Healthcare 360: Redefining a Role

Podcast: Redefining a Role

On this week's episode of Healthcare 360, in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Dr. Rob Fields sits down with Cindy Rios, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) to discuss forging a path and driving change.

Forging a Path

Cindy Rios stepped into her first CFO role of a small community hospital at an early age — just before her 25th birthday. Since then, she has worked in a number of states before moving to Massachusetts to join BILH, where she has been for about two and a half years.

Yet as Rios has risen through the ranks throughout her healthcare career, it has been evident to her there are few women in high-ranking executive roles. When she attended a conference earlier this year, there were only two women CFOs. She notes, “It's not common that you see women at this level. It's absolutely not common that you see Latinas at this level. And it's even less common that you see someone of my age at this level.”

As a young, Latina, senior executive, she is challenging the status quo and forging her own path in this space. “This is a passion of mine, this is who I am… but it is increasingly more challenging,” she admits, “especially when, like me, you have children. It's pretty demanding to be able to do it, so it's got to be your calling and your mission to function at a level like this, in a role like this.”

“It's important for me,” she says, “when you talk about being a role model, I really don't consider that externally, but I do consider that with my children. I want them to see what a strong female looks like.”

Leading the Charge

In her various leadership roles, Rios has learned how critical it is to reinvest in communities and build for the future.

“We do need to make sure we have our responsibilities to the communities that we serve,” she remarks. “And it's important for us not to be wasteful, to be very purposeful about what we do with the resources that we have, and that we do continue to reinvest in meaningful ways to truly drive improved outcomes.”

“We understand, and it's a non-negotiable, to still continue to provide strong clinical outcomes,” she explains, “but the way in which we do things, the way in which we provide care needs to change drastically. Whether we want to change it or not, the consumers themselves are also demanding for care to look differently today than it looked a decade ago.”

Rios has also learned how her leadership style has evolved and what has been effective in driving this change. “I get more done when I'm not functioning as an individual contributor,” she notes. “As you promote up within an organization, your ability to influence change is largely impacted by your ability to influence others and motivate them to come along. So from that perspective, I've come a long way.”

“And I don't believe people should just do things because you tell them to,” she states. “It's important to me to have people understand what we're doing, why we're doing it.”

Every other week, we'll chat with a leading expert in healthcare to learn about the many challenges and opportunities facing the industry. Listen to the full conversation with Cindy Rios here, and check in regularly for new episodes of Healthcare 360