Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Transforming Safety Net Care Through Accountability, Speed, and Bold Leadership with Arthur Gianelli

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Transforming Safety Net Care Through Accountability, Speed, and Bold Leadership with Arthur Gianelli · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
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  the problems that we face in health care.
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  We're not just promising you results, we are
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  delivering them. Visit us at insightglobal.com.
• 0:26
  This is Haley Recker with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. And today, we are recording live at
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  the Becker's twenty twenty six annual meeting. Right
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  now, I am joined by Arthur Janelli, president
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  and chief transformation officer of One Brooklyn Health.
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  Arthur, thank you so much for joining me
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  today. Oh, thank you for having me. This
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  is wonderful to be here.
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  To start, could you briefly introduce yourself, your
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  role, and the scope of your organization, and
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  what's currently commanding most of your attention as
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  a leader?
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  Sure. So,
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  again, my name is Arthur Gianelli. I'm president
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  and chief transformation officer at One Brooklyn Health.
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  I've been at One Brooklyn Health since May
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  2025. Before that, I worked for about eleven
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  years in the Mount Sinai Health System. And
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  prior to that, I ran a public hospital
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  out on on Long Island.
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  My role is really twofold.
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  One is
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  overseeing the day to day management of our
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  acute care, post acute care,
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  and ambulatory care operations.
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  But second, it's partnering with the CEO, Sandy
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  Scott, who is, gonna be speaking here, tomorrow,
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  actually.
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  And doctor Scott and I are really working
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  together in collaboration
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  to try to transform
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  One Brooklyn Health. One Brooklyn Health is
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  a safety net health system. In fact, if
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  you were to look up safety net health
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  system in the dictionary, you'd see a picture
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  of One Brooklyn Health. We have two acute
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  care facilities,
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  two nursing homes, a number of ambulatory,
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  centers
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  that service Eastern And Central Brooklyn.
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  These are areas
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  that are truly vulnerable
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  where many of
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  the indicators of of of health conditions and
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  health status are below where you'd wanna see
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  them to be. In addition,
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  the financial challenges that One Brooklyn Health faces
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  are significant.
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  They're significant because of our payer mix. They're
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  significant
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  because of,
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  management challenges that have occurred historically.
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  So, you know, my role is to partner
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  with the CEO, doctor Scott, to to transform
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  our organization
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  financially,
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  operationally,
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  and we wanna transform
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  the care that's delivered to the communities that
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  we serve.
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  Well, thank you for that introduction, and, also,
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  congratulations on almost one year at One Brooklyn
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  Health.
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  Now in a year marked by rapid change,
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  what recent decision or pivot required the most
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  leadership conviction from you,
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  particularly
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  when it came to aligning people, resources, or
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  capabilities?
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  So
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  in the 2025,
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  we were
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  alerted by the state of New York that
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  funding that we would historically have counted on,
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  was gonna be reduced.
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  And One Brooklyn Health is one of those
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  health systems
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  that is truly reliant on governmental,
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  subsidies and support in order to be able
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  to fulfill its its its mission.
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  So once we learned that, we really had
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  to pivot,
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  and we had to pivot in terms of
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  how we were thinking about how fast we
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  were doing our work,
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  what initiatives we needed to to launch and
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  when, and then and then how quickly we
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  needed to to do these things. So
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  once we were given that word,
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  we immediately
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  pivoted towards, okay, what
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  workforce restructuring do do we need to do,
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  what,
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  changes to our table of organization do we
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  need to make?
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  What large scale initiatives do we need to
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  start recognizing that there's gonna be a long
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  lead time to get them to be con
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  to to be concluded?
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  And how can we put in place
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  the infrastructure
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  necessary
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  to,
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  manage as tightly as possible
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  our finances and our operations.
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  Now how did that moment challenge your assumptions,
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  and what did it change about how you
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  approach decision making, talent, or organizational readiness today?
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  So so being notified by the state that
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  the funding that we could historically rely on
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  was gonna be reduced
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  really forced us to do a few things
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  differently and to make different assumptions.
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  So first of all, we needed to make
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  sure we had the right team.
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  And to do that, we made
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  significant changes to our leadership table of organization
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  with a focus on streamlining the table of
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  organization to make decision making
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  easier,
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  quicker, and to to drive accountability.
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  The the second thing that that we focused
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  on was making sure that we were we
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  had the right talent and the right people
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  in the right places.
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  So we've undertaken recruitment of for key positions
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  in our health system. That's a a chief
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  operating officer that we've recently hired.
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  And having somebody to lead our social work
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  and case management,
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  efforts, that's critical because length of stay is
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  such an important challenge for us to try
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  to to to try to grapple with.
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  And in terms of organizational readiness, what I
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  would say is that
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  we needed to to communicate with our organization
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  about the need for change and to really
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  do that all the way through the organization
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  from the top
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  to the front lines. And and creating
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  the the the reason for change, the reason
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  for action, and creating momentum behind change
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  has been critical in, in in in our
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  ability to successfully
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  begin to implement change at One Brooklyn Health.
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  When you think about the forces reshaping health
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  care right now, where do you believe leaders
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  need to be more decisive,
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  especially when balancing speed, risk, and having the
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  right teams in place? Yeah. So this is
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  a really good question. I would say, actually,
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  all three need to be balanced,
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  evenly.
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  Speed is important.
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  Thing things are happening very, very fast in
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  health care.
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  Changes are are occurring at a rapid pace,
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  and it requires a rapid response.
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  Those organizations
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  which are not geared towards
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  speedy decision making are gonna be left behind.
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  We can't afford it to be left behind,
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  so we have put a premium on speed.
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  Second,
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  organizations
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  that are facing difficult circumstances like One Brooklyn
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  Health,
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  where
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  the finances are challenged, the operations are challenged,
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  and,
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  our clinical care is challenged,
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  we have to take risks in ways that
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  perhaps other organizations
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  wouldn't.
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  We have to make big and bold decisions
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  in ways in which other organizations
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  may be able to wait a little longer.
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  We can't wait. That's why speed is important,
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  and we have to be bold in order,
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  I think, to be to be successful.
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  And then we have to have the right
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  team in place. And and doctor Scott and
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  I, the the CEO and I regularly talk
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  about, do we have the right people in
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  the right positions in our organization
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  to be successful? We wanna have the best
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  team. And the best team for One Brooklyn
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  Health
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  means that that a team that combines,
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  the the knowledge base and the skill set,
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  but also the empathy and the concern for
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  the communities that we serve. And those are
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  those are tough tough recruits to to find
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  and and tough people to find, but we're
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  we're building that team. We're confident in who
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  we who we put in place, and there'll
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  be more to come.
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  Now going off that a little bit, as
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  uncertainty
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  has become the norm, what leadership habit or
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  mindset has been most critical in keeping your
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  organization and your people moving forward?
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  In one word, it's accountability.
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  When I got to One Brooklyn Health, it
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  was evident that there were a lot of
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  ideas,
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  a lot of ideas, a lot of thoughts
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  about how to solve certain problems that the
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  organization was facing.
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  But oftentimes, these ideas were were left on
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  the table. They weren't
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  taken to fruition
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  from idea to execution.
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  So
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  when I say accountability, I mean accountability for
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  executing against the ideas that have been identified
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  as being necessary to try to address
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  problems and challenges that the organization faces. So
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  what I've really tried to do, again, in
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  partnership with doctor Scott at at One Brooklyn
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  Health is to is to really bring that
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  sense of accountability,
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  really bring that that sense that that we're
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  gonna commit to executing against the ideas that
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  have been that have been brought to the
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  table. And I think in the in the
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  ten or eleven months that I've been at
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  One Brooklyn Health, in doctor Siad and I
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  have been really, really good at at focusing
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  on on accountability and execution, and I think
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  we've delivered results because of that.
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  Final question for you. As technology becomes more
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  embedded in daily operations, how how are you
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  ensuring digital investment support rather than straining your
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  workforce?
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  So, you know, there's always a danger that
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  digital investments can strain your workforce because you're
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  just simply layering on more
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  more tools that are not necessarily geared towards
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  the issues and challenges
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  facing the organization.
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  But I would also make an argument that
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  that safety net facilities like One Brooklyn Health
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  need to double down on their investment in
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  information technology
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  and in in in in in in in
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  their digital front door. So at One Brooklyn
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  Health, for example, we're doing everything from
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  using,
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  an AI platform to,
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  monitor patients in inpatient rooms
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  for fall risks and for prisoner injuries,
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  which is going to
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  provide significant relief to our nurses because
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  it will provide information for our nurses and
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  alerts for our nurses when they need to
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  intervene.
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  So it will really
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  focus their attention in a way that I
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  think is essential,
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  and it will allow some of our staff
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  who were previously assigned,
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  for one to one observations
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  to no longer have to do that and
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  to be out on the floor supporting nurses.
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  So that's just one example
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  of using,
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  artificial intelligence
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  embedded in a platform
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  that is nursing
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  that that is geared towards supporting nurses.
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  So what we're trying to do is identify
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  more platforms
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  like that.
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  So we're in the process right now of
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  of,
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  issuing an RFP
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  to bring in a vendor to help us
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  with,
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  essentially
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  creating an access center. So the access center
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  will will will combine
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  human elements as well as artificial intelligence, where
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  the artificial intelligence, again, can support
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  our personnel, our staff, so that we are
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  able to deliver to our patients
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  far greater access than we've been delivering previously,
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  with older technology. So we've got to, as
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  a
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  safety net health system,
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  embrace that tech technology, be rid really digital
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  forward,
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  and and use the technology in a way
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  that supports the care of our patients, but
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  also supports the the the the the work
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  of our clinicians.
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  Well, that's it for today's conversation, Arthur. Thank
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  you so much for joining me. Again, we
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  are recording live at the Becker's twenty twenty
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  six annual meeting. Thank you. Thank you.