Vi-Anne Antrum, RN, FACHE, serves as the Chief Nursing Officer at Olean General Hospital in New York.
On May 10th, Vi-Anne will speak at Becker's Health IT + Clinical Leadership 2018. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place May 10-11th 2018 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Vi-Anne's session, click here.
Question: Who or what are the disruptors that have your attention? Why?
Vi-Anne Antrum: There are several disruptors that have currently piqued my attention. Geisinger Health [based in Danville, Pa.,] is doing a great deal of work around genomics, which is fascinating. I really see three tracts for medical care going forward: wellness, population health and individualized medicine. Geisinger already has amassed a huge amount of genomic data, is providing telemedicine genomic services and is a leader in an emerging field.
Wearable devices can change the way we manage patients and help us to keep them well in the first place. Oschner Health System [based in Jefferson Parish, La.,] and Apple have done some great work around using these devices to help manage chronic conditions like hypertension. There is athletic clothing with sensors which may have some cross applications to healthcare depending on what information can be provided. Imagine if patients could wear a tank top with sensors instead of a holter monitor!
Artificial intelligence applications, such as IBM Watson, have the ability to sort and analyze tremendous amounts of information quickly to help caregivers with decision-making. This is all predicated on putting good information in, so you get good information out. Technology will be a huge disruptor in the next 10 years as we continue to evolve concepts and applications like nanotechnology and bioinformatics.
Q: When was the last time your organization responded to concerns or needs expressed by physicians? What unfolded?
VA: Our organization recently responded to a concern from a neurologist regarding a lack of coordinated care for a patient suffering from back pain. She brought forward a proposal about how care coordination can be achieved. This caused us to flesh out the concept of a comprehensive spine center.
We reached out to primary care providers, orthopods, hospitalists and others to see if there would be referral support for this service. After receiving an overwhelming yes, we realized we had some gaps in provider manpower and other infrastructure needs to make it happen. We leveraged our affiliation and relationships with a larger area health system to obtain access to a neurosurgeon and gather some market data for recapture opportunities. We hired a pain management physician. We reached out to some industry experts to make sure our preliminary plan has a maximum chance of success.
Q: What change in reimbursement is your organization feeling most acutely and how is it affecting your two- to five-year strategic plan?
VA: As revenues continue to decline, while expectations of additional services to patients for less money pervade the current reimbursement structures, organizations are forced to innovate to stay financially viable with a goal of continuing to serve their communities.
Our organization has and continues to shift care to the outpatient setting whenever possible. We are starting new service lines, many of which are entirely outpatient or only require an observation level stay. We are merging with our sister hospital to gain sole community hospital status. This will result in significant additional revenue for our organization. We continually assess our market for new service opportunities that make sense for our population to help replace the inpatient services that have migrated to the outpatient setting. We leverage some of our capabilities like IT to provide services to other affiliated entities in the area to generate revenue and provide a lower cost to them.
I see more options to improve efficiency across the system. We already do an excellent job managing costs and productivity. There are opportunities to review our contracts and exploit our new affiliation for better purchasing power. Physician recruitment is a key focus area. Recruiting the right physicians will improve access to care for the community and boost revenue.