2 min read March 2022 — In an interview with Invest:, President and CEO Shereef Elnahal of University Hospital highlighted the various opportunities where the healthcare industry can improve, the needs of the underserved community in Newark, and the primary factors that influence the cost of healthcare. “We must band together at every level to assist our patients and community every time they’re in need of assistance,” he said.

What have been the key highlights for University Hospital in the past year and how have your priorities shifted?

Hopefully, we’ve emerged from the worst of the pandemic with an even stronger team than when it began. We experienced some hardships, losing over 10 employees to COVID, which was painful. Those individuals are on our minds all the time. Largely, we’ve emerged closer as a team. The trust among employees is higher than ever because the situations brought on by the pandemic created a greater camaraderie among us. We have a lot of data that shows substantial improvements in comparison to a couple of years ago. We were nominated by our own employees as one of Forbes Best Places to Work. We improved substantially from a financial standpoint. We’ve grown substantially and have since broken records month after month since the start of the pandemic. 

People in the community need more healthcare, not less. In Newark and the surrounding region, access to care and trust in the healthcare institutions is limited. We’ve worked to change that by reengaging with the community. We’re emphasizing that we’re an institution that helps people and will come to their aid. We must innovate every year and consider new ways that people can access care through us. We’re launching a program called the Prevention Army, which is a group of clinicians that we’ll station within the community of Newark at strategic locations to bring folks in for care and screening.

What shifts have you witnessed occurring in the industry?

The shift within the industry is occurring regardless of whether or not we choose it. People want to be healthy and to have ease in accessing their different healthcare needs. There’s evidence that virtual care is preferred in both the younger and older generations. There is a need to address the social determinants that impact peoples’ access to care. We have to help people through food insecurity, problems at home, substance abuse and mental health issues, housing insecurity and other social risk factors that people have to manage. We have initiatives in all of these areas because if we don’t, we’ll only see overcrowding occur in our emergency rooms. Instead, we need to sustainably solve the problems. We’re doing this alongside the community with extensive community engagement.

Telehealth is one of many tools that allows for care to be delivered at the best time. Telehealth can be useful for mental health and substance abuse issues as people are able to connect remotely. I don’t believe that in-person care or telehealth will compete with one another. I believe we’ll deploy both more effectively for our communities in the coming years.

How has the healthcare industry been impacted by the labor shortage?

Staffing is directly related to patient safety, efficiency and productivity. Many people are leaving the healthcare industry entirely, which places more work and stress on the backs of those who are staying in the industry. We’re doing all we can to mitigate this and have maintained safe staffing ratios. Concerning trends within contract staffing agencies are how they’re taking advantage of the labor market and perhaps not transferring the additional costs that they’re collecting to talented clinicians. We’re offering as much as we can in terms of sign on and retention bonuses. It’s important that we retain workers by having an engaging culture and supportive workplace family.

What factors influence the cost of healthcare?

It’s a complex issue. There are some components of cost that are related to the provision of care in clinics and hospitals as well as the cost of drugs and how those drugs are delivered to patients. There are also costs that are entering in the form of new innovations and equipment as well as capital investments that providers have to make. Ultimately, we have to start assessing these items from the perspective of how they provide value to patients. I’m particularly sensitive to this as it relates to behavioral and mental health, which is a greater need in our community. It’s compensated poorly across the board, and can be life or death for many people in our community. We’re still under a fee-for-service system in New Jersey, more so than other states. That needs to change. We must band together at every level to assist our patients and community every time they’re in need of assistance.

What areas within the sector require change moving forward?

We need to band together and enroll people in insurance as emergency care or hospital care aren’t the best places to address preventative care. We’ve enrolled thousands of people in our community in those plans, in addition to Medicaid and other options. We also must examine how we can provide better care within our communities more in the ambulatory setting, so that we’re improving health as opposed to delivering healthcare only.

What is your near-term outlook?

We’re in the process of activating our Surge Plan as we wait to see how omicron impacts the region and the nation. The pandemic has a vote. It’s not going away until we’re all doing what we can to end it. But we’re certainly in a different place in comparison to the spring of 2020. 

For the patient experience, we’re training each frontline worker in the best way to communicate with patients and address their needs. This initiative is based on AIDET (Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation and Thank You) and we’ve seen our patient experience scores improve as a result. We’re going to continue our quality and safety improvement agenda. We’re also excited about the prospect for a new biomedical campus. We have momentum, the community is involved and they will codesign with us. We couldn’t be more optimistic about the opportunities on the horizon.

For more information, visit: 

https://www.uhnj.org/