Meet Chief Value Improvement Officer Keith Gran

View a brief video.

A few minutes with Keith Gran, Chief Value Improvement Officer…

What does a Chief Value Improvement Officer do?  

In my role, I will work with leaders across our health system to increase our value and make both clinical and non-clinical areas more efficient.  Together, we will do this by finding ways to improve service and financial outcomes, prioritize our resources, and enhance patient and physician experiences.

What drew you to Michigan from a balmy climate like Miami, Florida?  

I definitely have strong ties to Miami, with many of my Cuban relatives living there.  My parents moved to the states from Cuba, so Miami is definitely a special place for me.  But, the University of Michigan is an amazing organization with a great reputation for academics, research and patient care.  It’s rare to find this kind of success at other academic centers and I consider it an honor to be able to work here.  I’ve spent my entire career in various leadership roles in academic health centers.  It’s exciting to come to a newly created position where I can help shape our overall direction and vision to increase our value.  With these opportunities in mind, it’s hard to even worry about the Michigan weather compared to Miami. Ask me again in two months though!

Since you’ve been here, what do you see as the main priorities for your job?  

I want to serve as a resource for anyone who needs help increasing efficiency in his or her work environment.  My main priorities in the first year will be:

• communication around our Value and Margin Improvement (VMI) initiatives, what they mean, and why they’re important
• developing a structure that enables us to successfully move forward
• developing an easy-to-understand scorecard that allows us to measure the value and benefits from each VMI project

What’s your approach to improving an organization’s performance and efficiency?      

I think it’s really important to collaborate and learn how to leverage unique ideas and perspectives to make things better.  We have a lot of experience and expertise among our employees and their input is critical to helping us improve how we do our work.

What do you think will be your biggest challenges and your biggest assets here?   

The biggest challenge is learning a new organization as complex as the University of Michigan to ensure success.  I want to make sure we take a balanced approach that’s best for the organization.

One of my biggest assets is that I’ve been in academic health systems for 20 years on the clinical department side, practice plan operations, and health system operations.  I’ve also been on the other side of efficiency projects and come with a perspective on what has worked well and what hasn’t.  Moving forward, I plan to apply what I’ve learned in previous positions as well as from my new colleagues at U-M, to make our organization better.

Link to Brief Video