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[00:00:00] Today on Keynote

Bridgett Ojeda: (Intro) we must continue to be very diligent about ensuring that the AI tools are solving for a problem that we have.

Otherwise, we're just creating a disruption with no return.

I'm Sarah Richardson, a former CIO and president of this week Health's 2 2 9 community development where we are dedicated to transforming healthcare at one connection at a time.

Our keynote show is designed to share conference level value with you every week. Now let's jump into the episode (Main)

Sarah Richardson: Welcome to this week Health Keynote, where we engage with top healthcare leaders to explore the intersection of healthcare and technology.

Bridgett Ojeda is the Chief Information Officer at Bryan Health a highly accomplished leader in software and technology. Bridget is known for her expertise in driving results through implementation projects, software lifecycle management and governance structure oversight. Most recently, she has been involved with the relocation of the new April Samson Cancer Center, a significant expansion [00:01:00] of Bryan Health Services in the Lincoln area. Bridgett, welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm so happy to have you here because we first connected our summit in Phoenix, and now we're here to talk about all the amazing things you're doing at your organization.

So the first question for you, you joined Bryan Health as CIO in 2021 during a particularly challenging time for healthcare. How has your approach to technology leadership evolved since then?

Bridgett Ojeda: 2021 put a huge spotlight on healthcare and a lot of venture capital started being pumped into the healthcare IT sector.

As a technology leader, I think I could sum it up as we felt like we were minnows in a sharp tank because there were so many shiny new objects. So it became crucial for us to lean into our vetting processes to ensure we were getting. Technology that was solving a problem we had and that the vendor could deliver on those promises.

I think additionally, if I can remember back to a presentation that I sat in on from a [00:02:00] cybersecurity vendor, they were sharing that cyber attacks had increased by 74% between 2021 and 2022. So not only were we trying to rapidly evolve and use. Technologies at the bedside in unique ways such as telehealth or teleconsults.

We also had this crucial priority of pivoting resources to increase our cyber protections. Another area that became a big change in shift for the IT healthcare leaders as well was our OPEX CapEx dollars had to drastically shift in a tight margin time periods because not only were we competing for traditional of keeping the lights on and the demand for enhancements, but now we all of a sudden had to account for.

Cybersecurity tools that historically we didn't have to put that much dollar resources into. So that shifted significantly as [00:03:00] well. So the evolution of leadership in my leadership personally, I had to be evolve and be more agile, resilient and creative. I'll say creative in a way of using limited resources to maximize the finite resources we had when operating margins were so tight.

I think lastly it was imperative that I tapped into my fellow CIO peers in the industry. At the end of the day, we were all solving for the same problems, and I have no shame in standing on the shoulders of others.

Sarah Richardson: Well, none of us do, and that's why we're part of 229, that ability to reach out and truly pick up the phone and ask for help when needed, or even just the peer advisory aspect of what we do.

Which brings you to my next question for you then, is how do you balance a need for innovation with the critical requirements of security, reliability, and compliance?

Bridgett Ojeda: That has been becoming a bigger and bigger challenge, especially when we're [00:04:00] starting to have more outside folks log into our systems in unique ways.

And so I think that this balance is essential, but each day it's crucial for us to have a solid IT governance structure led by our operational folks. However, we have this built-in oversight of our cybersecurity team and legal teams. This ensures that our innovation and initiatives align with security and compliance requirements.

From the outset of any initiative we're going to take on, we are continuing to mature our risk assessment upfront. So we can evaluate potential vulnerabilities, mitigate them, and then address them before we become too committed into a solution or a vendor. We can harden our systems so much that they are no longer functional for our users, which then prevents us [00:05:00] from running the business.

So I think really having a good iterative innovation in a controlled environment has been Helpful for our strategic technology advancements. We have an innovation or incubator unit with a phenomenal nursing leader who's. Staff are the best when it comes to collaboration and willing to try new things.

The team is resilient and allowing us to make continuous incremental changes and run pilot programs. These really help us mitigate risk when implementing new technologies at the bedside. Something we haven't perfected in this area, but we are working on doing better at is security by design.

We have found ourselves retrofitting security measures in when the new technologies has already been completed or the build phase is completed, and then we're in the testing phase, and then trying to go back and rebuild or retrofit in [00:06:00] security measures. So that is an area that we're continuing to try to improve on.

And then we also work very closely in concert with our technology vendors and partners to ensure that their solutions meet our security standards. We have clear expectations regarding data protection and how that data can be used. I will say that we have increased probably at a point in time of walking away from vendors during the contract phase.

Due to not being able to come to agreement on meeting our data standards, you really need to be willing to walk away and not compromise our integrity and not live out our mission of putting our patients first, which is. Keeping their data secure. And final thoughts on this? I feel very fortunate that I have very supportive colleagues who believe in fostering a culture that values innovation and security.

They balance the importance of [00:07:00] safeguarding our patients and staff information while encouraging creative thinking.

Sarah Richardson: Which is a hallmark really, of your success and some of the things that you're known for. I mean, you create action plans that are driven for software, hardware, network, your data.

And now I throw in the security element too. Is there a framework that you're using when developing standards, or are there just pieces you've brought together based on inputs from your colleagues at Bryant Health?

Bridgett Ojeda: So what's interesting about healthcare IT, and I should just say IT in general, there's so many standards for all steps in the software hardware lifecycle, and the key is not to be too rigid and adopt what makes sense for your organization.

We are living in a standards, I would call it alphabet soup. You know, started off with HL7 to high tech, to NIST, to ISO, to FHIR pro size change management, PMI [00:08:00] methodology. So it's important to recognize that the landscape of healthcare technology is continuing to evolve, and therefore it's really important that we're continuing to evolve our approach to our standards, and we continue to morph and mature those as we go.

So in summary, I would say don't be so rigid that impedes on progress, but to ensure that effectiveness of our initiatives we regularly assess and adapt our standards in response to emerging technologies, our stakeholder feedbacks and best practices in the industry. I think the most recently we've been doing AI for a long time. However, we didn't really have a great standards around how to do an assessment of AI tools, so that's something that we had to pivot last year and develop that as well. So I think by fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation, we aim to create [00:09:00] a robust healthcare IT infrastructure that ultimately creates efficiencies for our staff, physicians, and in due course for our patients, it creates great outcomes for them.

So our IT mission statement at Bryan Health is one patient, one story, and one health system forward together. So we rally around this mission as we develop our standards and always keep the patient at the center of all the decision making when we're looking at our standards.

Sarah Richardson: Well, and it helps that you're probably a patient of your own healthcare system as well, so you get to be in the seat that you're also aiming to provide the best experiences for, ideally for wellness obviously.

But things happen in life too, and it's great when you can influence that within your own healthcare system. What have been some of the significant, I'd say digital because all the things we do now are digital. The transformation initiatives you've led at Bryan Health, how has it impacted patient care?

Bridgett Ojeda: Of course, it's easy for me to pick on or say most [00:10:00] impactful and significant of size was leading our conversion to Epic back in 2018 and decommissioning about 80 systems. However, I would say the most impactful to patient care is our physician, ambient listening. When just to share a couple quotes off the top of my head from doctors stating that they finally have a technology that lives up to the expectations it was to deliver on, or I remember another physician stopping me in the hall and sharing that ambient listening has been a career extender for them.

Or I even had another physician state that if I keep making his job this easy, he's never going to retire. So those are the stories from a physician perspective. But I had another colleague stop me who had an experience where his, Physician had retired and so he was seeing a new physician that was using ambient listening technology, and he was just [00:11:00] sharing how those two different experiences were so drastically noticeably different from a patient standpoint.

He felt that the interactions was more organic. The patient felt that the physician was more tentative, and overall it was just a better experience. So. I would say the most transformative of recent is definitely ambient listening for physicians.

Sarah Richardson: Ambient listening is getting traction with everyone we talk to and for all the right reasons.

That's literally the first thing since high tech. That has delivered promise for the physicians to feel like they're actually more efficient and spending more time with their patients. It's been an incredible conversation. I'm glad to hear it coming from you as well. 'cause that means that regardless of the solution that you're using, there's several out there that are very viable.

It's a space that people can agree is making a significant impact in their workflow, quality and outcomes. But that's very much driven around AI, machine [00:12:00] learning and playing in that overall future of healthcare delivery, how do you see it evolving at Bryan Health and what do you want next from it?

Bridgett Ojeda: I think our focus at Bryan Health, we must continue to be very diligent about ensuring that the AI tools that we are implementing are solving for a problem that we have.

Otherwise, we're just creating a disruption with no return. So it's also crucial not to lose sight of the digital transformation triangle or the people process and the technology when implementing AI. We can have the best AI tool, but if it's not designed for optimal workflows and usability, then it becomes just an.

Expensive interference that we've decided to go down. So making sure first that selection on the AI tool is solving for a problem that we have, and then moving into strategic plans. So thinking through our strategic plans and how do we [00:13:00] align AI tools that meet our organizational goals and strategic plans.

We do have an AI platform or a core AI platform, and so we really try to focus on prioritizing work that alleviates or minimize the administrative burdens on our clinicians and physicians, which then in return helps with staff retention. I think the pinnacle for AI at Bryan Health would really be that moment where it enables joy back into our physicians and staff's days, we just serve in the best profession, which is at the end of the day preserving human lives. So how cool is that to say that if someone were to ask you the question, what do you do for a living? And you get a say and proudly answer, I preserve human lives and to get to do that with joy because you don't think of all the pain points because you have technology [00:14:00] working for you, not against you.

I think that's really where I wanna see our AI tools move next.

Sarah Richardson: I love that you said that because, and this will date how long I've been doing this, but 20 years ago, give or take, people came to us asking us for solutions and we would put them in place. And ever since really the advent of some of the high tech requirements, it felt like technology was happening to people versus helping them solve some of the problems.

And to your point. We're at an apex now where we can deliver the solutions that get us back to the roots of why we ever got into this business in the first place. And that was to make things better, not to complicate them and try to unbundle some of the things that we had maybe inadvertently created through some of the other requirements we were endeavoring to meet.

So it's nice to be able to be in the business long enough to see it all come full circle. And you've got a unique challenge due to your mix of urban and rural populations. How does your IT strategy address your geographic and access disparities?

Bridgett Ojeda: This is an area that we have been very [00:15:00] fortunate in. We had a pioneering visionary physician by the name of Dr.

Bryan Vosser, who partnered with Bryan how to start a joint venture called Bryan Telemedicine. This is a very robust telehealth program that started back in 2014. We now have over 40 different service lines ranging from hospital. Hospitalists, nephrologists, behavioral health, pulmonology, diabetes, and let the list go on that provide telehealth teleconsult services across the state of Nebraska.

It's amazing to see that program and allowing that patient to stay in their home community rather than having to travel hours away and be away from their loved ones. And so our mission really is. To keep the patient in their home communities, in their home hospitals, and this program really has allowed us to do that.

It's a remarkable program [00:16:00] making a huge impact in these patients' lives. And it's all been enabled through technology, which has been a really valuable add for the last, you know, decade or so. So thank you to Dr. Bryan Vosser who had this vision and we're able to provide so much back to these communities

Sarah Richardson: and with that, you're gonna have interoperability challenges for sure, because you might also have the other healthcare systems that are involved with where you are. How do you ensure that seamless data exchange for patients who are receiving care across multiple, I'd say cities, locations, providers, et cetera?

Bridgett Ojeda: It really is frustrating for me that the year is 2025 and we are still talking about patient record interoperability challenges. It baffles me that one of the oldest technologies that we have in use at the hospital and is the most used technology is faxing. So this technology came out in the 18 hundreds, and yet here we [00:17:00] are still relying on it every day to support our patient's continuity of care.

One way that we at Bryan are trying to close that gap is we have been approaching it through offering Epic community connect to our hospitals and clinics, which reduces the needs for that interoperability. I wish I had this amazing solution for this, but it is still a day-to-day challenge We face.

Sarah Richardson: You have a pager, a fax machine. I don't think a rotary phone's gonna help us in this scenario, but I'm like, what is the perfect escape room? The things that we still have in our universe today, and it's amazing that I still hear fax machines and pagers are in use in some facilities for sure. But that's not the most pressing issue facing you today, and you've got a great network of CIOs that you rely on and you call and work through ideas.

What do you see as the most pressing issue for healthcare CIOs today?

Bridgett Ojeda: I am gonna [00:18:00] take this one in three parts. So I think balancing tight operating margins and then stretching those dollars between innovation lifecycle and cyber initiatives. We have a few strategies, which one of them is building and ensuring that we have three to five year roadmap plans in place.

So we have a good understanding of what our lifecycle demands are. And then, in those years. Trying to come up with plans for enhancements or those extra dollars that we can put onto for innovations, and then also the cybersecurity needs for dollars as well. I would say the second pressing issue would be recruiting and retaining an engaged workforce. We have been working on various strategies such as developing IT career pathways, so staff can see career growth opportunities and when you start at Bryan Health, what is all available within our IT [00:19:00] walls that you could be joining us.

And then once you're part of the IT family. Where else can I grow and learn? So we're continuing to mature our IT mentoring program, a job shadow program, and really trying to come up with unique ways to retain and engage our workforce. the third and final stress point for CIOs is continuing to work on cybersecurity enterprise risk management plans to ensure we have adequate controls in place keeping, you know, the balance between end user security and convenience.

We must also continue to implement action plans around our SIS controls to strengthen our cybersecurity posture. So I believe of course finding the dollars for innovation, recruiting and cybersecurity right now are probably the three top stressors.

Sarah Richardson: And throughout your career, what has been the most [00:20:00] challenging technology implementation and what did you learn from it?

Bridgett Ojeda: This one might surprise you. I always share with people that healthcare, it is about 19 years behind, give or take the industry from advancements in technologies, and Over the last couple years, we started rolling out smartphones to nurses and replacing them, they had a hands-free communication badge.

Well, we thought these smartphones were giving them five additional features, and however, we quickly found out that hands free was the holy grail that we didn't take into account. So the nurses were not appreciative of having a smartphone that could do a lot more. And so this switch out was probably one of the, one of the biggest, I'll call it, failure points.

And what we learned from [00:21:00] that is ensuring that in the future we have an exceptional voice of the customer is conducted and that the feedback is valued and used. Don't make assumptions and then include frontline staff early in the evaluation phases of any sort of new technology initiatives. Making assumptions is dangerous and we learned quickly from that moment

Sarah Richardson: I'm glad you shared that because when you don't have failures, I call 'em oopses moments where you're like, eh, nobody wants to use this technology. Or Hey, we put it in six months later, nobody's using it. If you don't have those experiences and figure out how to do better next time, I don't know how you get the chops that's required for the longevity in staying in some of these roles.

'cause it's a hard. Job. And for you, I'll go back to the, one of the points you mentioned facing CIOs today is how do you approach building and developing your team, particularly given not just the competitive landscape for talent, but also how hard [00:22:00] it can be to get things done in our organizations.

Bridgett Ojeda: It really starts first and foremost with hiring incredible managers who are invested in their team's success. It's crucial to ensure that we actively listen to our staff and have multi-channel feedback loops built in. It's important for us that we create a culture. Where gratitude is a priority and then having fun is also an important essential piece of that, but really ensuring that.

I know what's important to each of our staff, and that is done in multiple different ways from just being present and doing walkabouts with the staff, checking in on them. With every new hire to our IT division, I have a lunch with the new staff and it's important that I get to know every player on our team.

I also do something called coffee talks where we randomize. Staff across the [00:23:00] division and we get on a call where with about five IT teammates and it's just an opportunity for them to get to know staff that they may not. Regularly meet with or work with on a day to day, and then they get to spend time with me to ask any questions or if I can help clarify anything.

So we really try to promote a very collaborative culture that really helps staff belong. We also promote ongoing education and investment in our team members. We encourage our team to spend time with their customers so they can see how their work impacts the day to day in the lives of people we serve.

This also keeps our team members tied to our purpose as well.

Sarah Richardson: I have to believe that falls under partially what you described for bryan health as forward together. How does this philosophy influence your technology decision making, but also how it builds that rapport with the rest of the [00:24:00] organization?

Bridgett Ojeda: Forward Together really does ensure that we are invested in all of our stakeholders who are impacted by our day-to-day decisions. We are very methodical in our implementation strategies to ensure that our operations are in lock step with us. So from selecting the kickoff date to the Go live date, all the way to the closure and post implementation reviews forward together is where we really.

Need to lean into our governance structure to ensure that we have buy-in and IT initiatives are operationally led and it supported our stakeholders prioritize the projects and the work we do. And then we use our practical project management approaches to guide the work we have. A really thoughtful intake process.

And that leads us to prioritization and deliverables and closure processes, so that way we can [00:25:00] really include all of our stakeholders throughout the journey of an implementation. It's just not the start date and the end date. So having the structure to fall back on really holds us accountable and enables collaboration effectively across

IT in the customers we serve.

Sarah Richardson: Aren't you grateful that you're at a point and you've been in the organization long enough that you can say something like forward together? And it's simple and people understand it and they appreciate what it took to get to those two words. Because the longer that mission statement, the longer that idea, the less people are going to stick to it.

And so forward together is just such an obvious thing. But imagine how much it took for you to get there. So you volunteer at. For Make A Wish Foundation, how has this work influenced your approach to leadership?

Bridgett Ojeda: What I love about being a wish granter is I get to hear the stories of the patients and their families trying to navigate a [00:26:00] healthcare system, and it keeps me connected to the why for what we do, hearing their pain points and the friction that they endure

energizes me to keep chipping away and improving on what we deliver. Getting invited into these families' homes when they're going through the darkest times, and yet being able to bring a moment of hope and compassion is such a gift. And it's really rewarding when I also hear, when they've interacted with technology that we put out there, and people always talk about their patient portal and getting easy access to the results or being able to schedule online.

So those moments of hearing the success stories of the technology always puts a smile on my face as well.

Sarah Richardson: And if you were speaking to an early career professional, someone who was just starting out and wanted to be in healthcare IT, what advice would you give them about preparing for a career in [00:27:00] this field?

Bridgett Ojeda: I would start with. Be curious. Don't stop learning. The healthcare landscape is constantly evolving, so stay up to date. I would say network actively join professional organizations, attend conferences. Building relationships opens doors to new opportunities, so get involved. And last but not least, I would say be adaptable.

Say yes to all the opportunities that come your way and have a servant attitude.

Sarah Richardson: Yeah. Someone asked you one time what was some of the key elements of your career and I said, I took jobs, nobody else wanted. And it worked. Yes. Like sometimes you're like, Hey, I do this. Like, oh, wow, I didn't even know that was a thing.

I'm like, yeah, nobody else wanted to do it. And because of that, it became some of these niche opportunities. And so you're absolutely right. Lean into the things that you can be curious and take advantage of the areas that maybe you're underserved and it can open up a tremendous amount of [00:28:00] doors for you.

All right. We've asked all the tough questions. You ready for speed round? Love it. Yes. Bring it. Okay. You said you're a morning person, so is it coffee, tea, or are you just wired to start your day? Ready to go? I

Bridgett Ojeda: love coffee. I love the smell of coffee. Definitely coffee in the morning, but tea in the afternoon.

Sarah Richardson: Any particular kind? I mean, do you stay caffeinated throughout the day or is it like more of a wind down with tea in the afternoon?

Bridgett Ojeda: Wind down with tea in the afternoon.

Sarah Richardson: Okay, good to know. What is the most used app on your phone right now?

Bridgett Ojeda: Right now an app called Game Changer. I'm a baseball mom, so this is where I can stay up to date on my son's games, watch the games, and keep up on all the stats.

Sarah Richardson: I love that. Is it just for baseball or can that be used for multiple sports?

Bridgett Ojeda: They just started moving into other sports, like soccer, so we are now using it for soccer and baseball.

Sarah Richardson: Okay, good to know. I'm a baseball fan as well this time of year. Kate Gamble, who's on our team, she and I trade a lot of baseball notes throughout this time of year.

And and who's your team, [00:29:00] Sarah? I'm a Dodgers fan. That-a girl! Yeah, that of Yankees that we might've had in the call. Well, Kate's a Red Sox fan, so there's a lot of smack that gets thrown across Slack for sure, but for all the right reasons. Absolutely, yes. And if you were not in healthcare.

What would be the career that you would've chosen?

Bridgett Ojeda: I would say something still in the sciences, maybe like leading a research team. My love for curiosity and learning and leading teams, all of those get tapped into, and so I think perhaps leading a research team, but I love the smell of a library and the calming experience a library brings.

So maybe just stacking books at a library as well.

Sarah Richardson: So I'm gonna throw in a question that you and I didn't think about beforehand for speed round and favorite book you're reading, or I should say book you're reading now, or one of the favorites you've recently consumed. Doesn't have to be a workbook.

Always are always telling me about the workbooks. I'm like, yes. And what else do you love to read? I.

Bridgett Ojeda: [00:30:00] Historical fiction is my jam. So I just started a new trilogy and when I say just started two nights ago, so I don't know the first book name, nor do I know the author because I just started it. But a friend gave me the book.

And so historical fiction is if I'm not reading something for work related or business related, it's historical fiction.

Sarah Richardson: You are gonna have to share with me what that is. I'm a big historical fiction fan as well, and I can just dive into a 1500 page book and sit there for hours and read if it's all based to your point on historical fiction.

So you have to let me know what it is you've chosen. And then my last question for you, what's one technology you think that is totally overhyped or underappreciated?

Bridgett Ojeda: I would say overhyped. I was championing and cheering for augmented reality, and I really wanted it to be the end all, be all. It has some great use cases from a training and gaming standpoint.

It [00:31:00] really never went beyond that. So unfortunately, I would say AR ended up being overhyped. I would say an underappreciated is digital payment systems, apple Pay, Venmo, you name it. That probably has to do a little bit with my germa phobia and dollar bills and coins. I just think about all the germs on 'em.

So I'm a big digital payment system user.

Sarah Richardson: Do you go everywhere with your Apple Watch and pay? If it, if don't take ev apple Pay, you are kind of lost in the, like, what do you mean you don't take Apple Pay? Like I go most places without a credit card. I never have cash on me, and heck, half the time I don't even have id.

So I'm always grateful I know where I can use it. But you go someplace and they don't have it, and you have to ask sometimes before you go shopping. Otherwise, you're stuck there with a bag of goods you can't pay for. It's kind of embarrassing. Yes, less, less often, but it could still be a thing.

Bridget, thank you so much for spending time with us. Thank you for your leadership. At Bryan Health for all of the amazing forward thinking technologies you're bringing forward, [00:32:00] as well as how you're adapting to your community and your physicians, and your patients, and your teams. We need more leaders like you, and I'm grateful that you were able to share your story with us.

Thank you for being a part of our 2, 2 9 community, and I look forward to seeing you again in person soon. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Keynote with Bridgett Ojeda. That's all for now.

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