UnityPoint Health says goodbye to a longtime leader

UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids President and CEO Ted Townsend, pictured at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital. CREDIT UNITYPOINT

 

By Katharine Carlon
katharine@corridorbusiness.com

Ted Townsend, who recently retired as president and CEO of UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids after a 16-year tenure, views his departure with a mix of relief “that I haven’t broken anything too big” and sadness “because I have loved what I do.”

But one thing Mr. Townsend has no mixed feelings about is the ability of his successor, Michelle Niermann, to fill his shoes.

Ms. Niermann, who began her 24-year career at the hospital as an administrative fellow – “basically, a glorified intern,” she joked – will become the first-ever woman presi­dent at the 134-year-old institution, over­seeing St. Luke’s Hospital, 33 clinics and more than 4,000 employees.

“I tell everybody, she’s smarter than me, she’s tougher than me and she actu­ally knows how this place works,” said Mr. Townsend, who officially turned over the reins Dec. 31. “She’s been here longer than I have and is just one of those talented young people who have grown up in their professional career all in one organization, which I think is extraordinary.”

Ms. Niermann joined St. Luke’s fresh out of the University of Iowa’s Hospital and Health Administration graduate pro­gram, rising quickly up the ranks from di­rector of planning to senior vice president and COO, a title she’s held since 2013. She has also served as the hospital’s executive director, vice president of operations and vice president of operational effectiveness, tasked with building a culture the organi­zation still takes pride in.

“I’ve loved this place since the day I walked in – obviously, because I never left,” said Ms. Niermann, whose priorities will include increasing value to patients, taking a more holistic approach to health care delivery and shoring up the institu­tion’s financial health. “How lucky can you be to work at an organization that is mission-focused, where there are so many needs you’re in a position to address? It’s just an incredible thing to be a part of.”

Mr. Townsend praised Ms. Niermann for taking on many of the hospital’s “tough­est assignments over the years,” including stepping into the vacant CEO role at Ana­mosa Community Hospital – now Jones Regional Medical Center – soon after arriv­ing, getting its governing board functioning optimally, working on major elements of UnityPoint’s integrated model and being a key player in transition challenges.

“She was here when we had difficult ser­vice line assignments, where we were just trying to figure out what’s the right answer, whether it was managing the heart program or operating rooms or behavioral health,” he said. “And probably the biggest chal­lenge, I think, was when we were forming UnityPoint Clinic, which required us to go out to roughly 100 providers and get them to all abrogate their existing contract with us and sign a new contract with an organiza­tion they’d never heard of before. And she got everyone to do that.”

A bittersweet goodbye
Much like Ms. Niermann, who original­ly planned to complete her fellowship and move on, never dreaming of leading the institution, Mr. Townsend’s 39-year health care career had an unconventional beginning: He started his working life as a high school English teacher.

“People ask me, ‘How did you get to be a hospital CEO if you were a high school teacher?’” Mr. Townsend said. “And my answer, of course, is I joined a theater.”

While performing with a troupe, a friend and fellow actor alerted him to a job running internal communications for Northern Michigan Hospital. Although he took that job in hopes of writing the great American novel in his spare time, telling the hospital’s stories piqued his in­terest and changed his fortune.

“As I tell my kids, you need a plan,” he said. “And then you need to be prepared for that not to work and go from there.”

In 1985, Mr. Townsend took a job as vice president of public affairs at Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, where he spent 17 years holding numerous leader­ship roles. The integrated health care sys­tem with hundreds of doctors and its own insurance company was an unusual mod­el in its time, one he called “transforma­tive.” During his tenure, he worked on the physician, hospital and insurance sides, as well as in mergers and acquisitions.

It was one ultimately unsuccessful merger – an academic medical center launched with Penn State University for which he served as chief operating officer – that led him to an opening at what was then St. Luke’s.

“I found the opportunity here, and the rest of it is history, as they say.”

Over what Mr. Townsend called a “fascinating” 16 years in Cedar Rapids, UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids grew to its present size, which includes 194 health care providers, the UnityPoint Clinic network, Jones Regional, AbbeHealth, MedLab and Living Centers East and West.

“The fact that I survived 16 and a half years when the average tenure for CEOs is something like three or four years has been a great gift to me,” he said, adding that St. Luke’s “leadership model,” which took advantage of economies of scale while offering autonomy at the local level, was what attracted him to the job – and remains the basis of its model today.

Under his leadership, the hospital has earned numerous honors, including seven appearances on IBM Watson’s Top 100 Hospitals list, five rankings as one of the 100 Great Hospitals in America by Becker’s Hospital Review and two Magnet recognitions by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, considered the “gold standard” for excellence in nursing.

Other career highlights included an effort to make relationships with providers more equitable, the establishment of the Helen G. Nassif Community Cancer Center and St. Luke’s Nassif Radiation Center, and leading the creation of Cedar Rapids’ MedQuarter district, which he called “an opportunity to not just lift us up, but to lift up the whole community.”

Another leadership moment came during the 2008 flood, Mr. Townsend said, as St. Luke’s offered unconditional assistance in the swift reopening of Mercy Medical Center.

“It was just a phenomenal effort to make sure that every health care need of the community was met,” he said. “And great cooperation. I mean, Mercy was closed and evacuated. We took a bunch of their patients, but they then lent us their staff. It was in some respects both the low point and the high point of our time here in Cedar Rapids.”

Looking back, Mr. Townsend lamented a few missed opportunities, including an unsuccessful attempt to collaborate on a single community cancer center and calling off a proposed merger with Mercy Iowa City last year.

“But I’ve been fortunate to have very few disappointments,” he said, adding that if he had one piece of advice for his successor it would be, “Trust yourself and have fun. It’s tough when you’re in that job to know whether you’re doing the right thing. In fact, you never really know.”

A new chapter
Even as employees express sadness at Mr. Townsend’s departure, the excitement about Ms. Niermann’s imminent arrival atop the organization is palpable.

“A lot of the ladies look up to Michelle and behind her back, we’re all saying ‘You go girl,’” said Laura Rainey, regional marketing director. “She is just so highly respected by everyone.”

UnityPoint staff point to Ms. Niermann’s long experience, relationships in the community and leadership ability as reasons for optimism. But for many, her status as the hospital’s first female leader since its 1884 founding makes it especially meaningful.

“The interesting thing about health care is the workforce is 85 percent women,” said Ms. Niermann, who was quick to point out UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids has had two female board chairs, while she is the fifth woman CEO in the greater UnityPoint system. “To be part of a team that has so many women leaders and to now be part of that leadership – that is meaningful. It’s not something I think about every moment, but women do tend to be more collaborative and take a different approach to reaching decisions.”

Ms. Niermann, who resides in North Liberty with her husband and two children, said her vision for the future can be summed up in two words: “Forward movement.” Whether that means finding new ways to add value to the patient experience, focusing on wellness and prevention, or controlling costs while improving quality, “the big picture vision continues.”

Growing the primary care side will be one focus area, she said, not only “because these are the first folks people see and develop a relationship with that can be lifelong,” but because it will allow the health system to expand its specialized services while taking advantage of the talent and resources in the area. Ms. Niermann said she was committed to increasing practitioner availability and staying vigilant to ensure UnityPoint continues to offer the full spectrum of care.

Another priority will be boosting the organization’s overall financial health. Despite being a nonprofit, “that has never meant we don’t want to generate a profit and then reinvest,” she said, citing a long list of places to do just that, including renovations, new service lines, technology, and improved surgery, heart and cancer care. She pointed to downward pressure on reimbursements and the state’s decision to turn Medicaid over to a revolving cast of managed care organizations as continuing challenges UnityPoint will be grappling with as it seeks to both grow and provide quality care.

“That means doing things more efficiently, doing more with less. … Occasionally it’s about what we deliver and rethinking some of those things,” she said.

Like Mr. Townsend, Ms. Niermann said her leadership style would be “aspirational.”

“We want people to do a good job but think about how to do a better job the next day,” she said. “We want to give people room – the backing and the skillsets – to do their best work. Nothing makes us happier than seeing people surprise themselves with their successes.”