In late May, Seacucus, N.J.-based Hudson Regional Health, a four-hospital system, was established as the last part of CarePoint Health’s exit from bankruptcy.
The new system comprises Secaucus-based Hudson Regional Hospital, Jersey City-based Christ Hospital, Hoboken (N.J.) University Medical Center, Bayonne (N.J.) Medical Center and over 70 affiliated locations.
Becker’s connected with Nizar Kifaieh, MD, CEO of Hudson Regional Health to discuss consolidating the hospitals under a unified system and his vision for expanding healthcare access, improving operational efficiency and making Hudson Regional Health a leader in patient care and medical education across New Jersey.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: As CEO, how are you feeling about the creation of Hudson Regional Health?
Dr. Nizar Kifaieh: I’m very excited about all the changes that are happening and the fact that now we have the largest health care system in Hudson County. Four out of the six hospitals in Hudson County now belong to us as Hudson Regional Health.
I think it’s a great thing for the community. I think it’s a great thing for the physician community, as well, to have a system like [ours] who are very organized and have a proven record of creating excellent patient care with great outcomes and with a lot of efficiency and a fresh perspective on how to manage hospitals in this community. These hospitals have gone through a significant amount of ordeal over the past five to seven years, and we’re very excited to be positioned in a place where we have saved them and put them on the right path.
Q: How do you plan to ensure operational consistency and quality of care across the four newly unified hospitals?
NK: That really starts by us creating some standardization in our approach to patient care. That’s one area. So we’ve managed to do that here at Hudson Regional Hospital … I also used to be the system CMO and chief clinical integration officer for CarePoint in the past, so I’m very familiar with these hospitals and I’ve been managing them since October of last year.
Standardization in utilization management, controlling expenses, vendor negotiations, negotiations with the payers, and at the same time, creating a solid, consistent ambulatory care structure is a huge supporter for acute care hospitals. I think all these things are going to be very important to create consistency.
Now, as system president and CEO, I’ve created certain consolidations and leadership roles across the entire system that can afford us the ability to really create that standardization and efficiency in operations. For example, there are certain roles that have velocity across the system that we consolidated to give us that lean approach to things and consistency in decision making. Communication is extremely important throughout this entire process, so that we can create that consistency in operations and so on.
Q: Coming out of CarePoint’s bankruptcy, can you share some lessons learned and how those insights will shape your strategy moving forward?
NK: One of the biggest lessons that has been learned is really, No. 1, operational efficiency is very important for the livelihood of an organization. Controlling cost is extremely important. Having better relationships with physicians in the community, having better relationships with the community itself. Communities themselves are extremely important for your sustainability. Being always at the cutting edge of technology, so they can provide the tools that are needed for highly skilled physicians to provide the care that’s required in the community to keep you very competitive and keep you relevant in the healthcare industry are extremely important. These have been driving our strategy over the past six months in getting the system out of bankruptcy and putting it in the right place so it can accomplish all the good things that we think it can accomplish.
Q: Looking ahead, what is your vision for Hudson Regional Health over the next five years in terms of growth, services and community impact?
NK: I think one of the most important things for us, being that we are the largest healthcare system in Hudson County, is being able to create access to care [for] the community.
[In Hudson County] there’s a significant limitation in access to care in the community, even though it’s a small county, being able to go from point A to point B sometimes takes a very long time. Some of the things that we’re doing is to create better access to care.
Out of the four hospitals we have, three of the hospitals are able to provide elective angioplasty for patients with acute coronary diseases like heart attacks. We also have the only comprehensive stroke center in Hudson County, out of one of those hospitals that we’re building on and expanding its capacity so we can provide the care that’s really needed for the communities.
The other thing that I think is going to be really important for us as part of our strategy moving forward is to have better community engagement in terms of public health management and so on. We have over 70 ambulatory care facilities that exist throughout New Jersey, and our plan in the next year or so is to at least double that. We believe that creating a better access to health care and providing preventative medicine and so on to the community, and keeping the community healthier is going to be very important for us. And that’s where we’re going to be able to distinguish ourselves in New Jersey and become considered one of the leading organizations in providing high-quality care.
Q: Is there anything else that you would like to share?
NK: I think it’s a great opportunity for us to show the entire industry our capabilities and the things that we’ve excelled on in the healthcare industry, and be able to take that and apply it to these hospitals and expand on them and again, put them in the right place.
The second part of this that I’m very excited about is the extension of our graduate medical education program. The hospitals have four residency programs and one fellowship … our plan is to become one of the largest GME programs in New Jersey. We are adding at least three to four residency programs in the next couple of years. We’re adding potentially two to three additional fellowship training programs, whether it’s a pain management fellowship or cardiology fellowship. I’m very excited about that, because I think that this community, specifically in Hudson County — even though it’s in the New York City suburbs and it has access to a lot of great things — the access to healthcare is somewhat limited. I think us being able to position ourselves in a place where we can produce our future physicians and specialists that can provide care and stay in Hudson County and live in Hudson County and potentially practice in Hudson County is going to be really important.
