Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Rebranding, Service Line Strategy, and Digital Transformation at Powers Health

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Rebranding, Service Line Strategy, and Digital Transformation at Powers Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings healthcare leaders
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  together to unpack the most pressing issues facing
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  the industry.
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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 Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  doctor Alan Kumar, who's the chief operating officer
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  at Powers Health. Doctor Kumar, it's a pleasure
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  to have you on the podcast today. Thank
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  you for having me, Laura. Absolutely. Now I'm
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  looking forward to our conversation because we'll be
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  able to spotlight some of the cool things
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  that you're doing at Powers Health as well
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  as gain your perspective on how you're looking
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  at the future. But before we dive in,
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  can you tell us a little bit more
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  about yourself and the health system? Absolutely.
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  So quickly about myself,
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  Alan Kumar. I'm the chief operating officer at
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  Powers Health, which is a four hospital,
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  acute health care system in Northwest Indiana about
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  30 miles outside of Downtown Chicago. So we
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  would consider ourselves a Chicagoland suburb, which we
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  are.
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  About two thirds of our market is local
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  to Northwest Indiana, and about 20 to 35%
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  of our market comes from the Chicagoland area
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  as well, basically.
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  We have grown immensely in the past ten
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  to twelve years where our operating revenue has
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  more than doubled.
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  We are a double a rated with Fitch
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  and double a minus with S and P
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  bond rating,
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  and we are about 1,500,000,000.0
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  in annual revenue at this point with about
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  1,200 physicians on the medical staff, 500 employed
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  physicians roughly,
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  and about a little under 10,000 total employees
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  in the health system.
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  Awesome. Amazing to hear. And, you know, such
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  a and a fascinating place that you sit
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  to be able to serve,
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  populations from a variety of different areas, and
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  I can imagine just, you know, a lot
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  of, folks coming in and a lot of
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  ability to, make the community healthier.
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  Now what was the most important initiative that
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  you led in the last year? What did
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  you do, and what were the results?
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  So I think one of the biggest changes
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  we made is we went through a branding
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  exercise where we changed our name. So we
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  were community health care system,
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  for the last twenty three years. And then
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  last year the year before at the end
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  of last 2024 and late twenty twenty four
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  and then all of 2025, we went through
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  a branding exercise
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  of the new name we have, which is
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  Powers Health. And there's two reasons for that.
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  One, the problem with community health care system
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  was that it was fairly generic. Plus in
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  the state of Indiana, we had
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  community health care system, a community health systems,
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  a community health net, and a community health
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  network.
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  And that caused significant amount of market confusion.
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  And we chose the name Powers because the
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  founder of the flagship hospital in the system
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  was Don Powers,
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  and he's was part of the system, one
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  of the founders from the nineteen seventies, and
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  he was CEO of the organization for many,
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  many years.
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  And as an homage to him, we did,
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  name the system after him as a tribute
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  to him, although he'd be very embarrassed about
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  it if he was still alive, but we
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  named it Powers Health after him.
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  Oh, that's fascinating and, you know, truly an
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  homage to,
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  the health systems founding and then looking at,
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  you know, where where it's headed. I think
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  anytime a health system goes underneath undergoes a
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  rebrand,
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  you know, there's a lot that goes into
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  it. It's a a huge decision. So as
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  you're going through this process in the last
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  year, what did you learn? What were some
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  of the things that,
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  you had to maybe
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  reconsider
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  or or things that you leaned into more
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  heavily, as you went along the process?
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  Communication is key in these areas. When you
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  make a change, there was a lot of
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  assumptions in the community that we had been
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  purchased by somebody else, that we were merging
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  with somebody else, and that honestly wasn't the
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  case. We did this purely as a rebranding
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  to help identify our product more clearly along
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  everything that we're doing, and it fit with
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  the strategy that we've had over the past
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  few years as we've gone into our three
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  year strategic plan. And this was one of
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  the primary
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  focuses of the first three year strategic plan
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  we had that ended in 2025.
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  So it was very important to us. Communication
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  was key, and we found that we had
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  to dispel many myths along the way.
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  It has come through in late twenty twenty
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  five very well. It's been very well accepted
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  in the community,
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  and we've seen only growth in the area
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  and acceptance, and the brand differentiation
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  has been beneficial to us.
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  That's great to hear. Very much,
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  exciting to have that success story. And now
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  I can imagine going ahead, you know, there's
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  so many possibilities. And to to think about
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  the next year or so, what are some
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  of the big priorities and headwinds you're focused
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  on?
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  I will say there's two primary areas. I
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  mean, service line integration is something that's a
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  buzzword in many health systems nationwide. We've
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  been
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  doing things similarly across the hospitals, although we
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  never
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  really pushed for standardization
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  at a high level.
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  We allowed some level of customization, which we
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  still allow to a little bit, but we're
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  trying to get best practices from each of
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  our hospitals
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  of how we're doing things and really standardize
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  that approach across
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  multiple service lines. And the focus is really
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  on the service lines where we see significant
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  opportunity for growth at this current phase. So
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  orthopedics,
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  oncology,
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  cardiology,
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  neurology, and primary care are the five primary
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  pillars that we are using for our service
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  line strategy of standardizing
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  across
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  the enterprise. And the health system cuts across
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  two counties
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  and about a total patient population of about
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  serviceable population of about 800 to 850,000
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  in those two counties plus surrounding.
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  So we're really focusing on
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  those areas where we can really give people
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  a very standardized and a very
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  reliable product. So it's the same wherever they
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  show in the system, so they're getting a
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  very consistent product that they can rely on,
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  and that's really shown up in our NRC
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  scores
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  on an ongoing basis.
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  The second area I would say that we've
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  really focused on in important initiatives is digital
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  transformation.
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  We're really looking at a road map what
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  we're doing with our IT infrastructure
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  to support the organization.
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  Everyone since COVID has realized that the status
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  quo is no longer sufficient anymore, and you
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  have to be able to do more with
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  less.
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  You're having changes on a state and federal
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  level in terms of changes that are happening
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  financially,
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  in terms of access to care, in terms
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  of insurance, in the payer market as well.
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  So in as much, we're finding that the
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  rules, the regulations, and how to give great
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  quality
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  hasn't changed, but our ability to fund that
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  has changed. And so having to create levels
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  of automation,
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  streamlining, and create ways of getting more with
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  less
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  is really how we move forward. And that
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  level of automation for us is starting with
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  digital transformation across our enterprise.
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  For example, we have a current initiative that
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  we're looking at natural language processing
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  to automate a lot of the data entry
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  we do across many of our get with
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  the guidelines,
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  our
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  various quality initiatives that we're on to make
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  it easier to get more value out of
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  each employee that we have because there's always
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  a demand for more people needed to enter
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  all the information and gather all of this.
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  So finding ways of standardizing that has been
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  very valuable for us.
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  That's fascinating to hear. And, you know, it's
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  truly helpful. I think especially when thinking about,
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  you know, the digital transformation
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  side, looking at technology,
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  looking at, you know, artificial intelligence comes in
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  here in some ways too in in the
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  natural language processing is fascinating.
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  When you're thinking about the technology and this
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  transformation,
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  what has to, resources do you have to
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  continue to put into it? How you decide,
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  you know, financially as well as from the,
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  people and energy resource side to make sure
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  that you're getting the value you need from
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  the technology you're incorporating into the health system.
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  I found that AI is a buzzword that
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  a lot of people use, but it means
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  different things to different people. For us, step
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  one is getting a handle on the data
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  we have in the system. So and that's
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  not just within our EPIC platform, which is
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  our base EMR both in and outpatient,
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  but also making sure our quality data is
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  entered into a system that can talk to
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  EPIC,
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  that our financial systems can align in and
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  then all the other various support systems that
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  we have. So having end to end data
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  visibility
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  is very important, and that's probably the first
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  thing that we had to do was make
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  sure that all of our systems have end
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  to end data visibility.
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  And then you can overlay
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  machine learning, natural language processing, AI tools over
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  the top of that to look across
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  your various datasets
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  and a data warehouse to be able to
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  bring it together and look for,
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  key insights that you couldn't have picked up
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  on your own or
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  allow you to force multiply what you're able
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  to do as an individual because you have
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  a tool that's bringing more information to your
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  fingertips
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  out of the gate. And that has been
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  a multiyear process that we're in the middle
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  of right now. We've had very good initial
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  success, but we're only,
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  I would say, 30 to 40% down this
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  journey at this point.
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  Got it. That's helpful to understand. Thank you
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  for digging a bit deeper there. Now what
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  do you think is the hardest thing you'll
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  have to do next year will be?
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  So a lot of what we do is
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  plan for the future, and planning for the
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  future requires visibility. And there's a lot of
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  instability that we're seeing both at the said
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  state and federal levels in terms of legislation
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  that they're discussing coming out with, especially in
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  the state of Indiana where they're talking about
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  changing site neutrality inside of service type rules,
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  and that's also having conversations at a federal
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  level. How we make investments for the future
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  really depends on what the rules are. And
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  if the rules are actively changing, it requires
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  us to think twice or plan for multiple
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  possible eventualities.
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  So that is
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  a lot of thought and a lot of
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  process because you're talking about major capital project
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  investments,
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  six, seven, eight, nine
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  figures sometimes. And when you're looking at projects
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  of that size,
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  you do want as much visibility as possible,
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  but that's hard when things aren't determined yet.
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  It takes a lot of thinking and a
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  lot of conversations with a variety of people
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  both at the board level and the senior
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  leadership level to make sure you've truly done
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  your due diligence.
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  Got it. That's amazing to hear. You know,
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  definitely,
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  something that, you know,
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  is so critical,
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  for any health system today as they're looking
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  at where,
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  the the organization is going and how they
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  can think about, you know, allocation and capital
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  allocation in the future.
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  And I think it's particularly, when you talk
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  about,
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  side neutrality, side of service, all of those
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  kinds of things,
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  do you have plans to to grow your
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  services outside of the hospital, whether it's ambulatory
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  clinics or,
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  virtual services? What where do you see some
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  of that growth happening, and and how does
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  that change the inpatient hospital world as well?
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  We have two projects,
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  that together probably add up to about $200,000,000
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  in outpatient,
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  investment outside of the four walls of the
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  hospital that we're looking to put into place
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  at this point
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  to that exact conversation around continuing to offer
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  care where the community wants the care to
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  be.
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  You can always increase in the hospital and
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  build up, but trying to centralize it and
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  force patients to come to larger and larger
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  centers, it's very confusing for them. And the
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  these megalocations
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  are more difficult to navigate. So having more
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  care locations throughout the community where our patients
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  are located in our growing marketplaces, I think
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  that's where we see value and the where
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  we're putting investments in in the short term.
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  Got it. Helpful. Understand. Thank you so much
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  for, digging in there. Now,
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  before we wrap up here, I wanted to
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  talk about growth as well. Where else do
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  you see some of the big opportunities for
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  organizational growth and development?
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  So
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  we really focus on physicians and our caregivers,
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  nursing, respiratory, etcetera,
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  as
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  our key driver and our key differentiator, I
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  believe we have wonderful clinicians to care for
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  our patients both,
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  on the clinical side as well as on
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  the support service side. So investing in our
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  employee base,
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  we have a very low turnover, much lower
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  than the national and state average, both on
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  the physician side as well as on the
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  nursing side. We're proud of that. And what
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  can we do to continue investing in our
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  employees from an educational basis, from a support
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  basis So they have the tools they need
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  to feel that they're supported to do the
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  right care.
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  So a lot of what we're doing in
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  our growth is investing in our employees, and
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  I think that has had great dividends,
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  to decrease the amount of agency, decrease the
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  amount of travelers to almost nothing at this
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  point, and really invest in growing the system
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  by organically finding the right people that fit
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  the mission and vision and the values of
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  the organization.
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  That's fantastic to hear. Doctor Kumar, thank you
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  so much for joining us on our podcast
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  today. This has been a really fun conversation
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  and interesting to hear all the different areas
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  that you're looking to grow and develop and
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  and serve the community better in the next
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  year or two. I appreciate your time and
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  look forward to seeing you in person in
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  Chicago at our annual meeting. I know you'll
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  be there and speaking on a panel, so
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  it'll be great to catch up and just
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  learn a little bit more about how things
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  are going.
• 13:28
  Sounds great, Laura. Thank you for your time.