LEGACY COMMUNITY HEALTH
DIGITAL REPORT 2020
DIGITALLY-ENABLED PATIENT CARE IN ASSOCIATION WITH
DIGITALLY-ENABLED PATIENT CARE 02
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LEGACY COMMUNITY HEALTH
ROBERT TENNANT, CIO OF LEGACY COMMUNITY HEALTH, TALKS LEADERSHIP AND THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF PATIENT CARE DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS AND BEYOND
2020
has been a year of unprecedented challenges to healthcare providers across the globe.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than 38 million people around the world, with more than 7.8 million cases in the US alone. As US healthcare companies strive to cope with the monumental task 04
of providing care during this crisis, as well as continue to support existing patients, many are turning to technology in order to digitally transform their operations. The new capabilities offered by Industry 4.0 are allowing for generational advances in the fields of telemedicine and remote care, as well as providing powerful new organizational capabilities that are revolutionizing the relationship between healthcare providers and their patients. “This year has been really challenging. We had a lot of projects on our plate coming into the COVID-19 crisis in March, and then the crisis demanded we quickly shift priorities to remote patient care and working from home,� says Robert Tennant, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Legacy, a full-service network of community health clinics offering primary and specialty
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LEGACY COMMUNITY HEALTH
“ THIS YEAR HAS BEEN REALLY CHALLENGING. WE HAD A LOT OF PROJECTS ON OUR PLATE COMING INTO THE COVID-19 CRISIS IN MARCH, AND THEN THE CRISIS DEMANDED WE QUICKLY SHIFT PRIORITIES TO REMOTE PATIENT CARE AND WORKING FROM HOME” patients it serves throughout the Gulf — Robert Tennant, CIO, Legacy Community Health,
Coast region. We sat down with him to learn more about harnessing digital transformation to support Legacy’s
care in the Texas Gulf Coast region.
operations, and how to create a cus-
Tennant, who joined Legacy in August
tomer service-facing culture during
of 2019, has been at the forefront of the
the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
organization’s efforts to adapt, react 06
When the COVID-19 crisis hit the
and overcome the challenges, both of
United States in March of this year,
a global pandemic and of delivering
Legacy, like many other providers in the
quality healthcare to the underserved
industry, was almost entirely focused on in-person medical care. “Our first concern was figuring out how we were going to continue to deliver the care that patients need,” Tennant explains. “It was obvious that the first thing we needed to roll out was a telehealth
Legacy Community Health - Principles of Leadership CLICK TO WATCH
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07 solution, which we did in record time. We signed a contract with a vendor on a Friday and were treating patients remotely the following Wednesday.” Tennant adds that he’s particularly proud of the speed with which Legacy transitioned to providing telehealth services to a patient base suddenly thrown into lockdown. “We went from just a few telehealth visits to about 3,000 per week in the span of three weeks. It was an incredible effort by my team and other teams throughout Legacy. The crisis gave us focus and we accomplished
1978
Year founded
$186mn+ Revenue in US dollars
1,000+ Number of employees
a lot in a very short amount of time.” www.l e ga c yc o mmuni t y he a lt h . or g
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E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :
Robert Tennant Title: Chief Information Officer
Industry: Healthcare
Location: Houston, Texas Robert Tennant earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ambassador University. In 1993, Tennant started an IT services company focused on IT networking and custom software development. He sold the company in 1999 and spent time traveling before moving on to a new IT venture at the onset of the new millennium. In 2000, he founded another IT services company, this time focusing on health care advisory and IT services. He stood at the helm until selling in 2009, at which time he joined a national consulting firm focused on leading healthcare provider organizations into Value-Based Care (VBC), delivery. Over the years following, Tennant held various healthcare IT consulting leadership roles, including time as an Executive Heath Care Consultant and VP of Value-Based Care. The focus on VBC, Tennant says, comes from a strong foundation of customer service along with a belief that health care organizations should anticipate and listen to consumers’ needs while measuring success by their ability to deliver the best health outcomes at the lowest possible cost. Tennant has worked as a consultant for Legacy since 2014, and officially came on board with the organization in 2019.
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“ WE WENT FROM JUST A FEW TELEHEALTH VISITS TO ABOUT 3,000 PER WEEK IN THE SPAN OF THREE WEEKS” — Robert Tennant, CIO, Legacy Community Health, 10
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Today, Legacy’s Behavioral Health Service Line is delivering 91% more telehealth appointments than preCOVID-19. “Virtual visits have drastically changed the way members of our community receive health care. Whereas virtual visits were previously reserved for those with private insurance that approved this option, now anyone can get the care they need from the comfort of their home,” commented Katy Caldwell, Legacy’s CEO, in May. Near the beginning of lockdown, Legacy also opened a virtual pediatric clinic to deliver care to minors in need of physical and/or mental health services. In tandem with a customer base that
In order to connect Legacy’s custom-
was suddenly unable to visit Legacy’s
ers with its healthcare professionals,
clinics and sites, the organization also
Tennant and his team have increased
had to adapt to its own staff’s transi-
their efforts to digitally enable the organi-
tion to a remote working model. “It was
zation’s customer-facing experience.
kind of the perfect storm,” he recalls.
“A lot of our innovations are customer-
“We made a big push towards working
facing. We’re working to build out what
from home which was something we
I call a digital patient engagement
had not done before. Again, within just
strategy – or a digital front door – for our
a few weeks, we managed to make a
patients, so they can take advantage
180-degree shift to enable a significant
of services from Legacy without having
number of people to work from home
to come into a clinic or site,” Tennant
and, in the case of many of our providers,
explains. “Its development has only been
to provide care remotely.”
accelerated by the COVID-19 outbreak. www.l e ga c yc o mmuni t y he a lt h . or g
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LEGACY COMMUNITY HEALTH
P E D I A T R I C M EN T AL HEALT H CARE
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The global pandemic has been hard on everyone. However, it’s been found than children and young adults in particular are bearing the brunt of its effects on mental health. A recent study found that, in the US, 7.1% of children between the ages of 3 and 17 are currently living with an anxiety diagnosis, and a further 3.2% are struggling with clinical depression. According to Roxane Cohen Silver, a social psychologist at UC Irvine, the elevated levels of stress following national crises can have long-lasting detrimental effects on the mental health of an entire generation. Now, she added in an interview with TIME, we can expect to see the coronavirus pandemic contribute to an even greater spike in mental health issues than following the September 11 attacks in 2001. “This is a difficult time for everyone, and that includes children,” said Dr. Melanie Melville, Medical Director of the Behavioral Health Service Line at Legacy in March of this year. “As we turn to social distancing to quell the spread of this unprecedented
virus, we at Legacy want to proactively work to ensure that our most vulnerable populations have continued access to equitable care – including behavioral health care for children.” Since the early days of the US’ Stay Home Order, Legacy has offered remote pediatric appointments to children up to the age of 17, including therapy appointments to assist pediatric patients with anxiety, depression, and behavioral problems. “The crux of our school-based health care program has always been to keep students healthy and relieve the burden of a clinic visit from the parents’ shoulders,” says Dr. Teandra Gordon, the Clinical Director of School Based Behavioral Health program at Legacy. “By now offering these services via telehealth while students don’t have access to their campus clinics, our goal is to continue that warm-hug feeling of wrap-around care that the students – and parents – have come to know and trust from Legacy.”
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13 We want patients to be anywhere and
processes from Legacy’s caregivers and
be able to pick up their mobile device and
support staff. Both internally and exter-
self-schedule an appointment with us,
nally, Tennant and the Legacy team are
arrange a telehealth visit, pay a bill, digi-
engaging with technological innovation
tally sign a document, etc. We’re working
in the healthcare sector and beyond, in
diligently to digitally enable our patient
order to better harness the Industry 4.0
engagement offerings.”
developments in service of their unique
Internally, Tennant has also been
healthcare model.
working to increasingly automate and integrate the organization’s back-end systems. “We’re looking at how to create a similar digital strategy to better serve our employees,” he explains, adding that their ongoing project is dedicated to alleviating the burden of manual
“ WE’RE WORKING DILIGENTLY TO DIGITALLY ENABLE OUR PATIENT ENGAGEMENT OFFERINGS” — Robert Tennant, CIO, Legacy Community Health, www.l e ga c yc o mmuni t y he a lt h . or g
“We’re not a hospital or a healthcare system; we’re a community health provider. We serve the underserved and we function very differently than a lot of other organizations in our industry. Culturally, I think we’re very unique and extraordinary in a lot of ways,” says Tennant. “We do look at what other people are doing, but we’re very entrepreneurial and agile as an organization. We do a lot of self-inquiry as a business and ask ourselves what we, our customers and our patients need,
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“ VIRTUAL VISITS HAVE DRASTICALLY CHANGED THE WAY MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY RECEIVE HEALTH CARE” — Robert Tennant, CIO, Legacy Community Health,
to feel like their work is meaningful. I want them to feel safe. I want them to feel like they can make suggestions and be confident that they’ll be heard. And I want them to be able to go home at the end of the day and separate themselves from work. I want these things for everybody, including myself,” he says, stressing that, “If we don’t get the customer service element right,
and how best we can serve those
it’s going to undermine every other
needs with technology.”
aspect of the culture that we’re trying
Both during and beyond the pandemic,
to create.”
Tennant notes that his number-one initiative is the creation of a culture of customer service. “I want my team www.l e ga c yc o mmuni t y he a lt h . or g
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