From Manual Medical Records to Smarter Healthcare Data Exchange with Joe Van de Graaff, VP of Growth at Sherpas Healthcare Solutions

[00:00:03] Hello everyone and welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket. So excited to be featuring guests here from CHI 26 in Las Vegas. Right now I have the privilege of hosting Joe Van de Graaff. He is the VP of Growth at Sherpas Healthcare Solutions. So great to see you Joe.

[00:00:21] Good to see you Saul. Thanks for the time. Of course. Thanks for the opportunity. Yes. Before we get into Sherpas and everything that you guys are doing here at CHI 26, tell me about you. What got you into healthcare and what keeps you in healthcare? Healthcare. Oh right. There's a quick story, but it's a fun one. I was at Disneyland in 2010. At the time we had three children.

[00:00:46] Okay. So you were there at a trip. And I saw a colleague with whom I had previously worked at a tech company and I said, hey, I work for this incredible firm, research firm, analytics firm in healthcare and you have to come work. And I thought, nobody likes what they do. This is a joke. So I learned about it. Turned out to be a wonderful organization. I went and worked there for 12, 13 years. I've been in healthcare for now 16 years.

[00:01:12] Wow. And what keeps me there is the people. So people genuinely care about what they do and the work they do and trying to improve lives. Second is healthcare is full of problems. Yeah.

[00:01:26] There's always something big to solve. Always a different way to think through something. And it's, they're heavy problems. A lot of them are not easy problems. So I like that. And then third is the mission focus to be in healthcare because when you're in healthcare, you can touch almost everybody in one way, even if it's indirect. Yeah. So that's what keeps me here. I love it, Joe. I love it. And so that Disney trip, that was like a game changer. Out of the blue. Yeah, it was out of the blue, right? Where'd you guys meet? Like, was it in a line at a ride or?

[00:01:55] So this was a colleague I had known previously working, but yeah. Where'd you guys run into? We were waiting in line. You wait a long time when you're- Remember what ride it was? No, it was the entrance. Oh, at the entrance. So we were waiting for quite a while. Before you even got in. Yeah. Lots to think about, talk about, wait. Look at that. Look at that. And here you are. I love it. Thanks for the story. Help me understand a little bit more about Sherpas. Now, granted, I know about you guys, right? Sure.

[00:02:19] But like for our listeners, like help them understand where you guys work, what the work is, who you do it for. Okay. So Sherpas, we help healthcare provider organizations and we help healthcare payer organizations and requesters with one thing, which is the secure finding and release of medical records. So it's healthcare data exchange done securely and done smart.

[00:02:48] Sometimes that the way that you need to do that has to be on site. Sometimes it can be remote. Sometimes it can be automated, but that's what Sherpas does is we help facilitate the seamless flow of healthcare data to the right people in the right way. And a Sherpa carries the load. That's why we have this, right? You lead, we carry. So we try to help free people up to do what their roles are, whether that's patient care or it's leading an organization or it's leading an operations team.

[00:03:16] And then we help carry the load and we try to make that very simple. That's great. I've had the chance to meet you and the team and really just love working with you guys. As you think about where we're at today, CHI, this is the community health event of the year. Why this community and why is it so important now? Yeah. Two reasons. This community.

[00:03:40] One is these are wonderful people who are serving often in rural communities where not everybody has access to healthcare and they are providing a service for people who need this. That's one. It's a very mission centric. There are a lot of people here who are volunteers and who are doing this out of the goodness of their heart. I met someone about three hours ago who said, my grandfather donated the land for this community health center 50 or 60 years ago.

[00:04:09] And so a lot of the people here are giving and they're helping. Second is the patients who are served at these organizations often are enrolled in Medicare programs and Medicaid programs. And so with that comes a lot of oversight, regulation, compliance, follow up. And that's a space in which Sherpas helps these health centers a lot because there are lots of chart audits as they're called, reviews from insurance companies, quality checks, compliance checks, what's happening.

[00:04:38] And so there's a need for a lot of exchange of medical records. And so Sherpas can do that. And particularly for these health centers that they often call them, federally qualified health centers. They have minimal funding. Yeah. And so our solution fits in very well because we can facilitate the solution at usually no cost to the actual health center based on our business model of seeking reimbursement from other places.

[00:05:02] In this space, one of the themes that I've been having come up on every single conversation is this challenge with funding, policy changes that are leading to decreased reimbursements. And so the fact that you guys offer a solution that most of the time, if not always, doesn't cost the center anything, that's game changer. It's a major help. And then what we see is that these health centers align well with Sherpas with the mission aspect of what we do.

[00:05:30] So Sherpas' mission is to bless and improve the lives of those we serve. That includes our team members. That includes our customers. That includes our partners. And so this is our first time here. And what we're finding is that the mission is very well aligned. And our solution also happens to be very well aligned. And these folks want to serve their communities and help. And they don't want to be burdened with administrative aspects that aren't necessary. So we help carry that load. That's great. That's great, Joe.

[00:05:57] What has risen to the top for you at this event as key issue that's shifting in the market right now? Key issues that are shifting is I would say there's a search for the ideal as it relates to automation and artificial intelligence. And often there's a big gap from the ideal and what happens today. Yeah. And so how these organizations are funded, how the workforce is set up, how the technological solutions are set up, there's usually a really big gap there.

[00:06:27] And so we're all looking for something greater, all looking for something ideal. And usually there are two, three, five, ten steps in between what is today and then what is the ideal. It's good to see the excitement there. AI in healthcare is now feeling more tangible and real. There are still some considerable risks with this, especially if the machine learning and algorithms aren't done correctly the first time. But there is some good optimism around that.

[00:06:53] So that's, I'd say, and that plays in well with Sherpas and how we can create automation with our automation solution. But the bigger trend is going to be very helpful for a very overworked and very manually operated environment. Yeah, that's great. As folks are listening and watching to this, it's top of mind for everybody, the use of AI. So glad you touched on it.

[00:07:18] But like what kind of practices and FQHCs, like who's the ideal client for you guys? How do they know if they are the right type of organization that you guys work with? So we're learning that too, actually. Sherpas provides a very flexible approach with what we do where a health center, a community center, federally qualified health center can work with Sherpas, even if they have paper charts. So we wouldn't say that that's our ideal, but we can service that.

[00:07:46] We're finding that most folks actually do have an EHR and are very open to that. The ideal would be automation. And so the EHRs that are FHIR compliant, Federal Health Interoperability Resource, the industry standards set by CMS. And then the work we do can be automated so that the records are retrieved and sent faster, securely, and with the right quality. And so the requesters who are needing these records and CMS doing the audit gets records quicker.

[00:08:14] And we take the load off for these provider health centers even quicker. That would be the ideal, but we can serve any and all. Okay. So if you're in the middle of audits and there's timeframes too, right? Where it gets heavier. So that's the mystery and the magic of this, which is these community health centers usually have limited staff. And out of nowhere, they'll get a chart audit or a chart review request that is for a hundred or a thousand or 3000 records, depending on the size.

[00:08:43] And that's just overwhelming. And you're not staffed for that. And you don't know when that comes. And so that's where Sherpas can provide some quick relief and we can carry, we can help. And these folks need, they need solutions. They need help. So we're excited to do more. That's great. I really appreciate you sharing what you do, who you do it for. Why you're here at CHI 26. If people wanted to reach out to you or the team, how can they do it? With a smile. We like to smile.

[00:09:11] We love to serve SherpasHealthcareSolutions.com. It's our website. We're on LinkedIn. You'll find us on social. I'm Joe Van de Graaff and we'd love to talk to you. Thanks. Thanks. Awesome. And you guys give away chocolates all the time, right? We do. Utah truffles. We have Utah truffles. The problem is I'll take the whole thing. Hand that to me, would you? The problem is that we give these out, but sometimes we eat a lot of them too.

[00:09:37] And so they're really good for your mouth, but not that great for your body. So there's a lot of exercise you need to do if you have some. If you want some Utah truffles and fantastic service as it relates to your records requests, Sherpas is your crew. Joe, thank you so much for spending a little bit of time with us. Appreciate you. This was such a pleasure. And for everybody with us, check out the show notes for all the ways to get in touch with Joe and his team at Sherpas Healthcare Solutions. Thank you all for tuning in and we'll catch you next time.