Helping Hospital Campuses Achieve their Mission: Reaching the Next Level with Metropolis
As System Vice President of Support Services at UCHealth, Rob Portwood spends a lot of time thinking about what happens in the hospital when patients aren’t seeing the doctor.
Rob recently sat down with us to share his insights on healthcare management and reflect on the system-wide impact of partnering with Metropolis. Rob spotlights how the Metropolis partnership transcends a traditional vendor relationship, embodying a model where operational excellence, technological innovation, financial viability, and exceptional experiences converge to significantly bolster UCHealth's mission.
“Metropolis has taken things to the next level. They're not just going to run your operations really well, they're also going to help you advance and align with your mission in a way that you didn’t think was possible.”
— Rob Portwood, System VP of Support Services, UCHealth
Metropolis: Hi Rob — thank you for doing this! Could you please introduce yourself and describe your role at UCHealth?
Rob Portwood: Thank you for having me! I'm Rob Portwood, System Vice President of Support Services at UCHealth. I oversee non-clinical services across 14 hospitals in Colorado. My work focuses on essential services like parking, valet, shuttle, housekeeping, food, and patient transport, all vital to our mission of improving lives.
M: Let’s start macro. What trends and challenges are you observing in the healthcare landscape from a financing perspective, and how is UC Health responding?
RP: It's a pivotal time for us in healthcare, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic. Costs are rising without matching revenue increases, and we’re strategizing for economic viability amidst these pressures. Over 50% of hospitals in Colorado - reflecting a national trend - are facing negative operating margins due to increased wages and supply costs that haven't subsided post-pandemic. This scenario forces us to rethink our approach to operations and attempt to thread a needle: can we reduce operating costs while enhancing patient and staff experiences?
We’re attempting to do that by leveraging technology and strategic partnerships. Metropolis is a great example of this, where we’re working together to reimagine and streamline services such as parking and valet. This shift is not just about maintaining services, but elevating them to contribute significantly to our mission.
“Strategic partnerships must be mutually viable and adhere to what I call the "four legs of the stool": operational excellence, technological innovation, financial viability, and exceptional experience. Metropolis delivers on all four.”
M: How does a healthcare facility or system decide to elevate a vendor to a strategic partner, as you have with Metropolis?
RP: Strategic partnerships must be mutually viable and adhere to what I call the "four legs of the stool": operational excellence, technological innovation, financial viability, and exceptional experience. Metropolis delivers on all four.
First, we assess whether a partner is operationally robust, capable of managing day-to-day tasks efficiently. Metropolis delivers there, no question.
Second, we consider their ability to introduce technology advancements, especially in areas that aren’t traditionally associated with high-tech solutions - like valet services. Metropolis has been instrumental in this aspect, bringing fresh ideas from outside the healthcare sector to enhance our operations.
Third, financial viability. This is where Metropolis has been a huge differentiator. We’re hitting every key performance indicator in our health system. We just did a review across every hospital, and Metropolis the best of any vendor we work with today – and we reduced our costs by seven figures at the same time. So to us, that is the perfect relationship.
Fourth, the patient/visitor experience. how do we improve lives in big ways and small ways for our patients? We’re valeting over 800 cars a day – that's 800 opportunities for people to leave our hospital and say, “Wow, that was a next-level experience.” They don’t know that we’ve done it in a less costly way while actually making their experience better.
This focus extends beyond patients and visitors to our staff. Parking is typically one of our staff’s least favorite experiences. We have 15,000 people parking every day. We surveyed every support service department, and the third highest ranked department was parking. I’ve never worked somewhere where people rated parking one of the top three support services.
“We’re valeting over 800 cars a day. That’s 800 opportunities for people to leave our hospital and say, “Wow, that was a next-level experience.” They don’t know that we’ve done it in a less costly way while actually making their experience better.”
RP: If you really want to reimagine what the parking experience could look like, Metropolis is going to be the right partner for you. In terms of meeting all the basic day-to-day operational needs, but also helping you be more advanced in healthcare.
Where Metropolis really differentiates themselves is their operating teams and their tech teams. I’ve visited their corporate office and worked with their tech teams in New York and LA. Metropolis has taken things to the next level. They're not just going to run your operations really well, they're also going to help you advance and align with your mission in a way that you didn’t think was possible.
M: How do you see the partnership with Metropolis evolving?
RP: Looking ahead, I see huge opportunity. For example, I see a win-win is in patient transfers. How many patient transfers do we have at the valet stand for a ride? It’s thousands of hours a day across the country right now. It’s patients waiting. Why do they have to wait? Metropolis can introduce a cost savings for everyone, a better experience, and it’s more efficient. The opportunity to innovate is limitless.
M: Looking back and considering where we’re going – the technology, the patient experience – are there any closing thoughts you’d like to share when it comes to Metropolis and healthcare?
RP: Looking ahead, I would love for UCHealth to be the place where other health systems come to see what an optimal parking and valet experience looks like. We can showcase an ideal operation and can be totally transparent about how we got there. This isn't something that happened overnight; it's something we built. We'll help others maybe do it even faster from our lessons learned. Then, in three years, how do we show we have a totally optimized experience? We'll have the data behind it to prove it. We’ll show incredible experiences from our trends, our dashboards, all those pieces to say, this is how we make parking a win-win.
M: Thanks so much for the time and perspective, Rob. We’re excited to build this future with you!
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