Becker's Hospital Review

56 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Intermountain CMO on putting value over volume By Hannah Mitchell S hannon Phillips, MD, Intermountain Healthcare's CMO for community-based care and the president of Intermountain Medical Group, outlined her top priorities af- ter the pandemic and the Salt Lake City-based health system's focus on patient experience. e following article is based on a podcast published July 14 by Becker's Hospital Review. Keeping hold of the innovations made during the pandemic has been Dr. Phillips' first priority this year. e pandemic also opened her eyes to the importance of social determinants of health. Addressing health disparities and unaffordability in care are among the most pressing issues she is work- ing toward tackling. "My priorities are the well-being of our health- care professionals; our disruption of ourselves to take advantage of some of the things that COVID taught us, like the multi-channel ways we can care for people; and to continue to have the privilege to take care of more and more people in a value circumstance," she said. "And those will be much of the work and very integrated with each other." About 50 percent of Intermountain is tied to value-based care, which means half of its contracts with payers consider quality mea- sures rather than volume, Dr. Phillips said. Intermountain is trying to balance delivering high-value care and a great consumer experi- ence so patients and their employers choose Intermountain and its payer subsidiary, Se- lectHealth, to keep people healthy. "You could argue that is at odds with hospi- tals," Dr. Phillips said. e health system's unique business model enables its value-based mission. "I think it's an interesting time in healthcare and being part of an integrated delivery sys- tem," she said. "One that has a payer, one that has provision of services really across the continuum, and really visionary leadership. [President and CEO Marc Harrison, MD,] has made it very clear that our move is to val- ue. I think we're set up to really be successful." Dr. Phillips pivoted her paradigm aer com- ing to a strong realization about the health- care industry, she said. "Very oen in our industry, the experience of the people we serve became sort of an add-on too late," Dr. Phillips said. "It's kind of embar- rassing to be in an industry where we take care of people, and the attention to the expe- rience came kind of when it got measured by the federal government, and that was a miss- ing link for me." e pivot shapes how she leads as a CMO. Her everyday attitude is about "innovating, catalyzing and executing on extraordinary care, caring and health," Dr. Phillips said. n Patient hospitalized in Dallas with monkeypox, CDC says By Erica Carbajal A U.S. resident who traveled from Nigeria to the U.S. was hospitalized in Dallas after the CDC and Tex- as Department of State Health Services confirmed July 15 that the patient was diagnosed with monkeypox. The person traveled on two flights: from Lagos, Nigeria, to Atlanta on July 8, arriving July 9. The second flight was from Atlanta to Dallas on July 9. "CDC is working with the airline and state and local health officials to contact airline passengers and others who may have been in contact with the patient during the two flights," the agency said in a July 16 statement sent to Becker's. Since travelers were required to wear masks on the flights and in the U.S. airports, "it's believed the risk of spread of monkeypox via respiratory droplets to others on the planes and in the airports is low," the CDC said. The agency said there's been at least six other reported monkeypox cases in travelers returning from Nigeria, in- cluding in the U.K., Israel and Singapore, though the U.S. case is unrelated to them. The illness is in the same family of viruses as smallpox but typically causes a milder infection that lasts two to four weeks. Monkeypox typically starts with flu-like illness and swelling of the lymph nodes, followed by a widespread rash on the face and body. The patient was infected with a strain of the virus common- ly seen in parts of West Africa, the CDC said, adding that this strain is fatal in about one in 100 people, but can be higher in those with weakened immune systems. Monkeypox is thought to be spread when an individual is bitten or scratched by an animal, prepares wild game or has contact with an infected animal or animal product. It can also be spread through respiratory droplets between people, contact with body fluids, monkeypox sores or con- taminated items, according to the CDC. n "It's believed the risk of spread of monkeypox via respiratory droplets to others on the planes and in the airports is low." - CDC

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