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the description. We are excited to welcome you in October.
This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Alan Weiss,
chief Medical Information Officer at Bay Health. Dr.
Weiss is a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
Glad to be here.
Now. I'm excited to have you here and,
and talk a little bit more about what you're doing on the, at Baker Health,
thinking about clinical informatics and how you're bridging the gap between
clinical and it. But before we dive into my questions,
can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and your background?
Sure. Um, so I am a general internist by background and practice. I,
after my residency,
I spent about 10 years practicing at the Cleveland Clinic while doing
informatics, helping them to roll out epic and improve it. In fact,
a lot of the work that I did reported directly to the C I O and they were
projects trying to improve patient care, improve the quality of care,
reduce the costs, making physicians more efficient. Uh,
I was doing that while practicing and teaching and doing a number of other
things for the Cleveland Clinic. And at some point I decided, you know, that,
um, I was sort of tired of, of doing too many jobs all at once and thought,
all right, I wanna do informatics full time.
Spent time working at the Cedar signing,
helping them roll out Epic on the inpatient side.
Transferred over to Memorial Herman in Houston, Texas,
where I helped them on the ambulatory side to convert from GE
centricity to Cerner.
And I've been here at the Bay Medical System for about five years as their
system cm. I o Just a, a a little bit more about my background.
I actually have a computer science undergraduate degree and spent a number of
years working in the pharmaceutical industry,
helping them create, uh, data and analytics that help to get, uh,
drugs on the market and,
and help to do reporting to the FDA into medical journals.
That was before I went to medical school. So I, I have a,
a background in technology and a background in data and analytics,
which helps me in the job that I do. You know, I also wanna mention that the,
the Baker Health System is the largest healthcare provider here in the Tampa Bay
area. We just opened our 16th hospital. We have, uh,
somewhere in the range of about 170 outpatient clinics and facilities.
We do roughly about 160,000 admissions a year,
somewhere close to 600 to 650,000 ED visits,
and over 2 million visits on the ambulatory side. So we're a,
a great healthcare system located in Tampa Bay,
and I'll say that I'm very impressed that they're, they're, uh,
they like to say that quality is their true north and they, they, uh,
practice what they preach. They really are trying to improve the,
the quality of the care that they provide. So that's a bit about me and,
and my organization.
Well, that's amazing to hear, and certainly, you know, what a great, uh,
span of opportunities you've had in healthcare,
both as you mentioned on the clinical side, as well as the technology side,
and really making a difference for organizations as they're trying to figure out
how to integrate technology, um,
in a way that will make their operations more efficient as well as boost patient
care. Now, when you look at where you're at at BayCare Health,
and especially as you mentioned,
an eye towards improving care quality in that care experience,
what are some of the big opportunities that you're looking at as well as the
headwinds you have your eye on right now?
Oof. Um, let me do the, um,
let me do opportunities right now. I, I, I think bay,
like other healthcare systems are as, uh,
struggling with the revenue aspect of
healthcare in a post pandemic, you know, covid endemic, uh,
kind of situation. You know,
most of us have found that there's been an increase in costs.
They're both supply costs, increases, uh, personnel cost increases,
and frankly, a a lack of,
of enough of the right qualified personnel for certain positions.
So we're struggling on that front. So from a revenue point of view,
a lot of healthcare systems like BayCare are,
are really trying to figure out how do you do more with less?
How do you make the system work, uh, achieve the efficiencies,
achieve the right patient quality and,
and do so in such a way that it,
it actually goes in accord with the mission that you have. And, and that's,
that's one of the biggest challenges that we have in,
in today's market in that regard. I'll, I'll tell you that, that, um,
EHR optimization remains a key challenge in there.
We are really looking for ways that we can help providers
decrease their burnout, become more efficient, and,
and that means rethinking the workflows inside of the electronic health record,
trying to make them more efficient,
trying to remove barriers to getting work done that are exist inside of the
ehr. We're trying to reduce the clutter of what they're seeing on the screens,
pointing them more towards the information that they need and they have to have
at their fingertips. Um, in some cases,
what we're doing inside the EHR is trying to automate tasks so that the, the,
uh, the providers don't have to do it and their staff don't have to do it. Uh,
for instance, we, we recently did some changes to the way we bill both vaccin
vaccinations and, uh, just a normal visits.
And that resulted in something like about a half million fewer, uh,
edits that needed to be done by our staff every single year. So, you know,
those kinds of, of automations, I, I think are,
are ways that we can add value to the system and help in the mission itself.
You know, once again, if you,
if you can take care of these issues inside of the electronic health record,
providers will be less burnt out.
They won't need as much staff because things will be getting done automatically.
It helps with the bottom line.
We are busy looking for those opportunities across our healthcare system, uh,
and, and really trying to see if there's some, some good synergies there. So it,
we, we've got a lot of projects, we've got a lot of challenges, but it's, um,
it's fascinating work. So that's one aspect of the opportunities.
The, the second aspect, I, I think that from the opportunity that,
that we're embracing is the whole notion of using artificial intelligence and,
and what that means when it comes to delivering patient care.
And we're exploring all kinds of AI types of applications, uh,
across our system. Some of those are, uh, AI applications dealing, let's say,
with radiology where it helps to identify images or where,
you know, identify strokes, identify other types of, of,
of results within images. Um,
in some cases it's just looking at the radiology reports and trying to see if
there's something that we can pull out of the radiology reports to help with
patient quality or patient follow up. We're, we're working on,
on a number of AI applications that are really focused in radiology. I,
I think that's, that's, uh, gonna pay off in the, in the long run. Uh,
the other types of AI applications that we're investigating is stuff that is
related to helping providers recognize conditions and document in a,
in a more comprehensive way so they don't forget those conditions.
And so that the,
the way they document helps to make sure that the people know the patient's
story in a better way. Um, one thing we're doing is, is exploring the,
the product nuance Dax. I think that's one of the,
the big opportunities out there. The,
a provider spend an awful lot of time developing their notes,
writing their notes. As a provider who's done that now for over 20 years,
it takes a lot of cognitive, um,
energy to go through and create the,
the notes and write 'em in such a way that they're comprehensive and communicate
the right types of, of features, the right types of decision making,
the right physical exam findings. We're,
we're hoping that nuanced acts by just listening to the conversation between the
patient and the provider can help write that note on behalf of the provider.
And by doing so, uh, help to reduce that cognitive burden. So we're,
we're looking at the different AI applications to help out and in some way,
once again, deal with patient quality issues, deal with, uh,
workflow issues and, and somehow help the providers at the point of care.
I love that. It sounds like, you know, really a, a helpful tool with, uh,
nuanced Act and other AI-driven, um,
technologies that can really make a big difference for hospitals and health
systems as they're, uh,
finding ways to become more efficient and decrease burnout. Um, and especially,
I, I know you talked a little bit too about E H R optimization, which, um,
is so crucial and so critical, especially as I know, you know,
a lot of organizations are experiencing some sort of staff or workforce
shortages and trying to continue to provide great levels of patient care.
It just, you know, makes everything more efficient.
And so I I'm so glad you mentioned that. Now,
when you look at where you're at today in,
in thinking about growth and development, what does that mean for you?
How are you thinking about growth and adding value to the organization overall?
Well, some of that growth and value or some of the things that I,
I just mentioned, you know, you, you, most of our,
our healthcare systems have an electronic health record. The vast majority do.
Are you utilizing that EHR in such a way that you can help accomplish that
mission? And, and most of us have a mission that involves the,
the health of the, the patients that we serve. And, and so I,
I wonder if there are additional ways that you could use the EHR to help
accomplish that mission and do so in such a way, as I just mentioned, to,
to reduce cost and make things more efficient. Uh, that to me is,
is a great opportunity for growth and for adding value to the organization.
You know,
I mentioned some of the automation we've put in place to do that kind of
automation is a win for our providers, a win for our staff,
and a win for the patients that are the,
the kind of opportunities that we're looking for. Um, once again, it,
it can reduce some of the burnout, some of the turnover,
some of the issues that we're facing. Those are,
are great opportunities within our organization. Uh, and I,
I think that's gonna add a lot of value overall. I, I do think that, um,
some of the other opportunities when it comes to using the EHR are trying to
figure out how you use the EHR to point the providers towards doing the right
thing, and in some way steer them away from doing the wrong thing. We,
we look at stuff like we,
we've put in some different processes to help reduce redundant testing.
You know, testing that shouldn't be done too often and is, is,
is just overly ordered.
We've put in a couple of different mechanisms to help reduce that and the
savings actually add up. And we,
we have literally millions of dollars of savings by having tests that that
shouldn't be run too often, get reduced in the process. Uh,
that's a win for our patients. Um, you know,
there's nothing that a patient likes worse than getting woken up in the middle
of the night to get, uh, stuck by a needle to draw blood.
They don't really need to have, uh, drawn in the first place. So it's a,
it's a win for the patients,
it's a win for the organization cuz it reduces our costs.
We've got lots and lots of activity around this whole cost reduction,
lab reduction,
test reduction effort that I think is gonna pay huge dividends for our
organization and uses the technology that we already have embedded within the
organization itself. That,
that kind of value is something that we're working on.
We've got lots of projects and,
and we're happy to share the projects we're focusing on,
but I think the same opportunities exist across all of the healthcare systems
that are out there.
Absolutely. I love that. And it's definitely helpful, you know,
as more organizations are thinking through what it will really take to, um,
you know,
become more a part of that value equation to really reduce that waste and
reduce areas where they're overspending and then, um,
become a more lean and efficient organization. I love that.
And to that point, you know,
I know a lot of what we've talked about already is trying to become more
efficient, trying to find ways to, um, you know, standardize things in,
in ways to, um,
meet the needs of the challenging environment we find ourselves in right now.
But, you know,
with an eye to the future and really what's best for patient care,
what is one investment or risk that's still worth taking this year?
Ooh, such a good question. I mean, the, the investments that I, I,
I think are worth doing are starting to look towards what is now becoming
ubiquitous in medicine. And I, I mentioned it earlier,
it's the whole notion of being able to use artificial intelligence, um, in the,
the clinical setting. I,
I think there are lots of opportunities that are out there. I, I remain, I,
I'm very hopeful with a lot of these. And I mentioned some of the,
the applications that we're investigating and starting to, uh, invest in,
such as the AI and radiology, the,
the document processing and the natural language processing.
These are just enormously helpful and really important, uh,
applications inside, uh, of your, your healthcare systems.
I I think that it is worth absolutely investing if you are in that healthcare
arena. But I also think we have to have a,
a little bit of a grain of salt in there. We have to,
to to work and have some trepidation in there. There's a,
an awful lot of vendors that are out there talking about artificial
intelligence when their applications probably aren't really artificial
intelligence. There's probably some pattern matching in there in a, uh,
you know, a a little parsing of language and there may be, you know,
some machine learning but isn't really the deep-seated AI that,
that people talk about. I,
I think we have to be careful in knowing which ones are the true AI and which
ones are, are just saying their AI as, as part of marketing. And I,
I think that's kind of a, something we have to be very careful about. Um, and,
and so I, I, I think that's something that, uh, you know,
it is certainly worth investing. Um, but I also think we have to do so in a,
in a, a way that that, uh,
makes sure that we understand and it's much more complicated than just going
ahead and, and ordering and installing it.
That makes a lot of sense. You know, and I, I,
I really appreciate you walking us through that because I know it's something
that a lot of hospitals and health systems are faced with in trying to
troubleshoot and figure out a real time. Now.
Before we wrap up our conversation,
I just wanted to look into the future just one bit more.
Where do you see some of the best opportunities, um,
for growth in the future for yourself as a cm i o as well as for the teams that
you work with?
So, a great question. I, I would tell you that,
that one of the growth opportunities within the CMIO area
is really just communication across CMIOs. Um, I, I, I think that,
that we have a,
a community of some pretty seasoned CMIOs that are out there and
being able to communicate on some of the challenges we have with certain
projects, certain technical challenges,
certain political challenges is an opportunity across the CMIO
continuum. And I think that's, there's opportunities there. I I,
I also think there's opportunities for some of the more seasoned CMIOs to help
mentor some of the younger CMIOs who are just starting out in the field. I,
I think that there's some excitement and some synergies there that that can be
very, very useful. So I, I think that that's, that's absolutely, um,
you know, uh, important. I, I, I did mention earlier, you know,
some of the EHR optimization and,
and I guess some of the stuff that I think we still can do a lot of is
the basic block and tackling of, uh, of informatics,
of trying to figure out better approaches to workflows,
better approaches to setting up screens inside the ehr. Uh, I,
I think that work never ends and the opportunities are enormous. The,
the hard part is, I think that everybody wants to head towards the,
the flashier types of analytical techniques and the flashier types of,
uh, uh, of, uh, technology like artificial intelligence. And, and I,
I certainly want to,
but I also recognize that a lot of the more basic work never ends.
And there those opportunities remain. I, I, I think it,
it'd be great if there were, uh, an easy button for this kind of work,
and unfortunately just it isn't there. It takes, um,
a lot of dedication and a lot of work, and it's painstaking. Um,
but it can be so rewarding when you, when you make the changes that are, are,
are so important to so many providers. Um, we have, by the way, we, we have a,
a program that we're starting and it's basically getting rid of, of,
of stupid things inside the ehr. We have, uh,
providers who are bringing up ideas about where in the EHR there's redundant
information or a screen set up in a way that doesn't make good cognitive sense.
Um, finding those kind of opportunities there, there's,
there's literally thousands of them across the EHR ecosystem.
I, I think that as we get further along, the ability that we have to,
to really improve how people interact with it,
it it's gonna be a very much a, a game-changing kind of situation. So I, I,
I throw those out as additional things that need to be done in the future never
will end, and we should always pay attention to.
Absolutely. I, I love it. I think that makes so much sense.
And definitely kind of that continued focus on the areas where there's always
gonna be opportunity for additional focus, additional optimization. EHR is,
I know they're so important in collecting the data, um, you know,
that's gonna make everything run and, and, and, uh,
really give you the insights and information that will help you in the future.
It makes a lot of sense. And I love your focus on mentorship too.
I know that's so important and so critical in many areas of healthcare,
but especially, um, for CMIOs and,
and physicians who are interested in more of the technology side.
Have you seen more of that interest grow over the years since you've been doing
this? Or, or where do things stand today?
Oh, I think there's definitely more interest in it. I mean, I, I, uh,
it's very interesting. As I talk to other CMOs,
everybody's talking about ai, but you know,
when I start talking about what problems are they solving with ai,
there's sort of a silence that comes up. I mean, we, we,
we love talking about it, and certainly as I mentioned,
there's good radiology aspects, there's natural language processing,
and that's gonna be very useful for us moving into the future.
But when it comes to all the rest of the, the simple things that,
that people encounter every day, that just takes hard work.
There's always that kind of work needed to be done across the healthcare system,
across the EHRs. That's, that's something we all talk about and mean.
I I think we,
we probably need to make sure that we are as good as possible on the basics
before we start using the more advanced types of, of technologies and analytics.
Absolutely. That makes sense. Uh, Dr. Wise,
thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
This has been a really fun and interesting conversation,
and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
Sounds good. I look forward to it as well.
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