Modern Healthcare's Healthcare Insider Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered

Modernizing Healthcare Infrastructure in a High-Cost Environment

Hospitals are under pressure to maintain safe, efficient care environments while managing rising operating costs, aging infrastructure and limited capital budgets. In this episode of Healthcare Insider, Christy Fetsch and Michael Pickard of Trane discuss how healthcare leaders can rethink deferred maintenance, evaluate the hidden cost of inaction and structure facility investments in more predictable, budget-friendly ways. The conversation explores how aging building systems can affect patient care, why emergency repairs often cost more than planned modernization, and how aligning facilities, finance and clinical leaders can help organizations move from reactive spending to strategic infrastructure planning. What You'll Learn How deferred maintenance can disrupt clinical operations and patient environments Why aging infrastructure may affect lending, bond ratings and long-term financial risk How flexible financing can help turn large capital projects into predictable payments Ways to align facility upgrades with patient care, safety, resilience and operating performance

Rethinking Affordability in Healthcare

Leading the Next Era of Lung Transplant Care

What does the future of lung transplantation look like? In this new podcast episode, Dr. Rachel Ann Criner of Temple Health explores how one of the nation's leading transplant programs is advancing pulmonary care through innovation, operational excellence and research-driven treatment strategies. The conversation examines how Temple Health is expanding transplant eligibility, integrating clinical research into patient care and supporting increasingly complex patient populations through coordinated multidisciplinary care. Listeners will hear insights on: Advances in lung transplant technology and donor organ innovation How leading programs are redefining transplant candidacy The role of coordinated care and remote monitoring in improving outcomes Why clinical trials and targeted therapies are reshaping pulmonary medicine Tune in to learn how Temple Health is helping redefine what's possible in complex pulmonary and transplant care.

How AdventHealth is Scaling Cancer Risk Assessment Across a Health System

Health systems are under increasing pressure to detect cancer earlier and deliver more personalized care, but scaling those capabilities across a large organization remains a complex challenge. In this episode, leaders from AdventHealth share how they are addressing that challenge through their Genomics Risk Assessment for Cancer and Early Detection (GRACE) program, an initiative designed to identify high-risk patients earlier and guide them into appropriate care pathways. Dr. Wesley Walker, vice president of genomics and precision health, and Dr. Clark Rogers, medical director of the GRACE program, explain how the model integrates risk assessment seamlessly into routine clinical workflows. They also share how health systems can successfully implement a similar program at their own organization.

CVS Caremark's Strategy for Managing Chronic Conditions

Chronic disease management is growing more complex as new therapies reshape the treatment landscape. In this episode, Dr. Michelle Gourdine, senior vice president of CVS Health and chief medical officer of CVS Caremark, discusses how pharmacy leaders are balancing access to innovative treatments with long-term affordability and clinical outcomes. As more options emerge for conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, Gourdine outlines how evidence-based benefit design can help improve access while managing cost. She also explores the role of coordinated pharmacy support in improving medication adherence.

How Procurement Systems Grow Lung Transplant Access

Lung transplantation is often associated with surgical expertise, but expanding access depends just as much on the systems behind donor identification, evaluation and transport. Daniel Remer, transplant procurement manager at Temple University Hospital, explains why procurement serves as the operational engine of a transplant program and why strong systems are essential to helping more patients reach transplant. Remer also shares how donor evaluation has evolved over the past decade and how technologies such as ex vivo lung perfusion and portable organ preservation systems are allowing transplant teams to safely consider lungs that may once have been declined.

Infrastructure: The Overlooked Factor in Healthcare M&A

Healthcare mergers and acquisitions often focus on financial alignment and clinical integration, but physical infrastructure can play an equally critical role in long-term success. Christy Fetsch, healthcare vertical market strategy leader at Trane, shares why building systems and facility performance are frequently overlooked during M&A and how that oversight can introduce unexpected risks. Drawing on her experience advising health systems, Fetsch explains how infrastructure assessments can reveal hidden capital needs. She also outlines how these challenges can influence integration timelines and overall deal value. Additionally, the conversation offers strategies for aligning building systems across newly combined organizations, while highlighting opportunities to improve energy efficiency, advance sustainability goals and modernize facility operations.

Ambient AI That Goes Beyond Simple Scribing

Ambient AI has quickly moved from buzzword to bedside. In this new Healthcare Insider Podcast, Simon Kos, chief medical officer of Heidi, shares why he believes this moment represents a true turning point for clinicians. Unlike past top-down digital initiatives, ambient voice technology "returns time and attention back into their clinical workflow and frees them up for what they want to do, which is spend time and attention with their patients," he says. Kos explains why the ambient scribe is just the beginning — and how the next wave of AI care partners will address cognitive burden, regulatory demands and global scalability. He also outlines what health systems should measure during pilots, from activation and adoption rates to clinician and patient satisfaction. To learn more about Heidi's AI care partner and its approach to expanding healthcare capacity, visit heidihealth.com.