At AVIA, we’re incredibly proud to work alongside some of the top thought leaders in digital transformation. We sat down with Marc Griffin, Vice President at AVIA’s Center for Operational Transformation, to learn more about healthcare operations challenges, trends, and what he loves about his work. 

“Healthcare operations” is a large field. How are you driving meaningful change in the space?

AVIA looks at several key parts of healthcare operations: financial operations (e.g. revenue cycle), clinical operations (e.g. clinical command centers), and business operations (e.g. supply chain and human resources).  

Each of these areas historically had manually-intensive, error-prone, and cost-heavy processes that supported basic operational care. However, digital has shown a proven ability to truly transform outdated practices while driving exponential revenue capture, reduction in costs, and improvements in the overall delivery of care.  

We’re experiencing a transformative transition to digital that is intelligently automated. Work can be done now that was never possible before. The ROI in embracing a digital-first approach is millions and millions of dollars per health system.

What healthcare operations trends are you most excited about this year?

1. Embracing the promise of automation.  We often hear health systems start thinking about automation from a time-savings perspective, or looking at a small set of specific use cases. However, as you begin to standardize digital, there’s an increased ability to deliver greater efficiencies, which is something a human would never be able to accomplish on their own.  The proof points are there.  Other industries have hardened these approaches.  Now, healthcare just needs to act.
2. Leveraging pandemic investments and scaling them for long-term success.  Many organizations have created digital incident command centers to deal with COVID-19.  As a result, they’ve taken great strides in setting up some of the foundational elements of a full-scale clinical and operational command center to manage everything from patient flow to throughput to staffing.  I have genuine hope and optimism that these investments will be leveraged for long-term sustainable change.

You talk with AVIA Members every day about healthcare operations. What are their biggest digital operational challenges?

Historically, health systems have been willing to innovate in areas like consumerism but were fearful to touch any of the operational underpinnings that support finance, clinical delivery, or business systems.  There’s now a recognition at the C-suite level that change needs to happen, but there is a confusion on how and where to begin. 

We’re able to bring a perspective and a ‘short list’ of areas to help break through the noise and start truly transforming health system operations. As examples, our Center has highlighted approaches for sustainable operational success, worked with health systems to transform their reimbursement strategy, and helped them prepare for the new era of work. 

What do you enjoy most about working for AVIA and the Center for Operational Transformation?

After three and a half years at AVIA, I can say I’ve seen first-hand our mission of doing well while doing good come to fruition.  At the very core of our business is a desire to transform healthcare through the adoption of digital. 

Inside of the Center for Operational Transformation, I get the great pleasure of speaking to both C-suite stakeholders as well as their employees daily. The opportunity to partner with these individuals and join them on their digital journey is something that I take great pride in.

If you go back in time to when you were first starting your career, what advice would you give yourself?

Hard skills endure but soft skills and relationships last forever. There is no substitute for truly understanding how a particular problem impacts a person on an individual level.  

Being able to develop sincere trust and aligned goals on an individual level will always help the larger good. Digital can be new and exciting, but also represents a significant change. Trust, belief, and development of a long-term partnership are the only ways to deliver sustainable digital success.  

If you’re interested in learning more about Marc’s work at the Center for Operational Transformation and how AVIA can help you reach your digital goals, contact us today.