Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building a People-First Culture at Inova with Roberta Tinch

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Building a People-First Culture at Inova with Roberta Tinch · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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  - pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - 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
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  - have easy answers.
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  - 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.
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  - This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
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  - Podcast.
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  - I'm thrilled today to visit with a brilliant
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  - leader who's with one of the best regarded
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  - health systems in the country.
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  - We're joined today by Roberta Tinch, and Roberta
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  - is the senior vice president of a new
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  - Nova Health System.
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  - She's also the president of the IMVH
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  - in medicine service flight administrator,
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  - and and we'll talk to her about those
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  - roles and her career and a lot more.
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  - Roberta, can you take a moment to introduce
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  - yourself?
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  - I just saw a ranking where Inova was
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  - ranked at the very height of large health
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  - systems in the country. Yes. To take a
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  - moment and talk about
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  - yourself and the pride in Inova and a
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  - little bit about Inova.
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  - Oh, man. You're giving me a lot to
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  - to think about, but thank you so much
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  - for having me. I'm excited to talk about
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  - myself and Inova and and what we're doing.
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  - So, again, my name is Roberta Tinch. I
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  - am the senior senior vice president with Inova
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  - Health System. I've been with our system for
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  - almost seven years.
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  - I serve as the president of the Mount
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  - Vernon Hospital, one of our five acute care
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  - hospitals.
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  - And in addition to that acute care site,
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  - well, I have the opportunity to be the
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  - administrative leader for our medicine service line. And
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  - that has responsibility
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  - across the enterprise
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  - for patient experience and culture and those sort
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  - of things.
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  - Personally, I have nearly twenty years of operational
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  - experience
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  - working on strategy, patient experience, culture development, and
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  - physician relationships.
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  - With respect to Inova, like I said, I've
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  - had the privilege of working here for seven
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  - years, and I can tell you it is
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  - one of the most amazing jobs I've had
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  - because of the culture.
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  - So we are a leading not for profit
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  - healthcare system here in Northern Virginia.
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  - We deliver amazing world class healthcare,
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  - and we are integrated. We have more than
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  - 26,000
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  - team members providing over 4,000,000 patient visits annually.
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  - We have five acute care hospitals, nearly 300
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  - outpatient visits,
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  - clinics,
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  - and robust community cares program. And
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  - as you mentioned, Scott, I'm super, super proud
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  - of the fact that we were ranked by
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  - modern healthcare as the number three healthcare system
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  - in the nation.
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  - And last year, we were ranked by Press
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  - Ganey as a healthcare system of the year.
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  - We're excited about the culture. We're excited about
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  - the people. Like, it truly is a joy
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  - to come to work every day, and we
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  - have great relationships across the entire system.
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  - Thank you. And and and take a moment
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  - on
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  - your career and the evolution at Inova
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  - and sort of what advice might you give
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  - to other emerging leaders coming out of your
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  - career growth and what you've built?
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  - Oh, wow.
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  - Twenty years is a long time to to
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  - reflect on, but I started,
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  - with the system out west, and I can
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  - tell you that
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  - I've seen so many trends change
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  - in health care. And I didn't think I
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  - would see it or be a part of
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  - it, but the opportunity to see the national
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  - landscape change.
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  - I don't have a clinical background, and so
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  - it was very intentional
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  - for me
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  - to sit in the nurses' station, to talk
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  - to the doctors, to understand
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  - the delivery of healthcare
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  - from their lens.
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  - I've also had a very, very specific lens
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  - that I am leading from an administrator.
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  - My background with patients I mean, with family
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  - members who have been
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  - patients and my mother as a nurse,
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  - I very much committed myself to being an
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  - advocate in this space, and that's the lens
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  - that I lead with. So, my advice
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  - to emerging leaders is always figure out how
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  - you can be an asset to your teams.
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  - How do you help your caregivers
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  - reduce barriers, remove
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  - multiple steps so that patient gets the best
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  - of the person and the best of the
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  - system?
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  - And my career has allowed me
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  - to figure out construction and how I create
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  - spaces for patients. And then how do
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  - I think forward to what we're going to
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  - need next, not just what we're having to
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  - deal with today.
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  - So just stay curious.
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  - And and let me ask you a question
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  - about leadership. You also do a tremendous amount
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  - of giving back. You're involved in several charitable
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  - efforts,
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  - in different boards.
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  - You constantly seem to be in the perspective
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  - of both leading and giving back. Talk about
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  - the importance of that to your own psyche
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  - and and into a leader and and and
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  - why that can be important.
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  - Certainly.
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  - I would take it back to, you know
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  - we all have our our origin story as
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  - to why we came into health care, and
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  - mine started in a free clinic in Charlottesville,
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  - Virginia.
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  - And I had the opportunity to work alongside
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  - individuals who said, I need healthcare,
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  - but I don't have the right access.
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  - And I was able to sit next to
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  - providers and pharmacists and complete forms and sign
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  - up people for visits and cardiologists.
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  - I don't think I knew then how impactful
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  - that was, but I knew that I was
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  - making a difference.
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  - And so, I've carried that thread throughout my
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  - work. Okay, yes, I'm going to work in
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  - the delivery of healthcare professionally,
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  - but I cannot lose sight of or be
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  - disconnected from what people are dealing with every
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  - single day.
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  - Being on those boards,
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  - serving in those committees and in those communities,
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  - I get to see what's happening, I get
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  - to hear what's happening.
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  - I get to help other not for profits
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  - create programs,
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  - connect people. Okay, yeah, I'm hearing this
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  - is your issue, and I'm learning this from
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  - my professional. What about how can I help?
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  - But also as a businesswoman,
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  - I'm also able to help those not for
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  - profits make strong financial decisions to keep their
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  - viability
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  - so that they can continue to serve in
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  - spaces that are so meaningful for our health
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  - care industry.
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  - Thank you. And and and take a moment,
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  - Roberta.
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  - When you look at this next year,
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  - what are you most focused on and excited
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  - about as we move forward in this next
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  - year?
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  - Oh, you want me to pick just one
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  - thing. Right?
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  - It it it doesn't have to be one.
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  - No. It could be a few. It could
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  - totally be a few. Because there's so many
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  - amazing things that are happening.
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  - I I the thing that we always have
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  - to stay focused on, it's our people.
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  - Right? And and the person,
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  - the team member,
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  - as a whole person, like, not just at
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  - work, but what they may be dealing with
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  - outside of work. And I keep thinking about
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  - this phrase.
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  - We measure burnout, how well our team members
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  - are feeling with the work that they have.
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  - But I'm also very conscious of the fact
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  - that we're in the space where team members
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  - are
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  - managing aging parents and they're raising families at
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  - the exact same time they're coming to work
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  - and trying to serve patients. They are really,
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  - like, in the midst of it all, this
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  - multigenerational
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  - life we have here. And so not losing
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  - focus around
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  - how are they doing, how do we make
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  - things more seamless,
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  - technology,
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  - good culture, enjoying coming to work. There are
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  - some things that are basics in any industry,
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  - and especially in healthcare where they have emotional
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  - ties, how do we take care of the
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  - person?
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  - But what I'm really, really excited about,
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  - is that here at Inova, we continue to
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  - keep our people
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  - in focus, but we're also saying,
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  - hey, the industry is changing.
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  - How can you bring your innovation,
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  - your ideas
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  - to our care settings, to our processes?
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  - We've got clinical pathways that we're developing. And
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  - it's not me. And as an administrator, it's
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  - the frontline plintech,
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  - the nurse sitting alongside a surgeon and a
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  - hospitalist,
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  - creating a whole new pathway
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  - and then taking that pathway and embedding it
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  - in our EMR. Right? It's not the pathway
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  - that we wrote on a PowerPoint and put
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  - on a shelf, but we live it. And
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  - so the team members could also say, they
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  - take care of me as a person, but
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  - they're also tapping into my intellect to transform
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  - the delivery care. And I'm really excited about
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  - that.
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  - That's fantastic.
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  - And when you look at workforce trends,
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  - where are you seeing the evolution?
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  - Shortages,
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  - where are you seeing that? Are you seeing
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  - them specialists, primary care, nurses, technicians?
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  - What what trends are you watching in the
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  - workforce currently?
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  - There's not one particular area that stands out
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  - for me in terms of vacancy trend,
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  - but the area that we are really paying
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  - attention to is development, the pipeline trend.
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  - How do we ensure that our new grads
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  - coming in, for our nurses have a great
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  - experience, that they are supported by preceptors?
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  - And we're also thinking differently of looking upstream
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  - to partnering with local high schools and
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  - middle schools. We have a program called a
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  - Nova Dream Big, and we invite those teenagers
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  - into our hospitals and they are standing next
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  - to
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  - world renowned
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  - neurosurgeons,
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  - learning how to put screws in a spine,
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  - and they're learning how to take blood pressures,
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  - and they're doing like a dissection
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  - lab.
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  - The ability for us to
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  - spark curiosity,
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  - create excitement in our youth is what we're
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  - really focusing on. Because once they see what's
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  - possible in healthcare, not just the typical roles,
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  - but the gamut of roles,
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  - then they can really say they can see
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  - themselves in health care. And when we can
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  - spark that, we can also be a part
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  - of the solution.
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  - Now I
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  - confess
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  - that I've looked at your bio, at least
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  - on LinkedIn and so forth. And so here
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  - is my confession.
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  - Aside from being brilliant and a University of
• 10:12
  - Virginia graduate and and a fantastic background,
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  - you also, at one point, were the member
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  - of a choir.
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  - Do you still do you still sing,
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  - or is that or is that a part
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  - of you that is still being nurtured, or
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  - are we are we still singing it all,
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  - Roberta? And I will not ask you to
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  - sing on tape here today, but I will
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  - ask if you still do sing.
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  - Yes. I do. I do sing, you know,
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  - singing with family, singing with my sister. My
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  - sister is my duet partner, honestly. And so,
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  - that is, like, the most fun thing that
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  - I do.
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  - That is magnificent.
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  - And I will ask, is there a favorite
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  - song that the two of you sing? And
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  - how nice is that that your sister's your
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  - duet partner? How beautiful is that? Are there
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  - other sisters, and do they feel left out
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  - of that, though?
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  - No. I think the two of us pretty
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  - much got the singing singing genes. We do
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  - it with my parents,
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  - watching I think we've been doing it since
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  - we were like 10. Our favorite song is
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  - Amazing Grace.
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  - I am soprano and she is alto. So
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  - it's really perfect for us to harmonize.
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  - And then, of course, there's the Carys Oki
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  - songs that we all love to sing. But
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  - my my go to with my sister is
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  - Amazing Grace.
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  - That is amazing. So that makes my day.
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  - I have to tell you. I love that.
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  - And talk about you also went back and
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  - did a master's degree in health administration,
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  - a commitment to lifelong learning. How important is
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  - that as a leader, and how much do
• 11:34
  - you encourage that commitment to lifelong learning?
• 11:37
  - Oh my goodness.
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  - You can never stop. You you can absolutely
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  - never stop. And
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  - even as recently as 2024,
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  - I actually went back to UVA, so I'm
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  - a double Wahoo,
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  - and I did their executive leadership program with
• 11:52
  - the Darden School. So that was a year
• 11:54
  - long curriculum.
• 11:56
  - And I'm learning from other industries, and it's
• 11:58
  - super exciting. I can learn from from retail,
• 12:00
  - from real estate, from from tech. I'm like,
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  - how do you do that? How do you
• 12:04
  - think about who your your primary consumer is?
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  - And we've learned so many things.
• 12:09
  - And I'm actually just reached out to the,
• 12:12
  - Health Management Academy to say,
• 12:14
  - continue to help me understand
• 12:16
  - this evolution and integration of AI into health
• 12:20
  - care operations.
• 12:21
  - And not just from a technological,
• 12:24
  - like, here are the words, but how can
• 12:26
  - it really transform what we're delivering here in
• 12:28
  - health care
• 12:29
  - and spread across the the industry? So I'm
• 12:32
  - actually reaching out to people now looking at
• 12:34
  - conferences where I can continue to learn outside
• 12:37
  - of my my core experience over the last
• 12:39
  - few years.
• 12:40
  - I I I love that concept, quite frankly,
• 12:43
  - of cross learning, learning other areas and how
• 12:45
  - they discipline what you do and how they
• 12:46
  - lead to better thinking and so forth. It's
• 12:48
  - just fantastic.
• 12:49
  - Roberta, what a remarkable
• 12:51
  - career and what a remarkable health system.
• 12:54
  - I I wanna thank you so much for
• 12:56
  - joining us today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  - Truly fantastic.
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  - I I wish I had the wherewithal to
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  - ask you to sing, but I will not
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  - do it. I promise.
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  - But thank you so much for joining us.
• 13:07
  - It's an amazing career, and thank you so
• 13:09
  - much for your leadership. Thank you for having
• 13:11
  - me, and we'll talk soon.
• 13:13
  - Looking forward. Thank you so much.