Like all popular trends, it's easy to adopt the latest and "greatest" technology as soon as it's released into the world. But what responsibility do Catholic health systems have in evaluating what changes they need to make? What - and who - is top of mind when these decisions are made?
Michael Sellers, Vice President of Facilities Management for Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago, joins the show to discuss the facilities and operations perspective on changing health care technology. Sellers discusses Saint Anthony's recent innovations, their community-based strategy for making needed upgrades, and the importance of operations as a voice at the decision-making table.
Brian Reardon (00:08):
Welcome to Health Calls, the podcast of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. I'm your host, Brian Reardon, and with me is Josh Matejka. Hello, Josh.
Josh Matejka (00:16):
Hey Brian.
Brian Reardon (00:17):
So this episode, technology Adoption with patients and community in mind in just a moment, we're going to bring in Michael Sellers. He serves as Vice President of Facilities Management for Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago. And Josh, really this story or this episode stems from a story that was in the Catholic health world issue last fall. It was about Saint Anthony in Chicago and the story focused on their investment in electric vehicles. But I think for this discussion, it's going to be a little bit more about electric vehicles. Can you set the stage for our listeners?
Josh Matejka (00:48):
Yeah, so this story, it's a bit of a longer one, so bear with me. It started with a trip that I took to Chicago with some of our creative partners and working with the Saint Anthony team on a video we were producing up there. And we had talked a little bit about this electric vehicle story, potentially doing a podcast on it. But while I was in Chicago visiting Saint Anthony and seeing the community that they served, it became very clear to me that this was a very tight-knit community and that Saint Anthony played a large role in that community. And I think as we were leading up to this and having conversations with Michael, we started to learn a lot more that the decisions and the investments that Saint Anthony makes in terms of technology and operations are very community focused and community minded. And I think that's a little bit of a unique approach. Sometimes we get into this thing of, oh, well this is a large scale technology that everybody's adopting. But to hear Michael talk about the way that Saint Anthony made these decisions and invest in technology was really refreshing. And I'm excited for people to hear this from an operations and a facilities standpoint because we haven't had a lot of those conversations yet. So I think everybody who listens to Health Calls is going to get a lot out of this. It's kind of a unique perspective that I'm excited to welcome on.
Brian Reardon (02:00):
And throughout this season, we've been really trying to tie technology to the humanity of the care we provide. So I think getting a perspective of, like you said, how is the community going to be impacted or benefiting from a particular technology adoption,
Josh Matejka (02:16):
What are the specific needs of the community and how can we look to those when we're making investments as opposed to just doing blanket things because we feel like we should be doing that.
Brian Reardon (02:24):
Yeah, exactly. Alright, well let's bring in again, Michael Sellers. He serves as the vice President of Facilities Management at Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago. Michael, welcome.
Michael Sellers (02:35):
Thank you, Brian. I'm very honored to be here today.
Brian Reardon (02:37):
Yeah, great to have you with us. So let's actually start, we'll go back to that CHW store. We mentioned you helped oversee the transition to electric vehicles from gas vehicles and these vehicles offer rides to patients. I guess let's start off, can you speak to why that decision was made and let's maybe from a couple of different perspectives, I guess generally, why did you guys do that? I mean, electric vehicles obviously have been around and stuff, but I don't think a lot of our members or hospitals in general just make that switch over to a fleet of electric.
Michael Sellers (03:08):
What really made our decision was the cost factor of maintaining the old vehicles and then the environmental factor of the electric versus gas. When you took those two into play, it made the decision pretty easy
Brian Reardon (03:23):
And I would think was availability of charging stations. Has that come up? I mean, I think about electric vehicles and I know that's been some hesitancy for folks is making sure, and these are vehicles that run just in the city of Chicago. It's not like you're taking road trips to Milwaukee in 'em, right?
Michael Sellers (03:37):
That is correct. The charging stations did come up initially, but we had employees that were requesting charging stations and we knew that if we were to make that move to electric, that we'd be able to charge the employees and essentially reduce the cost to the organization.
Brian Reardon (03:56):
So a cost factor environmental factor obviously. What about switching to a fleet of electric vehicles? How does that benefit the patients you serve?
Michael Sellers (04:05):
It gives the patients a smoother, quieter ride. It's more modern. It gives them, it makes them feel more relaxed. It's there for them. We're providing them a ride to an appointment that they might be nervous for and it allows them to relax and have conversation with the driver. It's like they belong.
Brian Reardon (04:31):
Yeah, I love that. I hadn't thought of it from that perspective actually. They're so quiet. Sometimes you don't hear 'em coming when you're crossing the street. And I think we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that. The work you see with operating your facilities, I'm guessing you put a lot of emphasis on stewardship and when you're looking at decisions just beyond the electric vehicles, but just any decisions related to your facilities, how does that spirit of stewardship factor in when you're making decisions?
Michael Sellers (04:59):
Stewardship to me is a lot about the accountability. It's not just our organization, but it's the people that we serve and the resources that we use. So when I'm looking at technology, I'm looking at not just what does it cost, but what is it going to return, not in the dollars, but in the dignity, reliability, safety. We need to make sure that our investment upfront, it lines with our values.
Brian Reardon (05:28):
And I think in talking about electric vehicles, you had mentioned this earlier that the maintenance on those would be less probably over the life of the vehicle than a gas powered one because of just the way the engines are designed.
Michael Sellers (05:40):
Yes, sir. When we were sending out our vehicles for routine oil changes, brake jobs, the engines were breaking down, transmission failures, muffler problems, the laundry was just very extensive. And when we found that we can repurpose those dollars into other areas for our patients, it just made sense to make the switch to electric vehicles.
Brian Reardon (06:08):
And one of the things that stands out about Saint Anthony is you're very community focused. You serve a part of Chicago, the community has very specific needs. Do you look for members of the community for input or maybe let's say validation when you're looking at adoption of technologies in your facilities?
Michael Sellers (06:27):
Absolutely. For the electric vehicles, we actually worked out a deal with the dealership that they let us bring the cars here. And we were picking up some of our routine patients that they could actually test out the vehicle. Since we transport different modalities, people for physical therapy, they might not be able to get up or sit real low. So people played a very big part when we were making the decision for these vehicles.
Brian Reardon (06:58):
And anything that surprised you, not maybe with just the electric vehicle decision, but maybe other decisions you've made around adoption of technology, maybe it's around switching to a different phone system or some of the other things you day in and day out have to decide in your role?
Michael Sellers (07:15):
For a long time we assumed that people didn't understand technology, and we found as the patients have requested that everybody has a smartphone, everyone is learning how to navigate. So as we see that we are involving the community, we are in the process right now to going to a new phone system, our cloud-based calling that's going to provide a nurse call solution for our patients. It's going to be able to send text messages to our patients. And these are all things that people have requested.
Brian Reardon (07:51):
And Michael, do you do formal listening sessions, focus group type scenarios with these sort of community input process?
Michael Sellers (07:58):
Yes, we do our patient experience team when we have a request or we just have a general question, our patient experience team combined with our community wellness team, we'll get a group of patients and we'll have a small focus group. We'll bring the people in and ask them the questions, what they'd like to see, and then obviously we let them trial it before we do an implementation.
Brian Reardon (08:24):
Nice. And I want to switch gears a little bit, no pun intended. Another topic that Catholic Health world has covered is your plan for the Focal Point community campus. I guess to start off, can you talk a little bit about that project, how it came about and sort of where things stand with it?
Michael Sellers (08:41):
So our current hospital is 135 years old, and we needed a new campus. Our former president, CEO Guy Dag, started Chicago Southwest Development Corporation with the idea of the focal point community campus in mind, the focal point, it's a 30 acre campus that's going to deliver Saint Anthony Hospital as well as education, wellness departments, early childhood development, retail community center. It's also going to improve the lives of 400,000 people over the campus limits. We're expecting the project to be done in 2028, and it's going to be a first of its kind multi-use sustainable campus.
Brian Reardon (09:27):
Yeah, no, and what I've read about it really is it's consistent with that mind shift or shift towards really being attuned to the needs of the community and bringing together various partners and getting away from, I think you said your hospital is what, 135 years old, and it's probably was built with sort of that longer term acute care patient in mind. But we know as more stuff is moving to ambulatory outpatient, this model that you're doing, we've seen this in other places. I think Cleveland's another example, really seems to be the right approach to where healthcare is going.
Michael Sellers (10:05):
Absolutely. If we can keep patients out of beds, that is the goal. We want to keep people healthy. We want people to see their primary care doc, go see the specialist, make sure they're keeping up with their appointments, make sure that they're keeping up with their medications, healthy eating, exercise, all of those things.
Brian Reardon (10:26):
And as you are working on developing the campus, I know with other partners, what are some of the technology things you guys are looking, and you mentioned 2028, so it's still a few years out. And I think between now and 28, there's going to be technologies maybe we're not even thinking about. So how do you plan for a technology adoption on a campus of that size and a project that big?
Michael Sellers (10:48):
You're exactly correct. Technology is changing every single day. When we're planning this project, we're keeping that in mind. We're keeping the concept to where we want the ability to have the hospital be flexible. If we learned one thing from that, units need to have the flexibility to change. So we're keeping that in mind with the design of this hospital, that state-of-the-art today could be something that's old news next year. So as we plan and move forward, we're kind of keeping that mindset of we have to be flexible, we have to stay ahead of the next steps.
Brian Reardon (11:30):
And I think things like solar panels, other sustainable energy sources, those seem to be kind of rapidly changing. So let's take solar for example. Will the campus incorporate solar panels to help power?
Michael Sellers (11:45):
We're looking at the possibility of having solar panels. The problem with healthcare is you have to have backup power. You have to have backup power considering the safety of the patients.
Brian Reardon (11:57):
So kind of getting back, and I want to bring Josh into the conversation too. As your team looks to prioritize certain projects that require a change of technology, can you share a little bit with us, and it kind of gets back to my earlier question about input from the communities. What does that discernment process look like? Are there any tips or suggestions you can offer our listeners that might be thinking about, yeah, we're always kind of faced with these technology decisions. I'm just curious if you've got an approach that might be worth sharing.
Michael Sellers (12:27):
When I'm looking at these decisions, people in the organization, they come to me and they have a problem or we have a problem that needs addressed, and I prioritize those based on the patient care. If there's a way that we can incorporate technology and provide a better experience for our patients, we look into that and we do those things internally. And then once we find our solution, that's when we turn out and we bring it to the community. We say, Hey, we know that you don't like this food and dietary, we're going to change this to something you like and an easier way for you to order. How is that going to enhance your experience? And we listen to the feedback. We do comment cards, hold focus groups, and really listen to what our patients are telling us. When they tell us what they want, we take it back to the vendor and we make it our top priority.
Josh Matejka (13:27):
Thanks, Michael. It's Josh again. I'm thinking about a conversation I had with a mission leader a few months ago now, and we were talking about different competencies in our mission leader competency model at CHA. And one of the core competencies of that model is operations and strategies, a different one. In that conversation, what we were talking about is this concept that in the past mission leaders have not thought to integrate themselves into the operations process just because they were like, well, that's not my job. I'll deal with something else. But now there's starting to be this growing understanding of we have to have this understanding of how operations fit within the whole culture of our mission and our ministry. As an operations and a facilities person, how would you encourage mission leaders and people who might be listening to this podcast that might be more on the Catholic identity side of Catholic healthcare, how would you encourage them to get involved with the operations and the facilities processes in their organizations and their systems? Without stepping on toes or anything, but how would you encourage them to get involved in a way that's meaningful from a facility standpoint?
Michael Sellers (14:34):
Actually, people in my field, we like to be heard because not everyone always listens to the operation side of everything. The facilities team, we hold meetings just so that we can have our people, our other departments come to us and talk to us about what they need and what repairs they need. And then the ones that show the interest in learning, they actually, they learn how the wheels work, how the wheels work in the factory, and to some people that interest them. And when they do that, they have a better ability to make their decisions because they know that it's not just as simple as, I want this and this is going to get done this way. There's a lot of back work that gets involved.
Josh Matejka (15:24):
And so what would you say is, let's say for instance, there's a board or a decision-making process that doesn't involve operations. I would hope that there's not many out there. That's a pretty normal standard procedure, but what kind of voice is missing? Whenever facilities and operations aren't included in those mission-oriented conversations.
Michael Sellers (15:44):
When people leave out facilities, they leave out the part that is going to get the mission accomplished. I've noticed that when we implement something with technology, if we don't include all departments in the area, then we find that there's pieces missing. Telecommunications has bled into information technology to where it's one department now. 20 years ago, 10 years ago, it was two complete departments, facilities. Everything is now moving to digital. You can access your air handlers from your phone, you can see when things are out of balance. Years ago, you couldn't do that. So now it's more crucial to involve everyone, just so you make sure that you're not missing any of those pieces.
Brian Reardon (16:38):
And I think that makes sense, getting all those voices together and really helping inform some of the decisions that you've mentioned in this discussion. Michael, thanks for your time and for just sharing your insights on a topic that may be somewhat routine that we all rely on our facilities. Like you said, I love that to get the mission accomplished. And so hearing your voice and getting your perspective on some of the discernment that happens around adoption of technology with your coworkers, with obviously the community, I think has been really important. So thank you for your time.
Michael Sellers (17:10):
Thank you very much for having me. It's been an honor.
Brian Reardon (17:13):
And again, that was Michael Sellers. He's vice president of Facilities Management with Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago. And this has been another episode of Health Calls, the podcast of the Catholic Health Association. Again, I'm your host, Brian Reardon. Our executive producer is of course, Josh Matejka. We have additional support for Health Calls from Yvonne Stroder, and this episode was engineered again at Clayton Studios here in Saint Louis by our colleague Brian Hartmann. You can find Health Calls on all of your favorite podcast apps and services as well as on our website. And again, you can go to chausa.org/podcast and find all of our episodes for this season and past seasons. If you've enjoyed the show, would love to hear from you. We'd love to get a five-star rating. We'd love for you to share this with your coworkers. Let them know about Health Calls. Always appreciate to hear from you, and as always, thanks for listening.