Hospitals and health systems across the country are working to assess what effect the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will have on their institutions, and the fallout of the bill’s looming Medicaid cuts. Industrywide, uncertainty is high. At a time when it would be easy to become distracted or shift course, Phoenix-based Banner Health is reaffirming its commitment to its long-term strategic plan.
“It’s causing us to really double down on our efforts for our 10-year strategic plan, which is about building trust for our patients and our members who are going to seek care and services from us, and making sure we are utilizing technology to its utmost to help us be streamlined, efficient, relevant and affording as much access as we can,” said Marjorie Bessel, MD, chief clinical officer at the 33-hospital system.
The health system plans to double in size over the next decade. To ensure the organization is in a strong position to achieve that goal, leaders are prioritizing efforts to improve operational efficiency and expand the workforce.
“In order to be able to grow, you’ve got to make sure that your base operations are doing well so that you’re always in the best position for those growth opportunities, however they might come,” Dr. Bessel said.
A key part of Banner’s strategy to improve operational efficiency is reducing administrative burden and simplifying clinical workflows. One of Dr. Bessel’s primary objectives is to cut administrative burden in half by 2029, a target that ambient documentation tools are helping the system move toward quickly. Within the next year, Banner plans to equip all physicians with ambient listening technology, fine-tuned to their specialty.
“Early feedback is that pajama time is almost eliminated with this technology,” she said. “The joy in practicing medicine is starting to be brought back.”
Banner is also embedding large language models into workflows to support clinical teams with what traditionally are time-consuming information-gathering tasks. One such use case is in oncology, where new patients often arrive with hundreds of external records. Preparing charts for patients with complex histories is typically a mutli-hour task for medical assistants. AI-powered tools are starting to streamline this type of work by extracting and elevating the most relevant clinical information.
“We are working with our clinicians to develop those templates of exactly what information they need, in what format, in what order and in what level of importance,” Dr. Bessel said.
The tools are promising, with the potential to save hours of work. To ensure new tech-enabled processes are implemented safely, Banner is keeping clinicians closely involved in their design and emphasizing human oversight in all areas that influence the direction of a patient’s care.
“There’s certain pieces that are really critical for clinicians to do themselves — going back to the original pathology report, as an example,” she said. “That’s an important piece as we continue to use this enabling technology. There are certain key components of care delivery that are always going to need to have a clinician in the loop.”
Even with the most ambitious efficiency gains, health systems will still need more clinicians to meet growing demands for care. At Banner, leaders are planning for the future through upstream investments to expand the workforce. In 2023, the health system and the University of Arizona College of Medicine shared plans to add 229 additional residency and fellowship positions.
“It’s really incumbent to make sure that those learners have an excellent experience during their training and want to stay,” Dr. Bessel said. “That’s where the return is on these investments.”
