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The most important health care decisions don't happen

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in isolation.

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They happen when leaders come together.

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Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than

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3,500

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hospital and health system executives this April in

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Chicago.

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With 800 speakers from Ascension,

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Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit and more, the conversations get

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real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning

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for policy shifts, breaking through value based care

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barriers, and building clinical teams that translate

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare

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Podcast.

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I'm Mackenzie Bean, associate vice president and managing

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editor of Becker's Hospital Review.

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Today, I am so thrilled to be joined

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by Doctor. Eje Akumili,

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who is a chief medical officer of Jersey

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City Medical Center, a facility of RWJBarnabas

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Health, and a clinical associate professor of emergency

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medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

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Doctor Ekonili, thank you so much for being

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here today. How are you doing?

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Thank you for having me, Mackenzie. Excellent to

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be here. As you said, my name is

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EJ Ekonili. I am an emergency physician.

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I am also an obesity medicine

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chief medical officer at Jersey City Medical Center,

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which is a facility of RWJBarnabas

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Health, and also a clinical associate professor of

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emergency medicine at Rutgers

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New Jersey Medical School.

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I have, for the past several years, focused

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my career in clinical transformations

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and complex environments,

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such as Jersey City Medical Center, but really

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across The United States,

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bringing physicians,

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nurses, operations together to to improve quality, safety,

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and the patient experience.

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Jersey City Medical Center is a full spectrum

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medical care center in Hudson County. It's

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about a 340

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bed, very modern hospital,

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literally overlooking the Statue Of Liberty in the

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New York Harbor.

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It is a not for profit hospital.

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It is a level two trauma center with

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about 17,000

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admissions

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and 100,000

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emergency departments visits annually.

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We are a regional referral center for orthopedics,

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but also for advanced cardiac care.

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We're also teaching hospital with multiple residencies

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and fellowships, notably in obstetrics and gynecology,

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internal medicine,

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orthopedics,

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and most recently, fellowships in

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rheumatology, gastroenterology.

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We're very proud of our multiple,

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designations, most recently best maternity hospital by US

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News And World Report, but also a magnet

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designation

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for the fourth time.

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Little historical perspective.

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Jersey City Medical Center has been

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in existence since about 1882

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and has really been,

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an anchor

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community of Jersey City, which is one of

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the most diverse

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communities in The United States.

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We've provided the full spectrum of care, everything

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from women's health to advanced cardiac care,

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really for life saving

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procedures.

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We also have an award winning

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emergency medical service that,

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brings patients to us.

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We're very proud at the core of our

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mission is to build trust in our community.

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I personally believe that,

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especially in underserved communities, that

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healthcare systems build reliable systems of care. We

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invite people from the margins to join in,

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and in the end our North stars to

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extend healthy years of life.

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Yeah. That trust is just such a crucial

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building block for high quality health care.

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I'm curious. I'm talking to you in,

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late January.

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As you look back on 2025,

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what would you say is the most important

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initiative that you led? And can you tell

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us about some of the results that you've

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seen so far?

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Absolutely.

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2025,

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was, as for many people in health care,

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very interesting year.

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One of the most important initiative we led,

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I would think one of the most important

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initiatives anyone can lead in health care, was

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really working on our mortality

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and hospital acquired infections.

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We are now sort of top quartile,

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in terms of mortality

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among hospitals, our rank in the in in

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the country.

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We have our lowest rates of hospital acquired

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infections,

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and we did this by building

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a mortality and safety council.

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We've really strengthened our early deterioration pathways and

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diseases like sepsis,

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we have standard escalations,

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we have real time data and transparency.

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So those are some of the things we've

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done and like I said topped us out.

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The second thing we've done in 2025

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was really honing in on a women's health

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strategy.

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Reducing our number of c sections

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for first time moms,

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working with our nursing colleagues on healthy breastfeeding,

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access to a community,

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just general women's health initiative. And as I

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mentioned, and as we're very proud, one of

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the results was being designated a best in

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class maternity hospital by US News and World

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Report.

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But something else that we

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ask people, somebody who is committed to training

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the next generation of physicians, is that we've

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had a historic expansion

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in our graduate medical education.

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As I mentioned, we have many residencies

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here at Jersey City Medical

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Center. We have seen an unprecedented

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growth

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in those residences that we already have, like

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internal medicine,

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but also creating new,

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programs in rheumatology

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and gastroenterology.

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This is very important to us because we

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are now

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creating not just a new generation of doctors,

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but doctors that will statistically

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stay locally and take care of this population

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that needs the help and care in those

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sort of specialties.

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So we're really proud of all those things

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at Women's Health where we have an incredible

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new chair, Doctor. Todd Rosen, who continues to

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push the envelope not just in the care

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delivery but in the research, making us, something

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we're proud of, a research institution

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in our mortality and our hospital acquired infections

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and like I mentioned that historic expansion in

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our graduate medical education. And we continue to

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welcome medical students to this historic campus to

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take care of this community.

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That's so impressive. Some really significant gains in

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both mortality,

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HAIs, as you said,

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a lot of work in women's health, and

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then, of course,

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expanding and bolstering your your physician pipeline.

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How are you planning to build on this

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work, or what other big priorities are on

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your mind as you're entering 2026

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and, thinking about a lot of the headwinds

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that we're seeing across the industry right now?

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Sure. And even before I talk about 2026,

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one more foundational

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groundbreaking work we've done is really

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pushing the frontiers on innovation.

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So lots of talk out there about innovation

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in healthcare, but we, with a partnership with

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Scitec City, have really seen innovation

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as pivotal to access and equity.

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For example,

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launching BioBeat, which is a cuffless blood pressure

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monitor, which gives patients the ability

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to monitor their blood pressure at home,

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in the comfort of their own home,

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without much intervention, and this can now be

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sent to their cardiologist.

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If you think about cardiac disease and high

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blood pressure as prevalent in this community and

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a lot of it unrecognized,

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we finally started pushing the frontier of what

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current technology can help us do to take

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care of not just the patients in the

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hospital, but the care continuum of patients.

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So looking forward to 2026,

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our goal is to continue

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hardwiring reliability

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into care.

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Continue, as I mentioned, push innovation like we

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talked about,

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really,

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expanding

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things like BioViz, but really expanding that partnership.

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So picking up, for big priorities for 2026,

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the expansion of our surgical services

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will be key.

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In 2025,

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we launched our,

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the DaVinci robot series, which was groundbreaking for

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us. And we have expanded surgical volumes, but

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we will be, adding

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two new operating rooms again to provide access

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to a community. So that is important for

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us that we increase surgical access, increase surgical

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volumes, use the technology that we started in

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2025,

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get into,

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continue to improve surgical care.

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But also we'll continue to hone in on

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our very, very strong operating principles,

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working on our efficiencies and our length of

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stay. Those things that not just affect the

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bottom line, but the patient's experience of care.

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Experience of care in our hospitals is something

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that is quintessential to who we are, so

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we'll continue to push the envelope not just

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in that, but on the very fundamentals of

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the work we're doing. So it is surgical

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expansion,

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building of our two new ORs,

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and

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really focusing on making the fundamentals

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such as length of stay,

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patient experience, the trust and well-being that I

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come back to so often.

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All this, all this keeping equity as an

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access, not as good to haves, but as

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strong operating principles for us.

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Absolutely. I appreciate you laying out those priorities.

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And I know, you know, so many systems

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nationwide are really looking at

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access as as well as capacity as they're

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seeing increasing demands on the health care system.

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Are you able to elaborate or share any

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more details on,

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specifically what that looks like in practice for

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your hospital hospital in terms of, thinking through

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throughput and capacity,

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while, like you said, maintaining that trust in

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patient experience?

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Sure. We've had some changes in our marketplace

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with, an unprecedented

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increase in patient falling

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And having been around to take care of

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this community for over a hundred years, we

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will continue to do that. So as you

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mentioned, it is important that with this

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influx of patients, we continue to maintain

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the same level of care, the same quality,

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the same unprecedented

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increase, decrease in us in our infection rate.

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So the way to do it is to

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work on our efficiency.

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Two things. And, you know, efficiency is not

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just the bottom line as somebody who's spent

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their life thinking about throughput.

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Reducing the length of stay in the emergency

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room, for example, that makes it possible for

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people to come and be seen and go

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back home. We have a very robust,

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operating,

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system that goes across cross really cross disciplinary

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from

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our emergency room staff to our lab services

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to,

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really all the ancillary services that service our

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emergency room. On the inpatients, we have

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really an incredible interdisciplinary

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round system where every day we look at

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barriers

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to discharging patients from the hospital.

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But those barriers are complex, some of them

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are housing, some of them are just making

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sure that patients have safe discharge plans. But

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getting patients to their next site of care

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efficiently,

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compassionately,

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and so they can continue their lives. Because

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remember the goal of healthcare is to give

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people longer healthier lives

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and part of that is moving the continuum

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of of care along. So that's something that

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we're working on with very, very rigorous data

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transparency

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and,

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management.

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For seeking that greater efficiency, that makes a

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lot of sense.

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You know, a lot of what you're outlining

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is such important work. It's it's so rewarding,

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but it's also no easy task. I'm curious,

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what do you think is the hardest thing

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that you're gonna have to tackle over the

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next twelve months?

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So I think in the next twelve months,

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we're going to continue to lead through uncertainty

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and changes in the marketplace.

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So as I've

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probably alluded to, RWJBarnabas

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is

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the latest provider of health care to the,

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to the most vulnerable population in the state,

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twice more than in our nearest competitor.

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And while

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other health systems may sort of diverse from

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our populations,

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Jersey City Medical Center has expanded.

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We have but as you know, the very

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problems that plague,

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you know, The United States, the Auburn populations,

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are our patients' problems. And we know this

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factually

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and data driven because we have our community

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needs assessment. So whether it is the rise

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in

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chronic medical conditions, in obesity,

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the mental health dual epidemic that really started

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around COVID, the rise in homelessness,

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the inflationary

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pressures our families are feeling.

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All those things are part of the healthcare

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ecosystem

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because in the end, we want to make

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sure our patients are taken care of,

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not just in the in the hospital, but

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in the community.

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We've done many things, and we will continue

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to double down on our investment in our

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food pharmacy, for example, where we give food

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as prescription.

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Our community health workers have an incredible reach

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where they,

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connect with patients where they are and connect

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them to community resources.

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Our social workers are adept in really working

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with patients for a wide variety of circumstances.

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So

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it is both a thing of pride for

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us, but it is a challenge that we'll

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continue to walk through because in the end

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we're taking care of people and these are

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true concerns that continue to, be part of

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our world.

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Well, doctor Akunili, as you've been talking, I

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think it's just so clear how much

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passion and care you have for the work

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you're doing in the community you serve. So

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I just wanna thank you so much for

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your time and sharing some of your thoughts

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on on leadership, with our listeners today. It's

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been such a pleasure speaking with you.

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Thank you very much. Thank you for having

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me.