← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Michael Antoniades, MPA, President of UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital
00:17:54
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- [00:02]
A
This is where healthcare leadership comes together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives and nearly 800 speakers to Chicago, April 13th through the 16th. This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former President George W. Bush. For the agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalreview.com and click on the events tab in the upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you in Chicago.
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B
This is Laura Deardo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Mike Antoniotis, President of UChicago Medicine, Ingalls Memorial Hospital. Mike, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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C
Good morning Laura and happy New Year and pleasure to be back on.
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B
Absolutely. Well, you know, I'm excited for our conversation because I think there's so much happening in healthcare today and you know, looking forward to learning more about how you're thinking about 2026. But before we do that, can you introd introduce yourself for those who are just joining the Beckers Healthcare Podcast and tell us a little bit more about your organization?
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C
Sure. Mike Antoniades, as you mentioned, I'm the president of Engels Memorial, which is part of the University of Chicago Health System. Now I've been here for just about three years. You know, we and I spoke I think early in my tenure here about two and a half years ago. So the University of Chicago Health System is obviously a globally recognized name. And Ingalls Memorial serves the Southland of Chicago. It's a Chicago suburb about 20 minutes south. We have a population of approximately 250,000 people that we serve in our primary service area. We have been here for over 100 years, 102 years in fact, heading into our 103rd year and we merged with the University of Chicago Health System. This year will be our 10th year anniversary. Later this year in October, we're going to celebrate 10 years and it's been just an incredible experience and we're very grateful that we're part of such a well known global health system, really and we can bring that kind of care to the communities in the Southland.
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B
I love that and you know, it's so helpful to have that kind of academic affiliation, I'm sure to bring that into the communities locally that you're providing healthcare for in really serving in a important way. Now when you think about 2025 in the last year or so, what was the most important initiat initiative you led? What did you do and what were.
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C
The results yeah, we had a lot of activity taking place certainly in 2025, as we, I guess most healthcare institutions have. I think from a thematic perspective, it's about integration. As you mentioned, you know, being part of an academic health system, the value of that is you bring that level of care, that level of research, and that level of academia into the communities where our hospitals, like Engels Memorial, lives and serves. So we had a lot of activity around integration. We grew and introduced a lot of different clinical programs in behavioral health, in surgery and inpatient rehab, in a lot of medical specialties in primary care. We had a lot of activity around that, and we had a great year that way. And one of the programs that I'm going to highlight, which is very close to home and it's very important for the Southland, but it also applies to many other communities across the country. We fully integrated our maternal services with the academic medical center. The reason for that is, as it's been well published and Chicago is not an exception to this, there are a lot of disparities around maternal health and infant mortality, and we saw that as an area where we really wanted to pay special attention to it. We are a South side organization. Hyde park is in the south side of Chicago, and Engels is in the southern part of the south side of Chicago. So last year, we doubled down and invested in building a really strong foundation around OB services and GYN services to serve this area. We completely integrated with the academic medical center. So under the leadership of the chair, Dr. Lingal, we've been able to recruit over seven specialists and general, obviously, physicians. We have completed all that recruitment despite the shortages in physicians. And we just opened our clinic a couple of weeks ago, right before Christmas, where we're introducing specialty GYN services, both oncology as well as general GYN services as well as OB services across our campus. So we're really excited because we really believe we can make a dent in the significant disparities that exist in. In the south side of Chicago, particularly for young black women when they're giving birth.
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B
Absolutely. Wow, that is so helpful to know and what a critical service to have, especially as you mentioned, on the south side of Chicago, where, you know, healthcare isn't always accessible to be able to have that for women as they're going through their pregnancy process and giving birth and everything else that they need in women's services. And especially when you look at OB gyn. I know there's so many hospitals across the country that are trying to figure out how to rebuild their programs or relaunch some of these different types of services in communities that may not have access to that care. And so during that process of relaunching and building, what was critical for you? What were the steps that helped you be able to do that and really bring that to fruition?
- [05:51]
C
Well, it is who we are, right? It's core to our mission to care for these communities. And the value that organizations like us, like nonprofits, bring to these communities is we provide services when services are not typically available, or as you said, access is just not easily accessible. So we. We had a program. We've had a program here for many, many decades. And, you know, unlike some of our competitors who decided to exit those programs, we decided that part of who we are is we improve the outcomes of our communities that we serve. And that is an area that needed a lot of attention. So we double down, really just shown the commitment that we have to the south side by investing in rebuilding and building a very strong foundation for the future to serve the population that we're aiming to serve through the OB and the GY and services. These are not easy decisions, but it's part of who we are. This is who the University of Chicago is. Along the way, we work with a lot of partners, so we partner with the federally qualified health centers. One of them is literally across the street from us. Family Lucretian. We just are in the process of partnering with Ann, Martha and some other federally qualified health centers because a lot of these patients seek access in the FQHCs. So partnering with the FQHCs just make it easier for those patients to access our hospital, to access our care, and to access some of their maternal fetal medicine services and GYN services in addition to.
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B
Obviously, that's amazing to hear, you know, in really a huge accomplishment will make a big difference. Now, looking ahead, what are some of your big priorities as well as headwinds for 2026?
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C
Yeah. Well, let's talk about priorities. Integration doesn't stop. It's incredibly important for us to continue to find opportunities to integrate it with. To integrate with Hyde park and the University of Chicago. It is the value that a health system like that brings. So we have a number of different other programs that we're looking to introduce that we'll be publicizing over the next few months. And along the way, we also need to deal with some of the headwinds that we're dealing with, and there's many of them, as we know. I think part of it is to have flexibility in how we look at the future, to be able to deal with the many different challenges that we could potentially be facing, both from a workforce shortage perspective, from a physician shortage perspective, from a legislative perspective. Right. And some of the other issues that are well published, and I don't have to mention them all now, that in general healthcare, hospitals in particular will have to deal with this is all part of a very large menu of both opportunities and challenges that's guiding our thinking and it's also guiding our strategic plan. I think it's important for you and the listeners to know is challenges will always happen. Right. Headwinds always occur. And organizations like the University of Chicago, and just in general organizations, whether it's in healthcare or other industries, success really lies in their ability to always have flexibility and always look at the future. Not from a depressed mode, from an opportunity mode. And that's how we're looking at the future. Yes, we know there will be challenges and we will incorporate those challenges and plans to address them in our strategies. But we are looking long term. We're looking at the next five to ten years for Ingalls Memorial. Where is Ingalls going to be in the next five to 10 years? What is the role of the community hospital both in an academic health system and also in the role that it serves, the communities that it serves? What's the role? How do we expect community hospitals to be positioned so that they can maximize their value to the communities that we serve? We're looking to introduce a number of new programs to the organization over the next year. Plus, we're also looking to introduce teaching. We are going to. We're really excited about that because we're going to be bringing the teaching mission of the University of Chicago right here at Ingalls, training primary care physicians and internal medicine physicians for generations to come, training them here in their communities, improving access through this training and by having residents in our organization, improving quality and then hoping that many of them will choose to make communities like ours, where they build their practices, where they build their careers. So a lot of exciting things in front of us. But the most important, I think, from a theme perspective is you gotta look at the future. You have to be realistic, you gotta be flexible, but you can't be defensive about it. You gotta be offensive. And we have an organization that is fully committed in supporting Ingalls and supporting the communities that we serve collectively as a health system so that we can be here in the strongest possible position that we can be.
- [11:08]
B
Absolutely. I love that. And, you know, I can feel the energy and passion for being able to serve the community and build this foundation, you know, build the right type of organization that can make the pivots as needed, that can really lean into the teaching mission, the training, as well as the providing of very, very critical services and care to the community over the next several years. Now, I know there's a lot of great opportunities for building that plan and growth, but also some challenges ahead. What do you think the hardest thing you'll have to do in the coming year will be?
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C
Yeah, I think like many, we need to make sure that we have solutions and plans around the workforce shortages that exist. It's not easy to find. Particularly some of the positions and jobs are really hard to recruit for, and we need them. That also applies for many specialties and physicians in general, because there's just a national shortage, I think that's so well publicized, I don't need to mention that anymore. So that's always a challenge because a steady workforce provides stability to the organization, provides continuous quality in how we serve, and continues great experience for the patients that we serve. So that's always a top of mind and that's not an easy one because everybody's looking for the same positions and for large numbers of employees to stay or remain within the healthcare industry. I think the second part is to deal with some of the legislative challenges that are potentially coming ahead, and those have huge impact on organizations like ours. And that means that safety nets and we need to be prepared, we need to have optimism, but at the same time, we need to have a level of realism that we will be able to manage through some of these challenges because they can be quite difficult for us to maintain the stability that we really need to maintain as a safety net hospital in these communities. So that we're keeping our eyes wide open and we're planning multiple different scenarios just to make sure that we can remain strong as an organization and as an employer and obviously as a healthcare provider for these communities.
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B
Absolutely, that makes a lot of sense. And having that dual position of looking at the workforce shortages, wanting to be a great, great employer, as well as expanding and continuing to build on services is critical, I think, especially, you know, when you look at building up the workforce and strengthening the pipeline, being able to be a great place to work. Is there anything different that you're doing in the next year to really increase those efforts or things that trends that you see ahead?
- [13:59]
C
Yeah, obviously we have to remain competitive right from a compensation standpoint. So like everyone else who are looking at the market to make sure that we don't fall out of market. And I think it's, it's, it's really being able to bring across to future candidates and people that are looking for work. Certainly here in the Southland, that culture is just as important as everything else. Right. And, and we, we really spent a lot of time building a strong family oriented community culture here at Ingalls. It's really an important part. When you walk into Ingalls, you feel it, you feel the energy, you feel the welcoming. And we believe that is one of the strengths that has allowed us to really make such a huge impact and inroads with workforce development and workforce recruitment over the last three years. But being part of the University of Chicago, being part of an organization that has growth aspirations now and into the future, having opportunities for people to grow beyond what their original or their initial job may be, these are all positives that we believe separate us and give us a differentiating factor with some of the competitors and why we believe folks come and choose to work with us as opposed to some of the competitors.
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B
That's helpful to know. Thank you for digging a bit deeper there. Now, before we wrap up, I'm curious, what do you see as being some of the best growth opportunities for the next few years as well?
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C
Yeah, no, we have a lot of work that we're doing around that. Obviously you need to know what your community needs will be. So it always starts there because we're here to serve a community. And so we look at all of the data points around the communities that we serve and obviously the kind of changes that we expect both from the standpoint of technology as well as discovery. I think artificial intelligence will play a key role in anything that we do in the future. So we're spending a lot of attention preparing to maximize the use of artificial intelligence to support our workforce and to support our physicians to make it easier for them to work, to reduce burnout and to be able to deploy it in a way that is governed and it's organized across the health system. So that's a major, major goal and initiative that's across our organization today. We have a number of other programs that we're going to be introducing. I probably can't share them yet because we're not ready yet to go public. But we're definitely looking to grow areas like behavioral health, surgery, rehab through our partnership with Shirley Ryan. Ability Lab has gone really well. So we think there's more opportunity to grow and bring these services closer to home in the Southland as well as a number of other recruitments that are underway so you'll hear a lot more about that as the year goes on because we're really excited. We're just not ready to go public yet.
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B
I got it. Well we'll definitely keep an eye out for those updates and look forward to learning more and especially I know how much technology digital transformation is making a difference in the healthcare space and so we'll definitely reconnect later this year and hopefully we'll be able to talk through some of these other exciting developments at that time. Well Mike, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been such a fun conversation and I'm looking forward to seeing you as well in April at our annual meeting. I know you'll be speaking on a panel there and so it'll be great to see you as well as many others be part of that event.
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C
Thank you Laura. I'm looking forward to the April conference as well. Great talking to you again.