Endeavor Health

Ryan Garland began his career in 2001 as a staff technologist, eager to learn and grow in a fast-paced clinical environment. Radiology exposed him to all aspects of patient care, from the ER to pediatrics and surgery, giving him a broad, hands-on understanding of healthcare. As he stepped into informal leadership roles, Ryan pursued a bachelor’s degree in radiologic sciences, followed by a master’s in healthcare administration to expand his impact.

Today, he serves as AVP, Radiology & Respiratory at Endeavor Health, overseeing operations across three hospitals and contributing to system-wide leadership. Having grown from the front lines, Ryan leads with empathy, credibility and a strong sense of purpose, bringing teams together through practical insight and a steady commitment to patient-centered care.

Through this article, Garland emphasizes what it takes to lead effectively in an evolving healthcare environment, highlighting how staying rooted, valuing frontline teams and embracing technology can create lasting improvements in care delivery.

Unifying Systems and Cultures to Deliver Seamless Care

Our vision is “Safe, Seamless and Personal. Every Patient, Every Time.” This is what we strive for, however there is always a small percentage where we fall short. The book “Who Moved my Cheese” comes to mind! I am confident we deliver high-quality care in all our facilities but to deliver every time under every circumstance is where the real challenge lies. We are a newly formed organization where multiple cultures, systems and practices have come together as one unified system. The key word in your question is “consistent.” That’s the challenge. However, we are positioned in a good place where we have different cultures and unique perspectives to delve into our processes and determine best practices. Right now, the top priority is pulling three different instances of Epic into one. Very exciting times!

Radiology is very tech driven as each modality is a big computer. Ai is the top buzz word now. We have implemented a few ai tools to help make our radiologists more accurate and efficient however more is coming

Elevating Care through Collaboration

I was asked to lead our respiratory team during COVID. The timing couldn’t have been worse! Thankfully I had great support from other leaders and our respiratory team members were rock stars. The respiratory discipline never received enough credit during the pandemic as I think much of the public lumps all non-doctor healthcare workers as nurses. So, these teams of licensed professionals had to hear repeatedly from media sources, etc. that “nurses” were the heroes. Our nurses are heroes, but it hurt the pride of the respiratory specialists as they felt unrecognized. So, I tried to change that and helped redesign our team where more recognition was given. You can never say thank you or good job enough!

Having grown up in the radiology world, I had some different ideas on how to be supportive to an inpatientbased unit like respiratory. It’s never easy but these two groups are similar in that they are supporting multiple departments and all patient populations.

Driving Efficiency and Accuracy through Smart Technology

In respiratory we are exploring upgrades to our vents that automatically send vent data to Epic versus our team having to write it and then go into Epic and manually type what they wrote. Such a mundane task certainly comes with an obvious margin of error. So, leveraging the automatic tools saves time, decreases error and allows the team to operate at the top of their license, taking care of patients.

Radiology is very tech driven as each modality is a big computer. AI is the top buzz word now. We have implemented a few AI tools to help make our radiologists more accurate and efficient, with more tools on the way. It’s happening so fast it’s hard to keep up with new technology and ensure we are investing in the right tools or companies. We are evaluating everything where we can improve quality patient outcomes along with increased operational efficiency.

Building Resilient Teams with a Clear Mission and Patient Focus

I believe you need to stay true to your mission and vision. Don’t lose sight of that as you’re navigating the challenge of new and developing technology. Keeping the patient at the core of decision making is prudent. There’s fluff out there that’s costly and doesn’t produce outcomes like the sales pitches touted. Patient expectations are increasing by the day. They expect transparency, competence and they expect a nice person to smile and care for them.

My advice would be to read and stay abreast of new technology and new regulations. Be as nimble as you can because you can count on change.