- Welcome to Becker Healthcare Podcast, made
for people who power US healthcare.
I'm Molly Gamble with Becker's,
and today I'm sitting down with Dr. Shaw, vice President
and Chief Medical Officer
with Advocate Condell Medical Center.
Dr. Shaw, welcome. Thank you for being the,
our guest on the podcast today.
How are you? And where's the podcast? Find you.
- Oh, I'm so glad to be joining this podcast.
Thank you so much for having me, and I'm doing really well.
I am, uh, here at the hospital at Advocate Con Medical
Center in the middle of Spring Break,
and really, uh, enjoying the transition of going from winter
to, uh, you know, springtime in Chicagoland.
So really excited to be here and talk about healthcare
and all the amazing transitions
that are happening, uh, throughout healthcare.
- Very much so. For listeners not in the Midwest,
we had our full spring now, second winter.
I think this next time might be the real thing.
Dr. Shaw. Um,
- Can, - Can you share a, a few key facts about
Advocate Con Medical Center?
It's, it's part of Advocate Aurora Health. Correct.
Can you, can you share more about the hospital?
- That's correct. So, advocate Aurora Health, uh, is the,
uh, part of Advocate Health overall,
which is the National Organization health System, uh,
consistent of, uh,
over 60 plus hospitals all throughout the country.
Uh, but, uh, advocate Aurora Health is, uh, co collaboration
between Illinois
and the Wisconsin market, uh, with, you know, uh,
advocate kind of medical center being one
of the hospitals in the Libertyville,
northern suburb of Chicago area.
Uh, we're the largest part
of the largest healthcare network, uh, in Illinois.
Uh, we are the largest hospital in Lake County, uh,
which is a northern county to cook, uh, which is one
of the biggest county in Illinois.
We're, uh, only level one trauma center in Lake County.
We perform the most surgeries at in, in Lake County.
At Con Medical Center.
We have the largest intensive care unit,
the largest medical staff,
and we're the, also the largest employer in the
market in our county.
We have, uh, 275 beds that are part of our hospital.
Uh, we have, uh,
over a thousand deliveries every year at the hospital,
o over 12,000 surgeries, uh, with about 15,000 admissions,
50,000 ED visits, 250,000 outpatient visits.
We have a thousand providers on our medical staff.
We have about 2200 teammates
and about 250 plus volunteers that are part of our team, um,
that help us take care of the patients in our county.
- Terrific. So, I mean, this hospital wears a lot
of different caps and hats in the, in Lake County, Illinois.
You also said you're on the, the market
that hinges on Illinois and Wisconsin.
Um, can you tell us about some of the initiatives
or areas of work that have been commanding most
of your energy or attention, SCMO
and Vice President as of late Dr. Shaw?
- Yeah. Uh, as you know,
our healthcare market is emerging out of, you know, uh,
the COVID-19 pandemic.
And as we've emerged out of that pandemic, uh, it's been,
uh, such an interesting journey.
I think we've learned a lot about, uh, you know,
the best place to care, uh, in terms of what is the role
of acute care facilities?
How do we, uh, serve, uh, for the wellness
and wellbeing of all of the communities
that we serve in the surrounding areas, as well
as learning more about the, our, the care model itself.
Is this the ideal model? What can we innovate?
One of the most exciting things that has emerged out
of the healthcare is just the evolution of technology
that could be deployed in healthcare.
So it's been exciting to be,
to being a part of that journey.
It also brings a lot of challenges, uh, key area focus areas
that we continue to work on
at advocate conduct medical centers.
Obviously, first and foremost is the quality
and health outcome for the patients that we serve.
Uh, we wanna make sure that we are the best in terms
of delivering the care model.
We put, uh, us our patients always at the center
of the care model, and make sure
that they're actually getting the highest level of care,
regardless of their background, their ethnicity,
their diversity, or whatever
that may they bring to the table.
Um, our providers have been with us for such a long time,
but continuing to help them grow, emerge outta the pandemic,
support them, uh, with the latest technology
and tools so that we can continue to be the best in class
for delivering the highest quality of care.
At the same time, we also need to balance the quality
of care with safety of care.
And, um, you know, oftentimes that safety
of care may require us to think more broadly
and strategically around some of our efforts, uh,
if our workflows are aligned with the safest outcome as well
as the highest quality outcome.
And it's the balance of those two that always continues
to drive us forward as our mission and our value.
And that's our, you know, part of our operations
and day to day that begins with our morning huddle, uh,
where we connect with our entire team
and talk about all the issues that relate to safety
and quality for the day, as well
as throughout our every single encounter.
Um, and, and, uh, our, uh, department meetings,
et cetera throughout the day
that we really focus on quality and safety of care.
Mm-Hmm, . The second area that is a focus
for us is around technology.
And how do we embrace the exponential growth in technology
that is being seen in healthcare?
Um, what there are many technology
with this exponential growth comes a challenge
of figuring out which pieces really have, uh,
great value for the patients that we serve,
and which pieces have not been proven yet,
and really need a little more experience.
And so navigating through that, um, you know,
looking at our efficiencies
and healthcare delivery, um, you know,
things like incorporation of automation, uh, as far
as technology is concerned, how do we optimize user for EMR?
How do we make sure that we have, have, um,
adequate resources to support some
of the technology framework that we need?
And then because this field of technology is so vast
with many different systems that are no,
don't necessarily work well together, we continue
to look at our manual processes
that connect these systems together,
and how do we, uh, you know, improve the efficiency of that
or create more automation, more, uh, intrinsic connectivity
to drive that forward forward.
So those are some things we look at.
We, we are constantly focused on our value-based care model.
Are we creating the right value
for the communities that we serve?
Are we creating the, the right, uh, opportunities, uh,
and are we making sure that we're, we're, uh,
decreasing the, uh, health disparities in the markets
that we serve, uh, through our value-based care efforts?
How are we doing with our outreach
and making sure that everyone in the counties
that we serve has a fair, uh, chance at, you know,
achieving the best health outcome possible?
Um, the, the fourth area of focus
for us is looking at our staffing and turnover.
I'm sure you all have heard that, uh, staffing
and turnover from a hospital perspective
has been a huge challenge emerging out of the pandemic.
There's been significant burnout from healthcare teams.
There's increasing level of behavioral health needs, um,
even in the medical, uh, care model.
And that has led to a lot of workplace violence and,
and difficulty in the care environment area.
So we continue to work with, um, organizing around that,
providing support to our teammates,
and maybe even thinking about different skill sets
that a lot of our care teams will need
to have going forward, including crisis management,
including thinking about leveraging
and using behavioral health resources more judiciously
and more efficiently, uh, looking at
how do we incorporate behavioral healthcare
and integrate the care model to provide holistic care.
And then last but not least, looking at
what is the optimal place of service for care delivery.
Um, so those are, uh, kind of the things that we're tackling
as part of the staffing and turnover model.
How do we create, um, joy in medicine so
that people enjoy coming to work and healthcare
and not feel like they're burned out from
the demands of healthcare?
One of the great things about, uh, our world today is
that information is so easy to access, uh, through internet
and through multiple resources online.
Some of that information is great, some
of the information is not so great.
Our patients and communities are empowered with a lot of
that mixed information.
And, you know, the new tasks that we have
as healthcare teams is really helping our patients sort out
through that information, really make sense
of what's out there, um, convince them of the science
behind healthcare and the medical knowledge,
and then also continue to advocate for their best interest.
Um, so those are challenges that really are,
are stressing our teams
and continuing to work through how do we support them,
how do we train them, and how do we build the right, uh,
structures around them, um, so
that we can leverage their skillsets to the best
of their ability and really give them the joy
of practicing medicine.
Mm-Hmm. actually,
physician wellness is also part of that.
And looking at how do we, uh, continue
to prevent burnout from physicians?
How do we continue to support our providers, uh, physicians,
our, uh, advanced practice clinicians, our nursing team, um,
everyone so that we have a very healthy work environment.
Everyone works as a team and there's joy in, uh, practice
and delivering of care.
Uh, reimbursement constraints always earned on our mind
as we think about how do we innovate in a space
where reimbursements are tightening up?
You've heard that Medicare, um, is continuing
to push forward with some cuts to providers
and to, uh, facilities.
And so as we look at that model, how do we continue
to look at how do we fund programs
that innovate in the space of
reducing healthcare disparities, creating more,
more health equity, uh, delivering the right care model, uh,
incorporating new technology.
All of that requires investment.
And so thinking through how do we balance that
reimbursement, uh, tightness with continued innovation
is another challenge that we face at the hospital,
but we continue to work through that.
And I think, you know,
the best support we have is continuing
to develop our leadership model,
having support at every level,
and working as a team to navigate through these issues that
as our healthcare markets emerge out of the pandemic
and look at new opportunities to, uh,
deliver care in a more efficient
and more value oriented manner.
- Yeah. Well, Dr. Shyman, you just hit on so much,
and I, I appreciate the, the rich overview you shared there.
You know, when you started your response,
you had made mention of emerging out of covid to 19.
And just for listeners, I mean, we are meeting
and talking, I would say about,
right about the four year mark
of just when things started to really unfold.
And, you know, one thing I would love your perspective on,
I remember 2021, even 2022, a great amount of attention
and curiosity around what types of disruptions would unfold
as people either put off care, delayed care did not go in
for checkups and appointments.
Has that played out to,
to be a big disruption for the system?
Uh, is that something that
the healthcare system was relatively able to absorb
or was it something that just didn't exactly pose
as much disruption as maybe people feared or anticipated?
- And I think great question and,
and I, I, uh, you know, completely, um, agree with,
you know, kind of your sentiment about that, that curiosity,
that, um, sort of anxiety that we had going
through the pandemic in terms of delayed care.
We are seeing little bit of that.
And if you look at this year
and look at the performance of hospitals across the country,
uh, every single hospital in every environment has seen a
significant increase in volume.
And I think part of that volume really comes from
that delayed care that we had seen during the pandemic.
Um, obviously some of the delayed care, especially
with a lot of the chronic conditions, delayed surgeries,
we had an immediate catch up period
as we emerged outta the pandemic.
But we're still recovering a lot from that resurgence of
that delayed care when it comes to chronic condition.
A lot of delayed care led to, uh,
you know, potential complications.
We're seeing some beginning of that right now in terms of
how do we catch people up with their health and wellness?
How do we get them caught up with all of the procedures, uh,
you know, that were put off during that time.
Uh, to give you one example,
we're seeing a significant increase in surgical volumes at,
uh, advocate Condo Medical Center.
And part of that increase in volume is related
to elective procedures.
And these were procedures that truly were put off
for the last two, three years.
Uh, as people were unsure about the safety
of these procedures, they were unsure about the safety
of the environment in the hospital,
and they, you know, continue
to question, do I really need it?
And I think now it's coming to the point where we are,
we're comfortable with, you know, uh, the emerging out
of COVID-19 and,
and really reassuring ourself, uh, to return back
to the normalcy that we had prior to 2019.
And so I think, um, we, we are seeing, uh, you know,
a tail effect of that, um, emergence and,
and then I think there's gonna be a second wave of
that effect, which is gonna be part of
that delayed screening and care.
Um, and we're hoping to catch a lot of people up
with those screenings so that we can continue to be ahead
of this trend and, you know, protect people and,
and their health and wellness.
I'll give you one example of that.
We have almost increased our colonoscopy screening volumes
by 150% at the hospital.
And part of that was the delayed care
that we had for a couple of years.
There's also been more increasing,
we're finding in our communities of health awareness where,
uh, there may have been reluctance
to pursue these procedures,
but the vulnerability in our health really was, you know,
was highlighted during the pandemic.
And so there's lot more, um, eagerness to, uh, pro,
you know, take advantage of preventative services
and making sure that the preventative screenings are done.
So I, I feel like there is that emergence back out
and some of the positive effects of, of pandemic are driving
sort of that, uh,
increasing demand in healthcare services. Mm
- Mm-Hmm.
, I, I appreciate you speaking to that
because it's been something that we, we know it's,
I imagine it's difficult
to suss out exactly when there's changes in volume like
that, exactly what the origins or causes are.
But I was curious
'cause I I think too, part
of it's not all on patients, right?
It's like if they are trying to resume care,
access is also part of it.
Um, and ensuring that it can be seen in a timely fashion.
- You bring up a very good point.
That's the next challenge that we have, right?
And, um, you can imagine that, you know,
strategically thinking through this is
so critically important.
How sustainable is this model?
Is this a transient demand that is going
to subside at some point?
Uh, and then we need to really think strategically about
how do we create more flexibility in our healthcare model.
Um, uh, you know, in United States,
especially in this country, we are
so rigid in our healthcare approach, right?
For acute care needs.
We, we always look at hospital being the environment.
If you need any procedures.
Um, still majority
of procedures are done in the inpatient hospital setting.
Uh, we, we don't utilize the ambulatory surgery centers
or, uh, office-based procedures as quickly
and as readily as we should.
And so I think part of this is that we, we have such
rigidity in our, uh, care delivery.
Um, and one of the things that the pandemic has taught us is
that we really need to be a lot more flexible in terms of
how we deliver care.
What do we think about our care model?
What, what else can we incorporate
and how can we leverage technology
to create this flexibility going forward?
And so I think it's one of the active parts of discussion
that we have every day, which is really thinking
through what's our strategic approach?
How do we manage the demand and access to care
and making sure that, um, with this increasing demand,
we don't push on, uh, continued health disparity, right?
We are, we are providing equitable care to everybody
and then we're creating equal access for everybody
that we're not disadvantaging one community over another.
Um, so that is a constant vigilance that we need to have.
And at the same time, what do we do when, you know,
the demand may not be there if it goes up and down.
Uh, I know we invest a lot in creating new resources.
How do we funnel those resources
to something more efficient down the
road, if that is needed?
And building that right off the bat is critically important
to, to being that flexible in the future.
- Mm-Hmm. , Dr. Mike Shaw, vice President
and CMO with Advocate Condo Medical Center.
I mean, you surely have given us a very helpful overview
of the work behind us and the work still in front
of other CMOs like you and their, and their executive teams.
Is there anything else you wanted to add in closing
for our listeners today?
- Molly, thank you so much for this opportunity.
I just wanna say that this is an
exciting time in healthcare.
Uh, we are going through some very big
changes in the next decade.
Healthcare delivery will be transformed
in such a meaningful way for all of us.
And I think it's in our, all of our best interests
to stay on top of the trends in the market, as well
as continue to contribute to the best
of our ability in navigating through this change
and also creating a better future for all of us.
So I hope to be part of this journey.
And again, thank you so much for the opportunity
to be part of the podcast.
- Thank you for your leadership
and your active participation, Dr. Shah.
- Thank you.