The BetterCare Podcast

On this episode, EvidenceCare's VP of Clinical Revenue Cycle Integration, Carol Howard interviews Lee Ann Liska, COO & Interim President of Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital.

Some of the topics covered include:

• How to measure and track length of stay
• Creating transparent reporting and conversations with physicians
• Running an Operational Control Center to manage capacity
• Implementing predictive AI modeling for capacity

Lee Ann Liska Bio:

Lee Ann Liska has over 38 years of health systems management experience with a background in hospital operations, physician practice management and ambulatory services. Prior to starting at VUMC, Liska served as an Operations Consultant at Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center; Executive Vice President of Health Affairs & CEO of Augusta University Medical Center; President & CEO of University of Cincinnati Medical Center; Chief Operating Officer for Mercy Health System in Cincinnati, Ohio; Executive Director & Senior Vice President of University Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio; Chief Operating Officer of The Cleveland Clinic Florida Hospitals & Clinics; Vice President of Operations for The MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio; and Administrator at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Liska has a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and an Executive Master’s degree in Business Administration from Cleveland State University. She is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and served as Chair of the ACHE CEO Committee. She served as a board member on the Georgia Association of Community Hospitals and a delegate to the American Hospital Association Regional Policy Board. Liska is involved in community and civic activities, currently with the American Heart Association in Nashville, Tennessee, and formerly with board membership on the Augusta Metro Chamber, American Heart Association and the United Way of the CSRA, the YWCA of Cincinnati, United Way of Greater Cincinnati, including its Tocqueville Society, Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, American Heart Association, Hoxworth Blood Center, LifeCenter Organ Donor Network, and Xavier University’s Williams College of Business. She was appointed Adjunct Professor at Augusta University, College of Allied Health, and previously taught at Xavier University and University of Cincinnati. Liska was named a YWCA Career Woman of Achievement in 2011, a Woman of Influence by Venue Magazine in 2013, a Glass Ceiling Award Winner by the Ohio Diversity Council, a United Way Leaders & Legends Neil H. McElroy Award for United Way Resource Development Leadership in 2014, Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, Woman of Distinction Award in 2015, and featured in NBC 26 Women Today in 2018.

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On this episode of The Better Care Podcast, EvidenceCare CMO, Brian Fengler interviews FJ Campbell, CMO of Ardent Health Services.

Some of the topics covered include:

• How clinical operations influence quality outcomes
• The importance of aligning metrics and mission
• How Ardent achieved an A safety rating from Leapfrog
• The creation of Ardent's Innovation Studio

FJ Campbell Bio:

At Ardent, Dr. FJ Campbell works closely with hospital and division leadership, as well as medical staff and physician organizations to improve quality through system-wide outcomes measurement and performance improvement initiatives. He brings significant experience developing local and national quality programs across a variety of care settings.

Prior to joining Ardent, Dr. Campbell was vice president of clinical services for Community Health Systems, where he led quality improvement and value-based purchasing activities for the company’s 130 acute-care hospitals. Previously, he served as chief medical officer of CareSpot Express Healthcare, an urgent care and occupational outpatient services organization, and 657-bed TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

A board-certified emergency medicine physician, Dr. Campbell holds both a medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and a master’s of business administration from Temple University in Philadelphia. He completed his residency at Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey.

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Mentioned in this episode:

The Leapfrog Group

SwitchPoint Ventures

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On this episode of The Better Care Podcast EvidenceCare COO Amy Deaton interviews Leslie Meehan, Deputy Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health.

Some of the topics covered include:

• The Intersection of urban planning and healthcare
• Government's role in health equity and social determinants of health
• The collaboration needed between health systems, payers, and communities

Leslie Meehan Bio:

With 20 years of experience working in and with a variety of sectors, including public health, land use, transportation, housing, food systems, education, economic development, healthcare, and parks & recreation, Leslie is an expert in bridging public health with cross-sector collaborations, and social determinants of health policies/systems work.

Leslie has achieved numerous accolades for her work, including the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Vision Award (2018), the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors Joseph W. Cullen Excellence Award (2017), and the National Academies Institute of Transportation Engineers Achievement Award for Planning (2017). She has also been named a 2021 Woman of Impact: Leaders in Health and Healthcare and is a 2023 Nashville Health Care Council Fellow.

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Mentioned in this episode:

RISE Conference

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On this episode of The Better Care Podcast, EvidenceCare's Brian Fengler interviews Dr. Amit Vashist, Chief Clinical Officer of Ballad Health, and Dr. Granville Morse, Medical Director of Ochsner Health, for a live panel from an EvidenceCare employee event.

Some of the many topics covered include:

• Why they entered the medical field
• Each health system's top challenges and priorities
• Patients moving away from hospitals
• Hospital throughput
• Digital health initiatives and investments
• Health equity and social determinants of health
• Cost transparency for physicians

Amit Vashist Bio:

Amit Vashist, MD, serves as the Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer focusing on clinical quality and safety, value-based initiatives to improve quality while reducing cost of care, clinical innovation, performance improvement, clinical transformation and oversight of the enterprise-wide clinical delivery of care, and medical staff affairs. Additionally, he provides administrative oversight of the Ballad Health Clinical Council - a leading model of physician partnership for clinical transformation and outcomes improvement.

Dr. Vashist, one of the 2019 and 2018 Becker’s Hospital Review 105 Physician Leaders to Know in America, is a dual board-certified internist and psychiatrist and an avid proponent of initiatives aimed at promoting quality, improving safety, reducing cost and minimizing variation in the delivery of patient care across diverse settings. His work has been instrumental in improving outcomes and reducing mortality in patients with sepsis, earning him several local, regional and national awards.

His other work has included improving outcomes in patients with chronic disease burden like heart failure and lung disease, reducing unnecessary clinical testing including imaging studies and improving overall patient experience. His work in promoting a zero harm culture at Ballad Health has been instrumental in significantly reducing hospital-acquired infections system wide. His pioneering work at Ballad Health has resulted in multiple quality measures being in the top decile in the nation.

He has been recognized as a regional Healthcare Hero and Forty under 40 honoree, a senior fellow of the Society of Hospital Medicine, and a fellow of The American College of Healthcare Executives.

Dr. Vashist previously served as the Chair of the Ballad Health Clinical Council and the System Chair for Ballad Health’s Hospitalist Division leading a group of over 140 hospitalists.

Granville Morse Bio:

Dr. Granville Morse was raised in Lakeview, attended St. Pius X, and graduated from Christian Brothers School and Jesuit High School. He graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and then received his medical degree from LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. Dr. Morse completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Charity Hospital and is Board Certified in Emergency Medicine.

He served as Chief Resident and was awarded both the Albert J. Lauro award for Outstanding Resident in Emergency Medicine and the Ochsner Clinic Foundation Outstanding Performance in Emergency Medicine Award. Following his residency, Dr. Morse worked as an Emergency Medicine physician at East Jefferson General Hospital, Lakeview Regional Medical Center and Thibodaux Regional Medical Center.

In addition to his System Chair duties, he also currently serves as Deputy Coroner of Jefferson Parish. In April 2012, Dr. Morse and MHM Urgent Care partnered to bring high-quality, cost-effective Urgent Care to the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans. Dr. Morse is married with three children.

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On this episode of the Better Care Podcast, join EvidenceCare's Brian Fengler, and Aneesh Chopra, the Co-Founder and President of CareJourney, and the first U.S. CTO under President Obama, as they dive into the hottest topics in healthcare, including:

• Takeaways from ViVE 2023
• Aneesh's experience as CTO under President Obama
• The role of open tech like ChatGPT in healthcare
• How government policy and healthcare can work together
• How legacy debt is hindering innovation

Aneesh Chopra is the President of CareJourney, an open data membership service building a trusted, transparent rating system for physicians, networks, facilities and markets on the move to value.

He served as the first U.S. Chief Technology Officer under President Obama (’09-’12) and in 2014, authored, “Innovative State: How New Technologies can Transform Government.”

He serves on the Board of the Health Care Cost Institute, the New Jersey Innovation Institute, and earned his MPP from Harvard Kennedy School and BA from The Johns Hopkins University.

CareJourney uses population claims data to address use cases in network design and management, care model management, patient risk segmentation, spend and utilization trends, network integrity, low-value care, and provider, practice and facility (acute and post-acute) performance.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Version 28 Risk Scoring Model for Medicare Advantage

ViVE 2023

CareJourney to Power Transcarent’s Quality Initiatives

ONC’s Cures Act Final Rule

Health Tech Nerds

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On this episode of The Better Care Podcast, we welcome Dr. Jordan Asher, Executive Vice President and Chief Physician Executive at Sentara Healthcare.

Dr. Asher and Dr. Fengler dive into some of the most pressing issues facing healthcare today, including:

• Trends in population health
• How digital health can enable opportunities in healthcare
• Is Value-Based Care working?
• How physician feedback can lead to change

Dr. Asher's role concentrates on creating high-quality, equitable, and innovative models of care delivery as well as providing national thought leadership directed towards the future of health care.

Dr. Asher is dedicated to championing population health, quality, fostering clinical effectiveness and further cultivating a culture of excellence in the delivery of clinical services across the continuum of care that serves both individuals and communities on their journey of health and wellness.

He oversees system-wide Clinical Quality and Safety, Clinical Effectiveness, the Clinical Integrated Networks (Sentara Quality Care Network and Sentara Accountable Care Organization), the High-Performance Design process, Health Equity, Sentara Community Care Clinics, behavioral health strategy, Clinical Informatics, Research, and Clinical Performance Improvement initiatives.

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Mentioned in this episode: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.

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The Positive Contrarian

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On this episode of The Better Care Podcast, EvidenceCare CMO & Co-Founder, Brian Fengler, MD, interviews Graphite Health CMIO, Stan Huff, MD.

A few of the topics discussed:

• Stan's personal experience that led him to a passion for digital health
• His insight as CMIO of Intermountain Healthcare in a time of great innovation
• Areas of improvement across the healthcare industry and vendors
• Stan's vision for achieving healthcare Interoperability

Dr. Huff is the Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Graphite Health, and a Professor (Clinical) of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Utah. He is board certified in Clinical Pathology. He has worked in the area of medical vocabularies and medical database architecture for the past 30+ years.

He is currently a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, a co-chair of the LOINC Committee, and a co-chair of the HL7 Clinical Information Modeling Initiative (CIMI). He is also the Chair of Logica (formerly the Healthcare Services Platform Consortium (HSPC)) and the Chair of the FHIR Foundation.

He is the former CMIO at Intermountain Healthcare, a former member of the ONC HIT Standards Committee, and a former member of NCVHS. He is also a previous Chair (twice) of Health Level Seven (HL7). He teaches a course in medical vocabulary and data exchange standards in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Utah.

Learn More About Graphite Health

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On this episode of the Better Care podcast, we welcome Andrea Ortman, MSN – Vice President, Inpatient Care Management and Post-Acute Care at Geisinger.

Andrea Ortman serves as Vice President of Inpatient Care Management and Post-Acute Care at Geisinger, leading utilization management review, transfer center, and discharge planning teams.

Joining Geisinger in 2011, she has served in several strategic leadership roles, including management of post-acute services for Geisinger Health Plan, Keystone ACO, and Geisinger bundles programs managing approximately 650,000 managed lives as well as leading Geisinger’s home infusion pharmacy. Learn more about Geisinger.

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