St. Vincent Sports Performance
Indianapolis, Indiana | Ralph’s role: Executive Director
St Vincent Indianapolis is a 600-bed quaternary hospital and is one of 22 hospitals in the statewide network of St Vincent Health. St Vincent Indianapolis is the flagship hospital of the national Ascension Health System. Ralph reported directly to the President, CEO or COO from 2007 to 2019.
As a business leader and Executive Director of Sports Performance for St. Vincent Hospital Ralph developed the first downstream revenue measurement process currently utilized by sports medicine groups and hospitals across the country.
In 2001 Ralph opened the doors of St Vincent Sports Performance in Indianapolis. His leadership is applauded by internal and external audiences for his results and his athlete centered culture.
Re-defining Athlete Performance
Creativity and knowledge of the environment allowed Ralph to develop strategy, initiate the concept and execute the business case to launch St Vincent Sports Performance. This was a strategic business initiative to re-define how athlete performance was delivered, grow market share, increase patient access to physicians and bolster the musculoskeletal service line volumes.
Ralph’s Impact
Relationship building
Developed relationships with elite professional organizations and delivered a solution-based, athlete-centric sports performance platform.
Inspired a Shared Vision
Developed the vision, strategic plan and executed the tactics to build the athlete-centric sports performance model.
Elite Programming
Led multiple patient rehabilitation processes and multiple sporting event healthcare teams. Coordinated the healthcare of elite athletes and celebrity talent in multiple sports and venues, globally.
Strategic Growth
Developed and executed a plan to recruit orthopedic and non-operative sports medicine physicians to St Vincent. Grew the SVSP program from three (3) to twenty-seven (27) affiliate physicians over a period of 2000–2014.
Bridging the Gap
Successfully negotiated and managed contracts with physicians, national vendors, consultants, professional sports organizations, national governing bodies, international sport and academic organizations.
Creating Opportunity
Designed job descriptions, justified positions, hired and managed a multi-disciplinary team of professionals including physicians, athletic trainers, strength & conditioning coaches, physical therapist, massage therapists, dietitians, sports scientists and sports physiologist.
SVSP by the numbers:
63
2012 Olympic Athletes
60
Nationally certified athletic trainers
32
2012 Olympic medals
12
Certified strength and conditioning specialists
6
Expert physicians
4
Registered sports dietitians
1
Licensed sports psychologists
1st
Hospital-based program of its kind in U.S.
“As a three-time Olympian and a winner of nine Olympic and World Championship medals in shot put, I spent a long career succeeding under less than ideal conditions due to limited support systems at the time. Thanks to Ralph Reiff’s foresight and proactive system development strategies, younger generations of elite Olympian in the USA faced a much more assistive and collaborative approach to performance and health.
As my career was coming to a close Ralph’s engineering of a partnership between St. Vincent and USA Track and Field made what I consider the first positive steps for athletes in the area of health and medicine. The program has helped hundreds of elite athletes to better performances, less injuries and longer careers, and Ralph was critical in its conception and design.
USATF athletes today are the beneficiaries of Ralph’s knowledge of the needs of elite performers as well as an understanding as to the political navigation of implementation of strategies at scale.”
—John Godina, American shot putter
Together we have provided solutions for athletes at every level from Olympians to the NFL and NBA, to motorsports and NCAA athletes.
