Team Based Care, APP Growth, and AI Innovation at Stanford Health Care with Clair Kuriakose

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Episode: Team Based Care, APP Growth, and AI Innovation at Stanford Health Care with Clair Kuriakose
Date: March 6, 2026
Guest: Claire Kuriakose, Vice President and Chief Advanced Practice Officer, Stanford Health Care
Host: Laura Dyrda

This episode centers on how Stanford Health Care is strategically advancing team-based care, optimizing advanced practice provider (APP) roles, and pioneering AI innovations to improve patient outcomes and operational effectiveness. Claire Kuriakose shares key initiatives, capacity challenges, and the importance of shared leadership—offering valuable insight into the institution’s forward-looking strategies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Claire Kuriakose’s Background and Advanced Practice at Stanford

• Claire oversees professional practice and workforce strategy for nearly 1,000 APPs, including nurse practitioners, physician associates, clinical nurse specialists, and nurse anesthetists.
• Her role is an inaugural position, reflecting the rapid growth and strategic importance of APPs within Stanford Health Care.
  • Quote: "The role that I'm in today is actually an inaugural role... really understanding the value that apps have from a strategic standpoint in how we deliver care for our patients." (00:35, Claire Kuriakose)

2. Intentionality in Team-Based Care

• Stanford Health Care has placed a strong emphasis on refining team-based care to address access, efficiency, and patient experience.
• Developed new care models to optimize utilization of every team member.
• Result: Achieved a 17% improvement in ambulatory APP visits, evidence of better access through collaborative care models.
  • Quote: "We've been able to see an improvement of 17% in our ambulatory app visits... this really goes to show the collaboration in partnership..." (02:20, Claire Kuriakose)

3. Evolving Workforce Expectations

• Adjustments included education about APP roles, clear communication with patients, and defined role delineation between APPs and physicians.
• Emphasized managing expectations to ensure high-quality patient experience during team-based care transformation.
  • Quote: "It was really about education around the role, around competencies and working together... and having role delineation, expectation management..." (04:27, Claire Kuriakose)

4. Priorities and Headwinds for 2026

• Preparing for financial challenges, reimbursement changes, and evolving care delivery models.
• Continuing to center innovation around patient care, quality, and keeping patients at the heart of all decisions.
  • Quote: "My goal is that we do this while keeping the patient at the center of all of these efforts and making sure... we are providing the best, highly high quality care for our patients." (05:20, Claire Kuriakose)

5. Unleashing Innovation through Shared Leadership

• Stanford leverages shared leadership structures (nursing and APPs) to ensure frontline clinicians’ voices inform innovation.
• Frontline staff are key drivers of effective and practical solutions through task forces and committees—especially for AI initiatives.
  • Quote: "The folks who have the best ideas are actually our frontline clinicians and staff... making sure that their voices are heard and part of this problem solving." (06:43, Claire Kuriakose)

6. Tackling Capacity Demands & Stanford Healthcare at Home

• Major challenge: High demand for inpatient beds due to ED and surgical volume.
• Focus on efficiency, decreasing length of stay, and more effective discharges.
• Stanford Healthcare at Home: Launched an APP-led virtual care program for patients at home, replicating inpatient services and increasing overall capacity while improving patient satisfaction.
  • Quote: "One major initiative... is Stanford Healthcare at Home. This is a program, an app led virtual visits for patients where we are able to provide care at the comfort of their own homes." (08:04, Claire Kuriakose)
• Parallel efforts in ambulatory settings (e.g., clinics to reduce unnecessary ED visits and readmissions).

7. Growth Opportunities: AI Innovation and Governance

• Stanford is positioning itself as a leader in responsible, patient-centered AI integration.
• Developed strong governance and ethical frameworks for AI—placing patient safety front and center.
• Example: Launch of AI scribe tools in ambulatory and soon inpatient settings, reducing clinician documentation burden and improving efficiency.
  • Quote: "We recently launched an AI scribe both in our ambulatory setting and we're about to launch it in our inpatient setting... a decrease in cognitive load in relation to clinical documentation." (11:08, Claire Kuriakose)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• On the scope of her role and APP value:
  "It's been really fun and a great way to really delineate what the role can do for our organization and mostly for our patients." (00:35, Claire Kuriakose)

• On intentional team-based care:
  "We as an organization have been really intentional about what team based care and what is the right care model for our patients." (02:20, Claire Kuriakose)

• On leveraging frontline voices:
  "The folks who have the best ideas are actually our frontline clinicians and staff." (06:43, Claire Kuriakose)

• On tackling capacity challenges:
  "There's this tremendous demand for inpatient beds... We launched just a couple of months ago Stanford Healthcare at Home... This program has been immensely successful in really creating capacity, but also from a patient satisfaction standpoint." (08:04, Claire Kuriakose)

• On AI-driven growth and responsibility:
  "I am incredibly impressed by Stanford Healthcare and the position that we have taken in really building a governance structure and ethical frameworks around AI integration in healthcare." (11:08, Claire Kuriakose)

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:35]: Claire Kuriakose introduces her role and Stanford’s APP strategy
• [02:20]: Discussion of team-based care initiative and 17% increase in ambulatory APP visits
• [04:27]: Adjustments in workforce and expectations for care transformation
• [05:20]: Priorities and outlook for 2026
• [06:43]: Shared leadership model for innovation and frontline engagement
• [08:04]: Addressing capacity: Stanford Healthcare at Home program
• [11:08]: AI innovation, governance, and AI scribe tools for clinician efficiency

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Episode Flow and Tone

The conversation is collaborative, forward-thinking, and anchored in operational excellence. Claire Kuriakose’s comments emphasize patient-centered change, transparency, and bottom-up innovation—balancing optimism with practical recognition of healthcare’s current headwinds.

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This summary captures the episode’s central insights and memorable moments, offering a rich, thematic overview for listeners and healthcare leaders interested in the future of care delivery at a leading academic center.

Transcript

[A]

This is Laura Darda with the Beckers Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Claire Koriakos, Vice President and Chief Advanced Practice Officer at Stanford Healthcare. Claire, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

[B]

Thank you, Laura. It's really great to be here.

[A]

Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation because I know it's just such a fascinating time in healthcare today. And truly to dig into the advanced practice space is going to be an incredible opportunity to share your perspective with our broader audience as well as some of the really cool things you're doing at Stanford Healthcare. So I'm excited to dig in, but before we do, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and Stanford?

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. So, as you mentioned, my name is Claire Koryakos. I am the Vice President and Chief Advanced Practice Officer at Stanford Healthcare. And Stanford is a premier academic medical center here in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have a catenary hospital as well as a community hospital and a very large ambulatory footprint all over the Bay Area. I've been now at Stanford for close to 12 years and the role that I'm in today is actually an inaugural role within our organization and it really stemmed from this large growth or yeah, this quick, rapid growth of apps within our organization and really understanding the value that apps have from a strategic standpoint in how we deliver care for our patients. It's been really exciting. The scope of my role is really the professional practice and the workforce strategy for advanced practice providers, which is a term that we use for nurse practitioners, physician associates, clinical nurse specialists, as well as certified registered nurse anesthetists. And we have a close to thousand apps in our organization. So it's been really fun and a great way to really delineate what the role can do for our organization and mostly for our patients.

[A]

Absolutely. I think that's fascinating, especially considering I know apps have had a continuing to elevated role within the healthcare system in journey that patients go on. And so it's amazing to see that, you know, you being in this position with Stanford, how they're looking at this and taking it seriously. Now, when you think about the last year, what is one of the most important initiatives that you led? What did you do and what were the results?

[B]

Yeah, I think I love that question because as I think about kind of this evolution of advanced practice, one of the things that I am really proud of within our organization is our intentionality and emphasis on team based care. Stanford Healthcare, these past couple of years have been really thoughtful about what does that mean and how can team based care bring value to our patients? There's really evolving demands from our patients. Access is a challenge, efficiency, patient experience. And as we focus on those things, we as an organization have been really intentional about what team based care and what is the right care model for our patients. And we've developed different structures, mgts around care models and that has really helped us to think about how do we leverage each team member within a care team so we can meet all those needs for our patients. Improving access and just this past year, this is actually continued work that we're going to be continuing to focus on over the next couple of years. But in just this past year, we've been able to see an improvement of 17% in our ambulatory app visits. And this really goes to show the collaboration in partnership with our physicians, our nurses, our apps, the operations team, to really work together to best improve, better improve the care that we're giving our patients.

[A]

I love that. I think it's so critical to have that type of collaboration and be able to think differently about how each member of the care team is contributing and what will have the biggest impact on outcomes and improvements in the last year. And so that's really amazing to see. And as you're going through this process, you know, having that improved 70% in the app visits, is there anything you had to adjust about, you know, the team or workforce expectations or anything else to kind of go along with this transformation and make sure that, you know, your team was able to meet that capacity and continue to provide a great experience for patients?

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. It's obviously a heavy lift and takes collaboration and partnership with so many leaders and frontline clinicians. And it was really about education around the role, around competencies and working together, not just internally, but also communicating to our patients and having role delineation, expectation management on when they're going to be seeing an advanced practice provider and when will they see a physician. So it really takes a lot of thought and intention and if we do it collaboratively, it can be tremendously successful and have better access and outcomes for our patients.

[A]

That's so helpful to know and, you know, a great insight in terms of how you're building the program there and continue to elevate patient care. Now, looking ahead for 2026, what are some of the big priorities and headwinds that you're focused on?

[B]

Yeah, you know, I think 2026 is going to be a very interesting year and I think we have the opportunity to really reimagine how care is delivered by, again, some of this care model work, thinking about every single team member and how we can do that, especially with some of the financial headwinds that we're seeing, the reimbursement changes, I think it will allow us to really be innovative and creative and really reimagine how we deliver care. And I think that's exciting. And my goal is that we do this while keeping the patient at the center of all of these efforts and making sure we're still where we are, providing the best, highly high quality care for our patients.

[A]

That makes a lot of sense and you touched on a little bit. But I know financial challenges are abreast for almost every health system and hospital across the country. And thinking through how you can be innovative and be creative and tap into the potential for so many of your different team members in a variety of ways, what are you doing at Stanford? And when you're working with your leadership team as well as those on the front lines, how do you make sure you're unlocking all of that potential and creativity in really putting forward what healthcare is going to transform into over the next several years?

[B]

Yeah, you know, that's a really great question. I think really as healthcare leaders, it's having that innovative mindset. But one powerful tool that we utilize at Stanford Healthcare is our shared leadership structure. And it would be no surprise to you, but the folks who have the best ideas are actually our frontline clinicians and staff. And so we utilize our nursing shared leadership, our app shared leadership structure, really, to make sure the voice of our frontline clinicians are heard and they are involved in creating the innovative solutions to help solve for the problems that we're facing and leveraging them on different task forces and committees, thinking about AI and how that will help transform and help improve the care that they're delivering. But the ultimate resource or the expert is really the clinicians, the frontline team. And so we do spend a lot of time and energy making sure that their voices are heard and part of this problem solving.

[A]

Absolutely. I love that. And it's just, you know, a great kind of approach to having those voices from the front lines bubble up and be front and center in the transformation process. Now, what do you think the hardest thing you'll have to do in the coming year will be?

[B]

So, you know, I'm sure we're not different from other AMCs in this, but one of the biggest challenges that we have right now is really the, through our capacity demands and the strain that we have and whether it is through our ED volume and our surgical volume, there's this tremendous demand for inpatient beds. And so as an organization, we are working hard on looking at being more efficient, enhancing our throughput, decreasing our length of stay as appropriate, looking at how we can discharge patients more efficiently and effectively. This is a key priority for us and a really hard problem to solve overnight. As you can imagine, our goal is to make sure that the patients get the care they need in the right place. One major initiative that we launched just a couple of months ago is Stanford Healthcare at Home. This is a program, an app led virtual visits for patients where we are able to provide care at the comfort of their own homes. And these are services that we typically have provided while they were inpatient. This program has been immensely successful in really creating capacity, but also from a patient satisfaction standpoint, getting them to their families and friends sooner. And it's also helped us create capacity for our organization. So I think this year we'll continue to double down on efforts like this, thinking about how as a team, we can collaborate again, leveraging every single clinical team member to think about how we can be more efficient to best take care of our patients and create efficient throughput and capacity.

[A]

That makes a ton of sense. And it is really cool to hear how you're tackling some of those capacity issues because you're right. I mean, AMCs plus community hospitals and more have really experienced a huge influx of patients. And trying to figure out how to manage all of that is just going to continue to be a struggle, it seems like, over the next several years. And so the idea of bringing more of that Stanford Healthcare at Home and those app led virtual visits I can imagine are critical not only to expanding access, but also, you know, doing that in an efficient and cost effective way.

[B]

Exactly. And I think one thing that folks, well, most people are starting to realize right. When we focus on inpatient, it quickly translates over to outpatient as well. And what can we do even in the ambulatory setting to limit unnecessary ED visits? Right. So we are focusing on readmissions and same day clinics to make sure that our patients get the right type of care that they need in the right setting. And so focusing on these ambulatory clinics along with the inpatient efficiency metrics have been really helpful.

[A]

Absolutely, absolutely. That is amazing to hear. Now, before we wrap up, I wanted to ask about growth too. Where are you seeing some of the best opportunities for organizational growth?

[B]

You know, I, I think we alluded to this a little bit earlier, but really from a healthcare perspective. I think the transformation or how AI is really going to continue transforming healthcare is one of the key opportunities that we have. I am incredibly impressed by Stanford Healthcare and the position that we have taken in really building a governance structure and ethical frameworks around AI integration in healthcare. I think that is a fundamental piece that as clinicians we want to make sure is occurring and making sure that patients are really the center of AI integration and clinical safety remains the highest priority. And with that type of framework and governance structure, there's so much that we can do. The opportunities are really endless. We recently launched an AI scribe both in our ambulatory setting and we're about to launch it in our inpatient setting. And just from some of the early data shows, some efficiency gained for our clinicians, but also just a decrease in cognitive load in relation to clinical documentation. So there's just so many different innovative AI models and that I believe that we can integrate into healthcare today. But it requires a appropriate, clinically appropriate governance structure and I am so incredibly proud of how we do that here at Stanford.

[A]

That's amazing. Claire, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been such a fascinating conversation. I'm inspired by all the work that you're doing at Stanford Healthcare. We'll look to forward forward to continuing the conversation in the future. I know that you'll be speaking at our annual meeting and so I'll be excited to see you then and really be able to catch up.

[B]

Thank you, Laura. I really appreciate your time and the opportunity.