JOSEPH C. GERGER
Palos Heights
Summary
Highly accomplished nursing professional with expertise in developing and managing nursing leadership within hospital settings. Proven track record in establishing and implementing standards of nursing practice, driving quality improvement, and strategically planning for resource management. Skilled in coaching and mentoring nursing leaders, fostering a professional practice environment, and ensuring regulatory compliance. Strong leadership, communication, and financial management abilities.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Director, Care Coordination
Northwestern Medicine
Palos Heights
01.2024 - Current
- Lead the Care Coordination division inclusive of RN Case Managers, Social Workers, RN Utilization Managers and members of the Pastoral Care team.
- Oversee hospital case management operations for Northwestern Medicine – Palos.
- Responsible for Level of Care, Length of Stay, Observation Management and Clinical Denial Prevention performance.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives and case management revenue cycle strategies.
- Evidence-based Scholar/ Mentor
- Executive Sponsor of Professional Development Council
Associate Principal
VIZIENT INC.
Irving
01.2017 - 01.2024
- Spearheaded consulting within healthcare advisory practice, creating synergies across a network of healthcare organizations and hospitals to improve performance in clinical, financial, and operational management.
- Served as subject matter expert (SME) in clinical operations, including evidence-based practice, care management, quality improvement, hospital throughput, clinical utilization, physician variation, and length of stay measures.
- Supported, trained, and evaluated project teams.
- Managed 2-4 direct reports, ensuring attainment of sales targets.
- Lead multi-disciplinary projects, aligning sales efforts and identifying up-selling opportunities.
- Drove projects’ lifecycles, overseeing clinical work stream planning, project scheduling, budget management, and stakeholder reporting.
- Built commitment across healthcare client engagements, synthesizing and integrating divergent viewpoints and promoting inter-department synergies across the continuum of care and health disciplines that optimize patient care and service.
- Academic medical center (600-bed), West US: SME/Project Lead: Managed a team of 4 direct resources to conceptualize revenue cycle engagement strategies by defining the standard of care / benchmarking, identifying the appropriate provider model for deployment, and implementing care pathways.
- Collaborated with ancillary departments to ensure tests and treatments were of the highest priority to expedite patient care.
- Decreased length of stay for patients in observation by 12 hours, generating $700K in revenues.
- Triggered $1M in revenues by launching processes to manage triage, admissions, discharge, and patient flow.
- Overhauled and redesigned the denials and appeals process, creating $1.1M in incremental revenues and increasing transparency and accountability.
- Trauma center (500-bed), West US: SME/Project Lead: Restructured care management model and assisted with post-acute network planning to reduce length of stay.
- Benchmarked care coordination processes that improved collaboration among a multidisciplinary team and realized $1.19M in incremental revenue and a 0.25-day reduction in patient length of stay.
- Integrated a physician advisor role into the organization.
Regional Director Inpatient / Case Management Operations
TENET HEALTHCARE
Dallas
01.2015 - 01.2017
- Served in dual roles as Senior Specialist and Nurse Executive for the northeast region.
- Championed operations for case management and managed 9 directors in acute care hospitals in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston markets.
- Turned around and revitalized sluggish operations and directed inpatient throughput process improvement.
- Provided case management education focused on patient length of stay, administering projects that monitored the development and implementation of action plans.
- Integrated care coordination and multi-disciplinary huddles focused on patient progression of care, barriers to discharge, readmission risks, and other quality indicators.
- Standardized care guidelines for inpatient units to support the admission and discharge process.
- Facilitated kaizen events to reduce denials.
- Benchmarked case management and inpatient throughput best practices in the northeast region to achieve organizational goals through standardized processes.
- Sourced opportunities to bolster outcomes in patient care.
- Reduced Medicare excess days from 30% to 21%.
- Ushered ED throughput project that reduced “left without being seen” from 7% to under 1%.
Manager
DELOITTE
Chicago
01.2014 - 01.2015
- Served as practitioner within the provider consulting practice and work stream lead/ clinical subject matter expert for clinical labor and productivity engagement.
- Trained new hires for business systems analysis functions and nursing leadership training workshops.
- Triggered $19M in savings by redesigning core staffing patterns for 44 inpatient nursing cost centers.
Director
OPTUM
Eden Prairie
01.2012 - 01.2014
- Championed the strategic planning for 38 hospitals, 200 clinics and 7 home care agencies.
- Served as project manager and clinical SME for ICD-10 implementation.
- Directed the corporate clinical thought leadership group.
- Served as facilitator for Physician Champion Network.
- Directed interprofessional collaboration among nursing, medical, and health professionals to achieve client care outcomes and effective integration of care.
- Served as operations improvement competency lead and board member at the Center for Nursing Advancement.
- Held role as SAGE award nominating coach/committee member.
- Generated $1M in savings and $300K in premium billable hours by developing staffing models, productivity tracking tools, and by launching streamlined processes for scheduling clinical staff.
Director Consultant
MEDASSETS
Alpharetta
01.2010 - 01.2012
- Ushered a large-scale hospital transformation engagement and served as Clinical Service Line Lead for 6 hospital systems and integrated delivery networks (IDNs).
- Specialized in clinical margin management, spend management, and Medicare break-even strategy.
- Created clinical value analysis programs in healthcare systems.
- Secured $2.4M in annualized savings with clinical supply cost savings initiatives for a large multi-hospital network by establishing clinical pathways and protocols to improve clinical outcomes and decrease length of stay.
Education
Doctor of Nursing Practice -
Capella University
Minneapolis, MNMaster of Science - Healthcare Services Administration
St. Francis University
Joliet, ILBachelor of Science - Nursing
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, INBachelor of Science - Business Administration
Marquette University
Milwaukee, WISkills
- System-level Case Management
- Denials Prevention & Resolution
- Interdisciplinary Care Coordination
- Post-acute Care Planning & Coordination
- Managed Care
- Project Management
- Quality Improvement and Patient Outcomes
- Regulatory Compliance
- Strong Communication and Relationship-building
- Strategic Planning
- Patient Experience
- Cost per Case Analysis
- Variation Management
- Length of Stay Analytics & Trend Reports
- Metrics & Measurement Development
- Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Development
- Integrated Health Systems
- Business Development
- Healthcare Consulting
- Team Building
- Performance Optimization
- Training Facilitation
- Contract Management
- Qualitative Assessments
- College of Nursing Faculty
Affiliations
- Member, Sigma Theta Tau
- Evans Scholar Alumni, Western Golf Association
Certification
- Registered Professional Nurse, State of Illinois
- Nurse Executive NE-BC, ANCC
- Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality CPHQ, NAHQ
Early Career History
- Managing Consultant, Navigant Consulting LLC, Chicago, IL, 01/2009-12/2010
- Director of Nursing / Interim Chief Nurse Officer, Critical Care Services, Norwegian American Hospital, Chicago, IL, 01/2008-12/2009
- Healthcare Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Chicago, IL, 01/2004-12/2007
- Clinical Operations Manager, Advocate South Suburban Hospital, Chicago, IL, 01/2007-12/2008
Academic Roles
- Adjunct Professor, Aurora University, AU Online Healthcare Administration, 01/2024-present
- Adjunct Professor, Dominican University, MacNeil School of Nursing, 01/2021-present
- Preceptor for Clinical DNP Residency, University of Missouri, Sinclair College of Nursing, 01/2020
- Presenter, Capella University SONHS Practice Change Symposium, 01/2020
Timeline
Director, Care Coordination
Northwestern Medicine
01.2024 - Current
Associate Principal
VIZIENT INC.
01.2017 - 01.2024
Regional Director Inpatient / Case Management Operations
TENET HEALTHCARE
01.2015 - 01.2017
Manager
DELOITTE
01.2014 - 01.2015
Director
OPTUM
01.2012 - 01.2014
Director Consultant
MEDASSETS
01.2010 - 01.2012
Doctor of Nursing Practice -
Capella University
Master of Science - Healthcare Services Administration
St. Francis University
Bachelor of Science - Nursing
Valparaiso University
Bachelor of Science - Business Administration
Marquette University