By Erin Cristales, Vizient
During the opening general session, Beth Godsey, SVP, data science and product and platform strategy, and Bharat Sundaram, Vizient president, data and digital, shared new capabilities designed to support customers in everything from patient care to operational efficiencies to financial sustainability.
Share best practices. Support communities. Enhance resiliency. Propel the industry forward.
They're short statements that represent big goals — ones that providers pointed to as their most pressing priorities during the opening keynote at this year's Vizient Connections Summit.
It's data, they said, that's turned those aspirations into reality. More specifically, they cited the breadth of Vizient's analytics and benchmarking tools as their organizational North Star.
Now, those broad data capabilities are about to grow even bigger — and more targeted.
"We are excited to showcase functionality that takes a significant step forward in moving us out of healthcare's data dark age into a new informational horizon," Beth Godsey, SVP, data science and product and platform strategy, told the audience of more than 4,500 attendees. "We are answering some of your most pressing continuum of care questions: Are your ambulatory investments paying off? How efficiently are you operating? But most importantly, are your patients getting the best, most cost-effective care possible?"
"Integrated" was the word of the day, as Godsey and Bharat Sundaram, Vizient president, data and digital, shared new capabilities designed to support providers and suppliers in everything from patient care to operational efficiencies to financial sustainability, including bringing together the Quality and Accountability ranking, current state progress and "What If" calculator to offer timely insights. Additionally, GenAI functionality will allow providers to ask questions about their performance and pinpoint opportunities for improvement.
Other noteworthy advancements include real-time access to the Sg2 Impact of Change® forecast to create direct connections to local market opportunities; 7- and 30-day readmissions models along with methodology to quantify patient factors affecting time spent in the emergency department; and ambulatory surgery center benchmarks that highlight performance in operating room capacity and throughput, resource utilization and post-procedure follow-up visits. (You can learn more about the new capabilities and join the beta community here).
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Godsey and the data team hosted GenAI demos that showcased how Vizient is harnessing AI-enabled, real-time information to transform daily decision-making. The sessions were a hit, allowing attendees to see exactly how they could put these new abilities into action.
"I wanted to see what's in store for us in the future," said Shreya Varghese, data scientist at University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake. "Being able to ask AI specific questions about our performance is so exciting. It's incredible to know those answers are now just a chatbox away."
Inviting attendees to ask questions and provide feedback about how these new capabilities will aid their mission was exactly the point of the demo. After all, Godsey told the crowd as she concluded Monday's announcement, "“If I can leave you with anything, it’s that we’re shaping the future of healthcare — together.”
The journey toward exceptionalism
It was a sentiment echoed by the other opening speakers, including CEO and President Byron Jobe, who kicked off his remarks by going back — way back — to the origins of healthcare.
He noted that in anthropology, one of the signals of a society is evidence of a broken and healed femur bone. In prehistoric times, he said, the chances of surviving a damaged femur on your own were slim.
"The key phrase there is on your own," Jobe said. "When anthropologists encounter a healed femur in their research, it means there was likely a compassionate community around the injured person. What that says to me is one of the defining characteristics of any functioning society is healthcare: The fundamental ability to care for someone else in need."
Of course, there's a lot more that connects us than just thighbones. Jobe emphasized a shared commitment to equitable and accessible quality care, as well as an investment in innovations — powered by data and technology — that move the industry ever closer to those goals.
"When you hear 'data,' think 'people,'" Jobe said. "Because no matter the innovation or the further we progress, it all comes back to that notion of a community caring for someone in need."
Dr. Fritz François, executive vice president and vice dean, chief of hospital operations at NYU Langone Health, delivered the event's opening keynote.
Certainly, that point was further illustrated by Dr. Fritz François, executive vice president and vice dean, chief of hospital operations at NYU Langone Health, who delivered the opening keynote. Dr. François began his remarks by reflecting on the damage Superstorm Sandy inflicted on NYU Langone nearly a dozen years ago.
The storm may have flooded floors and knocked out power lines, but the resilience of hospital employees was the real force to be reckoned with. The NYU Langone team evacuated hundreds of patients down several flights of stairs, including acute patients in medsleds and NICU babies in the arms of their caregivers.
"Where does an organization reside? Is it only within the walls of its physical space?" Dr. François asked. "No. We quickly realized our organization resided within our people — and our culture of exceptionalism."
Dr. François went on to detail NYU Langone's journey to becoming a high performance organization, and the system's commitment to health equity, research and system alignment. He told the story of NYU Langone's acquisition of Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, and its subsequent transformation from a "safety net" hospital to a world-class institution.
"The 'what' is always the easy part. It's the 'how' that trips up most hospital mergers," Dr. François said. "With this acquisition, we were not satisfied with simply expanding our geographic reach: We knew we had a fierce responsibility to provide the same level of care wherever our brand was reflected."
The first step, he said, was linking all new patients in the electronic health record system and connecting new employees to institutional dashboards. NYU Langone then blended the institutional knowledge and community experience of the Brooklyn hospital's frontline staff with the systems and know-how brought over from Manhattan.
Lutheran Medical Center is now one of the safest hospitals in the nation, and the mortality rate has dropped 33% since 2016.
"Just like after Superstorm Sandy, we believe in pursuing the impossible even when others think it's absurd," he said. "No matter what your role is in this field, whether you're a physician, an executive, in supply chain management, in finance, in pharmacy, or elsewhere, I hope you think about what unsolvable problem you can address. Whether your goal is to be honored here or to make that first step on your journey to exceptionalism, I hope you leave Las Vegas thinking, 'Maybe I will.'"
Learn more about the opening session in Tuesday's Daily Dispatch.
Supplier and provider attendees engaged in conversations at The Connect.
Three days of learning, connections, recognition (and fun)
There's plenty that happened after the opener (and — as is the norm for Summit — some prime events that took place even before the official kickoff). Here's a look at some of the major highlights from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday:
- Monday set the tone for a conference full of collaboration with The Connect. The annual reverse expo-style networking session is one of Summit's most popular events, largely because it allows providers and supplier partners to build connections that drive positive change for healthcare (and it certainly doesn't hurt that it also features a DJ and refreshments). Check out our recap and slideshow from The Connect.
- Education and poster sessions: Providers, suppliers and Vizient experts (check out our recap of sessions above featuring, or facilitated by, Vizient SMEs) took part in panels and posters that outlined potential solutions to the types of perplexing problems that Dr. François challenged attendees to confront in his opening keynote. Read key takeaways from a sampling of provider-focused education sessions; learn about the UNC-Health Rockingham poster session focused on reducing the mortality index; and check out what was discussed in the supplier education sessions in the graphic below.
- ESG Impact Spend luncheon and product fair: The event, which featured prominent speakers from the environmental, social and governance realm, was designed to encourage partnerships that advance equity, sustainability and community wealth. "By engaging with thought leaders like Kate Chang from the United Nations and David Zuckerman from the Healthcare Anchor Network, as well as connecting with innovative suppliers at the expo, attendees can consider and put into action the lasting social impact of their purchasing decisions," said Shaleta Dunn-Vick, Vizient VP, ESG impact spend. Read more about the luncheon and product fair and watch a video that outlines the mission of Vizient ESG Impact Spend.
- Volunteer Village: The annual volunteer activity, which supports local Nevada nonprofit Three Square Food Bank, brought providers, suppliers and Vizient staff together to pack 2,082 snack bags to help fight hunger. Read more about the event, sponsored by Sodexo.
- Supplier Awards: "Our health systems now more than ever are looking for new and differentiated solutions to help them deliver the highest quality care to patients in their communities," said Dan Kistner, Vizient SVP/GM of category management and strategic programs. "Suppliers recognized at Summit are leading the way with Vizient to bring best-in-class solutions and partnerships to health systems." See a list of the winners and check out photos from the ceremony above.
- Pharmacy Vision Awards: "Whether it's managing essential medications, preserving patient access to novel — and often extremely high-cost — new drugs or leading fundamental legislative and public policy actions, pharmacists and pharmacy professionals contribute in ever greater ways to the health of their organizations and the patient populations they serve," said Steven Lucio, Vizient senior principal, pharmacy solutions. See a list of the winners and read their stories.
- Top Performers Awards: "Top performers set a precedent in leadership and culture for other health systems and hospitals to follow," said Byron Jobe, Vizient CEO and president. "We celebrate each of these organizations for their efforts to deliver cost-effective, high-quality patient care in their communities." See a list of the winners and check out photos from the ceremony above.
- Innovative Technology Exchange: This year’s expo showcased 106 industry-leading suppliers, who demonstrated their technologies that help improve clinical outcomes, enhance safety and help drive healthcare improvements to clinical and supply chain leaders. Read more about the event and see photos of some of the innovations on display.
Rush President and CEO Dr. Omar Lateef's closing keynote focused on looking at all aspects of strategy through an equity lens.
As Summit concludes, an important question — and an answer
“Who gets the chance to be healthy?”
It was the final line of Rush President and CEO Dr. Omar Lateef’s closing keynote, but his presentation served up an emphatic, and potent, answer: Everyone — as long as healthcare stakeholders look at strategy through an equity lens.
"We spend too much time chasing outcomes that aren't moving the dial," Dr. Lateef said. "We have to shift the question to be, 'Is it changeable?'"
During the speech, Dr. Lateef proved humor can often be the best medicine (especially, he joked, if you’re the event’s final speaker), sharing personal anecdotes about how he arrived at what initially seemed an unlikely career in medicine. But his speech acknowledged an undeniable truth: The roadblocks providers face are no laughing matter.
Rush knows that more than anyone. Like many cities across the country, Chicago is home to what’s known as a “"Death Gap" — a term that refers to significant gaps in life expectancy based on race and economic status. Those who live near the city’s ritzier Michigan Avenue typically live 16 years longer than those who reside on Chicago’s west side.
"Racism," Dr. Lateef said, "is a public health crisis."
But it doesn’t have to stay that way. Rush infused equity into every aspect of its strategy and committed to bolstering outcomes for all patients.
Of course, a mission that big extends outside of a hospital’s walls, which is why the system partners with local nonprofits and businesses to boost job creation, safety and access to education. For instance, Rush serves as an anchor partner for a wellness center set to open in the high-needs neighborhood of West Garfield in 2025, and the system collaborated with a laundry business to open a laundry facility in North Lawndale that generated 300 local jobs.
“We don’t have to do this alone — we can figure out how to do this together," Dr. Lateef said. "Each success, while a single example, is a powerful example of what we can collectively build.”
Learn more about Dr. Lateef’s keynote and the impact Rush has made in Chicago.
The closing session concluded with The Center for the Rights of Abused Children — a Phoenix-based nonprofit founded in 2017 to ensure the safety and protection of abused children — winning Vizient’s Norman Borlaug Humanitarian Award. The $50,000 award is given annually to a 501(c)(3) organization that is making a difference in the world.
The center provides free legal representation to abused children and advocates for their safety through common-sense reforms. Its work has helped hundreds of thousands of abused children find protection and has been instrumental in securing safe and loving homes for them.
“No child should live in fear,” said founder and CEO Darcy Olsen. “Together, we can do more, be more, and change more for abused children, opening doors to the bright futures every child deserves.”
Learn more about the general closing session.
Read the Daily Dispatches from this year's Vizient Connections Summit and check out our highlight reels from the event (posted above):