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forward slash becchers podcast.
This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
Podcast, and we are live at the twenty
second annual Spine Orthopedic and Pain Management Conference.
I'm currently joined by doctor Joseph Lamplott, who
is an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist
at Endeavor Health Orthopedic Orthopedic and Spine Institute.
Doctor Lamplott, thanks for being here. To start
us off, can you please share a little
bit more about yourself, your role, and your
organization?
Of course. So I'm an orthopedic surgeon. I
specialize in sports medicine and shoulder surgery.
I work for Endeavor Health. It's a nine
hospital health care system in Illinois. It's actually
the second largest, health care system in Illinois.
And I work within the Northwest Community Hospital
System.
So this is, recently we merged, with Endeavor
Healthcare, and we're building an orthopedic
hospital employed orthopedic group at NCH currently.
Wonderful. Well, thanks so much for being here.
And let's start our conversation with what trends
or shifts you're currently seeing in the industry
right now that you think are most important
for leaders to pay attention to.
So work case in point, consolidation is happening
everywhere.
As I mentioned, we went from basically three
large systems into, one. And I think as
those consolidations continue to happen, we need to
make sure we maintain quality.
I think putting pride aside, each of the
kind of member hospitals does some things well,
and we have data to support each of
those things. So as we've come together
as one large system,
and especially starting a new group at one
of our hospitals,
we're trying to kinda cherry pick the best
aspects of each hospital as we build our
program. And it's been really helpful to have
that road map as we kind of put
together our orthopedic program at Northwest Community.
Wonderful.
And I'd love to touch on staffing and
workforce challenges as well as these continue to
be concerns across health care. So how is
your organization navigating these pressures, and what strategies
have you seen working well?
Of course. So, and this is uniform across
the board. The the cost of providing care
is increasing. The cost of staffing is increasing,
and our reimbursements are staying the same or
or going down relative to inflation. So,
maintaining your staff is critical. I think turnover
of of anybody, whether it's physicians or staff,
is is almost
a a a never event. We wanna try
and minimize that from happening because,
it ends up costing you a whole lot
more than if you're able to keep them.
So staying market competitive or even slightly above,
the market in terms of salaries and benefits
is critically important.
The reality is I think now,
there's a little bit less
pride in staying with the same job or
the same,
organization throughout your career. I think if there's
opportunities to go elsewhere where where the job,
the work life balance, the benefits, the salary,
all those things contribute. So, we have to
find a way to balance all of those
things and keep the people that we have.
Absolutely.
And let's talk about outpatient care as this
continues to grow. How do you see the
role of orthopedics
evolving within the broader health care ecosystem?
So orthopedics, you know, what we're seeing right
now in terms of the care that we
provide,
we're moving most of the procedures that we
do to the ASC. And I think that
as we start bundling care for most procedures,
forward, we're gonna have to deliver care in
a cost effective way.
And not only do our ASCs provide care
in a more cost effective way, but patient
satisfaction is generally higher. So I think the
move to the ASC is, is something that
we're inevitably going to continue seeing.
The second thing in terms of orthopedics, there's
lots of competition,
and I think that people are a little
bit less loyal to the organizations that they
may have been seen for years. So, you
know, case example would be a patient that
has had a primary care in one organization
forever.
Just because they're provided a referral to see
a provider or an orthopedist or any specialist
within that organization,
they have so many options, and they have
so many good options in competitive markets. So,
we have to basically maintain quality, maintain satisfaction,
and get patients in quickly and provide great
care for them. So I think in orthopedics,
we're seeing that,
we're seeing that to a to a high
degree now.
Absolutely.
And then as we wrap our conversation up,
many organizations are exploring new technologies, partnerships, or
care models to improve efficiency and outcomes. So
are there any innovations or initiatives you found
particularly promising?
So one thing we've adapted within the last
two years is, AI driven dictation software, and
that has massively improved efficiency across the board.
And it's really improved, physician quality of life
and APP per, provider quality of life.
Reason being, you know, I can tell you
from my experience,
seeing, you know, 40 to 50 patients in
a day and finishing your notes after clinic,
you'd be spending upwards of two hours, oftentimes
at home,
you know, after the kids go to bed.
And you're up till 09:00, and then you
rinse and repeat the next day. So,
now with this AI driven software, and some
are better than others, and they continue to
improve,
it's basically given me,
you know, two hours per day back to
myself.
And that allows you not only to, you
know, have that work life balance, but also
achieve things in the workplace, whether that's research,
whether that's meetings, whether that's, you know, whatever
that we didn't really have before.
Absolutely.
And is there anything else you'd like to
add that we didn't touch on today?
You know, another thing in terms of, efficiency
is
the use of of, Google. So Google My
Business,
I really think that all physicians should have
a Google My Business profile that they're active
with. I think that generating new patients and
generating strong reviews is critical to building a
practice. So,
you know, one thing that we're using with,
all of our patients is we're trying to
send them an automated,
Google,
basically, Google survey
to generate those those positive reviews and get
patients in the door.
So I think we're we're using,
you know, between the AI software that we
use in in clinic and, improved use of
Google, we're, we're we're finding that's improving our
our outcomes.
Wonderful. Well, doctor Lamplat, thanks so much for
taking the time to join me today on
the Becker's Healthcare podcast and share these insights.
Again, we are recording live at the twenty
second annual Spine Orthopedic and Pain Management Conference.
Perfect. Thank you so much.