On July 20th, DHR Global hosted a compelling conversation focused on key learnings, perspectives, and best practices for improving patient access for underserved populations.
Hosted by Wendy Brown-Blau, Managing Partner, and moderated by Peter Blau, Managing Partner, Global Healthcare Services & Solutions, our panel featured three Healthcare Leaders sharing insights and key findings:
- Abhi Rastogi, President & CEO, Temple University Hospital
- Alpa Vyas, Vice President & Chief Experience Officer & Operational Performance Office, Stanford Health Care
- Jorge Reyno, MD, MHA, Senior Vice President of Population Health, Martin Luther King Jr., Community Hospital
Thank you to Abhi, Jorge, and Alpa for sharing your learnings and advice on this important topic.
You can view the full replay below or scroll down to read the top 7 key areas of focus for Healthcare Leaders on improving patient outcomes.
One: Our Greatest Challenge is Engaging with Patients
“Our greatest challenge is, how do you engage our patients? We focus on access, affordability, as well as adapting towards improving the health of our population. We need to make our patients the center. We need to modify our processes. We need to meet them where their needs are.”
– Abhi Rastogi
“We have a significant number of disparities in our health indicators. We have an epidemic of chronic disease. We also suffer from a decrease in life expectancy. In essence, it’s about 10 years less than the average Californian.”
– Jorge Reyno, MD, MHA
“One way we’re trying to think about and experiment is in the creation of creative ideas that we can come up with from the technology front. How do you extend some specialty care through the partnerships and the networks that we have?”
– Alpa Vyas
Two: Improving Telehealth
“The notion of having to leave their home, or wherever they might be, to come to the emergency department can be expensive and incur additional costs. Perhaps we can address their health needs exactly where they are, through a more traditional mode, or method, but having the flexibility to bring in other advanced technology if needed.”
– Alpa Vyas
“[Many of our patients are] technologically literate and often do have access to devices. Therefore, telehealth for a subset of those patients has been a great way to try to expand the reach and that’s the only one component, and that – along with it – must be a sort of a multifaceted approach.”
– Jorge Reyno, MD, MHA
“Most importantly, the telemedicine visit no-show rate is about 50% less than in-office rate. So… we need to leverage the technology because this population has housing issues, transportation issues, but not technology issues.”
– Abhi Rastogi
Three: Engaging with Community Organizations
“Community stakeholders, community influencers, and various community members are key to try to promote engagement. We partner with various organizations in the community that have a similar mission or want to obtain a similar outcome. Whether that’s increasing health literacy, whether that’s facilitating care, or whether it’s just providing health screening and information to our patients.”
– Jorge Reyno, MD, MHA
“Stanford’s biggest opportunities came during the pandemic. As an academic healthcare organization, a community provider shows up in this time of need. Our approach needed to be very different in academic medical centers. There’s a lot of cache around the research and brand positioning can be very overpowering and potentially create a lot of mistrust. Partners, community providers, and where Stanford could come in, was supported through some of the infrastructure.”
– Alpa Vyas
“We have hired a significant number of people from our community, and these are people who’ve been born and brought up in this community, who are friends, neighbors, and relatives of our patients. So, there’s already that level of trust, and hearing their feedback [allows us to be able] to deliver solutions that impact their care.”
– Abhi Rastogi
Four: Advice for Providing Better Access for Their Underserved
“Number one, understand your community. It means listening to your community, whether that be through direct engagement, listening and paying attention to your patient satisfaction scores, having focus groups, or doing community briefings. Second, understand your community through the investment in data analytics. Having a better understanding of what’s happening in the community, as well as what’s happening in your institutions, with the community members. This has been key in helping us conservatively and helps us to determine where we are going to focus and prioritize certain programs and initiatives.”
– Jorge Reyno, MD, MHA
Five: Differences and Similarities in Rural vs. Urban Areas
“Right now, access is [key]. There’s a lot more demand than supply. The specialist piece is important. Rural hospitals are not going to have those same high-end services. They may not have the same kind of radiation on oncologic equipment that we have in most of our settings. They may not have equivalent access. It keeps coming down to access.”
– Abhi Rastogi
Six: Policy Improvement is Needed for Change
“From a policy standpoint, we talk about the access for our community, and at the heart of what leads to that for us is the reimbursement model. When you are very dependent on the State Medicaid reimbursement – as most of our patients are covered by Medicaid, California is number 42 in the country in terms of states for amount of Medicaid reimbursement – that leads to a 1,500-position shortage in South Los Angeles.”
– Jorge Reyno, MD, MHA
Seven: Partnerships with the Community to Improve Access
“Working on more creative and innovative ways to extend access. So, whether it’s technology, leveraging telehealth, or even asynchronous modes of care. How do you create the right culture, and environment within the healthcare system to really create that culture of compassion, empathy, and inclusion? People feel seen when they are being taken care of. Policy changes, or what we might aspire to do in the future, is the continued funding of our partner organizations, because they are often the lifeline to many of our communities.”
– Alpa Vyas