Aaron F. Hajart, MS, ATC, FACHE, serves as Chief Operating officer and Senior Vice President, Strategy and Innovation at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center.
Aaron will serve on the panel "Healthcare Consumerism: The New Roles and Skills Systems Need to Meet Patient Expectations" at Becker's Hospital Review 12th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place in Chicago from April 25-28, 2022.
To learn more about the conference and Aaron's session, click here.
Q: What are your top priorities for 2022?
Aaron F. Hajart: For Bergen New Bridge, we are prioritizing improving the Digital Health experience for our patients, providers, and staff while still focusing on growth and enhanced integration of our virtual medical, surgical, and behavioral healthcare services. This means using technology to lessen the burden on our staff and promote more consistency in the patient experience which we believe will improve quality outcomes for our patients. Beyond Digital Health, we are working to improve employee retention and developing ways for our ‘up and coming’ staff to have a career pathway, either within the clinical or non-clinical areas they work in, or through mentorship programs that will allow them to rise to leadership roles. We recognize the need to be more creative with employee work-life balance to attract and retain talent and the need to create teams around those preferences.
Q: How do you plan to pivot strategies this year to better serve patients?
AH: We are investing time and resources to bring education and care back into the community. Over the last few decade, health systems have retreated into their four walls and failed to address patients in their communities. Here at Bergen New Bridge, we are focusing our efforts in expanding provider access into the community and growing smaller practice sites rather than one large one. This is driven under the need to provide our patients convenient access to care where they need it. We use our Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) as a guide to truly address inequities in our underserved communities in meaningful ways. We have created partnerships with our community leaders, places of worship, and public health groups to make decisions that will not only fundamentally address access gaps but also break down healthcare access barriers.
Q: What technologies and innovations are you most excited about in healthcare right now?
AH: Without a doubt Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality. Artificial Intelligence has come a long way in the last couple of years and the use of AI-enabled chatbots and care algorithms is widespread. It helps to lower the cost of care and allows for a way to extend the reach of the healthcare provider. As we see AI integrated more broadly, it bodes well for Augmented Reality. Beyond purely academic purposes, AR will soon become a standard feature in many of the surgical platforms that we use every day.
Q: What will the lasting legacy of COVID-19 be on the healthcare system?
AH: Our response to future public health crisis is no doubt being shaped by the current pandemic and its evolving ‘playbook’. One of the biggest impacts COVID-19 has had on healthcare is in the proliferation of telemedicine and alternative work schedules. While the trends for telemedicine growth has been around for more than five years, this pandemic has caused an incredible explosion in the technology, payer strategy, and more importantly patient preference for telemedicine. It has propelled the use of telemedicine ahead many years beyond where we would have been through organic growth. Similarly, the shift in staff preferences to flexible work schedules and remote work has made healthcare rethink how we deploy our workforce and what is critical to keep our staff engaged and retained. Further, healthcare inequities and healthcare disparities, while not created by COVID-19, were exacerbated by it forcing innovation and engagement to address and mitigate.