Greater demands for care and fewer resources are driving health systems to innovate more than ever — and top organizations are doing it successfully while keeping patient outcomes at the forefront.
Arlington-based Texas Health Resources' sharp commitment to reliable, safe patient care and improved experiences guided a decision to re-envision its financial strategy and pioneer the use of first-of-its-kind robotic surgery technology.
Becker's Healthcare recently spoke with Brian Craft, Texas Health's senior vice president of finance and robotic governance committee chair, to learn the organization's approach to robotic procedures, the value they're seeing in new technology and how it ties into the system's broader aims.
Editor's note: Responses have been edited lightly for clarity and brevity.
Question: Texas Health was one of the first hospital systems in the world to acquire the latest da Vinci platform, the da Vinci 5. What value do you see in this technology?
Brian Craft: Providing reliable and safe patient care is the top priority at Texas Health, and equipping our doctors with the latest innovation to improve surgical outcomes is a great way to do that. We've seen over the years how robotic procedures allow surgeons to perform complicated procedures with smaller incisions, which then equates to less downtime for patients.Knowing that, we were excited to be one of the first hospital systems in the world to acquire the da Vinci 5. And, I'm excited to hear the feedback from our surgeons, staff and patients about their experience with the da Vinci 5 and use that feedback as we continue to create strategies on how to be the market leader in robotic surgery.
Q: Given the growth you've seen in robotic-assisted surgery, how does da Vinci and other robotics fit into Texas Health's strategic goals and vision?
BC: Nearly 10 years ago, we embraced an initiative at Texas Health to focus even more on consumer experience. Embracing innovation across our system, including robotics, is a major step toward realizing our goal. In most cases, robotic-assisted surgeries decrease downtime for the patient while still providing positive clinical outcomes.
Innovation in healthcare is just going to continue to accelerate, and at Texas Health we're eager to see how we integrate that into the consumer experience.
Q: Texas Health switched from a traditional capital acquisition model to the Accelerated Minimally Invasive Surgery Program (AMP) several years ago. What drove that decision, and what have been the results?
BC: Ultimately, our financial strategy with da Vinci has been more about acknowledging the fact technology evolves — sometimes quicker than a depreciation schedule will allow — so we felt the AMP model would give us the ability to expand quicker to meet market demand while also minimizing risk from an asset utilization perspective. We began the program in 2019 and have been very pleased with the outcome, both from an access and growth standpoint, while still attaining the return on investment we would expect.
Q: What advice do you have for hospital leaders currently investigating how to evaluate their robotic surgery fleet?
BC: Surgical care is an important part of the care we provide to our patients, and hospitals are going to continue using robotic surgery because new surgeons are trained on it and experienced surgeons see it as a way to extend their career.
I use the statement a lot that "it's just math" — it could be that a more traditional acquisition model works best, or in our case, the AMP model allowed us to achieve our targeted goals and strategies. But overall, we just worked to come up with an approach that aligned with our vision and it has been very rewarding to see it become successful over the past five years.