The most important health care decisions don't happen
in isolation.
They happen when leaders come together.
Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
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hospital and health system executives this April in
Chicago.
With 800 speakers from Ascension,
Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit and more, the conversations get
real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning
for policy shifts, breaking through value based care
barriers, and building clinical teams that translate new
ideas into real world care.
Join top decision makers in the room April
13 through the sixteenth.
For the agenda and event details, visit beckers
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events tab in the upper right.
This is Laura Dierdahl with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
Michelle Stansbury, associate chief innovation officer and vice
president of IT applications at Houston Methodist. Michelle,
it's a pleasure to have you on the
podcast today. Oh, thank you so much. I
always appreciate being able to talk with you,
Laura.
Absolutely. Well, I'm excited for our conversation too
because I I think we always have a
chance to get behind the curtain of some
of the cool things you're doing at Houston
Methodist. I know you've got a lot of
innovation going on there, a very sophisticated technology,
AI automation, and more. And so I know
we'll get into some of that. But before
we do, for those who are just starting
to listen to our podcast, could you, share
a little bit more about yourself, your background,
and Houston Methodist?
Sure. Well, I've been at Houston Methodist almost
thirty four years now, which is just amazing
in itself.
I know I get asked all the time,
what has kept you there? And I would
say it's probably the opportunities to be able
to do so many different new
things to be able to help the health
system grow
and to help make sure that our patients
and our clinicians
are working in the best environment that they
can. So that's what kind of keeps me
there, and love what I do, and it's
just a great organization.
That's fantastic to hear. And, you know, really
having that true mission of bringing the patient
first and providing that type of great care,
to the community makes a huge difference. Now
if we could zero in on the last
year or so, could you tell us about
the most important projects or initiatives that you
were working on? What did you do, and
what were the results?
Well, it's, I think we have talked before.
We opened up our Cypress Hospital, which we
had been talking about quite a bit as
our smart hospital of the future,
which had many of the new capabilities that,
you know, everyone from AI to automation,
overall to the patient room, being smart, you
know, video capabilities across the organization.
You know, just those ease of use things
for, overall our patients.
I know we've had several people ask, well,
did you just what were their learnings from
that hospital?
But the good news is we didn't just
bring up all those technologies
just at our Cypress hospital. We had been
implementing those things across
our other hospitals. We've got eight other hospitals,
as well because,
one, we wanted to learn from them, have
our staff overall give us feedback to make
sure that it was truly bringing the value
to the organization.
There were a few things that were just
Cyprus,
because when you're building a hospital from the
ground up, you're able to build the infrastructure
needed to support certain things, like environmental controls.
It's very hard to go back and retrofit
into an older building,
but I will tell you our patients have
absolutely loved that they've been able to control
the lighting,
to,
overall, they have voice activation where it is
that they can turn on certain things, turn
it off, open the blinds, close the blinds.
You know, so those little creature comforts that
somehow we've gotten to come accustomed to in
hotel rooms,
we're now being able to do those for
our patients. And while we thought it was
a nice touch, it was really something our
patients love. They love having the ability to
be able to talk to Alexa in the
room to getting Alexa to do some of
these things for them as well. But just
the true,
overall,
that facility,
it was amazing when it opened up within
a very short time frame. It was completely
full.
So we had to very quickly turn around
and figure out how it is that we
could open up more of the space. I
think they're already looking at how they can,
add on additions to the space as well
because patients have really enjoyed,
the
services that they're getting, but also just knowing
how that the the, hospital operates. And the
staff have really embraced overall this
concept of what's next, what's new. We just
recently we've had ambient intelligence for our physicians
for quite a while and overall within our
physician practices. We've moved it so the hospitalists
are using it, but now it is we're
trying to get our nurses. And so we
just recently talked to Epic about doing,
ambient listening for our nurses, and, of course,
Cypress was, like, raised their hand. We wanna
be first. We wanna be first. We're willing
to, you know, pilot whatever is necessary.
So it's the good news when you have
so much enthusiasm
towards innovation,
to be able to find the clinicians,
the patients who are willing to be able
to see and test out those things because
it makes it easier on us overall as
an organization.
But that was one. The other is we,
have been working on a workday go live.
So that was a two year project that
just went live January 1 for our supply
chain, HR, finance,
and our research institute. It has gone
extremely well. I'm so very proud of that
team. I wish I could give them all
kudos here right now.
We made our first payroll.
No issues.
We've been able to order supplies and get
them into the hospitals. Very little issues, and
we're working through our very first month in
close right now. So the big, big initiative,
anybody that goes through these big massive projects
like installing Epic
or installing a new ERP system. You know,
it's just a big the thing that excites
me the most, I will tell you, is,
back at the,
Workday Rising Conference, they,
had showcased all of their new AI capabilities,
especially over in supply chain and then with
finance,
and even within HR. So I'm excited to
sort of bring those and start to embrace
them overall within the organization to be able
to help in those processes that we can
utilize AI for.
The other was really system access.
We've been really on this journey for the
last couple of years,
and have really done well with overall,
having our patients now, you know, with the
texting cape bidirectional texting capabilities, allowing them to
be able to,
you know,
create new appointments just by text based solutions.
Overall, having the, voice technology that,
allows them to
be able to talk with an agent and
then an artificial agent and then be able
to get to where that they need to.
So, you know, it it's interesting to see
the dynamics and the evolution
of how
different departments
work with these newer technologies that are out
there. Sometimes it's a little challenging, sometimes it's
not.
I would say when we brought overall camera
technology with AI to be
able to help us see where we have
the opportunities to open up more OR time.
That was a little challenging with our physicians.
I kinda liken it back. I tell people
all the time. I'm like, well, how would
you feel if I told you I was
gonna put a camera in your office? Right?
Because I need to see where it is
that we can, you know, increase increase efficiencies
and so forth.
So, everybody, it's like, yes. That you could
see where that can make people nervous. But,
you know, once the physicians really saw the
opportunities that was bringing to get them back
OR time, One of our biggest cardiovascular
surgeons who was
not real happy in the beginning, to hear
him come back later and really describe how
that is overall
helped him and the organization,
that was like a win win.
So,
you know, it's that was only kind of
a few. I think the last piece was
this past year, we,
while in 2011, we came up with our
12 bets for the hospital of the future.
We came up with our 10 new bets
for our health care intelligent health care system
of the future,
which really is just playing on the things
that we've already done and how can we
make them better
overall,
as an organization.
But that's just kind of a few things
what Mhmm. Been keeping us a little busy,
overall,
for the last year.
Oh, that's amazing to hear. And, you know,
that is a lot going on and a
lot of, positive change happening, especially when you
think about, you know, how much it takes
not only to bring the technology in and
and integrate that into workflows and processes, but
then to, to your point in being able
to work with the team, and have them
adopted and feel comfortable with the technology
and willing to move forward, you know, that's
incredible to have that kind of buy in
too. So,
yes. I I think there's a lot of
work, for you and your team, but it
sounds like it's gone really well so far.
No. It's it's I I will tell you,
it's the one thing that I appreciate so
much because we have such operational engagement on
everything that we do. Right?
And during our initiatives on anything that working,
you're seeing
operational
individuals and IT. They're partnering. They're like one
team.
And that's what the exciting part is is
when you see that happen that there is
no more of, well, IT needs to handle
this. Well, no. We'll take care of it.
It is no. They are kind of one
group that is working on all of these
things together, and how can they quickly,
you know, come to resolution that it is
bringing us value into the organization then, oh,
okay. Now we need to, like, roll it
out.
That's what it is exciting to see is
when the team comes together, it's amazing what
they can accomplish.
And,
I have just, you know, seen it time
and time again and just think that we
are very fortunate the way that we are
set up to be able to do that
for Houston Methodist.
Absolutely. That that's amazing to hear in grade
to understand that structure that you're working with.
Now looking into the next year or so,
what are some of the top priorities and
headwinds that you're focused on? Well, I I
think one of the biggest things, and, I
love to tell people this because you, you
know, sometimes you can get so caught up
in the innovation
that you don't really stop and think how
are you really getting the greatest benefit of
all from these big transactional systems like Epic.
Right? And I will give Epic,
really kudos here that they have come a
long way with their product,
in certain areas that, you know, we're now
seeing we don't need this third party that
we were working with. We can now transition
over to Epic, which is great because
most organizations are really having to become very
financially responsible as well.
And so it is where are we looking
at that potentially we had a third party
that we're gonna be moving overall to Epic.
I will say say one of the last
things that we did not implement back in
2014 when we initially installed Epic was their
lab system.
It wasn't beaker wasn't where it needed to
be at the time, but now it is.
And so we're transitioning over to that new
labs, which is a big project in itself.
It's another two I love these big two
year projects.
You know?
But, you know, that is one piece. I
you know, we've got other systems that we're
looking at overall transitioning.
But I think the big piece overall for
us is how are we embracing overall
AI capabilities
where they're available,
to see where it's overall helping us as
an organization.
And, you know, it's I I I'll give
you an example. We use ServiceNow within our
IT organization,
and they've come out with a lot of
AI capabilities. And you can really get caught
up in the coolness factor. I almost say
it that way. Mhmm. But what are the
models? What are the things that they have
built overall with on top of that AI?
And how is our data? Is our data
clean enough for us to be able to
use and trust it?
Because it it you know, AI is built
overall
to be able to increase efficiencies.
That's what it should be.
Not overall right to overall add cost to
the organization
or add additional processes and not be able
to reduce
overall kind of the labor cost where you
can get some of those efficiencies at.
But I would say, you know, I talked
about,
we've been looking for a vendor for us
to be able to do, ambient listening for
our nursing staff for year and a half,
if not more than that.
And it kinda talked to several vendors that
were out there and never really were able
to get,
traction where we needed to. Exciting part is
that Epic is now has has that functionality.
We're getting ready to start a pilot with
them in our Cypress hospital. So very anxious
to see because nurses are just as overburdened
with documentations,
as physicians are. And so whatever we can
do to help overall that, you know, we
started our virtual visits to be able to
take admits and discharges from them, to be
able to take overall rounding activities and so
forth, but there's still just that documentation burden.
So another great piece that now we can
overall use for our nurses. But,
first and foremost, I mean, it's just I
think if you begin to look at our,
you know, intelligent health care system of the
future bets, we really need to pick out
what are we gonna focus on this year.
And we've got a retreat coming up here
very soon. I think it's two weeks from
now is where we're gonna start to decide
what are those key areas and key projects
that we're gonna focus on kind of going
forward this year.
That's fantastic to hear. And, you know, so
important to have that time to come together
together with your colleagues and make those decisions.
And, you know, I think when you're talking
about bringing in technology, AI, Ambient, and,
you know, the different partners that you're working
with and systems that you're
collaborating with. I know, you know, you've been
at this for a a good long while,
more than a decade in terms of innovation
and working with Houston Methodist. So do you
feel like you're in a time now where
you're doing more pilots? Are are you settling
in? How are you thinking about, you know,
what where you you want to identify places,
especially as you're, you know, are kind of
a mature innovation organization, but always still trying
to be cutting edge as well? No. You
know, look, I think that there is a
time and, actually, you know, Roberta, which I
know you've spoken with before, it I think
it's a time for us. We're not out
trying to look for the little niche products
anymore. I think that where we have found
overall is that we've got some really good
vendors that that we're partnering with. So what
more can we partner with to enhance what
their product does or even something new
overall within our organization instead of a pilot
here pilot here. I mean, you know, I
I think for a while, we had probably,
like, you know, 25 pilots going on at
a time.
And we're not there as an organization. We're
trying to really mature what we have, as
I said.
We know where we wanna go, but I
think it's let's make those decisions wisely instead
of just trying to pilot every single little
thing that is out there that is building
new. I mean, I would you know, look,
AI is exploding.
It is just exploding across the health care
industry and I think all over the place,
and you really gotta decide
what are you going to do. Mhmm. Right?
What are those things you really wanna focus
on that are really gonna bring the greatest
value to the organization?
And not every single little pilot. I mean,
I've got so many vendors that are calling
me, hey. I've got this, you know, niche
AI solution and this one. Can we come,
you know, and kinda show it to you?
And, you know, I I hate to say
no so many times, but I think this
is where some innovation groups can get so
overwhelmed
by so much that's coming at them. You
really have to decide as an organization
what are you gonna focus on, which is
what I said that we're gonna try to
do as an innovation group
is this is gonna be our focus for
2026,
but it's going to go in line with
what we said that we want to move
forward with our intelligent health care system of
the future
or
bring back overall, are we getting the greatest
value from the things that we've already done
or is there more that we can do
to truly stretch and get more of that
ROI that we thought that we were going
to be able to get? So that's what
I think overall our our initiatives are kinda
moving forward. So I would say, is Houston
Methodist doing all these new pilots?
No. I don't. I think what we're trying
to do is just really mature what we
have and really stretch,
to get the greatest value of what we've
got already. And don't it's not to say
that we won't because, look, we're doing the
pilot with Epic. We're doing another pilot with
some other a few other ones, but it's
not the massive things that we were doing
in the very beginning.
That makes a lot of sense. You know,
it is really helpful kind of ground in
how you're thinking about the future and what
that looks like for you. And, you know,
what do you think the hardest thing you'll
have to do in the next year will
be?
I think really and this is just probably
all health care systems. They're really trying to
really
look at what is bringing the greatest value
to the organization.
I mean, we're all being hit hard, right,
from
governmental changes to payer changes to everything else,
and yet you want to provide the best
care overall to your patients,
and having our clinicians
utilizing the best tools that will help them
do that. But you still have to remain
financially stable. So I think that's where it
is. How can we as I said, how
can we ensure that we're getting the greatest
value,
overall from our investments that we have and
what other new things that maybe we need
to focus in on that will help us
during that journey? And I think everybody's on
that journey. Right? I haven't spoken to one
health system that is not on that journey
right now. And, you know, fortunately, we,
have, as an organization, have always done well,
but it's still the one thing that I
do appreciate about Houston Methodist is if they
get some sort of an inkling, you know,
where we need to tighten our belt, we
do it right away. We don't wait until
things are really bad, you know, to come
back, and it just helps us to main
kind of remain stable,
as an organization. No. We're not just tightening
and not doing anything. Right? No. We just
need to be very conscious about what we
are doing to ensure it's bringing the value.
And I think that's where we're at is
just truly ensuring that,
the work that any of us are doing
on the innovation side is truly bringing that
value that we thought that it would. And
if it's not, we need to move on
to something else.
That makes a lot of sense. And I
and, you know, with such clarity, being able
to have that into any decisions you're making,
looking at, you know, what that value is
in bringing it front and center. I can
imagine with your partner conversation as well as
how you're thinking about, you know, new technology
opportunities as well. And
speaking of that, you know, when you look
at growth, where do you see growth headed,
especially for the innovation side? No. I I
mean, look, there's there's always I think you
always need to look out
as I said, I think this greatest opportunity
where everybody is kind of headed is how
are we
evaluating
what's the appropriate AI usage
in our organization.
Right? Because there's I think there's such a
tremendous opportunity,
which I'm very excited about. I mean, like
I said, I've seen a lot of things
that overall Workday can bring. I've seen, you
know,
Epic's already been doing some things for us.
I think some of the other vendors that
we are utilizing right now that have brought
us value in AI, how can we extend
that? How can we extend it beyond and
be thinking about other use cases?
I do know that we are really
looking at,
you know, I've said before when you look
at remote monitoring,
we took all the tools and we utilized
them in house to learn from them. I
think we're now we're trying to see what
can we do. What are the things that
we can extend beyond the walls of Houston
Methodist to really engage overall that population, be
able to truly get to a type some
type of remote monitoring of overall our patients
while they're at home.
So it's the thing that we are looking
at and trying to focus on in that
area as well. But, you know, of looking
at, you know, a truly operational control center.
Right? Because we've got
these nine different hospitals. How are we utilizing
them to our the best capacity that we
can,
in all of our clinics? You know, I
would tell you the exciting thing that we
introduced overall last year in our clinic space
was a vendor that looked at
the if they used RFID technology, right, to
put them on staff to see where they
could gain efficiencies overall in that clinic to
be able to open up more appointments.
That was phenomenal. I mean, I I would
have never guessed
that we could have gotten the efficiencies
and the appointments
that we have gained just by using that
technology.
I mean, it was, you know, when you
ask a provider, well, we need to create
more appointments, I'm already booked. There's no way
that you can. But the data and this
is what excites me the most about data,
and I've said, data doesn't fail, data doesn't
lie, data just gives you information.
To be able to have them come back
with true data to say, well, if you
would just sort of change your practice patterns,
here's where we could align more appointments to
come in overall. And that just makes it
better for the patients. It makes it better
for the clinicians. And that's what overall what
excites me the most, and I think I
told you the reason that I love being
at Houston Methodist, is we are very so
much patient centric,
you know, and trying to make sure nobody
wants to come to the doctor. Nobody really
wants to come to the hospital. But when
they do, is it in a way an
ease of use for them,
in the way that they overall their preference
and their family members? You know, I I
just think back to the video technology that
we've done that allowed family members to be
able to join those discussions,
right, overall with the physicians.
I mean, that's what the end of the
day that it comes down for me with
what excites me overall, not just the technology
piece,
but to be able to hear from our
patients and our clinicians what it's doing for
them.
I love that. Michelle, thank you so much
for joining us on the podcast today. This
has been a really fun conversation. I've learned
a ton and feel like, you know, it's
so exciting, the potential and opportunities there in
health care today. So I appreciate your time,
and I look forward to seeing you as
well. And, April, I know you'll be speaking
at our annual meeting and, really providing some
great, great insights and spotlighting, you know, the
things you're doing at Houston Methodist there as
well. So I look forward to seeing you
as always. It's such a great to have
you Great. Time to have you on. Yep.
Thank you for having me.