In December, Dr. Subbiah was named chief clinical effectiveness officer at Newark, Del.-based ChristianaCare. In his new role, he oversees clinical documentation improvement, utilization management, physician advisers, quality and data analysis, safety and event reviews, infection prevention, and medical staff operations — all critical components of delivering high-quality care.
Priorities
ChristianaCare has set a goal to become a top 25 academic medical center and has been working toward that in the past few years. For Dr. Subbiah, that means sustaining the top-quartile performance in areas including mortality and safety.
“Reaching that level is challenging, but maintaining it day in and day out requires consistent behaviors and effective change management,” he told Becker’s.
Maintaining high performance comes down to the daily actions and learning beyond inpatient quality.
“Traditionally, we’ve concentrated on inpatient care due to government-driven programs like value-based purchasing,” he said. “Now, with growing attention on healthcare affordability, we’re examining the total cost of care. This means looking at every resource used throughout a patient’s episode of care, whether inpatient or outpatient. It’s not enough to look at inpatient metrics — we need to evaluate our entire community care model to prevent avoidable hospital visits.”
2 major challenges
Like most systems, the greatest challenges at ChristianaCare are financial pressures and workforce stability. But Dr. Subbiah sees opportunities to create win-win scenarios for everyone.
“Hospitals are increasingly looking to nontraditional revenue streams, and quality is now directly tied to reimbursement — not just from CMS but also commercial payers,” he said. “This is a win-win because delivering high-quality care is our core mission, and it also impacts financial performance.”
A similar situation can be set up in staff workload. Caregiver experience is a growing concern as providers see higher patient volumes and more incidents of workplace violence. Dr. Subbiah is focused on empowering caregivers to integrate quality and safety into their workflow without adding to their burden.
“Instead of assigning extra tasks for infection prevention or safety checks, we want these practices embedded naturally into daily routines,” he said. “Reducing caregiver burden is essential, especially in today’s alert-heavy, documentation-focused environment. We want to shift back to prioritizing patient care and human interaction.”
Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform healthcare, as long as it is integrated seamlessly into workflows and not as an added task, Dr. Subbiah said.
Personal leadership goals
Dr. Subbiah is homing in on two personal leadership goals as he settles into his new role.
First, he is working to foster a growth mindset.
“Healthcare quality can feel overwhelming because there’s always room for improvement,” he said. “It’s important to celebrate small wins, stay positive and acknowledge the progress we’ve made.”
Second, he is focused on empowering his team by communicating the vision and strategy and giving them the freedom to execute.
“I want them to feel confident making decisions that benefit the organization and view themselves as CEOs of their departments,” he said. “This autonomy allows them to act quickly and effectively to drive systemwide change.”
Promoting that communication is the one transformative change Dr. Subbiah said he wants to implement this year.
“I want every team member — from senior leaders to bedside clinicians — to clearly understand our quality and safety goals and how their daily actions contribute to those goals,” he said. “If I could stop any clinician in the hallway and they could confidently explain how their work impacts our quality and safety outcomes, that would be a huge success.”
