In this special Speaker Series, Becker's Healthcare caught up with Jim Jamieson, co-founder and COO of EvidenceCare, a software company that makes clinical decision support tools.
Mr. Jamieson will speak during the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference on " The Biggest Problems and New Ideas in Health IT," at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 20. Learn more about the event and register to attend in Chicago.
Question: Can you share your best advice for motivating your teams?
Jim Jamieson: As a former Marine, I understand the value of troop welfare. It is how we in the military, and in the workplace, survive. Motivating teams starts with having the right team in place. Surround yourself with people who are brilliant at what they do and who understand both the mission at hand and their essential role in completing that mission. From there, you get the hell out of the way.
Fundamental to most people is a sense of belonging. I ensure that each member of my team understands that he or she belongs here. They are vital to the organization. They matter. They have the space to do what they are passionate about, and [they] are respected for what they bring to the table. They have a voice, and that voice means something. As a leader, I demonstrate my people belong by listening. I am not forming opinions, shoring up my case or preparing my retort while I am listening. I am listening to understand. I ask questions. I encourage deeper thought. I engage. I get more from them this way, and I foster their welfare. They, in turn, do that for those around them.
Q: How does your organization gain physician buy-in when it is implementing a new technology or solution?
JJ: EvidenceCare is a tool built for physicians, by physicians. We have gone to great lengths to create tools that physicians want to use, not have to use. We have done this by creating an interface that is intuitive and pleasant to use. We deploy relevant content in a manner that is digestible and meaningful, and that saves the providers' time.
We know that doctors are feeling the squeeze from every aspect of their job, and that 86 [percent] would not choose their career again given what they know now. They want to practice the science and the craft they have honed [their entire] career, untethered from the necessary, [by] stifling technicalities that are in place around the economics of healthcare. They want to connect to patients in meaningful ways and spend more than the average 27 [percent] of face-to-face time they get [with patients] due to the burdens of the business of healthcare. They want tools that enhance their lives and the lives of their patients and that help them do what they do better.
We believe physicians adopt technology and solutions that are meaningful to them and have strived to create that as we developed our tool. People make time and space for the things they like and want.
Q: In the past 12 months, how have you adapted to new patient experience expectations in the age of consumerism?
JJ: One primary goal and advantage of the tool we have created for providers is to arm patients with the information necessary to engage and share in their healthcare decisions. This includes providing more, [higher-quality] information that is curated specifically to them. Everyone turns to "Dr. Google" when presented with a healthcare challenge. What often results is misdirected information and often a flooding of content that results in wide-spread panic.
EvidenceCare has designed a tool that allows providers to deliver their clinical recommendations in a format that is meaningful and digestible by the patient and their family. First of all, the information is specific to them as opposed to broad in nature. We provide graphs and charts that communicate risk in a clear way so a worried parent knows why we aren't recommending an expensive and unnecessary CT scan for little Johnny who presents in the ER with a concussion as a result of a rough soccer game.
By easing the patient's mind while we are easing their pain, we can better address the situation at hand and ultimately improve outcomes and patient experience. We know that patient satisfaction scores are important, but meaningful patient engagement is vital.
Q: What's one conviction in healthcare that needs to be challenged?
JJ: Patient consumerism has become well-entrenched in healthcare today — and rightfully so. But with that is also a conviction around patient accountability. Hospitals have finally figured out, to some extent, how to help patients understand their financial responsibility for the services they receive. Whether or not they actually collect that money may be a different story, but there are plenty of resources allocated to understanding and managing that element.
What we don't do well yet, as a system as a whole, is hold people accountable for their health in general. There are too few incentives in place to affect how people manage their own wellbeing and how doing so mitigates downstream healthcare expense and improves outcomes. We need to become far more proactive in that battle.