On September 14th, Dr. Goel will serve on the panel “Improving Patient Satisfaction and Service Quality Through Healthcare IT” and on September 15th Dr. Goel will serve on the panel “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Healthcare – Looking Ahead” at Becker’s Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference. As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place on September 13-15, 2021 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Dr. Goel’s sessions, click here.
Question: What technology has taken on greater significance or value during the pandemic?
Ash Goel: The disruption caused by this pandemic to the normal operations and clinical functions for every health system has also created an opportunity in leveraging technology to further several aspects of healthcare delivery systems. We have seen a significant uptick in the use of video visits, telehealth, and asynchronous communication with patients. We now conduct more than 10,000 visits a week using these platforms at this time, as compared to only a few hundred a week in the past. There has also been a significant change in developing a transparent approach to providing real-time analytics and information – both to operations in incident management and clinical and financial teams. In addition, the use of various communication tools such as virtual meetings, secure chat, clinical and nonclinical mobile applications as well as various messaging platforms have grown unboundedly.
Q: How has the coronavirus pandemic forced a paradigm shift in your line of work, from your perspective?
AG: t has added emphasis on the need to innovate, invest in relevant technologies and created a growing recognition towards the necessity of digitizing the workforce and process workflows. We have started using the term “Enterprise Fitness” – to assess and better understand how ready are we to take on dynamic changes and respond fast and with adequate accuracy and transparency.
Q: What is the most underrated trait of the best leaders?
AG: The clearest and most important attribute of leaders in a time of crisis is to have a deliberate focus on communication which is timely and meaningful. In addition, successful leaders also bring forth the ability to make decisions based on available data that is thoughtful, and not be stopped by ambiguity. The art in the ability to make directional decisions despite it.
Q: What is one bold goal that you, your team or your organization is staring down for 2021?
AG: We are seeking to change how we can use this episode as a mechanism to springboard efforts to initiate true digitization of workforce and look to narrow the gaps in technical debt of infrastructure and application architecture. There is an opportunity to create better alignment with the shift in an organization’s strategic goals that is likely to come in the near future and certainly for the next business cycle. We are hoping to optimize our technology spend, rationalize use of applications and move towards sustainable progress in areas of improving clinical efficiency, usability and availability of information, both to the healthcare teams and to patients and consumers out there.
At Becker's 4th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, taking place November 2–5 in Chicago, more than 1,500 hospital and health system executives tackle decisions that determine whether organizations thrive or merely survive: protecting margins under cost pressure, choosing where to grow, renegotiating payer relationships, stabilizing the workforce and proving real ROI on technology. This is where leaders work through them together, face-to-face. Apply for complimentary registration now.
