Summary4 min read

Podcast Summary: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Guest: Dr. Chhavi Katyal, Chief Quality Officer, Catholic Health (New York)
Host: Erica Carbajal, Editor, Becker's Hospital Review
Date: September 2, 2025
Episode Focus: Quality priorities, department alignment, and easing capacity strain in healthcare systems

Episode Overview

In this episode, Dr. Chhavi Katyal, Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at Catholic Health, discusses the system’s ongoing quality improvement journey, strategies to engage all departments in safety and quality, and actionable approaches to relieve patient capacity strain. The conversation centers on the interconnectedness of process improvement, culture, and leadership in sustaining high standards of care.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Catholic Health’s Quality Improvement Journey

Sustaining Gains in Quality (01:01-02:30)
- Catholic Health has made significant progress in surgical safety and reducing infection rates over the past four to five years by establishing strong foundational processes and structures.
- Dr. Katyal emphasizes the challenge of maintaining these high standards:
  
  “Maintaining that is just as hard as starting something.” – Dr. Katyal [01:18]
- The approach is all-encompassing; instead of focusing on just one metric, the priority is delivering “safe, effective, and efficient care” at every patient touchpoint.
Continuous Improvement and Measurement
- Success is reflected in both national and internal metrics, demonstrating excellent care for patients even post-discharge.

2. Fostering a Culture of Quality Across Departments

Quality as a Shared Responsibility (02:37-05:15)
- Dr. Katyal agrees that quality isn’t the job of a single team—it’s embedded in the entire organizational culture.
- Catholic Health’s high reliability rounding is highlighted as a cornerstone:
  
  “Most hospitals on a Wednesday afternoon, all the executive leaders come out and then go around in each unit and each department to make sure everybody's focused on our pillars of quality care and healthcare.” – Dr. Katyal [04:33]
- This weekly rounding practice, initiated by leadership and carried forward by every hospital, brings visibility, accountability, and cross-departmental alignment on quality, safety, and patient experience.
Engaging Behind-the-Scenes Departments
- Environmental services and non-clinical teams are actively involved, ensuring that every department understands their role in patient care quality.

3. Approaches to Easing Capacity Strain

Clinical Pathways to Reduce Variability (05:40-08:16)
- ED (Emergency Department) crowding and bed capacity continue to challenge hospitals nationwide.
- Dr. Katyal’s primary recommendation is to develop and implement clinical pathways:
  
  “What clinical pathways do is provide a structure for our clinicians in their day to day work to decrease variability in the care patients get … It allows the care delivery to be seamless.” – Dr. Katyal [06:03]
- Standardizing approaches (especially for common scenarios like heart failure management or post-op care for hips and knees) creates consistency, relieves strain, and reduces length of stay.
- She notes that developing pathways is practical, especially when evidence-based and created in partnership with subject matter experts:
  
  “If we take time to do clinical pathways, it changes [patient access and throughput].” – Dr. Katyal [07:45]
- Dr. Katyal emphasizes clinical pathways as the “low-hanging fruit” before implementing escalation huddles or focusing solely on test turnaround time.

4. Advice for Quality Leaders

Building and Trusting the Process (08:48-09:30)
- For current and aspiring chief quality officers, Dr. Katyal shares her perspective on the impact and fulfillment of the role:
  
  “There is no other job where you can truly say that you work every day to improve care for patients… It is a very fulfilling job.” – Dr. Katyal [08:51]
- Her top advice centers on persistence:
  
  “Stay the path, focus on processes, that’s our job. And focus on building the right structure and then the outcomes will come… If we stay focused to our mission in medicine, it will all work out.” – Dr. Katyal [09:15]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Sustaining Quality:
“Maintaining that is just as hard as starting something.”
— Dr. Katyal [01:18]
On Team Engagement:
“Our job as quality leaders is to bring everybody together and get everyone that's providing care to focus on improving care.”
— Dr. Katyal [03:32]
On High Reliability Rounding:
“All the executive leaders come out and then go around in each unit and each department to make sure everybody's focused on our pillars of quality care and healthcare.”
— Dr. Katyal [04:33]
On Clinical Pathways:
“If we take time to do clinical pathways, it changes.”
— Dr. Katyal [07:45]
On Quality Leadership:
“Stay the path, focus on processes, that’s our job. And focus on building the right structure and then the outcomes will come.”
— Dr. Katyal [09:15]

Important Segment Timestamps

00:25 – Introduction to episode’s focus areas
01:01 – Key quality priorities at Catholic Health
02:37 – Engaging all departments in quality and safety
03:28 – High reliability rounding and culture building
05:16 – Addressing patient capacity strain and clinical pathways
08:48 – Advice for chief quality officers and quality leaders

This summary delivers a concise, detailed review of the episode and is ideal for listeners who want actionable takeaways on healthcare quality leadership, process improvement, and patient care excellence.

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Transcript12 lines

[00:00]
A
Hi, everyone. Thank you for tuning in to the latest episode of the Becker's Healthcare Podcast series. I'm Erica Carbajal, an editor with Becker's Hospital Review and today I'm joined by Dr. Shavi Katyal, Senior vice president and Chief Quality Officer of Catholic Health, based in New York. Dr. Katyal, welcome to the podcast.
[00:23]
B
Thank you, Erica. It's a pleasure.
[00:25]
A
Yeah. Excited to have you. We're going to be discussing top priorities throughout the rest of the year, how you're aligning departments on quality and safety and a bit about easing capacity strain, which continues to be a big area of focus for health system executives, big part of our coverage. So thank you again. And to get us started here as we enter already have entered this the last half of the year here. What's one key quality measure that you are hoping to approve at Catholic Health and what are the some of the key steps or strategies you are taking to get there?
[01:02]
B
Erika, great starting point just to talk about. In the past four to five years at Catholic Health, we have put in place structure processes to improve quality, quality metrics in general. We have made leaps and bounds on our surgical safety measures and our infections. So we're going to keep doing that because maintaining that is just as hard as starting something. So, you know, I was thinking about what are the key measures that we'll be looking at and I just couldn't come up with one hope that's okay. I just think quality is totally right. You know, I spend time thinking about it's all about providing safe, effective and efficient care. And just like everyone else, we look at our healthcare associated infections, we look at our operating rooms, we look at our readmissions and, and we've done such great work. Our teams have really, really hit it out of the park. So I'm lucky, I would say in that sense that all we have to do is keep the momentum going. I hope that answers it because it's just all encompassing. We make sure the minute our patients touch us to even after they leave us, they are getting excellent quality. And it's obvious in our metrics, in our national metrics and in our internal metrics that patients are getting excellent care.
[02:38]
A
Yeah, no, it makes sense and it's interesting to hear just the foundational kind of work, so to speak, that you mentioned in the last four to five years of really focusing on the improvement or establishment of structures and processes. I think it's a sentiment that we hear a lot of and relatedly is one of the things we hear about that comes through in Conversations with leaders is that quality isn't the responsibility of one team. It really is everyone's job. And it really does come down to culture, like anyone can be good at initiatives, but it really comes down to the fabric and everyone playing a part there. So how do you think about that in terms of engaging all departments, including those that you know seem behind the scenes, such as environmental services in quality and safety mission, what really works here based on your experience?
[03:29]
B
Erika Absolutely. Our job as quality leaders is to bring everybody together and get everyone that's providing care to focus on improving care. And we all know everybody wants to do it this way and that's what gives them joy in their work. One thing that Catholic Health already had in place even before I got here then was the high reliability rounding in place in each hospital. It was started by our current CEO, Dr. Patrick O', Shaughnessy, who was then a CMO and then my current boss who's assistant CMO took it further. And when I got there I was very impressed in the in way which each hospital every week comes together and rounds on high level reliability. So they focus on safety, they focus on efficiency and on experience, those pillars of excellent patient care. And I haven't seen that anywhere else. And that is the cornerstone of making sure everybody's thinking about it. So say most hospitals on a Wednesday afternoon, all the executive leaders come out and then go around in each unit and each department to make sure everybody's focused on our pillars of quality care and healthcare. And they have really continued the work and really that has supported the culture of safety and the culture of high reliability in the organization. And it is very impressive.
[05:16]
A
Dr. Katyal, want to chat about easing capacity strain now, improving patient access, something that is really a priority for healthcare leaders at hospitals and health systems across the board. So from your vantage point, what's an often overlooked or maybe low lift practice that you think more hospitals should be doing today that could really move the needle on access and throughput?
[05:40]
B
Erica that's an incredibly important question for this time where ED crowding is everywhere. It's a national, I would say a national emergency. So one, I would say one practice that I really, really, really encourage and something we're going to do in Catholic Health is really working on clinical pathways. What clinical pathways do is provide a structure for our clinicians in their day to day work to decrease variability in the care patients get and really an evidence based practice where patients get good care every single time by decreasing this variability. Everybody knows what the next step will be and it Allows the care delivery to be seamless. That work that we can do by creating clinical pathways gives back the decrease in the time that we can decrease in length of stay in spades. And I really, really encourage anybody and everybody that asks me that one. The one thing that will decrease length of stay consistently, persistently over time is if we can get, you know, the clinicians in the hospital. Because it's a local, it's something that's local that we all need to agree on how we take care of our patients, get together, hash it out, come up with the evidence way, best practice way to manage a patient. So low hanging fruit, like how to manage heart failure, it is a common diagnosis in many hospitals. Also management of hip and knees after surgery, easy stuff, low hanging fruit that we can protocolize. I hate that word. But you know, if it's evidence based and if it's done with subject matter experts, it is very helpful for managing capacity, very helpful for decreasing length of stay and not saying that we don't have to do everything else. Escalation huddles, make sure our tests are done on time. All those things have to happen. But if we take time to do clinical pathways, it changes. Okay.
[08:16]
A
Yeah, no, it's really fascinating because in the conversations about capacity, I feel like more and more in the last year, like we hear clinical leaders talk about clinical variability, reducing clinical variability, just in the broader context of improving capacity. So it's really great point. Dr. Katyal, to close us out, can you share a top piece of advice with other health system chief quality officers today or people who are stepping into that role, aspiring to be in that role role.
[08:49]
B
So first of all, I think it's the best job. There is no other job where you can truly say that you work every day to improve care for patients and patients who really need it. So more power to every, anybody and everybody that wants to do this. I absolutely enjoy it and it is a very fulfilling job. So top piece of advice is to stay the path, focus on processes, that's our job. And focus on building the right structure and then the outcomes will come. It really is. This is a very volatile world and if we stay focused to our mission in medicine, it will all work out.
[09:35]
A
Dr. Katyal, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. Really enjoyed our conversation. It was great.
[09:42]
B
Thank you, Erika.