Vaccine testimonial from a colleague, Spotlight: Kasey Wheeler helps patients 'stay on track', Beaumont's Key Teams
Vaccine testimonial from a colleague
“I took the vaccine to lead by example and instill confidence in my family, friends and co-workers,” said Derek Cousino, RN, clinical nurse manager at Beaumont, Dearborn. “In addition, with the vaccine, I feel safer when caring for our patients at work.”
Spotlight: Kasey Wheeler helps patients 'stay on track'
As director of Population Health, Kasey Wheeler is focused on improving the health and wellbeing of the community.
“Our team creates strategies — including directing programs, initiatives and activities — that guide the delivery of high-quality, value-driven health care to improve population health outcomes,” Kasey said. “An example would be patient outreach encouraging people to get a mammogram and then getting them scheduled. Our goal is to be an extension of the practice and provide consistent support in helping patients stay on track with their preventive services.”
Since 2009, Kasey has been a member of the Beaumont team in some way. She started at the front desk of a physician office, then transitioned to another office in 2011 where she eventually became practice manager.
She left Beaumont for a short while but returned as project manager for payor enrollment and operations. Kasey also was a quality liaison to our physician organizations and insurance payors and eventually transitioned to quality regional practice administrator in January 2018, where she focused on quality programs. This led to her becoming director of Population Health.
“Even though I’m in the director role, I feel very hands on,” she said. “I really like those break-through teaching moments with our providers. We try to go above and beyond, so they can get credit for what they’re doing. We have a lot of show them and tell them, and they appreciate it.”
Kasey’s team includes medical assistants who work on specific health initiatives, care managers who work with patients to keep them at the right level of care and out of the hospital, if possible, and quality regional practice administrators who partner with physicians.
“We work directly with the physician practices on process improvement. We watch scorecards and find opportunities and ways to improve,” she said.
Reading, kids and lake life consume her days when she’s not on the clock. Her family lives on a lake, so boating and other recreational activities fill her time. Her children are involved in dance and travel soccer, which keeps her hopping.
“I really love what I do,” she said. “What I love most is my job is continuously evolving. There’s always new things and initiatives. Every day does not look the same. It keeps you fresh all the time.”
Beaumont's Key Teams
We have a long-standing tradition at our house. Whenever we can, we try to make Fridays our family “dinner and a movie” night. Over the years, as the kids and streaming services have grown, our options (and sometimes disagreements) on what to watch have also increased.
This past Friday, we settled on the Netflix series, Locke & Key. If you are not familiar, the series features three siblings who, after relocating across country, find magical keys with different powers. We got so engrossed in the storyline that we had to finish the series on Saturday night! After the last episode, I asked my daughter what type of magical key she’d like to find. Without hesitating, she said she would choose a key that allowed her to go anywhere in the world. The idea of a magical key that can transport us to anywhere is certainly a fun one to think about. I began to daydream — where would I go first?
As I was mentally scrolling through my options, I soon had a horribly anxious thought. What if there was a magic key that unlocked access to data, and what if it fell into the wrong hands? The idea of threat actors using a magic key to gain access to Beaumont systems and data was not as fun to think about.
Every day, over 50,000 employees and non-employees, including vendors, consultants and partners, log into the Beaumont network, then access essential data and applications to perform their daily tasks. You may not realize it, but Beaumont has a team responsible for handing out specific “keys” that grant each of us access to data and systems tailored to our roles and responsibilities.
We each have our own “key” that we keep with us on our Beaumont journey from the time of hire to the last day worked. Over time, the key may need to change — we may assume a new position, change departments, or take on a new project or responsibility — all requiring access updates. If our relationship with Beaumont ends, we must give our key back and our access must be removed.
Our Identity Access Management team, or IAM for short, makes all this possible. The team establishes your Beaumont “digital identity,” which is your Beaumont key, enabling you to access data and applications. Identity Access Management is a framework that uses technology to ensure your unique “access key” is tailored to your job role and assignments, while also maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements and business policy. The team is constantly focused on ensuring only the right people have the right access for the right reasons at the right time.
As an example, think about the newly hired clinical nurse. After the nurse’s digital identity is created, the provisioning process begins and access to pre-defined applications is granted. However, Beaumont policy also requires new nursing staff to complete educational requirements before they are given access to oneChart. The IAM team programs this requirement within its technology to safeguard for compliance, meaning that only after the required education is complete, will the nurse’s access be updated to allow for charting. This is just one example out of numerous requirements in place to help Beaumont maintain compliance.
In addition to preserving access and compliance, IAM plays the critical role of gatekeeper, protecting patient and business data from unauthorized people or technologies that might want to compromise our patients’ most sensitive data. We know most data breaches are not caused by “hacking ninjas” who infiltrate our complex and secure firewalls, and no data breaches are caused by someone finding a magic key in an attic that grants access to our systems. Instead, through successful phishing campaigns, threat actors simply steal a team member’s username and password and assume their digital identity. With the rapid expansion of remote work and more applications moving to the cloud, IAM programs must evolve. Beaumont, for example, recently implemented Duo Multi-Factor Authentication, adding a security layer to ensure you are who you say you are before granting access when not on the Beaumont network.
Our IAM team makes the access process seamless for so many of us, even as operations become more complex and through the ever-changing risks to health care data. They continue to adapt and support every user in their unique circumstances, so together we can provide compassionate, extraordinary care every day.
Feeling safe again with the knowledge that our IAM team is making sure Beaumont access keys are handed out and maintained appropriately, I could get back to that other question — if I had my daughter’s magic key, where would I go first? Stargazing in Yosemite? Pasta in Italy? To the backyard with my family? So many good choices, it’s hard to choose! How about you — where would you go first? Let me know in the comments, or comment if you have any questions about our IAM processes.