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Speaker 1: This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by James Newman, vice president of patient logistics at Virtual Health System. James, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

Speaker 2: Thanks, Laura. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now I'm looking forward to our discussion because I know, there's so much happening in health care today, and in particular, you're doing some cool things at Vertuad. But before we dive in, can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and about the health system?

Speaker 2: Absolutely. So my name is Jim Newman. I'm the, vice president of patient logistics for Virtua Health, in South Jersey. So Virtua is a, South Jersey based health system. We have we have five hospitals and seven emergency departments, around 16,000 colleagues, 3,000 plus, medical staff clinicians, just over 400 care locations, and, near close to 380, primary and specialty care practices.

So we're fairly, inclusive health care system. My area, inpatient logistics is a is a pretty broad area. It's exciting area right now. I I am responsible for a a, many departments consisting of our, our transfer center, our centralized bed management and capacity management, team, as well as our, our EMS team, covering, mobile intensive care services in in two counties in in, South Jersey, as well as our medical transport division, our, training center for our health system, our clinical and EMS training center, and, our integrated dispatch center for, for those areas.

Speaker 1: That's great to hear. And, you know, that's a lot to be accountable for. And so, it's just fascinating to hear everything that you're thinking about and working on on a daily and consistent basis. I think first and foremost, I was wondering, what are some of the trends you're watching currently?

Speaker 2: Right. So I think, you you probably talk to many health care leaders, and I say probably everybody is answering the same today. And when I was thinking about this question, I I was gonna go a different direction with it, but but you really can't. And I think the the the simplest answer is is looking at AI and, you know, how how predictive AI and, clinical decision support as well as generative AI is going to impact us and and how we can, really build that into our workflows. But but but as I was thinking about this, all of those areas that that I just, spoke about are are gonna be hugely positive impacts on health care.

And as leaders, I think we're responsible to look at them. But I think the other area to to to really focus it on is the operational efficiencies that we can get out of AI and how we how we use it. And and as a leader, when I look at that, if I can lean into AI tools, that allow me as a leader to have less screen time, and how it can help me lead, lead more focus and have more time to build strategy and really more time, face time with my colleagues and and my people, that's where I think, think, as leaders, AI is really gonna be impactful to our workflows. And I think the the other area that the other trend that that we really look at here, at Virtua is is care at home. And, you know, trends that we can watch in how, care at home can really have positive impacts on patients, from our hospital at home, area to our, post discharge management service lines as well as mobile integrated health and really how we can use those areas to impact length of stay, readmissions, capacity, and cost to our patients.

Speaker 1: That's helpful to understand. I think, you know, everything you mentioned, obviously, AI is huge in technology, digital transformation. It is coming on strong for health care organizations across the across the spectrum and figuring out how they can use, those tools to be more efficient and effective. I know that's gonna be extremely important, especially in this next year when, you know, resources are continuing to be compressed, within the health care system. But I wanted to ask you a bit more about the other trend you talked about too, the care at home.

That's something that we hear a good deal about from hospitals and systems, and more and more are trying to stand those types of programs up. And so what have you learned through your care at home program? How did you, create it, and what has been some of the pivots you've made there to keep it successful?

Speaker 2: Yeah. I think, I think the biggest thing to to keep in mind with care and home models is there's no cookie cutter design. We at at Virtua, we really focused on hospital at home as our foundation. But from there, we've we've we've adapted and built programs that really meet the gaps in care in our region, and have focused on the challenges that that we have at our health system and improving, the care that we provide. So so so my biggest advice for for anyone looking at a care at home model is, look at the trends that other people or or other systems are using and adapt them to your program and your specific gaps, that you have in your system.

Speaker 1: Got it. That's helpful to know. Now what are some of the things that you're most focused on and excited about right now? What have you been most proud of in the last six or eighteen months or so?

Speaker 2: So I would say, we'll start with, you know, really what what I am most proud of both as a department and and, as as a health system, and it's really been our focus on on workforce development. We we as a health system has have focused a tremendous amount of time and attention, to to entering colleagues into our system earlier in life and providing opportunities, to to colleagues, and potential colleagues really early in their, in their careers. Just an example of that is, you know, we we have built, programs just in my department that, you know, we we can provide opportunities that that in the past may not have been available or may have been out of reach, to individuals, to really enter into a career in health care, very, very early in their in their adulthood. And when I go to the graduations and and speak to these classes, of in this area, our EMT students, I speak to opportunity, and I speak to this being a start a starting point for their opportunities in health care and the career pathways that that this has created. And and we've really worked hard to create pathways from from early entry, into health care, through, our EMT to paramedic programs, through our paramedic to RN programs, and, really, everything across the board through our our leadership development programs and, our tuition assistance programs, and it's really been exciting to to see us take a high school student, and and, you know, as they're in high school, help them build into a health care career so they have, you know, opportunities in life that may not have been available, otherwise.

So that that's been extraordinarily exciting, and and we're really proud of that. And then, you know, just to to build on, your question about what we're we're really focused on or what and one of the things that that I'm heavily focused on is is proactive capacity management. I think, you know, every health care system around the system around the country is is, challenged with capacity, and challenged with, with ED borders and and bed wait times and turn times. And, we are are highly focused on how we look at tools. I I mentioned, you know, AI and proactive, AI, how we can use that to to to help manage our capacity, to reduce ED borders, and then reaching beyond the typical levers of capacity management.

I think, the the trends in health care have been, very specific over the years on how to manage capacity. And, you know, we we need to to understand what what levers aren't being used, and continue to focus on them, to to really learn how to manage capacity in a in a really unique way.

Speaker 1: That's helpful to understand and, you know, it's so important. I know capacity is a challenge across the board in trying to, figure out how you can move patients through the system efficiently and effectively, and then open up capacity to meet the demands of of the community. I think, your point about being able to leverage AI, effectively in this way is critical. How do you work with your teams to make sure that they are, using the technology and the tools that they have in the best way possible as well as knowing, you know, what value this technology is bringing back into the organization?

Speaker 2: I think a lot of that comes down to, the way that we empower our our our frontline employees to to to really tell us what's working for them and what isn't working for them. You know, I think, you know, we can we can provide tools. We can provide, we can provide dashboards. We can provide predictive technology. But our frontline staff, the folks our colleagues across the system that are using it really need to be empowered to to tell us what makes sense and what is working.

And we, as leaders, are responsible for making sure that we're listening to that and adapting to the changes to really make these tools effective. It it's one thing to build the tools and provide them. It's another thing to optimize them, in a way that is really meaningful to the organization and the way we want patient flow to operate.

Speaker 1: That's helpful, perspective and context. Thank you so much for digging a bit deeper there. Now before we wrap up, what advice would you give to evolving leaders today, especially given all of the changes and in complexity in the health care environment?

Speaker 2: You know, this is my this is my area of passion. So, I I would say as as I mentor leaders, a few things. One of the the biggest pieces of advice I give to to new and and current leaders is to have the courage to fail early. Identify issues when they're small, identify issues when they're cheap, and have the courage to admit, that there's issues and make those changes, to make, you know, implementations that much more successful for the long run. I think the a few other areas that that I, as a leader, have have highly focused on over the years is, hire people that are smarter than you.

Have the courage to hire people, that that are have deeper technical expertise in, in the areas that that you're hiring them for than you do, and build a very intentional and purposeful team. I think so many leaders and, are are afraid to bring somebody on, that may know more than them, and, I think that's a big misstep for a leader, as as you're building out a very, purposeful team. And and then the the the two last points I'll make, you know, around, purposeful leadership is relationships are absolutely your strongest tool as a leader, and and never lose that. And then, my final mantra is always get me to yes. Meaning, you know, it's our responsibility as leaders to recognize the need and find a way to make it happen, even if that, you know, means that there's going to be significant challenges to get there.

Speaker 1: That's really helpful to know, Jim. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. I really appreciate your time. You know, it's been fascinating to learn a little bit more about your philosophy and everything that goes into, all you're doing, and I look forward to, meeting with you again soon. And I know you're speaking at our annual meeting coming up here in April, so it'll be great to have the the chance to meet you in person.

Speaker 2: Great. I appreciate it.