← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Transforming HR with AI and Process Optimization at Hawaii Health Systems
00:15:31
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- [00:00]
A
This is Laura Dardo with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Cecilia Trujillo, Connecticut Regional Chief Human Resources Officer at Hawaii Health Systems Corporation. CT is a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- [00:14]
B
Thank you so much for having me.
- [00:16]
A
Absolutely. I'm excited to have you in conversation because I know you oversee such an important aspect of the healthcare system and that's human resources, workforce development, and so much is evolving within this space today. So I'm looking forward to learning more about what you're doing at Hawaii Health Systems and then your perspective on the future. But before we dive in, can you introduce yourself and tell us just a little bit more about your background?
- [00:42]
B
Absolutely. So, as you said, my name is Cecilia Trujillo, ct. I am a process enthusiast, always thinking about how we could make things easy and provide our customers the best experience, providing them information really at their fingertips. I'm a passionate leader and I dream to architect. And this is a big dream. I dream to architect a workplace where AI agents handle repetitive and administrative tasks, ultimately freeing HR professionals to spend their time where it matters. Cultural development like you shared then, that human connection, things that have higher impact. I started my journey as a regional Human Chief Human Resources Officer at the east Hawaii region, that is a region of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, about 18 months ago. I have been in the HR space for about 15 years in my career has been in the public and the healthcare sector. And currently I have this unique privilege of operating at the center or the intersection of these two sectors because I am in health care. But HHSC is the department of the State of Hawaii, the East Hawaii region. Our mission is to provide exceptional, compassionate care. We have our. Gomalama malama means in Hawaiian. It means to take care of. So it is to take care of our family, friends and neighbors. And we do so through respect, mindfulness and integrity. We serve in the East Hawaii region. So that would be from Honoka to Kau in our main campus being in Hilo. So it is a large space. When we think about the Big island of Hawaii, people say the Big island, but you could kind of put all of the islands in and and they would fit into the Big Island. So we have a big territory to cover and we operate mainly in rural Hawaii.
- [02:34]
A
Well, that's amazing to hear. You know, what a great mission that you have within the health system to serve the community. And I know it's such an important community with deep roots that you're serving there in Hawaii and especially in some of the rural Parts, too. So I really appreciate the kind of position you're in and you describing how the health system is functioning. I'm curious, 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?
- [03:02]
B
Oh, thank you. So I'm going to go back a little bit before starting my position. So prior to starting in my position, I had to do a lot of soul searching in preparing for this position. Many of us jump into a role with an intent to change the world, right? Make the difference, leave our mark. Not remembering that every new employer, every new role, new department and new team is different in tactics that made us successful in the past. Do not equate, do not translate one to one. And we may need to do some changes to understand the culture, the playing field, and honoring, of course, the new space in which we are entering. Therefore, I took a step back maybe about 60 days before starting this position. I worked with my coach and friend to prepare for this role. But back to your question. Yes. Over the past year and a half, our primary focus was to build the foundational readiness space to identify gaps and optimize workflows. So what we did is that we conducted a comprehensive mapping of our internal processes to identify where there was no process, or we had duplicated processes, or we had redundancy in certain spaces. In that process, we met with our customers to determine service level agreements, swim lanes. I think my team is probably a little tired of swim lanes. And of course, we met with them to understand their expectations. How do we communicate? What do they expect when they ask, they have an ask. So it seems simple. But as my grandmother would say, every mind is a world. So allow me to go in a little bit of a tangent. Often we do not meet the mark of our customer because we don't take the time to really understand what good looks like, what great customer service looks like. So we really looked into our processes and in speaking with our customers to identify what they wanted. So you probably know the B word is overused in the workplace, the busy word. And really coming in as a new, as a new leader, really understanding that the team was busy. And this B word was really born out of sense of being meaningful, giving meaningful contributions to our employer. So being busy in our brain really equates to contributing. Therefore, asking a new team to add to their plate was perceived as, oh my gosh, I have to do my day to day, which I could barely do now, and you're asking me to map all of our processes and identify gaps. And we did this by introducing agile project management frameworks. So really introducing the agile methodologies into the HR space, you're probably thinking this is more seen in the technology software development space and yes it is. But really acting as project management and process system developers, putting on the hat and saying in this space, I'm thinking as how do I manage a project and develop a new system? Helped us in adopting and leaning into agile methodologies. We use a sprint based model where we were able to transition from this traditional models into more rapid execution. Our sprints were about two to three weeks. So we gave ourselves two to three weeks to complete say mapping the process of fmla, ADA or TDI and then looking how that intersects with other processes that we are doing in the labor space. So with that the results have been phenomenal. The team is highly, highly responsive and accepting of the new approach. I am very proud here and when I walk through the cubicle and we have an open space here, but hearing the jargon around the office as well as referencing, oh I'm, I will put that in the sprints or can we look at the sprint. So hearing that really fills my bucket. So the biggest accomplishment was not just the tangible product, but also the buy in from the team. This was very important because when we, you know, when we learn and we lean into this mapping of the processes, them as the experts, we're the ones identifying the gaps and creating and coming up with creative solutions, it is a lot more effective than a new leader coming in and saying here's what you have to do. I hope that answered your question.
- [07:38]
A
Yeah, absolutely. That's great. And you know, I really appreciate you kind of talking through not only the philosophy behind you coming in and doing those, making those connections and talking through what the processes and procedures look like before then, you know, working together with your teams to figure out what the changes are going to be and how you can leverage the technology more smartly to do everything that you need to do. I think it's an incredible undertaking and in that, you know, the approach seems like it really makes a lot of sense, especially in the healthcare space when it's an industry that's so relationship driven and takes a lot of teamwork in order to care for patients. So that's really cool and amazing to hear. Now, looking ahead to 2026, what are some of your big priorities and initiatives as well as headwinds that you're focused on?
- [08:30]
B
Absolutely. So we are looking for tips and tricks for 26. That's what we Call our tactical plan for fiscal year 26. And our focus is in optimization. So in implementing generative AI in some of our spaces while making room for scalability for one day having agentic AI in the workspace. So AI for some of us is a new concept. But one thing that we have learned is that by investing on the mapping of the process and that foundation of our processes, it has helped us articulate really what we need from an AI platform. So if we would not have done that, we could not have the foundation to then build upon. And of course AI really is as good as what you put in and as good as you ask. So having the clear ask and an understanding of our processes yields a higher value. The biggest priority really is ensuring our technology stacks up is full leverage to reduce administrative burden on our staff. We are, as you said, balancing rapid change in traditional approach of the government structure. We want to honor that structure, honor our rules, but also optimize our process.
- [09:47]
A
That makes a lot of sense. I think bringing the technology and I know is a passion of yours and especially AI, I know it's evolving so quickly and what its capabilities are and how you can really most meaningfully augment the human workforce that you have with it. And so I'm curious, when you think about that governance side and you think about know, integrating new technology and preparing the team to, you know, be this human plus AI working together, what does that look like? How do you build the right type of governance to get things done quickly but also safely in the healthcare space?
- [10:21]
B
Yeah, I think collaboration, collaboration. So really a big partnership with, with IT and building that compliance infrastructure ahead of, of purchasing or going into any AI contract or utilization. So how do we manage that is by having those partnerships and open communication of. We are not the experts who needs to be at the table before we bring any of this solutions into, you know, into our, our areas.
- [10:55]
A
That's helpful to understand and you know, I think makes a lot of sense. As you're going through this transition now, what do you think the hardest thing you'll have to do in the coming year will be?
- [11:04]
B
Yeah, so as a driver, driver, the challenge is really internal. As I mentioned before, as leaders, we need to prepare for change and execution before socializing with our customers and our partners. My leader and my team, they're amazing and supportive. However, I also need to be amazing and supportive for them, for my team. So my strategy will be to meet people where they are, inspire them from that space. There is fear with AI, you know, with our partners, with it. What Are we introducing how is this going to be contain? Do we want to close bot? Are we using a off the shelf solution? So there are some of those things. So we want to make sure we answer those questions and hence building the framework ahead of time and meeting them where they are, answering the questions. Not wanting to move so fast and leaving people behind or leaving people with questions and having everyone contribute to this. A diverse team will produce a better team or a better product. So we want to make sure that we have IT compliance, regulatory quality at the table prior to purchasing and working in a software that could of course would be great for us, but then they could leave questions for others. So not leaving, I think it would be not leaving anyone behind. Respecting our culture, our history and our structure. Thinking about leading into AI space in system optimization is equivalent of leading a team through a foggy forest. So leading through the wilderness, we can see only maybe five feet ahead of us, but we have a whole team behind us saying, you know, this is. And we're telling them this is the path. We know that at the end of the journey there's a hot cocoa waiting for us at the end of the forest. Or in this case, a world of possibilities where we could make it, it'll make it all worth it. Where our staff could have meaningful interactions with our customers, where we are meeting the mark with our customers, and where our teams are spending time tasks that are meaningful and really fuel their professional souls and leveraging on AI for those tasks that are maybe more repetitive or administrative in nature that we all have to do, but we don't enjoy doing.
- [13:24]
A
That makes a lot of sense and I think it's helpful to understand that. I love that analogy with the forest and you know, it might not be a clear path right now to the end, but you know, the end is going to be, you know, much more pleasant than where you're at today. So I really appreciate kind of that visualization and then getting folks to that space will take a great leadership in the ingenuity to get there. So thank you for talking through that with us. Now I wanted to ask you about growth as well before we wrap up our conversation. Where do you see some of the best opportunities for organizational growth?
- [14:03]
B
Yeah, and this response is probably more geared toward healthcare in general. So the greatest opportunity for growth lies in solving the friction by healthcare payer complexities and staffing shortages. Right. So we are competing for people, we are paying more. Yet our reimbursements may not be as lucrative as we would want them to be. And this is just general with what I have heard in the healthcare space. So by leveraging an AI to streamline administrative workflows and embracing this gig economy for a flexible clinical staffing, we will create a more resilient healthcare system across the United States where we are in this pivotal point where we need to embrace innovation to remain agile in just this changing labor market. It's different than it was 10, 15, 20 years ago.
- [14:59]
A
Well, fantastic. C T thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been such an amazing conversation. I've learned so much and I'm really inspired by some of the cool things you're doing at Hawaii Health Systems. And I'm excited to see you as well at our annual meeting. I know it's going to be a great time to connect and learn from one another. You'll be speaking on a panel in April at the meeting, so I'm looking forward to the opportunity to learn more and connect.
- [15:24]
B
Thank you so much for having me and I am looking forward to connecting.