Vi-Anne Antrum, System Chief Nursing Officer, Cone Health

Summary

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast Episode Summary Episode: Vi-Anne Antrum, System Chief Nursing Officer, Cone Health
Release Date: June 20, 2025

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Introduction

In the June 20, 2025 episode of Becker’s Healthcare Podcast, host Vayanne Antrim engages in an insightful conversation with Diana Antrim, the System Chief Nursing Officer at Cone Health. Recording live at the 15th annual meeting, the episode delves into Cone Health’s strategic initiatives, leadership philosophies, and the technological advancements shaping the future of healthcare.

Guest Profile: Diana Antrim

Diana Antrim serves as the System Chief Nursing Officer for Cone Health, an integrated healthcare delivery system based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Cone Health encompasses five hospitals, approximately 160 ambulatory sites, the Triad Healthcare Network accountable care organization, and the Health Team Advantage payer product. In December, Cone Health became part of Risent Health alongside Geisinger, marking a significant expansion in their healthcare network. As Diana states, “I am the system Chief Nursing Officer for Cone Health located in Greensboro, North Carolina, where an integrated healthcare delivery system with five hospitals, about 160 ambulatory sites...” (00:44).

Innovative Initiatives: Leveraging AI for Patient Engagement

One of the standout initiatives discussed by Diana is Cone Health’s integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance patient engagement, particularly for those with chronic conditions. Over the past year, Cone Health partnered with Lirio to develop a hypertension module aimed at reaching underserved patients battling high blood pressure. This program successfully outreached to approximately 3,000 patients, with a remarkable 58% of them scheduling and attending primary care appointments. Diana highlights the success of this initiative, noting, “...we’ve outreached to about 3,000 patients and 58% of those patients have gone on to make primary care appointments” (01:37).

Navigating Industry Challenges: Financial Pressures and Uncertainty

When addressing the most significant challenges facing the healthcare industry, Diana identifies financial pressures exacerbated by an uncertain political and regulatory landscape as paramount. Cone Health is proactively strategizing to ensure resilience amidst potential financial fluctuations. “I think financial pressures are the biggest thing facing us right now, particularly in an uncertain political landscape and regulatory environment,” Diana explains (02:41). The organization is focused on implementing measures that will sustain exceptional patient care regardless of external economic shifts.

Leadership Insights: Emphasizing Grace and Curiosity

Diana shares a profound leadership lesson that has been instrumental in navigating the complexities of the healthcare environment: the importance of balancing grace with curiosity. She emphasizes the need to actively listen and understand frontline staff’s experiences rather than making assumptions. “The biggest lesson... is to really bias toward grace and really be curious with people seeking to understand versus assuming what’s happening,” Diana asserts (03:25). This approach fosters a supportive and communicative workplace, essential for effective healthcare delivery.

Technological Transformations: AI Enhancing Healthcare Operations

The conversation shifts to the transformative role of technology in healthcare, with a particular focus on AI applications at Cone Health. Diana outlines several key areas where AI is driving efficiency and improving operations:

• Revenue Cycle Management: AI has significantly reduced the time spent on writing denial letters from an average of 22 minutes to just 5 minutes, allowing revenue cycle team members to focus on higher-impact tasks. “Our revenue cycle team members went from spending about 22 minutes on average writing a denial letter to now 5 minutes reviewing a written denial letter from AI,” she notes (04:18).

• Ambulance Services: AI assists non-clinical dispatchers in prioritizing patient transports, enhancing response times and resource allocation. Diana remarks, “In our ambulance service, we worked with AI to help prioritize transports for our dispatchers... and we’ve really seen some great wins from that” (04:18).

• Digital Healthcare Tools: The implementation of Copilot in leadership teams has streamlined meeting processes by capturing notes, assigning key takeaways, and centralizing information. This tool has enabled leaders to dedicate more time to actionable tasks rather than administrative note-taking. “Everything’s kind of housed in one place so we’re really starting to see some wins across the board from AI,” Diana adds (04:18).

These technological advancements underscore Cone Health’s commitment to integrating innovative solutions to enhance operational efficiency and patient care.

Conclusion

Diana Antrim’s insights on the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast highlight Cone Health’s proactive strategies in embracing AI, addressing financial challenges, and fostering empathetic leadership. Her emphasis on leveraging technology to improve healthcare delivery and operational efficiency positions Cone Health as a forward-thinking leader in the healthcare industry. The episode concludes with Diana expressing gratitude for the opportunity to share Cone Health’s initiatives and vision.

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Notable Quotes:

• “I think financial pressures are the biggest thing facing us right now, particularly in an uncertain political landscape and regulatory environment.” — Diana Antrim (02:41)
• “The biggest lesson... is to really bias toward grace and really be curious with people seeking to understand versus assuming what’s happening.” — Diana Antrim (03:25)
• “Our revenue cycle team members went from spending about 22 minutes on average writing a denial letter to now 5 minutes reviewing a written denial letter from AI.” — Diana Antrim (04:18)

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key discussions and insights shared by Diana Antrim on the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast, providing valuable takeaways for listeners interested in the evolving landscape of healthcare leadership and technology.

Transcript

[Gracelyn Keller]

At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to helping you and improving healthcare for everyone. That means building stronger teams and delivering sustainable solutions that truly make a difference. We offer a full spectrum of talent and technical services and deliver cross industry expertise to bring you innovative best practices to solve the problems that we face in healthcare. We're not just promising you results, we are delivering them. Visit [e-mail] this is Gracelyn Keller with.

[Vayanne Antrim]

The Beckers Healthcare podcast and we are recording live at the 15th annual meeting. I'm currently joined by Vayanne Antrim who is the system Chief Nursing Officer at Cone Health. So thank you for being here today. We'd love to have you start by introducing yourself and telling us a little bit more about your background in healthcare and your organization.

[Diana Antrim]

Yeah, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. As you said, my name is Diana Antrim. I am the system Chief Nursing Officer for Cone Health located in Greensboro, North Carolina where an integrated healthcare delivery system with five hospitals, about 160ambulatory sites, accountable care organization called Triad Healthcare Network and a payer product called Health Team Advantage. And at the beginning of December we became part of Risent Health in addition to Geisinger.

[Vayanne Antrim]

Wonderful. Well, thank you for taking the time and let's begin by talking about in the last 12 months or so, is there an initiative that you've taken on that you're particularly proud of and how has that initiative impacted your organization?

[Diana Antrim]

Yeah, so we've been busy doing a lot of things at Cohen Health, but one that I'll speak to in particular is regarding AI. So we've been working on an initiative to reach our on and under engaged patients suffering with chronic conditions. And so we partnered with a company called Lirio to help us do that. And we co created a hypertension module for those patients who are suffering from high blood pressure. And we've outreached to about 3,000 patients and 58% of those patients have gone on to make primary care appointments. And we've had a high rate of success in those patients keeping those primary care appointments. So that's been really exciting to see.

[Vayanne Antrim]

And kind of on the flip side of that, what do you see as the most significant challenge currently facing the healthcare industry and what are you doing to kind of combat that or address it?

[Diana Antrim]

I think financial pressures are the biggest thing facing us right now, particularly in an uncertain political landscape and regulatory environment. So I think we're all kind of trying to wait and see what's going to happen with that. But for our system we're really trying to look at what are some of the things that we need to put in place now so that regardless of how that goes, we're able to continue providing exceptional care to the patients and communities that we're so privileged to serve.

[Vayanne Antrim]

And let's speak on leadership for a second. I'd love to know if there is a big leadership lesson that you've recently learned or are currently learning that you would like to share with us.

[Diana Antrim]

I think the biggest lesson given all of the changes and headwinds that are happening in healthcare, is to really bias toward grace and really be curious with people seeking to understand versus assuming what's happening. So you know, for me, I think hearing the voice of our frontline who are out there experiencing everything and taking care of our patients and checking in with them is a really important part of that and just really looking to make sure that we're simplifying things versus making it more complicated.

[Vayanne Antrim]

And I'd love to touch on tech as well as we round out our conversation. So from your perspective, what technological innovations are transforming healthcare right now and what are you prioritizing in regards to digital healthcare at your organization?

[Diana Antrim]

Yeah, so I think some of the places where we've seen some technology impacting healthcare operations in a really positive way at our organization is in our revenue cycle management helping to write denial letters. So our revenue cycle team members went from spending about 22 minutes on average writing a denial letter to now 5 minutes reviewing a written denial letter from AI. So that's been one really great improvement. In our ambulance service, we worked with AI to help prioritize transports for our dispatchers who are non clinical team members helping to support that work. And we've really seen some great wins from that. So those are some of the exciting developments for AI and I think there's more to come. Even for our leaders now in teams we have copilot embedded and that makes, you know, capturing notes from meetings, assigning key takeaways and really being much more efficient with their ability to take time, spending it on doing those follow up items versus taking notes and then trying to go back and figure out where the notes are. Everything's kind of housed in one place so we're really starting to see some wins across the board from AI.

[Vayanne Antrim]

Wonderful. Well Bian, thanks so much for joining me today on the Beckers Healthcare Podcast to share these insights again, we are recording live at the 15th annual meeting.

[Diana Antrim]

Thank you for having me.