Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Jody Reyes, Chief Operating Officer of the Clinical Enterprise at UI Health Care, University of Iowa Health Care

Transcript

Jody Reyes, Chief Operating Officer of the Clinical Enterprise at UI Health Care, University of Iowa Health Care · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
• 0:04
  - understand what it takes to lead a health
• 0:05
  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
• 0:08
  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
• 0:11
  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
• 0:14
  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
• 0:17
  - And it's why the most effective c suite
• 0:19
  - leaders are deliberate about where do they go
• 0:21
  - to pressure test their thinking.
• 0:22
  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
• 0:28
  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
• 0:38
  - have easy answers.
• 0:39
  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
• 0:51
  - This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  - podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  - Jody Reyes, COO of the University of Iowa
• 0:59
  - Health Care's,
• 1:00
  - clinical enterprise. Jody, it's a pleasure to have
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  - you on the podcast today. Thank you. Thank
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  - you for having me.
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  - Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation. I
• 1:08
  - know we'll dig deep into
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  - some of the great things you're doing at
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  - the University of Iowa as well as how
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  - you're thinking about the future. But before we
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  - dive in, can you tell us a little
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  - bit more about yourself and your background?
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  - Happy to.
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  - And, again, as I as I mentioned, I'm
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  - just getting over a bit of a cold
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  - this morning, so please excuse the quality of
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  - my voice.
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  - I'm Jody Reyes, and I serve as the
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  - chief operating officer for the University of Iowa
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  - Health Care, where I oversee operations
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  - across our clinical enterprise.
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  - I actually began my career as a nurse
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  - and served active duty,
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  - as an officer in the United States Navy
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  - Nurse Corps
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  - from 1999
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  - through
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  - 2004,
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  - including
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  - a deployment to Iraq in,
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  - 2003.
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  - And that experience shaped a lot of how
• 2:01
  - I think about leadership
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  - and teamwork,
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  - accountability,
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  - and performing
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  - in a complex environment.
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  - Over the course of my career,
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  - I moved into health care leadership and operations,
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  - and today, my role at Iowa
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  - spans our academic medical center,
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  - children's hospital,
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  - our community hospitals,
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  - and
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  - the ambulatory environment,
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  - peri op,
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  - emergency rooms, just a real broad range of
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  - the clinical and operational functions
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  - across our clinical enterprise.
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  - What I enjoy most about my role
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  - is building strong teams and creating the structures
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  - and clarity and discipline
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  - that allow people to perform at their best.
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  - And I'm focused
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  - very much
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  - on execution,
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  - accountability,
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  - continuous
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  - improvement,
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  - quality,
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  - and
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  - using data
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  - to help us understand
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  - how we can get better.
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  - That is especially important, I think, right now
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  - because health care is changing so quickly,
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  - and we have to continue delivering exceptional care
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  - while also improving access, strengthening performance,
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  - and making sure that our organizations are positioned
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  - well for the future.
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  - That makes a lot of sense. You know,
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  - it is a huge responsibility
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  - to do these transformations within the health care
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  - space and to your point, which is a
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  - very complex environment. But, certainly,
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  - your background and experience
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  - shows you're up to the task. And I
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  - I love your point on making sure you've
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  - got the teamwork and ready to go, for
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  - providing that exceptional care. Now could you give
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  - us a quick state of the union? What's
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  - going well this year, and what are you
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  - focused on for the rest of 2026?
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  - Well, we're really proud of the of the
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  - work being done at UI Health Care.
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  - You know, I would describe our state of
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  - the union as one of tremendous opportunity,
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  - but also a need for greater operational discipline.
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  - A lot has gone really well
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  - for us here.
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  - We've continued to grow as a system,
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  - including,
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  - the opening of our North Liberty campus, which
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  - is a specialty orthopedic hospital.
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  - We are increasingly thinking and operating as an
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  - enterprise rather than just a collection of individual
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  - hospitals and departments.
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  - And one of the things I feel really
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  - good about
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  - is the increased focus on using data,
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  - creating an accountable
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  - team
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  - across, again, the clinical enterprise, and
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  - really focusing in on operational performance.
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  - In health care, we have an enormous amount
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  - of data,
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  - and the challenge is turning it into information
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  - that our leaders and our front line
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  - can actually use to make decisions
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  - and then creating accountability
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  - around those decisions.
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  - So for the remainder of '26, my focus
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  - is really on three things.
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  - One,
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  - improving operational performance,
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  - b,
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  - leveraging our scale as a system,
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  - and strengthening
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  - our financial resilience.
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  - I think that means looking very deliberately at
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  - work force productivity,
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  - capacity and throughput,
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  - supply chain management,
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  - high cost clinical resources, and how we standardize
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  - operations
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  - across the enterprise where that makes sense.
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  - Ultimately, I think the goal is really simple.
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  - We need to make it easier for our
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  - teams to provide great care while making sure
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  - that the organization
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  - is positioned
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  - to remain strong for the long run.
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  - I love that. And I think, you know,
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  - having that simple strategic goal, very much,
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  - being able to focus on what you need
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  - to do, to make it easy, provide great
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  - care, and then create experience for patients, I
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  - mean, makes a lot of sense. I'm curious
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  - as you're looking at that operational performance, thinking
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  - about, you know, what productivity looks like, financial
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  - resilience, capacity throughput, and standardizing some of the
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  - processes around that.
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  - What does it take from the team on
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  - the ground to to really make sure you've
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  - got, the right processes in place and that
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  - they're being adopted and implemented and standardized where
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  - they need to be standardized and,
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  - adjusted where they need to be adjusted?
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  - It's a great question.
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  - You know, we ask a lot of our
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  - leaders,
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  - in health care.
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  - You know, we are
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  - constantly
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  - in, an environment of of
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  - rapid change.
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  - And
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  - the,
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  - you know, the need to bring people along
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  - from a change management perspective
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  - is just critical.
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  - You know, one of the things that I
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  - say all the time, I I think I
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  - say it at least five times a day,
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  - is that we need our leaders
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  - to be able to see problems.
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  - It's very hard, right, in the in the
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  - middle of
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  - a busy day
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  - to really be able to look across the,
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  - you know, the the the processes,
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  - the workflows,
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  - and understand
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  - where the waste
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  - is,
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  - where we are asking people to do rework
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  - and,
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  - redundant,
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  - processes.
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  - And I
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  - think that that is the the one thing
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  - that if you have leaders that show up
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  - every
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  - day with a keen eye towards
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  - how do we make things better for our
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  - teams
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  - and our patients. Right?
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  - One begets the other.
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  - Then I think that it makes it
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  - so much easier,
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  - to do the work.
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  - And I think that that is a critical
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  - piece when we talk about performance improvement
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  - that is just really essential.
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  - Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Now when you
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  - look ahead to... I know there's plenty of
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  - headwinds in the industry. So what do you
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  - have your eye on most now and preparing
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  - for in the future?
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  - Yeah. You know, there are so many headwinds,
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  - but I think the biggest one is probably
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  - the changing economics
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  - of health care.
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  - You can't open an article or, you know,
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  - read a journal
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  - or even talk to a colleague,
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  - without this topic coming up.
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  - I think that academic health systems
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  - have historically relied on several mechanisms
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  - to help support the additional missions that that
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  - we are,
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  - accountable and responsible for, things like
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  - three forty b,
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  - provider based reimbursement,
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  - and other
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  - payment structures. They are all under significant scrutiny
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  - at this time.
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  - Site neutrality,
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  - is a particularly important issue because it challenges
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  - some of our underlying economics of providing complex
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  - care
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  - in our academic health systems.
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  - And at the same time, our underlying costs
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  - continue to
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  - rise. Labor,
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  - pharmaceuticals,
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  - supplies,
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  - implants,
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  - technology,
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  - capital,
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  - they are all so expensive,
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  - and health
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  - systems cannot simply pass those costs along to
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  - our patients.
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  - So the question we're really asking ourselves
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  - is, how do we redesign our operating model
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  - before those external forces
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  - require us to do it?
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  - That means becoming
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  - much more intentional about productivity,
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  - site of care,
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  - clinical variation,
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  - supply utilization,
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  - and how we deploy our limited capital dollars.
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  - I think
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  - that our organization,
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  - will be its strongest
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  - over the next several years,
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  - if we are willing to make those changes
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  - proactively
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  - rather than waiting for reimbursement
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  - pressures
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  - to force the conversation.
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  - I think that makes a lot of sense.
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  - And that slight mindset shift of being more
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  - proactive,
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  - really can make a big difference in terms
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  - of the results that you're getting and how
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  - you're thinking about, the different problems and getting
• 10:38
  - more upstream.
• 10:39
  - Now where do you see some of the
• 10:41
  - big opportunities for growth as well in the
• 10:43
  - next couple years?
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  - So for us at University of Iowa, I
• 10:47
  - think the biggest opportunity is leveraging the scale
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  - of the system that we've built.
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  - You know, health health systems have grown tremendously
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  - over the last decade,
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  - but simply getting larger does not automatically create
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  - the value.
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  - You actually have to operationalize
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  - that scale,
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  - And it's no simple task.
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  - We have an opportunity here to become much
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  - more intentional
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  - about where care is delivered,
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  - how patients move across our,
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  - system of care,
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  - and how we standardize the infrastructure
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  - supporting that care.
• 11:25
  - That includes things like,
• 11:28
  - supply chain management,
• 11:30
  - how pharmacy
• 11:31
  - is,
• 11:32
  - leveraged,
• 11:33
  - laboratory, imaging, workforce management,
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  - emergency management,
• 11:38
  - accreditation,
• 11:40
  - other enterprise functions
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  - that historically
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  - have been managed locally.
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  - I think it's important. We don't wanna take
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  - away,
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  - right,
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  - ownership
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  - and empowerment
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  - and accountability, frankly,
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  - from our frontline leaders in those different organizations.
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  - So how do you
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  - continue
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  - to create that environment of accountability
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  - and ownership,
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  - but also
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  - think about things from an enterprise
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  - perspective
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  - and ensure
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  - that we are creating that standardization
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  - and that lack of variation. I think it's
• 12:20
  - a... It's gonna be, for us, you know,
• 12:22
  - we're we're new to that journey because, frankly,
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  - we are a relatively
• 12:27
  - new,
• 12:29
  - health care system, if you will,
• 12:31
  - in in
• 12:33
  - growing from one
• 12:34
  - kind of mega academic medical center,
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  - which has been serving Iowa for, you know,
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  - over a century,
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  - to that of a conglomeration
• 12:45
  - of of hospitals and clinics.
• 12:48
  - On the clinical side, I think it means
• 12:51
  - continuing to grow areas where an academic health
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  - system is uniquely positioned
• 12:56
  - to provide value,
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  - particularly
• 12:59
  - highly complexed and specialized care.
• 13:03
  - I think there is
• 13:05
  - an access component to this,
• 13:07
  - as well. Growth is not just about adding
• 13:10
  - beds or buildings.
• 13:12
  - It's about improving throughput,
• 13:15
  - reducing that unnecessary variation,
• 13:18
  - expanding our ambulatory capacity as more things move
• 13:22
  - into that ambulatory
• 13:24
  - setting,
• 13:25
  - and making sure that our patients can get
• 13:27
  - the right level of care
• 13:29
  - at the right location
• 13:31
  - at the right time.
• 13:33
  - If we combined the clinical capabilities of an
• 13:37
  - an academic medical center with the operational
• 13:40
  - discipline
• 13:41
  - of a truly integrated health system,
• 13:44
  - I think that creates a very powerful growth
• 13:47
  - platform.
• 13:51
  - Absolutely. You know? And and it's really cool
• 13:53
  - to have that academic,
• 13:55
  - size, scale
• 13:56
  - in mission and then being able to, to
• 13:58
  - your point, have the discipline of the integrated
• 14:00
  - health system that really focuses on the right
• 14:03
  - things and can have everybody
• 14:05
  - understanding
• 14:06
  - how they can uniquely
• 14:09
  - seek out value and show that value moving
• 14:11
  - forward. And, you know, the idea of value
• 14:13
  - in health care seems like it's evolved a
• 14:15
  - bit over the last several years. And knowing
• 14:19
  - how,
• 14:20
  - you... You're creating that type of value within
• 14:22
  - the system, I can imagine,
• 14:24
  - you know, it takes some time culturally, but
• 14:26
  - at the end of the day, it really
• 14:27
  - makes a big difference.
• 14:29
  - Agreed.
• 14:31
  - Fantastic. Well, before we wrap up here, I
• 14:34
  - wanted to ask you about leadership. Who is
• 14:35
  - a leader that you admire really from any
• 14:37
  - industry and why?
• 14:40
  - I love this question.
• 14:41
  - You know, because I started my career in
• 14:43
  - the United States Navy as a nurse corps
• 14:45
  - officer,
• 14:47
  - I've always paid attention to military leaders and
• 14:50
  - the lessons they offer about building teams, creating
• 14:53
  - accountability,
• 14:55
  - and performing under pressure.
• 14:57
  - I'm sure many leaders listening
• 15:00
  - have heard of commander Mike
• 15:03
  - Abbershop,
• 15:04
  - and probably many have read his book,
• 15:07
  - It's Your Ship.
• 15:08
  - His story is well known,
• 15:10
  - but what has always mattered to me is
• 15:13
  - not simply that he took a poorly performing
• 15:15
  - ship and turned it around.
• 15:17
  - It's how he taught...
• 15:19
  - How he thought about his responsibility
• 15:22
  - as a leader.
• 15:24
  - He did not begin by assuming the crew
• 15:26
  - was the problem. He started by asking what
• 15:29
  - he could do differently as their commanding officer.
• 15:33
  - He listened.
• 15:35
  - He learned what was getting in their way,
• 15:38
  - and he set very clear expectations
• 15:40
  - and then gave people both the authority and
• 15:43
  - the accountability
• 15:44
  - to perform.
• 15:46
  - That's really stayed with me throughout my entire
• 15:49
  - career.
• 15:50
  - You know, I feel very blessed that I
• 15:52
  - was able to start,
• 15:54
  - as a as a young health care leader
• 15:57
  - in in the military environment.
• 16:00
  - As leaders, we do not always get to
• 16:02
  - choose our circumstances,
• 16:04
  - the resources we're given or not,
• 16:07
  - or even all of the people that are
• 16:09
  - on our team.
• 16:11
  - You know, in health care, especially, the environment
• 16:13
  - is incredibly complicated and the pressures are significant.
• 16:17
  - But we do have a tremendous amount of
• 16:19
  - influence over the culture that we create,
• 16:22
  - the clarity that we provide, and the stand...
• 16:25
  - Standards that we establish.
• 16:28
  - And I believe deeply in building strong teams
• 16:31
  - and giving people ownership and creating trust.
• 16:34
  - But I also believe high performance
• 16:37
  - requires discipline,
• 16:38
  - accountability,
• 16:40
  - and a relentless focus on getting better.
• 16:44
  - So that's why this story continues to resonate
• 16:47
  - with me.
• 16:48
  - His leadership
• 16:49
  - philosophy reinforces something I have carried from the
• 16:53
  - navy into my
• 16:55
  - entire career across health care, and that is
• 16:58
  - great leaders do not just demand better performance
• 17:01
  - from their teams.
• 17:03
  - They create the conditions that make better performance
• 17:06
  - possible.
• 17:10
  - I love it. The... That's so critical in
• 17:12
  - having that lens on performance, understanding the team,
• 17:15
  - and really taking the time to get close
• 17:18
  - to the teammates,
• 17:19
  - and develop that trust and relationship
• 17:21
  - goes a long way. Jody, thank you so
• 17:23
  - much for joining us on the podcast today.
• 17:25
  - This has been a really fun and fascinating
• 17:27
  - conversation,
• 17:28
  - and I know you'll be speaking at our
• 17:30
  - CEO CFO roundtable in November, so I look
• 17:32
  - forward to seeing you in person there.
• 17:35
  - Thank you so much. This has been wonderful.
• 17:37
  - I appreciate the opportunity to share what we're
• 17:39
  - doing here at UI Health Care.