Embracing Change In The Digital Healthcare Landscape with Jeff Sturman, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Information Officer at Memorial Healthcare System

[00:00:03] Hello, this is Christopher Cunning, and I'm coming to you from San Diego, California.

[00:00:07] I have the pleasure and honor of serving as the guest host for Outcomes Rocket's podcast.

[00:00:13] And that podcast is being sponsored today by Class, Research, and Chime.

[00:00:20] Today, I'm attending the 2024 Chime Fall Forum.

[00:00:25] And in particular, I am highlighting three amazing individuals who recently received the Synergy Award that was awarded here at the conference.

[00:00:35] The Synergy Award recognizes healthcare organizations that have achieved the highest levels of excellence in both EHR user experience and digital health innovation.

[00:00:44] By combining the accomplishments of the Class Pinnacle Award winners and the Chime Digital Health Most Wired Award designees at level nine or above, this award celebrates organizations that demonstrate unparalleled synergies between exceptional EHR implementation and cutting-edge digital transformation.

[00:01:03] Recipients of the award are at the forefront of healthcare technology, setting a new standard for both clinical efficiencies and patient care through seamless integration and innovative solutions.

[00:01:15] Today, I'll be talking to three of the award winners as they share their thoughts and insights on digital transformation and the impact it has on the delivery of care.

[00:01:25] So join me as we have an opportunity to spend time with these amazing individuals and learn more about their journeys and the work that they're doing to transform healthcare.

[00:01:35] Hello, everyone. Welcome back.

[00:01:37] I have as my guest now Jeff Sturman.

[00:01:41] He is the Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Information Officer at Memorial System in Florida.

[00:01:46] Jeff and his organization are also a Synergy Award-winning organization.

[00:01:50] And today, we want to sit down and chat with Jeff a little bit about his journey in healthcare and the journey that he is helping to lead around innovation and technology at Memorial.

[00:02:01] So thanks for being here.

[00:02:02] Thank you, Christopher.

[00:02:03] I'm happy to have you.

[00:02:05] First of all, let's start with you.

[00:02:06] Tell us a little about Jeff and his journey in healthcare and your journey to Memorial.

[00:02:11] Yeah, thank you for this.

[00:02:12] This is a great pleasure to be with you.

[00:02:14] You're welcome.

[00:02:14] Memorial Health System and where I started because I just told you this.

[00:02:17] A little bit of a recovering consultant.

[00:02:20] And by starting my journey back in the mid-90s, when kids were coming out of grad school, didn't know anything.

[00:02:24] Absolutely.

[00:02:25] And they said, what are you going to do?

[00:02:26] And I said, I'm going to go into consulting because I don't know anything.

[00:02:29] And it threw you into IT because you really didn't know anything.

[00:02:31] That's right.

[00:02:32] We were gearing up for, you know, that little thing called Y2K.

[00:02:35] So I joined a terrific outfit at Ernst & Young and I was there for the better part of 10 years.

[00:02:40] Exactly.

[00:02:41] During that journey, my client was Memorial Health System.

[00:02:43] Oh, interesting.

[00:02:44] So I lived in Chicago.

[00:02:45] It was a great place.

[00:02:46] I still love Chicago.

[00:02:47] I have a lot of two runs there.

[00:02:48] And Memorial being in Southeast Florida, it wasn't hard to pull me away.

[00:02:52] I heard my water all, especially winter tires.

[00:02:54] In the early 2000s, helped them implement an old system called CareCast, IDX.

[00:02:59] Absolutely.

[00:03:00] And the famous last word system doing back in time.

[00:03:03] Absolutely.

[00:03:04] And did that for a couple of years.

[00:03:06] And they gave me the great privilege to join them as a full-time employee.

[00:03:09] I had two kids.

[00:03:11] I actually had one kid.

[00:03:12] My wife likes to remind me that I had another on the way when I moved.

[00:03:16] Yes.

[00:03:16] Now they're 22 and 19.

[00:03:18] So it's been a long time.

[00:03:20] Yes.

[00:03:20] And so Memorial gave me that great opportunity.

[00:03:22] I was there through a lot of transition, both leadership transition, operational change.

[00:03:27] Remember early 2000s, mid-2000s, even into the early teen years here.

[00:03:32] Saw the adoption of the electronic health.

[00:03:33] 100% yeah.

[00:03:35] All the integration stuff.

[00:03:36] And it was great.

[00:03:37] It was a great run there.

[00:03:38] I really helped to craft the strategy for IT.

[00:03:41] We're a little IT organization.

[00:03:43] I think I joined when our IT organization was less than 100 people, maybe like 80 people.

[00:03:48] Today we're close to 500.

[00:03:49] Oh, wow.

[00:03:50] So we've grown a lot organically.

[00:03:52] Sure.

[00:03:52] We haven't really purchased anything.

[00:03:53] We built some new houses.

[00:03:55] So Memorial is a six-hospital healthcare system, Southeast Florida.

[00:03:59] Right.

[00:03:59] It is the South Broward Hospital District.

[00:04:01] The board is a terrific board appointed by the state and the governor.

[00:04:06] My CDO is actually a former employee of the governor's.

[00:04:10] And he's amazing.

[00:04:11] He's got a great vision and thoughtful about where healthcare is going and how community

[00:04:15] medicine should really be delivered.

[00:04:17] Absolutely.

[00:04:17] So in 2012, I actually did that other thing that I said I was recovering from.

[00:04:22] And I left Memorial.

[00:04:23] Oh, really?

[00:04:24] And I went into a consulting firm based in Nashville, Tennessee.

[00:04:27] And friends of mine from Ernst & Young had started that several years before called Cumberland

[00:04:32] Consulting.

[00:04:32] I remember Cumberland.

[00:04:33] And now it was purchased by Tegria.

[00:04:35] And I had a great run there until 2018.

[00:04:39] Memorial did a national search for a CIO.

[00:04:42] And remarkably, they said, Jeff, would you ever think about joining us again?

[00:04:44] And I stayed close to them.

[00:04:46] And I said, family means everything.

[00:04:48] And you guys are my family and my real wife and kids were involved.

[00:04:51] And I said, you know, they would get off the road.

[00:04:53] It would be nice to get off the road.

[00:04:54] So I joined them in 2018 after a national search.

[00:04:56] They hired me and went off to the races.

[00:04:58] And it is absolutely family to me.

[00:05:00] It is a culture that is second to none, I think.

[00:05:03] I love delivering.

[00:05:04] Feeling like I get to deliver a share.

[00:05:07] So I'm maybe pretty passionate about a health background.

[00:05:10] I've only done healthcare for 30 years.

[00:05:12] That's all I know.

[00:05:12] Don't put me in another job.

[00:05:13] That's what I see in your DNA.

[00:05:14] Yeah.

[00:05:15] So that's the journey of being in and out of Memorial over the last number of years.

[00:05:19] But it's a great organization.

[00:05:20] Thank you so much for sharing that story.

[00:05:22] And congratulations on such a successful career and the work now that you're doing at Memorial

[00:05:29] and the accolades your organization is now receiving for all the transformational work

[00:05:33] that's taken place there.

[00:05:35] And clearly, as you've talked about that journey, you've seen a lot of transition and change

[00:05:39] that has happened in healthcare and have, in many cases, helped lead some of that change.

[00:05:43] So talk to us a little bit about the ABCs of what it takes to be a successful transformational

[00:05:50] leader. And then what does it take for an organization like a Memorial to evolve into

[00:05:56] a digital healthcare system?

[00:05:59] Yeah, no. And I love that point in transformation.

[00:06:02] So I would say healthcare is in my DNA and where things I love about the job I get to have

[00:06:06] in healthcare is all about change.

[00:06:08] Sure.

[00:06:08] And that's transformation.

[00:06:09] That's right.

[00:06:09] That's a, that's an almost a novel cause.

[00:06:11] Most people hate change.

[00:06:12] Absolutely.

[00:06:13] Especially in healthcare.

[00:06:13] And as a former consultant, I really do think that you always have to be able to acclimate

[00:06:17] and figure out where your next move is.

[00:06:20] And Memorial has been remarkable.

[00:06:21] We're a public healthcare system.

[00:06:22] So our biggest compliment that I've heard given to Memorial over the years is we're a

[00:06:27] public healthcare system that acts like a private.

[00:06:29] Exactly.

[00:06:29] And so we're really financially stable.

[00:06:32] We have a terrific leadership team that's been there for many years.

[00:06:35] So we're operationally from a quality standpoint, we do remarkable things for the community.

[00:06:39] But that doesn't come as just keeping the lights out.

[00:06:44] It comes because we're focused on change and focused on how we think about healthcare,

[00:06:49] not for today, but really for tomorrow.

[00:06:51] That's right.

[00:06:51] And for years to come.

[00:06:52] And it's been a great journey to help people think through this.

[00:06:55] Do it.

[00:06:55] And it's also really remarkable to be part of a team of people that have to think about

[00:07:02] healthcare in this new kind of world, this digital world.

[00:07:05] And digital can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.

[00:07:07] But I really think at the end of the day, it means things around consumer experience and

[00:07:12] engagement and access and thinking again, how we get out of our own way of being a hospital

[00:07:18] people and being healthcare people.

[00:07:20] You have internal and external customers, right?

[00:07:22] You've got the patients and their family members.

[00:07:23] You also have doctors and nurses and healthcare providers and administrators and others who

[00:07:28] have to benefit from the use of technology and to help really close some of the gaps

[00:07:34] and address some of the challenges they have in delivering quality care by leveraging technology.

[00:07:38] It's not the silver bullet.

[00:07:40] It's not going to solve every problem.

[00:07:41] But it can enable all the time.

[00:07:42] That's right.

[00:07:43] It can enable, right?

[00:07:44] And one of the things that I think I understand you tell me a little bit more about it is

[00:07:48] how you've been able to leverage organizations like CLASS and specifically the Arts Collaborative

[00:07:53] and the resources that you gain from that relationship.

[00:07:56] Talk to us a little bit about how that's benefited you and specifically Memorial.

[00:08:00] At the end of the day, if your physicians and your nurses and your providers are not taking

[00:08:04] advantage of our technology to really be productive and effective and efficient in their care,

[00:08:09] then I think we're missing the boat.

[00:08:11] And part of the journey here is using the survey tool from CLASS and our collaborative to really

[00:08:16] help dig into where we have areas of challenge and where we have areas that we excel at and

[00:08:21] we want to tell that story.

[00:08:23] Absolutely.

[00:08:23] And so we're really proud of the success I think that we've achieved.

[00:08:27] And it's remarkable.

[00:08:29] Every time we do a physician survey, number one thing on that physician survey, not even

[00:08:34] the large collaborative or a physician, a normal annual physician survey, or I think we do

[00:08:38] it every 18 months, EMR rises to the occasion, rises as the highest level of satisfaction.

[00:08:44] And look, I want to see satisfaction.

[00:08:46] Yeah.

[00:08:47] And I won't take credit for that.

[00:08:48] I'll take, I'll give my team and I'll give our operations and our clinical folks and

[00:08:52] all the credit in the world because we do extraordinary things.

[00:08:55] It's a double-edged sword.

[00:08:57] Yes, we want to get to standardization.

[00:08:58] We want to get to consistency.

[00:09:00] Right.

[00:09:00] We want to make sure that the delivery of care is maybe a little bit more uniform.

[00:09:05] Right.

[00:09:05] And therefore quality measures get there.

[00:09:07] While we also want to meet the needs of the individual provider.

[00:09:11] It's still, the health care is still a little bit of an art and a sign.

[00:09:14] Oh, it's a balance, right?

[00:09:15] That's right.

[00:09:15] It's really, it really is a balance.

[00:09:17] As we went live with Epic over a dozen years ago.

[00:09:19] Right.

[00:09:19] Before what I think they have certainly found that secret sauce.

[00:09:23] They're all audacious.

[00:09:24] Yeah.

[00:09:24] And so we've gone back and we've managed Epic to become much more standard.

[00:09:29] Exactly.

[00:09:30] Build on best practices.

[00:09:31] That being said, we still deliver a lot of things that are specialized for our providers.

[00:09:35] And that personalization effort that sure is so focused at Memorial has paid off in dividend.

[00:09:41] That's great.

[00:09:41] And that's the secret sauce, I think, for our success.

[00:09:44] Absolutely.

[00:09:44] So when you think about Memorial and the future of health care and what your organization is focused on,

[00:09:50] what are some of the initiatives that now you've got your heads down helping to drive?

[00:09:55] Yeah.

[00:09:56] We just had our ribbon cutting a couple of weeks ago for what we're calling our care coordination center,

[00:10:01] which is a command center.

[00:10:02] Oh, interesting.

[00:10:03] So it's a beautiful facility.

[00:10:04] We've seen these all over the country.

[00:10:06] And so the ability to really manage our patient volume between our six hospitals,

[00:10:11] look at patient flow, look at opportunities for discharges,

[00:10:15] getting more timely, getting beds freed up.

[00:10:18] Right.

[00:10:18] And making sure that patients are transferred maybe from our busy hospital and our ED to another close proximity hospital.

[00:10:26] Leveraging virtual nursing in that command center or care coordination center.

[00:10:30] It's going to be terrific.

[00:10:31] And we're live now with a really cool AI tool around virtual nursing.

[00:10:35] Right.

[00:10:36] Remote patient monitoring.

[00:10:37] Exactly.

[00:10:37] How we now evolve to that hospital at home type environment.

[00:10:41] Right.

[00:10:41] So I think we're finally getting to that point of what I'll call more wellness focused or proactive.

[00:10:46] They're focused on the health side versus the care side.

[00:10:48] Yeah, for sure.

[00:10:49] We're focused on thinking that patients are just going to come to us as opposed to us getting out there as an old way of thinking.

[00:10:54] And so we're trying to get out there.

[00:10:56] That's great.

[00:10:56] That's great.

[00:10:57] It really transforming into that value-based care, leveraging, doubling down on that value-based care model.

[00:11:03] A hundred percent.

[00:11:03] And value-based, I think we've been a leader in value-based care in South Florida.

[00:11:07] I think people are catching up to us.

[00:11:08] That's great.

[00:11:09] And I think we're trying to stay out in front of this.

[00:11:11] Sure.

[00:11:12] Again, being focused on wellness, being proactive, being more predictive, putting campaigns together and getting information out to our organization and community.

[00:11:21] Thinking about employee health.

[00:11:22] Right.

[00:11:22] Thinking about not just patients needing to be discharged from the hospital, but hopefully keeping them out of even their dry rooms.

[00:11:29] That's right.

[00:11:30] And allowing a patient, in some cases, to recover at home.

[00:11:33] But still providing care for them, even in the home and garden.

[00:11:36] And we're focused on all the same problems that everyone's focused on.

[00:11:39] Hospitals are overwhelmed.

[00:11:40] We're busy.

[00:11:41] That's right.

[00:11:42] Access.

[00:11:42] It's hard to get an appointment.

[00:11:43] We've put a lot of energy in consumer experience.

[00:11:46] We're figuring out how we engage consumers at a different level.

[00:11:48] Absolutely.

[00:11:48] No, that's great.

[00:11:49] So for those colleagues of yours who saw you and your organization receive its Synergy Award, what's some words of wisdom you'd share with them on how your organization was successful in?

[00:12:00] Yeah, it's a great question.

[00:12:02] And I really think this comes down to the level of collaboration and teaming where everyone needs to do.

[00:12:06] If you treat these projects that we all focus on here at Chime and as a CIO, as IT initiatives, I think we lose.

[00:12:15] And so it's always been for me and for my team at Memorial to hire strong clinicians, hire strong providers, hire strong operators, or balance that team out appropriately.

[00:12:26] And there's a lot of secret sauce to that.

[00:12:28] That's right.

[00:12:28] Just getting the right organization in place.

[00:12:30] Absolutely.

[00:12:31] So having sponsorship of your providers, getting them out in front of this thing, if I'm on stage too much, that's not a good thing.

[00:12:38] I want them on stage.

[00:12:39] That's right.

[00:12:39] Absolutely.

[00:12:40] That's great advice.

[00:12:41] And I've always said as well, too, these aren't technology initiatives.

[00:12:44] They're clinical business transformation initiatives that have technology as an enabler.

[00:12:49] Yep.

[00:12:50] As a part of that.

[00:12:50] And to your point, it should be those stakeholders and those individuals who ultimately are impacted by helping to lead and drive that chain.

[00:12:58] Thank you so much, Jeff, for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us today.

[00:13:03] And I wish you were your organization confused.

[00:13:05] Thank you so much.

[00:13:06] Absolutely.

[00:13:06] Have a great day.