New OHSU president focuses on rural healthcare

Dr. Shereef Elnahal met with reporters on Tuesday

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A big focus for new OHSU President Dr. Shereef Elnahal is work on rural healthcare in Oregon and the role OHSU plays in it.

In a press conference Tuesday, Elnahal address his plans and goals for the institution.

OHSU students are already getting healthcare experience working in the rural parts of the state. Elnahal said many of OHSU’s educational programs are centered in those rural areas.

But he also said a lot of the work they want to do to invest in these programs hinges on the Rural Health Transformation grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services. He said he is hoping the state is able to get the maximum amount of funding.

“As a health care provider, we will also work with the state and potentially apply for some of that funding,” Elnahal said. “And all of that is kind of an open question, but I’m encouraged by that new resource for rural Americans. I’m concerned about some of the moves around supporting people’s tuition and loan forgiveness.”

Elnahal said eliminating certain loans impacts people with diverse or rural backgrounds who are trying to get into their education programs. Now he said they are working to still try and provide forms of financial assistance to students, even turning to donors for help.

As for the grant funding, he said regardless of tensions between the state and federal government, he believes Oregon qualifies based on the merits.

Elnahal said survey data on patient experience shows concerns and needs to change. He said they are looking to make big picture moves to improve that overall experience.

“We’re going to look to every possible strategy around the deployment of artificial intelligence to help our workforce get folks into care faster,” Elnahal said. “So that’s going to be part of our strategy. We have to look at whether and how we are maximizing the number of patients we see every day without burning out our clinicians.”

When it comes to burnout, Elnahal said the processes they impose on their employees is partially to blame.

“A lot of it’s the IT systems that we have. A lot of it’s the kind of bureaucracy inherent to just getting things done in the health care system between insurance coverage and prior authorization and everything in between, you know, and so we’re going to be looking at all those processes,” he said.

Elnahal said the goal is to make it all as efficient as possible. He also said OHSU has wellbeing programs for faculty, people working in clinics, and support staff.

“Part of that is making sure that spaces and forums are available for folks to be expressing feedback and so that we can ultimately make the work environment better and more responsive to people’s needs,” he said.

Elnahal succeeds Danny Jacobs, who stepped down as OHSU president in October 2024 citing “personal reasons.”