By focusing on digital strategies beyond those that touch patients, NYU Langone Health has saved millions of dollars annually and has driven patient and revenue growth, health system executives said in a virtual discussion Thursday.
The health system's strategy was launched in 2017 and was built on a robust IT foundation, of which Epic is a part, executives said. Besides homing in on the digital experience as it relates to patients, NYU Langone Health also focused on the digital experience in the context of clinicians, research, education and the workforce, all of which rest on an infrastructure driven by data and analytics.
In an effort to establish cross-functional governance and continuous teamwork, the health system’s strategy was to include all teams in the conversation, including marketing, operations and clinical partners. It aimed to not sacrifice one experience (like that of a clinician) for the improvement of another (like that of a patient). With this commitment, the health system was able to garner more internal support.
“We were going hand-in-hand to identify and solve problems together,” Caitlin Cronk, the health system’s acting senior director of digital product, said during the event, which was hosted by Epic.
Through ongoing training of staff and by centering itself around a product-oriented culture, the system tried to enable all teams to think about a holistic end-to-end experience, not just one system or app. Further, it thought about innovation as being able to come from anywhere, not just one specific group dedicated to it.
As a way of minding resources, the system focused first on building upon things that already existed by looking at the entire system rather than attempting to start from scratch. This helped maintain an integrated experience for both patients (who use one app for their entire journey) and clinicians (who also rely only on one interface).
When it comes to funding, “we are very cheap,” joked Nader Mherabi, NYU Langone's chief digital and information officer. Digital investments can get expensive quickly, he elaborated, and the organization has wanted to be intentional about its investments and make sure they deliver on quality.
By eliminating existing redundancies and streamlining workflows, NYU Langone scored millions of dollars in savings. Those savings were then invested straight into digital strategy as returns from digital products went straight to innovation. Today, the system’s patients schedule 150,000 appointments online each month.
One of the biggest investments was not in technology but rather in gathering the right content, Mherabi said, which includes things like educational video assets and the timing of texts sent to patients.
The system has a digital team that maintains and looks after all journey content, and, without it, patient trust would be lost. Additionally, the system incorporated regular references to data indicative of successes as a guide for future strategies, executives said.