Transforming Patient Access Through Technology with Emily Tyson, Chief Operating Officer at Radix Health was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2021. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.
Saul Marquez:
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Saul Marquez:
Welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket. Saul Marquez here, and today I have the outstanding Emily Tyson joining us. As the chief operating officer, Emily Tyson drives Radix Health’s efforts to scale rapidly while building a high performance culture committed to improving patient access. Emily joined the company in January of 2019. And from a functional perspective, she leads a strategy, client experience, finance and people operations in addition to the ever changing category of “other” say that in air quotes that early stage companies demand. Prior to joining Radix, Emily served as the vice president of Product for NaviHealth, recently acquired by Optum, where she was responsible for the vision and direction of NaviHealth’s product offerings across the health plan and health system businesses. Emily began her career in health care technology when she joined Athena Health after various roles in the financial services industry in New York and Hong Kong. Emily holds her Business Administration summa cum laude from Washington and Lee University and her MBA from Harvard Business School. Today, we’re going to spend a good amount of time talking about this digital front door and what practices and large scale health systems could be doing to do a better job of addressing the current area that we’re in health care. So it’s such a pleasure to have you here with us today.
Emily Tyson:
Great. Thank you. So I’m looking forward to the conversation.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah. Likewise. Likewise. And so before we dive into radix health and what you guys are doing, why don’t you tell us a little bit more about you and the things that inspire your work in health care?
Emily Tyson:
Sure, I would say for me personally, there’s there’s no debate about whether the health care system is broken. And it’s really not the patient care itself that’s lacking. It’s the back end. It’s the administrative side of health care that’s really this nightmare of complex regulations and poorly designed incentives and outdated technology, all of which actually negatively impact the cost and patient experience and ultimately, in many cases, the outcomes. I never personally wanted to be a doctor, but I’ve long been passionate about fixing the side of health care, trying to make the pipes and the information flow in this piece work like they should. And doing so really does require reaching beyond just technology alone. So this desire and sort of my focus on solving the complex administrative challenges of the non-sexist ahead of health care, but that do impact patient care is what has led me on my career path. And ultimately now to radix out of it.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, there’s there’s a ton that needs fixing and optimizing, maybe even overhauling in some instances. And so having a unique approach that is focused on making things better on the back end of the house is key. Talk to us about Radix health. What exactly are you guys doing and how are you adding value to the health care ecosystem?
Emily Tyson:
Sure, we are focused on transforming patient access. So Radix Health’s mission, our mission is to make it easier for patients to see their doctors. It sounds simple, but is much harder in practice. You shouldn’t have to know someone who knows someone to know someone to get a quick doctor’s appointment. And yet that’s often how it works in reality today. Deferred care is a really big issue in the industry. Even setting aside the global pandemic and the dynamics that’s created, the average wait time for someone to see their provider is almost three weeks in the US. At the same time, on any given day, many providers actually have availability in their schedules. And so a lot of what we are focused on is how do you bridge that gap? And there’s a significant amount of complexity underlying it. So it’s really the idea of improving access, which is every part of what Radix Health is focused on is about much more than providing a digital layer for consumers. That’s absolutely part of it. It’s also about addressing this underlying operational challenges within health care practice or system, those that make it hard to manage patient access in the first place. So we do this from a market perspective that comes in the form of products around centralized scheduling, workflow applications and self scheduling communication platforms and check in, along with best practices, for how to think about optimizing patient access in the clinic beyond the technology itself.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, well, said Emily. And I think about the solutions out there where it’s like, yeah, I’ve got some tech and I’ve got an app to help you do this. And so talk to us about how Radix is different.
Emily Tyson:
There is a lot of technology out there, and particularly when you think about the patient side of it and the patient experience where you get modern consumer experience or this digital layer, that’s an important piece of it. But it’s really one piece. And if you don’t actually focus on solving the root cause and the root cause of the patient access challenges for us specifically, you’re actually not able to move the industry forward in terms of that patient experience. So it goes beyond the digital side. And really, how do you think about the operational pieces underneath? So, for example, we offer roes based scheduling, we work with the practice, take all of the hundreds of pages of notes and the walls of sticky notes all over the cubes and the front desk and digitize all the rules and preferences related to which patient can be seen, by which provider, at what time, at which location, how long the appointment should be, all of the different implications of that and digitize and automate it. And so that way you actually can see right appointment,right provider, right location, right time without relying on someone to operate from memory or dig around in a calendar and look for a certain slot. And with that, with it being digitized, you’ve been able to have insights into the data around it. So you can see at the individual physician or provider level, at the practice level, at the full network level, what are the rules you have related to patient access and how are they impacting it? Which ones are actually blocking patients from being seen more often than not? Do you actually need that rule in place? Is there a clinical reason? Is there a financial reason or is it simply a preference? And does it actually make sense that organization? And so once you have data around it, you can really make decisions around how you’re managing patient access operations that you couldn’t before?
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, it’s it’s fascinating. And just the understanding of the intricacies that you just just showed us with that summary is fascinating. And as a health care provider, you probably thinking, huh, there’s something here, there’s an opportunity to approach our rules and how we do things. Maybe we haven’t thought about it twice. And there’s a lot of outdated standard operating procedures and policies that might be costing us money and they might be costing us really not giving patients that access that that is needed. And Emily just said it so well. Talk to us about how the work that you guys are doing is improving outcomes and also making business better because it sounds like you’re doing both.
Emily Tyson:
Sure. There are a few aspects of it. And certainly as I look across the platform, so on the scheduling side of things, one way we’re able to measure the outcomes that we can deliver for a practice, we’ll often look at average third next available, just a standard metric to think about how quickly a patient is able to get in to see their provider and the impact there for the practice. Overall, we often will see it a few it can range, of course, a few percentage points increase in utilization, which is really saying, hey, when you’re optimizing your schedules because you have these insights, because you can automate how patients are assigned to these appointments, you can actually see more patients without requiring additional providers and additional resources. And so kind of filling in those gaps in the schedule, that’s a really common success story. When I look at the solutions that we’re providing outside of scheduling, specifically an area that is growing and interest and not surprisingly, with COVID-19 have grown even more, is around the check in process. And how do you make it as easy and seamless as possible for a patient to not just find in the right appointment, but also remember to show up and confirm their appointments and then when they arrive or before they arrive, actually complete all of the paperwork and everything associated with it. Many clients noted COVID-19 accelerated initiatives they already had in place. So we’re looking to pursue particularly related to this area of check in, which is quite interesting to me. We had one practice we’re working with on the West Coast. They just shared that implementing the contactless check-in solutions, which they did in the first half of this year, enabled them to reduce their patient wait times by sixty three percent. And over 90 percent of their patients are checking in now without any staff assistance, and particularly at a time when operations are up in the air and people are doing odd jobs with the regulations changing frequently and suddenly you need someone who’s checking temperatures at the door. The ability to have your staff focus on other things rather than having patients commit paperwork is huge. And they’ve obviously noted just the value of navigating COVID-19 in particular with these applications and then how they’re managed to support the practice long term as well.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, that’s fascinating. And taking a process that’s very much people dependent, making it a little bit more automated so that we free up our people to do things that are that are really important. And I mean, today, more than ever, it’s critical that we have these capabilities built in and then also have the opportunity to look ahead and know how to respond to things as they change. I mean, right now we’re going through potentially another spike. And what are we doing about that? Can you can you highlight anything about that, even maybe horizon planning and things that you guys could do in that respect?
Emily Tyson:
Sure, there’s a few things we’re doing. Part of what we have helped manage is if you think specific to COVID-19 and planning there is around, obviously, the check and the idea of a virtual waiting room, how you can leverage technology to manage certain aspects of the clinic flow that you would do otherwise in person and physically with people. Another piece that’s been really interesting is actually managing even the flow before patients arrive and if their capacity limitations. So we have a number of clients, for example, who really can only operate at 50 percent capacity because of the physical distance and other restrictions that are in place right now. That changes. Sometimes they can go up, sometimes it goes down, and being able to flex quickly is important. And so we’ve actually been able to work with clients to Right. in rules around scheduling to ensure what is the max number of patients in a clinic at any given time of day, for example, things like that. So there’s a lot of way to leverage the technology to get a little bit ahead of some of these pieces versus having someone at the door and physically measuring kind of while everyone is there. You can actually plan the calendar around it to sort of optimize for what feels like a very physical change in how you’re operating. You can actually leverage the technology to get ahead of some of those pieces.
Saul Marquez:
That’s awesome. That’s a great example, Emily. And so, as you guys have been building and growing this thing to be something that is really making a difference for health providers in this challenging time, what would you say is one of the biggest setbacks you’ve experienced and a key learning that that came out of that?
Emily Tyson:
I feel like we’re an early stage company, so I feel like there’s ups and downs every day. We’re always learning. One area that’s been really interesting, I think has added a lot of value for us over time is been around the ability and willingness to say no, which might sound sort of strange being an early company. It reminds me of being early in your career. You’re tempted to say yes to everything. You don’t know when to say no, how to say no. Nobody really recognize the value in it. And not just for myself, but actually for our clients. We benefit from working with practices all over the country and insights into best practices and what works and what doesn’t and the nuances there. And early on, we really did not do enough to guide clients when making key decisions around the access workflows, and that led us down the path of some overly complicated solutions and set up designs with our clients. Since then, we’ve now gone back and simplified much of this early work as we’re moving down the path of enabling clients to better leverage best practices and ultimately being more self-sufficient. And how do you take these really complex challenges and make it very easy to use? And we didn’t do that right out of the gate and we focused more on how do we fit exactly into what exists today. And so have done some work since then to say actually, how do we share the benefit of the knowledge that we have as an organization with you and build the tools to make it easy for you to manage that way. So let’s flip a little bit. And I think there were some learnings in the early days around just appreciating the insights that we have from the client base.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, and I think it’s a difficult decision to make. Well, it sounds easy. Oftentimes it’s a lot easier to just meet people where they are and say, hey, we’ll work with what you have. But the downside of that is it could mean more complexity. So kudos to you guys for having the courage to do that. It’s not easy.
Emily Tyson:
It’s not. And it does vary by client. It’s funny you use this phrase where you are because we actually we think about that a lot with our clients. And one way it comes out is there’s a full platform that crosses that entire patient journey. You don’t have to start with the full platform. Day one, we think about segments and the different pieces of that as a way to say, OK, where are you? What’s most important for your practice today? And we can go we can start with that element of the patient journey within that we can share best practices and learnings. And we know what we do really well. We know what we don’t do and try to be really transparent about that.
Saul Marquez:
That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s not a one size fits all. It’s hey, here’s the solution. Let’s see where you could benefit from the most and then go from there. And obviously you give your customers a win. They’re going to trust you with the next election, the next section, and then boom before you know what they’re using you guys fully right?
Emily Tyson:
That’s the goal.
Saul Marquez:
I love it. So what are you most excited about today?
Emily Tyson:
For me, I’m really excited about just seeing how our industry has adapted this year. I mean, I’m sure you’ve heard this from many people. 2020 has been tough around the world in so many different ways for so many people. But when it comes to medical practices and the health systems, I mean, we’re seeing them step up, roll out new solutions, adapt processes, make sure they’re reaching patients, continuing to have a safe, engaging experience. It’s really not easy to do. And traditionally. Health care is not known for being the fastest moving industry out there, and we have seen many practices make decisions and operationalised changes faster than ever. And I think that is a really exciting element of what’s happening today. COVID-19 obviously has many downsides, but one learning there and one positive for our industry overall has been the need for the digital transformation, the value it can happen to deliver, and that it can happen and needs to happen quickly in some cases. And so I think the pace of change that we’ve seen this year in many ways will continue and for the benefit of patients and the practices as we look ahead.
Saul Marquez:
Well said. And and there is a big opportunity. And folks, if you haven’t had a chance, the website is RadixHealth.com. That’s RADIXHEALTH.com. Just an incredible amount of resources there, including white papers. One of my favorite, the new normal recovery will accelerate emerging trends. This is some really fascinating stuff that they’re offering here on the website and more so make sure you visit them there. Family leave us with the closing thought and the best place that the listeners could get in touch with you or your team to continue the conversation.
Emily Tyson:
Absolutely. So closing thought ties back to what I’m excited about. And just this idea of there are a lot of challenges. And I know health care technology is a really noisy space. And my advice for anyone listening would be to really think about what the root problem is that you’re trying to solve and look for a company or partner that’s aimed at solving that, as opposed to sort of the window dressing on the side of it. There’s a lot of noise out there. You can get in touch with me. I’m on LinkedIn, so obviously find me directly or for more general information on RadixHealth. The email address to use this justinfo@RadixHealth.com.
Saul Marquez:
Outstanding, Emily. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for for sharing your your perspective and insights and the awesome work that Radix Health is up to. And we’re certainly excited to to act on some of the some of the ideas you shared with us today. Appreciate you coming on Emily.
Emily Tyson:
Thank you, Saul. So I enjoyed it. Have a good afternoon.
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