Steve Smith on Transforming Patient Access Through Automation at Inova

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Steve Smith on Transforming Patient Access Through Automation at Inova

Podcast: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Host: Laura Dearda
Guest: Steve Smith, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Contact Center and Access, Inova Health System
Date: March 4, 2026
Theme: Transforming Patient Access with Automation at Inova

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Episode Overview

This episode focuses on how Inova Health System is leveraging digital automation to enhance patient access, streamline communication, and improve both patient and staff experiences. Steve Smith, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Contact Center and Access, discusses the health system’s cloud-based phone system powered by digital assistants, shares results from recent initiatives, addresses ongoing challenges and future priorities, and provides insights into effective change management and organizational growth.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introduction to Inova Health System ([00:57])

• Steve Smith introduces himself and Inova: a five-hospital, Magnet-accredited health system in Fairfax, VA, serving over 3 million patients annually.
• Recent recognition: Inova was named 2025 Press Ganey Hospital of the Year, attributed to patient relationships and leadership commitment.
  • Quote:

    “Last year we were acknowledged as the 2025 Press Ganey Hospital of the Year in large part to our relationship with our patients and under the leadership of Dr. Stephen Jones.” — Steve Smith [00:57]

2. Most Important Initiative: Cloud-Based Phone System & Digital Assistant ([01:38])

• Inova transitioned to a cloud-based phone system featuring a digital assistant to improve seamless patient access and self-service capabilities.
• The digital assistant helps patients schedule, reschedule, request medication refills, and direct their queries without always needing live agent support.
• Key achievement: 25% of interactions are now “self-contained,” resolved entirely by the digital assistant.
  • Quote:

    “…25% of the interactions with the digital assistant have been self-contained, meaning that they've been resolved within the digital assistant space and they haven't had to go into a call queue or speak to a live person. So that's really exciting.” — Steve Smith [02:34]

3. Current Priorities and Upcoming Headwinds ([03:18])

• Expansion of Self-Service:

  • Current self-scheduling is available for primary care; expansion is in progress for women’s services and other specialties.
  • Goal: Provide 24/7 seamless access and off-hour automation across all specialties.

• Team Member Support and Technology:

  • Ongoing efforts to give call center staff integrated tools, like AI-powered knowledge bases and screen pops, for more efficient problem-solving during patient interactions.
  • Desire to help staff “function at a higher level” with better support.
  • Quote:

    “We need to continue to build that infrastructure… and to be able to do it, you know, even at off hours when they call the digital assistant, they're able to interact … and in many instances resolve their concerns.” — Steve Smith [03:33]

4. Change Management Strategies ([05:13])

• Acknowledges challenges in change management: not everyone views change positively.

• Importance of sharing positive results and data to build trust and buy-in.

• Standardization and automation of scheduling are ongoing goals.

• Focus on workforce development through real-time feedback, coaching, and call sentiment analysis.

• Quote:

  “Change management is slow and omnipresent. We are not there yet… but providing positive results and data on the changes we've made … is crucial to kind of verify the trust.” — Steve Smith [05:16]

5. The Hardest Challenge for the Coming Year ([06:22])

• The biggest challenge: maintaining patience during a gradual, complex transformation process.

• Realities: Implementation depends on third-party vendors and cross-functional collaboration, often slower than anticipated.

• Quote:

  “It's definitely a marathon, not a sprint … we just can't flip the switch and say okay, all the automation is built, everything is seamless, go. This really takes a lot of time and it's looking at data, making changes across the way…” — Steve Smith [06:35]

6. Best Opportunities for Organizational Growth ([07:49])

• Continued investment in IT and automation to enhance both staff and patient experiences.

• Implementation of a new CRM platform (integrated with Epic EMR, called “chears”) tracks and documents patient interactions, streamlining workflows and improving service personalization.

• Aim: Reduce staff burden, standardize processes, and facilitate quicker call resolution.

• Quote:

  “We've rolled in a customer relationship management platform … called chears. And it's really to provide a really overview of the patient journey … and just to really capture the patient journey, not only to know them better, but to get into the resolution of a call more quickly and just make that a more seamless experience.” — Steve Smith [08:26]

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Memorable Moments and Quotes

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |---|---|---| | 00:57 | Steve Smith | “Last year we were acknowledged as the 2025 Press Ganey Hospital of the Year in large part to our relationship with our patients and under the leadership of Dr. Stephen Jones.” | | 02:34 | Steve Smith | “…25% of the interactions with the digital assistant have been self-contained, meaning that they've been resolved within the digital assistant space and they haven't had to go into a call queue or speak to a live person. So that's really exciting.” | | 05:16 | Steve Smith | “Change management is slow and omnipresent. …providing positive results and data on the changes we've made … is crucial to kind of verify the trust.” | | 06:35 | Steve Smith | “It's definitely a marathon, not a sprint … we just can't flip the switch and say okay, all the automation is built, everything is seamless, go.” | | 08:26 | Steve Smith | “We've rolled in a customer relationship management platform … called chears. … to know [the patients] better, but to get into the resolution of a call more quickly and just make that a more seamless experience.” |

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Key Timestamps by Segment

• 00:57 — Introduction to Inova and recent achievements
• 01:38 — Transition to cloud-based system and digital assistant; measurable results
• 03:18 — Expansion plans for automation/self-service and staff empowerment
• 05:13 — Change management strategies and supporting workforce development
• 06:22 — Hardest challenge: Patience and complexity in transformation
• 07:49 — Opportunities for organizational growth and future technology investments

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Tone and Takeaways

Steve Smith balances enthusiasm for technological innovation with a pragmatic outlook on change management and organizational transformation. He emphasizes the importance of patient-centeredness, data-driven improvements, and supporting healthcare staff as vital contributors to ongoing progress. The episode offers practical insights for healthcare leaders navigating similar access and automation challenges.

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Transcript

[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.

[B]

This is Laura Dearda with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Steve Smith, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise, Contact center and Access at Inova Health System. Steve, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

[C]

Thanks for having me.

[B]

Now I'm excited for our conversation. I know we'll be spotlighting some of the cool things you're doing at Inova as well as getting your perspective on the future. But before we dive in, can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and Inova Health System?

[C]

Well, sure, absolutely. As you mentioned, I'm Steve Smith, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Contact center and Access at Onova Health here in Fairfax, Virginia right outside of Washington, DC. We are a five hospital magnet accredited system with over 3 million patients served every year. Last year we were acknowledged as the 2025 Press Ganey Hospital of the Year in large part to our relationship with our patients and under the leadership of Dr. Stephen Jones.

[B]

That's fascinating to hear and you know, truly a great honor. Now when you think about the last year or so, what was the most important initiative that you led? What did you do and what were the results?

[C]

Sure. In the last year we have changed to a cloud based phone system that's powered by a digital assistant. We really needed to take our technology up a game and really provide our patients seamless access to our system and provide self service when applicable. You know, with the digital assistant, the digital assistant integrates and interacts with the patient to route them to their preferred destination to kind of get away from multiple transfers and gets them to their preferred destination. In instances where we can provide self service to the patient, whether it's scheduling, rescheduling, medication refills, things of that nature, we try to provide that integration so they don't necessarily need to speak to a live operator. However, if they want to speak to an agent that they're certainly available, you know what the goal is to self contain those interactions. So we're not entirely dependent on waiting in a call queue or speak to a live person. And within the last year we've been able to capture about 25% of the interactions with the digital assistant have been self contained, meaning that they've been resolved within the digital assistant space and they haven't had to go into a call queue or speak to a live person. So that's really exciting.

[B]

That's great to hear and you know, a fascinating way to tackle, I know what is some big challenges in healthcare in terms of making sure you have access and scheduling and patients are able to get where they need to go. And so a great use of technology and it looks like great results. Now looking ahead, what are some of the big priorities and headwinds that you're focused on for 2026?

[C]

I would say we're not to the end of the journey yet in terms of our access with our, with our automation. We still need to continue build automation within our phone system, provide more self service across all our specialties. Right now we have scheduling self service for primary care which has gone really, really well. We're in the process of building that out for our women's service line, but we need to build that out for all our specialties. So we need to continue to build that infrastructure to provide our patients more seamless access to our system and to be able to do it, you know, even at off hours when they call the digital assistant, they're able to interact with the digital assist and in many instances resolve their concerns. In terms of headwinds, I would say continue to provide our team members more tools to do their job better. From my perspective as a call center leader, provide them more support in the scheduling process. Whether it's a more integrated knowledge based system that has an AI feature where for example, within the course of the conversation we can provide screen pops to our agents to provide talking points and or data to provide patients just a more seamless experience and then make the allow our team members to just function at a higher level.

[B]

Got it. That is really cool to hear and I think especially when you're looking at, you know, how can you uplift and support continued growth and development and the scheduling process. I know it's a journey. Especially so when you are thinking through this change management process, what do you think has helped it be more efficient or effective or getting people on board to make sure that they're integrating the technology within their workflows appropriately.

[C]

That's a great question. So change management is slow and omnipresent. We are not there yet in terms of where we'd like to be, but providing positive results and Data on the changes we've made and the growth that we've made so far I think is crucial to kind of verify the trust. But everyone doesn't always see change as positive. It's been a journey. But we are, we'd like to continue to standardize our scheduling process, provide self scheduling and automation when applicable and then also provide more growth opportunities and development opportunities for our agent. And we're doing that with a workforce management platform where we're able to provide our agents feedback in real time, be able to pull calls based on sentiment or what's said or not said. It kind of really drilled down on things potentially that are missed for development and coaching opportunities.

[B]

Got it. That's helpful to understand. Thank you for digging a bit deeper there. Now what do you think the hardest thing you'll have to do in the coming year will be?

[C]

You know, I think it's just to remain patient. This is a journey. It's definitely a marathon, not a sprint. And when we first kind of undertook this initiative, I thought, you know, just from my background and doing this before, it would go a little, go a little faster. And as we've kind of built this out, you know, you're reliant on third party vendors, other working cross functionally and it just, it's not, it's just I've had to reprioritize my thinking and it's really a, it's a journey and we're going to get there, but just not as quite as fast as I would like. And so always kind of trying to provide that feedback to others to kind of like we're making progress, we're making incremental steps, but we just can't flip the switch and say okay, all the automation is built, everything is seamless, go. This really takes a lot of time and it's looking at data, making changes across the way and we do have some great vendor partners and we've learned a lot in the process. But it's really kind of just remaining patient and not, and not get ahead of ourselves.

[B]

That makes a lot of sense. You know, it is really critical to have that type of foresight and knowing, you know, hey, we're pushing forward with change, but also understanding, you know, areas where you need to be very mindful and make sure you're, you're being patient, as you said. I'm curious before we wrap up here, what do you see as being some of the best opportunities for organizational growth?

[C]

You know, from an organizational standpoint, we're going to, we're continuing to build our IT infrastructure to provide our patients access to our system and to have more CMOS experience, to provide our team members that work on site and remotely more access and better efficacy and terms of their job. What I'm really focusing on is to, like I said before, just to really provide our team members better tools, AI automation, to do their job more seamlessly and to reduce and to reduce the burden on the workforce. And if we're able to streamline our processes, if we're able to validate our patients more seamlessly. So we, for example, we've rolled in a customer relationship management platform, or what we refer to as CRM is through our EMR epic and it's called chears. And it's really to provide a really overview of the patient journey and provides our agents really the understanding of the interactions that the patients have with the system, maybe things that they're calling for based on what they previously called for. We document all that information and just to really capture the patient journey, not only to know them better, but to get into the resolution of a call more quickly and just make that a more seamless experience.

[B]

I love that. Steve, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been a really fascinating conversation. I've learned a lot and certainly it's been great to connect with you today. And I know I'll be looking forward to seeing you as well at our annual meeting as a speaker on one of our panels. And so I'm sure we'll dig deeper into some of the things we talked about today as well as other areas that are really going to be critical for success going forward. So thank you for your time, Steve, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

[C]

Absolutely. I enjoyed our time and definitely look forward to seeing you in Chicago in the spring.