Number of employees you oversee: 5,905

Reza Kaleel

Brief background of your business:

The Providence Southeast Washington Service Area includes Kadlec Regional Medical Center in the Tri-Cities and Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla. Both are nonprofit organizations with longstanding ties to the communities, working together to serve the health care needs of Southeast Washington. Kadlec was founded in 1944, and Providence St. Mary in 1880.

How did you land your current role? How long have you been in it?

I moved to Washington to join Providence/Kadlec in 2016 as chief administrative officer for Kadlec Regional Medical Center and moved into the role of chief executive for Kadlec Health System in 2019. I’ve had the privilege of serving as chief executive of the Providence Southeast Washington Service Area since mid-2022, when restructuring across Providence brought Kadlec and St. Mary, formerly separate ministries, together as a single service area. I’ve been working in health care administration since 1997, in Texas and Colorado, prior to moving to the Tri-Cities in 2016.

With the health care industry continually facing staffing shortages, what measures is Kadlec taking to improve hiring and retention?

Our people are the core of what we do, and retaining our highly skilled and committed caregivers is our top priority. Improving the experience of our caregivers based on their feedback is a continual process, and something we’ve been focusing on, particularly following the pandemic. Turnover at Kadlec has dropped significantly over the past two years. Our leaders are currently in the process of action planning for caregiver engagement in their areas based on survey results from last fall and other input we regularly solicit.

In order to grow, we must also be able to recruit. We cast our recruitment net wide and have had great success attracting health care professionals to our community. Also, critically important to our efforts are valuable partnerships with local and regional schools. These include higher education institutions like Washington State University and Columbia Basin College, whose clinical programs train future hires, and partnerships like our “Experience Healthcare” program with local high schools, which exposes kids to a wide range of possible careers in health care.

How is Kadlec responding to the cancer doctor shortage the Tri-Cities is experiencing?

With the recent closure of the medical oncology program at Trios, our Kadlec Tri-Cities Cancer Team has been able to accommodate much of the sudden increase in demand for care at our cancer center, though it’s been challenging. The team has been working tirelessly to find ways to accommodate those with the largest need. We’ve been working collaboratively with the leadership team at Trios to help as much as we possibly can with transitions of care for patients in need.

What steps is Kadlec taking to help address the mental health crisis in our community?

An important focus for us has been integrating behavioral health across the care continuum. Some initiatives we’re excited to share include:

• Primary care practice transformation offering ongoing care management, coordination and social support for patients with complex needs. Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPS) and social workers are co-located within primary care, collaborating closely with primary care providers to manage mental health.

• Our Trauma Support program, which integrates a bilingual/bicultural social worker and community health worker into the treatment team to address the social and mental health needs of hospitalized trauma patients during their inpatient stay and up to six months post-discharge.

• Our Community Health Worker program, which integrates bilingual/bicultural community health workers (CHWs) into our health care system and the community. Through outreach and education, CHWs promote awareness of the mental health crisis and provide support for self-management and motivation to our most vulnerable populations.

We also offer mental health and suicide awareness training classes, collaborating with others in the community on mental health awareness messaging campaigns, and providing school districts with training and curriculum to implement evidence-based programs for improving mental health. Kadlec/Providence has robust mental health resources available to our own caregivers as well, and we encourage them to prioritize and make time for caring for themselves.

You shepherded Kadlec through the pandemic. Do you have any key leadership lessons learned to share?

The pandemic exposed and widened some of the deepest divisions across our communities and institutions. It also brought out the best in people in ways that I think have been somewhat overlooked. The amount of teamwork, dedication and sacrifice that was on display from so many within our organization and others in the community was overwhelming and a bright spot during a challenging time that I will never forget. As far as leadership lessons, there were many, but the importance of actively working to find the good and the path forward in every difficult situation is one that will stick with me.

What do you see as the community’s greatest health care needs? What is your plan to meet these needs?

The population in our community is one of the fastest growing in the state. Keeping up with demand for health care services will be especially challenging given the national shortage of health care workers and increasingly challenging economics. Retention and recruitment of caregivers is paramount, as is creating the right locations and spaces for access to care. We’re currently in the process of thoughtfully planning investments in the right physical structures, technology and care team models to ensure we’re well positioned to take care of our community for many years to come. Looking ahead, taking advantage of technological developments in areas like AI will be important in allowing our caregivers to work at the top of their abilities and license, and spend less time on the large amount of administrative work involved in providing health care these days. We’re fortunate to be part of a large system that is investing in the research and tools to get us there.

Outside of the traditional “sick care” model, we’re also pursuing new and innovative ways to partner with public health and others in the community to keep our community well. The pandemic worsened our collective health status in a number of ways, but it also showed us how much more we can all be doing to partner on upstream preventive approaches. Attention to underserved populations, who have a more challenging time accessing services due to various social determinants, is a focus for us. Our Population Health and Community Health Investment departments are staying well engaged in all of these things.

What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess? 

Curiosity. Why do you ask?

What is the biggest challenge facing managers today?

The volume of complex social, economic, political and environmental issues that have all intensified over the past few years. Prioritizing is harder and more necessary than ever.

If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your industry/field?

Our highly fragmented systems of insurance coverage and care … and the number of people we leave uninsured or with poorly coordinated care as a result. The administrative complexity and bureaucratic inefficiency that has been engineered into the U.S. health care system is staggering.

What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?

Listen more than you speak. Learn from others, but don’t try to be them. Ultimately, try to become the best possible version of yourself as a leader and stay focused on service to others.

Who are your role models or mentors?

I’ve been blessed to have many. Some standouts include Jesus Christ, my parents and many of the amazing people I work with that inspire me from up close every day.

How do you keep your employees motivated?

Most people who work in health care are intrinsically motivated by a calling to serve. Everyone has their ups and downs though, so I regularly look for opportunities to remind our team about the importance of the work we’re doing together, and how much they are appreciated by our community and by me. I’m a big believer in handwritten thank you notes mailed to folks at home and send many out every week. We have a number of reward and recognition programs that run throughout the year, highlighting the great work being done by individuals and teams across the organization. Feedback from the community is also great for motivation. The many thank you notes, meals and other expressions of gratitude from individuals and organizations in the community during the pandemic were greatly appreciated!

How did you decide to pursue the career that you are working in today?

I wanted a career where I could provide meaningful service to others, be intellectually challenged, and meet a bunch of interesting people. I’d say I chose wisely!

How do you measure success in your workplace?

For ongoing operations, we have a balanced scorecard of key performance metrics we track across five pillars (People, Quality, Service, Finance, Growth) with specific annual targets that we review regularly. These function as high level “vital signs” that help us understand organizational health and performance. We also look at long range strategic objectives to assess progress and make adjustments as needed. More subjectively, daily interactions with members of our team, and simply walking around observing what’s going on helps me keep a more grounded feel for how things are going.

How do you balance work and family life?

My wife and my daughter let me know when things are getting out of whack, and I can usually make adjustments. As someone wise once said, there’s no such thing as balance, only balancing.

What do you like to do when you are not at work?

I love reading and playing music – I hate shopping but can spend hours in a good bookstore or music store. Doing things outdoors with my family and going to concerts are some other favorite pastimes.

What’s your best time management strategy?

Manage your sleep and your energy and managing time gets a little easier.

Best tip to relieve stress?

Cultivate a regular meditation practice.

What’s your favorite podcast?

It changes from month to month… right now it’s “Shred with Shifty.”

Most-used app?

Apple Music.

Favorite book?

“Dune”

Do you have a personal mantra, phrase or quote you like to use?

In their early touring days, Van Halen had a contract rider that required a bowl of M&Ms in their backstage changing room, with “No Brown M&Ms” in the bowl. Not knowing a lot about stage engineering and safety, it was a simple thing they could see and inform them of whether they should be worried about other more important details. I’ve adopted “No Brown M&Ms” over the years as shorthand for the importance of paying attention to the details.