This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor Sriram Visah, chief medical officer and vice president of medical affairs at SSM Health DePaul Hospital. Doctor Visah, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today. Likewise, Laura. Always a pleasure to be on Becker's podcast. Absolutely. Well, I'm excited for our conversation and just really looking forward to learning more about, some of the cool things that you're doing at DePaul Hospital. But before we dive in, I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about SSM Health and DePaul Hospital in particular. What makes you unique? Absolutely. Thank you. SSM Health is a Catholic, not for profit, fully integrated health system, situated across four states, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. We do have about 19, hospitals, both mix of community, rural, and academic. In addition to that, we also have, outpatient practices, virtual care services, senior care, home care company, hospice services. And, a unique thing is a a transparent pharmacy benefit company that, SSM Health has partnered with some other major leading organizations across the, country. We also, have a health insurance company and an accountable care organization. So overall, a large group of, different health care services are provided by SSM Health, about about 40,000 team members and about, 14,000 dedicated providers. DuPont Hospital is, part of the St. Louis region. We are situated in the North, part of St. Louis County. It's uniquely situated, at a a mix of both underserved rural area and designated by CMS and, the state, but also, in the suburban part of St. Louis. We are the largest provider of the mental health services in the state of Missouri. We got about one twenty six beds of behavioral health care, and we take extreme pride in, being the first one in Saint Louis to open up a a behavioral care urgent care center to meet, the, increasing needs, of the community. That's amazing to hear. You know, what a important role that you're playing within the community to really grow and develop, the care services that are so needed. Now I'm wondering from the last year or so, what accomplishments are you most proud of? The biggest, I would say, journey for us has been recovering from the COVID, pandemic and really making big improvements in the safety and quality of patient care at our hospital. Really proud to share that, we use Vizient as our benchmark for safety and quality and as our, leading metric for our CMS star rating. As we know, CMS star rating is based on data which is two to four years old, But Visiante is much more, up to date and kind of gives us some benchmarking. So in the, cohort of the large specialized complex care medical centers, we have, been in the top fifth percentile in safety, and quality of care for our patients. We also have in the twenty fifth percentile in the effectiveness, which is readmissions, and about the top thirty fifth percentile in efficiency, which is the cost, for beneficiary and the length of stay for our patients. Overall, some significant improvements in our, overall patient care at DuPont Hospital. That's amazing to hear. And, you know, really, really, important to have those types of results to provide the best care for the community. When you look at, you know, how you've been able to achieve them, is there anything whether it's based on the culture or, you know, some of the other processes or systems that you've been able to implement that strongly contributed to these great results? Yes. So at SSM Health, we have a unique continuous improvement model that we use to really, instill this culture of continuous improvement. It starts off with performance visibility and deference to expertise. We, really want to empower our frontline teams to, own the processes and manage them on a daily basis rather than leaders trying to, be overseeing those processes. So that model has been successfully used up to the department level, across, our health care system. And the results show up that at DePaul Hospital where we have significant, improvements in processes like catheter associated UTIs, central line associated infections where we have created, leading metrics, like bundle management, adherence to, removing lines on a timely basis. And these data is shared on a regular basis with our frontline team so that they are engaged, they own the processes, and the outcomes obviously, result in, making our patients safer at the hospital. That's really helpful to know and understand, and what a great way to, instill those processes and then, be able to see the successful caring for patients. Now looking ahead for 2025, what are some of your big organizational goals? Yeah. So, lot of financial headwinds as you've seen in health care, across the nation. We like to divide our, goals and processes into we call them as pillars. So our major pillars are growth and sustainability, exceptional care and performance, culture and inclusion, and community. So I'll kind of give an example under each pillar. Biggest work going on in our community is food and security. We were uniquely positioned. We started, providing, screening questionnaire for all our patients for food insecurity. As we know, we are in the area of Saint Louis where there's a lot of, social economically challenged population. And food insecurity is something that was under recognized. We have, used our, EMR now and made it a standard word with all patients that get admitted, get a questionnaire. And if they are confined that they have food insecurity, we send them home with, five days of, nonperishable goods. We have a food pantry in our hospital. And then we connect them with our community resources so that they have a more sustained long term access to food, in the community. Similarly, under, culture and inclusion, we are really investing heavily on employee engagement and team member turnover. As we know, each employee, loss, it it definitely is a big, lost opportunity for us, both financially and from, employee knowledge base. So, lots of work happening out there. I personally am really excited about, the pillar of exceptional care and performance where we're really focusing on, mortality for this year and also our patient experience in our acute care settings. With all the financial challenges and, expectations of our patients, that's something we have a lot of opportunity to work on, and we already are seeing significant strides, in the past six months. That's amazing to hear. Thank you so much for digging in there and really, you know, cool and very interconnected goals for success next year. Now you mentioned, obviously, there are always financial headwinds. So could you dig a little bit deeper? What are some of the any other headwinds that you're looking at, one. And then number two, how are you navigating those headwinds to still accomplish your goals? Yeah. Under the, financial stability, really, the operating cost is one of the biggest controllable factors from a acute care setting perspective. There, we really wanna be true to, the, value based proposition that we provide for our patients and really provide the best quality care at the shortest amount of possible, in an acute care setting so that patients, get the treatment they need and they make a quick transition out of the hospital. Because the longer they stay, more chances of, things not going well for them. It could be hospital acquired deliriums, deconditioning, or falls. So we really are focusing heavily in 2025 on our operational efficiencies, including the home care, continuum of the inpatient stay. So right from, they enter the ED to, the successful transition to post acute care. One of the biggest challenges we're seeing is a pair delays and, trying to get patients to the next level of care, whether it's a home health care or skilled nursing facility or an acute rehab. We, are facing, I would say delayed authorizations, delayed responses from the insurance company so the patients kind of, unfortunately, linger on in the hospital setting and just getting more risk to, the things I described earlier. That's helpful to know. And, you know, really, really critical to kind of zero in on some of those operating costs, making sure that patient flows and and, our grade capacity is always an issue I know for so many hospitals across the country. And so, just really appreciate you spelling out some of those factors in the way that you're thinking about them in preparing for the future. Now given these challenges as well as the opportunities for growth that we talked about today, how are you evolving as a leader? So, great question. The all of the challenges do provide an opportunity for growth because, it forces you to, be more agile and more nimble and really think outside the box on how best we can solve these problems. So I would say adaptability and resilience, and embracing change is, is a great, opportunity for 2025. And having the communication and be a a better collaborator with our physicians, our providers, and our frontline staff so that we are able to provide them the tools and resources to best to be on the top of their license if they can use that phrase, to provide the best care. So I personally am really, you know, seeking out, more networking. I'm excited to join the Becker's conference again that's coming up in April. I'm actually on a couple of, of panels and a presentation. So places like Becker really provides the unique opportunity to network, see the best in industry, and learn from them. So I'm looking forward to that. Also, getting some personal, I would say, coaching from a leadership perspective, and trying to be more active listener, is one of the areas I'm gonna be working on as a leader in this year. Well, that's great to hear. I know, a lot of work in that direction, but certainly, you know, an exciting time to get started. Doctor Vista, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been just a really fun conversation, and I look forward to connecting with you again soon. Thank you, Laura. It's my pleasure likewise here. Thank you.