NEW SERIES – CEO INSIDER
Over the next several issues of the IHA quarterly newsletter, we will feature CEOs from each of the five Regions that make up our membership (i.e., Capital District, North Country, Mohawk Valley, Southern Tier, and Central New York).
This quarter, we introduce you to our CEOs from the Mohawk Valley:
- Sean Fadale, FACHE – President & CEO, Nathan Littauer Hospital (IHA Board Chair)
- AnneMarie Czyz, Ed.D., RN – President & CEO, Rome Health
- Darlene Stromstad – CEO, Mohawk Valley Health System
We asked our Capital Region CEOs the following questions:
- What are the most important issues your organization is focusing on in 2024 and beyond?
- What are the top three traits you look for in building your executive team?
- How is running a hospital in Upstate/Rural NY the same or different than elsewhere in NYS or in other States?
- When thinking about building partnerships in your community, whether with other health care providers or social care providers, what issues do you consider most important?
- As a leader in Upstate/Rural New York, what are your proudest achievements and or future goals for your organization?
- What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Upstate/Rural New York healthcare?
- If resources were plentiful, what services or programming would you prioritize in service to your patients and community?
Here’s what they had to say…
Sean Fadale, FACHE – President & CEO, Nathan Littauer Hospital (IHA Board Chair)
1. What are the most important issues your organization is focusing on in 2024 and beyond? Stabilizing workforce and improving the financial performance of the organization are the top priorities for Nathan Littauer for 2024
2. What are the top three traits you look for in building your executive team? The top 3 traits I look for in my executive team are: Integrity, resilience, and curiosity.
3. How is running a hospital in Upstate/Rural NY the same or different than elsewhere in NYS or in other States? I have the good fortune to chair the rural health committee for the AHA and challenges like workforce, drug shortages, payer challenges are fairly similar across NY and the country. For NY State, especially our rural providers, we face some unique issues related to a large number of regulatory constraints that instill a significant cost burden, coupled with challenged reimbursement rates in NY State can create a challenging work environment in our rural areas
4. When thinking about building partnerships in your community, whether with other health care providers or social care providers, what issues do you consider most important? First how does it best serve the community and secondly how does it best serve the organization in fulfilling our mission.
5. As a leader in Upstate/Rural New York, what are your proudest achievements and or future goals for your organization? I am very proud of my opportunity to serve my organization and my community. Our goal is to maintain our independence by improving our financial performance and partnering with organizations that wish to grow to meet the needs of our community and region.
6. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Upstate/Rural New York healthcare? Viability – we are in a very challenging environment and there are many hospitals in rural upstate New York that are hanging on by the thinnest of margins. NY State Healthcare needs support on the state and federal level and we hope that help comes soon.
7. If resources were plentiful, what services or programming would you prioritize in service to your patients and community? That is a great way to think about it. If resources were plentiful, a focus or programing around behavioral health and substance abuse is a need for our community to supplement our primary care offerings. Unfortunately, we do not have the capital or personnel to offer this programing at this time.
AnneMarie Czyz, Ed.D., RN – President & CEO, Rome Health
1. What are the most important issues your organization is focusing on in 2024 and beyond? At Rome Health, our strategic priority is to create a financially sustainable system of care by creating additional capacity to serve our community. Expanding access to care involves multiple strategies, including recruitment and retention and workflow redesign to support providers and other caregivers to be effective and efficient. Rome Health has been successful in recruiting primary care providers and specialists, including gastroenterologists, anesthesiologists and orthopedic surgeons to serve our community.
2. What are the top three traits you look for in building your executive team? Today’s healthcare environment requires an executive team that can work together across the network. That requires trust that’s built upon demonstrated personal integrity. A good leader knows their inner values and works in alignment with them. The other traits that enable our executive team at Rome Health to be effective include a genuine interest in the well-being of our patients, colleagues and community and a commitment to doing the hard work of system redesign and coaching new leaders to be successful.
3. How is running a hospital in Upstate/Rural NY the same or different than elsewhere in NYS or in other States? As an independent community hospital, Rome Health has the agility to respond to emerging issues and quickly engage stakeholders to develop solutions and implement them. However, our size does make us more vulnerable when there’s a disruption in the market that impacts volume or case mix. The departure of a provider is immediately felt and it takes time to fill that gap.
4. When thinking about building partnerships in your community, whether with other health care providers or social care providers, what issues do you consider most important? Authentic partnership starts with the recognition that none of us are capable of meeting all of our community needs alone. It’s essential that we collaborate to ensure access to care for our community and ensure seamless transitions. Healthcare is difficult to navigate for patients and we need to make it easier. Culturally aligned missions, vision, and values are of utmost importance to build sustainable patient centered healthcare now and into the future.
5. As a leader in Upstate/Rural New York, what are your proudest achievements and or future goals for your organization? At Rome Health, we are successfully implementing our strategic vision at a rapid pace. We are most proud of placing our people first! Based on the priorities of our people, employees and the community voice we constructed a new Medical Center that brought primary care, specialty care and pharmacy all under one roof on the hospital’s campus in a “shrink to grow” philosophy in 2022; renovated an acute care patient unit to create bariatric friendly rooms in 2022-2023; and constructed a Women’s Surgical Suite in 2023 to provide a dedicated c-section suite adjacent to the Maternity Department. In 2024, we broke ground on a new addition for the ICU and the Kaplan Center for Surgical Services. All of these projects have been funded by public grant funding and private philanthropy because of the belief in this strategic vision.
6. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Upstate/Rural New York healthcare? The list is long, but I’ll highlight three. Reimbursements do not keep pace with escalating cost of delivering care as expenses increase for labor, technology and services. Labor shortages continue to create competition for limited resources and burnout among our colleagues. The administrative burden of denials management to fight insurance companies for every dollar that we deserve for delivering quality care adds unnecessary cost to the healthcare system.
7. If resources were plentiful, what services or programming would you prioritize in service to your patients and community? Every indicator points to the need to expand access to outpatient behavioral health services. However, the current payment model is not financially sustainable. In addition, the demand for care encourages behavioral health specialists to go into private practice and accept private pay only. It’s difficult for a not-for-profit healthcare system that serves everyone regardless of ability to pay to fill openings when it is more lucrative for them to go into private practice.
Darlene Stromstad – CEO, Mohawk Valley Health System
1) What are the most important issues your organization is focusing on in 2024 and beyond?
Like health systems everywhere, we are first concerned about the development of an adequate workforce in healthcare, and secondly, we are focused on addressing continued financial pressures. The two are related. The continued cost of travelers, the competition for staff and the inability to invest in and train staff – at all levels – remains at the forefront of the work we do.
2) What are the top three traits you look for in building your executive team?
Integrity. A passion for serving others. Energy.
Much can be accomplished for our communities, the patients we serve, and for society at large with those three traits.
3) How is running a hospital in Upstate/Rural NY the same or different than elsewhere in NYS or in other States?
I have had the opportunity to work in three other states as a CEO, all prior to the COVID pandemic. Financial challenges, to varying degrees, were always present in these working class communities. Workforce shortages were not as acute as they are in the Mohawk Valley region; however, that was prior to the pandemic. The regulatory environment is more rigorous in New York State which adds expense and time.
What is similar is the engagement of the community and their desire for quality healthcare, the support of our elected officials and the very personal relationship people have with their local hospitals.
4) What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Upstate/Rural New York healthcare?
Upstate/rural hospitals are primarily financially dependent on governmental payers – Medicare and Medicaid. The commercial insurance volumes aren’t large enough to offset the disparity between our costs and our reimbursement. The result is under-funding of capital and equipment and the investment in our workforce. That ultimately can hurt our ability to serve our communities to the level they deserve. This situation could be tempered by the collaboration and cooperation between healthcare organizations – not just hospitals but everyone who is serving the health and social needs of our populations. Easier said than done.
5) As a leader in Upstate/Rural New York, what are your proudest achievements and or future goals for your organization?
First, I must say that moving into the Wynn Hospital will always be one of my favorite things! I didn’t get the state grant; I was just lucky enough to be here to assist in moving the project forward.
Secondly, the expansion of our residency programs from two to seven, plus a pharmD program, will have an impact on this organization for years to come.
Thirdly, our focused attention to connect with our refuge population has resulted in a consistent visibility, increased screenings, improved access and building trust. Our community health nurses are just the best and I am so proud of their effective outreach.
All these projects together provide the foundation for a stronger healthcare system in the future that will have a positive impact on the health of this community.
6) What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Upstate/Rural New York healthcare?
Ensuring consistent revenue streams to care for our population. Right now, many Upstate hospitals, MVHS included, are chasing one-time funding sources to help us get through the year. There is not the commercial insurance market share to offset the underfunding of Medicare and Medicaid.
7) If resources were plentiful, what services or programming would you prioritize in service to your patients and community?
Outpatient mental health and substance abuse services. A community-wide safety net for people with mental health issues. ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES (inpatient and outpatient).
Mobile health services, such as mammography. Mobile primary care to bring services to under-served areas, particularly for children which would include immunizations. Expansion of dental services for the underserved.
The recruitment of specialty physicians which could decrease wait times for physician services in subspecialties and primary care.