All Things Health Care Safety and Quality with New Inspira Leader Tony Reed, MD

Transcript

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AMY:

Hello, I am so excited today to announce the newest member of our senior team here at Inspira. Dr. Tony Reed is our Chief Quality and Safety Officer. Tony comes from Temple and I'll let Tony tell you all about himself. But the exciting thing for me is Tony actually lives in Mullica Hill. He and his family live here, have a farm here, and I'm anxious to introduce you to him so join me. Tony.

DR. REED:

Thank you for having me, and thank you to the entire Inspira family for welcoming me and letting me dive right in. A little bit about by background, I'm a North Central Pennsylvania farm boy. I grew up on a farm of parents that have grown up on a farm, came from that part of the country and have been there for several generations. Went to college up there before moving to Philadelphia for med school and then did my training in family medicine at Reading and then went to Ohio for sports medicine before moving to my first job at Geisinger back home. Learned a lot about the practice of medicine there and then moved down to the valley to Delaware first, worked there in fellowship program, started teaching program there, and then fell in love with administration and quality measurement and data and those kind of things which brought me over to New Jersey.

AMY:

Maybe you could just talk a little bit as you did with me about why Inspira attracted you and why this role attracted you.

DR. REED:

What Inspira offered in the position is this stuff that I've focused my career on, those things that I've built out, safety, quality, experience, overall care delivery, integrated medicine, those are the things that I do and it was the opportunity to do it in my hometown where I've lived for the past decade, where I've watched the system grow and expand. I was here when you chose the name Inspira and first learned about it at the community fair in Mullica Hill and watched along with the rest of the community and what's happened and what's become and how great this place is and so this is where my family comes for care, and this is where my neighbors come for care and so for me it was that chance to bring it all together.

AMY:

And that is what I say often to folks is that, not only are we a large teaching program, not only do we have the privilege of serving our community, so many of us live here and so it is a very personal experience to provide care for people 'cause you really are caring for your friends and family.

DR REED:

Exactly.

AMY:

And that was one of the things that you've shared with me is that the chance to, I sort of laid out for the vision of Inspira of really being in that top 25th percentile of quality and patient satisfaction, we're on our journey to that. And I think just if you could sort of share with people, we talk about these things around safety and high reliability but maybe just spend a couple minutes from a physician perspective talking about how it relates to you and how that all fits together.

DR. REED:

Absolutely. We talk about these things in big abstract terms, culture of high reliability, culture of patient safety, culture of learning. You really take it down to its most basic level, that one-on-one interaction of you and a patient. And how do you do things right every single time? What resources do you have? What background? What training? What of yourself do you put into it? And some people describe it as, I treat people the way I would wanna be treated. I treat people the way I'd want my family to be treated. It really is what system is around me to help deliver the best care possible as free from error as possible. And when something does happen we learn from it and we make sure it never happens again. That's what high reliability is all about, is that focus on that moment of care and how do we do it right every single time.

AMY:

And of course with the teaching program you have smart students who are always asking, "Well, why are you doing it that way?" And having that opportunity and that privilege of being on the journey with residents who are now doctors who are in their first and second year, it really is a special culture and I know you've seen that up close and we obviously have had about a decade with Vineland and now our new program at Mullica Hill. Talk about what attracts you about that part of the equation.

DR. REED:

I have been residency and fellowship faculty since 2006. I was a fellowship director. I live for that opportunity to teach the next generation. And I look at it this way, as a primary care doc, I maybe impact 2000 lives in any given year, that would be the size of a patient panel. As teaching faculty that number goes larger, as administrator in teaching faculty it gets even bigger and so now I'm able to impact a larger group, a larger population by being involved. But the other thing that it does, it keeps me on my toes to work with young energetic upstart physicians who really know their stuff and are looking to expand their horizons and looking to grow and looking to develop, that's what energizes me about it. And so working within one of the teaching programs probably one of the family medicine programs, possibly the sports medicine program. I mean, that's my niche, that's what I do, that's one of the things that attracted me to Inspira is that opportunity and so I like it. Like I said, I've been doing residency education for over a decade and it's what I keep coming back to.

AMY:

Why did you choose sports medicine? What drove you there?

DR. REED:

It's interesting. I had been an athlete growing up, was always curious about how do you get back on the field faster? This population of patients, athletes of all ages, everyone is an athlete, that mindset, it's not about the physical, it's about that mindset, I want to get better, I want to do... The industrial athletes that I've taken care of through time have been some of my best patients-

AMY:

But what is an industrial athlete? Tell me about that, I don't know that term-

DR. REED:

It's the workforce. It's knee injuries, back injuries from heavy lifting from years of being in that kind of career. I was a construction worker growing up, my dad was a general contractor along with everything else and a lot of the people who work in construction, you see a lot of those things. And that was as important as the collegiate athletes. Now, mind you, one of the goals I developed early in my life was to be the head team physician at Division I University. And I did that, I got to be the head team position.

AMY:

Wait, wait, wait, don't just fly over that. What do you mean you got the... Where did you do that?

DR. REED:

I was the Head Team Physician at Delaware State University.

AMY:

Great.

DR. REED:

One of our historic land grant organizations historically black college and university. I've also been the team physician for Temple football. And so I've done all of that in my career and I have those things to take with me.

AMY:

So, I've already quizzed you a lot on the background. Tell me about what does a day in a life look like in Mullica Hill for the family?

DR. REED:

I have my wife and three boys, and we're a mixed family so it's hers, mine, and ours. They've all kind of grown up with each other together and so the three boys are great friends. My wife is a pharmaceutical researcher and really has embraced the farm life. She's the one that brought me back into it. And so we have three alpaca, we have seven goats, 10 chickens, lavender field, this is all her making and creation.

AMY:

Wow.

DR. REED:

Our sons, I have a junior in college, he's a nursing major, has a fiancé who's a nursing major and both have aspirations for staying in their community here.

AMY:

That's great.

DR. REED:

My middle son just finished his first year up at Pennsylvania College Technology, automotive mechanics with the goal of doing high performance and my youngest son is about to start high school.

AMY:

So that means you're checking eggs in the morning, all that stuff, right?

DR. REED:

It really does. I leave here in time to get home to feed the animals.

AMY:

There you go. Well, now you don't have the commute anymore, so that's even better.

DR. REED:

This is perfect, it's right in my backyard and I couldn't be happier with that.

AMY:

I would say that we are so very honored that you have joined our team, that we have a great vision together. Most importantly, it's about serving the community, and continuing to improve Inspira to live up to all the things that we know we can be and all the things the community needs us to be. So Tony, I welcome you and look forward to these conversations and celebrating all the great success ahead.

DR. REED:

Absolutely, thanks Amy.

AMY:

Thank you.