Reducing Clinical Variation to Improve Patient Outcomes with Dr. Harpreet Pall

Summary

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Episode: Reducing Clinical Variation to Improve Patient Outcomes with Dr. Harpreet Pall
Release Date: March 13, 2026
Host: Laura Deardle
Guest: Dr. Harpreet Pall, Chief Medical Officer, Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center & K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital

---

Episode Overview

This episode dives into how reducing clinical variation can significantly improve patient outcomes. Dr. Harpreet Pall shares real-world initiatives implemented at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, the challenges of change management in a complex hospital environment, priorities and opportunities for 2026, and key growth areas in care delivery.

---

Key Discussion Points

1. Introduction to Dr. Pall and Jersey Shore University Medical Center

• [01:19–02:43]
  • Dr. Pall explains his dual role as Chief Medical Officer and practicing pediatric gastroenterologist.
  • The medical center is a large, academic, and regional referral center with advanced services in trauma, cardiac care, oncology, neuroscience, and a children’s hospital.
  • Emphasis on the hospital’s diverse patient population and integrated approach to clinical and academic missions.

2. Top Initiative: Reducing Clinical Variation

• [02:57–05:13]
  • Focused on ensuring “consistent right care at the right time in the right setting.”
  • Unchecked variation can extend stays, increase costs, and worsen outcomes.
  • Key Strategy:
    • Redesigning multidisciplinary rounds (MDR):
      • Previously a reporting exercise; now led by attending physicians with the care team aligning around a set discharge date.
      • Results: Improved coordination, smoother patient flow, reduced delays, and clearer expectations for families.
  • Notable Quote:

    “That clinical variation reduction isn’t about restricting physicians… it’s really about making sure every patient gets the best evidence-based care every time.” – Dr. Harpreet Pall [05:09]

3. Change Management: Engaging Teams

• [05:38–07:05]
  • Change was addressed by engaging all frontline team members and incorporating their ideas, fostering ownership and buy-in.
  • Importance of gathering diverse perspectives from nurses, physicians, case managers, dietitians, and pharmacists.
  • Notable Quote:

    “Healthcare is one care model… all the frontline teams who have a voice in this, who have a stake in the outcomes, have a seat at the table…” – Dr. Harpreet Pall [06:38]

4. Looking Ahead: Priorities and Challenges in 2026

• [07:19–09:29]
  • Throughput and Flow: Keeping pace with national hospital capacity challenges via coordinated transitions between ED, inpatient, and post-acute settings.
  • Care Beyond the Hospital: Expansion of care delivery models like “hospital at home,” virtual monitoring, and digital care platforms.
  • Clinician Engagement: Ensuring frontline teams feel ownership of initiatives.
  • Ongoing Challenges: Workforce shortages, regulatory complexity, and financial pressures.
  • Notable Quote:

    “Healthcare leaders today have to think beyond the walls of the hospital, and the real opportunity is designing a system of care that meets patients where they truly are.” – Dr. Harpreet Pall [09:16]

5. Hardest Task in the Year Ahead

• [09:40–10:40]
  • Main challenge: Leading meaningful change and building consensus in a “very complex environment.”
  • Requires transparency, trust, and strong clinical leadership.
  • Notable Quote:

    “The hardest work, but also the most important, is building consensus around some of these operational changes… But when that alignment happens, it’s like magic.” – Dr. Harpreet Pall [10:17]

6. Opportunities for Growth

• [11:02–12:38]
  • Centers of Excellence: Building programs in advanced cardiac care, neuroscience, oncology, complex surgery, and children’s care.
  • Digital Transformation: Implementing remote monitoring, hospital at home, and virtual care.
  • Ambulatory Expansion: Shifting care into outpatient settings to meet patient demand.
  • Notable Quote:

    “Organizations that really combine strong clinical programs with innovation in how care is delivered are going to be positioned really well for the future.” – Dr. Harpreet Pall [12:29]

---

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On Multidisciplinary Team Rounds:

  “It’s that clinical variation reduction isn’t about restricting physicians and clinical teams. It’s really about making sure that every patient gets the best evidence based care every time.” – Dr. Harpreet Pall [05:09]

• On Team Engagement:

  “Healthcare is one care model and… all the frontline teams who have a stake in the outcomes have a seat at the table and are able to contribute.” – Dr. Harpreet Pall [06:38]

• On Healthcare’s Future:

  “Healthcare leaders today have to think beyond the walls of the hospital, and the real opportunity is designing a system of care that meets patients where they truly are.” – Dr. Harpreet Pall [09:16]

• On Leading Change:

  “When that alignment happens, it’s like magic. The impact on the patients that we serve and the culture that we have can be absolutely fantastic.” – Dr. Harpreet Pall [10:30]

• On Future Positioning:

  “The organizations that really combine strong clinical programs with innovation… are going to be positioned really well for the future.” – Dr. Harpreet Pall [12:29]

---

Important Timestamps

• 01:19 – Dr. Pall’s introduction and overview of the medical center
• 02:57 – Discussion of the initiative to reduce clinical variation
• 05:38 – Approach to change management and team engagement
• 07:19 – Priorities for 2026 and key headwinds
• 09:40 – Hardest part of healthcare leadership and building consensus
• 11:02 – Opportunities for growth: centers of excellence, digital care, ambulatory expansion

---

Summary

This episode offers a practical and insightful look at how one academic medical center is tackling the challenges of variability in care, nurturing engagement across multidisciplinary teams, and innovating for the future. Dr. Pall underscores the necessity of building consensus, transparency, and clinical leadership to drive meaningful, lasting change, while also highlighting the evolving landscape of care delivery inside—and outside—the hospital.

Transcript

[Becker's Healthcare Announcer]

The most important healthcare decisions don't happen in isolation. They happen when leaders come together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings together more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives this April in Chicago. With 800 speakers from Ascension, Cleveland Clinic, Common Spirit, and more, the conversations get real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning for policy shifts brief breaking through value based care barriers and building clinical teams that translate new ideas into real world care. Join top decision makers in the room April 13th through the 16th. For the agenda and event details, visit BeckersHospitalReview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right.

[Laura Deardle]

This is Laura Deardle with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Harpreet Paul, Chief Medical Officer at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical center in K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital, as well as professor of Pediatrician at Hackensack Meridian school of medicine. Dr. Paul, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

[Dr. Harpreet Paul]

It's such a pleasure to be here with you, Laura. Thank you.

[Laura Deardle]

Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation. I know we'll talk a little bit about some of the cool things that you've been doing over the last year or so, as well as your perspective on the future. But before we dive in, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your organization?

[Dr. Harpreet Paul]

Absolutely. I'll tell you first a little bit about Jersey Shore University Medical Center. We're a large academic medical center in New Jersey. We're located in Neptune, New Jersey, and we're one of the academic hospitals within Hackensack Meridian Health. We've got a diverse patient population in Monmouth and Ocean counties and we're also a referral center for complex care. So we're a level one trauma center for both adults and children. We've got advanced cardiac care, oncology, neuroscience and Children's Hospital as well Cahoke Nadian Children's Hospital. And in my role as cmo, it's really at the intersection of leadership for our physicians clinical quality hospital operations. A lot of my time is spent working with our clinical teams to really look at how care is delivered across the hospital and across the continuum and see how we might be able to enhance that from patient safety and outcomes to performance and innovation. I'm also a practicing pediatric gastroenterologist and I'm also very much engaged in our academic activities at our medical school. So I'm remaining closely connected to both our clinical and academic missions.

[Laura Deardle]

That's amazing to hear and you know, really cool to understand where you're positioned in the community and how you're really continuing to serve them well. Now, can you tell me about the most important initiative that you led in the last year? What did you do and what were the results?

[Dr. Harpreet Paul]

Well, one of the areas that we've had a focus on is clinical variation across the hospital. And the goal has been straightforward, ensuring that the patients we serve get the consistent right care at the right time in the right setting, while we're focusing on reducing that unnecessary variation. And as you know, sometimes when you have that variability, that can drive longer hospital stays, higher costs and lead to inconsistent outcomes. So what we did as one of our focus areas is ensure that the multidisciplinary teams across the service lines that we have are really drilling into areas like readmissions, the efficiency of our discharge processes, care pathways for some of our high risk conditions like heart failure or COPD and pneumonia. An example that really highlights some of this work is how we've looked at our multidisciplinary rounds that take place on a daily basis and see what the opportunities were for redesigning them. Historically in healthcare, sometimes these multidisciplinary rounds or MDR rounds can become somewhat of a reporting exercise. So our team's focused on redesigning the process so that the attending physician leads the discussion and the entire care team aligns around a clearly defined expected discharge date. And when that happens consistently, you know, that leads to better coordination across the clinical teams and case management. It can lead to improved flow of patients, avoiding unnecessary delays and, and really very importantly, gives patients and families better expectations about their care journey. Sounds kind of simple, but when implemented well, it can have a very significant impact. So, you know, it's that that clinical variation reduction isn't about, isn't about restricting physicians and clinical teams. It's really about making sure that every patient gets the best evidence based care every time. I love that.

[Laura Deardle]

I think it's such an important distinction because understanding that and having that why out there, I can imagine, really helped the teams get behind the changes you were trying to make and see a better and more efficient process for caring for patients and their outcomes. And you know, I'm curious, when you're going through all of that, what type of change management did it take to do that with the teams who was involved? And how did you really get to the place where you're seeing the results that you were hoping for?

[Dr. Harpreet Paul]

Yeah, it's, you know, it's really ensuring that the teams have a voice and that they're engaged in the process. I think that with, especially around complex change like this, these are not simple interventions that we're trying to deploy. We've got at a large scale, a lot of change and progress that needs to happen to deal with the complexity and the acuity of the patients that we're serving. So I think the most important part of this is ensuring that the teams are engaged in the process, that we take their ideas and we incorporate them into the planning that we have and that leads to them being bought into the process and owning it as well. So I think that that's really the key that we take the multiple perspectives, that 360 view of the issues that we're dealing with, which are very complex issues. They're not silos. Healthcare is one care model and, you know, making sure that the nurses, the doctors, the case managers, dietitians and pharmacists, all the frontline teams who have a voice in this, who have a stake in the outcomes, have a seat at the table and are able to contribute and give their perspectives so that ultimately we can come up with the best model and the best approach to deliver the amazing outcomes that our teams deliver on.

[Laura Deardle]

That's fantastic to hear. Thank you so much for digging a bit deeper there. Now, I'm curious, in looking ahead to 2026, what are some of the big headwinds as well as opportunities that you're looking at? What are your priorities heading into the next few months or so?

[Dr. Harpreet Paul]

Laura, there's a few key priorities. So the first is really continuing to focus on the throughput and the patient flow while we're maintaining the highest standards of quality and safety. We already know that hospitals across the country are facing capacity challenges. And addressing that requires a really tight coordination across the emergency departments, our inpatient care teams, and also the post acute transition. So that is definitely going to continue to be a major focus. I'd say another priority is continuing to expand the care delivery beyond the traditional hospital walls. And programs like hospital at home, virtual or remote monitoring, and some of our digital care platforms are going to allow us to deliver high quality care while improving access and experience. So that trend, I think is going to continue. And that's an area for our focus as well. I'd say a third is in physician and clinician engagement. None of these initiatives succeed unless those frontline teams feel a strong sense of ownership in improving how that care is delivered. A big part of my role as the CMO is creating a structure where these clinical teams help lead these efforts to, rather than feel that our initiatives are simply being imposed on them. And we touched on that before. So all of this is in the backdrop of the headwinds that many health systems are facing across the country. Workforce shortages, regulatory complexity, financial pressures that all come with caring for these increasingly complex patients. To sum it up, I think that healthcare leaders today have to think beyond the walls of the hospital, and the real opportunity is designing a system of care that meets patients where they truly are.

[Laura Deardle]

Got it. That's so helpful to understanding. Really interesting to hear. All of those different aspects are intertwining together. What do you think the hardest thing you'll have to do in the coming year will be?

[Dr. Harpreet Paul]

Well, it's. It's also where the biggest opportunity is. So the hardest part of healthcare leadership right now is leading meaningful change in a very complex environment. Hospitals are very sophisticated. We've got thousands of people working together, from physicians and nurses, administrators, to support teams. So when we're talking about quality and performance improvement, we really need alignment across all of these different groups. And for me, the hardest work, but also the most important, is building consensus around some of these operational changes, like standardizing care pathways, looking at our discharge processes, and implementing new care models. And that requires trust. It requires us to be transparent with our teams and also strong clinical leadership. But when that alignment happens, it's like magic. The impact on the patients that we serve and the culture that we have can be absolutely fantastic.

[Laura Deardle]

I love that. I think especially thinking about how leadership can truly transform with some of these. Transparency and really being clear about how they're going about things and what will make a big difference for them in the future is key. Now, before we wrap up here, I wanted to ask about growth, too. Where do you see some of the best opportunities for growth?

[Dr. Harpreet Paul]

There's a few key areas. The first is continuing to expand access to highly specialized care for us as a destination academic medical center. We're continuing to grow programs in advanced cardiac care in our children's hospital. Neuroscience, oncology, and complex surgery. Patients are increasingly seeking out centers of excellence for these complex conditions. And having that multidisciplinary team is really important. So those centers of excellence is definitely one area. Another major opportunity is looking at how care is delivered and whether there's opportunities to redesign that. You know, patients are expecting healthcare to be accessible, to be coordinated, and more so now digitally enabled as well. And these programs, these innovations like remote monitoring, hospital from home, virtual specialty care, allows us to touch more patients and manage chronic disease more effectively. The third major opportunity is the ambulatory expansion that is really a critical part of our strategy as care shifts to the ambulatory setting. I think at the end of the day, the organizations that really combine strong clinical programs with innovation and how care is delivered are going to be positioned really well for the future.

[Laura Deardle]

That's amazing to hear, and I'd agree. I mean, so much is happening within how you're looking at care. The ambulatory space is making a big impact right now, so I love that focus and drive it and seeing growth potential there. Dr. Paul, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been such a fun conversation, really, to truly get behind some of the things that have really made you successful in how you're thinking about the next steps. So thank you for your time today and I look forward to seeing you as well at our annual meeting. I know you'll be speaking on a panel coming up here in a couple of weeks in April. So excited to catch up there.

[Dr. Harpreet Paul]

Thank you so much, Laura. It's been a lot of fun and I'm excited to be at the meeting and to meet you as well.