Podcast Interview: Discussing Monument Health’s 4-Phased COVID-19 Strategy

It’s funny; one of the key challenges for healthcare IT leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic is a lack of time. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day. And yet, it’s that time crunch that has forced organizations to shorten the decision-making process and make “informed, but expedited decisions,” said Stephanie Lahr, MD. “We didn’t have time for overthinking.”

As a result, the informatics and technology teams at Monument Health, a five-hospital system based in Rapid City, South Dakota, were able to operationalize extremely quickly in preparation for an influx of patients. According to Lahr, who holds both the CIO and CMIO titles, Monument went from doing almost no telehealth visits to more than 600 per day, and set up a nursing triage center within 24 hours. The keys? Having the support of leadership, and teams that are able to come together to achieve a common goal.

In a recent interview, Lahr talked about the organization’s multifaceted approach to continue to provide quality care during the pandemic, the unique challenges rural organizations face — particularly during a crisis, and how disaster preparation is similar to planning a major implementation.

Part 1



* Monument Health in “preparation mode”

* 4-phased approach to guide technology & informatics teams

* Standing up a nursing triage center: “Within 24 hours, we were taking 150 to 200 calls per day.”

* The need to “wear different hats” & cross over to help others

* Free tools vs software licenses

* 600-plus telemedicine visits per day

* “It further drives home the need for 5G.”

* Virtual visits with chronic care patients – “They need us now more than ever.”



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Bold Statements

The first element was trying to figure out different ways to do our current business so that we can continue to provide the care that patients need, possibly in a new way.

It doesn’t really matter which hat you’re wearing or what lane you’re in; sometimes we have to cross over and help people in other lanes and wear different hats than we might normally wear.

If you’re an independent clinic of three or four doctors trying to figure out how to do telemedicine, FaceTime and Skype are great. But as a health system, we need to have a more programmatic approach, and so we made a selection.

It also allows us to interact with diabetic patients, heart failure patients, patients with high blood pressure, and patients with depression; they all still need ongoing management and care. And to be honest, they may need us more now than ever.

We’re also exploring some of the options to help patients remain connected with their families, and even remain connected in general.

Gamble:  I wanted to touch base about what Monument Health is doing in terms of a COVID-19 response, and to get your perspective as a CIO and CMIO. What are your immediate priorities?

Lahr:  I’ll start by providing a bit of context about where we are in terms of the trajectory. At this point, we still have a very small number of cases in our area. We don’t have anyone in the hospital who has tested positive. We do have a handful of patients we’re managing throughout the community. We’re at a place right now where we’re preparing for what we think will be the peak of the curve using a variety of different potential timelines, depending on which model you use. Organizationally, we’re working both internally, as well as with the state and with other healthcare sys...