A (4:23)

Thank you. And talk for a second, Megan, about sort of. You mentioned EPIC for a moment, but talk about EPIC first. EPIC only versus using other solutions when they really make a difference for you in different areas. What's the difference that you have now into visibility and what's happening in terms of the ors and helping to make better day to day decisions in the or. And since you moved to the AI and wing toss approach versus being defaulting to EPIC only. Talk a bit about the difference that you see.

B (4:53)

Sure. Epic, I think gives a lot of data. It makes a lot of data available to us. I think administratively. I do believe in building as much into one single platform as possible. But the challenge with EPIC is it is an overwhelming amount of clicks and work and data that is available And a lot of times teams have to pull multiple reports together and really do extra work to interpret what that means operationally. Visibility to data alone doesn't change behavior. We're a lean organization and believe in signals, and that's truly what teams need in order to determine what actions to take. I think that tools like Lean Toss help translate really complex data into information that can help provide operational guidance and serve as those signals. So we send alerts out to all of our surgeons on how they're performing. The predictive analytics show you your time in advance and whether or not it would typically be booked and invite you to release that time so another surgeon can pick it up. And so it really allows our surgeons and our operational leaders to quickly see how we're performing, identify where those opportunities are to pick up additional time, and then where we have unused capacity. So that allows our teams to take action quickly in real time, rather than spending time seeking out and digging through reports that they have to interpret themselves.

A (6:25)

Thank you. And I think you mentioned that you're doing about 40,000 procedures or surgeries a year, which is obviously a massive number you've seen over the last few years. Increased volume, stronger primetime utilization, improved release fill, and in great growth in open time demand while running fewer ORs. What organizational matters levers matter the most. In trying to help you sustain that growth through staffing and resource constraints and challenges, staffing resources, you've done a remarkable job of making greater use of the operating rooms and using fewer operators, quite frankly, and increasing the number of procedures. That's an amazing throughput sort of evolution and testament to what you're doing. What levers have made the biggest difference, what's helped.

B (7:13)

Thank you. One of the most important levers that I believe in is creating transparency. One of the things that we found that I thought was interesting, and I still find really interesting, is that the more that we were transparent with our data, the more that individuals started governing even themselves. Having that transparency around block performance and then what time is available in the OR has been extremely powerful for us. So that would be a first lever that I would always recommend. I think our surgeons have the opportunity now to see clearly how their blocks are performing, and it naturally encourages behaviors around blocks. So making sure that we're releasing time earlier, being able to surface available time earlier so that time doesn't go unused. And so it just creates a healthier system where release time can be picked up, especially for those surgeons. We're growing organizations, so those surgeons that have demand that may not have as much Time as they need in the OR. As a result, we've seen 3 to 8% year over year surgical volume growth. We're getting pretty busy. So some of our areas are close to capped at this point, but we're able to maintain our PrimeTime utilization around 72 to 74 across the board. We have some that are some areas that are trending well above that. And then our release fill rate is 54%, which means the ORs in the clinics, the surgeons and the teams in the clinics are actively paying attention to the time that comes available and taking advantage of that. Our engagement from our surgeons is strong. And so we've seen about a 23% year over year growth for demand for open time.

A (8:51)

That's remarkable. It's literally remarkable what you've done. Talk a little bit about for leaders trying to build surgical operations that can withstand shocks, that could be resilient. Where should they start across their journey? And what's one early movement that helps to build momentum without adding a lot of complexity? Because that's really the goal is to add momentum, be resilient, withstand challenges and get the operating rooms humming, really to make sure things are busy and can keep, you know, mission without margin. And truly the case. What can leaders do?

B (9:24)

You know, at the end of the day you have to build governance into your processes so you can implement something that works really well and let it slip if it, if it's not included in your policies. So for us, we built the use of all of our tools for IQ directly into all of our policies. So our block policy indicates that we use the data that is available, the insights that are available through IQ as part of our policy, which we're reviewing pretty consistently with our service line leadership and what I refer to as opportunity analytics. So really looking at, instead of having a heavy hand, really looking at it from a partnership perspective and identifying where those opportunities are that can surface for them to be able to make informed decisions from. And so we also have it built into our scheduling policy. So if you're requesting additional time in the or, you're required to use IQ to do that. So it's not just a side product, it's part of our process and it's built into our policy and it's built into our governance as well. And then that way instead of it becoming a one time initiative, it just becomes the way that we operate as part of our operating model. And that structure really keeps all of our decisions transparent based on data and that we're all speaking the same language across the surgeons the clinic, clinical leaders in the or, as well as administrators.

A (10:45)

Really remarkable. Can I ask you one or two more questions if you're okay with it?

B (10:49)

Sure.

A (10:50)

Thank you. So you are leading this year. You're culturing this year the Ms. Ride for charity. Talk about your commitment to charitable efforts and why that's so important to you.

B (11:01)

Yeah, of course. Well, I picked up cycling just by virtue of wanting to stay active and build a community here in Kansas City. Last year was the first year that we built a team, a very teeny, tiny team around bike Ms. And ended up joining a larger team that has been wildly successful called the Royal Blue Riders. And they've had many years of success. And so this year I've been granted the opportunity to co chair that group with a big group of people that ride. And I think they're the second highest revenue generator for Ms. Research in the Kansas City area. And it really is bred from the fact that we love to ride bikes and cycle as much as we can. And then also my partner's sister has been diagnosed for ms, so it's near and dear to our heart to raise money to support research in that area.

A (11:57)

Well, it's fantastic what you do, both professionally and personally. Just fantastic. Megan, I love the story of how you're working with Link. Toss in the efficiency you're bringing to the ORs, the Resilience and the shock absorption. That helps. It's an amazing stat. Higher number of procedures, higher number of surgeries, using fewer operating rooms and getting more people into the prime time slots. It's really a remarkable story and effort. Congratulations, Megan. It's great to visit with you. We'd love to get you back on to talk leadership and some of your advice for leadership. Just a tremendous career and leadership career. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you very much.

B (12:40)

Thank you, Scott.