Susan Ibanez, CIO of Southeast Georgia Health System

Summary

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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast: Interview with Susan Ibanez, CIO of Southeast Georgia Health System

Date: October 24, 2025
Host: Grace Lynn Keller (Becker's Healthcare)
Guest: Dr. Susan Ibanez, Chief Information Officer, Southeast Georgia Health System

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Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Susan Ibanez, CIO of Southeast Georgia Health System, in a conversation focused on health IT innovation, artificial intelligence (AI) use cases in healthcare, technology governance, and the impact of legislative and funding shifts on community hospitals. Dr. Ibanez shares pragmatic insights drawn from her diverse leadership experience in both large and small health systems, with a particular emphasis on how her organization balances technological advancement with patient care priorities.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background of Southeast Georgia Health System and Susan Ibanez

• Organization Profile:
  • Two-hospital, nonprofit community health system
  • 40+ ambulatory and specialty clinics
  • Serves five counties on the southeast Georgia coast
  • 135 years’ legacy, deeply integrated into the community
  • Longtime Oracle shop since the 1990s
• About Dr. Ibanez:
  • 20+ years in healthcare
  • Leadership in both for-profit and nonprofit organizations
  • Passionate about aligning business operations with optimal patient care
  • “We’re doing some really amazing things and really serving an important community.” (Ibanez, 01:36)

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2. Artificial Intelligence: Current and Future Use Cases

• Back Office Applications:
  • AI’s greatest near-term impact may be in back-office operations, especially revenue cycle management.
• Safety & Security:
  • Upcoming RFP for AI-based visitor and patient behavior prediction systems.
  • Goal: Anticipate and prevent workplace violence.
  • “Healthcare violence in the workplace is a huge issue. … We can predict some behavior and make sure that we’re ahead of that.” (Ibanez, 02:40)
• Clinical AI Agents (Ambient Listening) :
  • Currently active in OB/GYN and Pediatrics clinics.
  • Rolling out to emergency departments and, eventually, inpatient spaces.
  • Benefits:
    • Reduces provider administrative burden
    • Improves patient engagement scores
    • Frees up providers for more direct patient interaction
    • Decreases “pajama time” spent on documentation after hours
  • “We expect and have seen patient engagement scores go up significantly and the time that will reduce, pajama time, things like that for the providers, has been really impactful.” (Ibanez, 03:35)

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3. Navigating Technology Governance and Change Management

• Shadow IT Challenge:
  • Unofficial adoption of AI tools by clinicians ahead of formal approval is a real governance challenge.
• Agile, Risk-Balanced Approach:
  • Example: Allowed a physician group interim use of ambient listening tech after rapid security and compliance vetting—a pragmatic response to clinical needs.
  • “No is just not always the right answer that we want to get.” (Ibanez, 04:52)
• Takeaway:
  • Balance meeting frontline needs with maintaining necessary oversight and risk controls.

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4. Legislation, Regulatory Change, and Funding Pressures

• Uncertainty and Tight Resources:
  • Dr. Ibanez expresses concern over reduced funding and added regulatory requirements, especially in rural/community settings.
  • Need to balance patient care with the necessity of updating IT systems to meet new payer and compliance mandates.
• Adaptability Required:
  • “We struggle right now from a funding perspective for many things…what I’m worried about most is the reduction in funding perhaps putting more of a strain on the technology budgets that are already as tight as can be in smaller community-based health systems.” (Ibanez, 05:36)
  • Fast-paced regulatory changes will require rapid response from health IT teams.

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5. Advice for Health IT Leaders Facing Future Demands

• Stay Aligned with Strategy and Clinicians:
  • Focus on patient outcomes and supporting providers
  • Avoid technology “shiny objects”; only adopt innovations that concretely improve care
• Quote:
  • “Stay close to your strategy, make sure that what we’re doing from a technology perspective has a clear benefit to the patient outcomes. And just avoid the shiny objects, really.” (Ibanez, 07:00)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On clinical technology rollouts:

  • “Giving [providers] that opportunity to just be face to face with the patients instead of face to computer.” (Ibanez, 03:20)

• On organizational agility:

  • “We had a scenario with a group of physicians that had a need to use ambient listening and we could not bring it to market fast enough...So we were able to go through and let them use a solution as an interim until we could get the ambient listening rolled out to them…” (Ibanez, 04:26)

• On funding and future uncertainty:

  • “It’s a tough balance to come to the right decision, to make sure you’re investing appropriately from a technology perspective to take advantage of those clinical solutions.” (Ibanez, 05:44)

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 00:49 | Susan Ibanez introduction and organizational background | | 02:06 | Discussion on artificial intelligence in healthcare | | 03:59 | Tech governance, balancing innovation and constraints | | 05:13 | Impact of legislation and regulatory shifts | | 06:48 | Advice for health IT leaders |

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Summary Takeaway

Dr. Susan Ibanez’s perspective highlights the realities faced by community health systems: They must drive innovation, meet new regulatory demands, and safeguard patient care, often with fewer resources. Her pragmatic, patient-focused approach urges leaders to prioritize meaningful tech adoption, maintain rigorous governance, and resist distractions from nonessential “shiny objects,” ensuring technology serves as a tool for better health outcomes, not just progress for its own sake.

Transcript

[A]

Philips is a health tech leader focused on innovation that improves the health and well being of people. Our healthcare technology and informatics solutions help care teams diagnose, treat and manage more patients with greater precision, speed and confidence. Across the care journey with Philips, clinicians are empowered with streamlined insights in the moments that matter for every patient. Better care for more people Phillips Foreign.

[B]

This is Grace Lynn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast and we are recording live at the Health IT Digital Health and RCM Conference. I'm currently joined by Susan Ibanez who is the CIO at Southeast Georgia Health System. So Susan, thank you so much for being here. Let's start off by having you share a little bit about yourself and your work in healthcare.

[C]

Hi Grace, thanks for having me here. I'm really excited to share a little bit about Southeast Georgia Health System. So I am the Chief Information Officer as you mentioned. I have support services, patient experience and marketing as well as full scope it. We are a two hospital system, not for profit community health system with about 40 plus ambulatory and specialty clinics and we're right on the coast of southeast Georgia, about 45 minutes from Jacksonville and about 45 minutes from Savannah. Our health system has been around for 135 years, so we have had the privilege of serving about five counties for a very long time. So we're very integrated into the community. We're an Oracle shop. We have been since the 90s, so we are a longtime Oracle customer and I've been in healthcare for about 20 years, 20, 25 years. It's moving quickly and I've been a CIO for both large and small, for profit and not for profit health systems. I have a doctorate in healthcare administration so I have a real passion around the business of healthcare and obviously the primary reason is providing the best, best outcome for our patients. So super excited to be at Southeast Georgia. We're doing some really amazing things and really serving an important community.

[B]

Awesome. Well, let's start our conversation talking about AI as that is a hot issue right now. Nearly half of medical practices reported using AI in some capacity last year and it remains a key topic for health IT leaders. So from your perspective, what are the use cases that are making a difference right now and how are you leveraging them in your organization?

[C]

There's so many great use cases for AI. I personally think it's very significant and important in the back office side. So in the revenue cycle, tons of space there. I'll share about what we're doing in the clinical space. But one interesting place that we're going to begin using it soon is in the safety and security space. So we'll begin using AI solutions. We're doing an RFP right now, AI solutions to help us anticipate violence or potentially violent visitors or even in the patient space so that we can predict some behavior and make sure that we're ahead of that. Because of course, health care violence in the workplace is a huge issue. In the clinical space, we're using a clinical AI agent for ambient listening on the provider side right now in the ambulatory space, we are in our ob, GYN and pediatric space, utilizing that, seeing great results. Obviously the focus on improving outcomes, but also reducing some of the administrative burden from the providers and giving them that opportunity to just be face to face with the patients instead of face to computer. We expect and have seen patient engagement scores go up significantly and the time that will reduce, pajama time, things like that for the providers, has been really impactful. Right now it's just an OB GYN and PEDs. We're rolling it out to our emergency departments, to the rest of our clinics, and then we'll roll it out through the inpatient space. Hospital is first and then the rest of the inpatient space. And that is something that we're very excited about.

[B]

Absolutely. And as virtual care expands from AI enabled tools and remote monitoring to broader digital health platforms, introducing new technology does bring challenges. So what advice do you have for leaders navigating everything from governance to patient engagement? And can you share an example of how your organization is balanced innovation with operational constraints?

[C]

Sure. So obviously there's got to be governance structure in place because life will find a way. And we've found in our organization that there are pockets of individuals that are using AI tools that haven't been necessarily sanctioned by the organization. So that's something that's really challenging. We had a scenario with a group of physicians that had a need to use ambient listening and we could not bring it to market fast enough. So we went through the vetting process, ensured there was appropriate security risk, reviewed it as well, our director of information security and legal and compliance. So we were able to go through and let them use a solution as an interim until we could get the ambient listening rolled out to them because we have to meet the needs of our providers and our patients. And no is just not always the right answer that we want to get.

[B]

And shifting gears slightly, how are you seeing recent legislation, both state and federal, affect healthcare organizations and healthcare IT specifically. And have you adjusted strategies in response?

[C]

I've thought a lot about this question and there's so much unknown about what the true impact will be from the recent regulatory changes and legislation. One of the things that as a community rural hospital that I'm concerned about is we struggle right now from a funding perspective for many things. And it's important to balance, of course, clinical and patient care first. And the IT technology supporting it is vitally important, but it's a tough balance to come to the right decision, you know, to make sure you're investing appropriately from a technology perspective to take advantage of those clinical solutions. So what I'm worried about most is the reduction in funding perhaps putting more of a strain on the technology budgets that are already as tight as can be in smaller community based health systems. And then of course, from a payer perspective and reimbursement perspective, we're going to have to make adjustments in systems that we have to make sure that we're capturing the new points that have to be captured. So I think there's a lot that we just don't know and when we can get the answers to that, it'll help us try to get ahead. But I think it's going to be a very fast scramble to try to meet everything that's coming out.

[B]

Absolutely. And as we wrap up our conversation, I'd love to know your top piece of advice for healthcare leaders as they prepare for further advancements in technology and rising demands for care.

[C]

You know, I think that's a topic that we could talk about forever, depending on the healthcare system, what their funding opportunities are. I think the important part is to stay aligned with your clinicians and the strategy of your organization, because really the patient outcomes are what it is about, supporting the clinicians in that space. So I would say we need to stay close to scope, stay close to your strategy, make sure that what we're doing from a technology perspective has a clear benefit to the patient outcomes. And just avoid the shiny objects, really. Try not to get distracted and try not to let your organization get distracted by the shiny objects, but stay true to your course of what we're trying to accomplish for patient care.

[B]

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Susan, on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Again, we are recording live at the 2025 Health IT Digital Health and RCM Conference.