Download the “Imaging & Teletech Innovations_Abby Losinski audio file directly.
Imaging & Teletech Innovations_Abby Losinski: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Tim Kelley:
Welcome to Imaging and Teletech Innovations, brought to you by TeleRay. I'm your host, Tim Kelley. Join us as we explore the latest trends and developments in teleradiology and imaging solutions, from expert insights to real-world case studies. We cover everything you need to know to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving field of radiology. So sit back, relax, and let's dive in.
Tim Kelley:
Welcome, Abby Losinski, MHA, CSM, CPHIMS. Lots of letters after your name, which is great. Tell me a little bit about CPHIMS, and then we'll talk about your role at St. Luke's.
Abby Losinski:
Yeah, so MHA is Master's of Healthcare Administration. And then I'm also a certified scrum master. So that's that CMS, CSM. The other is certified professional and healthcare information management systems, so it's a certification that ranges across technical skills, clinical informatics, and really just healthcare technology. So it's a really focused certification that I went through a couple of years ago.
Tim Kelley:
Okay, great. I'm actually scheduled to take that, I think, in 30 days from now. So I'm a little anxious about that. But how was that a painful test?
Abby Losinski:
A little bit. It's just a lot of information. You have to study to be prepared for it, but I mean, I think I learned a lot through the process of studying. So definitely a worthwhile certification.
Tim Kelley:
Okay, I'll let you know how it goes.
Abby Losinski:
Yeah.
Tim Kelley:
When you can see the letters after my name, you know it went okay. So here are the director of telehealth at Saint Luke's Health System, tell me a little bit about the job and where you're at, and how that came to be.
Abby Losinski:
Yeah, so St. Luke's health system is based in Boise, Idaho, but we do have locations across Idaho and eastern Oregon, and we're really the largest healthcare provider in the state of Idaho. So pretty proud of that. Telehealth has been new to healthcare, as I think everyone knows, not many organizations were doing a lot of telehealth before COVID, and one of the good things that came out of COVID was pushing organizations to offer this choice for consumers. And so, through that process, we implemented what's called on-demand virtual care. And so we had scheduled telehealth visits with your established provider, but my team specifically is that outpatient world of I can't get in with my PCP, I have questions, or I have a cough or whatever it may be, and I just need to talk to someone. And so, I have a team of providers that this is their full-time job. They are available for patients to talk to or be a video, and the majority of the time, they're able to treat it virtually whatever their condition or concern is. And we don't just offer urgent care type of coverage, like you see a lot of on-demand providers do across the country, but we also are an extension of our specialties here at Saint Luke's. So as an example, occupational health. So we have the ability to offer on-site care for employees that injured themselves, that certain employer locations so that they don't have to drive a significant, you know, we have a lot of rural locations here in Idaho. They won't have to drive an hour or two to an urgent care for something that can be treated virtually. And then we also offer different types of bridge programs for new patients, when they might have to wait to get in with the PCP. We can refill their meds while they wait to do that. We're looking at more urology bridge programs with UTIs, and then also new pregnancy kind of welcoming people into the health system and get them on a care plan so they know what to do every day to take their prenatal. So really, more than just help me with my cough, but also whatever your need is, getting to a provider without a long triage process, and getting your questions answered, and helping you in the moment that you need it the most. So that's kind of my focus of telehealth. There's a lot of different telehealth out there, right? You have tele ICU, virtual admissions, things like that, telesitter, but really, my focus is that outpatient world, and ensuring for those scheduled video visits with your provider, that's a optimized experience really from a consumer side. So, we're always thinking about provider convenience and healthcare. But consumers out there expecting something different nowadays, and loyalty with an organization is not what is going to win, right? What's going to win is making that experience of healthcare easier for people, even if that means it's a few more steps for providers sometimes. If you want to win in the healthcare space, you've got to make that access easy and delightful because that's what they're expecting from other industries. Why not healthcare? Stay in line with that. So that's a little bit about what I do.
Tim Kelley:
And that's not broad at all. But you're touching on a lot of things there because it's, the key word you use was consumers because everyone just talks about patients, payers, providers, but they, ultimately, they are consumers of the service. And so when you have better services, you can attract more consumers. And everyone's trying to attract more patients. So making things more efficient, more informative, and basically, just creating greater access and speed to care is elements that, they don't think about it that way, but that's what it becomes and becomes better outcomes. So I love the way you're thinking about that because sometimes I talk to some people like, well, we just do this.
Abby Losinski:
Yeah. So the team that I kind of fall under is consumer access and experience, and so our goal is to offer different choices. Let's make healthcare different and test how people respond to it. And if people love it, we'll continue doing whatever that choice is, and if they don't, then we'll change it. And we listen to that feedback, and we're constantly changing based on what people tell us and just kind of winning people over to the healthcare space as being just as streamlined as any other industry. But that means you have to listen to the feedback, and you have to be willing to change. And that's tough, right? Healthcare does not like change. And COVID forced us to think about change, and I'm thankful for that, but it's still a process of convincing everyone across any healthcare space that you have to be willing to change if you want to be competitive and offer the best care. And so we didn't start on demand thinking that we were going to offer all these other services, but we saw the gaps, and we wanted to fill them, and we had great access and great providers that love being there for patients and their needs. So we expand where it makes sense and pivot when we need to. And that's exciting to be able to do that and really think about it from what they are expecting, what consumers are expecting, and making that really changing that mindset for providers.
Tim Kelley:
… That's great. One of the things that we've looked at is that there's, the drop off of COVID that drove a lot of these initiatives, interventional radiology, where patients would want to come back to hospitals because they still want to get sick or they're too crowded. One of the issues was coming back for the consultation after the procedure, where then, you can use telehealth. They can be at work, they can be, let's say, with special procedures, gastro, regardless of what it is, and then say, here's the next steps. But you didn't have to come to the hospital to talk about it.
Abby Losinski:
Right.
Tim Kelley:
Have you guys applied to that by any chance?
Abby Losinski:
Not specifically interventional radiology, but definitely thinking about reducing unnecessary utilization of the ED. That's something that's very expensive for an organization, not the best option for most patients that are going there as a low acuity. And so that's kind of the biggest data point we look at is how are we reducing that unnecessary utilization in that hospital realm.
Tim Kelley:
And one of the questions I have is about general challenges and stuff, but you, seems like you guys are heading straight on and solving a lot of these issues. I hear about telehealth space.
Abby Losinski:
Yeah. So technology is the biggest one, right? You got to pick a technology that's going to be reliable and be a good experience, audio and visual, you know, and then the challenge of providers thinking outside of what they've always known care to be. And so you still have a lot of providers that just don't think it's appropriate to treat people via video visit, right? And so showing them, look, these are our guidelines. We have great oversight from physicians on all of the care that's provided, and look what we were able to accomplish here. And then, as we find those gaps, such as ear pain, you can't see in the ear when you are doing a video visit. So we're looking for technology to fill that gap so we can see in patients' ears and be able to treat ear infections virtually. So wherever we see a gap, we're constantly looking for what is the best solution, not just for us, but also for the experience of that consumer, which hopefully becomes our patient.
Tim Kelley:
Yeah, and then, with the lack of specialists and radiologists and doctors in general, and that problem is going to continue to grow.
Abby Losinski:
Yeah.
Tim Kelley:
But you see this solving that problem too, or at least in a large part.
Abby Losinski:
Yeah. I do think as technology improves and as mindset continues to shift, I think we can get there in a lot of different ways. As long as we're just, we have really great clinical oversight to make sure, here's appropriate.
Tim Kelley:
And with this growing trend, I'm sure your telehealth keeps moving up. Do you think there should be new rules and procedures for patients or insurance, as far as you know, making sure reimbursement levels are equal to in-office and no such thing?
Abby Losinski:
Yeah, so in the nature, we're still in that public health emergency, and so it's still not clear what payers are going to do post-public health emergency. We have obviously some great movement with CMS where they're going to continue those flexibilities even close to the end of 2024. So they're going to continue to cover these services in the same way that they do during the …, but we're still trying to hear from payers on what they expect will happen. And I've written many submissions to payers on the value of telehealth on specifically reducing utilization. I mean, if you talk to any payer about reducing that, they're pretty happy because that's an expense that is not a good one for a payer so we can improve quality care. They don't have to go to the ED, they don't have to be exposed, and it's lower cost. It's a pretty easy sell. So really, when you share that with the payers in our network, we've got a lot of positive responses, and it does look like most of them will continue to cover this to some degree. Sometimes, the way that you enroll providers might have to change, or the codes that you drop might have to change, but they will continue to cover it in some degree and we'll shift in whatever way that we need. But the one thing we won't do is we won't stop offering telehealth because it's too valuable and just for outcomes, for experience. So we will continue to offer it and change the way we bill to meet that if we need to.
Tim Kelley:
And all these years and your prior roles and then moving to this, one of the biggest lessons that you've learned and would want others to know in your position.
Abby Losinski:
Just don't be afraid to push for new things. I think that's the biggest thing. My background is definitely not what you typically see in this role, right? I have a nursing background, I have an IT background, so I've done a lot of different things, and that served me well in this role because I can kind of speak to the technology and I can speak to the clinical side. But, you know, I don't think you need all of that to do this position well. I think what you need is a heart for your community because, you know, I don't do what I do for anything other than that. I want to be a valuable service to our community and improve outcomes of my neighbors, right? And so I think if that's what drives you, you're willing to push to do things differently, even if it's hard, even if the people around you don't want to change, you're willing to take those steps and provide the data and provide just the materials that are needed to convince them that we've got to try it. And if it doesn't work out, that's okay too. It's okay to try something and decide you want to shift. But I think sometimes we think we have to have everything figured out before we try it. And then, if we do that, we'll never do anything new.
Tim Kelley:
I might jump back to the consumer thing that you said, because everyone talks about patient empowerment, patient satisfaction, and usually the two things they leave out of that when they hear about it are the patients. It's what would be a final thought about that, how they are consumers and treating them as such, even though they are ultimately patients they are?
Abby Losinski:
Yeah.
Tim Kelley:
And the buyer.
Abby Losinski:
Yeah. So I think you have to think about it like other industries think about it. There is no guarantee that someone that looks at your website, that even comes to one visit, that they're going to continue to see you. There's no guarantee to that. Just like Amazon or any other business, there's no guarantee that somebody uses your service once that they're going to continue. And so you have to make that experience the best that it can be, and those outcomes the best that they can be so they'll continue to want to choose you. And if you make it difficult in any way, because it's more convenient for yourself as an organization, they will go somewhere else. In the past, healthcare, it was about brand loyalty. Well, we're safe because our community knows us and they will continue to choose us. Not anymore. People are looking for the easiest and most delightful experience, and so I think that's the biggest thing. That's why you choose the word consumer. They may not be your patient yet, and they may not continue to be your patient because they saw you once. And so when you change that shift, then you're able to kind of see from a perspective of kind of a business outlook on what is the best way to keep people choosing us time and time again.
Tim Kelley:
Yeah, that's good. And then as far as my company goes, TeleRay being that, we're a platform that puts telehealth, telemedicine, and radiology together. They've both been around over 100 years. We finally put them together on a single platform and doing things like live streaming and controlling modalities and things like that. You think we might be able to play a role in your future there at St. Luke's?
Abby Losinski:
I'm always open to conversations. So yes, I think we can continue those thoughts and see how we can partner.
Tim Kelley:
Okay, great. So I'll be sure to send you some stuff. And now that we're connected on LinkedIn, or will be, you'll see some of these kinds of posts and stuff too. So it's great to have you and I'm, thanks for coming on. I think you're actually the first director of telehealth we've had. … like sticking their toe in it, and these titles are becoming more and more common. But yeah, you know your stuff, so that sounds great to hear. I think people really enjoy hearing about it.
Abby Losinski:
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. It was a great conversation.
Tim Kelley:
Thanks, Abby.
Tim Kelley:
Thanks for joining us today on imaging and Teletech Innovations, brought to you by TeleRay. We hope you like this episode. If you have any questions or feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at info@TeleRay.com. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any future episodes, and stay tuned for more insights into Imaging Solutions and Teletech with TeleRay.
Sonix has many features that you’d love including upload many different filetypes, transcribe multiple languages, generate automated summaries powered by AI, enterprise-grade admin tools, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.
