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This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Kevin Bitta,
chief Information Officer at Evergreen Health. Kevin,
it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
Pleasure to be here.
Now, I know we have a lot to talk about.
There's so much happening in health IT and the digital health space.
It's really changing quickly. Um, but before we dive into my questions,
can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and your background?
Sure. I, uh, actually started at Evergreen Health in, uh, January, 2000.
So I've been there a little over 23 years.
I started there in social care. I worked in social care about 12 years,
and then I moved over to technology and data in about 2012.
Um, so then I, I really built the team from just me to what it is now.
It's about 47 folks.
Oh, wow. That's amazing. So, over the years as you're building this IT team,
you know, when you, I guess, first took on the role, you imagine that it would,
uh,
become the strong of a responsibility or how was that evolution like for you?
Um, it was definitely interesting, um, moving from, uh, just me, uh,
having to do all of the work, um, to then recruiting folks, uh,
retaining those folks, training them.
And then for me it was mostly about kind of creating this culture
that values people and that kind of aligns with the organization's
goals. I think as the organization grew,
it was also a matter of being in those conversations to kind of, um,
adjust to how healthcare was changing at the time.
Got it. That makes a lot of sense. You know,
I'm excited to hear more about the culture that you've built there throughout
our discussion today. From your perspective,
what are some of the opportunities that you, um,
are excited about right now as well as the headwinds you have your eye on?
Actually, a lot of the work that I'm doing is looking internal.
We're doing two major things right now over the next,
I wanna say eight to 12 months.
We're doing a lot of optimization of our current systems and workflows.
We're working with a lot of our internal patient facing areas,
really to refine the work they do and how they use technology and information.
Uh,
we're also looking at a lot of the software that we've implemented over the past
couple years. As you know,
COVID was quite the disruptor with technology and the use of technology to
support a hybrid workforce, and even in the healthcare space, um,
providing care in a different way. So we're, we're,
we're turning back and we're looking at those areas and those systems and kind
of saying,
what can we do to make things better or improve the experience for the
user. Um,
the other thing that we're doing is we're looking at people and culture.
So again, I kind of mentioned that for me,
creating that culture that values the employee is so important to me. Um,
having, uh, having a workforce that feels valued, that feels heard,
um, that gets kind of the buy-in from their employer that says, here,
we're gonna train you, or we're gonna, we've got your career in mind. Um, that,
that to me, there's, there's a lot of value to that.
I feel like Evergreen has given me that opportunity in allowing me to move from
social care to technology. Um, and so, uh,
that's something that I value and I want to pass on to the employees in my area.
Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's amazing to hear and definitely, um,
helpful perspective to understand is, you know,
I'm sure the teams that you work with build their careers and work on, um,
you know, what's next for them. They can really take your example as, uh,
something that, you know, a very shiny and clear pathway now, you know,
it's exciting to think about how much healthcare has changed.
I know you mentioned the pandemic and during that time there was, um,
just a lot of change in movement. So, you know, what are you,
I guess, today, um, and, and then, you know, looking into the future,
how are you thinking about growth and adding value to Evergreen Health overall?
Um, yeah, I'm, like I mentioned, the technology we have in place, um,
whether it's software, just technology itself, um,
we've been doing a lot of kind of upgrades to,
to everything from the network systems, um,
to cybersecurity, um, to also, like I mentioned, uh,
the areas that touch our patient care. And for us, um, it's, uh,
we see patients in a different way. I mean, we're, we're, uh,
fairly qualified health center look alike,
so a lot of the work we do is out with as a community health center. Um,
so it's not just, um, primary care patients, um,
but it's also folks in the behavioral health space. And, uh,
we do have, um, a lot of, uh, drug users that we, um,
apply a lot of our technology to help them and help reach out to them and help
them stay connected to healthcare.
So there's a lot of small areas for us that we're looking at these, um,
solutions and going,
how are we gonna scale up and how are we gonna add value to the way we treat
patients, uh, in that way. And then again, just stating it again,
adding value and aligning with the goals of the organization is, I think it's a,
it's a never ending task because healthcare, as you know, shifts,
it moves and within each organization, the values of the organization,
the goals of that organization shift and change as we add on different services
or different care delivery models.
And then technology and data and information has to do its best to kind of
work alongside and, uh,
collaborate and partner with the folks who provide care to those patients.
So that's, I feel like that keeps us on our toes enough. Um,
and so we're always trying to make sure that we're aligning, um, with what,
what's ahead of us as far as healthcare goes.
Got it. That makes a lot of sense. You know,
and definitely hard to look on the crystal ball and always know how to stay
ahead of things,
but it seems like you've got a great system in place and a great foundation to
do that. Um,
when you are looking at the organization as a whole today and,
and where it's headed, I know there's a lot of headwinds right now.
We talked through some of them and a lot of places as well are a few seeing
their resources, um, dwindle just a bit. Um,
so for those organizations that are thinking through, you know,
maybe they have limited budgets or resources, how do you think through what,
um, investments or, or risks are still worth taking this year,
especially in a year where, you know,
there might not be the same financial resources as organizations have had in the
past? I.
Think a lot of that is, um, good communication.
I know that we've been having those conversations, um, at our leadership team.
And I think open communication obviously is, is so important at that level. Um,
talking about, um, the areas that we can find efficiencies,
the areas that we can, um, do things in a different way, that that, um,
improves the way we do care, like I said, but still, still values the user. Um,
whether the user is the, the people we serve or the folks providing the care.
Um, I think that for us, as we, as we do make those shifts and as we do,
you know, as the dollars tighten, um,
for us it's a matter of let's make sure we're all on the same page.
Let's make sure we know, um, the areas that we might reorganize or shift.
We all know the impacts. It's just that kind of,
that conversation you have across the table with,
with all the folks that are important around that table. I think that that's,
for me, that's the biggest part of it. It's, it's a lot less conversation about,
um, technology and data.
It's more just a conversation about what are the needs that we have in front of
us? Let's work together because we have a great relationship. Let's collaborate,
let's partner together. I think that's the biggest piece for me.
Got it. That makes a lot of sense. You know, and, and really, uh,
from the team and culture perspective,
it seems like it'd be an amazing place to be and a place to work. Um,
when you are building your team and when you were hiring so many folks over the
last few years, uh,
what did you really look for in somebody to bring on the team and, and how, um,
were you able to really retain them?
Especially over the past few years when I know there's been a lot of turnover
for a lot of organizations.
I, I, I think there's a measure of, um, maybe luck involved, honestly. Um,
but I, I, I look at, uh, the leaders in my,
in my area that I work with, and quite honestly,
the, the benefit of working at a community health center,
as people line up to the mission and you,
you can see that they wear that on their, on their sleeve. They're,
they're there for, um, making an impact in people's lives.
They believe in the mission that Evergreen has.
They believe in the values that we have there. Um, and they want to,
they wanna serve that population that we serve. So I think that helps. Um,
and then just kind of tying back to that, I, I think for me, um,
so I was raised on a, on a reservation in the Southwest.
It didn't come from much. And for someone to come in and allow me to, um, to,
they allowed, you know, me to take chances and, and make mistakes,
and they put training in front of me and they said, here you go. You're,
you're building this, um, kind of like I said,
and building from scratch and knowing that, um,
I was given the opportunity to make mistakes and learn as I go. I,
I try to make sure that's a culture, um,
that's in place for my teams and my leadership.
And I've seen them actually use that same model, um,
just to encourage their folks to grow and learn. Um, and again, as a,
a community health center,
we don't have all the dollars of a larger organization. Um,
so the folks we bring in, a lot of times we have to train and upskill them. And,
uh, that, that, I guess for us, the benefit of that is the folks really,
truly feel invested in because we're talking to them openly about their
career opportunities. And we, we have lost folks to larger organizations,
but we celebrate those losses because it's great for them,
it's great for them in their career path, and we're open about it.
We're having open conversations about it wherever, you know, as,
as much as we can. So that's, that's some of the, the culture piece that I, uh,
appreciate and I try to value with my team.
Absolutely. I love that. I, I think that makes a lot of sense, you know,
and it is really helpful for you to walk through.
Now before we wrap up our conversation,
I wanted to look into the crystal ball one more time.
Where do you see some of the best opportunities for growth and development for
your team and yourself and the future? Where do you see, um, adding skills or,
you know, really, uh,
needing to grow as the healthcare industry and technology evolves.
On the technology side for an organization our size, um,
we are actually, uh, moving, we've been moving over to cloud for some of our,
uh, solutions. We had a lot of on-prem solutions,
and so we're shifting over to cloud wherever we can.
So we wanna get out of the business of, of maintaining hardware, um,
and devices. And we want to kind of shift that over to cloud, wherever we can.
Um, while, you know, accepting some level of risk there. Um, on,
on the people side, um, you know, de and I has a big, been a big conversation.
And I think the culture that we created, um, at Evergreen in general,
uh, has been great. I, you know, we serve a large LGBTQ plus population, um,
and so for us to shift and, uh,
see that there's needs with other areas, I think for us,
that one is an eyeopener like to look at, to look internally and go, oh, wow,
we we're deficient in these areas, or we could do better. Um,
but I think the other side of that coin is we could take a page from how we've
been serving other folks and admit to where we are and saying, okay, we,
here we are. Here's our baseline, um, and here's some opportunities we can, um,
improve. And I think having, um,
open conversation with folks about our progress,
where we are and where we wanna be,
and asking for their feedback and their input has been very valuable.
And we've learned a lot of lessons along the way. Um, as you know,
Buffalo has had some tragic events recently, um, last May.
And so we've had to really, uh, make sure our presence was known,
um, to our, to the folks who work at Evergreen, um,
in addition to the larger community. So it's been quite, quite a,
i I would say, quite a, a tough past few years. Like I said,
a lot of lessons learned, but we've really tried to make sure we continue, um,
to look forward and, and just try to find opportunities to grow and learn.
Absolutely. Amazing. Well, Kevin,
thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
This has been a really fun discussion. I learned a lot and I, I look forward to,
uh, connecting with you again soon.
Thank you so much. I appreciate you.
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