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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

HOSPITAL—Just What the Doctor Ordered

Scott Reiner Title: Chief Operating Officer Company: Glendale Adventist Medical Center Age: 36 Education: Bachelor’s degree in nursing from Pacific Union College; master’s, health administration, CSUN Personal: Married, two children Most Admired Person: Jesus Christ A former Glendale Adventist nurse is now steering the hospital through some of its toughest challenges Scott Reiner took over as president and chief executive officer of Glendale Adventist Medical Center March 1 after serving as the facility’s chief operating officer since 1999, the same year he was recruited from a Nashville-based Adventist network hospital. At 36, Reiner is one of the youngest administrators to hold a top executive slot at such a large medical facility: the hospital has 457 licensed beds, 640 physicians and 1,700 employees. Reiner may have a solid background in hospital administration, but he also has extensive training and experience as a registered nurse. In fact, his arrival at GAMC two years ago was a return of sorts to the hospital and to the Valley: Reiner spent three and a half years in the nurses training program at GAMC before going on to receive his master’s degree in health administration from Cal State Northridge. Just prior to his return, the hospital went through several grueling months managing the fallout from what is arguably the toughest public relations challenge any acute care facility could face: the arrest of a staff member accused of killing terminally ill patients. Efren Saldivar, the so-called “Angel of Death,” has since been formally charged with hastening the deaths of six patients during the mid- to late 1990s. Saldivar is now in custody and has a December court date. Reiner declined to comment on the case, except to say the hospital is “moving forward.” Since his arrival in Glendale, Reiner has played a key role in removing GAMC from a list (that includes roughly half the state’s hospitals) of medical institutions operating in the red. That has been accomplished with an aggressive financial restructuring program, including the overhaul of the hospital’s executive team. But with the costs of medical care on the rise and the threat of program closures at a large number of medical care facilities across the state, Reiner knows there are still challenges ahead for both his hospital and the industry as a whole. He spoke recently with reporter Jacqueline Fox about those challenges, how GAMC intends to tackle them and what he sees as major trends in health care. Question: You worked here at GAMC as a nurse’s assistant in the mid-1980s. Was that your official entry into the health care industry? Answer: Yes, I did roughly three and a half years in the nurses training program here at Glendale Adventist before going on to various progressive management roles in nursing. Q: Were you initially interested in practicing nursing or going to medical school? Or was your goal to always move to the administrative side? A: I always enjoyed the administrative side, but actually I also enjoyed the nursing aspects. My mom was a nurse and my sister is a nurse. But as soon as I got involved, I realized the whole health care industry is very complex and challenging and so I wanted to get into administration. Q: Since your return to GAMC in 1999 you’ve been credited with putting together a new leadership team and facilitating the hospital’s financial turnaround. What have you done since your arrival to streamline the hospital’s operations? A: That actually started in the middle of 1999. We started a very strong effort to get the hospital more stable financially. There had been some changes in some positions; a couple of individuals had retired and it really kind of gave us an opportunity to build a new administrative team. The hospital had been operating in the red. We’ve since seen about a $6 million turnaround and we’ve done a much better job of managing our operating costs. We also spent a lot of the time on very pro-active relationship building with our physicians and meeting their needs, because they tend to be our biggest customer, and when you spend a lot of time evaluating and meeting your customers’ needs, then your volumes typically follow. Q: It’s obvious the country is concerned about the rising cost of health care. What is GAMC trying to do to meet the challenges surrounding it? A: The challenges are still inadequate reimbursement by health plans to cover the operation costs of most hospitals across the state and the country. Our strategy is to make aggressive attempts to renegotiate medical care contracts with our payers. Q: Do you see any movement out there indicating things may be getting better? A: Yes, and I think that we have seen quite positive movement from many of our payers who are also our partners, to help us be more successful. But it’s still a struggle. The other thing is, on the federal government side, Medicare has given some dollars back and some of the cuts they were going to make they’ve stopped. So in short, I guess there is recognition that the health care system has been under-funded by the payers. Q: Medical industry experts have said that more than half of the state’s licensed care facilities are operating in the red and that they anticipate a 26-percent reduction in service capacity. What is GAMC doing to keep ahead of the curve? A: We are continually working to strengthen our cardiology programs by expanding with new equipment and diagnostic services. We are also continuing to develop and increase our orthopedic business, especially in sports medicine, strengthen our breast cancer diagnostics capabilities and are preparing to launch a new men’s prostrate treatment program in May. Q: I know the hospital has taken several steps to safeguard patients admitted to the hospital’s respiratory care department (where Saldivar worked). How is that going? A: We are moving forward. That’s all I can say about that. We are doing so successfully and, based upon that alone, it’s a safe facility. It always has been. Q: What do you envision as being the predominant trend in health care? A: Well, I think you see that we have an aging population. Our demographics show that, that people are living longer. What that means is you will probably run into more cancers and more heart conditions. I also think uncompensated care at our emergency rooms is going to be a big challenge. We are seeing a 10- to 12-percent increase in emergency room care for patients with no coverage and a lot of emergency rooms are getting clamped down with a lot of urgent care patients. So this is a big challenge for us. Q: GAMC has many programs that are geared toward attracting the involvement of the business and residential community. Why is it important for the hospital to extend its services beyond the traditional bed and care facility? A: We are a mission-driven hospital. We’ve been a part of this community for nearly 100 years and we just think those programs are important. That’s why we came here, to serve the community.

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