The healthcare industry has long been dominated by a reactive approach, focusing on treating illnesses and injuries after they occur. However, a shift towards preventive care and regenerative therapies is gaining momentum, aiming to address health issues before they escalate into more severe and costly conditions. This proactive approach not only helps to prevent issues that often arise later in life but also reduces the need for expensive treatments and long rehabilitation timelines.
Brent Kruel, CEO of BioFunctional Health Solutions, Inc. is a well-known leader in this industry. His leadership style demonstrates a commitment to addressing global health challenges and driving change through care, innovation, and strategic leadership.
Transition to Entrepreneurship
Brent Kruel’s journey began with a personal commitment to health and wellness, developed through his athletic pursuits as a Division 1 varsity track competitor at the US Air Force Academy. After graduating from the academy as a Distinguished Graduate, Brent served as a medical service officer in the Air Force, where he gained experience managing hospital operations and deployed to combat zones, including Iraq in 2004. Building on his experiences, Brent pursued his Master of Healthcare Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ranking at the top of his class. After leaving the Air Force in 2007, Brent applied his expertise within large healthcare organizations and founded BioFunctional Health Solutions in 2018.
Handling Conflict and Challenges:
Personal health challenges influenced Brent Kruel’s leadership at BHS. Despite his success as a healthcare executive, Brent Kruel faced significant issues like brain fog, depression, and a torn ACL. These challenges inspired him to establish BHS after finding relief from a simple intervention. Over seven years, BHS has developed innovative treatment programs and a robust provider network. Brent’s experiences drive his commitment to addressing healthcare disparities and providing patient-centered care at BHS under his leadership.
Ethical Leadership
“The Air Force Academy is potentially the world’s premier leadership laboratory and I was blessed to attend such an esteemed institution.”
Brent Kruel
Brent has learned an influential leadership model at the Air Force Academy that emphasizes the importance of both individual and collective success. This model highlights the significance of effective communication in achieving success and nurturing positive relationships.
The communication model he applies is:
BHS aims to develop a culture focused on integrity, respect, and empathy. This supports the company’s mission to revolutionize healthcare for future generations. It understands the significance of developing excellence among healthcare professionals and believes maintaining mutual respect is crucial for achieving objectives.
Objective Quality Measurements
“It is critical to memorialize that conversation in writing, as informal as possible, but still written down so that expectations are very clear for all parties.”
Brent Kruel
At BHS, open communication is highly valued for delivering quality work and promoting innovation. The company’s culture prioritizes the value of ideas over hierarchical rank, ensuring decisions focus on the best outcomes for customers and patients. BHS uses objective measurements, including patient feedback, to evaluate the quality of care provided. This approach emphasizes personal growth for healthcare providers through factual data and actionable plans, while also focusing on strong work ethics for performance development.
Ethics at Work
“Being ethical is foundational to success. If a leader is not trusted they will fail. In short, a leader must make promises and keep those promises. You may have to make compromises as it relates to profitability and convenience, but never make compromises in quality.”
Brent Kruel
Even though facing challenges within the medical sector, BHS is dedicated to maintaining high ethical standards. The company is focused on providing exceptional healthcare, emphasizing safety, effectiveness, and affordability. Despite the availability of more cost-effective options in the market, BHS prioritizes acquiring top-tier equipment and supplies to ensure unmatched quality. The company is committed to continual improvement and consistently applies expertise to deliver optimal solutions.
Sustained Growth and Impact
BHS maintains a clear direction, values, and goals within the organization. This ensures that every decision made aligns with these principles, avoiding any confusion during periods of change. When faced with an important decision regarding service delivery and market expansion, BHS prioritizes transparent communication and seeks feedback from all team members. This approach has resulted in a strategy that promotes long-term success.
It allows for innovative healthcare delivery to a wider audience while maintaining high-quality care. Brent Kruel is confident that this strategy will set BHS on a path of sustained growth and impact for generations to come. He believes in collaborating with experienced specialists and adopting a servant-leadership approach in healthcare. He supports the growth of his team by going above and beyond to enable their success, even if it means performing basic tasks.
Empowering Team
“Our most valuable employees are those that desire to master their jobs and stay in them to grow others to do the same.”
Brent Kruel
BHS supports the goals of the healthcare professionals and staff and values their aspirations and strengths. The company recognizes and respects those who prefer to focus on their current roles and compensation is not limited based on position. BHS prioritizes personal excellence and teamwork for growth. Collaboration among healthcare professionals is essential for team development. It uses modern technology and carefully chosen services from around the world to handle healthcare.
Professionals at BHS are dedicated to patient safety and optimal care outcomes. Brent Kruel advises new leaders to prioritize building teams that share values over solely focusing on matching skill sets. He feels that it is easier to improve skills than to align values, and without shared values, teams may encounter more problems and conflicts.
Patient-Centric Quality Care
Believing in a patient-centric approach to defining quality care, BHS values patient feedback and uses it to evaluate performance and improve the services. It prioritizes measuring what truly matters, such as successful health issue resolution and improved quality of life. By highlighting these metrics, BHS ensures meaningful outcomes for customers. The care model at BHS promotes healthy competition to achieve results for patients. When a provider falls short of expectations, BHS quickly identifies the issue and provides training and mentoring support to improve the provider’s practice with the team’s experience.
Staying Ahead
BHS has a professional team with a wealth of military experience. It focuses on innovation and adaptability, essential for national defense and saving lives. BHS values a culture of innovation and adaptability in the healthcare industry, which is constantly changing. It encourages the team to share their insights and knowledge to provide the best possible care. It helps healthcare professionals stay updated with the latest treatments and practices through ongoing education.
Recently, BHS has implemented a new scheduling and patient engagement system. The company took proactive steps to communicate the changes to everyone and gather feedback and concerns from all parties involved. By addressing and integrating their input, BHS improved change adoption and customer experiences by integrating input, aligning with their executive team’s patient outcome goals.
Driving Innovation in Healthcare Services
At BHS, the executive team is committed to enhancing patient outcomes within the U.S. healthcare system. It believes in revolutionizing healthcare by focusing on quality care and extending this approach to all employees. This vision has gained support from stakeholders and customers, leading to increased service utilization. The company aims to simplify healthcare and prioritize outcomes for each individual. Since its establishment, BHS has been recognized as a pioneer in pain and musculoskeletal health. In 2023, BHS strategically aimed to collaborate with global experts in brain function, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and chronic illnesses, leading to significant partnerships. These alliances seamlessly integrate into BHS’s specialized network and nurse-led programs, delivering highly effective care across medical fields.
