Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Denzil Ross, MBA, FACHE, President of the South Region at Indiana University Health

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Denzil Ross, MBA, FACHE, President of the South Region at Indiana University Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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This is Madeline Ashley with the Becker's Healthcare
0:40
Podcast, and I'm thrilled to be joined today
0:42
by Denzel Ross, president of the South Region
0:44
of Indiana University Health. Denzel, thanks for joining
0:47
me, and and happy 2026 to you. Yes.
0:50
Happy '26 to you as well, and,
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appreciate your time, and thanks for having me
0:54
on.
0:55
Yeah. I'm really, excited to dive into our
0:58
chat today. But before we do so, do
1:00
you mind just sharing a little bit about
1:02
yourself,
1:03
with our listeners and a bit more about,
1:05
your role at IU Health?
1:07
Sure. Well, again, my name is Denzel Ross.
1:09
I currently serve as the president for the
1:12
South Region
1:13
of Indiana University
1:15
Health.
1:17
Indiana University Health is the largest network of
1:20
physicians in the state of Indiana, and we
1:22
have a very unique partnership with
1:24
Indiana University School of Medicine,
1:27
which is one of the nation's largest,
1:29
land leading medical schools.
1:31
And so,
1:32
previous to this, I have held roles
1:35
in multiple different cities, with other large health
1:39
care institutions
1:40
spanning
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well over fourteen years.
1:44
Wonderful. I appreciate you sharing your background there.
1:47
So let's, you know, dive in. As as
1:48
I said, New Year, probably some some new
1:51
goals in mind for you, but, you know,
1:54
I would actually like to start by kinda
1:55
backtracking and asking you maybe the most important
1:58
initiative,
1:59
that led you into 2026.
2:01
So what did you do last year that,
2:04
you know, you're really proud of and and
2:05
maybe brought you some strong results?
2:08
You know, there are many things that I
2:09
could probably go to,
2:11
but one of the things in particularly in
2:14
the South Region that was a focus for
2:16
us,
2:17
was our,
2:19
emergency department hold times.
2:21
In the South Region, we have, four hospitals.
2:24
It spans over an 11 county
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span,
2:28
over 35,
2:30
100 employees.
2:32
And our emergency department, as you know,
2:35
and many other systems are are front doors.
2:38
And particularly
2:39
at our larger facility in Bloomington,
2:42
it was a real challenge for us,
2:45
to have an efficiently running
2:48
emergency department.
2:49
And so through some innovative ideas,
2:52
challenging the status quo,
2:55
a little bit upsetting the Apple card for
2:57
some of the departments,
2:59
and making it a little bit uncomfortable
3:01
for them to work through, but they all
3:03
stepped up to the challenge.
3:05
We sort of redesigned,
3:08
and worked through some patient flow challenges,
3:11
to create,
3:13
better spaces,
3:15
to care for our patients. And through that,
3:18
we were able to see a 30%
3:20
decrease in ED hold times,
3:23
in our facilities.
3:25
And so with that, we were able to
3:27
drive down the length of stay both in
3:29
the emergency department as well as the rest
3:32
of the hospital for the inpatient stay,
3:35
maintain high quality and safe care.
3:38
And then one of the biggest departments through
3:40
that move was all cardiovascular
3:43
program,
3:44
which was really on a good
3:46
platform
3:47
of growth before.
3:49
They were impacted by this, with this move,
3:51
but they were also able to step up,
3:53
do some innovative things, and we were able
3:56
to see great
3:57
cardiovascular
3:58
program growth
4:00
in,
4:01
2025.
4:02
So while we were attacking a
4:04
major issue or major challenge and we saw
4:07
some successes there, we were able to see
4:09
some additional successes as well throughout or the
4:13
other, throughout the facility in different areas.
4:16
That's incredible to hear. I'd be curious from
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a leadership perspective, maybe any lessons learned that
4:21
you took away from that entire process.
4:24
Yeah. I think some of the lessons learned,
4:27
were,
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communicate, communicate, communicate.
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Start early.
4:33
Get the,
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information
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out to the impacted folks. We held
4:40
town halls and meetings to share what we
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were doing,
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hear back from the people that it was
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going to impact on why our thoughts may
4:49
not have worked,
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and ask their input to say, well, okay.
4:53
Well, help us think about this a little
4:55
bit further, and how how do we get
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to the outcome?
4:59
I think the three main Right. Goals that
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we had for this move was safe care,
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first and foremost. We have to maintain that.
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The second was,
5:09
programmatic growth. We didn't wanna lose steam there.
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And then third, see the impact in the
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emergency department,
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for,
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having that emergency department being able to run
5:20
efficiently.
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And so when we got all the team
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members involved,
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there were some things that we learned that
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we hadn't thought of, and I think that
5:29
all played a big part in in executing,
5:32
and seeing the success. So communicating upfront,
5:35
communicating the why, making sure that the stakeholders
5:38
were at the table at the appropriate time,
5:41
listening and and being open to switch gears
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and
5:45
changing Yeah. Or focus when when appropriate. So
5:48
I think that would be,
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a key thing that we learned or was
5:53
reiterated for us.
5:55
Yeah. So some great takeaways there. Appreciate you
5:58
diving deeper.
5:59
Now that we are in 2026,
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looking ahead, could you share some of your
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big priorities for this year and maybe any
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headwinds that you're keeping a close eye on?
6:08
Sure.
6:09
I think there are three major things that
6:11
is gonna, things are gonna be a focus
6:13
for us in 2026,
6:15
particularly here in the region.
6:18
Access to care continues to be a challenge
6:20
for us. We've made really strong strides in
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2025,
6:24
and I think we're on a good path
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into 2026.
6:28
I mentioned within the region, we have four
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hospitals.
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So we look at
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how can we create continuity of care,
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making sure that,
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the citizens of the counties that we serve,
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the 11 counties span, receive the appropriate level
6:45
care as close as,
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at home,
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when when appropriate,
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giving them the ability
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to get to their physicians and their providers
6:56
in a timely manner through access. So a
6:58
lot of recruiting was done last year and
7:00
will continue into this year.
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We spent a lot of time on operational
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efficiency.
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How can we get all patients to the
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right level of care and, and the, and
7:10
proper timing, and then ensuring that we have
7:13
the same high quality level of care across
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all of our facilities. So,
7:18
that first thing is access and continuity of
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care Yeah. Regionally.
7:23
The second is that we have been on
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a journey
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to,
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bring graduate medical education,
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to the region.
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And I talked about alignment with the IU
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School of Medicine,
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before, but starting this year,
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I believe it's in June, we will be,
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starting with two
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new residency programs,
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within the region,
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emergency medicine and internal medicine. And that's a
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huge
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deal for us because we know that research
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shows that there's a higher probability
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of providers staying
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in a place or an area where they
8:03
practice and they train.
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So,
8:06
helping to build that pipeline,
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has been key, and we've been on that
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journey for probably the last two years to
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make sure that we are ready and we
8:15
have everything that we need to give our
8:17
incoming residents
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a strong
8:20
program,
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and help fund,
8:23
or support the next pipeline
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of emerging
8:27
providers
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or,
8:30
facilities.
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We also work very closely with,
8:34
the school of med the school of nursing,
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and other
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other, educational
8:40
facilities to help create some additional pipelines for
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nursing,
8:45
some tech positions, etcetera. So,
8:47
the education space has been a big growth
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opportunity for us. And the third, as I
8:52
mentioned, cardiovascular and CT cardiothoracic
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programmatic
8:57
growth.
8:58
We started on a journey about two years
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to say that we wanted to be,
9:02
a leader in that field.
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And
9:06
about October,
9:08
we performed the very first robotics,
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cardiothoracic
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surgery,
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which went very well.
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And we're proud to say that that was
9:17
the first time that has ever been done
9:19
within the region. So we have many of
9:21
those surgeries that are now
9:24
scheduled going into this year, but we spent
9:26
a lot of time,
9:28
ensuring that our teams were trained, that we
9:31
could do it safely. We had the right
9:33
people on board, a lot of recruitment there,
9:36
and we're very proud to say that we've
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made some amazing strides that we will continue
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to expound on into 2026.
9:43
We implanted all five hundredth
9:46
Watchmen device late last last year. So, again,
9:50
programmatically,
9:51
a lot of great growth happening
9:53
that we were working to set the foundation
9:55
for in '25
9:57
that we're very focused on,
9:59
growing those in 2026.
10:02
Wow. Yeah. No. It sounds like such an
10:04
innovative
10:05
time right now, for the region that you
10:07
serve. So, that that's all incredible to hear.
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Now my next question for you is, you
10:12
know, kind of
10:13
a broad question when you think of it,
10:15
but I would love to hear maybe the
10:17
hardest thing that you think you'll have to
10:19
to tackle or to address in 2026,
10:22
maybe from, you know, some of the industry
10:25
uncertainties that we've been seeing. What what do
10:26
you think will be the most challenging?
10:29
Well, from, you know, what you mentioned
10:32
is that we live in a,
10:35
very polarizing time.
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And whether it be from the federal landscape
10:40
or the state,
10:42
landscape.
10:43
There are a lot of changes that that
10:46
are expected to come in multiple years,
10:49
ahead,
10:50
or that may be taking shape,
10:53
here in 2026.
10:54
And if I could bring it down to
10:56
maybe
10:58
a simple answer,
10:59
the hardest thing, I think,
11:01
is keeping our teams focused
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on what's important.
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And,
11:06
you know, as an organization,
11:08
our mission is to make Indiana one of
11:11
the healthier states,
11:12
And we're going to focus on that and
11:15
work through all the noise, work through all
11:18
the distractions,
11:20
as things become law. And we have to
11:23
shift and change. We will do so.
11:25
But in the meantime,
11:27
we are focused
11:28
on
11:29
creating access to care, high quality care, and
11:33
growing programs as our community needs assessment tells
11:36
us that we need to do that to
11:38
perform,
11:39
in a manner that our citizens
11:42
need and deserve. So I think that's the
11:44
hard part is
11:46
focusing,
11:46
keeping the important thing the important thing,
11:49
controlling what we can control,
11:51
and,
11:52
just keeping our head down and doing the
11:55
great work that we've known to to to
11:57
do.
11:58
Yeah. Well, to your to your point, just
12:00
staying dedicated to that mission. I know that
12:02
we touched on all the incredible growth, that
12:05
you've seen, but do
12:07
you foresee any other areas of for opportunities
12:10
to grow, in the region?
12:12
Yeah. Definitely. Programmatically,
12:15
we're gonna continue to grow our cardiac care
12:17
services.
12:19
We have a great foundation for oncology,
12:23
that we are looking at how can we
12:25
better,
12:26
provide those services and maybe bring some new
12:28
services,
12:30
to the region as well.
12:32
We are seeing a growing need,
12:35
for orthopedic care and memory care as we
12:38
have a growing population
12:41
over the next five years. The largest population
12:44
growing for us,
12:45
would be,
12:47
citizens over the age 60.
12:49
And so how can we build those programs
12:52
around that population? Like I mentioned, orthopedic care
12:55
and then memory care. We do a lot
12:58
of work in that space, but there's opportunity
13:00
to to be better and, do some things
13:02
different there. Behavioral health is also
13:05
a a need, and I think that's just
13:07
about everywhere. Yeah. But we have to be
13:09
smart about strategic partnerships,
13:12
whether it be throughout the
13:15
communities that we serve or regionally
13:18
or maybe even statewide.
13:20
Finding folks and, and partners that are well
13:24
aligned in our mission or vision or values,
13:27
and how we care for patients,
13:29
to be able to do that.
13:31
At the end of the day, I think
13:32
it's important to know that even though we
13:35
are a large health care system,
13:37
there are so many things that we do
13:40
extremely well, and then there's also opportunities for
13:43
things that we can partner with the,
13:47
organizations to do things even better. So it'll
13:49
be really important for us to able to
13:52
identify,
13:53
those key, partnerships in some of those area.
13:56
But a lot of opportunity for us to
13:58
grow,
13:59
be better,
14:00
in what we do, and, bring some innovation
14:03
to the region as well.
14:05
Yeah. Well, it sounds like you are well
14:06
on your way to seeing continued success this
14:08
year and growth. So, Denzel, I truly appreciate
14:11
you taking the time to connect with me,
14:13
and, I'm eager to chat again sometime soon.
14:17
Well, I look forward to,
14:19
connecting with you as well. Thank you for
14:20
the opportunity to share.
14:22
I mean, we have a dedicated team of
14:25
professionals
14:27
that does include nurses. I wanna say that.
14:29
And but, we have an amazing team of
14:32
people who are all focused on the right
14:33
things in serving Hoosiers across the state of
14:36
Indiana.
14:38
Oh, well, as a a fellow former Hoosier
14:40
myself, I can attest to that, and I
14:42
I truly appreciate you again taking the time
14:44
to, to hop on the call. So thank
14:45
you so much.
14:47
Thank you.