Denzil Ross, MBA, FACHE, President of the South Region at Indiana University Health

Summary

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Detailed Summary: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Guest: Denzil Ross, MBA, FACHE, President, South Region, Indiana University Health
Host: Madeline Ashley
Date: January 22, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode features Denzil Ross, President of the South Region at Indiana University Health, sharing insights into leadership, recent organizational achievements, and strategic priorities for 2026. The discussion spotlights innovations in emergency care, expansion of education and medical residency programs, and the continuous pursuit of high-quality, accessible care across southern Indiana. Ross also reflects on industry challenges, emphasizing team focus and finding growth opportunities amid a shifting healthcare landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction and Background (00:55–01:44)

• Denzil Ross introduces himself and his role, highlighting Indiana University Health's size and unique partnership with the IU School of Medicine.
• Brings 14+ years of leadership experience at multiple large healthcare institutions across various cities.

2. Major 2025 Achievements – Emergency Department Hold Times (02:08–04:16)

• Emergency Department Hold Times: One of 2025’s proudest achievements was reducing emergency department (ED) hold times across four hospitals spanning 11 counties.
  • Innovative Approaches: “Through some innovative ideas, challenging the status quo a little bit... upending the apple cart for some departments... we were able to see a 30% decrease in ED hold times.” (Denzil Ross, 02:08)
  • Broader Impact: Success drove down length of stay, maintained high-quality care, and propelled growth, especially in the cardiovascular program.
  • Cardiovascular program pivoted successfully, achieving significant growth despite operational changes.

3. Leadership Lessons Learned (04:24–05:55)

• Key Takeaway: “Communicate, communicate, communicate, start early, get the information out... listen and be open to switch gears.” (Denzil Ross, 04:24)
  • Frequent, transparent communication with staff was vital.
  • Town Halls & Feedback: Regular town halls brought in frontline perspectives, leading to process improvements.
  • The three main goals: safe care, programmatic growth, and ED efficiency—all prioritized throughout the process.

4. 2026 Strategic Priorities (06:08–10:02)

Ross identifies three primary focuses:

• a. Access to & Continuity of Care
  • “Access to care continues to be a challenge for us... we've made really strong strides in 2025, and I think we're on a good path into 2026.” (Denzil Ross, 06:08)
  • Ongoing recruiting, operational efficiency improvement, and ensuring consistent, high-quality care across all facilities.
• b. Expanding Graduate Medical Education
  • Launch of two new residency programs (Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine) in June 2026.
  • “We know that research shows there’s a higher probability of providers staying in... where they train.” (Denzil Ross, 07:16)
  • Close collaboration with the IU School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and other educational partners to create a pipeline of medical talent.
• c. Cardiovascular and Surgical Program Growth
  • Notably, the region’s first robotic cardiothoracic surgery performed in October 2025.
  • 500th Watchman device implant milestone reached.
  • Focus on training, safety, and continued programmatic expansion.

5. Anticipated 2026 Challenges (10:29–11:58)

• Keeping Teams Focused Amid Industry Change
  • “The hardest thing... is keeping our teams focused on what's important... work through all the noise, work through all the distractions.” (Denzil Ross, 10:29)
  • Navigating a complex, shifting legislative environment while prioritizing organizational mission: making Indiana one of the healthiest states.
  • Resilience in adapting to new laws and maintaining dedication to care, access, and growth.

6. Future Growth & Partnerships (12:12–14:05)

• Growth Areas:
  • Cardiac and oncology services
  • Increased orthopedic and memory care to serve Indiana’s aging population
  • Behavioral health remains a pressing need
  • Strategic partnerships are key to expanding capabilities and community impact
  • “Even though we are a large healthcare system, there are so many things we do extremely well, and then... opportunities for things that we can partner with key organizations to do even better.” (Denzil Ross, 13:23)

7. Closing Reflections (14:17–14:38)

• Ross praises the dedication of the IU Health team and emphasizes the commitment to serving Hoosiers.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On ED Innovation and Courage:
  • “We sort of redesigned and worked through some patient flow challenges to create better spaces to care for our patients... we were able to see a 30% decrease in ED hold times.” (Denzil Ross, 02:08)
• On Leadership and Communication:
  • “Communicate, communicate, communicate, start early... listening and being open to switch gears and changing our focus when appropriate.” (Denzil Ross, 04:24)
• On Graduate Medical Education:
  • “Helping to build that pipeline has been key... to support the next pipeline of emerging providers for our facilities.” (Denzil Ross, 07:52)
• On External Industry Challenges:
  • “We live in a very polarizing time... I think the hard part is focusing, keeping the important thing, the important thing, controlling what we can control and just keeping our head down and doing the great work.” (Denzil Ross, 10:29)
• On Strategic Partnerships:
  • “There are so many things that we do extremely well... [but] opportunities for things that we can partner with key organizations to do things even better.” (Denzil Ross, 13:23)
• On Team Dedication:
  • “We have an amazing team of people who are all focused on the right things and serving Hoosiers across the state of Indiana.” (Denzil Ross, 14:31)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:07] Ross’s background & IU Health overview
• [02:08] Breakdown of the ED hold time reduction project
• [04:24] Leadership/communication lessons from operational changes
• [06:08] 2026 priorities: access, education, and specialty program growth
• [10:29] Biggest challenges facing healthcare leadership in 2026
• [12:12] Growth opportunities and the role of partnerships
• [14:17] Final reflections on team dedication and mission

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Tone: The conversation is earnest, practical, forward-looking, and rooted in a deep commitment to patient care and team collaboration. Ross consistently emphasizes transparency, communication, and mission-driven adaptability.

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For listeners: This episode offers valuable perspective on how strategic leadership—grounded in communication, innovation, and strong mission alignment—can drive real transformation in community health systems, even amid uncertainty and rapid change.

Transcript

[A]

Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings healthcare leaders together to unpack the most pressing issues facing the industry. And every year, those conversations shift in profound and unexpected ways. This April, more than 3,500 healthcare executives will return to Chicago for Becker's 16th annual meeting. 795 elite speakers will offer new lessons, new case studies, and predictions about what comes next. Join us April 13th through the 16th. For the agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalview.com and click on the events tab in the upper right.

[B]

This is Madeline Ashley with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast, and I'm thrilled to be joined today by Denzel Ross, president of the south region of Indiana University Health. Denzel, thanks for joining me and happy 2026 to you.

[C]

Yes, happy 26th to you as well and appreciate your time and thanks for having me on.

[B]

Yeah, I'm really excited to dive into our chat today, but before we do so, do you mind just sharing a little bit about yourself with our listeners and a bit more about your role at IU Health?

[C]

Sure. Well, again, my name is Denzel Ross. I currently serve as the president for the south region of Indiana University Health. Indiana University Health is the largest network of physicians in the state of Indiana. And we have a very unique partnership with Indiana University University School of Medicine, which is one of the nation's largest leading medical schools. And so previous to this, I have held roles in multiple different cities with other large healthcare institutions spanning well over 14 years.

[B]

Wonderful. I appreciate you sharing your background there. So let's, you know, dive in. As I said, new Year, probably some, some new goals in mind for you, but you know, I would actually like to start by kind of backtracking and asking you maybe the most important initiative that led you into 2026. So what did you do last year that, you know, you're really proud of and maybe brought you some strong results?

[C]

You know, there are many things that I could probably go to, but one of the things in particularly in the south region that was a focus for us is, was our emergency department hold times. In the south region. We have four hospitals. It spans over an 11 county span, over 3,500 employees. And our emergency department, as you know, in many other systems are our front doors and particularly at our larger facility in Bloomington. It was a real challenge for us to have an efficiently running emergency department. And so through some innovative ideas, challenging the status quo a little bit, upsetting the apple cart for some of the departments and making it a little bit uncomfortable for them to work through, but they all stepped up to the challenge. We sort of redesigned and worked through some patient flow challenges to create better spaces to care for our patients. And through that, we were able to see a 30% decrease in ED hold times in our facilities. And so with that, we were able to drive down the length of stay, both in the emergency department as well as the rest of the hospital for the inpatient stay, maintain high quality and safe care. And then one of the biggest departments through that move was all cardiovascular program, which was really on a good platform of growth before they were impacted with this move. But they were also able to step up, do some innovative things, and we were able to see great cardiovascular program growth in 2025. So while we were attacking a major issue, a major challenge, and we saw some successes there, we were able to see some additional successes as well throughout the other, throughout the facility in different areas.

[B]

That's incredible to hear. I'd be curious from a leadership perspective, maybe any lessons learned that you took away from that entire process?

[C]

Yeah, I think some of the lessons learned were communicate, communicate, communicate, start early, get the information out to the impacted folks. We held town halls and meetings to share what we were doing, hear back from the people that it was going to impact on why our thoughts may not have worked, and ask their input to say, well, okay, well, help us think about this a little bit further and how do we get to the outcome? I think the three main goals that we had for this move was safe care. First and foremost, we have to maintain that. The second was programmatic growth. We didn't want to lose steam there. And then third, see the impact in the emergency department for having that emergency department being able to run efficiently. And so when we got all the team members involved, there were some things that we learned that we hadn't thought of. And I think that all played a big part in executing and seeing the success. So communicating up front, communicating the why, making sure that the stakeholders were at the table at the appropriate time, listening and being open to switch gears and changing our focus when appropriate. So I think that would be a key thing that we learned or was reiterated for us.

[B]

Yeah. So some great takeaways there. I appreciate you diving deeper now that we are in 2026, looking ahead. Could you share some of your big priorities for this year and maybe any headwinds that you're keeping a close eye on?

[C]

Sure. I think there are three major things that is going to. Things are going to be a focus for us in 2026, particularly here in the region. Access to care continues to be A challenge for us. We've made really strong strides in 2025, and I think we're on a good path into 2026. I mentioned within the region we have four hospitals. So we look at how can we create continuity of care, making sure that the citizens of the counties that we serve, the 11 county span, receive the appropriate level care as close as at home, when appropriate, giving them the ability to get to their physicians and their providers in a timely manner through access. So a lot of recruiting was done last year and will continue into this year. We spent a lot of time on operational efficiency, how can we get all patients to the right level of care and proper timing, and then ensuring that we have the same high quality level of care across all of our facilities. So that first thing is access and continuity of care regionally. The second is that we have been on a journey and to bring graduate medical education to the region. And I talked about our alignment with the IU School of Medicine before. But starting this year, I believe it's in June, we will be starting with two new residency programs within the region, Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine. And that's a huge deal for us because we know that research shows that there's a higher probability of providers staying in a place or an area where they practice and they train. So helping to build that pipeline has been key. And we've been on that journey for probably the last two years to make sure that we are ready and we have everything that we need to give our incoming residents a strong program and help fund or support the next pipeline of emerging providers or facilities. We also work very closely with the School of Med, the School of Nursing and other educational facilities to help create some additional pipelines for nursing, some tech positions, et cetera. So the education space has been a big growth opportunity for us. And the third, as I mentioned, cardiovascular and CT cardiothoracic programmatic growth. We started on a journey about two years to say that we wanted to be a leader in that field. And about October of last year, we performed the very first robotic cardiothoracic surgery, which went very well. And we're proud to say that that was the first time that has ever been done within the region. So we have many of those surgeries that are now scheduled going into this year. But we spent a lot of time ensuring that our teams were trained that we could do it safely, we had the right people on board, a lot of recruitment there, and we're very proud to say that we've made some amazing strides that we will continue to expound on into 2026. We implanted our 500th Watchman device late last year. So, again, programmatically, a lot of great growth happening that we were working to set the foundation for in 25 that we're very focused on growing those in 2026. Wow.

[B]

Yeah. No, it sounds like such an innovative time right now for the region that you serve. So that's all incredible to hear. Now, my next question for you is, you know, kind of a. Kind of a broad question when you think of it, but I would love to hear maybe the hardest thing that you think you'll have to tackle or to address in 2026, maybe from, you know, some of the industry uncertainties that we've been seeing. What do you think will be the most challenging?

[C]

Well, from, you know, what you mentioned is that we live in a very polarizing time. And whether it be from the federal landscape or the state landscape, there are a lot of changes that are expected to come in multiple years ahead or that may be taking shape here in 2026. And if I could bring it down to maybe a simple answer, the hardest thing, I think is keeping our teams focused on what's important and, you know, as an organization or mission is to make Indiana one of the healthiest states. And we're going to focus on that and work through all the noise, work through all the distractions. As things become law and we have to shift and change, we will do so. But in the meantime, we are focused on creating access to care, high quality care, and growing programs as our community needs assessment tells us that we need to do that, to perform in the manner that our citizens need and deserve. So I think that's the hard part is focusing, keeping the important thing, the important thing controlling what we can control and just keeping our head down and doing the great work that we've known to. To do.

[B]

Yeah, to your point, just staying dedicated to that mission. I know that we touched on all the incredible growth that you've seen, but do you foresee any other areas for opportunities to grow in the region?

[C]

Yeah, definitely. Programmatically, we're going to continue to grow our cardiac care services. We have a great foundation for oncology that we are looking at. How can we better provide those services and maybe bring some new services to the region as well? We are seeing a growing need for orthopedic care and memory care as we have a growing population over the next five years. The largest population growing for us would be citizens over the age of 60. And so how can we build those programs around that population. Like I mentioned, orthopedic care and then memory care. We do a lot of work in that space, but there's opportunity to be better and do some things different there. Behavioral health is also a need, and I think that's just about everywhere. But we have to be smart about strategic partnerships, whether it be throughout the communities that we serve or regionally or maybe even statewide, finding folks and partners that are well aligned in our mission or vision or values, and how we care for patients to be able to do that. At the end of the day, I think it's important to know that even though we are a large healthcare system, there are so many things that we do extremely well. And then there's also opportunities for things that we can partner with key organizations to do things even better. So it will be really important for us to able to identify those key partnerships in some of those areas, but a lot of opportunity for us to grow, be better in what we do and bring some innovation to the region as well.

[B]

Yeah. Well, it sounds like you are well on your way to seeing continued success this year and growth. So, Denzel, I truly appreciate you taking the time to connect with me, and I'm eager to chat again sometime soon.

[C]

Well, I look forward to connecting with you as well. Thank you for the opportunity to share. I mean, we have a dedicated team of professionals, and that does include nurses, I want to say that. And. But we have an amazing team of people who are all focused on the right things and serving Hoosiers across the state of Indiana.

[B]

Well, as a fellow former Hoosier myself, I can attest to that. And I truly appreciate you again, taking the time to hop on the call. So thank you so much.

[C]

Thank you.