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Would you like to exchange best
practices and ideas to improve care,

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enhance operational efficiency,

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and address financial
challenges with your peers?

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Becker's Healthcare is facilitating these
conversations at their eighth annual

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health, IT digital health and RCM meeting.

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You can check your eligibility for
complimentary attendance at the Lincoln,

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the description. We are excited
to welcome you in October.

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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 Brian Carlson,

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vice President of Patient Experience
at Vanderbilt Health. Brian,

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

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Thank you, Laura. It's
good to be with you.

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Now. I know we have a lot
to talk about right now.

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It's such an important and
incredible time in healthcare.

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But before we dive into my questions,

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

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Absolutely. Um, I, uh,

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currently serve as vice
president of patient experience
at Vanderbilt University

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Medical Center or Vanderbilt
Health in Nashville, Tennessee.

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I've been in this role for about 10
years. In prior to that, I was in, uh,

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group practice operations, uh,
running physician group practices.

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Got it. Wow.

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So definitely very closely aligned
with the physicians and now the patient

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experience. Um, given your current role,

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what do you see as being some of the
biggest issues that you're following in

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healthcare right now? I
can imagine, you know,

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there's so much happening with the
evolution of patient experience and

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consumerism in this space, so I,

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I'd just love to hear
what's top of mind for you.

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Yeah, I, I think first that's top of mind
and, and I think this is probably on,

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on most colleagues' minds
as well, is just the,

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the financial pressures that
most organizations are facing.

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It's a difficult time right now in
the healthcare space, uh, with, uh,

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the financial headwinds we have,

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but we're working our way through that
and obviously trying to stay true to our

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mission, uh, and visions
in each organization,

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and also holding to safe quality care
and, and outstanding experiences.

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So sometimes the financial
pressures don't, uh,

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always butt up well against
an ideal experience,

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but I think that we're weathering the
storm pretty well here at Vanderbilt and,

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and doing a nice job. I think the second
issue that I would put out there, and,

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and I heard this at the annual conference
last month at, uh, Becker's, is,

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is is the,

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the concept of culture and the importance
of it and the focus on it and the

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intentional need to be, uh, focusing
on culture within our organizations.

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Absolutely. I think that makes
a lot of sense. You know, and,

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and certainly especially during
times when there are, you know,

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budgets are tightening
and trying to really, uh,

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continue to provide great patient care.

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A big part of that is the
staff and the team, uh,

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within the organization that makes
the, the experience that much better.

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And so when you think
about the culture, um,

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and the intentional culture that
you've built at Vanderbilt, you know,

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what does that look
like? How have you, uh,

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continued to grow and develop within the
internal team so that you can make sure

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patients are receiving great care and a
great experience, uh, on the flip side?

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Yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a
great question. I think that there's,

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there's kind of four, four steps that,
that I think about. And the first is,

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is the importance of the foundational
items, the mission, vision, values,

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those behavioral standards, uh,

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that really are the guideposts
by which the workforce gauges on,

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on what do you expect me to do.

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And then from there is the expectation
or the need that we're transparent in

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talking about, you know,
those behavioral standards.

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And we need to do it continually.

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We can't just talk about it
in new employee orientation
and then stick it on a

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wall and expect people to live by it.

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They need to see it in
action day in and day out,

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and you need to continually
reteach the culture.

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So you need to be transparent about
it. You need to be discussing it.

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I think the,

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the third item is really around goal
alignment and ensuring the goals you

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have, uh, for the organization
are aligned. And, uh,

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everyone's working in the same,
in the same direction, uh,

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because that causes frustration.

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Which effects can affect culture if
people aren't rowing in, in the same, uh,

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in the same direction. And then, um,

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and then the last part is
really, uh, around the, um,

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uh, the cul the, the transparency
again, and that's just with data,

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patient experience, quality data.
It's just being open and honest.

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Financial situation is
being very transparent with
the workforce about here's

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where we are, here's where we want to go,

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and here's what we need to do
to need to do to get there.

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Absolutely. I love that.
I think that, you know,

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is so important and definitely is a
great roadmap to building the type of

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culture that you need in, in, um,
comfortability amongst team members to,

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to then, um, be able to deliver patient
care. So that's amazing to hear.

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What are you most excited about
right now? What makes you nervous?

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Well, you know, I'm gonna actually
go a little different direction, uh,

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because I,

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there's been a lot of discussion and
explosion lately with the concepts and the

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discussion around artificial intelligence
and how to use it. And I really, I'm,

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you know, I work, uh, in our digital
health space as well here at Vanderbilt.

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And, um, the prospects of that
are so exciting, you know,

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to make our jobs more efficient,
easier to be predictive,

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using big data and algorithms to, to do
that, that's exciting to think about,

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but it's also nervous because things
can go wrong. We have, we have, um,

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privacy, we've gotta think about, we've
got security, we've gotta think about,

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uh, we've got, you know, misuse that
we have to think about and, and,

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and the prospects for that. So it's,

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it's the same concept and I'm
both excited and nervous about it.

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Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense.
And I know, you know, right now, overall,

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artificial intelligence is experiencing
a huge renaissance, you know,

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evolving every single day in terms of
its capabilities and how people are using

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it to grow in different industries.
And healthcare is no different.

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Now from the healthcare perspective,
I know, as you mentioned,

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those discussions can be very varied,
um, that has a lot of potential,

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can do some really great things
from operational and clinical side,

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but also the areas privacy, security, um,

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in making sure that it's used in ethical
way are hugely important. Healthcare.

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So what are those discussions
like with your, your broader team?

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How do you really set
some of the guardrails?

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And I can imagine still in the very
early stages of the technology's evolving

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every day. Um, what are those
discussions like and how do you, uh,

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develop that on the digital health side?

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Yeah, yeah. And it, like you said, it's,
it's, it's developing, it's ongoing.

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But I think that starting with both
the, what are the opportunities,

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what are the things that we want to
do, what do we wanna get involved on?

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But then the guardrails really come into
play around what's the governance we

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need to set up to oversee
this? And of course, you know,

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you don't wanna be too stringent,

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but you gotta be stringent enough where
you make sure you're dotting all your I

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and crossing all your T's. So that's,

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that's still an ongoing conversation and
we haven't, we have not figured it out,

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uh, as most organizations ha have,
have, not either. But, uh, the,

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the prospects of, of that
governance aspects and how we, uh,

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think about safety, you know,
privacy, ethics, ethical uses,

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all of that stuff, our ongoing
conversations we're having,

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and it's that core group of governance
individuals that we need to establish and

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keep, keep talking about it
and learn from each other.

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We need to be sharing across organizations
as well so we don't duplicate and we

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can learn from each other
in, in those setups.

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Absolutely.

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I think that's so important and definitely
something that we aim to do, uh,

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at our meetings. As you mentioned,
our annual meeting earlier, uh,

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in the conversation,

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being able to just be on the forefront
of what's happening on a day-to-day basis

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is, um, so crucial.

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And so thank you so much for bringing
that in and mentioning it. Now,

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before we wrap up our conversation,
I wanted to look into the future.

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We've talked a lot about some of the
ways that healthcare is changing,

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whether it's focusing on the
patient, the consumer, and then two,

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having artificial intelligence,
uh, really mm-hmm.

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<affirmative> takes
center stage in many ways.

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So what will effective healthcare leaders
need to be successful over the next

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two to three years?

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Yeah, that's a, that's another
really good question. I,

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I think the first thing that comes
to mind for me is, is the idea that,

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that healthcare is the
ultimate team sport.

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We can't operate individually and we
need to surround ourselves with le with

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with individuals that we trust and that
are working towards the common goal.

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Cuz if we have, if we trust each
other, if we can put that to the side,

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we're gonna be much more effective
in our ability to handle the,

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the very challenging problems, uh,

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but also exciting ones that
we have ahead of us. So the,

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the team aspect of it in the leadership
space and across the organization and

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who you're working with and,
and are you tied to the,

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the goal of the organization
is very important.

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I think the second thing that I would say
is keeping an eye on the workforce and

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that, that cultural aspect, you know,

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the last couple years have been with Covid
and then coming out of Covid and, um,

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you know, the, now the
financial headwinds,

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people want to believe in something
that's bigger than themselves.

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And healthcare has the,

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is the ultimate place for that to happen
because we do miracles every single

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day,

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but we need to continue to translate
that to the many thousands of individuals

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that come, come in our organization
and wanna be part of that,

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that bigger picture. So
how can we support them?

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How can we make their jobs a little more
effective? How can we make it easier,

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uh, for them so they can feel that pride
in the work they're doing? I think the,

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the third thing is just, is
the continued explosion of,

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of technology and our ability to
assess, uh, accurately assess,

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you know, what are the
problems we're trying to solve,

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and then how can that
technology help us? We,

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we can't add technology just because
it's the shiny dollar and it looks great

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and, and we, we think it's gonna solve
something and it may solve something,

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but actually may cause other
problems down the line.

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So you have to be very intentional these
days about what's the technology we're

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gonna introduce, and
is it truly solving a,

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a workforce or a patient problem to
make things a little easier and a little

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more effective? Um, and I,

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the last thing I would say is
back to that team aspect is,

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and also back to the financial headwinds,

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is in the experience space
now is not the time to,

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to use the financial headwinds
to reduce the experience,

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you need to lean into it further because
the experience is human experience,

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it's both patient and employee.

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And having intentional conversations
and professionals working in that space

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will make the organization
not much more effective. And,

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and now's not the time in the financial
pressures to cut those types of

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programs.

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

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and certainly that human human
relationship makes, you know,

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all the difference in the world when you
think about the experience in patient

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care. And it brings up a
really great point, um,

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as we've been talking through healthcare
resources are precious right now more

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than ever. And, and so from
the patient experience lens,

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if you know you're a hospital or health
system that is facing some of these

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challenges in a tightening budget, um,

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but still want to be supportive
of these initiatives and,

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and move forward with the great patient
experience and great patient care, uh,

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what you,

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you prioritize when you're thinking
about your investments and thinking about

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what needs to, um, come in, whether it's
from the personnel side or technology,

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what do you really need to
prioritize to, to have a, um,

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great patient experience team in, in,
uh, culture within your organization, uh,

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but also being mindful of the budget?

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Yeah, I, I, I mean, I go back, it's the,
it's the effective workforce. I mean,

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um, happy employees, equal happy patients,

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and we need to continually
lean into, you know, working,

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uh, across disciplines. So
hr, marketing, operations,

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patient experience with the lens
and the focus on what are we doing

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for the workforce to make their jobs a
little easier, a little more effective.

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And then the ways to do that is also
being how can we introduce technology into

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and, and, and technology solutions
to make process processes easier. Um,

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but I always, always go back
to the behavioral standards,

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the values of the organization. Are you
continually reminding the workforce,

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the guiderails or the guard posts for
how you expect the care to be delivered

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and how you expect individuals in
the organization to interact and,

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and work with each other.
And if you do that,

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if you have those and
you do that consistently,

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you're gonna win on the experience side.

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I love it. Brian, thank you so much
for joining us on the podcast today.

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This has been a really
fascinating discussion and
I look forward to connecting

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with you again soon.

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00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:11,660
My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

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It's so important for leaders at the
top of organizations to keep learning,

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00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:21,170
stay sharp, grow their networks,

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00:12:21,560 --> 00:12:24,650
help our audience better do this
in a more simplified, personalized,

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00:12:24,750 --> 00:12:28,530
and meaningful way. Becker's
Healthcare has launched my bhc,

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00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,210
it's your trusted Becker's healthcare
experience and more with content,

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00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:34,490
connections, events and
learning opportunities.

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00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:40,090
Join the community free of
charge@www.my dot becker's hospital

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00:12:40,090 --> 00:12:42,050
review.com and we'll see you there.