Kevin Roberts takes over today as CEO of Glendale Adventist Medical Center, the Adventist system’s flagship facility and the Valley’s largest hospital. Coming from a much smaller facility in Hawaii, Roberts says he was a little surprised to be tapped for the job. And he is first to recognize the size and complexity of the challenge ahead of him. But he says he is ready. As president and CEO of Castle Medical Center in Oahu, Roberts spearheaded two capital projects worth $38 million and brought on two clinical centers of excellence — bariatric surgery and joint replacement. He also created a joint-venture surgery center with 15 physicians as partners and investors. A nurse by training, one of his passions is making patients happy. At Castle Medical, he improved the way nurses round on patients, and hand off information during the shift change. Those process improvements have helped drive patient satisfaction scores higher, which is an important reason Robert G. Carmen, president and CEO of Adventist Health and chairman of the board for the Southern California facility, selected Roberts for the job. Improving patient satisfaction will be a significant part of his new job at Glendale. Under health care reform, those scores will determine reimbursement rates for hospitals. And Glendale’s scores leave room for improvement. Roberts says he is a big believer in the story that data tends to tell, so he is taking the issue to heart. “I don’t want to explain away the data,” he said. “That is useless energy. I do want to validate it, however, and understand it and use the energy to make this a world-class hospital.” Question: The hospital has expanded in recent years with a $220 million construction project completed earlier this year, adding new beds and a new ambulatory surgery unit among other things. What was behind the push to expand? Answer: Most of that work was under the previous CEO and I can’t speak for him. However, I can say that the hospital has grown due to the demand from the community over the years. There has been preparation to meet those requirements….that included looking at the community’s needs and demands, the population growth, and a judgment that those extra beds and facilities would be needed in the future. We’re in the process of opening another 60-bed facility at the end of the year. The hospital has been on a growth trajectory and I’m excited about that. The biggest piece of that has been adding to the critical care capacity. When you have a tertiary medical center such as GAMC you want to be able to care for the most severely ill patients, and really that is my future focus, as well. Q: There is a lot of work going on locally and nationally around exploring integrated models of care, doctors and hospitals coming together in innovative ways, forming Accountable Care Organizations or partnerships to care for patients in new ways. Are you interested in exploring such relationships with area physicians? A: Yes, we’re interested in exploring those relationships. The Northern Los Angeles marketplace is tending toward consolidation. We’re not flat footed on this subject. Without going into too many details, the leadership is absolutely involved in exploring those options. The affiliation with doctors is about matching up what’s important to them, integrating care, connecting the dots through the continuum of care. It we are able to come to an understanding about the vision, the business model will follow. Q: Often hospitals and doctors have trouble coming together because the incentives — how they are reimbursed for care — are so different. How can you overcome this? A: Obviously we can’t just flip a switch and change the entire health care model. But I was a nurse before I was an administrator. I got into health care for the right reasons, and that was because I wanted to be an extension to the human ministry of Christ. We are a faith-based hospital, and that is what drives me and it’s still what drives me. It’s ultimately about doing what’s right for patients. When I get together with doctors I will be looking for people to align with who care about quality patient care. I worked in Hawaii for 7 ½ years and we have developed a pretty aligned culture. My motive is to make sure the doctors are successful, but the patient always comes first. That’s what drives me as an administrator, and a nurse and a human being. This is a service industry and we are not here to create profit for shareholders. We are here to serve. Q: Speaking of Hawaii, can you tell us about your experience there? A: It’s a much smaller hospital, but it was an exciting opportunity. A couple of things we did: we built a very efficient and high quality hospitalist program where the doctors, when they choose to, can collaborate with the hospitalists to achieve quality goals and streamline care. Also, we partnered with the doctors here to put together a joint venture ambulatory surgery center with doctors and the hospital as joint investors. We have also partnered to improve quality in using best practices, and evidence-based medicine. We saw improvement in patient experience and the public perception of the hospital as a result. I hope to replicate those things in Glendale. Q: Why do you think they chose you for this position? A: My board chair is president of the health system. He has observed the results at Castle Medical and my management style and he is also the chair of the board at Glendale Adventist. He is seasoned and a good observer of people. I was surprised but honored to be invited. Q: What do you think he saw in you? A: I’m very energetic. I’m passionate about quality and people. I love my staff and the doctors and the community. Somehow he saw that in me and he thought I would be a good match to serve at Glendale. He was very persistent. The indication was not tentative. It was very deliberate. Q: I know that you are coming into a new position, but can you speak to the challenges at Glendale? In the most recent California Hospital Compare numbers, Glendale Adventist ranked below average on critical care and patient satisfaction. Do you think those numbers are accurate and what can you do about them as the new CEO? A: I won’t try to excuse it or explain it away. What I can say is that improvement will be a team effort and I plan to collaborate with the medical staff and the hospital leadership. Ultimately, my job is creating the right culture, (and) to focus on the message of quality, service and mission. Q: Medicare will begin to use patient satisfaction scores to reimburse hospitals. What do you hope to do at Glendale Adventist to raise the overall experience of patients? A: We have to go back to the mission. We are here to share God’s love and that love is not second rate or inattentive or dismissive. So we begin with that and that’s what drives everything we do. Some of this is about leadership development. It starts with me and my VP and supervisors and managers and everyone down to the bedside. If we hardwire processes of patient service excellence, patients will notice that and they will report it on surveys. We have done a number of things in Hawaii that are hitting the mark. We’ve seen some amazing recovery in our patient experience scores. I plan to use the same approaches with leadership in Glendale. Title: CEO of Glendale Adventist Medical Center Age: 52 Personal: Married, two children Q: Can you offer some examples of what you did in Hawaii that ‘hit the mark’ as you say? A: We focused on the nursing rounding process. I have been a nurse for 30 years. Back then, I was rounding on my patients all the time. Now, because of the technology or the incredible complexity of care, nurses are a little distracted. We have built in some sophisticated methods of making sure that patients never have to ask to go to the bathroom, making sure that call lights are always answered quickly, that patients understand their discharge instructions. Patients don’t always know if they are getting the right answers, but they certainly know if they are being disrespected. Q: You come out of a nursing background. What made you go into nursing? A: I trained as a student nurse at Glendale in 1979. Back then, probably 5 percent of nurses were male. I loved nursing then and I still do. I am a registered nurse and I maintain that license. My first passion was clinical. I was a medical-surgery nurse. Eventually, I discovered I had leadership abilities and I had the interest and desire to take on more responsibilities. I went back to school and got a B.A and graduate degree in administration. My first role as an executive was on a Navajo Indian reservation in Monument Valley in Utah. That was the most interesting place the Lord took me. It was fascinating. I was VP of patient care for the first time there. Eventually I went on to become chief operating officer. I worked in the corporate office for a while as an internal consultant to the health system, and eventually became CEO in Hawaii. I love the science of medicine. Watching things like a vascular valve replacement…to me, that’s like Star Trek.
For the Good of the Patient
