Janet Herbold celebrates new leadership role and discusses plans for organizational growth across Burke Rehabilitation

We recently spoke with Janet Herbold, PT, MPH, PhD, Senior Vice President of
Post-Acute Operations, to discuss her 30+ year career at Burke Rehabilitation®. Janet discussed her goals for Burke’s future and shared some insight into her work to expand patient access and outcomes.

As a member of the Burke Senior Leadership Team, how are you pushing forth the organization’s mission?

I lead Burke’s efforts to improve patient access and outcomes at our 150-bed acute rehabilitation hospital. Burke serves among the highest number of rehabilitation patients in the country, and our results speak for themselves – even with a highly complex patient mix, we have the highest readmission prevention rate among the nation’s top-ranked rehabilitation hospitals and 70% of patients are discharged back into their homes and community. That said, there is always room for optimization, so I lead our team’s efforts to both grow the number of individuals we serve and improve patient outcomes.

One exciting aspect of my role is the opportunity to use data to drive operational decisions that will in turn improve our patients’ clinical outcomes. I spearheaded the adoption of new reporting tools from our Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. In addition to providing continuity of care under a shared EMR with our fellow Montefiore Health System facilities, the EMR allows us to monitor referral outcomes and data to help us learn why patients choose Burke. I then translate this information into organizational changes, to address potential barriers and bring more patients to Burke. For example, we identified distance as a potential barrier preventing patients from choosing Burke. To reduce this barrier, we provided a transportation van to ease travel for inpatient family members.

Our collection and analysis of patients’ data extends beyond the admission process. I oversee interdisciplinary departments across the organization – all of whom play a critical role in our patients’ outcomes. Every quarter I convene leaders and staff across the Physician, Rehabilitation Nursing, Therapy (Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Language Pathology), and Social Work teams to review our collective data and outcomes, including patient census, average length of stay, and discharge rates. Reviewing these metrics in aggregate allows us to assess our overall success and identify growth areas that drive new interdisciplinary strategies to continue improving outcomes.

I also use data to strengthen relationships with Burke’s key referral partners. Each year I present partners with annual reports highlighting Burke’s patient statistics and collaborative successes. Exchanging this data demonstrates our transparency and accountability as clinical partners, while building mutual respect for the outcomes that we achieve together and showing our partners that they did right by their patients in referring them to Burke. This approach also helps us increase the number of patients we care for, translating to over 3,200 inpatients served in 2024.

What is your number one goal for Burke’s strategic future?

I already mentioned that I lead and convene interdisciplinary efficiency teams around shared objectives and strategies. While we are on the right path, there is always work to be done to transition Burke’s multi-disciplinary care team approach to a true interdisciplinary system. This means improving coordination of care across all clinical disciplines and throughout Burke’s continuum of care, uniting our entire organization around a shared set of goals and strategies to improve patient access, outcomes, and experience. To me, success means not only maintaining the impressive outcome metrics we have today – it means continued improvement every year. Well-coordinated, interdisciplinary, and patient-centered care will drive improvement and create a smoother rehabilitation journey for our patients and their families.

Can you tell us about your role when you started at Burke and how your role and responsibilities have evolved?

I started my journey at Burke in 1992 as Assistant Director of Physical Therapy in the outpatient division. I brought with me a clinical degree in physical therapy and experience working with both inpatients and outpatients. My main responsibilities included growing our outpatient service lines and identifying new technology to help us provide higher-level orthopedic patient care and remain at top of our field. In 2016, I took on the role of Inpatient Director PT, returning to my roots of inpatient care. In this role, I revamped our documentation infrastructure, leading the shift from a paper-based patient record system to an EMR, and expanded our coverage to include therapy on the weekends. This transition greatly improved how we capture clinical outcomes, communicate between providers, and utilize clinical data. When I transitioned to a Senior Administrator my role expanded to manage all clinical outcomes and oversaw the admitting, screening, social work departments, Health Information Services (HIMS), and Corporate Compliance.

These roles gave me a firm understanding of the organization’s full continuum of rehabilitative care, preparing me for my current role as I foster an interdisciplinary system and utilize data to drive Burke forward. In my current role, I am proud to look beyond Burke to focus on the development of the broader PM&R industry. As an active member of American Medical Rehab Providers Association (AMRPA), and recently appointed member of its Board of Directors, I advocate for hospitals and rehabilitation units across the country and serve on multiple committees. Through this work, I visit Capitol Hill annually for Advocacy Day to meet with elected officials, share the impact of Burke Rehabilitation on patients’ lives, and advocate for policies that will expand access to PM&R care for patients nationwide.

What are you most proud of from your years at Burke?

In 2024, Burke launched on-site hemodialysis, allowing us to treat an entirely new group of patients we previously were not able to serve. This accomplishment is a prime example of Burke’s commitment to improving patient access – after reviewing our admission data, I recognized a major gap in rehabilitation care for post-acute patients with kidney and late-stage renal disease. Before we introduced inpatient hemodialysis, post-acute patients with kidney and late-stage renal disease were admitted to a lower level of care for their rehabilitation needs, or they had to travel to a third-party facility for the blood-filtering procedure. As the first and only free-standing rehabilitation hospital in New York State to offer inpatient hemodialysis for patients admitted for rehabilitation care, Burke provided more than 330 hemodialysis treatments in 2024, serving 59 patients who previously would not have been eligible for admission to Burke.

As I look ahead, the introduction of inpatient dialysis serves as a model for how we can continue reducing barriers that prevent individuals from accessing Burke’s nationally recognized, award-winning care. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues, key referral partners, and industry partners to further expand the number of individuals that Burke can serve.