Innovation to Improve Health Care Delivery and Organizational Well-Being

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Dana Habers, M.P.H., joined the Well-Being at Michigan Medicine podcast to discuss the pivotal role innovation played in improving both health care delivery and organizational well-being. Habers is Michigan Medicine’s chief innovation officer and chief operating officer of pharmacy services.

In the conversation, Habers emphasized that innovation was about "magnificent problem solving," citing the successful rollout of COVID vaccines as a prime example of rapid, large-scale problem-solving within a complex health care system. Habers saw herself as a bridge between strategy and operations, focusing on scalable processes to solve diverse challenges.

In her leadership role, Habers advocated for a culture that prioritized well-being by setting guiding principles for her team. She believed that when leaders modeled behavior and made decisions based on clear principles, it helped align efforts and reduced burnout. Habers also highlighted the importance of using AI to alleviate administrative burdens, allowing staff to focus on more rewarding aspects of patient care. For example, AI tools in pharmacies helped reduce the time spent on prior authorizations, enabling staff to spend more time assisting patients.

Habers acknowledged the complexity of implementing AI in health care, balancing innovation with safety. Her team followed a cautious, rigorous approach, starting with smaller, low-risk projects to build a solid foundation for more advanced AI applications, like ambient clinical documentation tools, which helped providers document patient information more efficiently.

Looking ahead, Habers was focused on creating a culture of belonging and inclusion at Michigan Medicine, alongside continuing innovation efforts. She believed that improving organizational well-being was crucial for both employee retention and patient care. The integration of AI, she argued, had to solve real-world problems while maintaining a strong focus on workforce sustainability. Ultimately, Habers envisioned a future where innovation enhanced both caregiver and patient experiences, benefiting the entire healthcare system.

Learn more about how the Office of Well-Being aids it team members and brings a culture of belonging, resilience and support.

Transcript

Elizabeth Harry:

Welcome to our newest episode of Well-Being at Michigan Medicine. Today, I'm so excited to discuss with Dana Habers, who is our chief innovation officer and chief operating officer of pharmacy services. Today, we're going to have a discussion about all the ways we've been able to partner to advance well-being through the innovation work across Michigan Medicine.

Dana is a Michigan native. She joined the University of Michigan in 2016 as the chief department administrator for radiology. And in late 2020, led efforts to bring COVID-19 vaccinations and therapeutics to our entire U of M system and the surrounding community. She holds a B.S. in Economics from Grand Valley State University and an M.P.H from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She's a senior leader and has been in health care for over 19 years, and her track record of contributions span clinical care operations, physician practice plan management, business development and strategy, revenue cycle, quality improvement, finance, research and education.

Additional achievements throughout her career include graduation from the Rudi Ansbacher Women in Academic Leadership Scholars Program, and being recognized as Business Woman of the Year in 2012 by the Mississippi Business Journal after a surprise nomination by her peers. She's also an active health management Academy Fellow, on track to graduate with the class of 2025. Dana's passionate about the health and well-being of communities, patient care, education, diversity and inclusion. She demonstrates continuous commitment to leading in an environment where individuals thrive, and multidisciplinary teams are organized to collaborate and conquer the many challenges facing our field. Dana, welcome and thank you for joining us today.

Dana Habers:

Thank you for having me. Very excited to be here.

Elizabeth Harry:

So let's start with what is a chief innovation officer? Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Dana Habers:

I like to think of the COVID vaccine and therapeutics rollout that you mentioned earlier is our first unofficial deliverable from the office of innovation. Innovation is simply magnificent problem solving. I like to think of myself as a bridge between our strategy and operational teams. We learned during COVID that we could actually, with focus and some unique business processes, stand things up pretty quickly, which is unusual in a generally more bureaucratic, larger organization. So in innovation, we use that scalability playbook for a variety of different applications, and it's been fun to be the inaugural innovation officer in this system. A lot of work ahead, but it's been a great journey so far.

Elizabeth Harry:

I love looking at this as fantastic problem solving and really helping our entire leadership team grapple with all of the new challenges that we're all facing in health care. So as we think about our leaders, what role do you think our leaders play in setting the tone for a well-being oriented workplace, and how can they help model some of those behaviors and how can they create and enable their teams to be able to have a well-being oriented workspace?

Dana Habers:

Yeah. Leaders really drive organizational culture and culture can trump your strategy. So I think the role of the leader in this space is really important. And there's a lot that we can do both by modeling behavior and leading by example. But also one of the tools that I really lean on heavily are to set guiding principles for our team. So if there's a new priority that we put on our plates and we try to tackle as a team, having guiding principles allows us to delegate decision-making, to work together as a team. And I always say, as long as what you're deciding aligns with those guiding principles, I'll have your back. We need to fail occasionally and fail fast, but if it's aligned with those guiding principles, I think that that strategy really sets all of us up to contribute without overstepping each other, without stumbling on minor challenges. I think those are the things that contribute sometimes to burnout and offset our efforts for well-being. I'm a big fan of using guiding principles for team alignment and momentum.

Elizabeth Harry:

I love that. And one of the things that you mentioned is this concept of being willing to fail fast a little bit, and being willing to learn from our mistakes. And some of that is really thinking about how we do operations a little bit differently. So I'm curious, how do you bring this innovative, fail-fast culture of well-being to day-to-day operations? And think about that when we think about the efficiency of care delivery in our institution?

Dana Habers:

Yeah. So we within the Office of Innovation do a lot of work to prepare and plan for annual priorities and really staying focused on those priorities. They align typically with BASE+, so our framework across the organization for how we approach what to work on next. Well-being also I think can be created from having more moments in your day to do the work that you find really rewarding. And I think generally speaking, if you talk to others across the health system, what I've learned having been here for the last eight years or so, is that we have really high-achieving, very intelligent, very deeply committed caregivers in our community. And if you enable them to do the work that they have on their plates, that's the most rewarding stuff. And shed some of that administrative burden or the things that get in the way of that progress and that rewarding moment of seeing your hard work come to fruition, it can propel us forward as a system.

Elizabeth Harry:

Do you have any examples you'd like to share of any work your office is doing right now that might be reducing some of that administrative burden?

Dana Habers:

Sure. Yeah. So shout out to our pharmacy team. They're amazing and they, I think have really subscribed to this innovation culture, which is just slightly different. It's just a way of getting things to move forward in a larger, more complex organization. We're working right now on implementation of operational AI in pharmacies. So our specialty pharmacy team serves a lot of patients that have very high out-of-pocket costs for their drugs that they need, and we navigate those costs together with them and help them financial support or evaluate whether or not they need a prior authorization with their payer, that sort of thing.

So our pharmacy analytics team, incredibly talented, has developed a tool that does some of that nuance chart review and goes into the chart and finds the relevant information that we have to submit to payers for a prior authorization and tease it up for the staff, for the medication access team to be able to call and get the authorization without spending hours digging into the patient's chart and finding the relevant information. So one of several examples I think of where we're starting to deploy, where AI is really useful to help our teams do their work more efficiently and again, have them focus on the part of it that's really rewarding, talking to the patient, spend more time together with the patient and less doing that internal chart review scouring for data that you need to do your work.

Elizabeth Harry:

I love that. Are there other places we can look forward to seeing AI deployed in this space?

Dana Habers:

Yes. One, you're very involved with. Yeah. So I'll mention briefly the improve built ambulatory surgery center model. So that's a scheduling tool that's been helpful for our PAs in that space. And then the big one, which we're excited to roll out, start roll out in January in the academic environment. It's actually now live at Sparrow and has been live at West under Dr. Lance Owens has been a big advocate as our ambient clinical documentation tool. So for our providers to be able to essentially document more efficiently in the chart and save time at the end of the day, finishing notes and updating records from memory, it's a tool designed to give them a more attentive moment with the patient when they're together in the exam room.

Elizabeth Harry:

I mean, that's a huge game changer for everybody who's delivering clinical care and for our patients really to be able to bring the care team and the patient back together that they can focus on one another. I am so excited. There are so many exciting things about AI and a lot of people are thinking about this. How do we apply AI and how can it help? And there are also some folks out there that are nervous about it. So how is your team balancing these things, and how are you looking at this tool to make sure that the way we apply it is safe, safer, those that are delivering care, receiving care, and that we're doing it with the highest standards?

Dana Habers:

Yeah. So you made the connection earlier in our conversation about the connection between well-being of the caregiver and the safety of the patient and the quality of care that they're getting. I think our approach with AI here has been to identify models where they're human in the loop or human enablers. So how does someone, a PA scheduling or a medication access technician obtaining a prior authorization, how do we give them tools and technology at their fingertips to help them be more effective in their work? But it doesn't replace the human. We're not superseding the human in that decision making.

I think it's also worth acknowledging we started with three priority projects that we wanted to learn from. That's the innovation office at work is lean in, get started, figure out, "Okay. What governance structures do we need in place? What safety and risk mitigation strategies do we need in place?" So we're using these to learn and build some of that foundational infrastructure. So when you get to more complex AI where you're doing things like clinical decision making and it's a partner with your provider or your care team, we have some of that experience under our belts and we're approaching it with much greater rigor.

Elizabeth Harry:

It reminds me of some phrases that I've heard used in this space is augmented intelligence instead of artificial intelligence. And the idea that in order to be augmenting, you have to be augmenting something and that's the human and that the goal isn't to have artificial intelligence replaced or supplant, but to augment the human's ability to do their job.

Dana Habers:

Yeah. And I think it's also a really exciting time to be in AI because it is continuously evolving. Our life is changing very fast. So we have a responsibility as a health care provider and as a system that people trust to make sure that the integrity of that patient service and relationship with their provider is upheld and enhanced by this and not degraded in any way.

Elizabeth Harry:

Well, thank you so much for spearheading this work. This is fantastic and very exciting time. And also, I love the caution and rigor and academic nature of how it's being approached to keep us all safe and make sure that we can deliver the best care and do so in a way that may be a little bit easier than it's been in the past.

Dana Habers:

Yes. That's right.

Elizabeth Harry:

These are big disruptions. These are big disruptors to how we do things. And I am curious as you're helping frame this disruption, helping really address these big challenges and big new ideas, what challenges have you encountered while trying to create a culture of failing fast or trying to try something maybe that's really new than how we've ever done things before?

Dana Habers:

Yeah. Inherently, I think you have to acknowledge we are a very large organization and I think everybody individually wants to contribute and do a great job. Where I see our gaps is around disconnects between different members of the team around a certain problem or a certain maybe goal. There can be breakdowns in communication. Something could sit on someone's desk without realizing it. There's just a lot of, everyone's multitasking and doing a lot all at once.

So I think what we have tried to do in the priority projects for innovation offices really preserve that sense of focus and commitment to these are our priorities, which might mean we have to say not now to some other really good ideas. I think we have a hard time in our culture of saying no to really good ideas because there's so many of them and we're so capable. We're such a talented group of super committed caregivers, and a community of people that want to do really great work. So it's hard to say no to things, but maintaining and having some discipline around that strict set of priorities I think is really key.

Elizabeth Harry:

Yeah. I mean, you mentioned the BASE+, and that's part of what I love about that structure because it really helps us all stay focused and constrain our attention. And for listeners that might not be familiar, that is the clinical organizational framework of the strategic priorities at Michigan Medicine and across Michigan Health. So for those who don't know, Dana, would you explain what the BASE priorities are?

Dana Habers:

Sure. B is for belonging, A is for access, S, safety and quality, and E is experience. And we add a plus on the end too because we also are focused, I think on growth as a system in the moment.

Elizabeth Harry:

I love that. And just a little asterisk on the experience. We focus on both the patient experience and the employee experience, and really how do we improve the experience of everybody that is part of this care team delivery, improving the well-being of those delivering care and those receiving care is one of the core priorities of Michigan Medicine. And with that in mind, would you have any innovative practices or policies that you feel like have been implemented here that really uplift well-being and uplift engagement that might serve as a model for other health care institutions?

Dana Habers:

Yeah. We mentioned that ambient clinical documentation. I think that's one example of a very visible but impactful program. There I think are a lot of opportunities for us to consider well-being in the course of our daily work. I am grateful for your presence here and since you've joined University of Michigan, I think you've really brought a lot of us... You've created a baseline literacy around what that even means and how we approach our challenges. But yeah, I think that that's more and more going to become a part of how we make decisions and what we need to be thinking about when we do prioritize for the year. It's just a really critical component.

I feel like as a culture, from everybody rose to the challenge of COVID. Everybody leaned in as heavily as they could. We're seeing an evolution in the workforce in health care, and its toll on people that are generally just at... Whatever amount of energy it takes to commit to get what we need to for the patients, it's too much. It's asking too much of individuals. So more and more as an employer with an employer hat on, I think we have to be thinking about that for retention, for the well-being of our workforce and actually for them to be successful at what we're asking them to do in their roles.

Elizabeth Harry:

Yeah. I couldn't agree more. I mean, as we know, there's a lot of literature linking burnout to patient safety events and errors for our patients. So we know that we want our care teams well so we can deliver the best care possible. When we talk about this concept in health care in general, there can be this idea that we can either focus on delivering excellent care and being able to have great access to care and availability for our patients, or we can focus on the well-being of those that are providing that care. And I'm just curious your perspective on that. Do you think it's an either or do you think that they're synergistic?

Dana Habers:

I think they're synergistic, and I also think they're complementary. So investing any amount of energy in improving the well-being of one side of that equation, I think also inherently raises both. I think if you have a very well-manicured, well-being plan for your caregivers, we're going to be better at our jobs. We're going to be more capable of coming in with the energy and enthusiasm and willingness to go above and beyond with our patients, and we've got to turn a corner on that.

Elizabeth Harry:

I agree. And I think there's literature to support that too, that when people are less burnt out, they're actually able to see more patients. And that's what we all want. We want to deliver care. We want to see our patients, we want to care for our community. As you've done a lot of work in this space, I'm wondering if you could share a lesson or an insight that you've gained in improving organizational well-being that you think others might find valuable in other work that they're trying to do.

Dana Habers:

Yeah. I've worked in academic health systems across the country, and one thing I really appreciate about the University of Michigan environment and our culture here is that we really live and breathe the education mission. So asking questions, asking for clarity, reaching common understanding. I think that that deep commitment to education and learning is a really important asset and allows us to do a better job as a leadership team because we can acknowledge we aren't the experts at everything or we may not know, but asking the questions and learning together I think has been really valuable.

Elizabeth Harry:

Well, I love that idea too, of just normalizing asking questions and creating an environment of psychological safety, which is really gets back to the high reliability organization work that we're all trying to support, but creating an environment where people feel comfortable saying, "I have a question or I don't understand, or how does this fit into our priorities?" And with that comes this goal for transparency. So I'm curious how in your roles approach that, and how you help with communicating a lot of these incredible projects that are really designed to help both patient care and provider and care team experience. How are we getting the message out there?

Dana Habers:

Yeah. To me, it's reiterating the why. Why is this a priority? What are we trying to accomplish? And I don't think you can say that enough on any particular project or priority. You have to keep reminding and reiterating like, this is the reason we're doing this because it will be hard. There will be moments that will be really challenging for yourself or your team, and you have to keep centering around, but at the end of the day, it'll be worth it because, and that's really important to keep repeating, I think, and not let go of that.

Elizabeth Harry:

I love that. And you gave really great examples. So you talked about the specialty pharmacy and some of the AI work there. You talked about this ambient documentation. If you had the opportunity to share your why behind those projects now for people listening, what would you say?

Dana Habers:

That's a really good question. I mean, I am motivated every day to get up and do really hard work because of a couple of things. One, I appreciate our teammates and our leadership. I really enjoy who I work with, and that's seeing what we've been able to accomplish together as a health system. Even when you zoom out and think about the population of the state of Michigan, which I care and love deeply, this is where I'm from, and so my roots are here, my family is here. I think that's really rewarding. And it's also, at the end of the day, we have a lot of resources here to do really great things. University of Michigan is fortunate to have resources, and when we focus those resources, we become even more powerful.

Elizabeth Harry:

As you're looking ahead, what are your aspirations for the future of well-being and culture at Michigan Medicine and how can innovation help?

Dana Habers:

I have the privilege this year of leading under that belonging goal alongside Dr. David Brown and Dr. Vikas Gulani, some work on belonging and inclusion, which I'm very excited about. We're going to start a crowdsourcing survey soon to give better definition to that and hear from our caregivers where we can as an employer do better. The reality I think, is in our environment, there will be a macroculture, but there are many microcultures, and it is within those that each individual lives. And I think we have some work to make sure that across the board we have a standard of belonging, inclusion, equity. So excited about that.

I think on the innovation front, we're focused on, as I mentioned, some AI and operations, and I think there's so much opportunity there to solve some real-world problems. This is an audience of podcasters, so I'd highly recommend if I can do this on the show, anything related to Clayton Christensen and innovation studies, I am a big study and advocate of that science behind innovation and that we need to identify jobs to be done. We need to make these really... It's also maybe the Midwestern in me that I want it to be a really practical set of priorities where we're solving real-world problems.

Right now, the ambulatory pharmacy and specialty pharmacy team, we're struggling to hire enough pharmacy technicians to serve in those medication access roles. So the AI tool solves that. The model supports a workforce that can sustain and stay well because we're not asking the same amount of people to do more work as we grow. So there's a lot of, I think, value in staying really closely connected to those. What are the real-time challenges or jobs to be done and bringing in solutions that can bridge?

Elizabeth Harry:

Well, what I love about partnering with you is that your office helps support two of the really big pillars of the office of well-being. One being how do we improve our organizational well-being or the way we do our work, and the pebbles in our shoes are in boulders on our back and that friction that makes it harder to deliver care? And the second one is, how do we improve the culture of where we do our work and how does it feel to work here and how do we support one another? And you help in both of those spaces, which is why I love partnering with you. So I just want to thank you so much for everything that your office is doing to advance well-being for everyone at Michigan Medicine and across the enterprise, and for our patients who I truly believe are going to benefit from all of your work. Thank you so much.

Dana Habers:

Thank you. That really is a privilege to serve. Thank you.

Elizabeth Harry:

So thank you for listening to another Well-Being at Michigan Medicine episode. And until next time, I'm your host, Elizabeth Harry.