Becker's ASC Review

42 HEALTHCARE NEWS Epic CEO Judy Faulkner's 5 predictions for healthcare post-pandemic By Laura Dyrda E pic CEO Judy Faulkner made five key predictions about healthcare during an interview with Business Insider. 1. Ms. Faulkner expects more smaller providers will face extreme financial distress and bank- ruptcy due to the canceled elective surgeries and appointments due to COVID-19. The lost revenue will affect the staffing levels, capital expenditures and operating expenditures in the future, she said, noting that many Epic custom- ers reported 35 percent to 55 percent revenue declines this year. 2. ere will be more mergers and acquisitions due to the financial strain the pandemic placed on healthcare providers, Ms. Faulkner said. When organizations consolidate, typically the smaller provider moves onto the larger pro- vider's EHR platform, which bodes well for Epic; in 2018, all of the U.S. News & World Report's 20 top hospitals used Epic. However, with new interoperability rules taking effect in the coming months, it will be easier for health systems to interoperate without switching systems. 3. Digital health has become more mainstream, and Epic reported between 50 and 100 times more video visits since the pandemic began, according to Ms. Faulkner. She also expects more remote patient monitoring from home. 4. Data definitions are a big problem, Ms. Faulkner said. Health systems are defining data differently, which makes it impossible to aggregate. Ms. Faulkner sees the potential for more data standardization efforts and a focus on public health surveillance as a lasting legacy of the pandemic. She said some lawmakers use Epic data to decide when to reopen economies or make other public health decisions. 5. IT deployments at health systems will be- come more efficient due to the pandemic, Ms. Faulkner said. During the pandemic, her team worked with providers to redesign the deploy- ment system to make it virtual and do the install in three days. n CEO: Running Temple Health 'most challenging task I've ever had' By Morgan Haefner M ike Young, the CEO of Philadelphia-based Temple Health, said managing the system's cash-strapped safety-net hospitals is "the most challenging task I've ever had" in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer. Mr. Young likened operating the academic health system to playing poker with two cards while everyone else has five. Before becoming Temple Health's CEO in February, he joined Temple University Hospital's turn- around initiatives as COO in 2018. He had previously led safety-net hospi- tals in Atlanta and Buffalo, N.Y. Mr. Young's strategy as CEO has been to focus on improving clinical quality, which he said translates to better financial results. He is also focused on integrating the health system's hospitals, cancer center and labs to create better efficiencies. One recent initiative included combining separate testing labs at the health system's hospitals into one main lab at its flagship Temple University Hos- pital. There, a robotic line completes tests for a fraction of the cost, saving $1.5 million a year. Additionally, Mr. Young told the Inquirer that combining some purchasing contracts for Temple and its Fox Chase Cancer Center has saved $4 million. Despite the pandemic, finances are improving at Temple, with the health system reporting operating income of $72 million for the last fiscal year, compared to $31.5 million a year prior, according to the report. Finances were assisted by $92 million in COVID-19 grants and more income from a Medicaid insurer that Temple co-owns with Thomas Jefferson University and Einstein Healthcare Network, both in Philadelphia. Jen Swails, the budget secretary for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, told the Inquirer that the state is taking notice of the changes, saying leadership "stopped what they were doing because they always did it and said, let's take a look at everything. Temple decided it was time to take a look at them- selves and see where they could make some adjustments." n ProMedica opens 58-bed Michigan hospital By Alia Paavola Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica opened its 58-bed hospital in Adrian, Mich., to patients Sept. 24. The 205,000-square-foot, three-story Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital has an emergency center, cardiac rehabilitation space and sleep lab. The facility has 40 medical-surgical beds, 10 critical care unit beds and eight labor and delivery beds. In May, the hospital announced a short delay to its opening to add safety features, such as negative pressure rooms and plexiglass. n

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