Talent Acquisition August 25, 2022

From Social Work to Scaling Operations, My Road to Creating Systemic Change in Healthcare

Welcome to the first post in our “My Road to Redesign Health” series, where our team members reflect on their career journeys and how their unique experiences contribute to innovation at Redesign Health.

Our first piece spotlights Alicia Bloom, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, on our Enterprise Growth team.

Beginning my career as a clinical social worker enabled me to quickly recognize that the healthcare system required transformation. It also inspired me to develop my own North Star: to make the greatest positive impact on others possible. From direct patient care at the bedside to growing and scaling palliative care solutions, my North Star has always driven my work. Every day, I find myself leaning on these experiences as I work with our Enterprise Growth team to accelerate the rate of change in healthcare.

Social Work Sparked My Passion for Patient-First Care

Growing up, I didn’t necessarily think I would have a career in healthcare. That changed during my second year of graduate school when I had the opportunity to experience a clinical rotation at a cancer center — joining a team working in what was (at the time) an emerging field, palliative care.

Supporting patients and their families through medical decision-making and end-of-life choices is complex. Working at the bedside shows you how much of a difference care providers can impact a patient’s treatment journey. I was privileged to be there for patients and their families as they navigated treatment and some of the most challenging times of their lives.

Working directly with patients gives you a lot of perspective; not just on the complexities of the patient experience, but how social determinants of health can really impact patients and their families. For example, it was common for patients that were underinsured or not insured at all to not receive the preventive care and screenings necessary for early detection and treatment. For others who were able to attain care, the impact of treatment placed significant emotional and financial strain on them and their families. The weight of this experience sparked a drive in me to help as many people through my work as possible — motivation that I’ve carried throughout my career in healthcare.

While Developing A Clinical Program, I Became Motivated to Change the System At Large

Experiencing the impact of assisting patients and supporting their families firsthand led me to join an academic medical center’s program development team to establish an inpatient hospice service. Looking back, it was definitely the first hint that my career would veer away from the bedside and toward making care more accessible by scaling operations.

While building the program, I was initially focused on improving individual patient outcomes. But when you’re working with patients on a day-to-day basis — constantly hearing their concerns, frustrations, and needs — you see just how much change is needed on the systemic level. My North Star to make as much impact as possible motivated my shift toward clinical operations.

With Operational Experience, I Learned the Power of Scale

Aspire Health, a leader in community-based palliative care services, was just a startup when I joined its operations team. As we started to work with more payers and providers, I moved into a business development and partnership management role that showed me the power of working with healthcare incumbents to make care more accessible.

My work specifically focused on scaling our palliative care solution so more patients could better manage their conditions and seek relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness. Working at an early-stage startup gave me invaluable exposure to all aspects of the business. I had the opportunity to learn what it takes to build and scale meaningful healthcare solutions. I continue to apply these learnings now with my work at Redesign Health.

Bringing a New Perspective to Redesign Health

Redesign Health provided the answer to a question I’d been working towards for years: how do we accelerate bringing necessary healthcare solutions to more people? The model at Redesign Health is like nothing in the industry — the ability to build, launch, and scale companies designed to make immediate change at this speed is unprecedented.

And of course, the people at Redesign Health are incredible. What astonishes and excites me is the way this team seamlessly interconnects our diverse backgrounds in an effort to solve deep problems. Everyone approaches the company’s mission with conviction. We are constantly encouraged to share our different perspectives in order to overcome challenges that may not be on others’ radars.

What makes my work with the Enterprise Growth team so exciting is that we have the opportunity to be involved at every stage of an Operating Company’s lifecycle. We also get to collaborate across teams at Redesign Health and work with our partners.

My favorite moments at Redesign Health involve connecting with a partner or a fellow team member who’s equally excited about how we approach complex problems. I enjoy working with them to identify opportunities where we can make the biggest impact on the healthcare industry. It’s those moments where I stop and appreciate that what we’re building is creating access to meaningful solutions for patients, providers, and payers. That’s how true, systemic change starts to happen. Something I’ve been working towards since day one.

The Redesign Heath team is growing. Come join us!

Alicia Bloom Vice President of Strategic Partnerships

Alicia Bloom began her career in healthcare over 15 years ago as a clinician and quickly recognized that the system required transformation. Prior to Redesign, she served as a Staff Vice President within Anthem's Diversified Business Group, leading the business development & partnerships teams for CareMore & Aspire Health. Alicia was an early stage leader at Aspire Health, the nation's largest home-based palliative care provider, which she joined in 2015 to lead clinical & market operations as Aspire expanded across the country. She later served as Vice President of Partnerships, leading implementations, supporting new service development and ensuring the successful on-going management & growth of partnerships with health plans, health systems, provider groups and other organizations through close collaboration with the business and clinical leadership. Earlier in her career, Alicia practiced clinically as an oncology social worker and a member of hospice & palliative care interdisciplinary teams. She successfully launched and managed inpatient palliative care consultation programs across several hospitals in Philadelphia working with key stakeholders to ensure high quality, integrated care delivery.

Alicia graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA and then completed her Master of Social Work at the University's School of Social Policy and Practice. She maintains an active social work license as an LSW in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.