Jeff Flaks doesn’t lead with the hard stuff.
He knows it’s there — the reimbursement pressure, the public policy uncertainty, the compounding financial strain bearing down on health systems across the country. The CEO of Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare, system spanning more than 500 locations across Connecticut, is not naive about any of it. But Mr. Flaks has a different frame for this moment, one that pushes back against the ambient anxiety shaping most conversations in healthcare leadership right now.
“My personal belief is that this is the best moment we’ve ever had in healthcare,” Mr. Flaks said. “There’s never been a moment we could get better faster than we can right now.”
That conviction — grounded in what Hartford HealthCare is actually building, not just aspiring to — is what earned Mr. Flaks the inaugural Press Ganey Innovators Award and the American Hospital Association’s Quest for Quality Prize. It’s also what makes his perspective worth sitting with, especially for C-suite leaders trying to figure out where to place their bets in an environment that feels more uncertain by the quarter.
“Historically, technology and healthcare made things more bureaucratic, slower, less productive,” he said. “It made our providers’ jobs harder, and it made care in many ways less human. But today, it’s the opposite. What’s occurring with AI, what’s occurring with the technology that’s being developed in the forefront every day is making healthcare more human.”
Hartford HealthCare has moved aggressively to test that thesis. The system deployed Abridge for ambient documentation — and the result is a fundamentally different clinical encounter.
“They’re now talking to the physician. The physician is no longer entering data in the computer, and the Abridge technology is able to ensure proper documentation, proper recording accurately of the conversations and of the symptoms and of all of the patient needs and experiences.”
Physicians are back in the room and patients have their information immediately. The interaction is human again.
Through a partnership with K Health, Hartford HealthCare launched HHC 24/7, giving patients on-demand access to providers at any hour from anywhere. Since last March, more than 40,000 people have used it, with 250 to 300 new users every day. Stay-at-home parents, patients in underserved communities, people who would otherwise go without, all reaching care they couldn’t access before.
“It’s completely changing access to healthcare,” Mr. Flaks said.
The system is also using AI-powered imaging tools in its emergency departments to read images faster and more comprehensively, with radiologist validation. Remote patient monitoring through Cadence Health is now in the homes of patients managing diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and heart failure, enabling early intervention and reducing costly hospital visits.
But it’s not enough just to integrate technology into workflows. The hardest part is coordinating the transformation around the people it’s meant to serve, both patients and caregivers.
“We have to make certain that we do this with the consumer and the patient at the center of everything that we do. We have to make healthcare better for our colleagues.”
That dual obligation — to the people receiving care and the people delivering it — is what Hartford HealthCare’s mantra is built on.
“We work to be the best at getting better,” Mr. Flaks said. “Not to be the best. To what end? To what purpose? It’s a moment in time. The goal is being better today than we were yesterday, and being better next year than we were this year. I do think as you look at the outlook for the coming year, healthcare will be significantly better next year.”
At the Becker's 11th Annual IT + Revenue Cycle Conference: The Future of AI & Digital Health, taking place September 14–17 in Chicago, healthcare executives and digital leaders from across the country will come together to explore how AI, interoperability, cybersecurity, and revenue cycle innovation are transforming care delivery, strengthening financial performance, and driving the next era of digital health. Apply for complimentary registration now.