Health Tech: Heidi Raines Of Performance Health Partners On How Their Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness
An Interview With David Leichner
Address real-world problems: It’s important to create technology that solves real-world problems and meets real needs. This means doing research to understand the context in which the technology will be used, as well as the potential impact it could have. In our work, our sights are set on preventing harm and ultimately saving lives.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Heidi Raines.
Heidi Raines is the author of Shared Voices: A Framework for Patient and Employee Safety in Healthcare. She also is the founder and CEO of Performance Health Partners (www.performancehealthus.com), a software company providing patient safety, employee health and quality improvement solutions to healthcare organizations. In addition, Raines is the Board President of the American College of Healthcare Executives’ Women Healthcare Executive Network and holds Preceptor Faculty positions at Tulane University’s Master of Health Administration (MHA) and University of New Orleans’s Bachelor of Healthcare Administration program. Raines has received awards for innovation and executive leadership, including City Business’ Innovator of the Year and Woman of the Year awards.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
Growing up in a rural southern town with limited access to healthcare, I experienced firsthand the impact of underserved communities and developed a passion for equitable access to quality care for all.
As a teenager, I looked up to the physician at our local primary care clinic — the only woman leader in our town. She provided quality care and offered a sliding scale for payment when health insurance was not an option. Once I was old enough to work, I asked her for a job at the clinic. From my front desk seat, I gained insight into patients’ concerns and observed the daily tasks of clinical staff. This experience helped me understand the challenges surrounding access to care and the unwavering commitment of most frontline clinical care staff to provide the best care possible.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
One of the most impactful things was meeting a tenured woman executive, a visionary healthcare leader who has become my mentor. During our first conversation, she shared a piece of advice that has stuck with me ever since. She said that to truly succeed, I needed to figure out a way to make money in my sleep.
At the time, I didn’t fully grasp what she meant, but after some reflection, I realized that she was encouraging me to find ways to form a business beyond myself and my personal reputation. This advice has been invaluable to me, and it has inspired me to seek out new opportunities and to think outside the box when it comes to building and scaling a company. Thanks to my mentor’s guidance, my company moved from a services model to a software model, and from a small start-up to a national company and brand.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Around 2010, I was starting my first healthcare company and needed additional support. A colleague of mine recommended Jessie Smith, who at the time was a recent master’s degree graduate looking to gain experience in healthcare administration before her husband finished law school. Knowing I could use some help, I hired Jessie. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Jessie quickly proved an invaluable asset to the company, and her steadfastness, support, and guidance have remained unmatched over the years. She has become an integral part of the team. Looking back, I am grateful for my colleague’s recommendation and for Jessie’s willingness to take a chance on a new and untested company. I feel incredibly fortunate to have her on my team and to be able to call her a friend and colleague.
Can you please give us your favorite life lesson quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One of my favorites is: “The road to success is paved with failure.” Although I’m not sure who originally said it, this quote has been relevant to me, as it reminds me that failure is not something to be feared, but rather it is a step closer to success.
Whenever I experience setbacks, I remind myself that each failure is simply a step on the path to achieving greatness. Each time I fail, I gain new insights and lessons that I can apply to future endeavors. I believe that the accumulation of failures is what ultimately leads to success. By learning from failures and persevering in the face of adversity, we become stronger and more resilient.
This quote has been particularly applicable in my career as an entrepreneur. Starting and growing a business is fraught with challenges and obstacles. There are many — more than I care to admit — unsuccessful business projects and ventures that have led to a handful of successful companies that I started, exited, or am still operating today.
Overall, the road to success is not a straight line, but rather a winding path that is punctuated with accomplishment, failure, perseverance, and learning.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
1. Risk taker: I believe being a risk taker has been instrumental to my success. Throughout my career, I’ve always been willing to take calculated risks, and this has allowed me to progress beyond what I had initially imagined.
One example of my willingness to take risks was when I decided to expand my business into a new market. This involved investing a significant amount of capital and resources into a new venture, with no guarantee of advancement. However, I saw the potential for growth and was willing to take the risk in pursuit of this opportunity. As a result, we were able to achieve national expansion for the company and build trust in our brand.
2. Advocate –Throughout my career, I have been passionate about advocating for the well-being of healthcare workers and patients.
From working as a teenager at a rural health clinic to my positions today — founder of the healthcare technology company Performance Health Partners, co-owner of an ambulatory surgery center, and patient and healthcare worker advocate — my career has revolved around understanding and supporting the well-being of healthcare organizations, healthcare workers, and patients. I have advocated for and designed solutions to ensure that, no matter the size of the patient population, healthcare organizations have access to the knowledge and technology tools they need to deliver safe, equitable, and quality care. I’ve made it my professional life’s work to identify the roles that systems and processes play in creating safety incidents and to find solutions that improve the environment of care and support overall patient and employee well-being.
Healthcare is one of the most regulated and complex industries, and it requires dedicated advocates to ensure that patients receive the best possible care and employees are psychologically and physically safe. People in healthcare work long, hard hours. They are struggling, however, to provide increasingly complex care in the absence of effective systemization. As the number of healthcare employees and points of care increase, the question of how best to support these workers to deliver high-quality care becomes ever more pressing. That’s why I’ve focused my career on designing solutions that support healthcare organizations in creating an environment that fosters the safest possible care and best outcomes.
3. Persistent — Many people look at PHP and think that it’s an overnight success. But the truth is, there’s no such thing as overnight success.
Since our beginning in 2009, PHP has actually been several different companies. We started out as a compliance company. But we quickly realized that we needed to do more than just focus on compliance; we needed to build technology solutions that could scale and have a broader impact.
So, we pivoted to become a governance, risk, and compliance technology company, developing innovative solutions to support employee and patient safety and well-being. But even then, we faced many challenges — from funding and staffing to technical hurdles and regulatory issues. Despite all these obstacles, we persisted. We kept pushing forward, refining our solutions and finding new ways to create value for our customers and to protect patients and healthcare workers. And over time, our persistence paid off.
Today, PHP is the №1 healthcare safety software company in the country, with a proven track record of improving patient outcomes, empowering healthcare workers, and delivering value to our customers. So, if there’s one lesson that I’ve learned in my career, it’s that learning and persistence are the keys to success. No matter how difficult the road may be, if you keep pushing forward and stay focused on your goals, you can achieve great things. And at the end of the day, that’s what separates the truly successful from the rest — the willingness to persist in the face of adversity and never give up on your dreams.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the technology or medical devices that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on our wellness. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve?
According to the World Health Organization, up to 80% of harm to patients within the healthcare setting is preventable.
Performance Health Partners is focused on solving this problem of preventable harm by equipping healthcare organizations of all types and sizes with technology tools that promote high-quality care in safe environments. Our suite of solutions includes incident reporting, event monitoring, post-event management, and analytics, as well as digital rounding tools and a survey management system.
Our solutions use event reporting technology to help patients, caregivers, and healthcare employees share their observations around unsafe conditions. Our advanced analytics enable healthcare leaders and managers to predict failures and underlying safety issues. By identifying gaps in processes and uncovering the root cause of incidents and potential incidents, we help healthcare teams take corrective action and prevent harm to patients and employees.
How do you think your technology can address this?
PHP’s technology is designed to address these issues by providing healthcare organizations with tools to proactively monitor the environment of care and report on potential incidents and near-misses, which are incidents that nearly occurred. By capturing this data, we’re able to use advanced analytics to identify patterns and trends, and provide organizations with actionable insights into the root causes of safety incidents.
Our incident reporting system allows for real-time alerts, automated workflows, and analytics to help healthcare organizations respond quickly to potential safety events. For example, if a patient falls in a hospital room, the incident reporting system would immediately alert the appropriate staff members and initiate a predefined workflow to ensure that the patient receives the necessary care, and the incident is thoroughly reviewed to prevent harm from occurring again. The customizable reporting feature also allows organizations to analyze incident data and identify trends or patterns that may
indicate broader safety issues that need to be addressed.
Additionally, our clinical rounding tools help identify potential safety hazards before they become incidents, allowing healthcare teams to take corrective action and improve overall patient safety. Overall, our technology helps healthcare organizations to continuously improve their safety culture and address potential safety issues before they result in harm to patients or staff.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
In my experience working in a variety of roles with a variety of healthcare organizations, I’ve seen the impact of implementing reporting systems and the importance of addressing organizational culture. Those that adopt a non-punitive culture centered around shared accountability not only see improvements in reporting but also a reduction in anxiety and hypervigilance among staff.
But beyond that, there’s a profound therapeutic effect that occurs, where the organization as a whole works together to safeguard both patients and employees. Experiencing this firsthand sparked my curiosity and drove me to explore this further. I thought: We have to understand this, and we need to develop more tools to support the evolution of patient safety and quality-of-care initiatives.
Ultimately, our passion lies in making healthcare safer and better for everyone involved, from patients to caregivers to the entire organization.
How do you think this might change the world?
My vision — and our mission at PHP — is that through our technology and solutions, we prevent patient and employee harm. By empowering all those involved in the care experience, including patients, their caregivers, and healthcare workers, to share observations before harm occurs, we believe that we can make care safer, reduce burnout experienced by healthcare workers, and save lives.
I envision a world where reporting is not only encouraged but embraced and where errors are acknowledged as opportunities to learn and improve. In the next decade, we will see the focus in healthcare safety shifting towards this culture of safety, where all voices are heard, and where there is a robust reporting practice in place to support continuous improvement. I believe that this shift towards prevention will ultimately lead to better outcomes for patients and a safer work environment for all healthcare workers.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
I don’t foresee any Black Mirror-level scenarios unfolding as a result of patient and employee safety software, but as with any technology, there are potential drawbacks to consider. One concern is the possibility of information overload or alert fatigue for healthcare workers responsible for reviewing and responding to safety reports.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”?
1. Customer centricity: When developing technology that aims to make a social impact, it’s important to keep the needs and perspectives of the end-users in mind. This means focusing on customer-centricity and user experience and actively seeking feedback from those who will be impacted by the technology. For example, at PHP, we continuously gather feedback from our customers and end-users, including patients, caregivers, and healthcare workers, to improve the user experience and the impact of our technology on patient safety.
One way we do this is through our customer support team, which actively solicits feedback and suggestions for improvement from our customers. We also regularly conduct user surveys and engage in usability testing to identify areas where we can make our solutions more user-friendly and effective. As a result, we’ve enhanced our software with features like real-time alerts and automated workflows that have been highly valued by our customers and have contributed to a significant reduction in harmful events.
2. Address real-world problems: It’s important to create technology that solves real-world problems and meets real needs. This means doing research to understand the context in which the technology will be used, as well as the potential impact it could have. In our work, our sights are set on preventing harm and ultimately saving lives.
3. Collaborate with stakeholders: Collaboration is key to creating technology that has a positive social impact. This includes working closely with stakeholders such as end-users, community organizations advocating in the space, and other experts to ensure that the technology meets their needs and addresses their concerns.
At PHP, we regularly collaborate with various stakeholders, including healthcare providers, patients, and regulatory bodies, to ensure that our technology solutions address real-world problems and are aligned with industry standards and regulations.
For example, we’ve partnered with healthcare providers to implement our incident
management system and rounding tools and customize this software to their specific needs and workflows. We also engage with patients and their caregivers to understand their experiences and perspectives on safety and quality of care. This feedback helps inform the development of new features and improvements to existing solutions. Of course, we also work with regulatory bodies and industry organizations to stay current on the latest standards and guidelines related to patient safety and quality of care. This ensures that our solutions are compliant with regulations and aligned with best practices in the industry.
4. Ongoing software development: Technology is always evolving, and software development is an ongoing process. It’s not a conversation that happens every six months — it must be revisited on a consistent, almost weekly basis. It’s important to build a team that is dedicated to maintaining and improving the technology over time, based on ongoing feedback and data analysis.
5. Address potential drawbacks: As with any technology, it’s important to consider potential drawbacks and unintended consequences. This means being proactive in identifying potential risks and taking steps to mitigate them, as well as being transparent with stakeholders about the risks and limitations of the technology.
Can you share a few best practices that you recommend to safeguard your technology or medical devices from hackers?
We take the security of our technology solutions very seriously, especially when it comes to protecting sensitive patient data. It’s essential to implement a layered security strategy that involves multiple defenses working together to create a comprehensive security posture. It’s also important to know that cybersecurity is a daily conversation within a health tech company, and it is always on our roadmap. As security issues evolve, so, too, must our company stay a step ahead by predicting future issues.
Safeguarding protected health information is a central pillar of our work.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
As someone who has dedicated their career to making a positive impact on our healthcare system, I would say that young people have an incredible amount of power in their voice. It’s important to recognize that one person can make a difference, and that by speaking up about issues that matter to them, they can inspire others to take action, too.
The world faces many challenges today, from climate change to social inequality to healthcare disparities, and it can feel overwhelming at times. But when young people use their voice to advocate for change, they can create a ripple effect that leads to real, positive impact. So, my advice to young people would be to find an issue that resonates with them and speak up about it.
Whether it’s through social media, writing letters to elected officials, or organizing events or fundraisers, there are many ways to make your voice heard. And when you do, you’ll be amazed at how many people will join you in your cause. Ultimately, we all have a responsibility to do our part to make the world a better place, and speaking up is one of the most powerful tools we have to create change. So don’t be afraid to use your voice — you never know who you might inspire or what kind of impact you might have.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
I would love to share a meal with Ariana Huffington. She’s a successful entrepreneur and is a strong advocate for wellness and work-life balance. I’d enjoy discussing with her the importance of mental health and well-being in the workplace, and how we can create a positive impact in society through promoting and prioritizing self-care. I believe her insights and experiences would be valuable in helping me grow personally and professionally.
I’d also like to meet Judith Faulkner, the founder and CEO of Epic Systems. Judith is a true trailblazer in the healthcare technology industry, and her company has had an immense impact on the way patient data is managed and utilized. I’d love to hear her perspective on the future of healthcare technology and how we can continue to innovate and improve the quality of care for patients.
Additionally, I’m interested in learning more about her journey as a female entrepreneur in a male-dominated industry, and the challenges she faced in building and growing her company. Judith’s insights and experiences would be invaluable to me as I continue to navigate the world of healthcare technology and work towards making a positive impact on patient safety and quality of care.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow me on LinkedIn and find my Amazon and Forbes best-selling book, Shared Voices: A Framework for Patient and Employee Safety at all major book retail outlets.
Additionally, you can follow Performance Health Partners on LinkedIn and Twitter (@perfhealth), and visit our website (www.performancehealthus.com), where you can find more information about our software as well as the latest news and views in healthcare safety.
This was very inspiring and informative. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this interview!
About The Interviewer: David Leichner is a veteran of the Israeli high-tech industry with significant experience in the areas of cyber and security, enterprise software and communications. At Cybellum, a leading provider of Product Security Lifecycle Management, David is responsible for creating and executing the marketing strategy and managing the global marketing team that forms the foundation for Cybellum’s product and market penetration. Prior to Cybellum, David was CMO at SQream and VP Sales and Marketing at endpoint protection vendor, Cynet. David is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Technology College. He holds a BA in Information Systems Management and an MBA in International Business from the City University of New York.
