This is where health care leadership comes together.
Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
speakers to Chicago
April.
This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
visit beckershospitalreview.com
and click on the events tab in the
upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
in Chicago.
This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
doctor Luis Tavares, executive vice president and chief
digital and information officer at Jefferson Health. Luis,
it's a pleasure to have you on the
podcast today.
It's great to be back. Great talking to
you today.
Oh, absolutely. I always appreciate our conversations because
I think you've got such a a great
energy and passion for what you do and
certainly are on the forefront of a lot
of the things that are happening in health
technology today. So I'm excited for our conversation.
But before we dive in, for those who,
you know, are just starting to listen to
Becker's Healthcare podcast, could you tell a little
bit more about yourself and your background?
Yeah. So I've been in health care. I
hate to go back and think of it
since 1987.
So I've seen lots and lots of changes
in health care. I have been a CIO
for the last twenty five years, almost twenty
six now.
And I've been in various systems throughout the
Northeast.
Jefferson certainly being the the largest one and
the most comprehensive one that I've worked for.
But I've seen lots of changes from and
I've mentioned before on the podcast from the
time that
IT was in the basement next to the
morgue
to now to the point where as a
chief data information officer, I sit at the
top, on the Top Floor. Right? So it's
been lots of great changes and many, many
things happening throughout those many years that I've
been involved.
Well, that that's great to hear. And, you
know, I know Jefferson is a really unique
organization,
with just many facets and continues to grow.
How many hospitals do you have now? What
what it all comprises, what you're overseeing there
on the digital front?
So we're now at 34 hospitals,
but Jefferson Enterprise is bigger than that, which
is we have three lines of business, if
you would, from that standpoint.
It's the university,
it's the health plan, and then there's the
health delivery organization, which is the largest component
of it. But those are three parts of
the organization,
and I oversee IT for all three parts.
Oh, that's
amazing. And, you know, I can imagine never
a dull moment,
for sure.
So when you think of back of the
last year or so, could you tell me
about the most important initiative that you led?
What did you do, and what were the
results?
So the the most important initiative really was
continuing the integration
of the Lehigh Valley Health Network and Jefferson,
because we came together eighteen months ago now.
We spent a lot of time
making sure that we brought the teams together,
that we merged the technologies, that we built
the environment that was safe.
Lots of focus on cybersecurity
for both organizations and now the single organization.
So, really, the biggest part
was from that organization
governance standpoint
and implementing a lot of the process that
we have today
to make sure that we're making the right
investments in the right solutions that are gonna
bring the biggest value to the organization.
And that's what we are. We're really focused
on being a value organization.
I mentioned before in other podcast that I
don't think of
IS and T, our organization,
as a cost center like some people think
about. We are a value center.
The organization chooses to invest in the solutions
that we provide, and we need to bring
value back to the organization as a result
of that investment.
I love that. I think it's, so important
to have the big picture in mind and
thinking through, you know, what you need to
do in order to continue to grow together.
I know, having that systemness at Jefferson is
very important and then becoming
a value creator for the organization overall right
now. When you think about especially putting together
that governance structure and,
making sure you're pulling through everything you need
in order to become that value center, what
did that look like for you? How are
you able to, pull those things together then
really make sure,
all branches of the organization were able to
follow them?
So it really starts with creating that strategic
plan, and that was the focus of the
first three months together.
And we put together a strategic plan that
defines a a
very clear journey
from where we were at that point, which
is really more of a reactive organization,
to
an operational excellence stage. And then our final
journey is getting to being a high performance
organization.
Creating that vision over the next five to
seven years,
building the
the the parts of the plan that says,
here's how we're gonna get from here to
there. And the critical part of that is
the governance model.
Making sure that everybody understands
how we're gonna evaluate
what comes our way, especially today with AI.
Right? We're getting so many requests from everybody.
What's the process for evaluating that this is
the right solution that we should be invested
in? That's very well defined.
Engaging
all parts of the organization
in those decisions because the last thing that
we want is for IT to be making
those decisions.
We're a services organization.
We have to listen to what people want
and satisfy those needs, but never forget that
we're not an IT organization. We're a health
care organization,
and we're here to make sure that we
provide the best health care to our patients
and the best service to our members and
students that we have. So we enable that
to happen.
We don't do IT and technology for technology
and IT sakes. We do it because it
means something to the business.
I love that. I I think it makes
a lot of sense. You know, it's really
helpful to understand how you
then dovetail in what you're doing on the,
IT side into the strategic plan and everything
that really makes Jefferson go. Now looking ahead,
what are some of your big priorities and
headwinds that you're focused on for 2026?
I think the biggest one, and maybe a
lot of people will be able to relate
to this, is is just managing,
AI
and the impact that AI is going to
have in everything that we do. But to
do it in a way that
we we always have a human involved in
what AI does.
AI is just another tool that our humans
will do to make themselves better, to make
the department better, and as a result, make
the entire organization better. But we always have
to have that human in the middle, especially
when it comes to clinical solutions.
We need to make sure that a clinician
initiates the action,
that AI is a tool that is used
to accomplish what's what's planned to be accomplished,
and that the clinician
checks the results of that AI input
before they act. So we always have a
person
in the middle of of the AI solution.
But that that's the biggest thing, just managing
that environment, continue the integration.
But a lot of the integration work is
revolving around how do we use AI, how
do we manage AI across the organization.
That's helpful to understand. And, you know, I
think AI is so much on the tip
of everyone's tongue today, especially in health care.
And when you're looking at, you know, everything
that it could do,
what are some of the applications that you're
most excited about? Where do you see being
really spaces where AI can make a big
difference, you know, even over the next couple
of years?
So on the operational side,
definitely in revenue cycle, and the whole revenue
cycle process.
The other part is looking at enterprise share
services and looking where we can streamline how
we deliver those services to the organization.
But the biggest bank is definitely gonna be
on the clinical side.
And the solution that is is making the
biggest impact right now is Ambient.
We started deploying Ambient in 2025.
We started with the physicians, and we we
have now moved on to, nursing.
And I think the impact on nursing is
gonna be equally as large and is, impactful
as it was for the physicians.
We're seeing the nurses be much more efficient
in the way they document.
We're seeing the nurses be much more conversant
with their patients, which is absolutely critical.
So it's it's gonna be many, many benefits
associated with
AI in the nursing space,
same as we're seeing on the physician space.
Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
And, you know, I think when you're looking
at AI and looking at, you know, everything
that has the potential, I know there are
risks too. Are there any,
you know,
I guess, challenges or things that make you
nervous about bringing additional AI into the organization?
How do you make sure, you know, the
data is being used in the way it's
supposed to be and and leveraged correctly?
So the the area that we're very focused
on because it is an area of concern
is the development of agents.
And how do we develop agents? How do
we deploy agents? Especially in the clinical space,
we have to make sure that there's no
bias, that there's no harm to our patients,
and that we're doing this exactly the way
that we expect to do it and that
the results that we're gonna get are the
results that we're gonna that we expect. So,
agents is something that we have to really
manage.
We definitely see a lot of value in
the creation of various agents. We've seen the
benefits of those agents already,
but it needs to be carefully managed. Not
everybody should be able to develop agents that
are unchecked.
So we have to make sure we have
a process for validating that the agents are
doing what they're supposed to be doing and
that they're they'll cause no harm or
create any cybersecurity
concerns for us.
That's so helpful to understand. And, you know,
it's definitely,
the the challenge there, being able to leverage
AI correctly while also, you know, especially in
the clinical setting, make sure there's not any
of the biases or or the things that
could cause harm. Now what do you think
the hardest thing you'll have to do in
the coming year will be?
In in this year,
the biggest thing is gonna be
really continuing the the integration, but also
begin to harmonize the processes that we have
and rationalizing
the environment. When we bring two organizations
as large as Jefferson and we have our
network together,
we have a lot of duplications in terms
of applications,
in terms of infrastructure.
And we've done really well with that, but
we still have a a long way to
go in terms of making sure that we
streamline
the process that we have, streamline the technologies
that we have, and that we have the
right number of applications in place, not like
we started with, you know, lots and lots
and lots of applications.
So that's gonna be a big process that
we have to continue, that rationalization process.
Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
And, you know, I I think it seems
like there'd be a lot of benefits to,
obviously,
eliminating those duplications and and getting the rationalization
right. But what does it take in order
to do that? What type of resources from
your team as well as the organization overall
when you're looking at, you know, such an
important thing that you need to do?
So, really, our team is
guiding and assisting in those, but we really
have to stay focused on the departments and
the folks that are gonna be the end
user, the end result of those, rationalization process.
For example, in the credentialing space, we're working
very, very closely with the the medical leadership
to make sure that we have a credentialing
process that is the same throughout and that
we're using the same solution to manage those
processes.
Right? So it's it's it's us working very
closely with everybody out there to make sure
that we are doing the right thing and
rationalizing the environment,
and then us providing the support to make
sure the solutions that we provide
for the final process, the final, ways that
we're gonna do things,
is exactly what the, the organization wants.
Absolutely. I think that makes a lot of
sense and is helpful to understand. Now before
we wrap up here, I wanted to just
touch on growth. Where do you see some
of the best opportunities for organizational growth going
forward?
Oh, in terms of growth, obviously, we have
a a great growth strategy. We've grown quite
a bit in the last ten years,
and we're still looking for ways to continue
to grow. But, really, the focus is much
more on making sure that what we have
to get together to today,
the 34 hospitals, the university, the health plan,
that we fully, fully integrate those,
vertically optimize those, but horizontally
look across and see how we can leverage
every part of the organization to make Jefferson
better.
I love that. Luis, thank you so much
for joining us on the podcast today. This
has been such a fun conversation. You know,
it's always so informative to speak with you,
and I look forward to seeing you as
well at our annual meeting. I know you'll
be speaking on a panel and, really bringing
some of your expertise around technology, AI, and
and strategic growth, to that. So excited about,
you know, seeing you then, and and it'll
be great to connect.
Thanks, Laura. We'll see you. Thanks so much.