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This is Laura Dedo with the
Becker's Healthcare Podcast.

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I'm thrilled today to be
joined by Michael Sod,

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senior Vice President and Chief
Information Officer at the University of

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Tennessee Medical Center. Michael,

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it's a pleasure to have
you on the podcast today.

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Thank you, Laura. I
appreciate you having me back.

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Now, I know we've got a lot to talk about.

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There's so much happening in technology
as moving rapidly in the healthcare

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space, but before we
dive into my questions,

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can you tell me a little bit more
about yourself and your background?

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Sure. So I am the Senior Vice President
and Chief Information Officer at the

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University of Tennessee Medical Center.
It is located in Knoxville, Tennessee.

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I have just passed my seven
year mark there now. Uh,

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prior to that I was with a consulting
firm that did healthcare consulting, uh,

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a number of healthcare
organizations across the
country, and then prior to that,

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really cut my teeth in healthcare at
Henry Ford Health System based out of

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Detroit, Michigan.

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Excellent. Well, we're excited
to have you here today. Now,

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what are some of the big opportunities
that you're seeing right now at the

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University of Tennessee Medical Center
and the headwinds that you had your eye

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on too?

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Yeah, I think from a headwinds
perspective, you know,

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we're seeing the same thing a number
of health systems are seeing in that as

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just financial pressures that are
continuing to increase almost quarter by

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quarter right now.

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Many of those are driven by things that
you're very familiar with, whether it's,

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you know, supply chain, uh,
inflationary costs, or, you know,

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staffing costs. All of those are, are
factoring into that healthcare is,

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as you well know,

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is an industry very somewhat unlike retail
and other industries where we cannot

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necessarily pass on those additional
costs to our consumers. Right.

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So that puts us in an interesting place
where we have to either take that out of

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our bottom line or find ways to become
more efficient and offset some of those

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costs. So, you know,

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every health system across the country
I know is dealing with these same

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challenges and,

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and I think it's trying to figure
out how do we look at what tools are

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available to us to, to perform some of
that. Now from a technology perspective,

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of course I'm biased and I do think that
technology certainly can help with that

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and aid in a lot of the
optimization that, uh,

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has the opportunity to take place
across health systems in the country.

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And University of Tennessee
Medical Center is,

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is a great example of that as well.

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We're leveraging technology and certain
and very specific and targeted areas

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to really help and assist with, uh,

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some cost containment and helping us to
understand where we can drive additional

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efficiencies that have an
impact on our bottom line.

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Absolutely.

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I think that's a really great point and
definitely something that you said a lot

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of healthcare organizations are
trying to troubleshoot. So, you know,

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when you look at what that looks like
from a technology standpoint, um,

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bringing in additional, um, tools or,
or technologies that can help with,

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um, the the organization overall,

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what does that mean for growth and
development and, and for you as a,

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the c I o adding value to
the organization overall?

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Yeah,

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I think we are somewhat in
a unique position from a
growth perspective in that a

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number of my colleagues that I speak
with at other health systems during covid

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took that opportunity to slow down
some of their facility expansions. Uh,

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we did, we,

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we'd have a very different take on that
and we actually in many ways accelerated

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our facility expansion.

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So we are just getting ready to open
our first freestanding emergency

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department. We have several regional
health centers that have opened this year,

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and a number of partnerships,

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whether they're joint ventures or
trives in areas like, uh, imaging,

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behavioral health and, uh,
rehab and patient rehab.

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So we continue to expand
in that space and,

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and I think it delivers value in
a number of ways as one enabling

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all of those, uh, strategic
priorities to happen.

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And it's everything from infrastructure
to applications to project management,

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IT security, kind of all the facets of it.

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And then it's also ensuring that those
digital initiatives and other things that

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are not necessarily facility driven still
take place and that that work doesn't

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necessarily slow down because we're
doing these type of expansions.

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So I think it can bring value to the
organization in both delivering the here

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and now,

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but also setting us up for future success
and making sure that we enable the

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organization to be
successful going forward.

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Absolutely. I, I think that's
a really great point and um,

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definitely love that focus on
making sure you've got the, um,

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priorities in place. When you're
looking at the broader team,

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how do you communicate what's going to
be most important for them on any given

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day or week or, or, or month
in terms of their projects,

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and then how to make
sure, as you were saying,

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the other things that they're
responsible for still get done, um,

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especially in an environment where
there's so much happening, um,

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and change happens so quickly?

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Yeah, that's a great question. I think
one tool that we found very helpful is a,

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is a roadmap. I mean, essentially it's,

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it's communicating very
clearly with the teams,

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with the leadership in IT and making sure
that's cascaded down and then directly

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with the team members themselves
to help them understand, one,

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the mission and vision and value of the
organization and how the work that they

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do is integral to helping our patients.

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Because sometimes when you're not at
the bedside, you can lose sight of that.

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And I think it's so important that
even the support services like it,

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for example,

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feel that they can make a contribution
and an impact in the lives of our

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patients and the caregivers. So I
think that's certainly one piece of it.

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And then that roadmap where
it's clearly laid out,

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we know quarter to quarter or year
to year, here's our focus and we can,

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we can stay focused on the priorities
on at hand and if there are other

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strategic priorities that pop up, cuz
that does happen from time to time,

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it then gives us the opportunity to look
and prioritize and reprioritize based

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on our governance structure,
what we should be focused on.

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But I think having that roadmap
and letting our staff know,

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here's what is we're
working on, here's why,

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here's the value that we're going to
bring to our community by doing these

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projects. I think that really
helps, um, them stay focused.

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Absolutely. I love that. And you
know, in, in along those lines,

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you have the roadmap and you've got
the team really focused and ready to go

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other spaces that are gonna be most
impactful for the organization. Um,

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but when you look ahead,

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what is one risk or investment
that's still worth making this year,

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especially thinking through some of the
challenges and then I, in many cases,

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um, you know, wanting to use
the healthcare resources,

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whether time or dollar as well.

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From an investment perspective,

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I think investing in the expansion
of digital platforms and,

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and that can be kinda all
things digital platform,

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and I know that's an
all-encompassing term, you know,

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we hear terms like digital front door
and that can mean different things to

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different people,

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but what we're hearing from our
patients and from our consumers is that,

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you know,

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60% of consumers expect digital
healthcare experience to mirror

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their retail experience or their
experience in other sectors.

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And we have a lot of work to do from
a healthcare industry to get there.

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So I think technology specifically,
like, you know, telehealth,

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I'm still very bullish on telehealth. Uh,

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I think we have a lot of opportunity
in that space. Uh, behavioral health,

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rural health.

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I think there's a tremendous opportunity
in underserved areas for telehealth.

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And if you look at who's
making investments in that
space right now, you know,

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the payers are making significant
investments in that space. Um, pharmacies,

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you know, the CVSs, the Walgreens,

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and then some of the large
retailers like on Amazon.

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So they continue to make
investments in that space. So I,

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I know some organizations have dialed
back their telehealth strategy. I,

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I think we still need to push forward.

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I'm very bullish on that
and think there's, there's
a lot of value in doing so.

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But, you know, digital
registration and check-in process,

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those type of things that, again,

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we're familiar with from a
consumer perspective. I mean,

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you can have sit on your couch and
literally order your food and have it

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delivered right to your door and
take care of the tip and everything.

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And I think that level of convenience
is what consumers are looking for and

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frankly, starting to demand from their
healthcare providers. And, you know,

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you asked about the risk
and the investment, I think
the risk is not doing that.

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I think organizations that
are not venturing into that
digital health space are

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going to fall behind and do so pretty
quickly and it will be hard for them to

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catch up.

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Absolutely. That's a really great
point. And, you know, so, uh,

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important in looking to the
future and having that, uh,

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digital health and the telehealth
platform as you mentioned. Um,

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is there anything when you think through,
you know, policies or regulations, uh,

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you know, could change at any
point, <laugh>, um, so you know,

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when you're diving into some of these
strategies that might be a little bit

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uncertain, um, from the regulatory
reimbursement perspective, uh, how do you,

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uh, control for that, I guess
if it's possible in, in, uh,

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where do those discussions
go when they're having,

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you're having them at a high level?

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Yeah,

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and that we're very cautious in that
space if you take things like hospital at

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home, right?

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I think that's one area where we're very
cautious and trying to understand from

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a legislative perspective
what that looks like.

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And that can change from
election cycle to election cycle.

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But I think some of those
type of things were,

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were more cautious and kind of dipping
our toe in the water to make sure that

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we're not expanding a lot of effort in
that area only to later find out that it,

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it it financially is not feasible
or, or doesn't benefit our patients.

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Some areas like telehealth, I think
we're far enough down the road now. I,

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I think that really is cemented into,
uh, the, the payer process. And again,

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if you look at some of the large
payers they're requiring and,

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and they're doing millions of telehealth
visits themselves a year. So I,

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I think from an incentive perspective,

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they are certainly incentivized to
keep that program moving forward.

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And the federal government from a payer
perspective is doing the same thing.

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You know, the digital
registration, all of that. I,

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I don't know that that's
necessarily impacted by legislation,

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but you do make a good point,
I think in some of those areas,

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like hospital at home is a great example
that we do need to understand from a

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legislative perspective what that looks
like before I think we kind of go all in

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on that process.

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Absolutely. Great point. Thank you for,
for sharing a little bit on that. Now,

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um, before we wrap up our conversation,

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I wanted to look into
the future as well. Um,

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what do you see some of the best
opportunities for growth and development,

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whether it's for yourself as CIO or
the teams that you lead most closely?

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I I think expanding their skillsets from
a team perspective is very important.

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Um, especially, you know, it is
unique in healthcare in some ways, um,

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and in other ways it's not unique. What
I mean by that is if you are a nurse,

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you work in healthcare as a nurse,

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now you can work at a
skilled nursing facility,

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you could work at an outpatient clinic,
you could work in a hospital setting,

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but you do work within healthcare,
typically speaking in it,

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unless you are a Epic or Cerner or
something kind of focused on those type of

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specific healthcare systems,
you can work in any industry.

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So if you're on the infrastructure
team or the systems team,

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you can go work in any
industry. And so, uh,

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and the same thing even on the
application side or you know,

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the e r P system support. So I,

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I think it's important to continue
to invest in our staff and help

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them, uh, grow and educate
and learn more about, uh,

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the tools and technologies
that are out there.

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Because just as we're pushing
healthcare forward to embrace digital,

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that also means that we need to shift
some of our skill sets in it to be able to

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enable that. And, you know, as we move
more towards the cloud, for example,

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that means that we have
less on-premise servers,

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systems storage that we need to support.

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But how do we refash those positions and
take that skillset and make it so that

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they now can support the cloud systems
or pivot to more of a cybersecurity

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posture. So I think those type of things,

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I think we're gonna have to continue
to constantly look at the workforce and

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understand where is technology going
and making sure that we've got the

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expertise in the house that
can help deliver on those, uh,

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goals and strategic priorities.

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That's a really great point. Michael.

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Thank you so much for joining
us on the podcast today.

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This has been a really fun and interesting
discussion and I look forward to

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connecting with you again soon.

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00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:48,750
Thank you having me,
Laura. I appreciate it.