← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Positioning an Academic Health Center for Financial Stability and Rural Impact
00:12:18
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- [00:02]
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.
- [00:38]
B
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm Scott King, thrilled today to be joined by Raj Kurapati, Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer, University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Raj, how are you doing? Thanks so much for joining us.
- [00:53]
C
Doing very well. Thank you for having me. It's really good to spend some time with you.
- [00:58]
B
Of course. Here we are. We're kicking off the new year. There's a lot going on in healthcare. Some things are going on before the new year, obviously, and a lot of new things going on now in 2026. And, Raj, before we kind of dive into all those topics and trends, I was wondering if you could please just tell us a little bit about your background and your career journey. Sure.
- [01:20]
C
Well, thanks again for the opportunity. As you rightfully stated, I have the privilege of serving as the executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer for the University of Tennessee Health Science center here, based in Memphis, but our mission is actually statewide. We have four campuses across the state of Tennessee. I've been in this role about two and a half years. I've been in higher ed for about 25 years, and I spent some time in the private sector. Started my journey, my career journey, with a stint with Deloitte and touche. I spent 10 years with them, and I did banking for a couple of years. I was CFO for a community bank for a couple of years and then. But my parents were educators, so I figured that somebody should follow their footsteps. And in an effort to honor their legacy, I got into higher education. I fell in love with higher education and as I stated earlier, had the privilege of being in this industry for about 25 years.
- [02:23]
B
Well, thanks so much for sharing all that background info, Raj. And the first thing I wanted to ask you is what was the most important initiative you led in the last year? You know, what did you do and what were the results?
- [02:35]
C
Well, you know, there are a few that come to mind. I think what's relevant, given our current circumstances, is, you know, sort of given my role, it's really about setting the operations on a trajectory that allows us to continue to be successful in meeting our mission, which is really a tripartite mission. We have the academic mission, obviously, and we have a research and a service mission as well. With a lot of our service tilted towards the clinical services that we provide to through various hospital partners. One of the things we need to do is really think about how do we position ourselves going forward financially. That meant some difficult decisions because resources are always constrained. And especially in this environment, with a lot of the changes afoot at the federal level and also at the local level, there was a need for us to really think about our finances and whether or not we were strategically positioned to make the best use of our resources. To that end, we did have to adjust our workforce a little bit. We took a couple of efforts at doing that. We did do a strategic reduction in force early on. That resulted in some difficult decisions. Obviously, you don't do a reduction in force unless there's a need to do so. We did that. I think we were very judicious about doing the right things. And fortunately we were able to come out of that relatively strong. You know, rifts are never easy things to do, but I think we were able to come out, get that accomplished and position the institution in a better place. We also offered a really early retirement incentive as well, part of the broader efforts, and that was extremely successful. It was a voluntary retirement incentive program, and we not only met our targets, but significantly exceeded it. That allowed us to recover some savings that will then be reinvested in strategic areas of opportunity and growth, both on the research front and also on the academic and service front. So I would say that that was probably a difficult but needed initiative. And I'm pleased that so far the results of some of the efforts we did on that front.
- [05:17]
B
What are the big priorities and headwinds you're focused on for 2026?
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C
Well, you know, the focus for 2026 is really how do we reinvest back into areas of opportunity and growth. There is a renewed focus, I think nationally, but certainly in the state of Tennessee, to do a better job at addressing rural healthcare needs, both in the form of service services that are available to rural populations, but also addressing some of the workforce healthcare workforce shortages that exist and appear to continue to grow. So we were fortunate that the state recognized that we bring some strengths to the table as the state's premier health sciences university. And we will be focusing on how we take advantage of some state grants that we received to lead that effort. Including being named the center of excellence for the state in rural healthcare development and initiatives. And I think we will also be investing our resources to ensure that we are delivering what's expected of us as a state institution in this space broadly, but also specifically to address the larger rural healthcare deficits in the state.
- [06:39]
B
It's great to hear about the state recognition there and how you'll be diving into help the rural healthcare needs. Do you see that being a long process for things to go the way they should in addressing the needs for rural health care?
- [06:54]
C
I would say yes. You know, I think it's easy to say you got to go work the needs of rural, rural communities. It's very complex. The issue is, you know, is very complex and requires significant effort and very thoughtful strategies. You know, saying is one thing, doing is a totally different thing. As they say, the devil is always in the details. I see this as being a multi year effort and one that needs to continue to be refined. I think some strategies may pan out the way you hope they would, but I think you should be prepared to adjust those strategies to ensure that you're being nimble and rethinking approaches as, as you, as you go through the process of implementing them and identify some gaps. So I would say this is probably going to be a multi year exercise and it's going to take quite a bit of effort and thought.
- [07:59]
B
You'll be helping make a big difference there. Raj and when you look at your own kind of workload and things you have to personally do for your org and the community in 2026, what do you think is the hardest thing you're going to have to do in 2026?
- [08:15]
C
Decide what you can do. I think the demands on our time are pretty significant, all of us and the needs are tremendous and probably cannot all be met. So it's really the most difficult choices will be what is it that we don't do? All the things that need to get done are important, but you have to prioritize and have to accept the fact that not everything can be done but making sure that you make the choices on what you don't do thoughtfully and also have a strategy on how you get back to getting those things done as well as time and opportunity presents itself.
- [08:57]
B
Where do you see some other great opportunities for organizational growth.
- [09:05]
C
As an institution, as an academic institution? Our focus is on education, but like I said, it's a tripartite mission. Right. There's a research aspect of it and the service aspect of it. I think some opportunities we have is as we look at how we play a role in addressing the rural healthcare needs of the state, how do we build partnerships to do that? We can't do it ourselves. We don't run our own hospital. We work with hospitals across the state. So it's really about how do we leverage those relationships and how do we expand those relationships to some of the rural institutions, hospitals, clinical sites, and the like to ensure that we are truly identifying partners that we need in order for us to be successful in delivering the expectations of the state in the rural healthcare space.
- [09:56]
B
I think that sounds like a great plan, Raj. And the last thing I wanted to ask you is how do you think, you know, throughout your career up to now, how do you think you've evolved as a leader?
- [10:05]
C
That's a great question. I think evolution as a leader never stops. I think the minute you think you've done it all, I think, is the minute that you should look at retirement. I am grateful for mentors and partners that I've had the privilege of working with throughout my career. I've learned a lot. And I think as leaders, you have to accept the fact that you don't have all the answers. And you should be willing to admit that sometimes you're probably not the right person to lead an effort or make a decision, and you need to lean on your colleagues to do that. And I've had the privilege of working with some phenomenal colleagues throughout my career, and I have the privilege of working with some brilliant colleagues now. And I think how I've evolved is being able to accept that the fact that, you know, there's always somebody smarter than you in the room, and. And it's always better to listen first before you speak. And these are. These were. You know, they seem pretty. These things seem pretty standard to say, but are difficult in practice because you always want to have the answers because you feel like people are always looking to you to have all the answers as a leader, and you don't always have the answers. In fact, in most cases, there's somebody else at the table that probably has the right answer and a better answer. So I think evolution of leadership, in my case has been learning from others and continuing to learn from others and accepting good ideas when they are brought forth and not always thinking, yours is the best.
- [11:54]
B
Really some incredible perspectives there on leadership. I appreciate your thoughts there, and thank you for joining the podcast and for a great conversation. It was wonderful talking to you, and I look forward to working with you again soon.
- [12:05]
C
Absolutely. My pleasure. And thank you for the opportunity and I wish you and all the listeners and colleagues a very productive and blessed 2020.