Q&A with: Stephen Reintjes Sr., MD

Q: What made the CEO role the right fit, at the right time, for you?

A: I’ve spent my whole medical career here at North Kansas City Hospital, and two years ago my son Stephen Jr. joined me in practice. In over the last two years I’ve been able to watch him as a neurosurgeon, and he’s really a very fine physician and surgeon.

I thought it was time for me to think about other opportunities. One year ago, the CEO position became available here and I decided to apply. I’ve always wanted to do something other than neurosurgery and this was a great combination of using my skills. Serving the North Kansas City Hospital community is a perfect opportunity for me.

Q: What do you see as the biggest opportunities that North Kansas City Hospital and Meritas have to expand their footprint and influence in a marketplace that already is generally regarded as over-bedded?

A: North Kansas City Hospital has a unique position in that it’s north of the river, and we have really a wide swath of Kansas City to serve. We are not over bedded in the northland – we have the right number of beds here at North Kansas City Hospital to serve the northland communities.

I see the opportunity to be the quality leader here in the care that we provide to the people of the northland. We want to be excellent in cardiology, pulmonary medicine, general surgery, neurosurgery, and neurology, but we also want to expand our horizon to the subspecialties in all of those areas.

Q: What are the biggest emerging health care sector trends that you think would redefine or reshape hospital-level care in the next three to five years?

A: I think that technology will change the delivery of health care. When COVID-19 hit in March, the hospitals in our community within two weeks set up a telemedicine solution where patients can communicate to their doctors over the internet in a video and audio capability that has never been done before, in a broad spectrum.

Now physicians and patients can continue their care without a face-to-face visit, and a lot of that care is of the same quality as an in-person visit. Telemedicine I think is here to stay. Some of the think-tanks believe that up to 30% of all health care visits will be telehealth visits by 2021. That is a remarkable, dramatic, and really radical shift in the delivery of health care.

Telehealth and quality-based health care are the true dramatic changes that will affect the delivery of health care across Kansas City, and really, across the country.