Every crisis has an opportunity for innovation
– John M. Kravitz, Chief Information Officer, Geisinger Health System
Our recent guest on The Big Unlock podcast was John Kravitz, CIO of Geisinger Health System, one of the largest health systems in the country. John discusses how technology has stepped in to address the Covid-19 crisis, the increase in telehealth visits that Geisinger is addressing, and how the company doubled their remote working along with minimizing disruptions to operations.
Listen to the full conversation
“We were one of the two in the state of Pennsylvania to develop our own testing for Covid-19. At Geisinger, the number of confirmed cases keeps changing by the hour, some have come into our acute care system and others are being treated in ambulatory settings. We have 11 campuses and 13 hospitals in our system. We’ve set up these screening and treatment tents in every one of them with all the technology. They have got workstations on wheels, printers for lab labels, patient wristbands, everything you can imagine.” – John Kravitz
Out of every crisis, a new opportunity arises
John believes that this crisis has created new awareness of the opportunities with digital transformation. The current situation and the changing healthcare delivery requirements have made consumers as well as healthcare providers utilize telemedicine and it is working effectively in day-to-day settings.
“We’ve seen a tremendous increase, probably a 500% increase in telehealth visits. And our platforms and our physicians are all being trained as we speak now. It’s been happening all week, but they’ve been trained in proper technique. We have 1000 new providers that are going to be doing telehealth visits. Whether in the office or in their home settings, they will be able to do telehealth consultation visits.” – John
Minimizing disruption in operations
Geisinger has assigned a special group of technology people to support and address calls about telehealth enquires. The technology team at the organization is continuously looking at new and creative ways to tackle the current crisis. John says that the patients and the providers are on top of their mind. They have reprioritized their work in this situation to minimize any kind of disruption to their work.
“As every other health system, we have tried to minimize disruption in operations. Our service desk been doing very well. Communication is the key for us and getting proper communication out to people. For example, when we started this telemedicine expansion, we’ve set up on our ACD, our automated call distribution.” – John
State of healthcare post Covid-19
John thinks that digital technology in healthcare is going to be reshaped after the current crisis. One of the areas which has a tremendous amount of opportunity is telehealth and the right capabilities will make the process smoother and enable best services to the customers.
“Using technology to leverage telehealth is going to be important. Leaders from all over our organizations are blown away by the level of support they’ve received from information technology and information services throughout this entire process. Do not miss the opportunity for innovation. That’s what we’re doing now, and I think it’s going to only continue. It’s an upward trajectory for us. Unfortunately, lives are at stake, but we’re doing what we can with technology to support that.” – John
