Key Takeaways
- Prioritize recruiting operations leaders from non-traditional sectors like retail and logistics, where transferable skills in urgency and data analysis can significantly reduce patient turnaround times.
In today’s healthcare landscape, operational excellence is no longer a back-office concern—it’s a frontline differentiator. As hospital systems navigate labor shortages, reimbursement pressures, and ever-increasing regulatory demands, the healthcare operations manager is emerging as one of the most crucial, misunderstood, and rewarding leadership roles in the industry.
In this week’s episode of The American Journal of Healthcare Strategy Podcast, I sat down with Justin Hernandez, Operations Manager for Quality Training and Development at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Justin brings a unique perspective: he leads Environmental Services (EVS), Linen, and Patient Transport at one of the largest academic hospitals in Philadelphia, managing over 300 staff across multiple campuses—all before finishing his bachelor’s degree. His journey from retail management to hospital leadership offers essential insights into the real-world skills, strategies, and mindset shifts that today’s executives and aspiring leaders need to thrive.
Whether you’re exploring a pivot into healthcare operations or sharpening your leadership edge, this conversation cuts through the jargon and shines a light on the nuts-and-bolts realities—and opportunities—of the field. Let’s break down why now is the time to consider a future in healthcare operations management.
Healthcare operations managers orchestrate the systems that keep hospitals running efficiently. They’re responsible for overseeing essential non-clinical departments—such as EVS, linen, and patient transport—ensuring safe, clean, and smoothly functioning environments for both patients and staff.
In Justin Hernandez’s words, the role is “overseeing about 300 staff members across two campuses…a large challenge, but one that draws on people management, data analysis, and long-term strategic planning.” Beyond the scope of any single clinical service, the operations manager focuses on:
Workforce management: Hiring, training, scheduling, and supporting large teams (sometimes unionized, often diverse).
Logistics: Coordinating the flow of supplies, equipment, and patients to minimize bottlenecks and maximize patient satisfaction.
Data-driven decision making: Tracking KPIs like room turnaround times or transport delays and responding with continuous process improvement.
Interdepartmental collaboration: Acting as the connective tissue between clinical, administrative, and support services.
Justin puts it simply: “The biggest thing we move is people, right? The biggest thing we kind of track is the turnaround time—how quickly we get a patient out of here. We make the best part of the hospital experience, which is leaving, as good an experience as we can for our patients.”
Bottom line: The healthcare operations manager’s impact is both invisible and indispensable—every discharge, every clean room, every timely transport reflects their work.
Many of the best healthcare operations leaders didn’t start in hospitals. Justin Hernandez, for example, spent 16 years in retail management before stepping into healthcare, and credits this experience with his success. “There’s a lot of translatable skills that really serve me well in my current role…people management, data analysis, sales—applying that over to healthcare, helping build your strategy and your long-term vision.”
Key transferable skills include:
Urgency and resilience: “Less-than-desirable hours in retail translate well into healthcare…and working with a great sense of urgency at all times.”
People leadership: Retail’s focus on customer service and employee engagement is directly applicable to leading frontline hospital teams.
Analytical thinking: Retail managers track sales data; operations managers monitor room turnover and patient satisfaction.
Adaptability: Comfort with change, ambiguity, and learning on the fly—essential in both industries.
The real-world result: When Justin’s team at Jefferson took over from an external vendor, they cut patient room turnaround time from 127 minutes to 68 minutes—a 46% improvement.
Direct answer: A background in industries like retail, hospitality, or logistics can be a surprising advantage in healthcare operations, as long as you’re willing to learn the clinical context and adapt your skills.
This question cuts to the heart of the “gatekeeping” debate in healthcare leadership. No, a bachelor’s degree is not always required to break into or advance within healthcare operations management—especially if you have frontline experience, certifications, and strong results.
Justin is living proof. “I don’t yet have a bachelor’s degree…I’m working on it. So many people say, ‘I can’t get into healthcare until I have a bachelor’s or a master’s,’ but you have your Green Belt certification, you don’t have your bachelors, but you’re working on it. How did you work your way up to this manager role? Did you show them, based on your performance, that you could handle it?”
His path:
Start at the ground level: Be willing to “step back” for long-term gain; learn the basics.
Deliver results and make them visible: “Produce high results, show that to the right people.”
Invest in yourself with certifications: Earning his Lean Six Sigma Green Belt set him apart.
Build relationships with mentors and leaders: More on this in the next section.
Justin sums it up: “It can be really uncomfortable…you gotta show that work you’re doing…make sure you’re highlighting yourself to hopefully get more of those opportunities.”
For non-traditional candidates: Performance, certifications, and networking can substitute for formal credentials, at least in operational leadership.
Mentorship isn’t just for those in MHA programs or on “traditional” tracks. In fact, the best mentors may be only one email—or one awkward lunch invite—away.
Justin describes his relationship with Joe Anton, Senior VP of Operations at Jefferson: “Joe is a guy you could take at his word. He would always say, ‘Reach out to me, let me know what you’re working on.’…Once a quarter I’d go down to his office at Methodist, and we’d do lunch, and just talk through a myriad of things.”
How to build these relationships:
Take the initiative: Reach out with a specific question or ask for advice.
Set a recurring touchpoint: Quarterly lunches or coffee chats build a real relationship.
Be open about your goals and challenges: Authenticity builds trust.
Reciprocate: Share your progress and express gratitude.
“There are people that are going to be willing to invest in you, but you have to show that you’re ready to invest in yourself and put the work in.”
Key takeaway: Don’t wait for a formal mentorship program—just ask. And remember, today’s conference acquaintance may be tomorrow’s COO.
Healthcare operations managers inherit broken systems, messy data, and high expectations. Justin’s initial hurdles were familiar to anyone in hospital support services:
Lack of historical data
Antiquated systems
Siloed departments with competing priorities
His solution? “One of the things that we did was…use the resources, leverage what we have from within the department…get multidisciplinary committees in place, reaching out to your nursing leadership and your other clinical stakeholders, getting into a room and really meeting.”
Actionable strategies include:
Build multidisciplinary teams: Identify “the right people to help you solve those problems…people invested in it themselves.”
Start fast, learn fast: “A lot of the time in healthcare, we can have paralysis by analysis. Sometimes the key is you just have to start fast, make your mistake quick, learn, and then adjust.”
Embrace feedback: “The organizations that reported more issues were more successful over the long term than the ones who glossed over them.”
Share your wins—and your setbacks: Communicate results across departments to reinforce shared goals and learning.
In summary: You don’t wait for the perfect data or system—you build it, collaborating across silos and using early mistakes as the foundation for future wins.
Effective operations leaders strike a balance between pushing for results and listening deeply to stakeholders. Justin is candid about the learning curve: “Let me be the first one to tell you—there have definitely been times where I have come on too strong.”
Best practices for operational leadership:
Make time to listen: “The best leaders listen, understand the challenges from others’ points of view.”
Encourage honest reporting: “The organizations that reported more issues were more successful over the long term.”
Build trust: Develop a track record so that feedback and strong direction are seen as helpful, not punitive.
Get comfortable with tough conversations: “You’ve got to be willing to have the tough skin, be willing to hear some feedback about yourself that may be true.”
The art is in knowing when to push and when to pause. As Justin notes, “If you have the kind of relationship and the kind of track record with your team that they can listen to you and not take it as a point of offense…that’s where you’re going to be really, really successful.”
To advance from supervisor to manager to director and beyond, you must make your impact visible. Justin emphasizes:
Regular check-ins with supervisors: “You’ve got to be able to really speak through the changes and how you got there and how you’re going to sustain those things.”
Be relentless about getting face time: Even if you have to reschedule, make it happen.
Share results with other departments: Leadership meetings, email recaps, and data dashboards ensure credit is given and learning is spread.
Stay active on LinkedIn: “There’s a huge community out there looking to share experiences with like-minded individuals.”
Be of service: Focus on contributing, not just self-promotion.
For Justin, leveraging multi-disciplinary committees not only solved operational issues but also gave him a platform to highlight his contributions across the organization—a best practice for any aspiring leader.
Healthcare operations management isn’t just about logistics; it’s about making patient care possible. Justin sums up the mission: “Ultimately, the first thing you want to know when you go into the hospital is: when can I leave? We make the best part of the hospital experience, which is leaving, as good an experience as we can for our patients.”
With labor costs rising and patient expectations growing, U.S. hospitals are relying more than ever on operations managers who can:
Optimize throughput and reduce length of stay
Improve patient satisfaction and safety
Lead change across clinical and non-clinical teams
Bridge the gap between strategy and execution
And as Justin’s career shows, the best candidates don’t always fit the standard mold—they build their own track record, cultivate networks, and solve problems others overlook.
The path into healthcare operations management is open wider than most believe. You don’t need a healthcare pedigree or a perfect resume. You need grit, adaptability, and a willingness to lead from the ground up.
As Justin Hernandez’s journey at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital illustrates, “You’ve got to show that you’re ready to invest in yourself and put the work in—so that others can meet you halfway.” Whether you’re a frontline worker with an eye on advancement or a seasoned executive searching for new impact, the operations manager’s toolkit—rooted in service, data, and relentless curiosity—remains one of the industry’s most valuable and undervalued levers.
Actionable insight: If you want to break into healthcare leadership, start by solving the problems others ignore. Build relationships, document your wins, and be “relentless in your role.” The systems you help create—and the people you support—will tell the real story of your leadership.
<p>hello everyone this is Cole from the American Journal of healthc care strategy and I'm joined today by Justin Hernandez a good uh friend and colleague of mine a mentor and a fellow Jeffersonian Justin please introduce yourself I think that you're you're too kind with your introduction Co thank you uh I'm Justin Hernandez uh operations manager uh for Quality training and development over Thomas Jefferson University Hospital uh as well as some oversight over Jefferson Methodist uh down in uh South Philly overseeing the EVS linen and patient transport department at a very large hospital or too very large I guess now so that's exciting and you got a different start than most people did in the hospital field and you also have a unique role in operations that some of our graduates haven't considered yet and that's why we wanted to bring you on so can you tell us about where you started your career sure so basically before uh my healthcare career I was in retail management progr about 16 years almost uh at various levels of various organizations uh using around New Jersey New York and then later on here in Willow Gro Pennsylvania as you kind of noted it's a different career path but really as I've made this transition I think there's a lot of translatable skills that really serve me well in my current role right now I'm overseeing about 300 staff members across two campuses which is in itself is is a large challenge but you do use about that amount of people in my last role who gave me a great exposure to the people management side as well as really some some skills in data analysis right sales things like that applying that over to what we do in healthcare and using that to help build your strategy and your long-term vision and structure out your plan moving forward not to mention less than desirable hours which translate well into Healthcare uh and working with a great sense of urgency at all times which I think has paid dividends for me because in your position in healthare that's one of the essential things is that things have to be clean they have to get moving there's a lot of physical materials I know that you're moving around all the time whether that's chemicals or whether that's the actual Linens itself I'm sure that that's urgent because if a room isn't clean or if they don't have the correct Linens the hospital would essentially stop functioning absolutely and things you don't even think about like for example sterile baby packs the biggest thing we move is people right the biggest thing we kind of track is the turnaround time how quickly get a patient out of here the way we like to think about it is we make the best part of the hospital experience which is leaving as good an experience as we can for our patients ultimately the first thing you want to know when you go into the hospitals is when can I leave right when can I get out of here so we've had some great successes I think when we came in four years ago we took over from an external vendor we dropped that turn time from it was 127 minutes uh an average turn time would take down to about 68 minutes now which is the best time we've had so it's been quite a turnaround I think what's interesting about your resume as well is that you don't yet have a bachelor's degree right yeah I'm working on it and that's incredible because so many people say oh I can't get into Healthcare until I have a bachelor's or a master's and you know they struggle with this but you have your Green Belt certification you don't have your Bachelors but you're working on it how did you work your way up to this manager role did you like show them based on your performance that you could handle it no look I think you make point it's a blend of things right really first getting your ground level and I think uh a great thing for me was I was in a good enough space in my life where I could take a step back to really benefit long term which is kind of how I looked at it got myself in the door and really started thinking about okay how do I produce High results how do I show that and how do I show that to the right people I've been extraordinarily fortunate to work with some great mentors during my time he people like Joe Anon who's our SVP of operations like Dr Ricardo Perez over in Jersey people that really have helped me kind of say all right you know let's find tune this plan and really get you looking at the right things and I think the biggest piece of advice I would give everyone is it can be really really uncomfortable and even a little bit cringey but at times you got to show that work that you're doing and I think that's tough right taking that time to self-promote is is definitely really really intimidating but I think you gotta be really proud of your work got to be really proud of your team and you got to make sure that you're highlighting yourself to hopefully get some more of those opportunities and ultimately give the best possible experience to patient and that should be the scope where you filter everything through absolutely and great advice as well for people who are coming from different careers that sometimes it's a bit awkward and a bit weird in the healthcare field with the networking but you you learn those skills I want to know you know Joe Anton he's amazing he's leading the fellowship program at Jefferson he he's just an incred leader how did you end up running into him developing that Mentor relationship how did you formulate that yeah look I I think the great thing with Joe is he's a guy you could take out his word and he would always say right from the very beginning hey reach out to me let me know what you're working on and I think a lot of times you kind of look at it like that's the token kind of like he's got to say that to me but with him it's it's legit right I could tell you that so I reached out to Joe when I was a shift manager before I've been promoted and basically said Hey Joe if you're available i' would love to kind of pick your brain and set up some kind of times to talk about what I'm going through you know school what programs I should be looking at and we kind of set up quarterly lunches so once a quarter I would go down to where he was at Methodist at the time was was his primary office and we would do lunch and we just kind of talk through a myriad of things I've been working a lot closer with Joe over the past I think seven eight months and he's just been a great resource you know one of those guys available at all times no matter what it is really to kind of help us guide to to the right things and you know through periods of transition uh he's just been kind of a stal work which is is what you need but I think you got to be willing to like the first move right that's the biggest thing I think there are people that are going to be willing to invest in you but you got to show that you're ready to invest you yourself and you're ready to put the work in so that they can kind of meet you halfway ab and that that is an incredible experience because so many people are are like wondering like how do I get these mentors you know I didn't I'm not in an mha program or I'm not in degree program yet I want to know which one to do and you know like yourself you have this experience in one industry that's really great but then like how do you get these Connections in this new industry and so you just reached out to somebody it kind of took a leap of faith you know because it's always like I always worry about getting told no I think another great story is kind of what you talked about before is that networking piece Chris Cullum who's who's been all also tremendously helpful for me made sure that he's made himself available and that time to meet it's funny I met him last year when he was working for Trinity at a conference and C him met chatted him up little that I know six months later he'd be the COO and now we have a kind of direct line relationship so you never know when kind of people who may not be in your orbit now they kind of circle around and come back to you so you just got to treat everybody I think with respect you never know where they're gonna end up where you're gonna end up I was talking to someone who's getting their cphq which is like a certificate of patient quality and safety or something they were like oh you should go and talk to to this guy named Corey because he is in Tech and so he's the vice president of Medicare Stars so I met with him yeah six months later this other person was hiring for a role so I was like oh should I apply to this I'm like yeah you should apply and then little did I know that Corey was one of the hiring managers absolutely and so now I work under Corey for a few months now it's a small world like there's not that many people involved in healthcare even in such a large city like this no you're 100% right and it's a small community I think there's so much experience out there you have to look at it like it's another resource a lot of time what you need is a founding board and people that you can reach out to that have had a similar experience so those things prove invaluable and the more of them they have just the better off you're gonna be absolutely so what are some of those problems that you faced the technical problems that you faced and then what are some strategies that you implemented to overcome them that you can share with other administrators so that they can improve their systems and their institutions yeah I think the biggest thing when first started was sort of lack of historical data and sort of antiquated systems right there was a big part I think in support services and I'm sure across other disciplines where we really want to be data driven we really want to be analytical but those systems have to start somewhere right and sometimes you're the one who kind of gets that ball rolling I think one of the things that we did was I'll say okay look we need this what is it take for us to kind of use the resources leverage what we have from within the department to get those things whether that be you know just getting the uh multi-disciplinary committees in place reaching out to your nursing leadership and your other clinical stakeholders and then getting into a room and really meeting I know that was hugely challenging for a while with Co where we were only doing zoom and we were only kind of trying to put out fires but I think that's been a key thing for me is those multi-disciplinary committees identifying the right people to help you solve those problems they should usually be people that are invested in it themselves and have a passion for and that are going to really drive those results because again there's so many things that everybody is working on at a time right so you really need to get to see Okay Okay this may be a priority for me may not necessarily be for another another person and good that's not wrong right I think that a lot of times we kind of tend to take these things more personally as like well if I'm focused on turn time you should be focused on turn time meanwhile if it's somebody who's over in the critical they may be saying hey look I my my number one priority is keeping this person alive right they ain't wrong right right so how do we work together um and I think we made tremendous strides over the past kind of four years to get ourselves there and they'll continue I think hey identify where you're at to identify who need to help you get to where you need to go put the disciplinary Committee in place then track and Trend and kind of make adjustments as you go understand that it usually always takes longer than what you think it's going to take because you start so you start off with you know an outside contractor you won't name names who it was and so I'm assuming they didn't have data when you had started because it was an external contractor so you had to kind of build it from the ground up exactly we had a very sort of broad Benchmark of like this is where we're at you know you kind of have your turn time from what you have and click um some data from press gainy uh but the biggest thing really that I I think that happened is you yourself are providing context through the process right they're not there to give it to you but you're kind of finding out okay this is where that kind of maybe went wrong this is where we need to adjust and I guess those are the growing pains right it is invaluable it's good to take a few scrapes and kind of learn and adjust it I think that a lot of the time we sort of in healthcare can have these sort of paralysis by analysis where you're thinking so hard of like I need to make sure that this hits exactly how I want to the first time and we can be done with it when sometimes the key is you just got to start fast right start fast make your mistake quick learn and then adjust it's that reason why so many CEOs when they get fired or they have a downturn they get hired so quickly after one of the answers we got and it's actually been I think it's on LinkedIn as well it's a common anecdote is that they have made the mistakes and learn they know what not to do yeah Absolut they get hired quickly because they know what not to do how did you what did you do to to formulate the interdisciplinary team and to bring those ideas up how did you know who to go to about that and also how did you manage pushing what needed to be done but also not steamrolling or seeming overbearing because that can be a tough skill for you know I've struggled with that as well someone as I come off too strong no look well look I let let meone be the first one to tell you there have definitely been times where I have come on too strong I'm sure I think it's really important when you do have those committees right that you make time to listen right I think the best leaders listen understand what the challenges are in their point of view what challenges are you having and I think it's good to have the ston reporting more often I think a lot of the time we tend to see well how does this present right how does this sort of what's the narrative here what I think sometimes the The Narrative needs to be just hey we worked really hard to identify these challenges now we need to solve them right um one of the most interesting findings was that the the organizations that reported more issues were more successful over the long terms of the ones who kind of glossed over them or you know I think we've all seen sometimes you paint them into a narrative that is probably more favorable to you than others um but that's not what this is about right it's about getting real that really affect people um and building those teams that are going to be giving you sustainable results over the long term so I think be open honest listen right and there's still going to be times where coming onong is probably needed right because you got to be there's always someone or a catalyst or some external sort of force that is the driver is the reason why these things are happening in the first place and I think you got to respect that but if you have the kind of relationship and the kind of track record with your team that they can listen to you and not take it as a point of offense I think that's where you're going to be really really successful and for you as a leader or for anyone that's growing into a leader I think you got to be willing to have the tough skin maybe be willing to hear simp Dak kind of about yourself that you know it may be true so you got you got to take that time that's one area that I've struggled with and I'm I'm working with my you know executive coach on that is how do we receive feedback and give feedback in a better way because I am not good at that and so we're trying to work to to overcome that and it it's essential because like you're saying you know the organizations who report more problems they actually handle them rather than just glossing over them so that that feedback is so important and you've been very success uccessful we talked beforehand about all the successes that you've had what I want to know is from Shi shift supervisor to the operations manager and then you know you're looking at the future role I think is a director role right that's going to be the next step how are you marketing yourself how are you showcasing the things that you've implemented what does that look like for you sure look I think number one thing is make sure that you are having regular check-in with whoever your direct line supervisor manager whatever the case is right you got to be able to really speak through the changes and how you got there and how you're going to sustain those things but sometimes you got to make sure that you are kind of Relentless in your role in terms of hey I got to get this time in even if that means rescheduling but you got to get the timeing so that's number one and I think another big piece of it is again through those multi-disciplinary committees right it's very there's so many departments in healthcare so many things it's great that you know we kind of know what we're working on we know our successes but I think what we're working on really as Jefferson as a whole and I think I I've seen a lot of growth over this especially recently is sharing results with other departments right we talk about multi-disciplinary groups there's usually uh regular leadership meetings where we kind of share results which have been tremendously helpful and both understanding hey these are the challenges but also understanding hey look these guys made a hell of a lot of pro you know progress over a short amount of time or a long term kind of projects that have been going on so I think you got to do those things and I think things that you're you're doing now right LinkedIn being very active there's a huge community of people out there that are looking to share experiences with like-minded individuals right I think right now right you know if if I wouldn't have had this relationship with you right we wouldn't be sitting here talking about stuff like this now right I think what you guys are doing with your organization is tremendous because there's not a there's not a lot of avenues to share that right I think on the clinical side there's a lot more of that when you to go talk about a more administrative role operational role not as many so when you do see those reach out make sure that you know you have something to contribute and I think be a person that is g to be of service right it's not always about getting something out of there it's about offering kind of what you have hopefully for the betterment of somebody else so try and go into the mindset of how can I be of service to somebody else absolutely excellent advice Justin and and thank you so much for joining us I hope that you'll be willing to come back on in a couple weeks for another discussion abely I think that you would be probably an excellent candidate to write an article for the Journal of Healthcare Management from the AC because I know that they do um some investigative uh work on process Improvement that would probably be very beneficial no I appreciate uh all your time again guys are doing fantastic work I can't wait to see where you guys continue to grow too and you know it's going to be an exciting time for you so really you know all the best to to you all</p>
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