View from the C-Suite: Rajesh Shrestha, Chief Operating Officer, Community-Based Care at Intermountain Healthcare
// By Lisa D. Ellis //
One of Intermountain Healthcare’s strategic initiatives supporting its move toward value-based care is a business unit focused on community-based care, led since April 2018 by Rajesh Shrestha. By moving care upstream and treating people when they are well, Intermountain hopes to reduce the need for more expensive treatments.
Rajesh Shrestha, vice president and chief operating officer, community-based care, Intermountain Healthcare
The leadership at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, Utah, has a vision: to make health care more affordable and accessible to all of the patients and communities it serves. Today, the organization is turning this concept into a reality — one patient and one day at a time — by stepping up its efforts in the value-based care arena, according to Rajesh Shrestha, vice president and chief operating officer of community-based care at Intermountain. Shrestha points out that while it’s a big risk to move from volume-based care to value-based care, it’s also an integral part of the organization’s approach to evolving with the marketplace.
Intermountain is well known for its innovation in care delivery and payment for medical care, and as such, its initiatives have garnered much attention in recent years. With 24 hospitals, 160 clinics, a medical group consisting of 2,300 employed physicians and advanced practice clinicians, and the formation of Intermountain’s own insurance company called SelectHealth, Shrestha points out that the health system is well positioned to take on the current challenges in delivering care. The organization’s leadership team is also not afraid to take risks in an effort to better meet current needs.