Ardent Health Services CEO Marty Bonick discusses healthcare innovation and partnership with Cadence
In the latest episode of Cadence Conversations, Cadence Co-Founder & Board Member Kareem Zaki sits down with Marty Bonick, President and CEO of Ardent Health Services, to discuss the health system's investments in technology and innovation and the recently announced partnership between Ardent and Cadence.
Ardent Health Services is a health system that spans 30 hospitals and approximately 200 sites of care across eight different markets in six states across the U.S. As part of the recently announced partnership, Cadence will implement remote patient monitoring and responsive virtual care across Ardent's operations and deliver personalized, consistent care and intervention as needed for patients from home by collecting, analyzing, and responding to patients’ vitals daily as an extension of their care team.
The Ardent-Cadence partnership was first successfully rolled out at Utica Park Clinic in Ardent’s Tulsa, Oklahoma market and will be deployed in multiple markets over the course of the year.
During the podcast conversation, Bonick emphasized Ardent's long-term vision of putting patients first and explained why innovation and technology are so critical to help achieve that goal.
"We're really energized and excited about really transforming the company to really putting the consumer, the person, at the center of everything that we do, and really thinking about, how do we provide care on their terms versus our terms?" he shared. "If we want to be relevant as health systems in the future, we've got to make sure that we're disrupting ourselves. Otherwise, somebody else is going to come in and do that."
Ardent Health Services has a rich track record of investing in technology and innovation. Recently, the company appointed a Chief Medical Information Officer and launched a healthcare innovation studio.
Speaking about the company's commitment to technology, Bonick shared, "Medical and technological advances have really propelled this industry forward, but never really from the consumer standpoint. That's the part where we're behind, I think, the rest of the secular world. And, so, we have to find ways of bringing that innovative spirit that we've always had in medicine of always trying to find the next best way to treat somebody or care for somebody. Now, we've got to bring that to how we interact with people and helping them be a part of their healthcare journey."
A part of that commitment to technology and innovation is also Ardent's partnership with Cadence, which Bonick spoke about at length. He began by discussing why Ardent decided to ultimately partner with Cadence, as opposed to trying to build a remote patient monitoring technology solution of their own.
"We're not the people, the team that's going to create the new software or the operations, to do something that's outside of our core day-to-day business," he shared. "Cadence did a wonderful job of investing. And when somebody sees technology that works, it's like, "Wow, why didn't I think of that?"But people forget the amount of research, labor, and time and energy that goes into developing that. And, so, the technology has to work, to get patient adoption, to get clinician adoption, it has to work."
When the partnership was announced, Bonick had noted in a press release that, "Our partnership with Cadence embodies our purpose of caring for others by putting in place the technology and clinical protocols to deliver better care, alleviate unnecessary burdens on our clinicians, and improve the overall healthcare experience across all touchpoints.”
During the podcast, he went deeper and discussed the benefits of Cadence for clinicians and patients. First, discussing what Cadence can unlock for clinicians, Bonick shared, "The ability to work with Cadence really just adds another tool in our clinicians' tool belts."
"Having technology that can help the physicians stay connected in a non-obtrusive way, where they're not having to take additional quantities of time away from seeing other patients, but can still follow up and see how their patient is progressing or not, and make treatment adjustments, it's really just powerful what this technology can unlock and help physicians do better at providing that care that their patients need, want, and deserve, in a way that it doesn't take them out of their day-to-day," he shared.
Cadence and Ardent's partnership supports patients with hypertension, congestive heart failure, and diabetes, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to launch later in 2023. Speaking about patients with chronic conditions, Bonick shared, "A lot of patients are living with chronic conditions that they can live with, but need care and maintenance."
"And, so, the ability to work with Cadence and bringing technology, again, where we can stay connected to our patients and understand the small changes that might be taking place in their life from a day-to-day or hour-to-hour basis, without being obtrusive to the patient or being overly taxing on our clinicians, really just provides a sort of security blanket around that physician-patient relationship."
Finally, Bonick ended the podcast with a call to action for clinicians inside of Ardent Health Services, as well as leaders at other hospital systems, to embrace Cadence and remote monitoring technology.
"One of the things that we loved about Cadence and the model that you've built, is it really is the easy button for health systems, for our clinicians. You guys have put the time and the research into thinking through the technology, the workflows, and how to make this something that is really an additive to the patient experience and to their health outcomes, without having to be a burden on the health system, to take and divert other scarce resources that we have. This is really expanding our reach, our purpose, our mission, at the end of the day, of helping people and caring for people, in a very easy and non-intrusive way."
"So, I don't see why somebody wouldn't do this because it's better outcomes for their patients. There's reimbursement for the clinicians. It's providing better care and really just helps to close that loop and then keep us engaged with our patients beyond just, again, that office visit or hospital stay," Bonick stated.
Listen to the entire podcast episode above and be sure to subscribe to Cadence Conversations wherever you get your podcasts to listen to future episodes.
Previous episodes of Cadence Conversations include CEO of Community Health Systems, Tim Hingtgen, discussing how CHS approaches digital innovation in health, Rob Jay, CEO of ScionHealth discussing the hospital system's partnership with Cadence, FryeCare Family Medicine Dr. Amanda Du Sablon discussing the benefits of using Cadence, and Dr. David Shulkin, 9th Secretary, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs discussing the future of remote patient monitoring (RPM).
If you're interested in learning more information about Cadence and how to get involved, visit Cadence.care and please get in touch with our team.
Read the full transcript of the conversation below:
Episode Transcript
Introduction: Welcome to Cadence Conversations, where we're talking with prominent physicians, healthcare leaders, and tech entrepreneurs about their experiences driving innovation and progress. This week, Cadence co-founder and board member Kareem Zaki got to chat with Marty Bonick, President and CEO of Ardent Health Services. The two talk about Ardent Health Services' continued investment in technology and innovation, their recently announced partnership with Cadence, and putting patients at the center of the healthcare journey. So, let's get to this week's Cadence Conversation.
Kareem Zaki (KZ): Marty, thank you so much for joining me today. Really looking forward to the conversation.
Marty Bonick (MB): Likewise, Kareem. It's good to see you.
KZ: I'm particularly excited because I know we've known each other for a while now, and you've shared a lot about not only your experience as an executive, but your personal journey as a patient in the healthcare system. But maybe we'll just start actually with you sharing a little bit about Ardent Health Services and the scale of the system and the key initiatives that you all are working and focused on.
The Scale and Key Initiatives That Ardent Health Services Is Focused On
MB: Sure. Ardent Health is a health system with 30 hospitals, about 200 sites of care, across eight markets in six states. And we've got about 1400 providers that are aligned in working with us, in either employment or other contractual arrangements.
And as far as initiatives, beyond survival, which has been the name of the game in healthcare for the last few years, we're really energized and excited about really transforming the company to really putting the consumer, the person, at the center of everything that we do, and really thinking about, how do we provide care on their terms versus our terms?
I think healthcare has been this industry where we've had the "If you build it, they will come" philosophy. And I think COVID has taught us that the world has changed, and we've got to change and adapt with it. So, that's really informing and guiding a lot of our decision processes, in terms of how we think about growth and development of our company, across the markets that we serve.
KZ: Going to your point about Ardent putting the consumer at the center of healthcare, and returning to that, you were that consumer at one point. You went through this patient journey. Can you just talk a little bit about that, if you're comfortable sharing it, maybe how that's reshaped your view as a hospital executive after going through that experience?
MB: Sure. So, in Cliffs Notes, I was training for an Ironman race about 18 months ago and was about 80 miles into a 100-mile bicycle ride and got t-boned by a car that was going about 55 miles an hour. So, for the first time in my life, I got to experience life as a patient beyond a simple clinic visit or something like that.
And so, from the ambulance ride to the trauma unit and all the experiences that ensued, I really got to see healthcare from an insider's point of view. And again, I'm sure many of our listeners have been there as a patient. But what I learned was we've got wonderful caregivers that are really trapped with subpar systems, processes, and an ecosystem that they have to deal with to try to deliver that care at the end of the day. And we've got to do better in healthcare.
So for me, after being in this industry for 25-plus years, it really was kind of just a reawakening of what we have to do better. But I can control my whole life from this phone and, regardless of where I'm at, I can get to my bank accounts and my home and security cameras and control my car and everything. But in healthcare, this technology has been somewhat of a brick. I can call somebody. I can be put on hold and get frustrated, but it's not really convenient, in terms of accessing my information, controlling my destiny, interacting with providers in a sort of a 21st century way.
And so, my experience taught me, and it's really informed the way in which we're thinking across the company, that we've got to put, again, the consumer's needs at the center of everything that we're doing and find ways to engage with them in a 21st century way. Because if we want to be relevant as health systems in the future, we've got to make sure that we're disrupting ourselves. Otherwise, somebody else is going to come in and do that. And Amazon and Google and Microsoft and everybody wants a piece of the healthcare pie. But I think the health systems are really in the position, if we embrace the opportunity, to be that trust broker for the patient, but we have to change what we do.
And again, it can't be a transactional relationship, where we're just expecting the patient to come to us for everything. We've got to meet them where they are at and where their needs are coming from.
How Ardent Health Services Is Embracing Innovation and Technology
KZ: Being hit by a car at that speed is nothing you want to ever hear, and so glad that you're doing well now. And obviously, it's inspired you to invest a lot more on transforming that experience. I know one of those areas of investing is, you recently have a Chief Medical Information Officer. You've invested a lot in your electronic health record experience and launched a healthcare innovation studio. Can you talk more about technology and innovation and why you're investing so much in these areas?
MB: Medical and technological advances have really propelled this industry forward, but never really from the consumer standpoint. That's the part where we're behind, I think, the rest of the secular world. And, so, we have to find ways of bringing that innovative spirit that we've always had in medicine of always trying to find the next best way to treat somebody or care for somebody. Now, we've got to bring that to how we interact with people and helping them be a part of their healthcare journey.
So, the investments that we're making are really shaped around three broad areas. One is that digital patient enablement in terms of how do we engage with our patients, as consumers, and the way in which they want to be engaged?
The second, is how do we redesign care at the bedside and what do we do inside of the health system proper? We've always been short of nurses as long as I've been in the field, but it's palpably different now than it's been, and we've got to find ways to support them at the bedside to deliver that care more efficiently, more intelligently.
And, so, we're really focusing on technology that will help support our providers; not to replace them, but really to augment them when we've got these shortages so we can make sure we're caring for everybody that wants to come into our doors.
And then thinking about care beyond the hospital. If we think about a typical patient, as a health system, we will see them as an acute inpatient for four days maybe, but likely, that person had a medical condition before they came in, and they're going to have one when they go home. We just help treat that acute phase. But what we want to do is make sure that we're staying connected to that patient even beyond the hospital, that acute visit, if we want to holistically connect with that person and, again, be that trust broker, in terms of helping them navigate their care journey.
Why Ardent Health Services Chose to Partner With Cadence
KZ: And these areas of innovation you're exploring, can you talk about your approach to partnership? We feel very fortunate at Cadence to partner with Ardent. We announced that just a little bit ago. But from your lens, how do you think about pursuing some of these initiatives, whether these are things that you're going to build it out internally and pursue on your own, versus partner with other companies to help you on that journey? And how do you all think about that?
MB: I'm a big believer in partnerships. Our company was somewhat founded on that notion. We have joint venture partnership relationships with most of the markets that we're in. And so, we're no stranger to that. And I believe that, when you bring like-minded people together and bring the best of what each other can bring to that relationship, you're going to go further faster.
And so, for us, we know that if we want to embrace where healthcare is heading, care beyond the hospital, and this technological drive and innovative drive that we need to have, that we're not the experts. We're not the people, the team that's going to create the new software or the operations, to do something that's outside of our core day-to-day business. But if we're going to be relevant to our patients as consumers, we have to have those ... We have to be able to offer those services.
And so, from my perspective, partnering with individuals that are really, really good at what they do, that have an operating model, that is going to support and enhance our ability to care for patients, and they bring the technology and the innovation to the table, that's going to propel all of us to grow quicker and do it more effectively than if we tried to build and run everything ourselves.
Cadence's Technology Is Easy and Seamless for Clinicians
KZ: And so, focusing on this Cadence partnership, we're obviously thrilled to be partnered with you and all the folks at Ardent Health Services. When we announced our partnership, you said, and I'll actually read it here, that our "partnership embodies our purpose of caring for others, by putting in place the technology and clinical protocols to deliver better care, alleviate unnecessary burdens on our clinicians, and improve the overall healthcare experience across all touchpoints."
Three points that you kind of made there, I'd love to start with the first one. You mentioned technology and clinical protocols. Why is it important that these things work together?
MB: Well from a technology perspective, again, we were not going to be the ones that were going to create that. Cadence did a wonderful job of investing. And when somebody sees technology that works, it's like, "Wow, why didn't I think of that?"
But people forget the amount of research, labor, and time and energy that goes into developing that. And, so, the technology has to work, to get patient adoption, to get clinician adoption, it has to work.
As a professional, I just want to know that when I tap the button, it's going to pull up my email or reports or whatever it is that I'm looking for. If it's clunky, if it doesn't work all the time like it's supposed to, then people aren't going to use it. They're not going to adopt it. So, you've got to have that.
And then, secondly, our mission is taking care of people. And using technology to partner up with somebody's clinical condition, those pathways have to be helpful and beneficial in advancing that person's care, whether it's monitoring or preventing something bad from happening. And so, again, the technology has to work, and it's got to be clinically effective for it to be adopted again by our patients and clinicians.
How Cadence Helps to Reduce Clinician Burden and Burnout in Healthcare
KZ: That resonates. I think one of the areas where technology's potentially fallen short in healthcare is sometimes they think about it separate from the clinical care and say, "We build technology. We're a technology company. We're just going to sell technology to some customers."
And it turns out, some of those customers are healthcare customers. And I think we realize that a lot of this needs to be deeply integrated on the clinical care, and that takes a hand-in-hand partnership to deliver that. And so, I think what you said really resonates on a lot of the ethos of what Cadence focuses on and a lot of the origin story of the approach that we took.
The other constituent we focused on is the clinician, and we believe this is so important. But I'd be curious kind of, what are the things that are so critical in your mind, and why is this so important in how you think about Cadence technology as a way to potentially reduce burnout and burden on clinicians?
MB: Yeah, so the ability to work with Cadence really just adds another tool in our clinicians' tool belts. And, so, when you think about burnout, there's a couple of different ways. There's the physical burnout, of just so many patients to see and only so many hours in a day, and just that constant churn that physicians and clinicians experience.
The other side is the mental aspect. And again, COVID has been something that most of us in our lives have never seen anything like this. And that the physical and mental toll that's taken on our caregivers has been, again, profound. When you're dealing with unnatural circumstances, that becomes difficult. So, that burnout factor is real.
But now, take it back to a pre-COVID day in our typical patients, on top of just the workload of seeing so many patients and the regulatory burdens and documentation burdens that all clinicians face, in order to really provide that continuity of care, physicians need to know how the patient is doing when they're not sitting right in front of them in their office.
And having technology that can help the physicians stay connected in a non-obtrusive way, where they're not having to take additional quantities of time away from seeing other patients, but can still follow up and see how their patient is progressing or not, and make treatment adjustments, it's really just powerful what this technology can unlock and help physicians do better at providing that care that their patients need, want, and deserve, in a way that it doesn't take them out of their day-to-day.
The Benefits of Cadence Across All Aspects of the Patient Healthcare Journey
KZ: And a last point, you talked about improving the healthcare experience across all touchpoints. What do you see as the most important touchpoints, and how do you see Cadence hopefully playing a meaningful role in these touchpoints?
MB: So, that care beyond the hospital and being connected, if we think about putting the person at the center of everything we do, again, most people's clinical conditions are not resolved in a single office visit or a single hospital visit or a surgery. And a lot of patients are living with chronic conditions that they can live with, but need care and maintenance.
And, so, the ability to work with Cadence and bringing technology, again, where we can stay connected to our patients and understand the small changes that might be taking place in their life from a day-to-day or hour-to-hour basis, without being obtrusive to the patient or being overly taxing on our clinicians, really just provides a sort of security blanket around that physician-patient relationship.
KZ: We're talking a lot about technology and change and innovation, where we need to go. These are all new things. And new things are probably the only way we're going to push forward and break through some of the challenges we have in the healthcare system, but there's a lot of comfort in the status quo.
What would be your message to people at Ardent, but even broader than that, maybe just other clinicians who might be listening to this, maybe other hospital executives who are listening to this, on why Cadence, as a new thing, is something that is worth really embracing and why others should get excited about what Cadence can do for patients?
Why Clinicians and Health Systems Should Embrace Remote Monitoring and Cadence
MB: As I said before, new technology is a great enabler, and most of the advances we've seen in the field of medicine have been a result of technology. And, so, I think, if we can think about our roots, our history, and how we've progressed as an industry, that this is really just a natural extension.
And, so, that's one of the things that we loved about Cadence and the model that you've built, is it really is the easy button for health systems, for our clinicians. You guys have put the time and the research into thinking through the technology, the workflows, and how to make this something that is really an additive to the patient experience and to their health outcomes, without having to be a burden on the health system, to take and divert other scarce resources that we have.
This is really expanding our reach, our purpose, our mission, at the end of the day, of helping people and caring for people, in a very easy and non-intrusive way.
So, I don't see why somebody wouldn't do this because it's better outcomes for their patients. There's reimbursement for the clinicians. It's providing better care and really just helps to close that loop and then keep us engaged with our patients beyond just, again, that office visit or hospital stay.
KZ: I particularly loved your word of extension, and that's something that we really think about in Cadence. How do we become an extension of the doctor's office, extension of the clinician, be able to support the patient on a daily basis and be able to monitor, feed that data back to the clinician, in a way where they're able to know their progress between visits?
And we find that actually drives a tightening of the relationship between the patient and the clinician because now they have someone that they feel like that history, someone that's been tracking and monitoring over time, and allowing better patient outcomes. And I think really returning a lot of that loyalty and relationship that the patient can have, as sometimes healthcare can feel transactional, this ends up feeling like an extension of a personal touch from the clinician.
And, so, that's something that we take that word seriously. And I really like how you kind of framed that, that just kind of extension of what we've been doing today and being able to do it on a daily and more scalable basis.
MB: Patients are seeing it. So, the clinicians are engaged. The adoption is happening. We are enrolling patients every day, and it's moving at a pretty steady and brisk pace, which is great to see. But as importantly, we've got over 90% compliance with just in the several weeks that we've had this going, where our patients are engaging.
So, when there is something that the remote monitoring picks up, and they're nudging the patient, whether that's a blood pressure or a weight check or blood sugars or those types of things, the patients are responding and engaging.
And again, that's what intelligent technology should do and, I think, a good indicator of what the future success of this partnership is going to be for both of us.
Innovation and the Vision for the Future of Ardent Health Services
KZ: And, so, to close out, looking ahead over the next five years, can you sketch a vision for what Ardent Health Services will look like and what you're hoping to achieve? But just kind of walk us through kind of how you think about the next five years.
MB: So, I'll go back to that consumer journey and, again, back to where I started. I want a frictionless environment. And again, I think about Apple. I think about Amazon, these companies that we ... many of us interact with every day, and it's just second nature. We've got to create that easiness. And, so, again, for Ardent, we want to put the person at the center of everything we do.
And, so, whether we offer the service directly or through a partnership with somebody else, we want to make sure that we become that trust broker for the patient. So, if that is mental and physical well-being, that we're connected to the patient, if that is something that requires facility-based care, whether a surgery or admission or an urgent care visit, we want to make sure we're connecting with people that way.
For those that have more sort of in-the-moment needs, whether that's a virtual interaction and telehealth interaction, ways to engage the patient from their home, at their bedside, bringing care to them, and then, ultimately, wrapping around the cost side of healthcare equation. And I think we all have a responsibility, not only to improve outcomes, but to become more efficient and reduce cost.
And, so, that's how we're thinking about the future and the direction that we're going. And it's a mind shift. Historically, again, our industry has been very facility-focused and very much focused on the patient coming to them. And again, I think we've all learned in this, as a result of COVID, that the world is changing, and people will find ways to access care on their terms.
And, so, this is a great opportunity point, I think, for health systems to change the way they think. And then, certainly, the direction that we're going is, how do we embrace this, as an opportunity to change ourselves, versus being disrupted by somebody else that's going to try to do it to us?
KZ: Inspiring and wonderful to hear. Thank you for sharing, Marty, and thank you for taking the time to chat now and have this conversation and for your trust and partnership with Cadence. We're really looking forward to it.
Conclusion: Thanks again to Marty for taking the time to visit with our team. If you're interested in learning more information about Cadence and how to get involved, visit cadence.care and please get in touch with our team.
To make sure you get updates on our future conversations, please subscribe to Cadence Conversations wherever you listen to podcasts.
At Cadence, we believe that everyone deserves to receive the best care possible, and we won't stop working until that vision becomes reality.
