Care @Home: A Fast Start to a Long Journey, According to Texas Health’s Chief Experience Officer, Winjie Miao

Improving patient experience has been a driving focus for Winjie
Miao during her twenty year career at Texas Health Resources,
where she’s now senior executive vice president and chief
experience officer. Texas Health cares for more patients in North
Texas than any other provider through 350 access points including
27 hospital locations and a network of outpatient facilities,
Neighborhood Care & Wellness Centers, preventive and fitness
services, and home health services.

After joining Texas Health, Winjie spent 15 years in hospital
operations – first at one of the system’s largest hospitals and
then at its smallest. She then embarked on a unique opportunity
to build a new hospital where she planned, implemented and
piloted new technology in a way that wouldn’t have been possible
at an existing hospital campus.

In 2015, Winjie joined Texas Health’s executive leadership team
and a year later played a significant role developing its 10-year
strategic plan, Vision 2026, which made patient experience a
central focus. In three phases, Texas Health planned to
understand everything it could about healthcare consumers, build
new capabilities to activate consumers, and finally capture value
for both consumers and the health system itself.

Nearly halfway through its strategic plan, Texas Health had
already piloted virtual primary care by the beginning of 2020 and
planned a phased rollout through the rest of the year. Then COVID
hit.

In this special episode of Healthcare is Hard, recorded as part
of the Digital Health Innovation Summit (DHIS) Virtual Spotlight
Series, Winjie talks to Keith Figlioli about what Texas Health
has learned through this process and how she sees the future of
home health unfolding. Their conversation covers a number of
topics, including:



One giant pilot. While Texas Health was well on its way
to piloting and implementing options for virtual primary care
at the beginning of the pandemic, Winjie talks about how the
first two or three months of going almost entirely virtual were
still a huge learning experience. She says it forced
significant changes from the original plan.


Barriers to integrated virtual care. When it comes to
telehealth, Winjie sees it becoming an integrated part of the
care workflow within the next three years, but she discusses
internal and external barriers to overcome first. These include
ensuring that equal reimbursement rates for in-person and
virtual visits remain permanent, and determining where new
business units or processes need to be newly created, and where
old ones can be adapted.


A thoughtful and measured approach. Winjie points out
the importance of recognizing that home health is right for
certain groups, and not for others. Without reliable internet,
the ability to connect multiple at-home remote monitoring
systems, a support system or family member who can be there and
be part of the care team, and other essential variables, home
health is not the best form of care for many people. But it is
absolutely the best place for others, and that determination
needs to be made in a very deliberate and pragmatic manner.


A fast start, but long road to home health. Many people,
both inside and outside of the healthcare industry, look at the
progress that’s been made due to the pandemic and think
telehealth has arrived. But Winjie talks about all the work
that still needs to be done, especially when it comes to
connecting different types of virtual care platforms that have
all matured at different rates. She says connecting them in a
way that’s meaningful for the patient and the care giver is
still a few years away.



To hear Winjie and Keith talk about these topics and more, listen
to this episode of Healthcare is Hard.