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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Innovation, Workforce Transformation, and the Future of Value Based Care with Stephen Parodi
00:10:02
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Kelly Gooch, managing editor at Becker's, and I'm thrilled to be joined here today by Dr. Steven Parody, executive vice president of External affairs, communications and brand with the Permanente Federation and with the mente Medical Group. Dr. Brody, thank you for joining me today.
- [00:18]
B
Really good to be with you today.
- [00:20]
A
Thank you. And could you just to start off with maybe briefly introduce yourself, your role, scope of your organization and what's currently commanding the most of your attention as a leader right now?
- [00:31]
B
Sure, yeah. So I'm Steve Brody. I'm an executive vice president with the Permanente Federation and have responsibility for external affairs, which includes government relations and advocacy, as well as communications and branding. And that's for the eight Permanente Medical Groups across the country. So that's 25,000 physicians as well as another 80,000 staff that those med groups support. I'm also a practicing infectious disease physician just by trade. You know, in terms of what is really important now is projecting both optimism but realism in this context of government payers as well as the individual markets reducing the amount of revenue that's coming in to the healthcare system today. And really that's pushing us as an organization at Kaiser Permanente, I think really the healthcare industry writ large to think about how we can innovate, knowing that we need to continue to provide high quality care at an affordable rate and doing that with an exceedingly challenged workforce coming out of this pandemic. And so I really think that all of those pieces are critically important to creating a culture of innovation and a willingness to change.
- [01:55]
A
And you just mentioned change. Obviously we're going through rapid change across the board. And so amid that backdrop, what maybe recent decision or pivot required the most leadership conviction from you, particularly when it came to aligning people, resources, capabilities across the board.
- [02:11]
B
Yeah, this is a great question. So one of the other areas that I cover is corporate development. And so Kaiser Permanente's decision to move into Nevada has really expanded our thinking. And really my thinking as a personal leader about how do you bring at the, you know, baseline value based care to a new market where there are really good practicing clinicians as well as a plan that we're merging with. And thinking about how we bring all those teams together to come up with what a new look for, for Kaiser Permanente looks in a new market. And so really we are working with the folks that are in Nevada with multiple teams, whether it's on the health plan side, the care delivery side, to think about how do you internalize services. How do you keep some of the services that are already in existence intact, but with a view towards preventive care and preventive services, as well as effective hospital operations? All of that comes together with this process project.
- [03:22]
A
Yeah, and that's a really big project, to say the least, with that expansion in Nevada. And so what do you think has been maybe one. One thing or moment that's just challenged your assumptions during that process and wanted to change about how you approach decision making, talent or organizational readiness?
- [03:40]
B
So I think, you know, actually your point, which is leaving your assumptions at the door is really critically important. So you can't assume that any one team necessarily has the answers. I'll give you an example. Thinking about, how are we going to recruit and retain the best talent and who and what is that talent? So when you're thinking about, say, building a primary care base, does that look like the current existing systems or do we use apps? And then how do we introduce technology, whether it's the existing technology in that market or whether we have other solutions? And I'm not just talking about artificial intelligence, I'm just talking about basic IT and electronic medical record. How do you integrate what exists within the system today versus what we could bring in with other products?
- [04:38]
A
Yeah, all of those pieces are so important. Like you said, workforce, the technology aspect, even as you pointed out, beyond AI, even just the general integration there. And so I'm curious too, when you do think about all these forces reshaping healthcare and the project, you outline similar projects, where do you believe leaders need to be more decisive, especially when balancing speed, risk and having the right teams in place?
- [05:07]
B
So I think that aggressively pursuing change, even if that means that you're going to have to disrupt your existing approach to how you're doing something, is critically important. So let me give you an example. We introduced an algorithm that could predict whether or not a patient was at risk for deteriorating in the hospital. We call it Advanced Alert Monitor. Now, you would think that just introducing an algorithm wouldn't be a big deal because it's certainly going to improve care if you can predict and react to something before somebody has, like a code blue in the hospital. But it turns out that that ended up transforming the nature of what a code team was. So if you think about your classic ER episode where you've got the team rushing in and you've got your classic people that you would expect doctors, nurses and pharmacists all reacting, in this case, if you can predict that that's going to happen 24 hours in advance. The nature of who's going in to talk to that patient now is not that team. You need social workers, you need palliative care specialists, you need actually an advanced practice nurse. That's remote from the team. So you have to integrate new team members and new workflows and actually new scripting and new conversations. All of that results in actually the ultimate outcome, which is that we're able to save 500 lives a year in Northern California alone. That's great, but we had to actually engage with the teams and understand how their work was going to change and take their feedback on how we could improve.
- [06:51]
A
Right. No, that good to put out that feedback component of all that as well from staff themselves. And especially right now, uncertainty is so normal, essentially just when we talk about day to day. So what leadership habit or mindset has been most critical in keeping your organization, your people, moving forward during this time?
- [07:15]
B
I think one of the key habits is authenticity. And so, you know, for whether it's a leader or a team member, if you don't have basic trust between all of the individuals that are engaged, you really can't move forward. And to be honest with you, that is one of the biggest challenges. Whether you're talking about the external environment and what people are having to absorb, absorb in terms of what they're reading in the news or what they're hearing from a policy perspective or when you get to the actual how are we going to deliver the care if the leader doesn't have credibility? You cannot move forward. And so leading with authenticity, being willing to listen, being willing to pivot, being willing to admit when you're wrong, all of those things are, I think, essential in this day and age.
- [08:08]
A
Absolutely. And you mentioned changes. And even as we talk about the workforce as well, which you've mentioned, and so I'm. Labor markets remain tight. Right. And so. And care demands continue to grow. So I'm curious too, just how you're rethinking traditional workforce models, including greater use of international or contingent talent, just to build resilience rather than just filling those. Those gaps.
- [08:33]
B
I think one of the key things with the workforce is thinking about how the world is changing, the ability to integrate technology into our workflows, as well as thinking about, can we have different regions within the country you referenced, outside of the country, but even within this country, who's reading a radiologic scan, a pathology report? Does it have to be restricted to a geographic area? Or actually, can you follow where the sun is going so that people aren't having to work at night because you have other people that are awake in other parts of the country. And we are literally thinking about what that looks like. So that means you have to have the technological platforms in place, but then you have to think about licensing, credentialing, and how do you make that more seamless and easy so that a clinician can be licensed in multiple states, for example, and do we have the staff that's capable of making that happen quickly? So that's an example of how we're thinking about it. And I gave you just one discipline. There's multiple disciplines where we're having to think about that.
- [09:47]
A
No. Thank you so much for that example and also for this fun, interesting conversation today. We definitely look forward to connecting again soon.
- [09:56]
B
Really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.