In a recent Becker's Healthcare Podcast episode, we were joined by Rusty Strange, Chief Information Officer at Regent Surgical Health, to discuss how moving toward a Healthcare Information technology (HIT) platform strategy can significantly improve the business and operations of ASCs. The discussion focused on high-growth and how this can impact the role of IT, how IT contributes to patient satisfaction, and how to support ASCs against data breaches and cybersecurity risks. A transcription of the podcast is available below, and the episode can be listened to here.
Scott Becker: This is Scott Becker with the Becker Healthcare Podcast. Thrilled today to be joined by the Chief Information Officer of Regent Surgical Health. Regent Surgical Health is one of the fastest growing surgery center surgical facility change in the country, they're almost always partnered with hospitals or hospitals and physicians, and they've built a great franchise and a great company. Rusty is going to talk to us about the health information technology platform and background and so forth. Rusty, before we get started, do you mind taking a moment to just introduce yourself?
Rusty Strange: Sure. Thanks for having me on the podcast, Scott. I'm a longtime listener and consumer of all things Becker, so my pleasure to be on today. My name is Rusty Strange, as you mentioned, CIO of Regent Surgical Health. I have been in the kind of ASC industry for about 20 years now, so kind of born and bred in this niche of the space and healthcare, and excited to be on the journey as ASCs continue to grow in number and importance in the healthcare vertical.
SB: Thank you very, very much. And take a moment, there's this concept of the health information technology platform in a strategy, in how that could be used, a platform across dozens of surgery centers that you folks operate, or how many exactly, but I know at least dozens, but they can help improve the business and operations of ASCs. Can you talk about how the right health information technology platform can help surgery centers? And what are some of the practical things that listeners at surgery centers can do if they've got the right health IT platform?
RS: The way we like to think about it, Scott, is really helping to reduce friction for all of the constituents involved on a daily basis. So the health systems, the staff at the centers, the physicians, and certainly the patients. And so when you think about how an IT platform can help in all of those areas, I think one, you really have to think about efficiency, and how a standard platform across multiple sites can start to inform what's working well, what's not working well, especially from a process perspective.
And then using an IT platform to take what is working well from a process and governance standpoint, and really making that a part of your daily workflows inside your center. The other thing it can do for you is allow you to take all of the relevant data from operational, financial, and clinical perspectives and start to really measure those not only at your own center, while comparing those against some metrics and KPIs, but also looking across a larger portfolio, and really starting to identify different places where you can improve again on efficiency, clinical outcomes, financial metrics, all those things can start to be measured and communicated, and you can start to make data driven decisions to improve not only your business but also your patient and physician experience.
SB: Thank you. And so important that it's done in a user friendly way. Talk for a moment, Rusty, Regent's been a fast growing company, I mean, it's been around for a long time, but it's really started to grow the last several years. And then also, many of your centers are fast growing enterprises. Talk a little bit about how does health IT play into that, and does that put special challenges on health IT and the information technology team, when you're working through fast growth in you're growing so quickly?
RS: It definitely can introduce some challenges for health IT because as we are growing, and opening new sites, and growing existing sites, there's a fast paced kind of demand for health IT and systems. And so it can put a little bit of a strain sometimes as far as when we're trying to roll out a new system or perform upgrades or put a new workflow in place. But it's really a challenge that we're up for, and that we honestly look forward to, and take that as a challenge not only for our immediate team here in IT, but also throughout the company with our operations, integrations, and then local teams at the individual surgery center sites. So while it can be challenging being in a fast paced environment, we also look to leverage health IT platforms and systems to enable efficiencies to cut down on some of the other challenges associated with fast paced growth.
SB: Thank you. And take a moment on patient satisfaction, patient experience, how does doing technology right and information technology, how can that play into improve patient experience in patient sort of how the patient engages?
RS: So we really want to leverage more and more in healthcare, kind of the consumerization of the patient and physician experience. And so when you start to think about all of the different tools and apps and websites and different things that you use on a day to day basis to make your day maybe 1% better or 10% more efficient throughout the day, those are the types of things that we really want to be able to bring to healthcare in the very near future. And we're working on some exciting things to do that. So just small things like getting instructions preop, getting post-op instructions to your phone in an easy to consume manner.
There's all kinds of different ways to just make people feel more comfortable and give them a better experience. Again, while the procedure is happening. And that's really keeping in touch with the patient's family, keeping them up to date with the status of the operation, and then postop, making sure that, again, they have the correct instructions to follow through with their care, that their billing process goes smoothly. It's all of those things that you really want to have at the end of your fingers to make the whole process much more smooth and much more enjoyable, or some things that can be scary and challenging.
SB: Speaking of scary and challenging, in so much, on the patient experience, whether it's the authorization, scheduling, so many things that could be done, or technology's helping improve, delivering instructions on the front to back end of the procedure, things that used to be done by paper and always got lost. So many things that you're doing that are so helpful. Talk a bit about one of the scary issues, which is cybersecurity. Health systems and healthcare and surgery centers are about the biggest target of cyber criminals. What can Regent do? What do you guys do to help support your centers on the cybersecurity spot? How does that look?
RS: Great question. We try to approach cybersecurity in different layers. And so one of the really important steps for us and one of the base layers for us is around education. And so we want to do things for our centers around cybersecurity education, providing them with ways to really deal with questionable emails, questionable phone calls, people that may enter the center and are looking to harvest information that they shouldn't be. So one is around education, one is around the reinforcement of that education. So sending people test emails, calling the center, trying to gain passwords and access so that we can have some teachable moments. Another layer is obviously technology. And so we have worked with our partners and developed kind of a best in class system of a few different technologies to, again, layer those protections in at the centers, and come up with a standard so that, again, we can report across our center portfolio, but also take a deep dive in into an individual site if need be.
And so if you layer those two things along with the protection of cyber liability insurance, then you're on your way to being pretty successful around protecting your site, and protecting your center portfolio. But it's one of those things where it's a journey and not a destination. And so we always have to remain diligent and continue to not only educate ourselves, but educate our partners as well.
SB: Thank you very much. And this concept of being a journey not a destination is so right on. It's going to be a constant for probably forever. Talk for a moment about the following: so many independent centers run great businesses, they got great operations, they're doing terrific, but they're behind on health information technology. And in some places that may be fine, other places absolutely have to catch up just because their physicians or partners and employees and their patients very much expect a different level of health information technology and interface technology. What can centers that are on this journey do to get started to sort enhance where they're at from an information technology perspective? How do you get started in this and how do you do so relatively without breaking the bank type of thing?
RS: Again, I think it's an area where it can be intimidating for a lot of people who may not speak the technology language. And it is tough to begin down that road and know where to start. And so for the independent ASC, they can always reach out to Regent and we can help talk through some different strategies. But at the end of the day, if you don't want to go with a management company, if you don't want to align yourself with the health system right away, then you should really be reaching out to some people in the community, in the IT community, and kind of talk through where you are today, your business goals, your security goals, your patient experience, your physician experience goals, and really start to prioritize where you want to be, how fast you want to get there, and then you can align your spend to that.
SB: Thank you very, very much Rusty, and so so important. We've had a chance to cover of patient satisfaction from approved information technology. Regent, as a company, through its own fast growth states, who is working with fast growth centers, how well it does in supporting centers of health information technology, and interface technology. We've also talked about cybersecurity, which is front and center for everybody. And finally, this issue, how do you get started, especially in independent centers, maybe doing fine, maybe not doing fine, whatever it is, but often is under invested information technology. You've shared some of the thoughts there too on how to get started, whether you're with a partner or not, a hospital partner or Regent Surgical Health partner or not. Rusty, I want to thank you for joining us. Is there anything else you wanted to share today with our listenership, while we have you on? It's a pleasure to visit with you. I've been a long term fan of Regent, was very involved with Regent at one point in my professional career, and have loved watching Regent develop and grow. Thank you for joining us.