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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Dr. Rina Bansal, President of Inova Alexandria Hospital and Senior Vice President at Inova
00:26:24
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- [00:00]
A
This is Laura Deardle with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Rena Bansal, President of Inova Alexandria Hospital and Senior Vice president of Inova. Dr. Bansul, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- [00:13]
B
Thank you, Laura. It is my pleasure to be here today. Becker's podcast is definitely one of my go tos, so I'm super excited to be here today.
- [00:22]
A
Fantastic. Well, we're excited to have you. And, you know, I'm curious to learn more about some of the cool things you're doing at Inova because it's such a unique time in healthcare today and certainly a lot going on, but also some really great stories to tell. So with that, we'll dive right in. Could you, first and foremost for our audience, introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about Inova Health System?
- [00:44]
B
Sure. So, as you stated, My name is Dr. Rina Bansal. I am an internal medicine physician by training and in fact started my career at inova back in 2008 as a hospitalist. I'll just tell you a quick, funny story. I was doing Q and A with some high school students yesterday who are volunteering at the hospital, and when I shared the same introduction, they had this look on their face and I could tell it's because that was the year they were born. So I've been here for either 17 to 18 years. My journey into leadership at Inova was somewhat fortuitous, but I love being a physician leader and have been a physician leader since 2010. I've had the incredible honor of being the president of Alexandria Hospital for over six years now. And in addition to being a physician leader, I do still see patients. I see patients in one of our Anova Care clinics which sees patients who are uninsured or underinsured. So that's truly rewarding. And I also teach third and fourth year medical students. So. Nova Alexandria Hospital is one of five hospitals in the Nova Health System. We are located in the D.C. metro region. We are 26,000 team members strong. We care for over 1 million patients on an annual basis and we have a large ambulatory footprint as well as 11 service lines. We are proud to be the largest nonprofit health system in Northern Virginia. And in 2024 alone, we gave back over $400 million in community benefit. And then speaking of community, if I can share a little bit about my hospital, we've been in this community for almost 153 years. We are the longest continuously operating community hospital in the state. Of Virginia. We have this amazing history of many, many, many firsts. But the one first I'll share with you is that we were the first 247 emergency department in the country. This was back in the 1960s and it was known as the Alexandria Plan. Nationally, just this week, we were ranked number seven in the D.C. metro area and number the state of Virginia by U.S. news & World Report. We're truly, truly proud of our achievements, our history and being part of the INOVA health system.
- [03:12]
A
Well, that's amazing to hear and what great accomplishments you've had during your career as well as just a legacy of great service to the community. That's amazing. Being the first ER department that was open 24 7. And really now that ranking as well, number seven in Virginia makes a really big difference. Curious, from your perspective, what's your biggest winner success story from the last year?
- [03:40]
B
Well, I will start off by saying as a health system, we were recognized by Press Gainey as the health system of the year. So that was definitely a big, big moment for us as a system. But I would say from an overall strategic perspective and our award really speaks to the success of our people strategy. Thriving team members has been a key strategic priority for us for the last few years. And I'm proud to say that all of our focused work has really shown great rewards and really highlights all the successes that we've had at Alexandria Hospital. We've been really, really focused and I would say the same in the health system. We've really been focused on recruitment, retention, creating that great place to work and that great culture, as well as leadership development. So when we look at recruitment, we are focused on making sure that we train our leaders in behavioral based interviewing and that we're really recruiting for that cultural fit, the alignment with our mission, vision and values in addition to the technical skills. Once we have, you know, when recruited, then we really focus on retention. We like to know what matters most to each individual team member. We really want to understand what they're looking for from the perspective of career growth and really, you know, what is it that they need from a recognition perspective, a reward perspective, and really creating that great environment. And then leadership development, that's been a huge focus for us because we know it's our frontline leaders who really establish and create that great place to work. So all of this work together. This year, our turnover at the hospital, our overall turnover is below 11% and our first year turnover is the lowest in the system at 14%, which is well below industry benchmarks. Very proud of all of the success with our people strategy as a system, we've been named amongst top 150 places to work in health care by Beckers. And just last week we were named by Newsweek as America's greatest workplaces in health care for 2025. So all these recognitions are really honoring our commitment to our team members and creating that great place to work and culture. And, you know, for anova, our philosophy is that we want to not only be the best place to receive care, but we want to be the best place to provide care. So this is what's been successful for us and we're very proud of it.
- [06:20]
A
I love that. What an interesting way to just kind of introduce a system. Especially looking at training leaders on both that behavioral based networking, cultural fit in addition to technical skills. I know that's something that so many hospitals and systems are really, truly craving for more of their team and having that corporate mentality of how they go about things and being able to relate to one another in a very specific and strategic way. And then you can see the results here. I mean, the turnover being below 11% and then first year turnover being lowest in the system is really a great accomplishment and achievement. So congratulations there. Is there anything that you see? Yeah, you know, outside of that, just I can imagine the environment that you're creating in culture, you know, really ties back into a strong community that you have there. Is there anything about the mission that really speaks to people, do you think, or what's a little bit different about inova?
- [07:16]
B
Sure. So our mission is to provide world class healthcare every time, every touch, to each person in every community we have the privilege to serve. So I know Dr. Steven Jones, our President CEO, shares this at the INOVA new orientation. But I do an Alexandria new orientation as well. And I really probably spent about five minutes talking about our mission because I want our team members to understand that every word in that mission statement is truly intentional. And so the fact that we are here to truly care for our community, regardless of their ability to pay, I think is really meaningful. In fact, you know, I was rounding at one of our freestanding emergency rooms and I met a young student who was doing her student internship in our lab. And she shared this spontaneously with me and she said, you know, I've only been here for three months, but I can see that how everyone here that I get to work with is truly committed to taking care of the community. I think at Alexandria and in the Alexandria community, we've been the cornerstone and the beacon of healthcare for 153 years. And honestly, our patients expect that from us. Right. And so I think it truly connects to our mission, it connects to our purpose. And I do believe that our team members feel very strongly and are very proud of the fact that we will take care of anyone who comes to us for their care.
- [08:48]
A
I love that. Thank you so much for digging a little bit deeper there. Now, what are some of the top two to three issues that you're focused on right now? What's really top of mind for you?
- [08:57]
B
Sure. As you know, in healthcare there's a ton of metrics and a ton of headwinds. Right. So there's no dearth of issues that we can be focused on. But if I was to pick my top three, it would be people, people and access. And I will explain that a little bit further. So the first set of people, again, it comes back to our team members. You know, I truly believe that we are what we are because of the people and our team members who choose INOVA as their organization. So, you know, I've shared with you some great results. And earlier this year we did an engagement survey as well as a culture of safety survey. Now at Alexandria, we had an 86% participation rate, which is phenomenal, and an over 80% engagement favorability rate. So. Right. I mean, you would say, well, we're doing great, we're in the top quartile in the country, you know, what more do we need to do? But when you dig a little bit deeper, you do see some themes, specifically at my hospital, but also across the system that really center around team member well being, psychological safety and communication. And it's interesting because we are focused on team member well being. We have a ton of resources in terms of our benefits, Access to online mental health services, EAP counselors, even the well being lounge. And so when this comes up in our survey as a concern from our team members or psychological safety, our team members, if they don't feel comfortable speaking up, we know we cannot be that great, high reliability organization that we desire to be. What we're doing right now is really going back to our team members and trying to get a better understanding of what do these words mean to them. You know, what does us caring about their well being mean for them? What does psychological safety mean to them? How can we be communicating with them better? So one thing we're focused on right now and really it's my leaders, they're connecting back with their team members through unit based council, staff meetings, departmental meetings, and really having that dialogue that conversation before we go into the action planning stage. And so understanding that we need to engage our team members every step of the way in order for us to build trust, to strengthen our culture and really lead to a more sustainable change. When we think of our patients, which is my second people is really developing that ANOVA care model. This model is Central to our 20 system agenda. And what it really means is two parts, right? The first part is really about that holistic patient experience that we're creating for our patients, regardless of their access point. And so what we want is that our patients are having that consistent, end to end, seamless experience, regardless if they're coming to us through the emergency room, in an inpatient setting or in the ambulatory setting. So that's sort of that global patient experience that we're providing to all our patients. The second part of that is really reducing clinical variation. And this has to do with creating clinical care pathways that are multidisciplinary, that are evidence focused, and that really streamline the care for that patient so that they can get the treatment that they need at the highest quality in the most efficient and expedient manner. So I'll give you an example here. Patients with back pain. Patients with back pain may get a CT scan if they come to the emergency room, may get a referral for outpatient PT if they go to a primary care provider. That variability exists inherently in our healthcare system. Ensuring that we have clear pathways, regardless of where that patient accesses care, so that they can then be put through that pathway that's most appropriate and most personalized for them is our eventual goal. So the INOVA care model really focuses on producing or providing that evidence based clinical care with an exceptional patient experience. The last priority, I would say, is access, right? If we don't provide access to our community, we will not be able to do what we're here to do, which is take care of our patients. So providing access, it can be geographic access. It's also making sure that we're investing in our technology to make it easier for our patients to interact with our system to make appointments. So one example of this is really looking at our footprint in Northern Virginia and understanding where we have areas where our services are not as readily available for our patients from an outpatient perspective. We have five hospitals in this geographic region, so our inpatient services are pretty well placed, but where we have opportunities is in our ambulatory footprint. So last November in Alexandria, we opened up the Inova Health center in Oakville, which is closer sort of to the D.C. region. And you know, it's where the Amazon headquarters is. There's a lot of young families that are moving into that area, a lot of young people. So understanding that that population needs more of an outpatient health center, we established a freestanding emergency department and ambulatory surgery center and outpatient offices, both primary care and subspecialty care. So the goal here is really to provide all the services in one space. That space is this beautiful, gorgeous building that I can tell you about in a little bit, but making sure that our patients are able to access care closer to home. If they need inpatient care, they'll get transferred to Alexandria Hospital, but they don't have to travel all the way here for emergency care services. Access is key for our patients, geographically, technologically, as well as from an affordability perspective. We are continuing to invest in hospitals, clinics, technology to make access easier for our patients. I love that.
- [15:23]
A
That's such a great overview of the most important aspects of the healthcare delivery system. And then to see how you pinpointed opportunities in each of them to continue to get better, to continue to grow and serve both your team as well as patients better makes a really big difference. And I'm glad you called out access too, because I think that's something that comes up time and again in trying to understand what really can be needle moving for healthcare today and caring for patients. No matter how it is, whether it's through more clinics or technology, or a hybrid of a new strategy for healthcare delivery. It seems like an exciting time to be figuring this all out.
- [16:02]
B
Yes, it is, definitely is. And we're very excited to be where we are and to be able to do all the great things we're doing. And you'll hear about that hopefully a little bit more soon.
- [16:12]
A
Oh, yes, absolutely. And to that point, you know, when you think about growth and think about the future, what are some of those big opportunities that you plan to pursue over the next few years? I know there's a lot going on within the broader healthcare space as well as, you know, economically. But when you look at those growth opportunities, I just love to hear more about those conversations between your team and the broader leadership.
- [16:36]
B
Yes, thank you. So you know, as I stated previously. Right. So we are almost 1-5-3-year-old hospital as an entity, and in our current infrastructure, we've been here for about 70 years, so we still unfortunately have semi private rooms and ORs that are small. And so about five years ago, in partnership with the city and the developer, we actually were making plans to build A new hospital and that that vision has taken life. And we are currently in the process of constructing two brand new campuses and investing over $2 billion in our physical infrastructure. When we broke ground on two new hospitals on the same day last fall, we knew that it was likely something that has not happened in this country for quite some time. We really are focused on growing geographically and making sure that again, we're providing closer to home. So I'll share a little bit about the campuses because this is truly exciting for us and my team and for us as a system. So on our first campus, we will have an acute tertiary care hospital, which will really elevate the level of care that we're providing to the community. We will have a trauma center, we will have complex neurosurgical care, cardiac care, vascular care. But in addition to having 192 state of the art hospital facility, we will also be building a cancer center. Right now, our patients from this area have to travel to our main hospital, Fairfax Medical campus, to receive that cancer care and to be able to provide that closer to home, especially when we know that this is a growing need, unfortunately, in the community, is something that we're truly looking forward to. In addition, we will have an outpatient health center, and again, it will provide that access to subspecialists, which is also challenging for our patients in this day and age. So really making sure that we create that hub in the eastern region for Inova Health System for our patients to get that acute tertiary care on one campus. Our second campus will be more of a community hospital. So It'll be a 110 bed community hospital. And right now those patients are having to get transferred to other hospitals within the system to get their care. So again, bringing the care to the community. And in fact, I had lunch with the supervisor for that region and they were so appreciative of the fact that 3,000 patients now will not have to travel outside of their own district to get inpatient care. In addition to a community hospital there, we're building an outpatient surgery center focusing on musculoskeletal care. So hip, hips, knees as well as spine. We know that as populations aging, these are again needs that are increasing in our community and so making sure that we are building our future facilities, understanding the needs of the community, bringing care closer to home, but also right sizing the services that we're providing to best meet the demands of our community. I'll add that not only are we being very focused from a technology perspective and making sure that these are State of the art facilities. We've also invested a lot of time in how we're designing these facilities. We know healthcare is scary, patients don't want to be in the hospital, and it's a stressful place for our team members as well. And so really designing this building centered around our people, both our patients as well as our team members. We're incorporating a lot of architectural elements that will create an architectural brand for our building. So that when you're driving by, you know, this isn't a no Nova hospital or the Nova building, but on the inside, we're optimizing our spaces for workflow for team members, making sure it's easy for patients to find their way around the facility. We're maximizing natural light and also creating a lot of outdoor green spaces. And I would say on top of everything else, we're making sure our buildings are environmentally sustainable. So a lot of exciting things happening for us. But I think it again speaks to access and the focus on well being and really focusing on the well being of our team members as well as our patients. I think the second opportunity really globally for health care is around technology and digital transformation. Right. I mean, even over the last probably two decades, we've seen so many changes in health care based on technology, starting with the electronic health record, some of the virtual health care models that came around in Covid, and now AI and analytics. I think this is key for growth in health care because we know health care is becoming more challenging. The acuity is increasing, the cost is increasing, both labor as well as supplies, and affordability is decreasing. So leveraging technology to really drive that value equation where we're providing the highest quality of care in the most financially sustainable manner. I think more importantly, this will help unburden our team members members. It will hopefully help our team members actually be able to provide that compassionate care in a more meaningful way. While we use the technology to do some of the work behind the scenes or, you know, around documentation. Right. Ambient AI and the time that is allowing for our providers to actually interact with our patients, make eye to eye contact and really provide that healing touch while the documentation is being done through AI. So digital transformation is, I think, key for our future growth. What I will say there is that digital transformation isn't merely about adopting technology. It also will require cultural shifts as well as people being willing to reimagine processes and adapting to changing market demands.
- [22:58]
A
Absolutely. I think that makes a lot of sense. And especially seeing all of the technology, whether it's the ambient data, I or other AI driven solutions coming into the workforce and healthcare coming into healthcare delivery as well as operations. It seems like, you know, being able to figure out the best use cases and efficiencies in having that technology powering a lot of the things that are happening in healthcare really, truly is transformative right now. And so it's exciting to see the different use cases that everyone's bringing forth.
- [23:31]
B
Yes, yes, yes.
- [23:33]
A
Fantastic. Well, given all of these changes, whether it's looking at the different opportunities within the workforce or technology, or seeing some of these different specialties even coming to the forefront as the population shifts, what will it take in order to lead a thriving organization in the next five years?
- [23:52]
B
Well, thank you. That's a great question. And I think it's a very daunting question because I asked that question for myself as well. I want to start off by sharing a quote that I heard at a recent leadership meeting. This is from Henry Kissinger who said the task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. And I think, you know, that's, that's been true for leadership for centuries. Right. But I would say the fact where they have not been is more true now than ever. Because I do believe that as rapidly as technology is changing, what the future will be is hard to imagine yet. Right. I mean, I was at a conference recently in Boston and all of the technology that's out there and available to improve patient care or to decrease the burden on the frontline team members was amazing, but it was also almost overwhelming. Right, because you don't know what we will be doing and what we need to be doing. So I think as a leader, you know, who will be leading organizations five years from now in a way that's, you know, really thriving. The leaders will have to be people who will, who are, you know, who thrive upon change, who are continuously evolving, who are flexible, who are agile and who really are adaptive in their mindset. I think, you know, it will require leaders who understand technology. Right. They don't have to be experts in technology, understand technology, understand the value of technology, technology, and are able to be technologically innovative in partnership with their leaders and the teams while continuing to focus on that human element. So, you know, the fact that we're going to become more and more technologically advanced will require more and more adaptive skills and those people skills and the skills that will be required to continue to focus on the compassion of healthcare and the humanity in healthcare that will be important for our future success.
- [26:00]
A
I love that Dr. Bansal, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been such a fun conversation, and I look forward to seeing you at our CEO and CFO Roundtable as well in November. I think that'll be such a fun time to connect and learn from our peers and then, you know, really, truly continue this conversation.
- [26:17]
B
Well, thank you, Laura. It was my pleasure. And I do look forward to seeing you there as well.