Scottsdale Institute on-demand webinar
Webinar: Trends and challenges in telehealth
Explore new ways of doing business that allows you to meet shifting customer expectations, workforce challenges and emerging business goals.
Telehealth trends and challenges
Transcript
0:02
hi everyone this is Janet Gupta with the Scottsdale Institute thank you so much for joining us today uh as I said as I
0:09
was beginning to set this up today's conversation a case for digital engagement Trends and challenges in
0:15
Telehealth who is not talking about this new organization so we are delighted
0:20
that we're going to be joined today by Heidi West who is the head of healthcare zoom and also by Bill shikalovich who is
0:29
the senior vice president from Optum and both Bill and Heidi are seasoned
0:34
Executives in this whole world of of uh Telehealth and remote work and
0:40
understanding the new world of how health care has taken to this um
0:46
exciting new way of working since the pandemic this has certainly been a time that has forced all of us to try new
0:53
ways of working new ways of meeting our consumers where they want to be and also really understanding what's different
0:59
about using this in the patient experience so so this is going to be a fun conversation it's going to be a
1:04
dialogue or a conversation between Bill and Heidi and I think you'll find it both entertaining and informative so I'm
1:11
going to remind you one more time for those of you that are listening if you have questions throughout just jot them in the Q a tab at the bottom of the
1:18
screen and I'll pick them up at the end and then I'm going to turn this over to you Bill to kick things off great Jana thank you so much for the
1:24
introduction and thank you all for for joining us this afternoon and being part of our conversation
1:30
um as Jenna mentioned my name is Bill shakolovich and I'm a senior vice president here at Optum and I'm pleased
1:35
to uh be joined today by Heidi West who is a global lead from Healthcare Heidi
1:40
welcome thank you I appreciate it um really excited for the conversation
1:45
great I love your background by the way um I have a new puppy so hopefully he
1:52
will behave himself in the next 45 or 50 minutes Heidi um do me a favor just a a
1:58
quick introduction of yourself a little bit about you and your background yeah I'd love to um and again thank you for the
2:04
opportunity Heidi West head of healthcare here at Zoom I've been in health I.T for over 25 years
2:12
um I believe to have a career in healthcare you definitely have to have a
2:17
passion for the industry and um you know we all talk about what is our why for what we do every day and
2:24
anyone that knows me knows my mom is a 36 year Survivor of cancer continues to
2:31
battle and with my experiences with my mom she she is my passion and my wife
2:37
for being in health I.T that's fabulous well that's great and I'm glad your mom
2:42
is still you know doing her best it's uh it's 81 years old and only can
2:48
play Pickleball two days a week now good for her so um Heidi thanks for
2:55
joining and taking time out of your day I know you're coming off a long week um so appreciate your efforts as well
3:00
and we're here to have a conversation about virtual connections where we've been current state of play and where we
3:06
might be headed um we're going to start off this afternoon's conversation with a quick review of some broader Market forces
3:11
that uh that we believe are shaping the industry we're going to cover the virtual landscape broadly and then get
3:17
into into some of the more details around Health um and uh and certainly using technology
3:23
to engage our our patients and our customers and our caregivers in a new and different way and uh and as Janet
3:29
had mentioned we're going to try to leave some time for questions at the end so um with that
3:36
um Healthcare never fails us we seem to be yet at another inflection point and yet another interesting place it seems
3:43
that uh every year every every uh sort of event we go through in our industry
3:49
um it continues to be difficult um notwithstanding all the innovation nations of change and all the hard work
3:55
that we all put into it it's still really really really hard and some have argued that perhaps the time of going
4:01
into right now is is one of the more difficult times in quite some time in large part due to all the things we've
4:08
experience the economic pressures that we're all seeing and the headwinds that we're all facing and frankly the uncertainty
4:15
um things were already difficult before covid healthcare workers you know were feverishly to take care of as many lives
4:20
as they could and while keeping themselves and their staff as safe as possible the traditional summer law when
4:27
patients perhaps excuse me when staff uh perhaps would plan their vacations really didn't happen and um and
4:34
unfortunately covet is not over as we know we're now heading into the fall season where or Into The Fall season
4:39
where we can expect another round of flu and we're dealing with other respiratory diseases so it's been a Relentless sort
4:46
of time for our our caregivers broadly and and we continue to face new and
4:52
Relentless pressures from all angles here are a handful of what we consider
4:57
disruptive forces in the industry and I'm going to summarize four um you know Global stressors we're going
5:04
to lead off with that one essentially nobody is immune from all of the economic pressures that that surround us
5:09
in any sector in everywhere you turn labor and Supply continue to put you know uh difficult
5:16
economic pressures on already thin margins and labor continues to be one of the more difficult or the most
5:22
significant issues organization faced not just because of the cost associated with perhaps Staffing but but as but
5:29
getting that staff and being able to provide and support the volume and support the needs that that our patients
5:34
are putting on them demand volatility is another force that we see certainly saw
5:39
this during covid many organizations volume hasn't returned to pre-covered levels and some of which who had uh
5:46
perhaps to stop the volume that's driving some of those high margin uh cases that organizations need at this
5:52
point in time to continue to survive and thrive um you know notwithstanding you know the
5:57
Kobe crisis that we all went through as we alluded to covet isn't done um it continues to to plague Us in
6:03
several areas and and certainly uh as I alluded to earlier the interflu season and RSV impacting staff and capacity it
6:11
continues to put a lot of different challenges on organizations ability to take care of patients to support the
6:17
volume associated with their strategic plan while doing so safely vertical ecosystems is another industry
6:24
force that we see that that is it continues to uh be a variable uh an
6:29
organization's current state operations and certainly planning uh sometimes this is referred to as pay miners where large
6:36
organizations continue to leverage verticality if you will to influence more of the patient ecosystem
6:42
more and more provider organizations looking to assess how they fend off some competitors in this space or perhaps how
6:48
they reposition themselves to be able to take take advantage or be part of this broader strategy and then of course we
6:55
have Innovation which is where we want to spend a little bit of our time today around virtual connections we had an
7:00
unprecedented amount of influx of capital during covet and and while that seems to perhaps be drying up there's so
7:07
many who are who who are in the space who are trying to figure out where that's going to go and and where do they Place their bets so
7:14
essentially um we distill that further and and think of the near-term challenges and
7:20
opportunities that organizations face against the balance of the long-term strategy and not to compromise that and
7:26
as we described whether that's trying to create capacity for their strategic volume and also their urgent volume for
7:32
patients that they carry um in light of all these challenges with respect to Staffing and other other
7:37
capacity issues um dealing with you know the opportunity or the challenge to continue to retain
7:43
staff and and be the best employer in their Market to um to optimize that precious resource and create an
7:50
opportunity for those those staff members to grow professionally and to capture Innovation investment while
7:55
while that market is still it hasn't completely dried up but but trying to figure out where to place those that's
8:00
against the longer term strategic aspects of trying to you know create and
8:06
secure a sustainable case in paramix manage total cost of care and the like
8:11
and so when we think about you know those trade-offs and we think about you know how do we think about you know
8:17
guide posts for strategically positioning ourselves we look at in three different dimensions we look at it
8:22
with respect to Health Equity and value-based Care our physician Partnerships and how we think about
8:28
um leveraging those relationships and also how we leverage digital and other tools to try to drive consumer
8:35
um making it a frictionless environment to try to be that provider of choice and of course thinking about transitioning
8:42
care and how do we take the learnings and the lessons from the past several years turn them into a strategic or
8:48
several strategic options to not just make meet people or patients where they are but strategically position that volume
8:55
so that we can make most sense of those economics while also creating a precious capacity while we are going through our
9:02
unprecedented times so that is a little bit of a sort of a preamble of some of the
9:08
challenges and headwinds that we Face some of the trade-offs and organizations need to make and sort of how some organizations are strategically thinking
9:15
about putting them in context so Heidi before we get into virtual care specifically I'd love to get your
9:21
perspective more broadly so Zoom supports the globe and virtually almost everything they support
9:28
everything from work for work uh and all the coming back to work and not coming back to work uh challenges that the
9:34
globe faces to virtual education to Virtual care and almost everything in between and as you've seen before the
9:41
before and after and the potential future of the global economy how to use a global tech company think about
9:48
Innovation and how do you balance all of the variability that need to needs to be accommodated with respect to all these
9:55
different use cases but yet try to keep it simple and unified all at the same time
10:00
yeah I I think the first thing I would say is we're also a company trying to
10:06
figure out how to leverage our own products and solutions and what hybrid
10:11
work looks like and um managing all the availability while
10:17
still maintaining some Simplicity and structure so uh we're we have offices
10:23
around the world and we're trying to figure out how to make those who want to go in the office feel safe and connected
10:29
while maintaining that same level of connectivity and access to those who
10:35
choose to work from home or wherever they are the beauty of Zoom is we're
10:40
able to live and work wherever we choose to and I intentionally pick the
10:45
background I did because during the pandemic I made the choice to move to the beach and
10:51
um work from here so I think um we are we are
10:57
defining what the new normal is in Access and Equity
11:03
um regardless of the industry so um you know from an education
11:08
perspective a lot of people felt like that business would dry up or Zoom after kids started coming back into class but
11:16
instead of just thinking about the children at home and the teachers at home trying to teach it became an access
11:24
conversation and an equity conversation around how can I bring additional
11:29
resources value and and engagement into the classroom even if we're all here but
11:35
there are people we can bring into the environment and then kids out sick don't have to feel completely disconnected
11:41
same with work and you know obviously we'll talk more about what that looks like and care so
11:47
um we're no different in figuring this out and finding ways to make it simple
11:52
and work where you want to work I appreciate that because you know as a as a former CIO we sit back on the other
11:58
side of the table and we look at we we look at admire and we look at suppliers like yourself who who think you have it
12:04
all figured out where where you sit on one side and say gosh what is the right combination of Technologies and
12:09
operation strategies and people to try to drive a desired outcome let's just pick a technology and it'll just all all
12:15
magically work right and so um I appreciate you Candor and recognizing that this is an evolving
12:20
conversation even though we're out of the crisis of code but we continue to uh to try to work through it so with that
12:27
you know and consumers their expectations have changed whether it's education or or other use cases
12:32
um that people have been using Virtual Technology um their demand hasn't gone down I'm
12:37
guessing and so what are consumers in you know demanding of you as an example
12:42
in your company uh of using digital Technologies how are they pushing companies like yours to to make it
12:49
easier to engage to make it easier to connect to make it easier to round up a bunch of people just as Janet did for us
12:55
today I think it comes down to each individual industry and how they've how they're
13:02
choosing to engage with consumers today I'm amazed at some of the use cases and
13:08
workflows that present themselves to us as an organization in solving the access
13:13
and Equity conversation so retail has become a really interesting industry of
13:20
wanting to engage it's not all self-service but the chat bot in the corner but if you want to have a virtual
13:27
retail experience what does that look like banking similar and you know you can pick each individual
13:35
um industry and think about how it how it can be served differently and then
13:40
even for um for Zoom employees we were talking
13:46
before how are we solving for the before the after and everything in between um we're constantly looking at ways and
13:53
looking at different products and and ways to round out our platform form to
13:58
figure out how to make it feel like you're included prior to the pandemic if
14:05
you were remote if you were someone on a video call you felt very disconnected from those who might be live the sidebar
14:13
conversations the in and out of the hallway conversations as well as the meaning itself and feeling like you were
14:19
just a little block over in the corner while everyone else was involved and a lot of the efforts and the um and I I
14:26
consider workers consumers as well they want to feel engaged and connected and have those kind of connection points so
14:33
a lot of the work Zoom is doing is figuring out how to emulate in person as much as possible while being simple and
14:42
frictionless and allowing for the engagement to happen naturally in many ways allowing the technology to blend
14:48
into the background so you feel part of the conversation yeah well certainly at
14:53
um you know it's one of the challenges organizations I've had and is coming back to work and I know our leaders press on all of us to be here now to be
15:00
present it's not just a box in the screen or a corner it is being active it is being engaged and when we talk about
15:06
the labor challenges in the industry but more globally um organs people have different opportunities to work notwithstanding
15:13
whatever headwords we may have with respect to you know the economy so so Employee Engagement to your point is so
15:19
important and to the extent which we can use those employment engagement lessons to serve our insideral constituents and
15:25
apply into our external we'll be better for it I think so let's let's let's take a deeper now let's let's start applying
15:31
our conversation to healthcare to what we do um so before the pandemic virtual care
15:36
or virtual interactions were used sparingly uh for a whole host of reasons notwithstanding everybody's you know
15:42
best intent um some of them included the lack of understanding on how to best utilize and optimize it patients Comfort levels
15:50
um lack of reimbursement for providers perhaps lack of technology to make it easy for for patients and others to
15:56
engage and so um you know with at Zoom what was it like on the provider side and on the on
16:04
the the side we took care of people during those days it was really crazy really chaotic
16:10
um a lot of great lessons and a lot of Pride um but as soon what was it like on the other side of the table as you were
16:16
watching as as the company is watching the global impact on every sector and every human being but yet now
16:22
specifically to health care and that's a global company like Zoom will look at that and react to something that that
16:27
they've never seen before either yeah um I you know I don't think many people
16:32
knew who Zoom was prior to the pandemic I think we had you know we had our
16:38
footprint and the and the the energy was increasing around the organization but
16:44
it it was a bit overwhelming and and dramatic to say the least I think
16:51
um you know I I was just fortunate enough to attend zootopia which is our company's event every year and the
16:58
conversations we have around you got us up and running in Virtual Health in less than two weeks you got us up in you know
17:04
and there's a sense of Pride but a tremendous responsibility that goes with
17:10
how Zoom was kind of forced into the ability for people to connect
17:16
um so we we took that responsibility very seriously uh and we made sure that
17:23
um we had the the capacity from a technology perspective but as well the
17:30
Simplicity and the ease of people coming together I mean we all have our stories
17:35
of trivia nights and family reunions and weddings and funerals and you know our kids being on Zoom to make it through a
17:42
crazy time um you know we're parents we're family members we're having to have that same
17:49
experience and it was it was overwhelming but it was a wonderful sense of honor to be in a position to
17:56
help and help people stay connected in a really interesting time you bet so let's
18:03
talk about Telehealth or virtual uh virtual uh here so let's talk about let's first use the word and try to
18:09
Define it so uh like like every term we have in this business it continues to evolve it changes its meaning which is
18:16
all good I think that's healthy um frankly I'd love to see us retire old words and come up with new ones so that
18:21
without having to keep redefining the same word but that's okay maybe Janet could have uh that on an upcoming uh
18:27
conversation how we do that but um well I was still working through that Heidi
18:33
tell me what is what does Telehealth mean to you and to your company and to the healthcare Division and the products
18:39
that you continue to think about and innovate yeah I mean in the most simplest of terms Telehealth is where a physician
18:47
clinician is on one side and a patient is on the other I mean that's the most simple way to say they are in two
18:53
different places and someone is delivering care to someone else regardless of the specialty or the
18:58
sub-specialty but you can really dig into that and determine are you talking about a video assisted virtual visit are
19:06
you talking about an remote specialist engaged in an acute care setting are you
19:12
talking about home health are you talking you know it it can expand from such a simple thing as a doctor on one
19:20
side and a patient on another to really understanding if there's a patient that
19:25
needs care and there's someone who's not there in person
19:31
having the ability to have that access and and Equity of support regardless of where
19:39
the patient is and where they choose to provide care so I take it at the most simplest terms and then it kind of spans
19:45
out to as Zoom determines our strategy for health care we're looking at each
19:51
step along the longitudinal care record and all the pieces in between to figure out how do we connect patients with
19:58
providers along that Continuum it has to be a challenge as a product company because you want to narrow the definite
20:04
you want to Define it as best you can to be able to go through all the product and engineering and all the work that
20:09
gets done to create something but yet we don't want to narrow it so narrow it so much that we miss the opportunity to
20:15
talk about Healthcare virtual interactions right so um so so let's talk about adoption so
20:22
obviously we have a significant amount of adoption um in during covert so thank you and all
20:27
the other suppliers who made that possible for us providers going through a really difficult time and of course
20:33
we've also seen a leveling off and perhaps not just the leveling off but perhaps a strong dip stumble
20:39
organizations or some folks are in single digits of of using technology to drive virtual Healthcare interactions so
20:46
tell me um what what do you make as you think about strategy at your company and you
20:51
think about talking to customers and Prospects what's your sense as to what's driving adoption or frankly what's
20:57
driving the inverse or what's bringing those numbers down uh and we'll talk a few minutes about where it might go but
21:02
I'm just curious what your gut is on on the on the decline I think there's a combination of a few
21:08
things I think when everyone felt so isolated for so long there was this
21:14
human interest in being back together and connecting and being with your
21:19
doctor and feeling the need that real care comes when your doctor or your clinician is touching and engaging and
21:28
um so I think the the human um consideration of just shifting back
21:34
to the old way of doing things created its own back to the office but what's
21:41
interesting you can't watch a commercial and not see a new direct-to-consumer opportunity for a virtual
21:48
engagement whether it's for mental health whether it's primary care whether it's any number of different Specialties
21:55
there's a new model of Health Care happening um so I I think
22:00
paying attention to that while understanding is it a sub-specialty that makes sense
22:06
to have virtual care be virtual first versus a over here option if all else
22:14
fails I think there's a lot of care delivery that is encouraging patients to
22:19
come back in the office and I I think it's um we have to remember how how the
22:26
population really enjoyed the flexibility and the options of how they
22:33
receive care so um I see everything from significant
22:38
dips to one of our cous one of our clients we work with still have
22:43
100 000 virtual visits a week um you know if not more so I'm seeing
22:49
everything from the you know that to uh long tail down to a handful but I I I
22:56
think it's going to find its place and then you may see some special
23:01
sub-specialties even go back up or and find whatever that
23:06
Mark is what are the new market is yeah so let's take that forward Heidi so you have the opportunity to
23:13
um interact with some of the most Progressive Health Systems um that we have in this country and you
23:18
also have the opportunity to interact with some of those organizations who perhaps aren't as Progressive for a whole host of reasons which is all good
23:25
so so tell me a little bit more about do me a favor and draw distinction and give me some characteristics of those types
23:32
of organizations so tell me how do the most Progressive organizations think about using technology to engage create
23:38
a safe but yet welcoming you know Healthcare virtual interaction and how they think about strategy versus
23:44
respectfully those organizations who perhaps don't see it that way and that's okay so what are those distinctions those characteristics and then what do
23:51
you think it drives that behavior as you interact with them yeah I and it it definitely is across
23:57
the board and everywhere in between um I had the Good Fortune of a handful
24:02
of briefings this last week so it's fresh in my mind of some of the conversations we've had and it it really
24:10
comes down to those organizations that are focused everyone's focused on patient care and patient safety and and
24:18
um you know really centering around the patient but it's those who look at the
24:23
flexibility and the access and the experience that a patient has from an
24:28
engagement perspective while Eng while working with the particular health system that are constantly thinking of
24:36
ways to make it better invested and more
24:41
technologically advanced but not for Technology's sake I that's one thing I
24:46
think is a really important distinction you don't want to be technology in search of a problem I think when you
24:52
partner with organizations that are really looking at that digital transformation in a way to make the
24:58
experience better and more available and then you talk through workflows that
25:04
they're finding either depths or challenges or it may be siled and saying
25:09
how can we creatively not just look at the way it's always been done but potentially look at if Zoom is your
25:17
partner taking each of those pieces and determining a better way or a more
25:23
engaged way or a more available way and it um anything from the digital front door
25:29
how do you access care to the patient experience in an acute care setting not
25:36
just for the patient we learned a lot during the pandemic of what acute care can be regarding having your family
25:43
involved if they can't be there physically and I I see some of our more
25:48
Progressive organizations saying how do I take what we've learned from the pandemic and expand on that to say this
25:56
isn't something we have to do because there's no other option but we want to do because we've seen success in having
26:04
family engaged with a patient if they're either geographically or for every reason not able to come in person so I
26:11
think it's those who are looking at lessons looking at the technology and
26:16
not just throwing technology at it but working collectively with your business partners and saying what could be a
26:23
better way and how can it be more engaged and comprehensive for the whole family it's a really interesting point
26:31
you made because on the you know on the on the technology side you know it would not be uncommon for me to talk to some
26:37
of my previous team members and say hey by the way there's this great new technology out there let's go figure out what we can do with it right how can it
26:42
help us but yeah um to your point I remember having the opportunity to listen to click the late
26:49
uh clay Christensen I believe who who used to speak about don't lose sight of the job to be done and I forgive be
26:54
prescribing it but back to that that practical application what is it that we're trying to accomplish and how do we
26:59
do it a different way and I one would argue we need both we need we need not just focus on the job to be done because
27:06
if we just do that we might be transforming ourselves but maybe only incrementally only the things on that on
27:12
that linear on that scale that we can Define we don't but the flip of that we also want things technology perhaps to
27:19
make us more thoughtful about what the possibility possibilities might be and changing fundamentally changing not just
27:26
addressing the work to be done but maybe just throwing out the work to be done and trying a different way right so so
27:31
it's an interesting balance so um forgive me I could you and I could go on this for on this topic forever let's
27:37
go to the other side let's go to organizations who aren't necessarily as Progressive who
27:43
um who have who have a whole plateful how do they look at it and and and what
27:48
are the characteristics of those organizations if you don't mind sharing please obviously don't name them but but generally speaking how do you Prof how
27:55
do you see them as you work with them yeah I you know I don't think there's an organization out there that doesn't want
28:01
to do the best for the community they serve I I don't think there's a single organization out there that has a good
28:07
enough mentality I think it has more to do with resources prioritization and
28:12
access to um the the kinds of Investments so I I think it comes down
28:21
to prioritization it's not that they don't care they may find other
28:26
um priorities that they feel are more important to access an adoption of
28:32
whatever it is to make them serve their community so um I think that's the most important
28:38
thing I also think there are there are organizations that
28:43
um that they they will sit back you know they're not going to be their earlier adoption early adopters of a new way of
28:51
thinking and they want to see things play out a bit and understand how can I
28:57
pick and choose you know I'll be a little further on the on the scale of adoption and allow others who have the
29:04
resources and the skill sets to Vet Solutions and then adopt them when
29:10
they're more um more readily available or more sort of general practice so I think it comes
29:17
down to prioritization access um skill set you know I have some
29:23
organizations that have very large developer sets and even in the provider space or these strategic type Innovation
29:32
centers and engagement and others who are you know smaller Community Hospitals
29:38
or practices that are looking to those or organizations to direct some of the future of health care so I think it
29:45
comes down to timing for them I don't think anybody doesn't want to do better on another's call I'd love to pick your
29:51
brain Heidi on how we create accelerators for those organizations who are in the middle as fast followers or
29:58
perhaps perhaps not even close to that due to you know just the level of
30:03
investment the communities they serve what how do you how do we take all of our learnings and maybe products and uh
30:08
collectively accelerate but but Jan that's for another conversation um so so ease of use became uh some
30:16
would argue easy use became and I would submit that it's probably still uh a table state for adoption it's got to be
30:23
simple to turn on configure interoperate utilize put it down pick it back up
30:29
again um you know we do it all the time every day we are professionals we use technology if you throw one product at
30:34
me or another I'd make give me a minute to get acclimated but we'll figure it out but taking too long on it all the
30:40
time or kids your line on all the time thankfully they're back at school I had my office back which is great
30:46
um you know Simplicity still is important but yet Healthcare we can't help ourselves I remember going through
30:52
a virtual um technology selection before the pandemic and of course we've got to have it all feature Rich because we have all
30:58
these workflows to support and oh my gosh all of these these the blow the technology debt that sort of got tacked
31:06
on to all of the Simplicity you know it we thought we needed it covet comes and
31:11
oh my gosh what did we learn we learned that it was important but maybe not necessarily the most important so but we
31:18
can't help ourselves because we still want to support all these complex workflows but yet we still want it
31:23
simple so how do you balance that that can't be easy so I know it's probably a
31:28
long conversation but real quick as you as you take these these inputs from customers and they ask you to make this
31:34
thing whatever the thing is you know dance on its head and do all these spectacular things and song from the
31:40
most esoteric workflows but yet in the back of your mind you're saying I've got a single platform and it's going to work for everybody how do you balance that
31:48
really comes down to um talking about them specifically our our
31:55
mission is just to be the communication engine that drives Healthcare but our strategy is a combination of enhancing
32:02
our solution in healthcare to align with what the responsibilities are but then a
32:08
whole nother angle of our engagement is around Integrations and Partnerships that sit within the ecosystem of
32:16
healthcare today so I think anyone that positions themselves as solving it all
32:21
themselves without wanting to live within existing workflows where it makes sense and then adjust and shift a
32:29
workflow where appropriate is where you're going to see that kind of angling
32:34
make the most sense um we are you know we we are not just a Healthcare company but we have an entire
32:41
Health Care segment with our own engineers and product managers and constantly looking to see where is their
32:48
friction in point and can we fix it you know we we listen to our customers we have a customer advisory Council so we
32:55
can get that kind of feedback and I I think any technology organization that wants to
33:01
work alongside an industry that does exactly what you said make it really
33:06
hard but keep it simple um working together to know when can we
33:12
work within your workflow when does it make more sense to integrate into an existing workflow potentially through an
33:18
ecosystem partner and what can we do as that Foundation of communications to
33:24
remove our friction and make that piece of the technology disappear so it's about the experience and the workflow
33:30
where people are familiar is where we focus our efforts is is a combination of
33:37
you tell me your workflow you tell me the the vendors you work with and we'll
33:42
find a way to keep that aligned a perfect example of that in the patient's room you know everyone's talking about
33:49
the patient room of the future but we can't you don't want 5 000 cameras
33:54
focused at a patient that's incredibly intrusive and uncomfortable but then and you don't want a lot of cards there's
34:01
not a lot of real estate around a patient's room so you know I even see it
34:06
when I've been in the hospital as a patient or a caregiver the carts are running into each other trying to figure
34:12
out how to do what they need to do so we're working with what's already in the room how can we be part of that
34:19
conversation and leverage the technology where we can and make it more simple but
34:27
solve for a bunch of the different things you're trying to do whether it's virtual rounds tele-sitting a you know
34:33
your family being able to engage with you and everything in between how do we work within your infotainment system as
34:40
an example and work together versus trying to build something separate and throwback bunch more cameras at it so
34:46
yeah that's really that's an example of you tell me what you're trying to solve
34:52
let me know what is a have to have within that in particular scenario and
34:57
let's see how we work together to accomplish it I think that's where the partnership between vendors and
35:03
customers that you know we become trusted advisors and engagement are listening to the needs and then figuring
35:10
out the easiest way to tie the pieces together so let's let's keep going on that
35:15
workflow conversation so you have a uh again unique purview an
35:20
opportunity to see almost just just about every workflow imaginable
35:26
um from the conventional to the most Innovative so here are the some of the most transformational you just you
35:33
mentioned you just came off a an event um tell me a little bit about when you
35:38
look at that organization that high profile organization that Progressive organization and look at all the wild
35:44
things they're doing with Virtual Technology to drive care and and and cost and value what are some of those
35:49
unbelievable things to say gosh if we could replicate that everywhere would make a big difference in healthcare
35:56
well it's funny you you position it that way because some of the most simple things have the most meaningful impact
36:03
or the the engagement with the consumer and patients are are you know patients
36:10
and members are also consumers so I'm seeing anything from I I talked about an
36:16
acute care setting and those who are trying to make access available to
36:22
um speed the process whether it's a virtual discharge process or a virtual
36:28
rounds or an engagement with family there's areas there but if you look
36:34
across the entire Continuum of Care and you figure out what Home Health could be
36:39
and how to allow people to have care where they are and have that kind of
36:45
access availability and flexibility I think becomes the most Innovative even though
36:52
it sounds so simple um I'll give you one really simple example but was incredibly
36:58
transformational in the way that they even saw their prescany scores rise and
37:03
this was post-pandemic they learned during the pandemic you know zoom on an iPad might be the only way that a family
37:11
member can be connected with a covid patient potentially even at the end of their life which was you know just
37:18
tragic to hear but we all heard the stories we've had organizations say
37:23
how do we take that concept of in a remote engagement of a family member
37:29
what do we do with that now and we've got organizations creating this concierge service that's not easy to say
37:36
concierge service um that sounded weird uh where one of
37:42
when somebody is brought in they have a conversation with the patient and potentially the the caregiver that is
37:49
with the patient and they're figuring out which family members do you want to have access to this room and an
37:56
opportunity to stay engaged with the patient throughout their stay and they've seen elevated
38:03
um um opportunities to discharge more quickly if you have a grandparent and
38:10
the kids are across the country but the grandkids and they want to be able to see Grandma while they're in the
38:16
hospital now they can do that if Grandma's not eating dinner time is with the grandkids now just super simple
38:21
things like that and that's having you know grandma wants to eat when she's with her grandkids and they're having a
38:28
conversation around the virtual dinner table things like that that seems so simple but are incredibly valuable
38:36
another quick example mental health in my opinion is the the next wave of the
38:42
pandemic that we're starting to touch on it but we've all been impacted by covid
38:48
one way or another some people more you know acutely in other people a little more in a languishing way but mental
38:55
health is is a thing and access to mental health I think is critical from a
39:01
virtual Telehealth engagement and we're seeing academic medical centers that are
39:06
putting kiosks around their universities wanting to make mental health available where you are you know some of these
39:14
large campuses that look like city blocks are saying you know you're not
39:19
even alone in your in your dorm room because you have roommates but there's time where you need to be alone and have
39:26
that engagement how do you make mental health available where the student is so
39:32
I'm you know I'm just kind of giving those kind of examples and then because Zoom I realize it's going to sound like
39:38
a little bit of a sales pitch I don't mean it to but we do perform very well in low bandwidth areas and you think
39:45
about those were the most isolated those were the most challenged in wanting to stay engaged having that kind of access
39:52
to Specialist Care Mental Health engagement really made a difference in
39:58
the lifestyles and the health and wellness of some of these remote areas so you know it's anything from people
40:05
building these massive opportunities and kiosks and apps that have virtual Health
40:13
built into an overall healthcare app and and you can do a lot of different things it's something as simple as an iPad with
40:21
a concierge service to make family members connected um they're all meaningful for their
40:26
purpose I love that example of you know when we think about transformation and we think about changing the way
40:32
something's fundamentally done and going to new hikes but yet we missed out that on that on that more simple but basic
40:38
human interaction that you know when a patient is engaged first day what have you not only who is it can we talk to if
40:44
we need to but how we're going to gauge them now a very different approach to uh at one point in time tell me who I need
40:51
to talk to in the event I need to talk to them versus bringing them up front as part of that process as part of that
40:57
digital engagement experience and expectations and making them part of dinner with Grandma or what have you no
41:02
I I love the project another I'll give you a really quick idea of conversation we just had where think about
41:10
pre-pandemic you sat in a hospital room and you just kind of waited for someone to come in you might have hit the nurse
41:15
call button and somebody came in but they were usually saying you need to wait or you know it's not time or
41:22
there's a lot of waiting and a lot of uncertainty while you were sitting in a patient room and we're working with some
41:29
organizations with our contact center that most Telehealth is scheduled but if you can create contact or ad hoc care
41:37
and have a contact center type experience where you can find the right
41:42
Specialist or you can find the right nurse or doctor there you mentioned it earlier there's a
41:48
labor shortage there's no question that they're sketching but if you were to say I need more productivity out of my
41:55
nurses and doctors that are still engaged they would say I can't do anymore I'm stretched so thin as it is
42:02
but if you create centralized care models for certain needs with patients potentially in the acute care setting or
42:08
at home or you know wherever they are and allow for this um one-to-many where they're not running
42:16
back and forth but they can serve many in a virtual experience that creates a
42:21
better experience for the patient who's just sitting around who could potentially hit their virtual
42:27
concierge that lets them know where the nurses or they can get engaged with a
42:33
nurse so they can get engaged with the doctor so there's a lot of that kind of conversation going on around
42:39
productivity by serving it in a centralized model versus just demanding
42:45
more of those who have no more to give a lot of those conversations going on
42:50
great point so um well coming up on time I just have a few more questions and I want to make sure we leave a few for uh
42:57
our participants to to challenge us a little further so um you know we've heard of all these
43:05
long-held beliefs in healthcare and many of them are you know still still in existence say for a whole good host of
43:11
reasons about how patients make their choice and at one point in time we were talking about no patients are going to
43:17
stop liking their doctor and liking their organization uh you know because price price transparency that's going to
43:24
be it as soon as soon as consumerism hits those those plans nope they're gone
43:29
um we've heard how quality impacts choice but quality in large part is a table stake and table stake in many markets right many organizations do a
43:37
lot of great things so it's hard to draw you know some Distinction on some on some of those upper tiers and now we're
43:43
into the well patient experience it's all about the experience and patients aren't going to put up with
43:49
um you know subpar experience and they're not going to put up with the experiences not digitally connected and they're not going to put up with experience that doesn't align to their
43:56
Amazon experience or or perhaps other leading companies who do that really really well so there'll be a separation
44:02
of organizations who do things the basics well who strive for experience and those who simply say ah you know we
44:10
we love you and you love us and people coming back and all is going to be good and so when organizations think about
44:18
um you know the role of patient experience how important it is is it a fad is it going to be really directional
44:23
or is it really going to drive you know choice what's the most prominent when you work with organizations what
44:29
business case or cases do they bring forward to say this is why I engage with
44:34
patients matters so this is why beyond the human factor beyond what we've got to do it Beyond you know that's what
44:40
they expect but but beyond the sort of table stake nature that has evolved post coven why are they thinking this way
44:47
what are some of the best business case or cases people have shared with you on how they get funding or how they get
44:52
traction or how they get you know attention to the matter well there I mean there's a lot of Truth
44:58
to um somebody's health and well-being being tied to their experience so I have
45:05
a lot of hospitals that are talking about bed capacity there there are a lot with the respiratory disease going on
45:11
right now especially in children's hospitals where they're facing capacity now so we're but then if you look at
45:18
their call centers and you do some of the analytics around how people are engaging there's a lot going on where
45:25
they're just asking directions to a location or they're not necessarily
45:30
clinically driven but they still need answers so we're seeing a lot of interest in self-service where are um
45:38
you know Healthcare is not known to have a chat bot in the corner of their uh website but is there a way to to create
45:44
some self-service that can solve for those who don't need to talk to somebody
45:50
to get what they need answered then you take it a step further and and you look at the
45:57
um the opportunity for these now they need care and you're there are
46:03
competition in healthcare is unprecedented you used to be the community hospital and maybe there was
46:09
another hospital and they chose between the two of you but Healthcare itself is becoming a bit Global I talked to a lot
46:16
of hospitals that are finding ways to go beyond their geographical footprint and find different ways to engage and this
46:23
is our specialty and this is so you have to think about other Industries and the
46:29
way you think about competition so I think the experience drives health and
46:34
wellness um people are being discharged faster but you have to make sure it's faster
46:41
with quality so they don't come back um you know there's a reimbursement component to that
46:47
um looking at value-based care and the shared risk model of making sure the experience is positive
46:53
um you know to save money from that perspective it's all intermingled in the way the patient experience can't just be
47:00
something that you put on your website it has to be integral into the way
47:05
you're looking at the wellness of your organization with increased competition
47:11
with increased engagement and then knowing what the engagements are and
47:17
building different models to have that kind of access so I'm not sure if I
47:22
answered your question yeah I think you're describing
47:28
that is you know patient gauge is really important we talk about it in many
47:34
different dimensions we still need to think about it but we also have to transition from it being a thing to it
47:39
being what we do and how we sort of how we operate Incorporated in all those different things so one more before I I
47:46
know I want to pass it to Janet in a moment so um you know three to five we always have
47:52
the opportunity of hindsight we look back and say gosh how do we live without it you know and three you know right now we're looking back saying how did I live
47:59
without Zoom or teams or you know pick it sorry but you know how did I live without that Virtual Technology
48:06
um and and when I look three to five years out what are some of those things that you think might be there that
48:13
people are going to look at and say ah did I live without can you imagine we did it this way I don't want to live
48:19
without that and then part two in that question is what's one or two things organization I'll leave behind if if you
48:25
were in these the chairs of our customers of your customers or healthcare provider organizations and
48:31
you're thinking out to solve for today but don't forget tomorrow what are those things that that you if you if if you
48:38
could impart some uh some advice to them what what should they be focused on that they may otherwise not be
48:45
so three to five years I'll take the first part of your question first uh I think it's going to come around
48:51
self-service I think it's going to come around access I think it's going to be around quality and it's going to be
48:58
around the flexibility of care so I you know we mentioned different pieces of
49:04
what that'll look like but you're going to see more and more of that and Care on demand that is available when I want it
49:12
when I need it where I want it so I think that you're going to see more of that I think the consumers are showing
49:18
that um I've talked to a lot of Health in the primary care if they don't offer virtual
49:24
help they're losing clients they're losing people because they want that
49:29
even if they come in most the time they want virtual Health as an option so I I don't think that it's never going away I
49:36
think it's just that Genie's out of the bottle so to speak so I I think you'll see that continue to evolve and
49:43
determine if you have a virtual first mentality ability we have we have customers that are sharing statistics
49:49
that talk about the experience in a virtual visit feeling more connected with their doctor than they do in person
49:56
so we don't want to lose sight of that you know that they um their survey scores are better in a virtual
50:03
environment what does that mean what do we learn from that and how do we build how do we make it more than just a video
50:08
conversation and bring in different applications that can emulate an in-person visit as much as possible
50:15
forms on both sides that you need the vitals that come in during the call if
50:20
you're doing physical therapy are there different ways to leverage Ai and machine learning to
50:26
um emulate what it would be like if you were there in person so there's a lot of that that I see just expanding and
50:33
growing three to five years out but foundationally it's going to come down to access flexibility and engagement
50:41
um the one to three years I would say don't lose sight of what worked during
50:48
the pandemic don't you know let's not just close that book and go back to the
50:53
way things are because you have increased competition you do have you
50:58
know I've talked to people that said I welcome the retail health because the
51:03
primary care isn't necessarily where we make our money we make our money and you know oncology and Cardiology so maybe we
51:10
partner with those retail engagements and build a different kind of feeder system so I think you have to look at
51:17
the health care world so much differently and determine what your partnership strategy looks like what is
51:23
competition what is partnership competition used to just be the hospital down the street it's not anymore it's so
51:30
much broader than that so what does partnering look like I think that's and then the second one is just what did we
51:37
learn from the consumers about what worked in a virtual digital world and
51:42
build on it versus trying to ignore or it and say let's just go back to the way things are I've heard people I think
51:49
John halemko was the one that said we've had 20 years of digital transformation in 10 months let's not lose height of it
51:58
um there's a truth to that and oh my gosh yes the farther we walk away from
52:03
that Shame On Us in going back to the traditional way of delivering care
52:09
um we want the value-based care we want a shared risk model we want the kind of insight with capitated rates and you
52:17
know a little more transparency but the quality distill and the flexibility and access to still be there so it's
52:24
it's an interesting time to be in healthcare I'll say that another time
52:29
thank you
52:36
honey options from our guests but I'll pass it back to you to facilitate that conversation well thank you both this
52:41
has been a really important conversation and I know that we're going to want to continue this conversation with uh in
52:46
other forums because I think this is a really healthy one to think about particularly some of those lessons learned about how do we preserve those
52:53
lessons that we created for ourselves during the pandemic and continue them
52:58
and I want to invite those of you that are listening there's a lot of opportunity here for additional
53:04
questions I think one of the questions that that bill for example asked is you know how do you handle Innovation and
53:11
stability at the same time so if there's questions that people have that want to drill down a little bit around how to
53:18
minimize some of the risk that might have been involved in this early on in terms of you know whether it's cyber or
53:24
whatnot but I or if people have other questions and maybe you want to talk about what your experiences have been in
53:30
the pandemic I know we've had a lot of conversations during covet around how people did get really crazy creative and
53:36
they put iPads on on selfie sticks and um you know created rounding created
53:42
that that that patient family interaction and so I just want to invite everyone that's listening now's a great
53:48
time to dive in and ask both of these people some questions that are on your mind about how you're using virtual Care
53:55
As you move forward in any way that you are so just jot your questions down into
54:00
the Q a tab and we're happy to pick them up I also want to encourage people to think about letting us know how else
54:07
would you like to see this conversation continue so if you have other ideas about where within the Scottsdale
54:14
Institute we should continue to advance this conversation and hold other Roundtable conversations that are deeper
54:20
dive sharing examples and stories we would be glad to do that so I see that
54:25
Heidi also shared her contact information in chat we'd be happy to connect with you directly looks like we
54:32
do have a question from Joe from Memorial Sloan Kettering how is the current landscape of medical and state
54:38
licensure as well as state boundaries accommodating Telehealth it seems like
54:43
we move forward during the pandemic only to have the progress roll back so true questions or reactions to that either of
54:50
you Bill do you want to take it first or go ahead well you know you're the light of the you're in the thick of that I
54:57
mean I I do recall that being an issue you know um I'm gonna give you a a perspective
55:03
that's not going to be helpful other than to say that uh I don't I still think we're sorting that out you know
55:08
these old habits die hard and what are those and we alluded Heidi alluded to it Janet touched on it you know the
55:15
pandemic was awful and for so many reasons but on the flip of that it gave us an opportunity to think differently
55:21
about it let's think differently about payment equity and perhaps how we can reimburse our clinicians in a way that
55:27
encourages them to spend time and not make it an either or not make an economics force people into offices that
55:34
take them an hour and a half to get new and pay for parking and their whole afternoon in their life is you know just
55:39
upside down solely because we've got a policy decision we can apply the same thing to to our traditional ways of
55:46
licensure so um I love the fact that we were we were more flexible during this time and uh I guess I would um encourage
55:53
all of us to activate our our uh our relationships locally and at the federal
55:59
level to continue to put pressure on on the conventional way of thinking around some of those constraints because it
56:05
really is a really is a challenge on how we think differently about air Beyond boundaries
56:10
yeah I'll just add I I think your last point is really important um Zoom is
56:15
very involved and invested in helping drive both with the American telemedicine Association as well as with
56:22
the um different government agencies that are driving um Senator Schatz out of Hawaii and the
56:29
other I'm forgetting the one out of Arizona and I know we just had elections so I I haven't determined whether or not
56:35
these are still in play but these are people that were driving a lot of initiatives around how do you take the
56:41
cares act and build on it long term versus just kicking the can down the road of what it is today and allowing
56:49
for it with reimbursement today what could be something more formal that
56:54
isn't state by state because right now a lot of those reimbursements are at a
56:59
state level and trying to determine what the future will hold so I've heard the stories just as everyone else has that
57:06
people love the flexibility and then all of a sudden I think there was one in the Northeast where a patient had to drive right over
57:13
the state line in Boston in order to have a conversation you know that one picked up speed when that changed so I I
57:21
think all of us collectively have to continue to raise that flag and say
57:27
um we can do better we saw what better looks like and continue to drive the initiative Zuma's at the Forefront of
57:34
that um from a policy perspective and wanting to help make that but you know we can't do it ourselves I think as an
57:40
industry we need to raise our hands well I appreciate that very much because I do we've had a lot of conversations
57:47
with ATA as well and I agree this whole advocacy around the how legislation needs to be changed is something we are
57:53
felt fiercely about so many of our members too would love to join that battle I am reluctant to see that it is
57:59
the top of the hour because this conversation could have gone on and on and on so I really do want to make sure that we plant the seed here for how to
58:06
continue this conversation I think it would be a a great way to take this the next step spend a little bit more time
58:12
more interactive but this has certainly been very informative given us a lot to think about and I think all of you as
58:19
you think about ways to go back uh to your organizations and say how do we make the change that we initiated during
58:27
the pandemic more permanent with these kinds of approaches so thank you very very much both Bill and Heidi for being
58:33
here today for challenging us to think further our pleasure thanks everyone please stay
58:40
healthy stay safe and make sure you fill that out that survey when it comes we want to hear your ideas about how to
58:45
continue the conversation so thanks very much talk to you all soon thanks bye-bye
A case for digital engagement
Healthcare organizations are shifting from short-term fixes to long-term solutions. A digital strategy can help you reinvest in innovation and growth.
As first presented to the Scottsdale Institute, presenter Bill Shickolovich, SVP, Optum, interviews Heidi West, head of healthcare at Zoom.
Related healthcare insights
Article
Explore actionable resources for healthcare executives including peer-to-peer insights, dialogue, perspectives and analysis.
Guide
Strengthen and inspire your healthcare workforce. Our actionable toolkit offers new strategies to reconnect with talent, simplify workflows and more.
White paper
Discover 5 strategies that will help your health plan be prepared to factor risk adjustment data into Star Ratings.