Amber Nelms 0:00

Well, welcome, Jill. On Accelerate with Amber. I'm looking forward to getting to know you a little bit better. Today's guest is Jill Wideman West. Did I say that correctly? It's Wiedeman, but you know Eateman West. That is a cool W name. I like it. You're the CEO of People Incorporated, one of Minnesota's largest community-based mental health providers, where she leads a comprehensive continuum of care serving individuals with mental illness with over 25 years of experience. That's amazing. And healthcare leadership. She has driven growth, innovation, and access to high-quality mental health services across communities. What a privilege to have you on here.

Jill Wiedemann-West 0:47

Well, thank you for inviting me. It's a privilege to be here.

Amber Nelms 0:51

Well, tell me, how did you get started in the industry?

Jill Wiedemann-West 0:54

Well, my career has been one of those unusual things that sort of stewarded itself. I mean, I actually started out as a therapist, as a clinician, and um ultimately ended up really, I think, in more of the business side of things, the area that was less about immediate client contact and more about how we produce services, contact, engagement. And so I've spent most of my career as a non-clinician, actually.

Amber Nelms 1:24

Yeah, but isn't it beautiful that you know what it's like to be a clinician? I think it's phenomenal to be a CEO. And I'm a board certified behavior analyst myself. And so I love that I know both sides. I understand I started out as an RBT, then I worked as a BCBA, and I mean I'm still a B C B A. And I get to do all the aspects and run the company from that mind, knowing what it feels like to be in those different positions. I love the name of the company too. People incorporate it. It's awesome.

Jill Wiedemann-West 1:57

Yeah. No, it's it is a pleasure to be in that position. I've often said that I think that I'm a better CEO because I have the background that I do. I'm, I think, a little bit more able to be aware of kind of what's in front of me, looking at sort of the situation, my audience from both the business and the clinical sort of filters. So yeah, I actually do think it's served me very well.

Amber Nelms 2:22

Yeah. But it takes two different skill sets. I always say to people that I feel like I've gotten my second master's in business, right? It's like, okay, I got my master's in applied behavior analysis, and now I got my second master's in business, and just hold both of those in your mind the whole entire time. So you have led a large-scale mental health organization for over a decade. What have you learned about balancing operational growth with maintaining true human-centered care?

Jill Wiedemann-West 2:49

Well, the people are at the core. So we are a labor-intensive business, right? We have to have lots of people who are passionate and committed to what it is that we do to make it work. So people are at the core. You can't really think about growth. You can't really think about process improvement. You can't really think about any of that without thinking first about the workforce and how people experience and consume work these days and how the clients consume the services. And people are core. It's interesting. People incorporated's name didn't come necessarily from an awareness of our staff specifically, but it certainly became from an awareness of our clients. And scaling is a lot of fun, but you just simply cannot take the people element out of it. It's got to be pretty core to everything you're looking at. Everything from do you have enough people to do it, do you have the right trained people to do it, but also how people want to consume work and thinking about making sure that it's possible to sustain it. And then of course, healthcare is one of those places where there's just a lot of agility and patients' clients are also changing in the way that they want to experience sort of how they receive services and whatnot. So honestly, people are core. It's the first place I go.

Amber Nelms 4:16

Yeah, absolutely. You've spoken about health equity and system transformation. What do you believe leaders need to challenge right now to create more accessibility and integrated mental health systems?

Jill Wiedemann-West 4:29

Well, I think the equity conversation is an interesting one because we often talk about equity like it's a separate thing. Like, well, we should be really thoughtful about equity. And honestly, what we know is that there are certain populations, certain individuals that do consume care and receive care differently because they are on an entitlement insurance or because they are uninsured or because of a number of factors. But equity is really just about sticking a stake in the ground and saying, this is what good health care is. And it really shouldn't matter if you're on medical assistance or if you're on private insurance. It should just be very clearly, this is what we're striving for. And I think unfortunately, right now, we've become so cohorted about everything in healthcare that we kind of think about it separately. Like, well, the people that are really kind of locking up the emergency departments are people that don't have their basic needs met. And so somehow it's not an equity discussion about the care they receive, it's the equity discussion about the fact that they're here instead of being someplace maybe where they should be because they're not getting their needs met. I don't think healthcare can divorce itself from the larger humanity that is the people that seek healthcare. And thinking about equity as a special thing for people who are have higher barriers or something we strive for, people who don't have funds or whatever it might be is really it's just messy. It's not, it's not sustainable, but it also is not kind of what healthcare should be about. The thing of it is, is if we're not thinking, if we're thinking about equity as a separate thing that affects a separate class or uh group of individuals, then we actually are delivering healthcare on two or multiple different platforms. And that from a business standpoint is never a recipe for a good consistent revenue line. Yep, that is true.

Amber Nelms 6:39

Well, I'm also interested to ask in your current company and how you are putting together systems, where do you think the field needs to continue to leverage more like the right tech for your space? What kind of CRM do you use, scheduling software, things like that? Like, where is the stuck points for you in that?

Jill Wiedemann-West 6:59

Well, as a nonprofit, we struggle a little bit with being able to keep up with all of the new kinds of technology. I mean, we certainly are very technology heavy in our environment because we do have a CRM that helps us to keep track of individuals that are making appointments in our clinics, as well as individuals that are on our bedboard waiting, a treatment bed or crisis bed, all of those kinds of things. So we do use that. And I do think technology is core in helping us create sustainability and efficiency in healthcare. So I'm not one of those people that is frightened by AI or technology because I honestly don't see how we continue to strive on a business level to find efficiencies in a system that's already really laboring under its costs and its structure without looking to technology for solutions. I mean, I just don't think we do. Now, I would say the solutions technology-wise on quicker scheduling, client patient portal where you can go in and make the schedule yourself, you can do all of the documentation in advance of a meeting online, all of that stuff is so huge in terms of being able to help us create more sustainability and clarity in the system. But also, frankly, some of the tech and especially the AI that is looking at claims and what claims we have in the system that aren't complete yet, or which ones making sure we're not setting anything out the door that doesn't have all of the boxes checked so that we're not wasting a lot of time on appeals and chasing it, but rather we're just very clear on the client came in, this is what we did, this is what we saw, this is what the next steps are, and it's out the door. I think those things can be huge efficiency producers. Also, certainly in the physical health care area, looking at a cohort of data, as well as behavioral health, but looking at a cohort of data or labs or different things and saying, well, what's going on here? And if nothing else, double checking it against technology from this is what I think I see, and this is what I would recommend the next steps be, to seeing healthcare systems starting to use those diagnostically, if even if it's just to check their own sort of plan. In behavioral health, it's the same thing. Where we can look at data that says how many hospitalizations did this individual have this year versus last year? What were the differences that were going on in their treatment course and their medication this year versus last year? What do we think the correlation? How do we expand on that and make sure that we're really leaning into it so that this individual can maintain their stability? I think technology has extraordinary opportunity for us being better at providing healthcare, but also for creating some sustainability.

Amber Nelms 9:58

Absolutely. But more nitty-gritty detail. Where on your pipeline, like in this next quarter, where do you see improvements in your company from that aspect? Like, where do you want to tighten it up and be like, I want to actually look at evaluating a different platform to do this aspect within my company?

Jill Wiedemann-West 10:17

So for us, we operate a lot in the entitlement insurances like Medicaid. And while really being thoughtful about how we can overlay technology around claims, because there's so many boxes we have to check in the way that we document prior to actually sending a bill forward to be re, you know, to be reimbursed. Really reducing our bad debt, reducing our appeals by making sure that we are seeking technology solutions that help us to be really sure not only is the person insured, but the bill that we're putting forward has all the boxes checked, and we feel as confident as we can that everything is going to move forward. That is one way that I think is really significant. I think some of the ambient AI around note-taking in the moment so that clinicians are able to really completely capture the client interaction, what the client said, the tone of their voice, what the recommendation was, whether the course was to be recommending a different medication or recommending some labs to understand something, or a recommendation of just homework of try these things to de-escalate yourself or whatever. Those are going to be really important because what we're seeing is the way consumers want to experience their health care. Oftentimes it means that although the client may be yours, if they're in crisis, they may be seeing someone else. Also, workforce changes a lot. And so we really need to make sure that we are grabbing everything we can out of our client interactions so that we're making good decisions, but we're also stewarding them really effectively in their illness.

Amber Nelms 11:59

Yeah. Well, that's awesome. Well, thank you for sharing with me where you see everything going and what you would recommend. I feel like this podcast is gonna be highly informative for a lot of people. So thank you for taking your time to come on today.

Jill Wiedemann-West 12:12

Thank you very much. I appreciate being asked.

Amber Nelms 12:15

Absolutely.