Three questions with Garri Garrison: Pandemics, data and hope

I sat down with the 3M Health Information Systems Division President Garri Garrison to talk about the triple pandemic, the importance of data analytics and a look toward 2023.  

Usually, December is a time of reflection and a renewed hope for the future. What are some of the things that stand out about 2022? 

The thing that stands out most to me is how our clients have weathered the last couple of years. For two years, they’ve had to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, the likes of which we’ve never seen before, and figure out how to navigate this new world. They’ve seen volumes decline and margins decrease. They’ve struggled with supply chain availability, staff burnout, high turnover and financial challenges. And yet, they still manage to serve their communities and provide exceptional health care.  

Now they are facing a triple pandemic with continued COVID-19 cases, influenza and RSV. Pediatric providers who were somewhat sheltered from the COVID-19 pandemic, are now overrun with RSV and flu cases while trying to find adequate staff. Hospitals who were in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic are still trying to recover financially as well as support their burned out staff, work through tight margins, restructured workforces, and a growing population of underinsured patients. So, the thing that stands out about 2022 is that our clients not only survived an unprecedented time, but continue to help their communities thrive.  

How does 3M HIS support our clients through these challenging times? 

I’m so proud of the way our team has helped our clients navigate the last few years. They have gone above and beyond in client service and I appreciate their steadfast dedication. They’ve been creative in finding solutions to client problems and continue to work alongside the front lines to ensure our clients have the technology to support their work.  

One of the things we do frequently is analyze our clients’ data to help them identify where there could be revenue opportunities by comparing them to best practices and benchmarks. We are committed to improving the performance of our clients, returning time to physicians to focus on patient care and using data to optimize health care operations. It’s our way of helping clients analyze existing internal processes, identify areas of opportunity, and see where technology can make them more efficient to drive not only revenue growth, but quality initiatives. We support our clients by sifting through and analyzing their current data to define a short term and a long term path to improve margins, address burnout and advance quality.  

Patient safety has always been a priority for us, and we are honored that U.S. News & World Report is evaluating our new 3M™ Ambulatory Potentially Preventable Complications software for use in the 2023-2024 Best Hospital rankings. The new methodology was developed to address patient safety and quality oversight for procedures performed in hospital outpatient departments or in ambulatory surgery centers. 

Looking forward to 2023, what priorities should health systems and physician practices focus on? 

I think that the focus for all of our clients in 2023 is to drive top line revenue growth. As I mentioned, our team can help identify areas for improvement through analytics. We can help clients identify revenue leakage and develop a plan to minimize it through the use of data analytics. I think another important priority for providers next year will be to better understand how they are performing against industry benchmarks and peers. Everyone has access to all kinds of data, but knowing what to do with that data and being able to apply it to real life strategies is going to be key in 2023.  

Moving to the cloud will be another important priority for health systems in 2023. Lowering their internal IT footprint, making their data more secure and lowering costs are certainly at the top of mind for our clients.  

As we wrap up 2022, I just want to thank not only our amazing team, but all of our incredible clients. It was so wonderful to see a lot of you in person this year for the first time in a while and I hope we’ll have even more opportunities in 2023 to connect. Thank you for being our partner. Thank you for serving your communities and your team. We’re excited to share more about our spinoff company later next year and look forward to doing great work with you in the new year! 

Garri Garrison is division president for 3M Health Information Systems. 

Kelli Christman is marketing communications manager at 3M Health Information Systems.