Leading a Digital Transformation

Tressa Springmann [00:00:00]:

It’s no longer about the technology. So at LifeBridge, we’re really leaning hard into not doing digital, but being digital.

Narrator [00:00:09]:

From Healthcare IT Leaders, you’re listening to leader to leader with Ben Hilmes. Our guest today is Tressa Springmann, senior vice president and chief information and digital officer for LifeBridge Health. In our conversation, Tressa discusses LifeBridge Health’s commitment to being digital, which she identifies as managing through careful measurement and focusing on providing better tools for both care providers and their patients.

Ben Hilmes [00:00:35]:

Tressa, it’s so great to see you. Thank you for joining me this afternoon. I’ve been looking forward to this one for some time. We go way back, and I’m really excited about what you’re doing, what LifeBridge is doing, and I think this will be just a fun little discussion. So for our listeners, let’s talk LifeBridge. You’ve been there for some time in leadership for more than a decade. Tell my listeners a little bit about LifeBridge. Where are you, your sides, what populations you serve? Because I know that’s a pretty unique space for you guys, but would just love to know a little bit more about that.

Tressa Springmann [00:01:06]:

Thanks, Ben. And great to see you again in this different role than what I’m used to. So, look, the long and the short of it is I used to be able to have those fresh eyes and see the problem. And now, apparently, I’ve been here long enough that I am officially part of the problem. You know, I have this really terrible habit of being an owner. I’ve got an owner’s mentality. I can’t just go and observe what I think needs to fix, and I want to see it through. And so I’ve been a bit of a serial CIO.

Tressa Springmann [00:01:37]:

A bit. And here at Lightbridge, what’s kept me fresh is the innovative reinvention that this organization has done. You know, they don’t fit in the box of any stereotypical iDn or healthcare system that you would think about. And when I thought about this question, because a lot of the times I get a encouraged to consider other opportunities because there’s so many neat things going on in the industry, I think what I’ve really observed is, well, let me stop by saying I’m an army kid. So every three to four years, you know, we pulled up roots. We went to a different duty station. I had to make new friends. I had to surmise what was going on.

Tressa Springmann [00:02:21]:

And just about the time I got comfortable, a new change would come along. But that’s what drives me. That’s what energizes me. And what this organization has done is really both professionally and personally for me, but also organizationally, as our market and as our industry has changed. LifeBridge has been an organization that’s raised their hand and said, we’re not going to wait for someone to push us along this change curve. We’re jumping in. And so that’s provided a lot of exciting opportunities for me.

Ben Hilmes [00:02:55]:

Ben, that’s great. That is great. Well, I was very intrigued by this theme you guys have with your culture. You guys call it care bravely. And so I just. I love that. I mean, we used to have typical themes at Adventists. Certainly it’s shorter.

Ben Hilmes [00:03:11]:

Like, healthcare is too important to stay the same or it’s personal. And so when you can characterize a culture in just a couple of words, it grabs you. So I’d love to hear a little bit more about air bravely from your words and how your work leans into that.

Tressa Springmann [00:03:26]:

Well, thanks. At the end of the day, a lot of the work that we’re really here to do has everything to do with keeping people well and getting them better. And that’s not easy. There are so many impediments to that. Some people, it’s just their mere genetics. Others, it’s their environment. It’s hard work, and it’s hard work where people have to make tough choices. For us, it’s e signing on an informed consent document.

Tressa Springmann [00:03:54]:

But for that patient, it could be a surgery alternative where the life and death options are maybe not even favorable to them. And we can’t forget about that. So anyway, Brian and his own visioning and leadership has brought us along this branding experience. In fact, today, the whole digital experience at LifeBridge has its own brand as well, and it’s called hello Brave. And I know that sounds a little odd, but as we were talking about self serving in a digital world for online appointment scheduling and virtual visits and post discharge digital follow up, it allowed us to also brand what we were doing digitally like you would see. You know, you go grocery shopping, but you think of Instacart when you think of a digital journey. So we’ve been having a lot of fun with that, but we believe it differentiates us in the market because it really grounds the human connection that healthcare is all about.

Ben Hilmes [00:04:58]:

Yeah, I love it. And we’re going to get to hello Brave next because I love how that starts to characterize this big journey you’re on. But I think I want to read your some of the taglines from care bravely because I think they’re really neat that says seeing patients as people and putting people before profits, using science to make life better for families and communities. And then I love this last one, doing the right thing, even when it’s the hard thing. You kind of led with that. I just think that speaks volumes about your organization, the leadership. I know you and Neil have been really passionate about Lightbridge and its position in the market. And the way that people portray you is really important.

Ben Hilmes [00:05:39]:

And I love that youre leaning into that in a pretty material way. So really, really neat to see. So you mentioned hello Brave, which describes a journey youre on. Youre making a huge investment in digital care delivery. Its been described by you as a big pivot for your system. Id love to know more about this year. What is it? What outcomes are you expecting to see? Where are you in the journey? Just tell us all about it.

Tressa Springmann [00:06:04]:

Yeah, yeah. Well, so you mentioned Neil, and it was really his inspirational leadership that challenged, and look, we know this, we know that you want to get that for profit organizations, by and large are really wanting to maximize how to get that every dollar out of the current state, but not lose sight of where the ball is going in nonprofit healthcare. Here at LifeBridge, we have a for profit arm, but our nonprofit arm. And as a gentleman who spent his whole life in public health, Neil leads by reminding us that it’s all about the community we serve. And we’re pretty much putting our head under a basket if we’re not recognizing what technology is enabling for people. We say that people don’t want to deal with technology, with their healthcare, and yet you look at the numbers of what people are choosing to do digitally because it’s working and it’s bringing them access and convenience, and it’s helping them be proactive and feel more in control of their life. And we can choose to stay stuck there. And I guarantee you we’ll all be displaced.

Tressa Springmann [00:07:16]:

It’s happening with all the disruptors around us. So listen, there’s one thing that we in local healthcare have, and that’s the trust of our communities. So why don’t we take something that we know is really, really hard to build, that is trust, and capitalize on that by trying to offer digital alternatives that have parity, that people who maybe have a bigger bank account for those digital investments but really aren’t there just to serve the needs of the community and certainly haven’t built the trust. They’ve built transactional credibility. But that’s about it. And that’s okay. Depending on where you are with your own health and wellness status. But you and I both know the second it gets scary, you don’t want to be dealing with something where you don’t have a deep connection and a real abiding trust.

Ben Hilmes [00:08:12]:

No, I think that’s right. I know from my days at Cerner, now Oracle health, that every time we were in front of you, you would always challenge us to think about not just the technical side of things or the selling motion we were in, but help us really think through. How does this impact the clinician as well as part of hello grave? I have to believe a big part of this is not just about your patients and consumers, but also by your provider. So talk to me about how you guys are layering that piece in to help drive their experience less burnout, et cetera, because I know it’s a passion of yours.

Tressa Springmann [00:08:53]:

Yeah. So look, you’re an IT professional in your own right, Ben. So when someone says digital, we kind of get our hackles up because it’s like, well, what have we been doing forever? Call it what you want, but the new element to this is for years and years and years we’ve served the people in our organization, but it’s only been the last five or so years, we’ve actually put technology in the hands of our end users, our customers, and that’s a whole different dynamic. What I think was deemed a very physician or provider centric is being pushed off that balance by consumerism. But these are going to sound like a bunch of sound bites, and it’s only because we’ve been really active on this strategic journey. Listen, between you and me, I can envision a time for myself where I wouldn’t have to spend every acute episode in a hospital. Right? You and I know the technology and the support services exist. If the reimbursement were to come along, that we could manage our wellness and our sickness a little more effectively in an environment we could control.

Tressa Springmann [00:10:03]:

And technology is here to stay. It’s no longer about the technology. So at LifeBridge, we’re really leaning hard into not doing digital, but being digital. And so let me elaborate on what that means. Like many other health systems, we’ve got incredible capabilities in our hospitals, but we recognize with technology and the drive of consumerism that more individuals, if it’s clinically appropriate, want to pick their site of care. And we need to make sure they can do that, because 20% or less of our care happens in an organized care delivery environment. What happens to our health and wellness is otherwise 80% influenced by what we eat, where we live, how we’ve been brought up and the only way to start really getting to have people feel in control is to meet them where they are. And that’s where if they are ready to take advantage of digital alternatives, they can.

Tressa Springmann [00:11:06]:

But so what is being digital? Instead of doing digital mean for a high, high touch industry? First of all, it means managing through measurement. We’ve got to get a lot better about using data and analytics as our new currency. I really believe that health systems are going to win or lose on their ability to assess, take advantage and leverage the data they have. Not just patient by patient, but from a business model perspective. And we haven’t been particularly good at that. Right. So managing through measurement. And then you mentioned everyone’s really familiar about this consumer journey and what that means for us.

Tressa Springmann [00:11:46]:

It’s going to be pushing hard on convenience, access and doing so in a proactive manner. But we’ve also got to recognize that our providers need different and new tools. So you mentioned Cerner and Oracle. We’re really investing hard in EHR usability. We’ve got to make sure that the tools all of our care providers have are not a barrier to their daily effectiveness. And that’s not just our electronic health record. It’s also our ERP system, our CRM system, our core infrastructure. So again, got to put better tools in the hands of our workforce.

Tressa Springmann [00:12:26]:

Got to put better tools that are providing access and convenience in the hands of our community, specific to the job they want done. We’re always trying to tell patients and consumers what we think they want to hear. The one thing we need to learn from other industries, and frankly, the late Clay Christensen, is what’s a job to be done? What are they trying to accomplish if they’re just trying to, I don’t know, get an annual physical scheduled? How do we make sure that that happens flawlessly, seamlessly? And we’ve made it so easy that they won’t think twice about doing it again the same way the next time they need that. And that’s very much a characteristic that Bryant brought from outside of healthcare that we need to take on the mantle up if we’re going to think differently.

Ben Hilmes [00:13:16]:

I love that. And I like the reference to Clay’s book. That jobs theory thing is something I use a lot. Don Trigger, former president at Cerner, was a passionate individual around that very kind of theory, and I use it quite a bit in everywhere I’ve been, and I think it helps break things down and simplify things. I think we make things so darn complex. And the other day we’re all just humans. We can do blocking and tackling. We can just break it down at its piece parts and effectively, if we all know our roles and execute well, we’re going to improve things significantly over time.

Ben Hilmes [00:13:53]:

Digital. I like the tagline. Are you being digital or are you doing digital? Well, you’ve been a CIO for a long time, but now you’ve added this whole thing called digital into your title, and that’s actually a pretty consistent. Now everybody’s got somebody, whether it’s their CIO, has expanded into this cheap digital space as well, or they’ve actually created a separate role for digital. I’d love to hear your perspective on does digital necessary sit in it, sit outside of it? What’s your thoughts on all of that? And kind of what was the decision to layer that into your title?

Tressa Springmann [00:14:30]:

Look, first of all, I don’t think there’s any right, wrong, or I different way of thinking about this. It’s just like the systems you select a lot of it’s cultural. How big are you? What’s your culture? How many hats do people have to wear? But when I think about just the management approach to something new, and we’ll pick on AI, right, why not? It’s the latest out of the gate behind population health, behind analytics, behind DFD, digital journeys. We’ve got these new concepts that are coming our way really quickly. We’ve got to figure out what do they mean to the organization, what do they mean to us, and then how do we culturally adapt them so we can consume them and act on them pretty effectively and quickly? In certain big organizations, the most effective way to do that is to stand up their own independent structure and then over time back integrate that into an organization. As a mid market organization, my observation has been more of a hybrid model, meaning, and I’ll pick on AI, but we’ll get back to digital. For artificial intelligence, we have an executive, a small executive group. But as we’re making decisions about policy, about workforce impact, about contract language, about the tools we use, we’re trying to be very thoughtful about how ubiquitous we think this is going to be over the long run and make sure that if we’re making a decision around, let’s just say, the contractual process, that it doesn’t create a silo of activity and becomes inculcated into our existing contract review and management process.

Tressa Springmann [00:16:22]:

So I’m only giving that by way of example to say, Ben, there’s no right or wrong here, but here’s another example. I’m on a few boards. And it’s not okay for a member of an executive management team to say, yeah, well, budgets, I really don’t understand all that stuff. But I have a guy or I have a gal, but it seems to be totally okay in 2024 to do that. Around the metrics that matter for any part of someone’s company, they can just be like, yeah, I don’t really understand all that tech stuff. This is 2024. This isn’t like, pick a date back there. It’s not going to go away.

Tressa Springmann [00:17:05]:

So as a leader, I’ve got to lean into how to create a safe space for everyone to move along this change curve because the ship has left the harbor. And I mean, it has, like, it really is people who are sitting around believing that technology is going to go away, that it’s going to become more simple, more manual, less digital, like, really lean in. It’s not going away.

Ben Hilmes [00:17:34]:

I mean, I’m hearing intentionality, you know, aligned with cultural strategy, and if you can do all that and aligned those things in a, in a meaningful way, you’ll end up making a lot of good decisions. And the digital aspect of that wrapped into that framework, I think, is a little bit the way you guys would think about. So I love that.

Tressa Springmann [00:17:52]:

Well, by the way, just for listeners, I saw a job that wasn’t being done, and I went to my boss and I said, give it to me and I’ll do it. Well, sometimes you can’t wait around wondering if someone is going to, you know, duck, duck, goose you on the head. If you’re in a leadership role and you’re seeing an unmet need in your organization, it doesn’t mean you need to be the one to solve for it. But if you’re observing it, own it, and figure out over time where it needs to live, and it just might be with you.

Ben Hilmes [00:18:24]:

We had a lot of things at Cerner that you probably shouldn’t say today, but I’ll say this one just because I think it’ll be fun for any of the old former Cerner people who were there back in the early days. But I, the exact same thing is we had this thing called see a snake, kill a snake. And it was like, you see a job that needs to be done, it’s not getting done. Do it. It’s as simple as that. I love that. So, on the topic of Oracle health, which is a really personal to me, Lightbridge, you guys have been a significant customer of Oracle health and oracle for a long period of time. There’s a lot of change in the transition from charter to Oracle.

Ben Hilmes [00:18:58]:

But you guys are bullish. You’re going all in with your future plans around Oracle Health. Tell us about that partnership and how they fit with your long term plans.

Tressa Springmann [00:19:07]:

Yeah. Boy, Ben, that’s such a personal decision for organizations. And as I was talking about being digital versus doing digital, we believe our future is going to be very different than our past. Our footprint in the ambulatory market is huge. Our growth in the for profit space, in a lot of non traditional areas that we need to serve our community, some of which may be completely digital, are really going to flourish. And so I think we need to start with that mindset. And it’s particularly important because I think it’s limiting to believe if you’re a hospital company at some point, how well will you be serving your community if you don’t have a health and fitness center, or you don’t have sleep centers that aren’t affiliated with your hospitals, or you don’t have any number of wellness techniques that otherwise really aren’t the purview of the traditional. But more important to the question you mentioned, Ben, I think Cerner went through a time period and many of us as customers have been with them where their future wasn’t quite clear.

Tressa Springmann [00:20:19]:

We all know we need choice in the industry. Competition is a really good thing. In fact, it’s the healthiest thing that’s assisted. Meaningful use was really, really important. But if all of us think about the digitization of healthcare, I think we can envision a world where I’m owning my health data and I’m choosing to bring it to you as a care provider. Now, that’s not how meaningful use and the federal incentive structures got us going. And what they did was incredible. It got us to where we are from an automation perspective.

Tressa Springmann [00:20:54]:

But I think the cat’s out of the bag here on consumerism and patients are going to drive us just based on their comfort and utilization of technology, on what it’s going to look like. And so listen, I think every organization has to decide where they’re going to invest their dollars. And we were above the moon excited when we understood what was going on with the Oracle transaction. This is a $200 billion company in the technology space who has probably been able to accelerate more in the last six months than in the last six years I’ve seen from prior management. And that’s not because there wasn’t intent. There just wasn’t sufficient funding and focus. Now our next fear was, why would a oracle want to push hard on health care it’s hard. We’ve seen people get in the market.

Tressa Springmann [00:21:52]:

We’ve seen people get out of the market. My own point of view is that our ehrs need to have a utility position now we should be paying a utility fee and they should be fulfilling a relatively utilitarian purpose. They shouldn’t be niche. We shouldn’t be necessarily competing on just fundamental aspects of the basics of what an EHR can do. We really need to compete around the edges and what makes us different, not through how well we’ve just put into place a basic technology. So that also means you gotta challenge how much of your budget that’s eating up. I’m not saying it’s not important, but I don’t know any organization whose it spend isn’t being shared among all their other strategic investments. And Oracle is a tech company, LifeBridge isn’t.

Tressa Springmann [00:22:47]:

We’re in the people business, we’re in the health and wellness business. We’re here to serve our community, not to invest an over indexed amount on automating our care. And so we’re really excited and you know, it remains to be seen. I think this is kind of a go big or go home move right now, Ben. You know, there are a lot of us really pulling for them in other areas and other organizations. I know they’re just exhausted from either the wading or the treading water. We’re inspired by it and they got a lot to prove to us. But I’m cautiously optimistic because unlike perhaps some other CIO’s, I came from technology.

Tressa Springmann [00:23:31]:

I worked for Ross Perot, I worked for Eds. I know what really good investment and good systems can liberate and the things that other healthcare specific companies are having to create. Now Oracle is already creating them, so they’re just to them objects that they can plug in. They don’t have the same lifecycle issues, they don’t have the same management issues. Heck, the cloud that we’re being migrated to supports the DoD. I’m not going to argue, of course we’ll due diligence. But when you think about the other customers that they have to serve around data integrity and security, we’re in good company. So at this point we are, we’re super, super optimistic.

Tressa Springmann [00:24:16]:

And I’ve also been really impressed with the quality team on the cerner side that they have retained.

Ben Hilmes [00:24:22]:

That’s awesome. I really appreciate that perspective because I tend to hear the other perspective quite often, as you might imagine. And so I echo a lot of the things you say. I really do believe there’s room for more than one player. And I think that healthy competition lifts all boats. And so I think that’ll be a very good thing for the industry. And then I think where you put focus, money, energy, you get results. And I know Larry is heavily focused investing a ton of money and its just a number one passion today and thats saying something when a company that size is saying this is our number one priority.

Ben Hilmes [00:25:04]:

So more to come on that for sure. Id love to in a years time lets see where you are and hopefully do a follow up to this. I want to quickly pivot as we kind of start to bring this in for landing to a leadership topic. So leader to leader as a podcast focuses not only on the industry, but we love to tap into your kind of golden nuggets, if you would, around leadership. You are, and I’ve been recognized many, many times in this industry as an incredible leader. You’re also a female and you’re in a male dominated space. And I would love to know how you think about that and what you do to inspire other women who are progressing in their careers and would like to get to a place where you are and what you do to help them along the way.

Tressa Springmann [00:25:52]:

I would have answered that question really differently, Ben, maybe even just ten years ago. Let me first say that healthcare is actually a pretty female dominant industry. That the majority of our agree with that.

Ben Hilmes [00:26:06]:

I agree with that. In the tech space though, tends to be the other way.

Tressa Springmann [00:26:09]:

Absolutely right. Listen, I’ll never forget Covid was just winding down and I was invited to downtown Baltimore to this like 200 member event technology session. I think it was on robotic process automation. And it was at this fun happy hour spot. And I showed up and there was a gal that checked me in. The room was packed, and she and I were the only two women. And listen, it was tech, not healthcare. This was 2022 and there were 200 people in the room.

Tressa Springmann [00:26:44]:

So here’s the delicate answer to that, because probably, well, definitely in my workspace, the majority of my employees are men. And so I’ve got to tread that line between wanting to inspire and encourage more diversity in leadership roles, but doing it without disenfranchising all the men that I lead. And you know how to be a good boss for them as well in a time when, frankly, it can be extraordinarily difficult when you feel as though you, for some reason, your own voice has been subrogated. So what can we do here? I think probably the example that is best served and what I share focuses on fathers. Fathers who have daughters typically can really wrap their head and their spirit around wanting all of their children to get equal opportunity. And so there is a time and a place where having all the women in the room can be very inspirational. But I think we’re at a point in time now where the best way to advocate for this is for us to create a safe space for men and frankly, dads to help us understand how we can all better serve their children coming up, whether they’re boys or girls. But that’s a particularly influencing role that I think is really untapped and not taken advantage of enough.

Ben Hilmes [00:28:33]:

That’s deep. I’m gonna have to have to think about that one a lot. And I have a 15 year old daughter who is everything to me. So just hearing you say that is very impactful and I appreciate that kind of depth of response. So that’s really good. Trusta, this has been amazing. I really want. It’s great to see you too.

Ben Hilmes [00:28:53]:

I appreciate the partnership we have and the work we do together, and we look forward to much more of that as we continue to do this thing called healthcare. And you can count on us to care bravely with you. And I love what you’re doing and all good stuff. And thank you for your time.

Tressa Springmann [00:29:10]:

And thank you, Ben, you have done so much for this industry. I appreciate being invited and I only wish your questions had been a little easier.

Ben Hilmes [00:29:22]:

That’s great. Well, thank you very much. Presa tells it like it is. I appreciate her candor and her lessons on leadership. There is no shortage of takeaways from this episode, but here are just a few of Presa and the team at LifeBridge are committed to caring bravely. They differentiate by putting patients before profits and by doing the hard work of keeping people healthy. Two, the future of healthcare is digital. That means getting comfortable with data and measurement, expanding access to virtual care, and providing user friendly technology to providers and patients.

Ben Hilmes [00:30:01]:

Three, leaders don’t just see problems, they own them and they fix them. So what did you think? What are your big takeaways from this episode? I’d love to hear from you on our social media channels, or drop me an email from our website at Healthcare IT Leaders.com.

Narrator [00:30:19]:

Thanks for joining us for Leader to Leader. To learn more about how to fuel your own personal leadership journey through the healthcare industry, visit Healthcare IT Leaders.com. don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss any insights and we’ll see you on the next episode.