Health Care Symposium: Health pros take on challenges, trends

How can we get and keep more health care workers in the region? What’s behind all the health company mergers and acquisitions? Will local doctors start using artificial intelligence (AI) to help treat patients? Those were some of the questions tackled Wednesday afternoon, March 20, during the Quad Cities Regional Business Journal’s inaugural Health Care […]

How can we get and keep more health care workers in the region? What’s behind all the health company mergers and acquisitions? Will local doctors start using artificial intelligence (AI) to help treat patients?

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Those were some of the questions tackled Wednesday afternoon, March 20, during the Quad Cities Regional Business Journal’s inaugural Health Care Symposium held at the Quad Cities Waterfront Convention Center, Bettendorf. About 100 attendees – including business and healthcare professionals – listened as six medical professionals offered views on the changing health care landscape in the region. They gave a glimpse into the changing technology, financial challenges, AI, attracting more workers to the health fields, and many other topics. The symposium was sponsored by Vivid Clear RX and the University of Iowa Health Care. Marcia Lense, anchor and producer at KWQC-TV, was the moderator of the event. “I came here to hear what solutions some of these people have,” said Randi Hurt, a  provider relations manager with the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. “I really liked what they had to say about workforce shortages and AI.” Workforce issues and the roles of AI in health care were two of the main topics handled by a four-person panel consisting of Tom Bowman, CEO of Community Health Care; Dr. Christopher Crome, chief medical officer at Genesis Health System; Mike Horsfield, CEO of Rock Valley Physical Therapy; and Shawn Morrow, CEO of UnityPoint-Trinity. “We’re still having trouble finding staff. We have to be creative,” said Dr. Crome when asked about staffing issues in the region. He added that one of those creative solutions is conducting searches overseas to find healthcare workers to come to the QC. Others panelists said that solutions to recruiting the needed future workforce can be found by working with area high schools and colleges, and providing the type of work environment that young healthcare workers want. “Younger workers want to be in a high-tech, digital environment,” said Mr. Morrow. He added that when it comes to attracting workers to the region it’s not just nurses – more workers are needed in almost every profession in the healthcare field. And all those professionals continue to heavily rely on technological tools, such as AI, the panelists said. Artificial intelligence tools continue to help healthcare pros by charting conversations between doctors and patients, documenting visits and many other administrative duties, according to the four speakers. “It has really helped us with efficiency,” said Mr. Bowman. But members of the panel added that they don’t see AI directly assisting in making patient diagnosis or doctors using the technology to make medical decisions. Other advances in technology – and their uses in local hospitals and clinics – were also discussed by the panel members. Much of that technology centered on using computers to help and see patients, especially through the growth of telemedicine technology. But Dr. Crome said it’s important to use the technology in a way that will help individual patients. For instance, some patients like to see doctors in a virtual setting and some still want in-person visits. “Some people want to be seen once a year. Some people want to talk to their doctor almost every day,” he added. And some patients – especially younger ones – are quick to use technology offered by smartphones, but don’t expect them to use phones to actually make calls, Mr. Horsfield said. The crowd broke out in laughter as he said “I have three teenage daughters and if you ask them to call any human on the phone, there is a zero percent chance that will happen.”  Technology offers great tools, but Mr. Bowman said that it’s important for patients to have access to high-tech tools. For instance, he said many of Community Health Care’s low income patients don’t have the same access to high speed internet or laptop computers and similar devices. Some of the questions posed to the panel included:

• Competition – does it or hurt or help local hospitals?  Most panelists said that competition is good and helps patients by giving them more medical options. But there are also some drawbacks to the ongoing competition. For instance, Dr. Crome said that just a few years ago, when a local patient needed to be transferred to University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics for more advanced care, he could make a phone call and the transfer was made in a couple of hours. Today, that transfer could take a couple of days.
• The pandemic – what have local health care professionals learned from the experience? Mr. Bowman said the experience has forged bonds of cooperation between the competing healthcare providers. Also, healthcare workers learned to adapt quickly to the changing environment. As for patients, before the pandemic, many had never had an online virtual visit with a doctor. Today, those visits and the technology are second nature for many people, said Dr. Crome.
• Mergers and acquisitions – why so many? In some cases, the mergers are driven by financial pressures. In other cases, they can add services to local providers so patients do not have to travel for care outside the community. Some of the recent merger moves include: Endocrine Associates of the Quad Cities will become part of Genesis Health System effective March 25; and last year, Genesis merged with MercyOne;  UnityPoint’s Mr. Morrow said the “motivations vary (for mergers), but they are not going away any time soon.” Mr. Horsfield said that when it comes to mergers, the real concern patients should have is the possible elimination of healthcare choices. “I’m going to get really worried when I don’t have a choice anymore,” he added.

Wednesday’s health care symposium also featured a presentation by Amy Wadstrom, president of Vivid Clear Rx, a wholly owned subsidiary of HyVee. (Vivid Clear Rx is a national pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) that was created to bring more transparency to the pharmacy benefit industry. To control costs for its clients, the PBM offers a 100% pass-through model with no spread pricing, as well as real-time data and reporting for clients to monitor their benefit costs, according to Vivid Clear’s website.) In a question-and-answer format with John Lohman, the CEO and president of the QCBJ’s parent company, Corridor Media Group, Ms. Wadstrom discussed a variety of issues, including PBM reforms, bringing more healthcare services to patients and bringing more people into the workforce to become pharmacists. “It’s really hard right now. Pharmacists are really burnt out,” Ms. Wadstrom said. The keynote speaker at the symposium was Dr. Cheryl True, board chair of the Quad City Health Initiative. Dr. True gave an overview of that organization’s work and goals, and a look at some of the health trends in the Quad Cities. Some of those health trends show people in the area are using more tobacco, drinking more and exercising less compared to a few years ago. However, there have been improvements in the cancer death rate, health insurance coverage, routine medical care and health literacy. She added that six in 10 adults in the U.S. have a chronic disease, and four in 10 have two or more chronic diseases. Some of the leading factors in poor health include tobacco use, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity and excessive alcohol use, Dr. True said. More improvements are needed – and those improvements will take a community effort. “It’s really an all-hands-on-deck approach. It takes all of us,” Dr. True added.