SAP Ariba COO James Lee on the best path to an intelligent and talented enterprise

The next BriefingsDirect enterprise management innovations discussion explores the role of the modern chief operating officer (COO) and how they are tasked with creating new people-first strategies in an age of increased automation and data-driven intelligence.

We will now examine how new approaches to spend management, process automation, and integrated procurement align with developing talent, diversity, and sustainability.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Read a full transcript or download a copy. 

To learn more about the leadership trends behind making globally dispersed and complex organizations behave in harmony, please welcome James Lee, Chief Operating Officer at SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass.The interview is conducted by Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions.

Here are some excerpts:

Gardner: James, why has there never been a better time to bring efficiency and intelligence to business operations? Why are we in an auspicious era for bridging organizational and cultural gaps that have plagued businesses in the past?

Lee: If you look at the role of the modern COO, or anyone who is the head of operations, you are increasingly asked to be the jack-of-all-trades. If you think about the COO, they are responsible for budgeting and planning, for investment decisions, organizational and people topics, and generally orchestrating across all aspects of the business. To do this at scale, you really need to drive standardization and best practices, and this is why efficiency is so critical.

Lee

Now, in terms of the second part of your question, which has to do with intelligence, the business increasingly is asking for -- not just reporting the news -- but making the news. What does that mean? That means you have to offer insights to different parts of the business and help them make the right decisions; things that they wouldn’t know otherwise. That requires leveraging all the data available to do thorough analysis and provide the data that all the functional leaders can use to make the best-possible decision.

Gardner: It seems that the COO is a major consumer of such intelligence. Do you feel like you are getting better tools?

Make sense of data

Lee: Yes, absolutely. We talk about being in the era of big data, so the information you can get from systems -- even from a lot of devices, be it mobile devices or sensors – amounts to an abundance and explosion of data. But how to make sense of this data is very tricky.

As a COO, a big part of what I do is not only collect the data from different areas, but then to make sense of it, to help the business understand the insights behind this data. So I absolutely believe that we are in the age where we have the tools and the processes to exploit data to the fullest.

Gardner: You mentioned the COO needs to be a jack-of-all-trades. What in your background allows you to bring that level of Renaissance man, if you will, to the job?

Lee: As COO of SAP Ariba and now SAP Fieldglass, too, I have operational responsibilities across our entire, end-to-end business. I’m responsible for helping with our portfolio strategy and investments, sales excellence, our commercial model, data analytics, reporting, and then also our learning and talent development. So that is quite a broad purview, if you will.

I feel like the things I have done before at SAP have equipped me with the tools and the mindset to be successful in this position. Before I took this on, I was a COO and general manager of sales for the SAP Greater China business. In that position, during that time, I doubled the size of SAP’s business in China, and we were also involved in some of the largest product launches in China, including SAP S/4HANA.

Before that, having been with SAP for 11 years, I had the opportunity to work across North America, Europe, and Asia in product and operating roles, in investment roles, and also sales roles.

Before joining SAP, I was a management consultant by training. I had worked at Hewlett Packard and then McKinsey and Company.

Gardner: Clearly most COOs of large companies nowadays are tasked with helping extend efficiency into a global environment, and your global background certainly suits you for that. But there’s another element of your background that you didn't mention – which is having studied and been a concert pianist. What do you think it is about your discipline and work toward a high level of musical accomplishment that also has a role in your being a COO?

The COO as conductor 

Lee: That’s a really interesting question. You have obviously done your research and know my background. I grew up studying classical music seriously, as a concert pianist, and it was always something that was very, very important to me. I feel even to this day -- I obviously have pursued a different profession -- that it is still a very key and critical part of who I am.

If I think about the two roles -- as a COO and as a musician -- there are actually quite a few parallels. To start, as a musician, you have to really be in tune with your surroundings and listen very carefully to the voices around you. And I see the COO team ultimately as a service provider, it’s a shared services team, and so it’s really critical for me to listen to and understand the requirements of my internal and external constituents. So that’s one area where I see similarities.

Secondly, the COO role in my mind is to orchestrate across the various parts of the business, to produce a strong and coherent whole. And again, this is similar to my experiences as a musician, in playing in ensembles, and especially in large symphonies, where the conductor must always know how to bring out and balance various musical voices and instruments to create a magical performance. And again, that’s very similar to what a COO must do.

Gardner: I think it’s even more appropriate now -- given that digital transformation is a stated goal for so many enterprises – to pursue orchestration and harmony and organize across multiple silos.

Does digital transformation require companies to think differently to attain that better orchestrated whole?

Lee: Yes, absolutely. From the customers that I have spoken to, digital transformation to be successful has to be a top-to-down movement. It has to be an end-to-end movement. It’s no longer a case where management just says, “Hey, we want to do this,” without the full support and empowerment of people at the working level. Conversely, you can have people at the project team level who are very well-intentioned, but without senior executive level support, it doesn't work.

The role of the COO is to orchestrate across the various parts of the business, to produce a strong and coherent whole. This is similar to my experiences as a musician, in playing in ensembles, and especially in large symphonies.

In cases where I have seen a lot of success, companies have been able to break down those silos, paint an overarching vision and mission for the company, brought everyone onto the same bandwagon, empowered and equipped them with the tools to succeed, and then drive with ruthless execution. And that requires a lot of collaboration, a lot of synergies across the full organization.

Gardner: Another lens through which to view this all is a people-centric view, with talent cultivation. Why do you think that that might even be more germane now, particularly with younger people? Many observers say Millennials have a different view of things in many ways. What is it about cultivating a people-first approach, particularly to the younger workers today, that is top of mind for you?

People-first innovation

Lee: We just talked about digital transformation. If we think about technology, no matter how much technology is advancing, you always need people to be driving the innovation. This is a constant, no matter what industry you are in or what you are trying to do.

And it’s because of that, I believe, that the top priority is to build a sustainable team and to nurture talent. There are a couple of principles I really adhere to as I think about building a “people-first team.”

First and foremost, it’s very important to go beyond just seeking work-life balance. In this day and age, you have to look beyond that and think about how you help the people on your team derive meaning from what they do.

This goes beyond just work and life and balance, this has to do with social responsibility, personal enrichment, personal aspiration, and finding commonality and community among your peers. And I find that now -- especially with the younger generation -- a lot of what they do is virtual. We are not necessarily in the office all together at the same time. So it becomes even more important to build a sense of connectivity, especially when people are not all present in the same room. And this is something that Millennials really care about.

Also for Millennials it's important for them, at the beginning of their careers, to have a strong true-north. Meaning that they need to have great mentors who can coach them through the process, work with them, develop them, and give them a good sense of belonging. That's something I always try to do on my team, to ensure that the young people get mentorship early on in their career to have one-on-one dedicated time. There should always be a sounding board for them to air their concerns or questions.

Gardner: Being a COO, in your case, means orchestrating a team of other operations professionals. What do you look for in them, in their background, that gives you a sense of them being able to fulfill the jack-of-all-trades approach?

Growth mindset drives success

Lee: I tend to think about successful individuals, or teams, along two metrics. One is domain expertise. Obviously if you are in charge of, say, data analytics then your background as a data scientist is very important. Likewise, if you are running a sales operation, a strong acumen in sales tools and processes is very important. So there is obviously a domain expertise aspect of it.

But equally, if not more important, is another mentality. I tend to believe in people who are of a growth-mindset as opposed to a closed-mindset. They tend to achieve more. What I mean by that are people who tend to want to explore more, want to learn more, who are open to new suggestions and new ways of doing things. The world is constantly changing. Technology is changing. The only way to keep up with it is if you have a growth mindset.

It’s also important for a COO team to have a service mentality, of understanding who your ultimate customer is -- be it internal or external. You must listen to them, understand what the requirements are, and then work backward and look at what you can create or what insights you can bring to them. That is very critical to me.

When we talk about procurement, end users are increasingly looking for a marketplace-like experience. They are used to a B2C experience. And for Millennials, they are pushing everyone to think differently. They expect easy, seamless access across all of their different platforms.

Gardner: I would like to take advantage of the fact that you travel quite a bit, because SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass are global in nature. What you are seeing in the field? What are your customers telling you?

Lee: As I travel the globe, I have the privilege of supporting our business across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and it's fascinating to see that there are a lot of differences and nuances -- but there are a lot of commonalities. At the end of the day, what people expect from procurement or digital transformation are more or less very similar.

There are a couple of trends I would like to share with you and your listeners. One is, when we talk about procurement, end users are increasingly looking for a marketplace-like experience. Even though they are in a business-to-business (B2B) environment, they are used to the business-to-consumer (B2C) user experience. It’s like what they get on Amazon where they can do shopping, they have a choice, it's easy to compare value, and features -- but at the same time you have all of the policies and compliance that comes with B2B. And that's something that is beginning to be the lowest common denominator.

Secondly, when we talk about Millennials, I think the Millennial experience is pushing everyone to think differently about the user experience. And not just for SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass, but for any software. How do we ensure that there is easy data access across different platforms -- be it your laptop, your desktop, your iPad, your mobile devices? They expect easy, seamless access across all their different platforms. So that is something I call the Millennial experience.

Contingent, consistent labor

Thirdly, I have learned about the rise of contingent labor in a lot of regions. We, obviously, are very honored to now have Fieldglass as part of the SAP Ariba family. And I have spent more and more time with the Fieldglass team.

In the future, there may even be a situation where there are few permanent, contracted employees. Instead, you may have a lot of project-based, or function-based, contingent laborers. We hear a lot about that, and we are focused on how to provide them with the tools and systems to manage the entire process with contingent labor.

Gardner: It strikes as an interesting challenge for COOs -- how do you best optimize and organize workers who work with you, but not for you.

Lee: Right! It's very different because when you look at the difference between indirect and direct procurement, you are talking about goods and materials. But when you are talking about contingent labor, you are talking about people. And when you talk about people, there is a lot more complexity than if you are buying a paper cup, pen, or pencil.

You have to think about what the end-to-end cycle looks like to the [contingent workers]. It extends from how you recruit them, to on-boarding, enabling, and measuring their success. Then, you have to ensure that they have a good transition out of the project they are working on.

SAP Fieldglass is one of the few solutions in the market that really understands that process and can adapt to the needs of contingent laborers.

Gardner: One more area from your observations around the globe: The definition and concept of the intelligent enterprise. That must vary somewhat, and certain cultures or business environments might accept more information, data, and analytics differently than others. Do you see that? Does it mean different things to different people?

Intelligent enterprise on the rise

Lee: At its core, if you look at the revolution of the enterprise software and solutions, we have gone from being a very transactional system -- where we are the system of bookings and record, just tracking what is being done -- to we start to automate, what we now call the intelligent enterprise. That means making sense of all the information and data to create insight.

A lot of companies are looking to transform into an intelligent enterprise. That means you need to access an abundance of data around you. We talked about the different sources -- through sensors, equipment, customers, suppliers, sometimes even from the market and your competitors -- a 360-degree view of data.

Then how do you have a seamless system that analyzes all of this data and actually makes sense of it? The intelligent enterprise takes it to the next level, which is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI). There is no longer a person or a team sitting in front of a computer and doing Excel modeling. This is the birth of the age of AI.

Now we are looking at predictive analytics, where, for example, at SAP Ariba, we look for patterns and trends on how you conduct procurement, how you contract, and how you do sourcing. We then suggest actions for the business to take. And that, to me, is an intelligent enterprise.

Gardner: How do you view the maturity of AI, in a few years, as an accelerant to the COO’s job? How important will AI be for COOs specifically?

Lee: AI is absolutely a critical, critical topic as it relates to -- not just procurement transformation -- but any transformation. There are four main areas addressed with AI, especially the advanced AI that we are seeing today.

Number one, it allows you to drive deeper engagement and adoption of your solution and what you are doing. If you think about how we interact with systems through conversations, sometimes even through gestures, that’s a different level of engagement than we had before. You are involving the end user in a way that was never done before. It’s interactive, it’s intuitive, and it avoids a lot of cost when it comes to training.

Secondly, we talk a lot about decision-making. AI gives you access to a broad array of data and you can uncover hidden insights and patterns while leveraging it.

Thirdly, we talked about talent, and I believe that having AI helps you attract and retain talent with state-of-the-art technology. We have self-learning systems that help you institutionalize a lot of knowledge.

And last, but not least, it’s all about improving business outcomes. So, you think about how you increase efficiencies for your personalized, context-specific information. In the context of procurement, you can improve approvals and accuracy, especially when you are dealing with contracts. An AI robot is a lot less prone to error than the human working on a contract. We have the statistics to prove it.

At the end of the day, we look at procurement and we see an opportunity to transform it from a very tactical, transactional function into a very strategic function. And what that means is AI can help you automate a lot of the repetitive tasks, so that procurement professionals can focus on what is truly value-additive to the organization.

Gardner: We seem to be on the cusp of an age where we are going to determine what it is that the people do best, and then also determine what the machines do best -- and let them do it.

This whole topic of bots and robotic process automation (RPA) is prevalent now across the globe. Do you have any observations about what bots and RPA are doing to your customers of SAP Fieldglass and SAP Ariba?

Sophisticated bot benefits

Lee: When we talk about bots, there are two types that come to mind. One is in the shop floor, in a manufacturing setting, where you have physical bots replacing humans and what they do.

Secondly, you have virtual bots, if you will. For example, at SAP Ariba, we have bots that analyze data, make sense of the patterns, and provide insights and decision-making support to our end users.

In the first case, I absolutely believe that the bots are getting more sophisticated. The kinds of tasks that they can take on, on the shop floors, are a lot more than what they were before -- and it drives a lot of efficiency, cuts costs, and allows employees to be redeployed to more strategic, higher value-added roles. So I absolutely see that as a positive trend going forward.

When it comes to the artificial, virtual bots, we see a lot of advancement now, not just in procurement, but in the way they are being used across sales and human resources systems. I was talking to a company just last week and they are utilizing virtual bots to do the recruiting and interviewing process. Can you imagine that?

The next time you submit your resume to a company, on the other end of the line might not be a human, but a robot that is screening you. It's now to that level of sophistication.

The next time that you are submitting your résumé to a company, on the other end of the line might not be a human that you are talking to, but actually a robot that’s screening you. And it's now to the level of sophistication where it’s hard for you to tell the difference.

Gardner: I might feel better that there is less subjectivity. If the person interviewing me didn’t have a good sleep the previous night, for example. I might be okay with that. So it’s like the Turing test, right? Do you know whether it’s real bodies or virtual bots?

Before we close out, James, do you have any advice for other COOs who are seeking to take advantage of all the ways that digital transformation is manifesting itself? What advice do you have for COOs who are seeking to up their game?

It’s up to you to up your COO game

Lee: Fundamentally, the COO role is what you make of it. A lot of companies don’t even have a COO. It’s a unique role. There is no predefined job scope or job definition.

For me, a successful COO -- at least in the way I measure myself -- is about what kind of business impact you have when you look at the profits and loss (P and L). Everything that you do should have a direct impact on your top line, as well as your bottom line. And if you feel like the things that you are doing are not directly impacting the P and L, then it’s probably time to reconsider some of those things.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Read a full transcript or download a copy. Sponsor: SAP Ariba.

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• The new procurement advantage: How business networks generate multi-party ecosystem solutions
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How healthcare providers are taking cues from consumer expectations to improve patient experiences

The next BriefingsDirect healthcare insights discussion explores the shift medical services providers are making to improve the overall patient experience.

Taking a page from modern, data-driven industries that emphasize consumer satisfaction and ease, a major hospital in the New York metro area has embarked on a journey to transform healthcare-as-a-service.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Read a full transcript or download a copy. 

To learn more about the surging importance and relevance for improving patient experiences in the healthcare sector using the many tools available to other types of businesses, we are joined by Laura Semlies, Vice President of Digital Patient Experience, at Northwell Health in metro New York, and Julie Gerdeman, President at HealthPay24 in Mechanicsburg, Penn. The discussion is moderated by Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions.

Here are some excerpts:

Gardner: What's driving a makeover in the overall medical patient experience?

Semlies: The trend we’re watching is recognizing the patient as a consumer. Now, healthcare systems are even calling patients “consumers” -- and that is truly critical.

In our organization we look at [Amazon founder and CEO] Jeff Bezos’ very popular comment about having “customer obsession” -- and not “competition obsession.” In doing so, you better understand what the patient needs and what the patient wants as a consumer. Then you can begin to deliver a new experience. 

Gardner: This is a departure. It wasn't that long ago when a patient was typically on the receiving end of information and care and was almost expected to be passive. They were just off on their way after receiving treatment. Now, there’s more information and transparency up-front. What is it about the emphasis on information sharing that’s changed, and why?

Power to the patients

Semlies: A lot of it has to do with what patients experience in other industries, and they are bringing those expectations to healthcare. Almost every industry has fundamentally changed over the course of a last decade, and patients are bringing those changes and expectations into healthcare. 

Semlies

In a digital world, patients expect their data is out there and they expect us to be using it to be more transparent, more personalized, and with more curated experiences. But in healthcare we haven’t figured it out just yet -- and that’s what digital transformation in healthcare means. 

How do you take information and translate it into more meaningful and personalized services to get to the point where patients have experiences that drive better clinical outcomes?

Gardner: Healthcare then becomes more of a marketplace. Do you feel like you’re in competition? Could other providers of healthcare come in with a better patient experience and draw the patients away?

Semlies: For sure. I don’t know if that’s true in every market, but it certainly is in the market that I operate in. We live in a very competitive market in New York. The reality is if the patient is not getting the experience they want, they have choices, and they will opt for those choices. 

A recent study concluded that 2019 will be the year that patients choose who renders their care based on things that they do or do not get. Those things can range from the capability to book appointments online, to having virtual visits, to access to a patient portal with medical record information -- or all of the above. 

And those patients are going to be making those choices tomorrow. If you don’t have those capabilities to treat the patient and meet their needs -- you won't get that patient after tomorrow.

Gardner: Julie, we're seeing a transition to the healthcare patient experience similar to what we have seen in retail, where the emphasis is on an awesome experience. Where do you see the patient experience expanding next? What needs to happen to make it a more complete experience?

Gerdeman: Laura is exactly right. Patients are doing research upfront before providers interact with them, before they even call and book an appointment. Some 70 percent of patients spend that time to look at something online or make a phone call.

Competitive, clinical customer services

We’re now talking about addressing a complete experience. That means everything from up-front research, through the clinical experience, and including the financial and billing experiences. It means end-to-end, from pre-service through post-service.

Gerdeman

And that financial experience needs to be at or better than the level of experience they had clinically. Patients are judging their experience end-to-end, and it is competitive. We hear from healthcare providers who want to keep patients out of their competitors’ waiting rooms. Part of that is driving an improved experience, where the patient-as-consumer is informed and engaged throughout the process. 

Financially speaking, what does that mean? It means digital engagement -- something simple, beautiful, and mobile that’s delivered via email or text. We have to meet the consumer, whenever, and wherever they are. That could be in the evening or early in the morning on their devices. 

That’s how people live today. Those personalized and curated experiences with Google or Alexa, they want that same experience in healthcare.

Gardner: You don’t want a walk into a time machine and go back 30 to 40 years just because you go to the hospital. The same experience you can get in your living room should be there when you go to see your doctor. 

Laura, patient-centric care is complicated enough in just trying to understand the medical issues. But now we have a growing level of complexity about the finances. There are co-pays, deductibles, different kinds of insurance, and supplemental insurance. There are upfront cost estimates versus who knows what the bill is going to be in six months.

How do we fulfill the need for complete patient-centric services when we now need to include these complex financial issues, too?

Learn How to Meet Patient Demands
For Convenient Payment Options
For Healthcare Services

Semlies: One way is to segment patients based on who they are at any moment. Patients can move very quickly from a healthy state to a state of chronic disease management. Or they can go from an episode where they need very intense care to quickly being at home.

First, you need to understand where the patients’ pain points are across those different patient journeys.

Second is studying your data and looking back and analyzing it to understand what those ranges of responsibility look like. Then you can start to articulate and package those things. You have more norms to do early and targeted financial counseling.

The final part is being able to communicate, even as things change in a person’s course of treatment, and that has an impact on your financial responsibility. That kind of dialogue in our industry is almost non-existent right now.

Sharing data and dialogue

Among the first things patients look for is via searches based on their insurance carrier. Well, insurance isn’t enough. It’s not enough to know you are going to see doctor so-and-so for x with insurance plan B. You need to know far more than that to really get an accurate sense of what’s going on. Our job is to figure out how to do that for patients.

We have to get really good at figuring out how to deliver the right level of detail on information about you and what you are seeking. We need to know enough about our healthcare system, what are the costs are and what the options are so that we can engage in dialogue.

It could be a digital dialogue, but we have to engage in a dialogue. The reality is we know even in a digital situation that patients only want to share certain amount of information. But they also want accurate information. So what’s that balance? How do you achieve that? I think the next 12 to 18 months is going to be about figuring that out.

Transparency isn’t only posting a set of hospital charges; it’s just not. It’s a step in the right direction. There is now a mandate saying that transparency is important, and we all agree with that. Yet we still need meaningful transparency, which includes the ability to start to control your options and make decisions in association with a patients’ financial health goals, too.

Gardner: So, the right information, to the right person, in the right context, at the right time. To me, that means a conversation based on shared data, because without data all along the way you can’t get the context.

What is the data sharing and access story behind the patient-centric experience story?

One of the biggest problems right now is the difference between an explanation of benefits and a statement. They don't say the same thing, and are coming from two different places. It's very difficult to explain to a patient.

Semlies: If we look at the back-end of the journey, one of the biggest problems right now is the difference between an explanation of benefits and a statement. They don’t say the same thing, and they are coming from two different places. It’s very difficult to explain everything to a patient when you don’t have that explanation of benefits (EOB) in front of you. 

What we’re going to see in the next months and years -- as more collaboration is needed between payers and health systems and providers – is a new standard around how to communicate. Then we can perhaps have an independent dialogue with a patient about their responsibilities. 

But we don’t own the benefits structure. There are a lot of moving parts in there. To independently try to control that conversation across health systems, we couldn’t possibly get it right.

So one of the strategies we are pursuing is how do we work with each and every one of our health systems to try and drive innovation around data sharing and collaboration so that we can get the right answer for a shared patient. 

That “consumer” is shared between us as providers as well as the payer plan that hosts the patient. Then you need to add another layer of extra complexity around the employer population. Those three players need to be working carefully together to be able to solve this problem. It’s not going to be a single conversation.

Gardner: This need to share collaborative data across multiple organizations is a big problem. Julie, how do you see this drive for a customer-centric shared data equation playing out?

Healthy interoperability 

Gerdeman: Technology and innovation are going to drive the future of this. It's an opportunity for companies to come together. That means interoperability, whether you're a payments provider like HealthPay24, or you're providing statement information, you're providing estimates information. Across those fronts, all of that data relates to one patient. Technology and innovation can help solve these problems.

We view interoperability as the key, and we hear it all the time. Northwell and our other provider customers are asking for that transparency and interoperability. We, as part of that community, need to be interoperable and integrate in order to present data in a simple way that a consumer can understand. 

When you’re a consumer you want the information that you need at that moment to make a decision. If you can get it proactively -- all the better. Underlying all this, though, is trust. It’s something I like to talk about. Transparency is needed because there is lack of trust.

Transparency is just part of the trust equation. If you present transparency and you do it consistently, then the consumer -- the patient -- has trust. They have immediate trust when they walk into a provider or doctor’s office as a patient. Technology has an opportunity to help solve that.

Gardner: Laura, you’re often at the intercept point with patients. They are going to be asking you – the healthcare provider -- their questions. They will look to you to be the funnel into this large ecosystem behind the scenes.

What would you like to see more of from those other players in that ecosystem to make your job easier, so that you can provide that right level of trusted care upfront to the patient?

Simplify change and choice

Semlies: Collaboration and interoperability in this space are essential. We need to see more of that.

The other thing that we need -- and it's not necessarily from those players, but from the collective whole -- is a sense of modeling “if-then” situations. If this happens what will then happen?

By leveraging from such process components, we can remodel things really well and in a very sophisticated fashion. And that can work in many areas with so many choices and paths that you could take. So far, we don't do any of that in price transparency with our patients. And we need to because the boundaries are not tight.

What you charge – from copay to coinsurance – can change as you're moving from observation to inpatient, or inpatient back to observation. It changes the whole balance card for a patient. We need the capability to model that out and articulate the why, how, and when -- and then explain what the impact is. It's a very complicated conversation.

But we need to figure out all of those options along with the drivers of costs. It has to be made simple so that patients can engage, understand, and anticipate it. Then, ultimately, we can explain to them their responsibility.

I often hear that patients are slow to pay, or struggle to pay. Part of what makes them slow to pay is the confusion and complexity around all of this information. I think patients want to pay their share.

Earn patients’ trust

It’s just the complexity around this makes it difficult, and it creates a friction point that shouldn't be there. We do have a trust situation from an administrative perspective. I don't think our patients trust us in regard to the cost of their care, and to what their share of the care is. 

I don’t think they trust their insurers and payers tremendously. So we have to earn trust. And it’s going to mean that we need to be way more accurate and upfront. It’s about the basics. Did you give me a bill that I can understand? Did I have options when I went to pay it? We don’t even do that easy stuff well today.

I used to joke that we should be paying patients to pay us because we make it so difficut. We are now in a better place. We are putting in the foundation so that we can earn trust and credibility.

I used to joke that we should be paying patients to pay us because we made it so difficult. We are now in a better place. We are putting in the foundation so that we can earn trust and credibility. We are beginning the dialogue of, “What do you need as a patient?” With that information, we can go back and create the tools to engage with these patients. 

We have done more than 1,000 hours of patient focus group studies on financial health issues, along with user testing to understand what they need to feel better about their financial health. There is clinical health, there are clinical outcomes -- but there is also financial health. Those are new words to the industry.

If I had a crystal ball, I’d say we’re going to be having new conversations around what a patient needs to feel secure, that they understood what they were getting into, and that they knew about their ability to pay it or had other options, too.

Meet needs, offer options

Gerdeman: Laura made two points that I think are really important. The first is around learning, testing, and modeling -- so we can look at the space differently. That means using predictive analytics upfront in specific use cases to anticipate patient needs. What do they need, and what works? 

We can use isolated, specific use-cases to test using technology -- and learn. For example, we have offered up-front discounts for patients. If they pay in full, they get a discount. We learned that there are certain cases where you can collect more by offering a discount. That’s just one use-case, but predictive analytics, testing, and learning are the key. 

The second thing that is dead-on is around options. Patients want options. Patients want to know, “Okay, what are my choices?” If that’s an emergency situation, we don’t have the option to research it, but then soon after, what are the choices?

Most American consumers have less than $500 set aside for medical expenses. Do they have the option of a self-service and flexible payment plan? Can they get a loan? What are their choices to make an informed choice? Perhaps at home at their convenience.

Those are two examples where technology can really help play a role in the future. 

Gardner: You really can’t separate the economics from healthcare. We’re in a new era where economics and healthcare blend together, the decision-making for both of them comes together.

We talked about the need for data and how it can help collaboration and process efficiency. It also allows for looking at that data and applying analytics, learning from it, then applying those lessons back. So, it’s a really exciting time.

But I want to pause for a moment. Laura, your title of “Vice President of Digital Patient Experience” is unique. What does it take to become a Vice President of Digital Patient Experience?

Journey to self-service 

Semlies: That is a great question. The Digital Patient Experience Office at Northwell is a new organization inside of the health system. It’s not an initiative- or a program-focused office where it’s one and done, where you go in and you deliver something and then you’re done. 

We are rallying around the notion that the patient expects to be able to interact with us digitally. To do so we need to transform our entire organization -- culturally, operationally, and technically to be able accommodate that transformation. 

Before, I was responsible for revenue cycle transformation of the Northwell Health system. So I do have a financial background. However, what set me up for pursuing this digital transformation was the recognition that self-service was going to disrupt the traditional revenue cycle. We need to have a new capability around self-service that inherently allows the consumer to do what they want and need to manage their administrative interactions differently with the health system.

See the New Best Practice
Of Driving Patient Loyalty
Through Estimation

I was a constant voice for the last decade in our health system, saying, “We need to do this to our infrastructure so that we can be able to rationalize and standardize our core applications that serve the patient, including the revenue cycle systems, so that we can interoperate in a different way and create a platform by which patients can self-serve.”

And we’re still in that journey, but we’re at a point where we can begin to engage very differently. I’m working to solve three fundamental questions at the heart of the primary pain-points, or friction points, that patients have.

Patients tell us these three things: “You never remember who I am. I have been coming here for the last 10 years and you still ask me for my name, my date of birth, my insurance, my clinical history. You should know that by now.”

Two, they say, “I can't figure out how to get in to see the right doctor at the right time at the right location for me. Maybe it’s a great location for you, or a great appointment time for you. But what if it doesn't work for me? How do I fix that?”

And, third, they say, “My bills are confusing. The whole process of trying to pay a bill or get a question answered about one is infuriating.”

Whenever you talk to anyone in our health system -- whether it’s our chief patient experience officer, CEO, chief administrative officer, or COO -- those are the three things that were also coming out of customer service, Press Ganey [patient satisfaction] results, and complaints. When you have direct conversations with patients, such as through family advisory councils, the complaints weren’t about the clinical stuff.

Digital tools to ease the pain

It was all on the administrative burden that we were putting on patients, and this anonymity that patients were walking through our halls with. Those are what we needed to focus on first. And so that’s what we’re doing.

We will be bringing out a set of tools so our patients will be able to, in a very systematic way, negotiate appointment management. They will be able to view and manage their appointments online with the ability to book, change, and cancel anything that they need to. They will simply see those appointments and get directions to those appointments and communicate with those administrative officers.

The second piece of the improvement is around the, “You never remember who I am” problem, where they have been to a doctor and get the blank clipboard to fill out. Then, regardless of whether they were there yesterday or went to see a new doctor, they get the same blank clipboard.

We’re focused on getting away from the clipboard to remembering information and not seeking the same information twice -- only if there is the potential that information has changed. Instead of a blank form, we present them the opportunity to revise. And they do it remotely on their time. So we are respecting them by being truly prepared when they come to the office.

The second piece of the improvement is around the, "You never remember who I am" problem, where they have been to a doctor and get the blank clipboard to fill out. Regardless of whether they were there yesterday or go to a new doctor, they get the same blank clipboard to fill out.

The other side of “never remembering who I am” is proper authentication of digital identity. It’s not just attaching a name with the face virtually. You have to be able to authenticate so that information can be shared with the patient at home. It means being able to have digital interactions that are not superficial. 

The third piece [of our patient experience improvement drive] is the online payment portal for which we use HealthPay24. The vision is not only for patients to be able to pay one bill, but for any party that has a responsibility within the healthcare system -- whether it’s a lab, ambulance, hospital or physician – to provide the capability to all be paid in a single transaction using our digital tools. We take it one step further by giving it a retail experience, with such features as “save the card on file” so if you paid the bill last week you shouldn’t have to rekey those digits into the system. 

We plan to take it even further. For example, providing more options to pay -- whether by a loan, payment plan, or to use such services as Apple Pay and Google Pay. We believe these should be stable stakes, but we’re behind and are putting in those pieces now just to catch up. 

Our longer-term vision goes far deeper. We expect to go all the way back to the point of when patients are just beginning to seek care. How do I help them understand what their financial responsibility and options are at that point, before they even have a bill in our system? This is the early version of digital transformation.

Champion patient loyalty

Gerdeman: Everything Laura just talked about comes down to one word -- loyalty. What they are putting in place will drive patient loyalty, just like consumer loyalty. In the retail space we have seen loyalty to certain brands because of how consumers interact with them, as an emotional experience. It comes down to a combination of human elements and technology to create the raving fans, in this case, of Northwell Health.

Gardner: We have seen the digital user experience approach be very powerful in other industries. For example, when I go to my bank digitally I can see all my transactions. I know what my balances are. I can set payment schedules. If I go to my investment organization, I can see the same thing with my retirement funds. If I go to my mortgage holder, same thing. I can see what I owe on my house, and maybe I want a second property and so I can immediately initiate a new loan. It’s all there. We know that this can be done.

Julie, what needs to happen to get that same level of digital transparency and give the power to the consumer to make good choices across the healthcare sector?

Rx: Tech for improved healthcare

Gerdeman: It requires a forward-looking view into what’s possible. And we’re seeing disruption. At the recent HiMSS 2019 conference [in February in Orlando] a gathering of 45,000 people were thinking like champions of healthcare -- about what can be done and what’s possible. To me, that’s where you start. 

Like Laura said, many are playing catch-up. But we also need to be leapfrogging into the future. What emerging technologies can change the dynamic? Artificial intelligence (AI) and what’s happening there, for example. How can we better leverage predictive analytics? We’re also examining Blockchain, so what can distributed ledger do and what role can it play?

I’m really excited about what’s possible with marrying emerging technology, while still solving the nuts and bolts of interoperability and integration. There is hard work in integration and interoperability to get systems talking to one another. You can’t get away from that ugly part of the job, but then there is an exciting future part of job that I think is fundamental. 

Laura also talked about culture and cultural shift. None of it can happen without an embrace of change management. That’s also hard because there are always people and personalities. But if you can embrace change management along with the technology disruption, new things can happen.

Semlies: Julie mentioned the hard, dirty work behind the scenes. That data work is really fundamental, and that has prevented healthcare from becoming more digital. People are represented by their data in the digital space. You only know people when you understand their data.

In healthcare -- at least from a provider perspective -- we have been pretty good about collecting information about a patient’s clinical record. We understand them clinically.

We also do a pretty decent job at understanding the patient from a reimbursement and charges perspective. We can get a bill out the door and get the bill paid. Sometimes if we don’t get the bill paid, when it gets down to the secondary responsibility, we do collect that information and we get those bills out. The interaction is there. 

What we don’t do well is managing processes across hundreds of systems. There are hundreds of systems in any big healthcare system today. The bridges and connections between those data systems are just not there. So a patient often finds themselves interacting with each and every one of them.

For example, I am a patient as the mom of three kids. I am a patient as the daughter of two aging parents. I am wife to a husband who I am interacting with. And I am myself my own patient. The data that I need to deal with -- and the systems I need to interact with -- when I am booking an appointment, versus paying a bill, versus looking for lab results, versus trying to look for a growth chart on a child -- I am left to self-navigate across this world. It’s very complex and I don’t understand it as a patient. 

Our job is to figure out how to manage tomorrow and the patient of tomorrow who wants to interact digitally. We have to be able to integrate all of these different data points and make that universally accessible.

Electronic medical record (EMR) portals deal more with the clinical interactions. Some have gotten good at doing some of the administrative components, but certainly not all of them. We need to create something that is far broader and has the capability to connect the data points that live in silos today -- both operationally as well as technically. This has to be the mandate.

Open the digital front door

Gardner: You don’t necessarily build trust when you are asking the patient to be the middleware, to be the sneaker-ware, walking between the PC and the mainframe. 

Let’s talk about some examples. In order to get cultural change, one of the tried-and-true methods is to show initial progress, have a success story that you can champion. That then leads to wider adoption, and so forth. What is Northwell Health’s Digital Front Door Team? That seems an example of something that works and could be a harbinger of a larger cultural shift.

Semlies: Our Digital Front Door Team is responsible for creating tools and technology to provide a single access point for our patients. They won’t have to have multiple passwords or multiple journeys in order to interact with us.

Over the course of the last year, we've established a digital platform that all of our digital technologies and personnel connect to. That last point is really important because when a patient interacts with you digitally, there is a core expectation today that if they have told you something digitally, as soon as they show up in person, you are going to know it, use it, and remember it. The technology needs to extend the conversation or journey of experience as opposed to starting over. That was really critical for our platform to provide.

When a patient interacts with you digitally, there is a core expectation today that if they have told you something digitally, as soon as they show up, you are going to know it and use it. The technology needs to extend the conversation.

Such a platform should consist of a single sign-on (SSO) capability, an API management tool, and a customer relationship management (CRM) database, from which we can learn all of the information about a patient. The CRM data drives different kinds of experiences that can be personalized and curated, and that data lives in the middle of the two data topics we discussed earlier. We collect that data today, and the CRM tool brokers all of this so it can be in the hands of every employee in the health system. 

The last piece was to put meaningful tools around the friction points we talked about, such as for appointment management. We can see availability of a provider and book directly into it with no middleman. This is direct booking, just like when I book an appointment on OpenTable. No one has to call me back. They may just send a digital reminder.

Gardner: And how has the Digital Front Door Team worked out? Do you have any metrics of success?

Good for patients, good for providers

Semlies: We took an agile approach to implementing it. Our first component was putting in the online payment capability with HealthPay24 in July 2018. Since then, we have approximately $25 million collected. In just the last six months, there have been more than 46,000 transactions. In December, we began a sign-in benefit so patients can login and see all of their balances across Northwell. 

We had 3,000 people sign-in to that process in the first several weeks, and we’re seeing evidence that our collections are starting to go up.

We implemented our digital forms tool in September 2018. We collected more than 14,000 digital forms in the first few months. Patients are loving that capability. The next version will be an at-home version so you will get text messages saying, “We see you have booked an appointment. Here are your forms to prepare for your visit.” They can get them all online. 

We are also piloting biometrics so that when you first show up at your appointment you will have the opportunity to have your picture taken. It’s iris-scanning and deep facial recognition technology so that will be the method of authentication. That will also be used more over time for self check-ins and eventually to access the ultimate portal. 

The intent was to deploy as early as there was value to the patient. Then over time all of those services will be connected as a single experience. Next to come are improved appointment management with the capability to book appointments online, as well as to change, manage, see all appointments via a connection to the patient portal.

All of those connection points will be rendered through the same single sign-in by the end of this quarter, both on our website, https://www.northwell.edu/, and via a proprietary mobile app that will come out in the app stores.

Gardner: Those metrics and rapid adoption show that a good patient experience isn’t just good for the patient -- it’s good for the provider and across the entire process. Julie, is Northwell Health unique in providing the digital front door approach?

Gerdeman: We are seeing more healthcare providers adopt this approach, with one point of access into their systems, whether you are finding a doctor or paying a bill. We have seen in our studies that seven out 10 patients only go to a provider’s website to pay a bill. 

From a financial perspective, we are working hard with leaders like Laura whose new roles support the digital patient experience. Creating that experience drives adoption, and that adoption drives improved collections.

Ease-of-use entertains and retains clients

Semlies: This channel is extremely important to us from a patient loyalty and retention perspective. It’s our opportunity to say, “We have heard you. We have an obligation to provide you tools that are convenient, easy to use, and, quite frankly, delight you.”

But the portal is not the only channel. We recognize that we have to be in lots of different places from the adoption perspective. The portal is not the only place every patient is going. There will be opportunities for us to populate what I refer to as the book-now button. And the book-now button cannot be exclusive to the Northwell digital front door.

View More Provider Success Stories
On Driving Useage, Adotion,
And Loyalty Among Patients

I need to have that book-now button in the hands of every payer agent who is on the phone talking to a patient or in their digital channel or membership. I need to have it out in the Zocdocs of the world, and in any other open scheduling application out there. 

I need to have ratings and reviews. We need to be multichannel in our funnel in, but once we get you in we have to give you tools and resources that surprise and delight you and make that re-engagement with somebody else harder because we make it so easy for you to use our health system. 

And we have to be portable so you can take it with you if you need to go somewhere. The concept is that we have to be full service, and we want to give you all of the tools so you can be happy about the service you are getting -- not just the clinical outcome but the administrative service, too.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Read a full transcript or download a copy. Sponsor: HealthPay24.

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