← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Colleen Mallozzi, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Jefferson Health
00:14:46
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- [00:02]
A
This is where healthcare leadership comes together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives and nearly 800 speakers to Chicago, April 13th through the 16th. This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former President George W. Bush. For the agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalreview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right. Looking forward to hosting you in Chicago.
- [00:33]
B
Hi everyone. You're listening to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Erica Carbajal. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. We're honored to have Colleen Malazi, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, joining us today. Colleen, welcome to the podcast.
- [00:54]
C
Thanks so much, Erica. Excited to be here with you.
- [00:57]
B
Yeah, thank you so much for taking the time to get us started here. Can you give us a brief overview of your background in healthcare and your role at Jefferson?
- [01:09]
C
Absolutely. So I've been at Jefferson for just over three years as the CNIO. Prior to that I spent 12 years at Penn Medicine working I cut my teeth as a nurse at Penn in the beginning in electrophysiology and then transitioned into informatics, eventually working for the Chief Medical Information Officer for the health system. I spent a significant amount of time working on large scale initiatives during the COVID pandemic that really helped to escalate my interest in the intersection of clinical care, technology and dealing with big, huge problems. So I, I did make the transition over to Jefferson a bit after we stabilized post Covid and I'm now overseeing a team that covers our 32 hospital academic health system. Jefferson does span across New Jersey and Pennsylvania and goes from Philadelphia up to the Poconos. It truly has a deep commitment to innovation which feels makes it the right spot for me because my role sits at the intersection of nursing technology, quality and operations, but with this very specific focus on clinical bedside work and how technology impacts it.
- [02:30]
B
Yeah, no thanks for sharing that. Certainly no shortage of big, huge problems, especially right now and at the intersection of tech and clinical. I know that you had mentioned earlier this year, not too long ago, in a recent interview with Beckers, you talked a little bit about how you spent a lot of 2025 digging into how nurses interact with the EHR and how small but meaningful changes like things like reducing clicks and cleaning up documentation pathways can make a real difference. So can you walk us through some of those Jefferson has made in this area and the difference that it's made so far?
- [03:09]
C
Absolutely. Whenever I'm talking about time with nursing, it, it must be at the shoulder with them. So my team and I get out there and we see what day to day actually looks like. Because as we move further away from the bedside, it's really important that we have the nurse's voice represented in the work that we're doing. So when we're out there, it's easier to see the small things that just add friction and noise to their day. It's technology, it can't be a friction. It has to give time back. If it's not an innovation, then it really becomes noise in their day to day. And by going out and finding small tests of change and looking at small opportunities, it really does add up to a greater good for them. So we had launched a project, we called it very lovingly Project Starlight. And it grounded us in a purpose of looking for the small things, the, the non negotiable challenges that they're finding that we need to fix. So we went out and we looked at what is the build in the ehr, but then what's the day to day interaction that they're having and focused on really narrowing the amount of time that they're spending. After about a year's worth of work and digging through flow sheets and pick lists and everything else we were about, we were able to take it down about 15 minutes per nurse, per shift. And we' just getting started. We have big, huge initiatives coming up. They're going to help us really, in my opinion, revolutionize the way that our nurses are practicing and documenting in the ehr. So I have a heavy focus on, on giving time back to them. Our caregivers deserve to be caregivers and not, you know, technicians that are entering things into a computer. It needs to serve them information. Good information in, great information out.
- [05:04]
B
Yeah, definitely. And it certainly has been interesting just to hear, you know, over the past year or two, even just how, you know, there's been so much focus on administrative burden and documentation workflows on the physician side and now really seeing that extend over to the nursing side because there is still much, still so much burden there. And it's just a lot of opportunity to take that down. I know that, Yeah, I know that Jefferson has. You mentioned giving caregivers time back and giving them time to be able to do what they entered medicine to do, which is to deliver care. And you know, to that point, I know that Jefferson has set a pretty bold goal of giving clinicians back. I think it was 10 million hours by 2028. And obviously a big part of that starts with reducing documentation burden. So as you look to 2026, how are you planning to build on that work? What, what priorities are top of mind? What headwinds do you anticipate as you look to scale some of these efforts?
- [06:07]
C
You are absolutely right. I do love the homework that you've done with 10 million hours by 2028. Boils down in many different ways. But when it comes to nursing, we look at that as 30 minutes per nurse, per shift. So an hour a day that we give back to nurses. And, and I, I want to be very clear that's not to hand them more patients, it's to let them take a lunch, it's to allow them a breath, it's to help with their well being and really create a more holistic experience of being a nurse. So ambient listening is a big, huge thing that is going to help us get there. We are set to launch on our first unit on January, the week of January 26th. And it's taking time, but purposeful design time with our staff. So we are extremely excited to get this technology out there and what it does is really enable nurses to have a device that's listening, that's going to help them file documentation into their flow sheet. So have an open, authentic conversation with the patients to allow them to look them in the eye, engage with the family, explain to them the medication that they're holding or the experience that they're going through, coordinate their care instead of having to do all of that, write it down on a piece of paper and then go sit down and document is time. And time is one of the most meaningful things in our lives. So we are very excited to give time back to our nurses.
- [07:35]
B
Yeah, no, that's, that's great to hear. Are there any, I guess, barriers or challenges you're, you're anticipating in rolling this out or even on the, the angle of, you know, change management and culture change? Anything you're anticipating and trying to plan ahead for on that front.
- [07:54]
C
Erica? All of the above. So this is actually a small technology change. The, the company who has, the companies who have created this have done the heavy lifting on figuring out the immense and incredible AI behind it. We just put the device down. It is all about change management and cultural shift. So what we're doing and why we're putting the time in, every single nurse will go through simulation of how to do this, how to do what to nurse out loud. They're going to have to come to three or four, one hour Sessions to practice. Because right now nurses do this in their head very, very often, especially the newer to practice nurses who are still getting their bearings, getting that maturity and confidence in how they assess their patients. They are less likely to do it out loud with their patients and ambient requires nursing out loud. So we are taking that hands on time, that hands on approach to manage the change. We start by working with the manager and actually we start by looking at the data. So we jumped into our EPIC data to figure out where we have great opportunity. We looked at our workforce data to figure out do we have a stable unit who hasn't had a lot of turnover, do we have a unit that has a mix of new to practice nurses as well as more mature nurses who have had some time under their belt. And then because we want both, we need both opinions in this, but we need strong leadership from a nurse manager perspective. So we've really honed in on the right people at the right time. And as we get on calls with them and as we get on the unit and start working with them, we're hearing good pushback of oh, geez, this feels like this is going to take me more time. We're like, okay, good, we need to hear that feedback. It's not, I promise, but the fact that you're thinking that means we need to be clearer about how, why and when this is going to have a positive impact on you. And if it doesn't, then we're not doing it. So I am unapologetically going to be saying no in the new year to things that don't serve us, don't serve our nurses and don't serve our patients.
- [10:01]
B
Yeah, and that's such a relevant and interesting point too, just on the fact that there's such a shift in terms of having to do it out loud and document out loud. I think that's an aspect that we don't hear a ton about. So I'm glad you, glad you mentioned that and I know you said so. Planning to launch on a unit in January of 2020 this coming year. So. And thank you for walking through. Just helpful to hear about the actual kind of preparation that's going into this and the sessions that are being held to practice. So is that something that's already been going on or that's something that's starting in the new year?
- [10:37]
C
It is January 6th and 7th. We start the training of our staff to help train on these simulations. So we're right in the heat of it at this time with a plan, go live with the Actual technology at end of January. So we are living. We are living on this unit, engaging with this staff. And I, I can't thank my team enough because they truly have rolled up their sleeves. They are outrageously excited to bring this technology, but really, it's not about the technology. It's about the change in how we practice and engage with staff. We handed our group an ehr. The EHR revolutionized Clin Clinical care. Right. Lots and lots of positives, but there are some negative. There are some negatives that came with it. Two and a half hours of documentation per shift is a long, long time to either be sitting or in front of a computer, just entering information or trying to get information out of the chart. So we want to give that. We want to give that pack.
- [11:36]
B
Yeah, certainly. Well, Colleen, what do you see as some of, like, the best opportunities for organizational growth in the year ahead and how this work ties into growth across the system?
- [11:48]
C
I think from a growth perspective, I mean, there's lots to be figured out. There's a lot of financial pressures, but we really need to acknowledge more of the workforce shortages that are challenging us. I think we've stabilized from a turnover perspective post Covid, but from a growth perspective, it has to be keeping and retaining people and being able to manage that. We may have patient care, tech shortages, or EVS workers, and how do we keep keep a stable environment with those potential shortages coming in all different areas? We have pressures in our supply chain that may make it hard to get the resources that we need. I think AI sits at the center of all of that. It helps us to be able to plan and react and be more nimble from a business process perspective. It helps us to get the reimbursements that we need to be able to get a bottom line that's sustainable to keep our doors open. I think AI has huge potential to unburden the administrators who are overseeing large groups of clinicians. So we think about our nurse managers. Our nurse managers could have anywhere from 30 to 100 direct reports. And they need to be present for those individuals that they oversee while also sit in all of these meetings and doing payroll and making sure that the supplies are where they need to be. So I think we have a great opportunity for artificial intelligence to unburden people to allow them to do the thing that they signed up to do. And I, I'm really excited to see it. We're seeing a lot on the revenue cycle side, gaining efficiencies very quickly from a billing and coding perspective, as we work with our payers to make sure that we're appropriately being reimbursed and then the coordination of patient care. We have to get people to the right resources in the right place at the right time for them, or it's not useful for them and they'll be right back in our emergency department suffering from the same issue. So technology can help us be smarter at the right point in time.
- [13:56]
B
Yeah. Certainly so much more to come on that front. Colleen, thank you so much for joining us today. It's a pleasure.
- [14:03]
C
Thank you. Thank you so much for thinking of me and having me on. I. I am really happy to be able to be the voice of so much great work that's going on and talk about the risks and the wonderful potential ahead of us. Things are moving very, very fast, but we are running alongside of it, trying to do the best that we can for our people.
- [14:26]
B
Yeah. Love that. Well, it was so great to learn more about the work you're leading at Jefferson and certainly look forward to following up on the ambient nursing rollout as well later in 2026.
- [14:38]
C
Awesome. All right, well, thank you so much.
- [14:40]
B
Thanks, everyone, and thanks to our listeners.