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 Thanks for joining us on this week in Health It Influence. My name is Bill Russell, former Healthcare, CIO for 16 hospital system and creator of this week in Health. It I. A channel dedicated to keeping health IT staff current and engaged. Today, we have a great show for you. Becky Fox, the Chief Nursing Informatics Officer with Atrium Health joins us.

She actually joins us from the mass vaccination event that they are doing in Charlotte, North Carolina. And she spills the beans, she shares all the details, what they did leading up to it, how the events are going, what are some of the statistics and whatnot. So hopefully our community can learn from what they're doing.

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You could also go to today in health it.com, and now onto today's show. All right. Today we have Becky Fox, the Vice President and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer for Atrium Health, joining us, actually joining us from a mass vaccination event. Good afternoon, Becky. Welcome to the show. Thanks, Phil. Glad to be here with you.

Well, I'm looking forward to it. You're actually at the vaccination event right now, as as we're talking, we're holding. Uh, yeah. It's a three day event that we're having back at the Bank of Bank of America stadium, which is a great place to be. It's a sunny day in Charlotte, North Carolina, so everybody's glad to come out here and get their first shot of hope.

So we'll be coming back here in three weeks and delivering the second dose, but we're gonna be vaccinate about 14,000 people today or this week, I should say. Wow. Well, we're gonna, we're gonna dive into this 'cause I, I, I really wanna understand what you guys have done and towards the tail end, I'm gonna ask you a couple questions about nursing informatics.

'cause we're, we're, we're collecting all this information and, and I've had people tell me they, they want to hear about people's roles and what they do. So I, I'm. Atrium, you guys have really been at the forefront of these mass vaccination events. You've, you've, or, or at least I from the very get go. I, I remember reading in social media that you were doing it, you did the, uh, Charlotte, um, motor Speedway, you've done the Bank of America Center and, and others.

Tell us about the events and, and what you have done to date. Yeah, so Atrium Health is very much committed to making an impact on the community, and we know that the best way to do that is to quickly get to herd immunity through a vaccination effort. So what we've done is, you know, reached out to some great public private partnerships, so the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Tepper Sports and Entertainment have.

Really rose to the challenge and recognized that if we all work together collectively, um, then we can make a big difference. Honeywell has also been a great partner in that. And so together, all of us brought our great strengths, whether it's healthcare, logistics, understanding really what a, a patient experience needs to be like, and then bringing all of that expertise together in very short order to deliver, uh, mass vaccination events.

So what we did was we started out, you know, very, we went slow to go quick, meaning that we established . The vaccination program. We rolled that out to our teammates. We then rolled that out to doing daily operations and drive-through models. And then we recognized that the, the only way that we've got to, um, get around this pandemic is to make a big, a big impact.

And that was with mass vaccination efforts. And so the Charlotte Motor Speedway was a perfect place. You know, they know how to drive cars really fast. And so we knew that that would be a great location where we could drive a lot of cars through garages and vaccinate folks. Plus anytime you get to drive on the Charlotte Motor Speedway track, that's just a really cool experience.

Uh, so we were able to do that. Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Was there a speed limit? Did people have to go? A certain ? There were speed limits, but, but it's pretty, it was a pretty incredible experience because you got to drive on the track to come around to the first screening station. We would ask you a few questions, make sure that you know.

Your observation period was gonna be appropriately timed, and then you got to drive around the other half of the track and then come into the garage. So it, it was pretty cool. I mean, you're, you're there to get vaccine and you get to drive on the Charlotte Motor Speedway. There's, there's no other better experience than that.

No. That, that, that is, that is amazing. Talk about the partnerships in a little bit more detail. So what, what kind of partnerships were important? I, I assume there's a state partnership as.

Yeah. You know, vaccination efforts are not, not for the week. I mean, it's really hard work. It's, you know, I've worked in informatics for a long time. I've worked in healthcare for a long time, and that's really complex things that we do. But when you add vaccines, working with the state, working with the federal level, and then recognizing that you've gotta meet the demands of patients and have a great experience, and how do you

Pull all that together at once. You really have got to, to leverage your relationships and your partnerships and those that are willing to come to the table and make great things happen. And so that's exactly what happened. Our CEOs have good relationships and our friends, and so they, they took a walk one day talking about how the pandemic had really impacted all of their industries, whether it's an entertainment industry, whether it's a sporting industry, or whether it's a technology company, and of course healthcare.

Being in the middle of that, we recognize that if we all work together, that we can make . You know, big things happen. And so that's what happens. We had about, we had about seven days to plan the Charlotte Motor Speedway. We had another seven days to come to the Bank of America. And what we really wanted to do at Atrium Health was learn, you know, how do we make it a good experience, and then how do we leverage any of those learnings and continue to move it forward?

So we did the Charlotte Motor Speedway where there was a driving experience, and then the Bank of America, we actually blocked some . Roads in Charlotte, we did a drive-in experience and we also had a walk-in experience because we know as, as every single state continues to make adjustments in the age requirements.

So today we're able to vaccinate essential workers. You know, you have to be able to accommodate that. You know, several weeks ago we were only vaccinating 75 years and older then it was 65 years and older. And so every time that those state changes. We have to make sure that we've got the right setting and the right venue to accommodate those things.

And so even today. When we return back to Bank of America, we're not doing any drive-through. It's truly only a walk-in experience, and we're trying some different staffing models at the same time because again, our, our opportunity is to learn really quickly. And so the event that we're even holding today will be metamorphosized a little bit tomorrow and even further on Thursday.

And our goal is always to make sure that it's a great patient experience, and more importantly, even a great teammate experience and a great partnership experience. So let's talk about the plan. Let's talk about the different decisions that have to be made a walk-in environment versus a driving environment.

Driving creates that natural, you know, six foot separation, whereas walking is different. Do, do you, uh, work with your partners? Do your partners know how to move people in and out of their venues and you work with them on that? Or is it the kind of thing where you're sort of consulting with each other?

What, what does that look like? We are consulting with our, our each other all the time. So, uh, you know, I was walking up here to this . To come and talk with you right now. And, and so one of our partners at the Bank of America Stadium stopped. And so we have a couple touch points throughout the day understanding what is the queue line looking like?

What is our hourly stats looking like? Are we staying ahead of schedule? Did the lunch breaks for our staff have an impact? Do we need to make any kind of, uh, adjustments? And even looking at things like no-show rates, you know, depending on the availability of vaccine in the world can really make a difference.

With if what if someone decides to come out and get their vaccine today? Even something as simple as the weather can make a difference. And so we are always constantly using data and technology and behind the scenes to monitor that. And then working with our partnerships and of course putting our eyes on, you know, I'm, I'm looking out the window right now so I can see the cue line.

I know if a, if a person hits that that spot, it's about a 20 minute wait for them to get from point A to point B, and then we make adjustments accordingly. Yeah. Do you, do you have any statistics that you can share at this point? How many people have been vaccinated timeframes, uh, that it takes for people to get through?

Yeah, so in generally speaking, it's about less than an hour for, and that's our goal is really to make it less than an hour to come in, get your vac, get checked into our system, get your vaccine, and then you have to go through either a 15 minute or a 30 minute observation. And that really depends on your bath.

Past experiences. If you've had allergies to vaccines in the past or not, that will help guide us as to how long we observe you for. And so we're really trying to target the entire experience, taking less than an hour. Because you know that it's a lot of people to get through in a short amount of time, but we feel that, and that's the feedback that we've heard in talking to our patients, is that they feel that, you know, between 30 minutes, 45 minutes or up to an hour seems to be a reasonable timeframe to go ahead and get vaccine.

I think a lot of people have also looked and, and seen stories across the United States where patients have waited four hours or six hours or slept in their car overnight and, and that's not . The type of experience we wanna really bring to patients. We wanna make sure that it's a reasonable one experience and, and we're really grateful for everyone, everyone's patience as we learn to do this together.

You know, it's not often that you're trying to mass vaccinate, you know, hundreds of people an hour. So we really do appreciate everyone's patience and understandings as we continue to refine our processes, and most importantly, hope to share these lessons and learn from others so that we can continue to all get better.

Yeah. And, and I appreciate you coming on the show and, and sharing some of, of your learnings from this. Let, let's, let's, let's talk about a few things. Let's focus in on a few things here. Scheduling, tracking, and messaging. So, what were some of the challenges in scheduling? I mean, you said, Hey, we had seven days to plan the event.

Well, I assume that's from, from, you know, start line to getting all the people scheduled, to getting everybody coordinated. There's an awful logistics.

People in line, how did you get them scheduled in, in, in queue? So we have what we call a patient portal. It's a real easy way. You go to my atrium health.org and you can enter some basic information about yourself. It'll ask you a few questions and it validates that you are who you are. And then we have just a simple.

Placed on the screen where you can choose to schedule yourself for a vaccine. It'll ask you a few qualifying questions if you're a certain age group, or perhaps you're a healthcare worker or a teacher, or an essential worker now and then, once you answer those questions, it'll let you go ahead and self schedule.

And then what we do is when you schedule for their per first appointment, you're automatically scheduled for your second appointment, depending on the type of vaccine that we have. So if you get a Pfizer dose, then you're automatically scheduled to come back in three weeks. If you're getting Moderna, then you're automatically.

Be scheduled to come back in four weeks. And so we, we go ahead and we put those scheduling tools out there and then let people self schedule. And then of course there's a whole communication effort that reaches out to certain populations, making sure that we're hitting those that are underserved or might have some challenges with getting access to technology.

So we're working with groups in the, in the community to make sure that we can help those folks get signed up and easily sch scheduled for events. Yeah, and we can see the kind of marketing that Atrium does. Just over your shoulder there. I mean, you're one of the few people I've interviewed where the, you have the, uh, the screen just rifling through the, the different communication points for, for the event today.

It's kind of fun, fun to watch. Yeah, it's, it's been actually really meaningful to, to, you know, there are certain milestones, I'm sure we all remember key moments in your life, and, and this is somewhat one of them that hopefully we never lived through a pandemic ever again. But, but being here and hearing everyone tell their stories, so you'll see the, the screenshot that says, you know.

I got my shots, you know, and people were telling us their why as to why they're getting their shot, and most importantly, what they're looking forward to. I think those are, those are the things that somewhat fuel all of our team behind the vaccination efforts. I mean, like I said, it's a lot of work that goes into this.

A lot of people here on site at the Bank of America, but there's a whole team of people behind the scenes from it to security, to communications that are making things happen, and so. But the thing that keeps us all fueled and really passionate about trying to really ensure that our community is impacted in a positive way is hearing the stories from the patients and hearing how important it's to their families.

How, you know, grandparents are gonna go see and visit their first grandchildren. I mean, there's usually not a day that I don't walk out with a few tears. My eyes are choked up because someone has a great story of very appreciative feedback from the, from the community as well, you know? We've often joked, you know, I said I, I'm being told thank you.

At least a hundred times a day. Yeah. Which is a great, great, it's, it's hard to imagine going back and doing other work now that we've had such a great experience. And most importantly, I would say our teammates have walked out with happy hearts because, you know, it's been really rough taking care of covid patients.

It's been very challenging. So we actually have brought some of our clinicians from the ICUs and on the frontline taking care of really challenging patients and it's. We call it the Fill Your Tank program, and, and it's been really inspi inspirational to them to hear patients appreciative and feel like they have a new future ahead.

You know, it's, I mean, the story of seeing your grandkids for the first time, that's a, that's a phenomenal story and I, I think of these high school kids who are seniors and. I, I, I think of the experience I had when I was a senior and, and those kind of things. And I just, uh, I was just on a call with a, with a woman who's just talking about how her, you know, her senior is, you know, not participating in the marching band and those kind of things.

Yeah. And these are the kind of things that this is gonna enable. The quicker we can get to the, to the finish line here, the, the, the more we can get back to.

I

do.

Dot org, I think is what you said. Mm-Hmm. , uh, do they have to be patients, do they have to be in your EHR to go through that, or is there, is there another Yeah, they don't actually, they can just simply put in some basic information about them. It'll validate them by asking 'em a couple questions. You know, what was your past address?

Do you have a bank account at this? You know, and it's really just to validate who they are and then they can just simply schedule. So you don't have to be a pat patient of Atrium Health, but I mean, we'd love to have you as a patient of Atrium Health, but they can very easily sign up and get scheduled right away.

It, and then, and another thing just to keep a note is, you know, things are constantly changing as the state of North Carolina gets more active. Access to vaccine. They distribute that to us as well as other health, health systems. And so we are constantly changing what options that we have. Um, today we have drive-through opportunities where people can drive at many of our hospital locations.

We also do community outreach where we actually take vaccines to, uh, particular church groups and really partner with them to make sure that we can bring vaccine to those that are, might not have the same access as UI. To getting the vaccination. And so, and then there's a couple other things that we're doing working with employers and really, and then of course, like I said, the mass vaccination event, it just helps us get to big quantities of folks in a, in short time.

Yeah. So I mean, that, that's one of those questions I'm, I'm always wondering about is how are we gonna get out there to the, to the rural area. So you guys cover, uh, a portion of North Carolina, you go down into South Carolina as well, right? We're in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. And so we have a variety of different strategies.

Wake Forest Baptist Health is one of our partners in our system, and so what they've actually been doing is doing a really unique program where they actually take vaccine to patients that can't leave their homes. So patients that are home bound, you know, they take a team, they take the vaccine out there, so.

Which is is great, you know, efforts to be able to bring vaccines specifically to people. But we have another program that we're in the middle of developing, it's called Vaccine to You, where it's same thing that we're gonna bring the vaccine to different locations and work with different employers who really have a great need, especially from essential workers.

So there's a lot of different strategies in development. None of them are always perfect. We're always looking to improve those and refine those, but we know that collectively with, with our state partnerships, our county partnerships, our health department partnerships, that's how we're gonna be, be able to make a big impact.

Yeah. I mean, I, I mean, my my point, your, your geography, the south in general is large cities with significant distance between that. A fair number of people who live in between those that, that you have to, uh, take into account and to service. Is there, I mean, mass vaccination events are great for the, the cities.

Is there the equivalent of that in the, in the rural locations? Can you just do it at a, at, at a hospital or a community center or something to that or, or a, uh. Church or church or those kind of things, you, you really need to be able to have a broad stroke if you wanna make an impact to the community.

You know, what we found is at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, again, with just less than a week to get the word out that we were gonna do an event, we found that we had folks coming for what from, well, you know, more than a hundred different counties that were coming over to the mass vaccination event. So several people drove many hours.

Some people were from outta state. You know, but we were able to accommodate a large number of people. We vaccinated about 16,000 folks at that event, at the Charlotte or at the Bank of America. Just the following week. We were able to vaccinate about 20,000 folks, which is great if people can, as you said, drive to the city or get a mass transit and come to the city, which is a great opportunity, but that's why Atrium Health is really committed to a variety of different strategies and taking the vaccine to communities.

Just this last weekend we hosted an event up in Cleveland Re uh, uh, Cleveland County, and we vaccinated about 6,500 community members up there. So being able to take vaccine to different locations. We've done events at Cab County, we've done 'em in Union County. And each one of these events is a little bit unique.

The one in Union County, we partnered with the health department there. They were really hosting the event and we brought clinical staff to help support it. Sometimes our partnerships mean that we actually share some of the vaccine allotments that we've had, and then sometimes we go to the county and we do the whole thing where we're bringing both the vaccine and the staff and, and really making the event happen.

So it really just depends on what the needs are of the community, but we're committed to making sure that we're, we're really here to serve. And, and the mission is really for all. I'm gonna get back to the IT stuff, I promise. But the, the, uh, so is it, is it more of a, a, a Pfizer strategy in the cities and a Moderna strategy in the rural areas?

Is that happening? I wish it was that simple. It's not though, because, you know, it really depends on the allotments that we're getting from the state. And so the state, of course, is doing their best that they can with the allotments that they get from the federal government. And so there's a variety of different ways that we.

Get different allotments and then, and then how we're using them. So for example, this coming weekend, we're gonna be holding another mass vaccination event at Johnson c Smith University. And this was really geared for teachers. And then we're gonna be offering the Johnson and Johnson, which is a one-time dose.

So we're really excited to bring that. But anytime you bring a different vaccine, there's different management that goes with it. So for example, the Johnson and Johnson. Once you draw it up into a syringe, you have two hours to use it, as opposed to the Moderna and the Pfizer, where you have about six hours to use it.

So it ha, we have to change our staffing models to meet those needs and those demands of the type of vaccine. But what we, we aren't necessarily gearing one type of vaccine for one rural area or a central city area. We're really just trying to use up whatever vaccine that we have in the most appropriate way and then in the quickest way that we can to get to that herd immunity.

So it this show is this it. So I.

It depends on what you mean. We, we have a lot of informatics behind the scenes of all, and, and I, of course, I live in the world of informatics. So this, this is what I think has made us successful is making sure that we have clinicians who can understand the entire workflow that also have a foundation in informatics to help drive and make sure that all of the technology works out in a really seamless way.

So in our partnership with Honeywell, they actually helped us develop some screening technology and so. And the patients come into the health system, they check in. I'll, I'll pull up a screenshot real quick and show it. But the patients check into the system, and then what they do is they answer a few questions.

They get a text actually the night before, they answer a few questions, and then they get a code. So it looks similar to this, where you get this on your screen. This QR code, of course, helps identify the patient, so when we get 'em in and we're ready to vaccinate 'em. The clinician can scan the, the QR code.

It pulls them up into our EMR. We actually use some bar coding technology to quickly document the very comprehensive details about the medication. And then, so that's another piece of technology that we've put in place. And then there's also a timer on the bottom of this, of this tool. And so that timer starts to count down.

So the moment you get your shot, you hit the button, and now it counts down. So it's to help our patients move along and know how much time they have left. We were kind of laughing at the next, that the last event that we just had, 'cause in the drive-through, we had our patients that were using that chimer.

And so one of our clinicians was going up to a car and saying, Hey, you need to go ahead. It's time for you to leave. And the patient's like, I have 15 seconds left. We're like, okay, wait for your , wait your 15 seconds. That's great. But it's these little pieces of technology that help make the whole process faster.

So whether it's checking in, screening the patient, documenting medication. Timing the patient and observation. We wanna make that whole thing really seamless. And the best way to do it is have clinical informatics informaticists involved in the planning and the strategy. And that way you'll, you'll walk out with a good process and plan and, and that's what we've heard it when we've talked to other sites across the United States and around the world that are doing mass vaccinations is, informatics is key in order to make it all run really smooth.

How much of this experience do.

Setting and into the hospital setting is, are there things you've picked up as a result of this process that you're saying, Hey, going forward, we're gonna, we're, we're gonna incorporate some of this? There are, I mean, like I said, the, the documentation piece, so I'm a nurse by background, so the documentation of the vaccine of any vaccine is

Is a little bit cumbersome. You have to put in an NDC code, I think it's about 11 digit code. You have to put in a lot number, you have to put in a manufacturer. You know, there's about nine different fields of information. And so what we recognized, if we're gonna do this on a mass scale, we've gotta be able to do it very quickly.

And so we created a multi field barcode every day. We change that. 'cause our lot number might change on the type of drug that we're using that day. And so we created this process as well as the tech. So now technology, instead of it taking about 60 seconds to document something, it takes about two seconds for the nurse to document.

So, you know, shaving, uh, you know, you, you're from informatics, you know, shaving off a minute times 20,000 patients is pretty, pretty substantial. And I can tell you it also gives it a better experience for your clinician. So, you know, as you can imagine, if. It's one thing to just document that on one or two patients, maybe 10 patients a day, when, but we're, when we're documenting that on hundreds of patients every single hour, it can be really, um, tiring.

Especially if I say, Hey, you're gonna do it outside where it's 32 degrees and you have goggles on, you can't see the screen. All of those things make an impact. And so this technology is really key to making sure that the process continues to run smoothly. So the thing that we're gonna take back from this covid has somewhat changed our culture of the world where we need things to be changed instantly.

So, you know, we, we joke now, you know, we used to take these long cycle times of like, oh, we're gonna pilot that for six weeks and then we'll get back feedback from the customer for another two weeks. And now we're in the process of, we do it in hours, which is . It's good, and yet it's, it's exciting in a lot of ways too.

But, but literally we just made, for example, a change to this app. We just changed it last night. I was just texting with one of our team leads who was asking me for feedback. They're gonna go back and make those changes, and by tomorrow morning we'll probably have some different things in there. But we all understand that, that we've gotta continue to be iterative in our technology design and really listen to our clinicians who are using it and then make these adjustments and, and move forward.

Uh, I'm gonna head in the nurse informatics route here in a second, but is there any question I didn't ask that, that you think the community would benefit from really understanding about the, you know, the lessons learned or, or, or just any aspect of it? I think just really understanding of what a complex process it is for.

Everything from getting the vaccine when you get it on site, being able to store it in a freezer, being able to. Make sure it gets to the right place. How do you educate your staff and then how you manage it even at an event. So for example, today, you know, we're gonna vaccinate about 4,600 people, but if 5% or 10% don't show up, that's quite a substantial number of patients.

And so understand that there is, it is a, a quite a complex process because you have to figure out, if you didn't use it on Tuesday, it might still be in the refrigerator and, and safe. We, we don't throw, you know, our mantra is we don't waste vaccines. But you still have to make those adjustments and plan in your schedule and your operations later on in the week.

And so I just share with everybody, like it is a really complex process. And so if you know anybody that's out there working in vaccines be be extra nice to them, because it's, it's not, it's not for wimps that's for sure. There's lots of long hours and, um, sleepless nights and weekends that people are putting into it and, but we know that if we all work that way, that we're gonna make a difference.

Well, you know, it's, it's interesting we're entering a different time and if, if the, you know, if the stories and things are are accurate, I mean, you have Merck and j and j working to together on production of the single shot vaccine and you still have Moderna and, uh, the Pfizer vaccine. We should have a significant supply.

I mean, in theory, we should have a significant supply within the next, uh, month or so, in which case. Does, does it change the strategy at all, do you think? Or, or is, is it still the, a similar strategy going forward? Well, it does change it and so that's why it's been really important for us to kind of run hard and fast at something to learn all that we can.

So, you know, I know many of my friends and colleagues have said, you're crazy. Why would you ever try to do back-to-back mass vaccination events? , but we, we really needed to do that to say, well, what can we do? What is, what is the staffing requirements for that? What is the technology requirements for that?

And then how do we, what do we look to, uh, as what we call a midterm or a long, longer range plan and strategy? So you have to learn those things really quickly, make a pivots and adjustments. And now we know what we can do for, so for example. At the Charlotte Motor Speedway, we vaccinated about 5,000 patients at a day a day.

And this was back in long time ago in January, . And so, you know, that felt like, you know, going into that week we said, oh my gosh, 5,000 patients a day, we're never gonna be able to do it. It's gonna be really hard. But by the time we came back for our second appointment, you know, our second timeframe. Just a few weeks later we said, oh my gosh, we're so bored.

I mean, that's what the, our staff members said that they're like, we could have done so many more. And that was because you, you know, just in those few weeks we had really refined processes. We had teammates that had now done this several times, and so it's really important to kind of. How to figure out how you can go faster.

So now, if we would ever go back to Bank of Amer, I mean, uh, the Charlotte Motor Speedway, we would double that. You know, we would double that volume. We would try to figure out how do we triple that volume? And again, you know, we can't do that if we don't have vaccine supply. So vaccine supply has been our big limiting factor.

Alright, Becky, I'm gonna put you on the spot here. So the, we actually have a fair number of people who are in college and, uh, master's programs and whatnot who are listening to the show based on our surveys and whatnot. And so you're gonna be talking to the, the next generation at this point. So some basic questions I'm basic to us, but, but I think to them would be interesting.

Yeah. What is nursing informatics and why, why is it important? So, so number one, nurses make up the largest sector of healthcare workers in the United States and around the world. So we have more than 4.7 million nurses. Number two, nurses are the most trusted profession in healthcare for like the third year running.

And I mean, it's just, it, it, it's an important aspect to understand that clinical workflow and to see how you can optimize it. Make it better, bring technology into it. And so that's my role. I'm the Chief Nursing Informatics Officer, and so my role is to set, help, help to set strategy and vision of how our clinicians use technology so they can be better at what they do.

So the nurse at the bedside is better at being at the bedside with the patient. If her phone could do medication scanning, if she can talk to the other clinicians via texting, if she can very quickly do documentation and not have to spend hours and hours and hours doing, uh, routine things in a computer.

And so that's my role is to help . Make it smoother. Bring the technology at the right place at the right time so that that way the nurse has a great experience. The all clinicians have a great experience, and then most importantly, that the patient and the consumer have a great experience. So clinical informatics is really important.

It serves as the glue between the clinical world and the informatics world. So many times I'm translating. To my IT colleagues, you know, who say, well, I don't understand, just put it on the phone. And I'm like, well, it doesn't really work that way because this is the workflow. And at the same time, you know, I have clinicians that are like, why can't it just make it like this?

And I'm like, well, because there's, you know, all of these interfaces that need to go in the back. So we, we really serve, you know, my team and I, we serve as the, the great translators where we say, this is what we think it can do. So we, we explain to it some of the clinical needs and the business needs, and then we help explain to the clinicians how and why they need to adopt things.

You know, sometimes it's, it's hard to get clinicians to say like, this is, you gotta take care of patients differently. This is how we're gonna help, you know, get you there and improve these things. But what we find is if you bring everybody together and understand both worlds, then you can, you can make bigger things happen.

And that's why it's important to have clinical informaticists in any of the work that we're doing in healthcare. Th this is gonna sound like a silly question given all the things that you just talked about, but how is nursing informatics changing and, and how will it change in the future? And, and, and what's.

What's causing it if, if it's changing? Well, I think that what everyone's seeing is the value that clinical informatics can bring to the table, and rather in your strategy for your healthcare system, in your financial aspect, and of course, in any business. You know, business plans that you have. Um, again, you know, every hospital has a lot of clinicians and the number one group of clinicians that they have is nursing.

And so if you're not optimizing them, if you're not helping them be better at their job, then you're missing out on an opportunity. And that's what we've seen over the last probably 15, 20 years, is there is a trend to develop the position of Chief . A nursing informatics officer and to make sure that it's recognized at a chief level.

So I sit at the table with the CIO, the CMIO. Sometimes organizations will have chief clinical informatics officers, all of them with a viewpoint of how do we make workflows better for clinicians. So even though my title says nursing, my viewpoint is very much on how do I make things better for the pharmacist, the medical staff.

The students, the respiratory therapists, all of the clinicians, 'cause we're all working together. No one's working in silos. And so you have to understand all of those components. And so there's a big proponent of how do you, um, really leverage, uh, clinical informaticists to do that. And then you, when you do that, then you bring value again, back to the, to the organization, whether that's through streamlining and offering efficiencies.

Impacting your bottom line of financial aspects, and then of course, making sure you're strategically set up for the next phase of what you're gonna do in the future. Yeah, that's fantastic. I, my next question was gonna be how do you interact with the other, uh, leaders and you pretty much address that 'cause that is such a, a central part of the, of the role to be able to interact on the technology side, to be able to interact on the c that sitting together.

And working the same strategy, rowing in the same direction is, is, is so helpful. And I, I realize also that it, it, it's very complex. You know, I've sat at those tables. It's very complex. It's not, it's not always cut and dry. Like, Hey, we should do this. And everyone looks at it and goes, yeah, that's what we should do.

Because there's, there's, there's, there's competing, you know, there's competing priorities and competing things that you, you, you have to weigh. But if that teams together, generally it, it tends to go better. Yeah, so what what we've also found, and, and I'm very fortunate, I work at a great organization where we do have A-C-I-O-A-C-M-I-O and I work with a whole team of chief nursing, um, executives that are very much understanding of, um, IT technology, wanting to make things better.

And, and when you have everyone at the table really, as you said, rowing in the same direction, then that's when you can really leverage things and, and, and just making a bigger impact. Well, Becky, thank you for taking the time. This is, this has been a phenomenal discussion. I, I, I learned a ton and that's how I judge whether these are a phenomenal discussion is whether I learn a ton and.

Y you guys are doing some great work down there and I, I really appreciate all the work that you guys are doing. Really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. I hope you and all of the folks watching, uh, decide to go get vaccinated. And if so, maybe we'll see you at one of our future events. Well, if you're gonna let me drive on the, the motor speedway, I'll bring my car up there, but I have to be able to go faster than if you put up a little five mile an hour sign, that's gonna be, you know, a little I.

Trust me. I know it's tempting, but, but it, the Charlotte motor speed was a great place to, to go. Bank of America's another great place. I mean, we did get to let people go out and, and see the inside of the bowl. So if you've never been to the Panther Stadium and you see walk in and you see all that, you know, Carolina Panther Blue, it's pretty awesome.

So, and it just makes people feel better to go and have these cool experiences. So anyone out there that can, you know, have a vaccination event at a cool venue, you should definitely do it. Fantastic. Thanks again, Becky. Appreciate your time. All right. You have a great day. Thanks Bill. What a great discussion.

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