Today in health it 10 observations and emerging health. It trends. This is from the Becker's healthcare conference. My name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this week health, a set of channels dedicated to keeping health it staff current. And engaged. We want to thank our show sponsors who are investing in developing the next generation of health leaders, Gordian dynamics, Quill health tau site nuance, Canon medical, and current health. Check them out at this week. health.com/today.

All right. Hey, we're hiring by the way. If you happen to know somebody who is a WordPress developer designer, and also we, , combined that role with a system administrator. For this week health, , we are actually a cloud-based organization, as you would imagine. And we're using a lot of cloud-based tools and we are hiring somebody who can administer those tools and help us with our WordPress stuff. So just thought I'd throw it, throw that out there.

, but if, you know, if somebody, , even, you know, recent college graduate or whatever, , we are open. . So, all right. , Becker's, here's an article. The other, , conference, , just a week and a half ago, or so this is a, from there.

The becker's hospital review.com website, Laura. Dierdre. , reporting and she talked to people, hosted some panel discussions and whatnot. And here are her top 10 takeaways from the event. I'll probably cover five today and five tomorrow. It's a pretty, , meaty article, if you will. So, ,

Top 10 takeaways. Number one, healthcare dollars are precious and digital technology spending is heavily scrutinized, but health systems are still investing in technology, aligning with core business strategy in areas such as staffing, patient experience. Revenue cycle cybersecurity. And clinician burnout, top executives are willing to consider technology with meaningful.

And metrics driven return on investment, especially as they plan for more value based and consumer driven care in the future. This is great statement. Absolutely. This is what's going on. We're hearing this on the show and the interviews that we're doing. As well. , clearly you know, that the dollars are precious and they're hard to come by. Digital technology spending is being scrutinized and it's really being looked at.

From a return standpoint and the returns are not as friendly as they used to be. You used to be, we'd say, Hey, get us a three-year return. And I think The scrutiny is, , how quickly can you get a return on that investment? And is it delivering on the core problems and challenges that we do have, , you know, burnout staffing.

Patient experience cybersecurity, so forth and so on. So, , again, great first statement there. , number two, many health systems are still in the process of finding the right mix. Of in-person and virtual care, but patients overwhelmingly want tele-health options while payers may lower tele-health reimbursement.

Health systems are still focused on building out virtual and hospital at home programs. To bridge, access to care gaps and deliver convenient care. The financials around virtual care remain difficult and likely won't get Until how systems are operating with primarily. Value based contracts agree. , the, the, the financial models that underpin this need to change, you either need to, , get the value based contracts. You need to get that first dollar at insurance money. And if you're not, it's always going to be.

A battle to get the money, but this is the transitioning. , transitioning the, the care model. Right. So what we're looking at is how to keep people out of the ed, most expensive form of delivering care and keeping them in the home the most preferred. , Method of care by the patients. And, , and everything in between, and the question becomes the acuity level.

At home that you're going to be able to deliver. And as the acuity level goes up, the cost goes up and the complexity of the textbook technical environment goes , I think foundationally, we are looking at, yeah. I mean, tele-health at this point should be really directly integrated. Into the EHR as much as possible, not integrated to the point that it is a part of the EHR, but integrated to the point where.

, you can schedule appointments, pull up those appointments. They happen right there for the clinician. It's right there in the clinicians workflow. And, , the messaging system is through the portal and whatnot. So we have tight integration between those , systems. The EHR being the foundational element for recording the transactions and monitoring the care.

, and, , quite frankly, collecting all the data points that we're generating out of the home. So very interesting statement as well. Agree. Wholeheartedly. I'm not going to disagree with any of these statements. I doubt I would be shocked if I do. , because these are coming straight from the panel discussions and the interviews.

, almost all health systems are having trouble recruiting and retaining it talent, man, I just got off the phone about five minutes ago. With a Cisco and he brought this up as the number one. , issue that he wanted to talk about. So, , clearly recruiting and retaining it talent. , and cybersecurity talent in particular is very challenging. Somehow systems.

Are partnering with recruiting firms. While others are finding creative ways to promote from within, in some cases, CIOs and CISOs are identifying individuals working. In the help desk, nursing departments and other areas with the aptitude to learn the technical skills needed to support the hospitals, it team.

, I like the creativity here. Clearly we need to find additional talent. , I'm also concerned about the lack of talent, especially in the key area. Like cybersecurity. , you can get by with training people up for certain jobs within the cyber team, within the it team. , but at some point you need, if you're going to have a, a bevy of, , low level people that you're training into roles,

, you're going to need some really good architects. Some designers. People who really can look at the whole system, put them And make sure that an awful lot of the work is systemic. Right. It's coming out of the intelligence of somebody who really understands security holistically rather than, , individuals.

You know, I am a firm believer in the NASA model instead of the, , you know, the superhero model, Teams solve problems. But if we are just bringing a lot of new people in to these highly. Complex roles. It's not that they're. , a security analyst isn't necessarily a complex role. But cybersecurity across a health system is a complex mechanism to put in place to understand.

And so that needs to be done by somebody with a significant amount of experience. If you're having trouble finding those roles, that's, that's the role that you're going to spend a little extra money on. Make sure you have. , the right person in those roles. And then that enables the rest of these recruiting models.

, patient experience has become a priority. Has it really has it. I'm sorry. This is cynical. I'm at the end of the day here. I hope it has. And I believe it has. I've I've been talking to a lot of CEOs that. , They, , are talking about it. And it's funny because the sends goes on. Patient experience has become a priority if not the top priority.

Of the CEO's and chief digital officers to compete with disruptors like Amazon, Walmart. , that have a great reputation for customer satisfaction. The good news is that message is getting out there. We have a new set of competitors. We shouldn't be comparing ourselves with the health system across the street. We should be comparing ourselves with what's coming around the corner and preparing for those things. I have a feeling.

, You know, the panels and the people that they're talking to her probably from the larger health systems. And those are health systems with budgets. And, , especially if they have a chief digital officer, they're probably some of the larger health systems. , the smaller house systems are going to be reliant on partners and vendors.

That are going to be able to build this out for them right. And hook it in and not increase the complexity, all that much. , I had a conversation today with a, a rural health care CIO. And they don't have the luxury of going out and buying 50 tools to try to get something to work. They, they are looking for vendors who are going to knit together, things in partnership with the EMR provider that they have to create , that platform for digital engagement with the consumers.

I believe this is a priority. , I hope it's not just lip service. I hope we are really making it a priority. I still continue to have conversations. I live in Florida. So as you would imagine, I live around a lot of people that are taking advantage of healthcare and healthcare services, and they know I'm in health care and they tell me their stories and we still have some challenges with regard to.

Our patient experience. I think we may need to Greenfield And think about it in a new digital world. Instead of still trying to do it with, , trying to retrofit our old systems, our old processes or old paper processes. , into this new world. , sometimes it's just better to. , to make babies than it is to try to raise, , people from the dead.

, pardon that analogy, but that is one of the things that somebody once said to me, it's easier to go Greenfield and start a new than it is sometimes to drag along all the legacy that you have. So that patient experience, sometimes it's better to start over. That's what I'm saying. Number five and the closing one for today, a big opportunity for disruptors, including Amazon Optum.

Walmart and CVS health. Would be, could be Medicare advantage. Absolutely. Is that's exactly where they're going. , there remains big opportunities and spending with Medicare advantage programs and M and a plans would be significant addition to any company's healthcare Portfolio. Yeah, they've known this for awhile and they're going after

, at least the Optum is. , CVS is why Walmart probably. I think Walmart is too. I think we'd done a story on that and I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon is heading in that direction. Yeah. Medicare advantage is, , is profitable. It's a way for them to go after that space. Plus don't forget that population. The baby boom generation is, , has changed the economics of our country from the minute they got in until the minute they leave, they're going to change.

The economics of our country. And when they do leave, they're going to change the economics once again, because it's going to really, , create a fair amount of upheaval when they finally go all the way through the system. All right. Hey, these are good. These are good observations. I like these, , I was a little critical of a story yesterday in Becker, so it's good to.

, be reminded I do great work over there and I love. , this article, we're going to cover the next five tomorrow and look forward to sharing that with you that, but that's all for today. If you know, someone that might benefit from our channel, please forward them a note. They can subscribe on our website this week, health.com or wherever you listen to podcasts, apple, Google, overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, you get the picture. We are everywhere. We want to thank our channel sponsors who are investing in our mission to develop the next generation of health leaders, Gordian dynamics, Quill health tau.

Site nuance. Canon medical and 📍 current health. Check them out at this week. health.com/today. Thanks for listening. That's all for