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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Driving Quality and Value at CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances with Dr. Deepthi Bollineni
00:11:42
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- [00:00]
A
Hi everyone, this is Scott King with the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Deepti Bolognini of Christos Health Trinity Mother Francis Hospital, serving as the medical Director, quality and regulatory. Dr. Bolonini, how are you doing today?
- [00:16]
B
I'm good, thank you for having me. Scott, how are you?
- [00:19]
A
I'm good. Thanks so much for joining us. I know we're getting into a lot of kind of the big issues in healthcare and all the really unique things you're doing with your role, but before we get started, do you mind just telling us about your role and your background?
- [00:32]
B
Certainly. I'm Deepti Boloneni. I'm an on site physician advisor and medical director for quality Regulatory at Christus Trinity Mother Francis Hospital. It's in Tyler, Texas, the flagship hospital for our Christus Health system. I'm a board certified internist by background and I have been practicing hospital medicine for past 17 years. Over the years I have developed interest in regulatory, financial and quality aspects of healthcare and I have had the opportunity to grow into these roles that bridge both bedside and boardroom. What drives me is the belief that high quality care and operational excellence are not mutually exclusive. They must go hand in hand and I'm passionate about bridging those gaps, enhancing integrated approach between disciplines, advancing value based care and driving evidence based decision making that is patient centered.
- [01:28]
A
I think that's a great point. Those things are not mutually exclusive. What opportunities and headwinds do you have your eye on right now?
- [01:38]
B
Well, that's a good question. Right now health care is at a pivotal crossroads with both incredible opportunities and significant headwinds. One of the opportunities is the continued push towards value based care. More organizations are realizing that fee for service is unsustainable and there's a momentum towards aligning incentives with patient outcomes. While adoption has been uneven, models like ACO Reach and bundled payments are promising for achieving financial and clinical alignment. There's also technology. That's one of the opportunities where it's creating its pathways for transformation which we couldn't have imagined a decade ago. AI is already starting to reshape the workflows, clinical decision support and patient engagement. However, if it has to be implemented thoughtfully with transparency and guardrails and AI could help solve long standing issues like inefficiencies in care delivery and clinician burnout. But we also face serious headwinds. The most pressing is the financial pressure that is intensifying. The margins are razor thin and the other day I saw in the Becker's News like the hospitals closing and with current inflation and increased labor costs and reimbursement pressures, many systems are struggling to stay solvent, especially safety net providers. We're going to see a great need for innovation in operating models, partnerships and capital deployment. The other major headwind is the workforce crisis with early retirements and staffing shortages across health care which limits services. This isn't just about filling roles, it's about redesigning the way teams work and finding sustainable models of care. We are balancing immense opportunity with real structural challenges and leaders need to be approached need to approach this both with urgency and long term thinking.
- [03:39]
A
I believe you mentioned technology and AI there. How much testing and kind of thinking or mapping out does your system do before you adapt to and start regularly using a new technology or a new feature of AI?
- [03:57]
B
We certainly have a test period over many months before we incorporate it as for real and take feedback from our team and our leadership. So it's not one day decision making. We have a lot of tools available now and they're emerging. So we do go with a testing period and see how adaptable it is, how easy it is to maneuver by the staff, take feedback from them and then implement it if it's bringing value.
- [04:29]
A
I think that sounds great. Thanks so much for sharing that. Also curious, how do you think healthcare organizations should be thinking about growth and value creation in today's environment from the perspective of a physician advisor?
- [04:43]
B
Sure. As a physician advisor, I see growth and value creation through the lens of clinical alignment, care quality and operational efficiency. Well, in today's environment, growth along with expanding service lines or increasing patient volumes. It's about creating systems that support clinicians in delivering high value care that starts with clinical documentation integrity where I play a major role, appropriate utilization management and ensuring that care decisions are both medically necessary and are aligned with best practices. One of the most impactful ways to drive value is by bridging the gap between clinical teams and administrative goals. In my role as a physician advisor, I help translate these clinical realities into actionable strategies for improving outcomes, optimizing resource use and supporting reimbursement integrity. This alignment is crucial, especially in value based care, which is coming or which is the current challenge that the hospitals are facing. Where quality, efficiency and patient outcomes are interconnected. There's also an opportunity to leverage data more meaningfully, whether it's identifying variation in care or targeting avoidable admissions or or reducing denials through stronger documentation and peer to peer collaboration. Growth comes from improving not just what we do, but how consistently and efficiently we do it. Well Ultimately, adding value means empowering care teams, aligning clinical and financial goals, and building systems that support evidence based patient centered care. That's where the role of a physician advisor becomes a catalyst and not just for compliance, but for strategic growth.
- [06:25]
A
We've heard you discuss the opportunities and headwinds in healthcare you have your eye on right now. What's one risk or investment worth making this year that might deal with those opportunities or headwinds?
- [06:39]
B
Well, I would say from my perspective as a physician advisor, one of the most worthwhile investments this year is intelligent automation, particularly in areas like clinical documentation, utilization review and administrative workflows. Healthcare is still playing catch up when it comes to AI, especially compared to other industries across. But with growing workforce pressures and operational complexity, we really can't afford to keep relying on manual processes that slow down care. I see real potential in tools like ambient documentation which our organization uses, which can reduce the burden on physicians and improve documentation quality. At the same time, there's also growing use of AI in streamlining medical necessity reviews, prior authorizations and revenue cycle tasks. These are areas where a small amount of automation can lead to outsized gains in both efficiency and accuracy. Not to replace human touch to it, but it definitely improves the efficiency brings out more productive time for our staff. Of course the risk is that we adopt these tools without engaging clinicians or without clear guardrails and that can lead to mistrust or misuse. But as a physician advisor, I see my role as helping guide those conversations and making sure we are implementing technology in ways that support and not replace clinical judgment. And I believe if we do this right, we not only improve operational performance, but we'll give our providers more time to focus on what really matters. That's patient care.
- [08:16]
A
You mentioned the human touch. How important is it to you and your system? You think to make sure a human is there for a lot of these AI usages and kind of overseeing things and making sure things are going well all the time.
- [08:29]
B
All the time. AI does screen cases and gives us more preliminary data, but it's the main the nurse or the physician or the advanced skill practitioner who is making the ultimate call so that they are not spending time on a manual labor where they are going case by case. But the AI helps screen through the cases and brings up the more main cases that the staff can screen through. So it's always there. The human touch is always there. It's helping us complement our workflow and bring us back our productive time.
- [09:08]
A
The last question I have for you, I just wanted to ask where do you see the best opportunities for growth in the future?
- [09:14]
B
From my perspective as a physician advisor, some of the biggest opportunities for growth in the future will come from improving how we align clinical care with operational strategies. One area I see real potential is better leveraging clinical data to drive decision making not just at the bedside but at the system level. As physician advisors, we are in a unique position to identify the patterns in utilization, how the resources are being used, documentation and outcomes. So that insight can inform everything from care redesign to value based contracting. Another opportunity I see is standardizing and optimizing care pathways. There's still a lot of unwarranted variation in care across SO which impacts both quality and cost. By helping teams implement evidence based practices, regular education and lunch and learns, it ensures that and ensuring that medical necessity is what is taken into account and we can improve consistency and reduce waste and ultimately deliver more value. That's where I feel my role is very pivotal. I also think that there's a big opportunity in bridging silos between clinical teams, case management, revenue cycle and compliance. Because growth isn't just about external expansion, it's also about internal integration. When these teams are aligned and integrated, patients get more seamless care and clinicians are better supported and the organization can run more efficiently. Finally, we can't talk about growth without addressing the workforce. As a physician advisor, I see growing value in investing in clinician engagement and education, especially around documentation and quality metrics and evolving care models. When we empower our physicians and advanced care practitioners with the right tools and knowledge, they become the active drivers of improvement and innovation. So for me, the future of the growth lies in smarter alignment of data, people and processes, all rooted in clinical integrity.
- [11:30]
A
Well, Dr. Balani, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. I think it was a great discussion. I look forward to working with you again soon.
- [11:36]
B
Thank you Scott. Thank you for having me. Have a good day.