Inside Interwell: Driving Excellence in Care Coordination

As senior director of clinical operations at Interwell Health, Tysha Dunavant oversees a team of 85 renal care coordinators (RCCs) integrated into nephrology practices across the country. With a professional background rooted in social work and dialysis care, Tysha brings a people-first perspective to her leadership role.

Q: What first inspired you to pursue a career in social work? And how did that evolve into kidney care?

TD: I’ve always had a deep passion for helping people, even at a young age. That naturally translated into my decision to pursue social work in college; it aligned perfectly with my values and goals.

Throughout my career, I’ve always worked in medical environments, including dialysis units. When I acclimated patients to the clinic, I would try to do it in a way that made them feel comfortable, normalizing their possible fears and creating a space where they felt comfortable asking questions. I had firsthand experience supporting a family member who was a dialysis patient for seven years and learned how important it was for his voice to be heard as a patient.

I eventually transitioned into the value-based care setting during the early days of the government’s value-based kidney care programs. Now, I direct our renal care coordination program. We have 85 renal care coordinators and we’re embedded in more than 50 nephrology practices across the country. My role is keeping the program on track. We work closely with the RCCs, practice staff, and providers with the goal of helping patients succeed in their kidney journey and preserve their quality of life.

Q: What did patient-facing roles teach you that you’ve carried into your role today?

TD: Patients are our North Star. If you ask my team, I probably say that too much, but I’m very sincere when I say it. That mindset remains at the heart of everything I do today and directly translates into my current work leading the RCC program.

My clinical experience helped me understand what patients with kidney disease go through and what motivates them to take ownership of their care. As much as I taught and coached my patients, they taught me and coached me in return. Seeing a patient’s journey through their perspective continues to shape how I approach my role today coaching and motivating other care team members to do better today than they did yesterday.

What I love most about working at Interwell is that we really live out our mission and our values; they’re not just something we give lip service to. I like how we celebrate our values and tie our work to the values. Everything we do ties back to creating better outcomes for patients and helping them live their best lives.  

Q: How do you approach building a strong team culture in such a unique, remote environment?

TD: It’s definitely one of the biggest challenges and greatest rewards of this role. Even though our team is spread across the country and embedded within different nephrology practices, we’ve been able to create a “family culture.” I’ve never been a part of a team like what we have today.

A big part of this is intentional engagement. We have committees that promote connection across different areas—like mentorship and professional development—which give our team members a sense of belonging and shared purpose. Our Slack channels add another touchpoint of community despite the distance.

I credit so much of this success to our amazing leaders at every level. From managers to supervisors, they keep our culture thriving and ensure our team members feel heard, valued, and connected. We have our Nectar employee recognition platform where team members can share messages of appreciation. We also highlight “wins” during our monthly RCC calls. Sometimes it’s a big win, and sometimes it’s a little win that made a huge difference in a patient’s life or a provider relationship.

Q: For RCCs looking for professional development opportunities, what advice would you offer?

TD: Growth opportunities are important, and we have created several programs to contribute to professional development. For instance, we had a shadowing program where RCCs signed up for time with managers to get a feel for our daily routines. Our frontline team members are also leading the charge to build a new development program in collaboration with leadership and the People team.

For RCCs who are considering leadership roles, we encourage them to apply to open supervisor positions. While we always have multiple people apply for these roles and can’t hire everyone, we offer post-interview feedback to candidates who are not selected, including clear guidance on their strengths and areas for growth, so they can feel empowered to pursue leadership roles in the future. We have amazing talent on the RCC team and want to keep that talent with us for a long time.

Q: How would you describe the RCC team’s impact?

TD: Our RCCs are embedded in nephrology practices meeting face-to-face with patients every day.  Quality of life is what really matters. If we can hold patients’ hands through their kidney care journeys and, at the end of the day, they feel they had a better experience because of our team, that’s exactly why we’re there.

We recently expanded into telephonic RCC support and it has made a huge positive impact on our relationships with our patients and our practice partners. We’ve been creative in thinking about how we engage patients and get them to pick up the phone. While Interwell has long offered telehealth support as part of our comprehensive care model, it is a relatively new part of the RCC program and we are already seeing higher engagement rates with this patient population.

My message to our frontline staff is that you are our greatest asset. You give 110 percent and your dedication to your patients, the goals of our program, and one another does not go unnoticed.