The Jefferson Health Administrative Fellowship: Victor Rubio

<p>hello everyone my name is Cole from the American Journal of healthc care strategy and I'm joined by a colleague with Jefferson health and administrative fellow Victor Victor please introduce yourself hi everyone thank you for having me Cole today uh my name is Victor ruio and I am currently the administrative fellow for Jefferson health located in New Jersey [Music] great we're so happy to have you on we love our New Jersey administrative fellows I've met with the I actually met all the fellas across the Enterprise here at Jefferson of course as many of our audience members know I work for Jefferson health plans and previously the health system and I think it's a great institution so whenever I get to meet with someone like yourself I'm very very excited to I want to go all the way back to when you got your mha it looks like you started off with that Bachelor's in health policy health Administration from Penn State here in Pennsylvania and then you went and got the mha in Florida what Drew you down to Florida yeah absolutely great question Cole it's it's been quite the journey um quite honestly and I say that just to be transparent with everyone else you know um I think when you're trying to take that roller coaster up to the top you you never really understand it right you don't know what's the next part going to be so I think that was it um initially we're I had graduated with my bachelor uh from Penn State you know in health policy and administration um I had a job opportunity down in the Tampa area um last minute unfortunately it fell through fell through and my mother who was living in in Central Florida area was was around there I felt like it was time for a fresh start you know and I wanted to essentially take my talents elsewhere so um that was my initial thoughts on why the move to Florida absolutely I uh I have been there myself uh once or twice it's nice when we have uh parents that live in an area where we can access that education so that that's good uh I'm glad that you were able to to get that mha because that seems like it kind of propelled you into the next area of your career how did you enjoy the mha program at uh University of Central Florida oh yeah those are my people out there um I definitely say it all the time the University of Central Florida has been great still great to me as well I try to keep in contact with some of my old professors um as well as some of the leadership that I had encountered throughout my time there um but throughout my specific education experience out there um I learned a lot which is what I wanted to do um I got myself involved I put myself in places where I didn't think I would be you know um essentially putting myself out there overall so it was a great experience when did you get your what year was that yeah 2023 spring okay and so before you had gotten into that then you also had experience with the Army as an administrative Health Care supervisor so I want to ask that three I mean I think you were with the Army for longer than three years but you were in that that supervisor position for about three years right right so uh I was in I was in the Army for about three years oh okay just fully in total correct so um what happened was moved down to Florida um and everyone telling me essentially hey you want to be a healthcare administrator you got to go back to school you got to get that graduate degree and uh I didn't find another way uh but to join the military specifically I always had a a bug or an itch to kind of you know serve my country ever since high school if you could ask any of my friends family members you know they they they were a little worried about me going in like like others have but once I hit that age and and figured I could essentially knock two birds out with one stone I decided to essentially make that journey into the United States Army where I ended up becoming an administrative Healthcare supervisor supporting um the Fort Jackson Clinic it's it's an awesome way to to serve the country and we appreciate you doing that and I think it it really gives you incredible skills we've talked to a few veterans before a few people from all different areas of you know either the VA or with the Army and so it's I think it's an excellent way to get that experience and I want to ask after that of course is when you did your mha what was the contrast like did the mha did you still learn a lot in your M was there a big difference because you already had some experience what was that like yeah no definitely it was needed I'll say that it it was definitely needed I appreciate it I feel like you know the Army definitely is helped me asab some um foundational skills into leading me into the dire the direction that I did want to go into but getting that education piece for it for me was just that bridge that I needed to connect um which moving forward has essentially magnified my passion and overall just contined to help me grow um into the trajectory that I want to so I like that you're you're phrasing it that way the you know kind of a bridge connecting that that's excellent and I want to ask you know if your your parents you said are from that Florida area right what was the reason that you came up to Penn State originally for undergrad yeah no absolutely I I got quite the background so uh my mother's from the Dominican Republic um from the Caribbean she came over to the United States as an immigrant uh basically needing some assistance because I was this close um to being born in the Caribbean myself but um there were some complications uh so luckily uh through a Visa as well she was able to come to the country and have me in the state of New York um so I was actually born in the Bronx where I lived there for about 10 years and then I moved to Massachusetts lived there for about two years and then I moved to Pennsylvania so I I originally it's tell everyone I'm from Hazelton Pennsylvania which is northeastern Pennsylvania area um and that's that's the decision uh to attend Penn State Penn State has about 26 Commonwealth campuses and Hazelton is one of the campuses where they were there and at the time didn't know much about school essentially besides the fact my mom wanted me to go to school my family wanted me to go to school I got to go to school right and then um I ended up having some some buddies who had some siblings and ended up uh putting Penn State on the map uh which further intrigued my interest and I ended up learning it it was a great University till this day I'm pen stator for life super glad about that absolutely it's an incredible school and I think for undergrad as well I've heard it's a really exciting experience to go there um so I want to ask you did your mha you already had some experience of course you did some work for Advent Health graduate intern administrative coordinator you had military experience as well three years so in total you know you had a good amount of experience coming out of your mha program what made you make that decision to go the fellowship route yeah absolutely um Cole I think humility is key um I I'm very you know goal oriented Mission driven I get that from my military experience as well quite honestly I wasn't where I wanted to be you know I I knew that there was more work to do in regards to gaining that experience and honing some of my leadership qualities that I could bring to the table or even get some of these uh not soft skills but some of these um you know harder skills that that you may come across you know to acquire so um a fellowship I felt like was the opportunity that I needed to solidify what it was for me to take the next step and I just wanted to continue to embed myself and and what it is to be an operational uh an operational leader but overall learner of the health system so I think that makes a lot of sense and I think the fellowship is probably one of the only uh and certainly the best ways of of really getting that you know allaround learning experience on how to be a leader and how those health systems work so I think that uh that was an excellent decision at the point and and that humility is so essential I agree that's thing that I try to work on all the time is learning from everyone uh you know always always looking to learn so that's great advice for our listeners I want to ask about the application process how many programs did you apply for and how did you end up applying for Jefferson yeah absolutely um so I applied to about four not too much actually yeah it's pretty pretty low yeah yeah once I started to get into the weeds of of the cost of some of these um fellowships throughout navc um it was getting quite up there um you know separately um I'm a father as well um and a husband so um my priorities have also you know kind of get split in half per se you know so um some of these application costs were just a little bit too much for me at the time so I decided to kind of mix and match there wherever I could um and try to apply to some that weren't so much on the navc website where I didn't have to submit that um that fee just to apply so which helped me out a lot in turn but um I ended up in in Jefferson because uh me being initially from the northeast Pennsylvania area my grandmother's still up there I have siblings in regards to cousins up there my cousins I'm an uncle to to much family all my family is up here and um to be fair I hope people don't get mad at me for this but I was done with the Florida heat I I was done with the Florida heat you know um I I found myself being inside more often than being outside and enjoying um that that sun but Jefferson is a great place continues to be a great place as well a lot of growth is what really initially brought me here to the New Jersey side as well when I was doing my research that's excellent and and how was that move with the family I mean I'm married but I don't have kids yet so was that an anxious time was that a challenging time having to move uh you know I moved from Charlotte to Philly not as far as from Florida to Philly so so how is that like still a Treck though Cole so I applaud you for that and I understand that but yeah uh I think I could say that I'm blessed to have a great support system um I'm able to call you know a buddy of mine who flew down helped me drive the truck because he's a trucker on the side um and it was a pretty big truck but I think whenever you're starting something new there's there's those definite you know beginning anxious anxiety feelings that come across with it but then also that excitement right you're starting something fresh you're starting something new this is a great opportunity that has been brought to your table for you and your family not only to just grow but develop into um a great leader potentially one day if you're not one already and how has your wife uh adapted is is she uh you know from the northeast or how is she handling this this new climate area she loves well I'll tell you this she's not from the Northeast she's actually from the Pacific she she's from the Marshall Islands oh wow nice um yeah yeah never heard of it until I met her respectfully um you know but she loves she loves the Northeast area she enjoys the Four Seasons as well too so um overall she's going to school here as well too so I think providing the opportunity to get out of Florida and um go to school for something that she likes has been great my wife uh is from upstate New York and and she moved down with me to Charlotte when I started school in Charlotte and she did not like the Heat and so uh similar to what you're saying so she was very happy that we got a little bit closer to Upstate New York so I appreciate that that's that's excellent it is you know it is interesting it is really about providing for your family you know to others our decisions don't always make sense uh you know but when when they realize that oh we have a family to support it makes a lot of sense like you said it's that half half of your responsibility is always going to go to that so I I really appreciate that and on that note I want to ask how has the fellowship been for somebody who has a family in terms of the work life balance with Jefferson yeah I think it's been I think it's been great you know um I think it starts with that support um at home beginning having these discussions and these conversations with your family that you know sometimes daddy may come home a little later um but nothing changes outside of that just because I'm home a little later doesn't mean that I'm gonna remove my time that I'm supposed to be spending with you um and allocate it elsewhere I'm still going to dedicate my time with you I just got to work harder on it because it's my role it's my responsibility of as who I am as a husband and as a father um but overall I also believe that Jefferson has also been very supportive in regards to that as well too so that I can say truly that's wonderful I I love that and and before you started working with Jefferson have you ever ever interacted with Jefferson before I mean you were from the Pennsylvania area but not necessarily right here in Philly so were you familiar with Jefferson or was it fairly new to you yeah so uh fairly new to me I was familiar because of the big name um Philly was a often um fun spot uh for many of us who don't have not much in um northeast Pennsylvania I think we have Scranton wisp area which is still kind of still out there uh per se but whenever we wanted to catch a basketball game or a a baseball game we we'd come down specifically to Philadelphia and and we'd understand it as well too but I knew more about Jefferson through their Specialty Services um Lehi Valley essentially services that area that's over there in the Northeast um but sometimes with some some complications that some family members may have they tend to look elsewhere and they tend to expand that radius of Health Systems to which they look at so that's how I initially became to to know about Jefferson Health that makes a lot of sense and now of course you have Al is you know merging with Jefferson so that's probably interesting as well because you might still know people you know in that area so that that's awesome uh what were your first you know well the fellowship of course is coming to a clothe for you it's it's been the almost the full year but what has the The Experience been like are there any projects that you've worked on that you're especially passionate about or that you've especially enjoyed yeah definitely great question Cole um I've gotten to know and understand that population health is really something that I enjoy um it's funny because I've always known it right but not until I actually Define what population health is is that I finally understood it and actually had my hands in several projects but right now we have um the the opportunity to establish a Subacute rehab Network for heart failure patients and bring some of those readmission percentages down um that's a specific population that needs our assistance and then two we also benefit from that by bringing our readmissions below what it needs to be you know helps us out it's a hand-in-hand relationship you know overall but um in tandum within that I have a surgical growth operational excellence project that I have uh been working on for six different service lines so that that was a pretty big a pretty big cookie to to to bite on but I've been glad to have the leadership and mentorship support um to learn how to navigate such a large project as well but uh increasing access to Radiology service has been fun as well too another Lane something that I didn't um know about or understand and um also restructuring our be Behavioral Health Unit um here in in the area too um New Jersey uh Cherry Hill is placed in uh a specific area where um it's essentially a service that's needed and everyone knows it's just not needed here in Cherry Hill it's needed everywhere else too absolutely those are all critical areas how did you get involved in population health and uh is that something that you're going to continue to work in or you hope to work in after your fellowship yeah one I'd love to work um and continue my work in population he absolutely um but I think it was voicing my interest in population Health but outside of that being partnered with an exceptional leader here who was leading the initiative and who was willing to just say hey you want to learn come on on you know come on board I'll take you on ask me whatever it is that you need to and we'll take you there and I just fell in love with the process and everything that he brought to the table oh what leader was that if you don't mind me asking yeah absolutely his name is Joel lisio okay awesome I I actually do not recognize that name so I'm G to have to look that up but yeah great guy that is great yeah I I worked with population Health as you know I was on Tony Arnold's team so under uh Tina and Rebecca Atkins over there at Enterprise and so I have a huge uh spot in my heart for uh population Health it's one of my favorite things so I I get where you're coming from and I'm I'm excited for that so uh I'm excited to see where you where you go as well after this are there any areas of population Health that you're you're especially passionate about working in I know you know one of the areas we were talking about was that radiology uh I you know in in New Jersey it's uh I think it's South Jersey Radiology or sjra that does most of the the Radiology in New Jersey and and Jefferson's been trying to expand their footprint out there but are there any areas that you're particularly passionate about working in in problems that you're passionate about solving for population Health yeah absolutely I think he had uh mentioned a little bit about that um in your initial response too so um one is just being able to service patients that have chronic diseases that uh essentially come to the table where they need assistance they need our help they're not able to facilitate their Care by themselves um I think that that's huge I think it just makes me feel like I'm doing something right I went um and I received my mesage in healthcare administration but I'm reminded constantly about now that I'm engaged in some of these population Health projects is this is providing meaning to me I am helping a patient here you know get the care that they need um we are helping them overcome a lot of these barriers and obstacles that they have come across um for however long because at the end of the day you always got to remember in healthcare the patient is number one and they will always be number one absolutely excellent uh you know career and experience that you've had and I love that that kind of mission you know that's driving you it's it's really wonderful and I want to leave off just by asking if there's any additional advice that you can recommend to individuals earlier in their career on how they can get to you know the point where you are where you've been so successful yeah absolutely Cole thank you and and I'll tell I'll tell everyone who's listening um what was told to me volunteer um for anything that you can in order to get that opportunity uh to enhance your skills more than likely you'll be getting more out of that than the person who essentially you'll you'll you'll be helping out from so I think when you're in a position to grow and I hope that didn't come off the wrong way but when you're in a position to grow um I think it's great for you to be able to volunteer and get that experience essentially for any that's being able to provide it especially when it's for a purpose such as furthering whatever it is that you need I don't think that came off wrong at all I think they came off excellent so really appreciate that advice and and I couldn't agree more I've heard you know similar things as well and I think combining you know that volunteering that saying yes with that humility you talked about earlier is excellent so thank you so much for coming on sharing your lunch hour with us really do appreciate it Cole thank you for your time and thank you for the opportunity I hope this isn't the last time we chat and I look forward to meeting you in person</p>