Kristin Darby, CIO of Envision Healthcare, discusses where her focus will be next year in applied automation, artificial intelligence and increasing adoption of the cloud.
Question: If 2020 is a successful year for you, what will it look like?
Kristin Darby: Envision Healthcare physicians, advanced practice providers and support teams provide high-quality care to patients across the U.S. through more than 35 million encounters annually. In 2019, we made significant progress in transforming our IT infrastructure and the solutions we bring to healthcare partners and patients. For us to continue that momentum and move the needle even further in 2020, my primary goal is to focus on our customer-centric approach while creating and sustaining a differentiated business value through technology. Some areas of focus in 2020 that build toward this vision include:
• Applying automation and artificial intelligence to drive workload transformation across our key business functions. Operational excellence is critical in the back-office functions because it creates capacity for investment in clinical areas that provide value to the customers and the patients we serve.
• Increasing the adoption of cloud and consumable technology to provide maximum agility to deliver scalable enterprise solutions with expediency. Strengthening our clinical and business partnerships in a manner that enhances our ability to collaborate and execute with more agility as an integrated team.
• Reengineering our IT organizational model to include a comprehensive framework that empowers the team and fosters creativity and innovation. We recognize the competitive market for strong technology talent and strive to create a culture in which Envision is an employer of choice.
Q: Where will you focus most of your time and energy next year?
KD: In 2020, we are focusing on solutions that position us to deliver an enhanced digital experience to our clinicians. I believe that every digital experience should be personalized to each clinician's preferences and interests while still easy to adopt for the more than 25,000 Envision clinicians working in more than 1,000 different sites of care. My vision is to make it easier for clinicians to focus on what matters most — caring for patients — and make sure that when they are tasked with something, it is at the appropriate time and with context that is actionable. As a leading medical group, we provide clinicians with valuable tools and resources that improve efficiency, support clinical excellence and enable them to maximize both the quality and quantity of time they have to engage directly with patients.
Q: What do you consider the biggest potential threat to your organization?
KD: Our biggest challenge, and opportunity, is the evolving healthcare landscape. Throughout the years, we have grown with and adapted to the changing healthcare environment, and this ability has enabled us to be a leader in healthcare. As we enter 2020, we must continue to strike the appropriate balance between executing the immediate operational imperatives and driving the innovative work that will shape the future of our organization and advance the delivery of care.
Q: What is the most interesting initiative you have planned for 2020 that will affect the patient experience?
KD: One of our most exciting initiatives is a new digital engagement platform that transforms the way in which our team members communicate with one another and enables clinicians to have more meaningful interactions with patients. I'm looking forward to talking about this more once it’s rolled out.