Robert Brenner, MD, MMM, FACHE, President and CEO, Valley Health System. Valley Health System is a member of the Quality Institute’s Provider Council.
You recently took over as President and CEO of Valley Health System. What are one or two of your top priorities?
There is a higher demand and utilization of healthcare across the country and our community continues to choose Valley in record numbers. We are dedicated to enhancing efficiency and access to care while continuing to offer the best possible patient experience. We have new offerings in development to care for our patients, including “hospital at home” which we will soon initiate. To meet the needs of our patients, we must be nimble but true to our values of caring and serving the community.
Finding and using the right technology is also at the top of our list. For example, our Access and Navigation Center is using AI tools to help people get scheduled more quickly. There are many more tools under consideration.
A key strategic goal is to be the region’s provider of choice. To do that, we need to offer ease of access and engage with patients in an incredibly positive way. If you cannot ensure a frictionless patient experience, you will lose patient loyalty. You want to make sure every patient — wherever they enter our System — has a positive experience. That’s our goal.
How does your experience as a physician and a veteran of the United States Air Force shape the way you lead?
The Air Force taught me both the leadership principles I use every day and how to successfully navigate a large organization. Leadership training at the beginning of my military experience taught me that when leading a group — and especially leading a group charged with solving a problem — you need to listen carefully and consider the opinions of others. Often, when failure occurs, it is because the leader was not really listening. I like to be inclusive; I like to be transparent, and I try extremely hard to listen to the people around me.
What does Valley’s commitment to “social equality” mean to you?
It means treating everybody in the organization fairly and having zero tolerance for those who do not accept the diversity of others. We have an active Social Equality Council, which has representatives from throughout the organization, that champions the concepts of inclusion. It is really a basic part of our culture.
You have focused on alternative payment models for many years. Can you share how Valley Health System participates in these models?
The value-based model in health care is not moving as aggressively away from fee-for-service as we thought it would. We are going to always have, as people say, one foot in the canoe, one foot on the dock. Having said that, we have shared savings models with most insurers.
ColigoCare, our clinically integrated network, is ranked #1 in New Jersey and 12th of the 453 ACOs in the nation. We are top tier in Horizon and have a 100 percent quality score with Aetna and UnitedHealthcare. Our clinically integrated network works toward improving quality and reducing costs. We have benefited from shared savings, but we are mostly focused on quality for our patients.
We like to ask questions beyond a person’s professional life. Can you describe an experience in your life that significantly impacted who you are today?
I feel privileged to be a CEO, and but even more privileged to have a wonderful family. I would say getting married, having kids and now grandkids is what impacts me most and keeps me going.