Inspira Health’s new CEO Amy Mansue takes on pandemic challenges, embraces opportunities

Amy Mansue just completed her first month as Inspira Health Network’s new CEO, and, not surprisingly, she has spent a lot of time dealing with Covid-19.

The pandemic, Mansue said, has created challenges as well as opportunities for the three-hospital South Jersey health system.

“Everybody is saying this has been the worst thing they’ve ever gone through in their careers,” she said, “but it also brought people together and created a framework for how we keep up a high level of transparency and connectiveness.

“The challenge, of course, is providing reassurance to patients that it’s safe to come into the hospital again,” Mansue said, noting Inspira hospitals have resumed elective procedures and non-emergency surgeries that were put on hold for several months to preserve capacity for Covid-19 patients.

Inspira, which pre-coronavirus had budgeted 2020 revenue at $880 million, now expects revenue to be down nearly $90 million to $793.6 million this year because of the pandemic.

Mansue said emergency room visits at Inspira are down 12%.

“Other health systems are seeing more [of a drop],” she said. “The emergency room is really the front door for a lot of the care we provide.”

Inspira has received $62.3 million in CARES Act funding. “The CARES funding has been a critical piece to help us through this, but it doesn’t cover everything,” Mansue said. “We’ve been able to find efficiencies and we will find more. … Making up for the months we closed [for elective procedures] will be a long process. I was just meeting with the board and we expect it will be a two-year recovery process.”

In the early days of the pandemic, the New Jersey Department of Health was working with Inspira on the possibility of reopening its Woodbury Hospital to handle any overflow if state hospitals reached full capacity caring for Covid-19 patients.

Inspira Woodbury closed late last year after the health system opened its new $365 million medical centers in Mullica Hill.

Mansue said the state recently informed Inspira the Woodbury hospital beds are no longer needed — even in the event of a second Covid-19 surge. That freed the health system to resume discussions with Gloucester County officials about the best future use for the campus. Mansue said Inspira is in the process of moving back its behavioral health services that were temporarily moved to its Vineland hospital in case Woodbury needed to reopen.

Inspira also continues to expand its outpatient care network amid the pandemic. It opened the $6.3 million, 19,000-square-foot primary care and rehab services center in Sicklerville, Camden County, at the end of July and expects to open another health center in Woolwich Township, Gloucester County, later this year. The health system last month opened retail pharmacies at its Mullica Hill and Vineland campuses in an effort to reduce hospital readmissions.

Inspira has turned to social media to give patients information on how Inspira has created a safe environment at its hospitals with screening, sanitizing, masks and social distancing. The health system has created a video to show people the changes they’ve made. “We want to show them what the hospitals look like and what they should expect when they come for care,” Mansue said.

Inspira, like other health care providers, has also expanded its uses of telehealth services across all its specialties during the pandemic. From January to mid-March, the system had 185 telehealth visits. From mid-March through September, the number climbed to more than 66,000 telehealth visits.

“Connecting [with patients] at home is something people have talked about for a long time,” Mansue said. “At first there was skepticism from patients and doctors that it would work. … Now, when the dust settles, I expect 25% of our primary care visits will be done with telehealth.”

In addition to its three hospitals, Inspira, which has more than 6,000 employees and 1,200 physicians, also operates a two comprehensive cancer centers and a network of more than 150 physician offices and specialty health, urgent care and other care centers throughout South Jersey.

Mansue, previously executive vice president and chief experience officer of the North Jersey health system RWJBarnabas, was named Inspira’s new president and CEO in July and officially started on Sept. 1. She succeeded Inspira’s longtime leader, John DiAngelo, who announced his intention to retire in January following a 20-year tenure with the organization.

Asked if her first time in the CEO role has been what she expected, Mansue said, “It’s better than expected. I just can’t thank people enough for the warmth they have extended to me.”

That goes beyond the health system’s staff and physicians. Mansue, wanting to eliminate the 90-minute commute she faced every day while at RWJBarnabas, bought a house in Mullica Hill near Inspira’s corporate headquarters.

“One of my neighbors left me a note letting me know where the dry cleaner is and where the best pizza place is,” she said. “It was such a generous thing to do.”