← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Driving Value Through Digital Transformation at Jefferson Health with Dr. Luis Taveras
00:13:16
Loading summary
Transcript25 lines
- [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. We're looking forward to hosting you in Chicago.
- [00:32]
B
This is Laura Dardo with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Luis Tavares, executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer at Jefferson Health. Luis, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- [00:44]
C
It's great to be back. Great talking to you today.
- [00:47]
B
Oh, absolutely. I always appreciate our conversations because I think you've got such a great energy and passion for what you do and certainly are on the forefront of a lot of the things that are happening in health technology today. So I'm excited for our conversation. But before we dive in, for those who are just, just starting to listen to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast, could you tell a little bit more about yourself and your background?
- [01:08]
C
Yeah. So I've been in healthcare, I hate to go back and think of it since 1987. So I've seen lots and lots of changes in healthcare. I have been a CIO for the last 25 years, almost 26 now. And I've been in various systems throughout the Northeast, Jefferson certainly being the largest one and the most comprehensive one that I've worked for. But I've seen lots of changes from, and I've mentioned before on the podcast, from the time that it was in the basement next to the morgue to now to the point where as a chief Digital Information officer, I sit at the top, on the top floor. Right. So it's been lots of great changes and many, many things happening throughout those many years that I've been involved.
- [01:52]
B
Well, that's great to hear. And you know, I know Jefferson is a really unique organization with just many facets and continues to grow. How many hospitals have now what, what all comprises what you're overseeing there on the digital front.
- [02:05]
C
So we're now at 34 hospitals, but Jefferson Enterprise is bigger than that, which is we have three lines of business, if you would, from that standpoint, it's the university is the health plan and then there's the health delivery organization, which is the largest component of it. But those are three parts of the organization. And I over CIT for all three parts.
- [02:29]
B
That's amazing. And I can imagine. Never a dull moment for sure. When you think back in the last year or so, could you tell me about the most important initiative that you led? What did you do and what were the results?
- [02:42]
C
The most important initiative really was continuing the integration of the Lehigh Valley Health Network and Jefferson. Because we came together 18 months ago now, we spent a lot of time making sure that we brought the teams together that we merged, the technologies that we built, the environment that was safe. Lots of focus on cybersecurity for both organizations and now the single organization. Really the biggest part was from that organization governance standpoint and implementing a lot of the processes that we have today to make sure that we're making the right investments in the right solutions that are going to bring the biggest value to the organization. And that's what we are. We're really focused on being a value organization. I mentioned before in other podcasts that I don't think of is&t our organization as a cost center like some people think about. We are a value center. The organization chooses to invest in the solutions that we provide and we need to bring value back to the organization as a result of that investment.
- [03:45]
B
I love that. I think it's so important to have the big picture in mind and thinking through what you need to do in order to continue to grow together. I know having that systemness at Jefferson is very important. And then becoming a value creator for the organization overall. Right now. When you think about especially putting together that governance structure and making sure you're pulling through everything you need in order to become that value center, what did that look like for you? How are you able to pull those things together and then really make sure all branches of the organization were able to follow them?
- [04:20]
C
So it really starts with creating that strategic plan. And that was the focus of the first three months together. And we put together a plan that defines a very clear journey from where we were at that point, which is really more of a reactive organization, to an operational excellence stage. And then our final journey is getting to being a high performance organization, creating that vision over the next five to seven years, building the parts of the plan that says here's how we're going to get from here to there. And the critical part of that is the governance model, making sure everybody understands how we're going to evaluate what comes our way. Especially today with AI, we're getting so many requests from everybody. What's the process for evaluating that this is the right solution that we should be invested in that's very well defined, engaging all parts of the organization in those decisions. Because the last thing that we want is for IT to be making those decisions. We're a services organization. We have to listen to what people want and satisfy those needs. But never forget that we're not an IT organization. We're a health care organization. And we're here to make sure that we provide the best health care to our patients and the best service to our members and students that we have. So we enable that to happen. We don't do IT and technology for technology and IT sakes. We do it because it means something to the business.
- [05:53]
B
I love that. I think it makes a lot of sense and it's really helpful to understand how you then dovetail in what you're doing on the IT side into the strategic plan and everything that really makes Jefferson go. Now, looking ahead, what are some of your big priorities and headwinds that you're focused on for 2026?
- [06:12]
C
I think the biggest one, and maybe a lot of people will be able to relate to this, is just managing AI and the impact that AI is going to have in everything that we do. But to do it in a way that we always have a human involved in what AI does. AI is just another tool that our humans will do to make themselves better, to make the department better, and as a result make the entire organization better. But we always have to have that human in the middle, especially when it comes to clinical solutions. We need to make sure that a clinician initiates the action, that AI is a tool that is used to accomplish what was planned to be accomplished and that the clinician checks the results of that AI input before they act. So we always have a person in the middle of the AI solution. But that's the biggest thing, just managing that environment. Continue the integration. But a lot of the integration work is revolving around how do we use AI, how do we manage AI across the organization.
- [07:15]
B
That's helpful to understand. And I think AI is so much on the tip of everyone's tongue today, especially in healthcare. And when you're looking at everything that it could do, what are some of the applications that you're most excited about? Where do you see being really spaces where AI can make a big difference even over the next couple of years?
- [07:35]
C
So on the operational side, definitely in revenue cycle and the whole revenue cycle process, the other part is looking at enterprise share services and looking where we can streamline how we deliver those services to the organization. But the biggest bank is definitely going to be on the clinical side and the solution that is making the biggest impact right now is ambient. We started deploying Ambien in 2025. We started with the physicians, and we have now moved on to nursing. And I think the impact on nursing is going to be equally as large and as impactful as it was for the physicians. We're seeing the nurses be much more efficient in the way they document. We're seeing the nurses be much more conversant with their patients, which is absolutely critical. So it's going to be many, many benefits associated with AI in the nursing space, same as we're seeing on the physician space.
- [08:36]
B
Got it. That makes a lot of sense. And I think when you're looking at AI and looking at everything that has the potential, I know there are risks too. Are there any, I guess, challenges or things that make you nervous about bringing additional AI into the organization? How do you make sure the data is being used in the way it's supposed to be and leverage correctly?
- [08:57]
C
So the area that we're very focused on because it is an area of concern is the development of agents. And how do we develop agents, how do we deploy agents? Especially in the clinical space, we have to make sure that there's no bias, that there's no harm to our patients, and that we're doing this exactly the way that we expect to do it, and that the results that we're going to get are the results that we're going to, that we expect. So agents is something that we have to really manage. We definitely see a lot of value in the creation of various agents. We've seen the benefits of those agents already, but it needs to be carefully managed. Not everybody should be able to develop agents that are unchecked. So we have to make sure we have a process for validating that the agents are doing what they're supposed to be doing and that they'll cause no harm or create any cybersecurity concerns for us.
- [09:50]
B
That's so helpful to understand. And, you know, it is definitely the challenge there. Being able to leverage AI correctly will also, you know, especially in the clinical setting, make sure there's not any of the biases or the things that could cause harm. Now, what do you think the hardest thing you'll have to do in the coming year will be?
- [10:09]
C
In this year, the biggest thing is going to be really continuing the integration, but also beginning to harmonize the processes that we have and rationalizing the environment. When we bring two organizations as large as Jefferson and Lehigh Valley Health Network together, we have a lot of duplications in terms of applications, in terms of infrastructure, and we've done really well with that. But we still have a long way to go in terms of making sure that we streamline the processes that we have, streamline the technologies that we have, and that we have the right number of applications in place, not like we started with lots and lots and lots of applications. So that's going to be a big process that we have to continue that rationalization process.
- [10:58]
B
That makes a lot of sense. And I think it seems like there'd be a lot of benefits to obviously eliminating those duplications and getting the rationalization right. But what does it take in order to do that? What type of resources from your team as well as the Oracle organization overall, when you're looking at, you know, such an important thing that you need to do?
- [11:18]
C
So really, our team is guiding and assisting in those, but we really have to stay focused on the departments and the folks that are going to be the end user, the end result of those rationalization process. For example, in the credentialing space, we're working very, very closely with the medical leadership to make sure that we have a credentialing process that is the same throughout and that we're using the same solution to manage those processes. So it's us working very closely with everybody out there to make sure that we are doing the right thing in rationalizing the environment and then us providing the support to make sure the solutions that we provide for the final processes, the final ways that we're going to do things, is exactly what the organization wants.
- [12:08]
B
Absolutely. I think that makes a lot of sense and is helpful to understand. Now, before we wrap up here, I wanted to just touch on growth. Where do you see some of the best opportunities for organizational growth going forward?
- [12:19]
C
Oh, in terms of growth, obviously we have a great growth strategy. We've grown quite a bit in the last 10 years, and we're still looking for ways to continue to grow, but really the focus is much more on making sure that what we have to get together today, the 34 hospitals, the university, the health plan, that we fully, fully integrate those vertically, optimize those, but horizontally look across and see how we can leverage every part of the organization to make Jefferson better.
- [12:50]
B
I love that. Luis, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been such a fun conversation. You know, it's always so informative to speak with you, and I look forward to seeing you as well at our annual meeting. I know you'll be speaking on a panel and really bringing some of your expertise around technology, AI and strategic growth to that. So excited about, you know, seeing you then, and it'll be great to connect.
- [13:12]
C
Thanks, Laura. We'll see you. Thanks so much.