something that
a robot could do. But what does AI
look like for us in the hospital? Well,
it can help us with a lot of
that productivity
piece.
It can help us with managing our schedule
and forecasting
areas of opportunity for us to be more
efficient.
Absolutely. I think that's great to hear. And,
definitely, you know, one of the big conversations
that you mentioned right now in health care,
looking at AI, looking at technology, and knowing,
you know, that margins are thin. So how
can technology really be a meaningful booster while
while also,
you know,
being able to be additive to the human
workforce and,
really not losing sight of that human connection
and patient care. So when you look at
the ways that technology
is coming in and some of the modifications
that you're making in order to meet the
demands of your patient services,
you know, with the resources that you have,
what are some of the tactics that you've
been taking or or will consider in the
next year or so that, can make a
meaningful difference for the organization overall?
So one thing about health care is a
lot of the technology can move a lot
faster than folks
delivering the care are comfortable doing.
So sometimes we go a little slow, and
we aren't as quick to catch up.
It almost seems as though sometimes we can
be a little change averse. So when we
start hearing about technology,
it can be really hard for nursing groups
to go, how does this affect me and
how does it affect my patient?
So it's it's important to be mindful
of that when moving into this and make
sure that this is something that brings a
value
add to their care practice.
That said, again, a lot of what it
is is allowing the health care provider, whether
it's a physician,
you know, some ancillary team member, a nurse.
We'll we need to focus on things that
are going to make their workload that can't
be automated
a little easier
so that they can actually care for the
patient.
So a lot of what we've been looking
at in my health care system
and others,
is is things to improve that productivity. How
can we forecast
our surgery scheduling to make sure that we're
more accurate
with
this doctor takes this long to do this
procedure
or we think we're gonna have some open
time here because we tend to get a
lot of add ons and emergencies
that come through the door on this day
of the week. So how can we have
a predictive model for staffing? How can we
have a predictive model for our scheduling?
How can we know exactly how long this
case is going to take? You know, maybe
one day of the week, we get an
awful lot of sick calls. We need to
look into that, but maybe we wanna beef
up that day because those tend to be
more sick call heavy day or just days
that people don't sign up for extra shifts,
and we do get those add ons and
things
so that we can be more efficient. Or
even sometimes that our case volumes are just
a little heavier and require additional resources.
Some other things we can use this technology
for, some integrate
cameras for visualization
to actually look at what goes on in
our operating rooms
to help with flow.
Is there some downtime in there when people
are not in the room,
you know, doing things like turnover?
And is there a way that we can
optimize
the room a little better or streamline some
of those services to help?
There's also some technology that we're looking at
that will benefit the patients
that really are a value add that have
required a lot of manual work.
There are some new technologies
out right now that
use UV light, which we already use in
the hospital,
but the machines for UV disinfection
are big and bulky, and they require somebody
to move it around the room, and they're
very time consuming.
There are some technologies
that, again, use cameras and visualization.
These can be used in the OR, in
patient rooms, all sorts of things that have
sensors that immediately
turn off when there's any motion
or human detected in the room, but it
also monitors for high touch surfaces and then
use pinpointed
UV light
to treat that area
to ensure
appropriate disinfection,
after the surface surface has been cleansed
and provide more
disinfection
to prevent
cross contaminate
and,
infection risk for a patient or even staff.
So these are a lot of different options
that we're looking at in the future, which,
again,
reduce
human input to, say, move around a big
bulky machine,
which is heavy, can result in employee injury,
but also save us time so that we
can treat more areas.
We might be limited by having one service
tech move this big bulky machine around for
UV light, but if we can set these
up in a couple of rooms, that room
gets better UV coverage
and we don't have a person to have
to deal with that, and we can treat
more rooms.
Got it. That's really helpful to know. Thank
you so much for digging a little bit
deeper there. Now I'm wondering, how are you
thinking about growth and adding value to the
health system overall?
Again, it's it's a lot of it through
this. What can we do to just really
make sure that, you know, people are the
expensive part? That is our expensive resource. Yes.
Supplies cost money,
and those are also very expensive. But in
the grand scheme of things, we need to
invest in our people. Right?
That has a lot of overhead when we
have to think about the benefits that those
people require. It's not just their total compensation
and their hourly wage. If somebody gets hurt,
all those things that come around with that.
But, also, it's our most valuable resource because
if we've invested in our people,
our caregivers,
you know, we don't want them to go
somewhere else where they're unhappy
or, you know, because they're unhappy here.
So that said, if we can do what
we need to do to keep them happy
and at work to care for the people
that come through our doors and do so
efficiently
so that we can give everybody the care
that they need,
you know, volume cures all. If we can
get more folks in the door, we can
make more revenue too, but also the greater
good is served because more patients are treated
efficiently.
And they're not waiting until they're super sick
or the last minute to come in and
receive this care. So,
really, the focus is making sure that we
don't eliminate work for those human resources that
we have, but truly make
their jobs as easy as possible
because health care is tough enough. And if
there's anything that we can alleviate
by making sure that they have an added
resource to do what they got into health
care to do, which is take care of
people,
that's where our focus needs to be.
That makes a lot of sense. And, you
know, it is really a helpful way in
benchmark to think about how you can make
an impact, both in terms of the quality
of care as well as the,
financial challenges, you know, that are very real
for many hospitals and health systems overall. And,
you know, thinking about that, I I know,
for a lot of our listeners, margins are
tightening, and they're really seeing,
you know, some financial challenges ahead. But what
is one risk or investment that you still
think is worth making over the next twelve
months or so, you know, to make sure
that you're in a good position to be
successful and thrive in the future?
Something in your IT department
and and beef up your infrastructure
to be ready for that. You know, with
these margins tightening,
we don't know what
the
big beautiful bill
is going to bring us as far as
what those margins mean. If we are
cutting Medicare and Medicaid, that is going to
affect our reimbursements.
That is going to
affect people more so in rural areas than
it is those metropolitan
areas,
and we may
have
hospital closures
because of these tighter
margins and and
you know, that are already tight and less
reimbursement. And so those areas are gonna be
affected first.
So that leaves us an opportunity
to still make sure that people get this
care. They may not be able to drive
to a hospital that's an hour and a
half away instead of having one thirty minutes
away. Maybe it's three hours.
So looking into
IT infrastructure
to make sure that you have,
you know, safe firewalls and bandwidth and Wi
Fi
and
telehealth
platforms. That's really where we need to focus.
There's also a big shift in health care
that really was
just amplified with COVID and did so rapid
fire. I know I was working on projects
prior to COVID
for telehealth
because, you know, in 2017,
2018, it was in its infancy,
but
COVID really
ramped that up for us.
There's gonna be opportunity
for these folks in these rural areas to
be able to receive telemedicine.
So making sure that health care organizations
have avenues for that to still get people
the treatment they need.
You know, laws vary from state to state,
so making sure that you've got somebody in
your legal department who understands what telehealth looks
like to make sure that they can do
that in their state.
But, you know, we even have things like,
you know, remote
ICU, tele ICU.
So we can do this with folks that
monitor this even from a remote location
to make sure that we can get folks
the care that they need. Yes. There needs
to be somebody physically there with these people,
but we can make sure that the content
experts
and subject matter experts are able to
provide
remote care if possible. You know, when we
look at things like even robotic surgery,
there are ways to do that where we
can do remote surgery.
We have the technology
capable.
Sometimes laws and infrastructure keep us from doing
that, but really making sure that we're prepared
for what comes next to make sure that
people get the care that they need.
Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
You know? It is really important aspect,
in space to,
invest in because if you don't have those
right firewalls and infrastructure in place,
it it can make a a really challenging
if you do have a cyber incident or
or other things. So,
I I really appreciate that. And then looking
into the future of telehealth, virtual care, and,
just all the possibilities of how technology can
connect us in different ways and have different
access points,
to you know, I I,
I'm excited about that future, but I know
it's, you know, something that takes easier said
than done done in some ways, not only
from the technology side, but just getting all
all the people change management and transformation there
as well. Yeah. Excellent. Well, before we wrap
up here, I have one more question. Where
do you see some of the best opportunities
for growth in the next two to three
years or so?
It's definitely gonna be in
that sort of IT space.
I'm seeing some really cool
things come out
that solve a lot of problems,
whether it's robotic surgery
or
program overlays with visualization of cameras. Like, there
are some really
awesome companies coming out, sometimes rewriting
laws and standards of practice
to
get some of this technology where it needs.
There are a lot of up and coming
things,
Sometimes even changing the way we do sterilization
because
people have invented new methods that are even
better than the standard methods we've used in
the past that they've had to get FTA
approval for. So I'm just really excited because
there are so many different things, but so
many of them are technology based
to get people to care
where they need it.
I love that. Well, thank you so much
for joining us today, Jamie. This has been
a really fun conversation, and I look forward
to connecting with you again soon.
Thank you so much. I very much appreciate
the opportunity.
At athena Health, we know your ambulatory practice
wants healthier,
a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
patients.
But the complexities of modern healthcare tech make
it hard for you and your care teams
to focus on what matters most.
That's where athenahealth can help.
Our AI native all in one solutions reduce
administrative burdens,
streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
when clinicians need it most. That means fewer
clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom
lines.
Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.