Becker's Hospital Review

13 13 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP JC: e space and equipment were designed to allow for collabora- tion with a wide range of business and clinical experts, while also supporting the cutting-edge research needs of the startups. Convert- ing six prior intensive care unit patient rooms into five wet labs and a dry lab was a statement of pragmatism and purpose. e existing air handling standards made the conversion far cheaper than starting from scratch, but it is also another example of how the entire West- ern Pennsylvania region has gone from a steel to a medicine/educa- tion-based economy. e resilience and ingenuity of the successful entrepreneurs were copied in this model. Q: What successes coming out of AlphaLab Health can you share? JC: e timeline from ideation to mature company can be much longer in biotech and healthcare. Already, we are seeing positive early results from the companies that have participated in AlphaLab Health, indicat- ing they will make an impact on healthcare and the regional economy. Most of the companies in the first cohort have already gone on to raise new funds from venture capital and non-diluted sources. Five companies have already hired new full-time employees locally, and six companies are in trial, pilot or beta testing — depending on the nature of their product/device. Additionally, a handful are already generating revenue, which is early for companies in this sector. Q: What are Allegheny Health's plans for AlphaLab Health's future growth? JC: Even aer graduating from the cohort in which they are accepted, we continue to help our portfolio companies improve their products and accelerate growth. We accept six new companies each year — which includes funding, mentoring, promoting and providing con- nections. In exchange for this, we receive 2 percent of the equity. Al- ready, companies from our first two cohorts are hitting major clinical and business milestones, and their success will help AlphaLab Health continue to grow and evolve far into the future. We are also in the early stages of evaluating how to adapt this model to attract addi- tional domestic and international innovative health companies to the Pittsburgh region. n Providence Chief Pharmacy Officer Dr. Elie Bahou on the lasting legacy of COVID-19 By Virginia Egizio E lie Bahou, PharmD, serves as senior vice president and chief pharmacy officer at Renton, Wash.-based Providence. Dr. Bahou served on the panel "Con- trolling Pharmacy Costs and How to Say No (and Some- times Yes) to New Drugs" at the Becker's Hospital Review 12th Annual Meeting in late April. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's spoke to healthcare leaders who spoke at the conference. Note: Responses were lightly edited for length and style. Question: What are your top priorities for 2022? Dr. Elie Bahou: Our first priority is overall pharmacy growth. We will continue to execute our initiatives, including utili- zation management, purchasing optimization, wholesaler contracting and building our group purchasing organiza- tion network. The second priority is to work with a third-party vendor to help our specialty pharmacy increase script capture. Suc- cessful implementation would help Providence retain the number of prescriptions (and associated revenue) that can be filled internally. We are also focused on optimizing our retail pharmacies to improve overall margins. The keys to this effort are develop- ing and implementing action plans to increase prescription volume and streamline the use of labor at each location. Q: What technologies and innovations are you most excit- ed about in healthcare right now? EB: I'm most excited about developing new and im- proved data analytics to enhance patient care (e.g., qual- ity dashboard, focus on hypoglycemia). For example, a patient admitted after surgery may need an adjustment in their insulin. Using our electronic medical record and our data analytics platforms, we have been able to cre- ate protocols that proactively identify care changes that are needed and reduce rates of hypoglycemia across the system. Implementing kiosks at clinics, medical office buildings and retail pharmacies for prescription pickup is also exciting. This will expand access to care and reduce waiting times at the retail pharmacies, which is a win-win for patients and caregivers. Q: What will the lasting legacy of COVID-19 be on the healthcare system? EB: While COVID has created a sense of comradery that I hope will persist, the unfortunate legacy is high rates of burnout and exhaustion among healthcare workers. Some are even choosing to leave healthcare altogether. Those that remain not only have to cope with exhaustion and PTSD, but also must fill in the shifts that the turnover has created. We have heard from many thought leaders that this churning will result in a post-pandemic behavioral health surge — similar to a pandemic surge only focused on behavioral health — that will require us to support our care- givers like never before. As a result, Providence is actively pursuing strategies to retain and recruit caregivers, as well as provide them with tools for coping. We have simplified access to virtual behavioral health visits for caregivers and their families and are encouraging caregivers to complete annual mental health checkups, just as we do annual well- ness physical exams. n

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