Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Holly Lee, Vice President and Chief Audit Executive at Parkview Health

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Holly Lee, Vice President and Chief Audit Executive at Parkview Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  The most important health care decisions don't happen
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  in isolation.
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  They happen when leaders come together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
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  3,500
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  hospital and health system executives this April in
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  Chicago.
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  With 800 speakers from Ascension,
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  Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit and more, the conversations get
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  real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning
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  for policy shifts, breaking through value based care
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  barriers, and building clinical teams that translate new
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  ideas into real world care.
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  Join top decision makers in the room April
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  13 through the sixteenth.
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  For the agenda and event details, visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right.
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  This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Holly Lee, vice president and chief audit executive
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  at Parkview Health. Holly, it's a pleasure to
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  have you on the podcast today. Yeah. Thanks
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  so much for having me. I'm excited for
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  our conversation because I know there's so much
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  happening in health care and particularly,
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  just some really important things that you're doing
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  at Parkview. So we'll dive into that. But
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  before we begin, can you introduce yourself and
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  just tell us a little bit more about
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  the organization?
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  Yes. Absolutely.
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  So, again, Holly Lee, and I, I lead
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  the internal audit function at Parkview Health for
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  the health system.
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  A little bit about Parkview, we're a not
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  for profit health system. We serve
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  Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio.
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  Our mission is pretty simple, but it's also
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  pretty powerful.
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  We're focused on improving health and inspiring well-being.
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  So for internal audit, really, our role in
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  that is to provide assurance and insight that
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  really helps Parkview achieve its mission
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  from a responsible and ineffective
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  perspective.
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  So whether that's managing risk or staying compliant
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  or finding ways to operate more efficiently,
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  we're really focused about supporting great care for
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  our patients in our communities.
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  I love that. And, you know, what an
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  important thing to be focused on, especially in
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  a year so busy and transformative as 2026.
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  But before we get into that, can you
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  tell us a little bit about last year?
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  What is the most important initiative that you
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  did? What did you do, and what were
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  the results?
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  Yeah. So for last year,
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  so I joined Parkview in 2023. And so
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  moving into 2025,
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  I was really focused on
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  laying the foundation
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  for what's known as integrated assurance. And we,
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  you know, we did this by
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  aligning enterprise risk management, which I'm sure a
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  lot of us are familiar with.
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  We align that within the internal audit function.
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  And so the real idea is kinda simple
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  and that we want to move beyond
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  their traditional internal audit assurance role and create
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  a more connected approach to risk oversight for
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  the organization.
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  Because when these two entities work together, you
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  know, it should really enable leadership to get
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  one clear view
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  of risk and assurance
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  across the organization instead of these fragmented reports.
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  And so when I'm explaining this
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  of thinking of it like coordinating care for
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  a patient with multiple specialists,
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  you know, if each doctor works in isolation,
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  the patient runs a risk of getting conflicting
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  treatments, and we can all understand what happens
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  when when that occurs.
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  But when we share information and follow a
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  care plan, outcomes generally improve and risk go
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  down.
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  So that's really what integration
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  integrated assurance is meant to do for an
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  organization.
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  It's to really treat the system as a
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  whole and not just the individual risk symptoms
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  in siloed functions.
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  So for looking into 2026,
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  this means we're gonna have to rethink some
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  of our governance. We're gonna have to improve
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  risk reporting for that single language, single lens
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  to have and strengthen our strengthen our collaboration
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  even more. And, you know, ultimately, the payoff
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  from their work that we did last year
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  is that we
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  end up with a clear
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  vision
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  of emerging risk. You know, we have less
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  duplication because we're leveraging,
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  resources across these different silos, bringing them together.
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  And we have more confidence in the decisions
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  that shape our strategy here at Parkview.
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  That's fascinating to hear about. You know, really
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  cool to understand how you've been looking at,
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  making sure that you've got a great
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  plan in place to improve outcomes or improve,
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  some of the results that you're seeing for
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  patients and then looking at the governance and
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  risk. I I know that's something that is
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  no easy task, and so being able to,
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  zero in on that in this next year
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  and continue to,
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  sharpen what you're doing for, patient care is
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  critical. And now looking into 2026, what are
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  some of the big priorities and headwinds you're
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  focused on? Yeah. So looking ahead in 2026,
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  you know, in leveraging the work we're doing
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  with internal
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  integrated assurance,
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  we're we're really prioritizing
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  data,
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  agility, and resilience
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  within internal audit. So for data, we're advancing
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  our analytic capabilities
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  for auditing so that we can provide leadership
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  with real time insights
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  into the financial, operational, and compliance risk,
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  that come along with those headwinds for 2026
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  and beyond.
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  For agility, we're building flexible audit plans
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  and integrated assurance processes that I highlighted earlier
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  so that we can pivot quickly to anticipate
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  and respond to evolving and emerging risk.
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  And for resilience, you will really focus on,
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  strengthening that cybersecurity
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  as digital health expands, planning for those workforce
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  shortages that that continue to challenge us,
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  and embedding risk management into those strategic decisions.
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  So whether it's, like, economic pressures,
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  such as tighter reimbursement or rising costs, workforce
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  burnout,
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  and, of course, constant regulatory changes, you know,
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  these headwinds
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  are are real, and internal audit's role is
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  to to turn that uncertainty into actionable insight
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  so ParfView can stay resilient, compliant, and focused
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  really on our mission of delivering exceptional care.
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  That's helpful to understand. And, I I think
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  it's really cool that you've got this view
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  of having some of those audit plans and
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  processes in place and and looking at the
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  organization as a whole and how whether it's
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  technology or or workforce or
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  clinical care delivery, you're, seeing things from a
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  a very,
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  high level view in in helping each department
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  improve and work better together to, deliver on
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  the health system's overall mission.
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  I think, you know, you've touched on a
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  couple of these, challenges in the past
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  in our discussion looking at, you know, whether
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  it's workforce shortages or or other things that
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  may be a challenge this next year. What
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  do you think the hardest thing you'll have
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  to do will be?
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  Yeah. I think this is something that's probably
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  shared,
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  across
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  health care as a whole.
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  And for many of us, you know, the
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  hardest challenge, I think, this year,
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  will continue to be balancing growth and innovation
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  with limited resources.
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  So many of us across health care,
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  you know, there's a constant real pressure to
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  deliver
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  more, you know, better access, better care, but
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  also that pressure to do that while reducing
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  costs. And that really means that we have
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  to make some tough choices.
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  We have to prioritize initiatives that truly move
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  the needle on things like improving patient outcomes,
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  strengthening our compliance,
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  and managing risk, not just effectively, but also
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  efficiently.
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  And so our hope for internal audit play
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  a critical role in enabling this, you know,
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  responsibly,
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  and we provide assurance that major projects
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  such as, let's say,
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  enterprise resource planning, you know, e ERP platform
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  modernization
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  or AI adoption initiatives.
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  We work on those projects to provide assurance
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  that they're governed well, they meet regulatory requirements,
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  align with strategic priorities.
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  And so our work helps leadership clearly see
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  both risk and opportunities
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  so decisions are informed and progress supports quality,
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  compliance, and trust,
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  you know, even in an environment where efficiency
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  is essential.
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  So, again, like, the challenge of balancing that
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  growth to play those roles and to support
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  leadership,
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  and be innovative
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  with the resources that we have,
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  and facing these headwinds we discussed earlier, really
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  will be, I think, the hardest thing that
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  we'll have in front of us.
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  That makes a lot of sense and certainly
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  isn't, an easy task to try to, you
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  know, push forward both the, challenges as well
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  as the opportunities, the risks, and innovation at
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  the same time.
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  Do you ever find yourself pulled in multiple
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  directions,
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  or or do you feel pretty grounded in
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  in, you know, the team as you're working
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  with them?
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  Yeah. It can be very challenging.
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  I think that's why it's really important to,
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  you know, have a structure in place that
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  that guides your decisions and your priorities,
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  such as, you know, starting with the the
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  organization's strategic
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  goals, initiatives, priorities, and aligning your work to
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  that so that when you do get those
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  competing priorities
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  that you have that structure in place to
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  to make the decisions on where you're gonna
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  put your resources,
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  you know, time, people, effort.
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  So
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  when when that those challenges come along, it's
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  that that's what really keeps us grounded is
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  making sure we're aligning back to those strategic
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  priorities for the organization.
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  I love that. Thank you for,
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  digging a bit deeper there. Now before we
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  wrap up, where do you see the best
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  opportunities for organizational growth?
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  So when I think about the best opportunities,
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  I was talking about this with some of
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  my colleagues, and and I found myself to
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  be a little bit of an outlier. But
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  when I think about this, you know, the
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  best opportunities for growth in health care, I
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  don't necessarily start with technology or or expansion.
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  I really start with readiness.
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  And I think that's because in internal audit,
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  we see some really great ideas struggle, not
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  because the strategy was wrong or the technology
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  wasn't there, but because
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  the foundation that is being built on this
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  growth is being built on isn't strong enough.
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  And so for the biggest growth opportunities that
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  I would highlight,
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  are investing in people,
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  building a culture of accountability,
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  and then turning data insights
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  data into insights that actually drive decisions.
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  So people, accountability,
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  and actual insights.
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  And when we invest in our people, we
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  ultimately we build resilience and adaptability for those
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  growth opportunities.
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  When accountability is clear and supported, it can
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  really become a driver for performance and innovation.
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  And when data
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  really moves beyond dashboards into actual insights,
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  leaders can act faster and smarter. And those
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  three things really, to me, create the organizational
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  readiness
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  that leads to strategic agility
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  in in an environment like health care and
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  in many others of constant change. You know,
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  that agility really allows organizations to pursue
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  growth confidently
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  while staying true to their mission. And so
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  for me, again, it's pretty simple.
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  Growth isn't necessarily
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  about just scaling up,
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  but it's really strengthening the fundamentals. And to
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  me, when you do that well, you're not
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  just prepared for those growth opportunities, but you're
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  you can really be positioned to lead those
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  growth opportunities.
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  I love that. Holly, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today. This
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  has been a really fun conversation.
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  Learned a lot and truly, truly helpful to
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  understand, you know, some of the things that
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  you're thinking about in working towards at Parkview.
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  And I look forward to seeing you as
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  well at our sixteenth annual meeting coming up
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  in April. I know you'll be speaking on
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  a panel there, and and truly will be
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  great to, dig deeper into some of these
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  themes and and,
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  continue to talk about the transformational times we
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  are in health care. So thank you.
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  Yeah. Thank you so much for letting me,
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  you know, share a little bit about our
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  journey, and and I look forward to the
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  conference.