Telehealth T-Time Thu, March 21, 2024

Sessions

Speakers

Sessions

11:00 AM EST

Telehealth Trends, Techniques, and Insights
Happy Day Scenario Process Design —
Delivering Telehealth with Ease

What image does your mind conjure up when you hear the term “Happy Day Scenario”? Smiling faces, happy clinicians, delighted patients? That’s what we are aiming for when we design telehealth processes for the typical success scenario of what will happen 80%, 90% of the time.

Healthcare is collection of service delivery processes and when well-meaning people set out to design those processes, they inevitable focus very quickly on all the things that can go wrong. But there is a better way: Start with the Happy Day Scenario first. Because that is what most people will experience, most of the time.

In this pragmatic talk, Ingenium CEO Christian Milaster will share one of his core strategies he’s employed for 25 years to design effective service delivery processes.

Speaker:
Christian Milaster, Founder & CEO, Ingenium Digital Health Advisors

12:00 PM EST

Telehealth Case Studies
Empowering Recovery Remotely

Access to Substance Use Disorder (SUD) services can be challenging and the barriers are even more severe in rural America due to transportation challenges and other socio-economic factors.

To better serve our patients by providing timelier access and ensuring continuity of care, the Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Wenatchee, WA (“The Center”) has embraced telehealth as a transformative solution to deliver our services to our community. Since 2021 we have participated in a Telehealth Growth Program provided by Thriving Together NCW through the team at Ingenium Digital Health Advisors. This initiative provided The Center the opportunity to better reach clients at home as well as in rural area schools and, later this year, in libraries and other community access points, such as fire stations.

To serve our patients and their families where they live, we first had to create our internal mastery of delivering “connected care”. For many months, we focused on beefing up our technology, establishing the necessary workflows and policies, and developing a guiding Connected Care Strategy to focus our efforts.

Join us in this case study from the rural front lines, as you learn from our Clinical Director and Compliance Officer, as well as from the lead consultant about The Center’s journey to Empower Recovery Remotely.

Speakers:

Chris Tippett, Clinical Director, The Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment
Duane Duncan, Compliance Officer, The Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment
Trevor Cunningham, Telehealth Consultant, Ingenium Healthcare Advisors

1:00 PM EST

Telehealth Conversations
The 3 Telehealth Directors:
“What’s in store for Telehealth in 2024?”

Join us for a lively discussion between three Telehealth Directors from three states and three very different organizations. All three of them — Amy Hermes, Albert Ferreira, and Gerard Frunzi — have been leading telehealth from well before the pandemic. In our conversation we will reflect on their experience of shepherding their organizations’ growth of telehealth during Covid and what opportunities they have focused on in the past years, this year and how they see telehealth’s growth through the end of the decade.

Speakers:
Amy Hermes, Director of Telehealth Operations, Children’s Health
Albert Ferreira, Director Telehealth Operations, The MetroHealth System
Gerard Frunzi, Director of Virtual Care at Common Spirit in the Mountain Region

Moderator:
Christian Milaster, Founder & CEO, Ingenium Digital Health Advisors

Speakers

Chris Tippett, SUDP, RTC
Clinical Director, The Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment

Chris has dedicated four decades to addiction counseling, with a focus on adventure-based adolescent and family counseling for 40 years and adult SUD treatment for the past 22 years. His expertise spans various levels of care, including withdrawal management, outpatient counseling, intensive outpatient treatment, partial hospitalization, adolescent long-term residential care, adult residential care, and school-based programs. In addition to his SUD work, Chris holds certification in Reality Therapy and has served as a faculty member at the Glasser Institute for over two decades. Currently, he serves as the Clinical Director at The Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment. In March, he will mark 41 years of sobriety.

Session: Empowering Recovery Remotely

Duane Duncan
Compliance Officer, The Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment

Duane has dedicated the last three decades to The Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment. Initially joining as a part-time cook, he progressed to opportunities within the organization. Over the years, he has held various roles, including Kitchen Manager, Janitorial Manager, Maintenance Manager, and Facilities Manager. Currently, he serves as the Compliance Officer, Front Office Manager, and EHR Administrator, showcasing his commitment and versatility within the agency.

Session: Empowering Recovery Remotely

Trevor Cunningham, MS
Telehealth Consultant, Ingenium Healthcare Advisors

Trevor Cunningham is a healthcare professional with continuous experience in the telehealth industry. Possessing specific abilities in project management, billing and reimbursement, and strategic planning, Trevor has led a team to advance telehealth initiatives across rural communities over the past 3 years.

Since joining Ingenium Digital Advisors in 2021, Trevor has worked alongside a unique team of consultants to accomplish all project tasks in a timely manner. He brings a new perspective to the team and will continue to develop new strategies to improve operational efficiencies.

A graduate of Indiana University’s Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Trevor holds two distinct master’s degrees in health administration and public health. Since graduating, Trevor has held the position of Project Director at the Indiana Rural Health Association, where he manages and operates two federally funded HRSA grants.

Trevor is known for creating a productive work environment and ensuring that project milestones are met. He has disseminated his telehealth work through many distinct outlets, including the American Public Health Association, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and the Upper Midwest Telehealth Resource Center.

Session: Empowering Recovery Remotely

Amy Hermes, MSN, RN
Director of Telehealth Operations, Children’s Health

Experienced Virtual Health Leader and clinician with extensive experience in strategizing, operationalizing and scaling virtual services lines, including adult and pediatric inpatient acute care, ambulatory virtual visits, direct-to-consumer virtual visits, virtual urgent care and remote monitoring solutions. Insight-driven, multi-faceted, patient-centric professional with a 360-degree overview of the healthcare industry and a proven track record of successfully delivering integrated Virtual Health solutions that contribute to a highly differentiated patient and provider experience. Passionate about providing equitable access to high-quality care and achieving improved patient outcomes using innovation. Excels in optimizing and scaling day-to-day operations through analytical, data-driven process improvements, leading to greater efficiencies and achievement of KPIs. Prioritizes establishing and cultivating relationships with key stakeholders to develop long-term success.

Leads with drive and purpose; aligns teams toward common goals and tactical priorities using a top-down servant leadership approach.
Bridges the gap between business, technology, and healthcare; develops ROI-driven healthcare solutions that optimize patient outcomes, generate strong revenue growth, and position organizations optimally to deliver against their strategic business objectives.

Session: The 3 Telehealth Directors:
“What’s in store for Telehealth in 2024?”

Albert Ferreira, MHA
Director Telehealth Operations, The MetroHealth System

Throughout my professional journey, I have been entrusted to leverage groundbreaking technologies to advance the user experience, optimize operations, and maximize new business opportunities. As a result, I have become a resonant leader with over thirty years of diverse information systems experience, including the last twenty years at the intersection of healthcare administration, clinical operations, and technology infrastructure management. My superpower lies in the discovery, pursuit, execution, and sustainment of disruptive solutions to reimagine healthcare services and solve real-world problems. I am experienced in driving new ideas from concept through reality to enable patient care excellence, enhance care provider experiences, and prepare healthcare organizations and the communities they serve for the future.

My research aims to investigate the opportunities presented by digital health and telehealth technologies in improving healthcare access, engagement, and compliance for African American and Latino Populations. Exploration of diverse perspectives from individuals with chronic conditions, care providers, and other key healthcare stakeholders to create rigorous sample data for analysis. I will seek representation from underserved communities, and minority populations disproportionately affected by healthcare disparities. The goal of my research is to contribute valuable insights to the growing body of literature on digital health and telehealth, improve overall health and wellness, raise awareness of the social and cultural challenges, and prevent history from repeating itself in the form of digital healthcare disparities for African American and Latino populations.

Session: The 3 Telehealth Directors:
“What’s in store for Telehealth in 2024?”

Gerard Frunzi
Director of Virtual Care, Common Spirit in the Mountain Region

Gerard drives growth with the development of tele-enabled clinical care protocols, strategic planning, and integrated tele-service offerings. He received his Bachelors of Science in Computer Information Systems from Metro State College of Denver and his Masters of Business Administration from the University of Colorado Denver. Frunzi is leading the operational transformation of clinical services to be offered via Telehealth across Colorado, Kansas, and Utah.

Session: The 3 Telehealth Directors:
“What’s in store for Telehealth in 2024?”

Christian Milaster, MS
Founder & CEO, Ingenium Digital Health Advisors,
Ingenium Healthcare Advisors

Christian Milaster is passionate about accelerating the adoption of digital health innovation to enable the sustainable delivery of extraordinary care. He is deeply committed to restore medical professionals’ job satisfaction by applying systems thinking principles and implementing systems solutions.

Christian is the Founder and CEO of Ingenium Digital Health Advisors, a boutique consulting firm focused on Accelerating the Adoption of Digital Health Innovation and of Ingenium Healthcare Advisors, focused on Guiding Healthcare Leaders to get the results they want. Starting out as a solo consultant, Ingenium Advisors now comprises a team of 15+ and a consortium of over a dozen expert advisors.

Born, raised, and educated as an Engineer in Germany, Christian started his career at IBM Global Services before joining the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where he worked for 12 years in various roles before launching Ingenium in 2012.

Session: Happy Day Scenario Process Design —
Delivering Telehealth with Ease