In this special Speaker Series, Becker's Healthcare caught up with Matthew Grob, senior director of IT governance and consulting at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.
Matthew will speak on a panel during the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference that is titled "HIT Security & Privacy: Best Practices and Key Issues," at 9:00 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 20. Learn more about the event and register to attend in Chicago.
Question: In the past 12 months, how have you adapted to new patient experience expectations in the age of consumerism?
Matthew Grob: Although our flagship hospital is on the 2018 U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals Honor Roll, our competitive landscape includes other highly regarded academic medical centers in our backyard. One of the ways we can differentiate ourselves is through the patient and visitor experience.
We are building a new hospital, and as we design the workflows and technology that will be part of the new building, we are looking to the hospitality industry. Amenities and the guest experience are a factor in choosing hotels, and we believe that patients and families have that in mind when choosing where to receive their healthcare as well. A friend who had surgery in one of our hospitals this year could not stop raving, not only about his outcome and the care he received, but also about the food. People remember those things, and they tell their friends, too.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about health IT?
MG: That it's easy. We are so much more than a "keep-the-lights-on" function. In order to be successful, health IT professionals need to know not just the technology, but how it's used in a healthcare environment. We need to make sure that the solutions we offer and support enable clinicians to do their jobs more effectively and more safely. Everything we do contributes to a positive patient outcome, and we do it in an industry that operates on very low margins. The financial services industry spends 20 percent of revenue on IT, while we spend closer to 5 percent and in a very complex environment that is part science and part art.
Q: How do you promote innovation within your organization?
MG: Interestingly, we tend to shy away from focusing on innovation as a discipline, simply because we believe that it should be embedded in everything we do, every way in which we approach a problem and every way in which we develop solutions. That being said, twice a year, we do give out the IT Innovation Award recognizing a team in our department — not an individual — for the development and implementation of leading-edge technology solutions, processes and services. The purpose of the award is to promote the use of our staff's skills, training and experience to deliver high value to our customers through innovation.