New Saint Clare's CEO talks staffing shortages, hospital competition
Until this year, Brian Ulery spent most of his career working for healthcare systems in the South.
A few weeks into his latest post as the new CEO of North Jersey's major healthcare systems, he sees the same roadblocks here to navigating financial, regulatory and staffing issues as he did in Florida, Georgia and West Virginia.
New CEO's experience
Ulery, 51, officially took over at the Denville-based Saint Clare's Health System on April 3 and arrived with more than 20 years of healthcare executive experience. Most recently, he served as executive vice president, chief operating officer and acting president and CEO of Thomas Health, a two-hospital system in South Charleston, West Virginia.
"The challenges of healthcare with lower reimbursement, higher costs, staff shortages − those are all universal songs throughout the industry," Ulery, who currently lives in Byram, said in an interview Tuesday. "Those challenges that Saint Clare's has were exactly what I had when I was at Thomas and in Georgia."
Ulery, currently living in Byram, shared a relevant quote from the late West Virginia U.S. senator Robert Byrd, who said "West Virginia was the northernmost southern state and southernmost northern state in the country."
Battling bigger systems
Owned and operated by Prime Healthcare, the Saint Clare's system serves Morris, Sussex, and Warren counties. It includes hospitals in Denville and Dover Hospital and a behavioral health division with affiliated clinics in Boonton Township, Parsippany and Denville.
While it has been a significant healthcare provider since the Denville hospital opened in 1953, the Saint Clare's network is overshadowed in Morris County by Atlantic Health, which includes Morristown Medical Center, Overlook in Summit, Chilton in Pequannock and Newton Medical Center.
Fixing staffing shortages
Ulery does not see a physical expansion of the Saint Clare's network in the near future, but hopes to overcome staff shortages so it can care for more patients in its existing facilities.
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"We staff appropriately for the patients we have," Ulery explained. "There are times when it does get strained there, no doubt. We take as many patients as we can that match what our staff can handle. Are we looking for more? Yes. Because we would like to take care of more patients and we are not able to do that without additional staff."
Negotiating higher payments
The size of larger competing healthcare systems such as Atlantic Health allows them to negotiate higher reimbursement payments than Saint Clare's, Ulery said.
"They use that leverage to generate additional revenue for every service they provide," he explained.
More revenue also gives them an edge in hiring staff in a tight market, leaving Saint Clare's at a "competitive disadvantage," Ulery said.
"We all have to look for ways to encourage people to work here, retain the talent we have, making this the best possible place that they can call home," Ulery said.
Quality rankings
The key to hopefully gaining better reimbursement deals, according to Ulery, is for Saint Clare's to stay the course of "providing the highest quality care that we can."
The high grades are already there, Ulery says, pointing to nine consecutive years of "A" ratings from the national nonprofit Leapfrog Hospital Survey, "which is an amazing track record of quality."
"By being a high-grade provider, we are then able to use that in negotiations with insurance companies," Ulery said.
Ulery's background includes master's degree in healthcare administration and business administration from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Certified Medical Practice Executive, Medical Group Management Association.
"I haven't found very many differences [in New Jersey compared to the South], but I've found a lot of commonalities," Ulery said. "The people are as great here as anywhere I've ever worked."
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com
Twitter: @wwesthoven
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Saint Clare's Health NJ: New CEO Ulery talks staffing, competition
