This last month marked a number of “new” events for me, at least at AUPHA. Coming to ACHE Congress as the leader of AUPHA, rather than as one of many attendees, gave me a new appreciation of the events and made clear the importance of our work and the importance of getting professional colleagues together to share information and ideas. If you ever have doubt about what we do, attend the Leaders Conference and ACHE’s Congress on Healthcare Leadership to restore your faith. The many events of those few days in Chicago clearly demonstrated our past, our current, and our potential future roles. AUPHA member programs, faculty, alumni and students drive much of what is ACHE. We drive these events directly and indirectly.
Why do I say that? Our direct role is through the Leaders Conference. This single event demonstrated our past efforts, current efforts, and future efforts. The choice of Nancy M. Schlichting as the keynote speaker set the day off on a positive tone. She was an outstanding and engaging speaker to the audience of over 200 people. Her message was a testament to why our education works. “Leading Innovation, Quality and Passion in Healthcare Delivery” perfectly encapsulated the competencies we impart to all our graduates. They lead with a shared understanding of and competencies in the business, clinical, leadership, and social aspects of care delivery. Ms. Schlichting made two arguments supporting the success of the Henry Ford Health System. She first argued that ideas and execution lead to innovation and then that innovation along with accountability results in sustainable growth. Second, for the Henry Ford Health System, success hinged upon a focus on Strategy, Leadership and Culture. Ms. Schlichting rose to the top leadership position at Henry Ford Health System through a great deal of work over many years but her initial training at Cornell University gave her the basic understanding of delivery systems operations, leadership and the importance of culture in making it all work. She represented our past efforts exceptionally well.
After the inspiring keynote, however, the remainder of the morning reinforced the value of our ongoing effort to stay current and maintain quality. Our efforts are designed to assure that our education models provide a current understanding of events vital to the future leaders. Our panels delved in to concepts vital to our future. The first group included four senior healthcare leaders discussing how healthcare reform might be changing competencies required of new employees. The panel members included: Peter Butler, MSHA, President and Chief Operating Officer, Rush University Medical Center; Frank Coyne, PhD, Vice President of Operations and Chief Transformation Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; Mark Shields, MD, Senior Medical Director, Advocate Physician Partners (retired); and Bill Leaver, MHSA, President and Chief Executive Officer, UnityPoint Health. Their insight regarding what they look for in all employees certainly made the discussions vibrant. Not too surprisingly, despite reform, competencies remained largely the same. This panel demonstrated how we work to keep our members up-to-date on current changes that may influence what we teach.
We next had a panel addressing the use of Web technology to enhance our educational delivery. The moderator, Suzanne Wood from St. Louis University, set the stage by helping to define the context of the challenge are all addressing and then panelists Linda Mast, PhD, Rosalind Franklin University, Reid Oetjen, PhD, University of Central Florida, and Len Friedman, PhD, The George Washington University, presented their take on the engagement of students and faculty in web-enhanced education. Interestingly, the positions and experiences of the speakers were so diverse, more questions were raised than were answered. I suspect that there will be many additional panels, forums and papers addressing aspects of web-enhanced education going forward. This panel demonstrated faculty efforts to stay current on the impact technologies have on current and future educational delivery. We have not and can never stay confined to past ways but must always investigate and integrate new ways of doing things.
The morning ended with an update by CAHME’s CEO, Margaret Schulte, DBA, and Chair of the Board, Dan Gentry, PhD. The comprehensive, organized and positive update made us all appreciate that this was 2014. CAHME faces a number of daunting challenges going forward around the measurement of the value of accreditation, sustaining funding of their activities and directions for growth. They are, however, coming off an outstanding strategic retreat that should assist in all of the core challenges. As an organization vital to AUPHA, they demonstrated a renewed sense of direction and resolve.
Now with respect to our indirect role, ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership is replete with examples of our influence. I want to talk about three examples at the risk of not capturing them all. First, the Health Care Hall of Fame honored one of the major contributors to health management education and to AUPHA, John Griffith. He is a graduate from the University of Chicago, when they had a health administration program. He has been a professor at the University of Michigan since 1960 and devoted his life to improving healthcare and health management education through teaching, research and publications. This focus is not intended to slight Fred Brown from George Washington University or Yoshi Honkawa from the University of Southern California. Both are outstanding healthcare leaders but less directly involved with health management education. The Hall of Fame designation is one of the most important indicators of our past education efforts.
Second, reviewing the ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership Brochure reveals our current influence. For example, a quick review provides evidence:
- James A. Hamilton Award – Sponsored by Graduate Program in Healthcare Administration of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association (pg 12)
- Arthur C. Bachmeyer Memorial Address and luncheon – Sponsored by Graduate Program in Health Administration and Policy of the University of Chicago Alumni Association (pg 14)
- Malcolm T. MacEachern Memorial Lecture – Sponsored by Graduate Program in Health Industry Management of Northwestern University Alumni Association (pg15)
- Leon I. Gintzig Commemorative Lecture – Sponsored by Department of Health Services Management and Leadership of George Washington University Alumni Association (pg 15)
- Thomas C. Dolan Diversity Address – Delivered by Thomas Dolan (pg 16)
- Master Series – Physician Leadership – Christy Lemak(AUPHA Board Member) and Justin Dimick (Member) (pg 21)
- Master Series – Culture – Jeffrey A. Flaks (AUPHA Board Member) (pg 21)
- Seminar – Basic Hospital Financial Management – Michael Nowicki (Member) (pg22)
- Seminar – Ethical Principles – John Donnellan (Member)(pg 26)
- Seminar – Population Health – Connie Evashwick and Ann Scheck McAlearney (Members) (pg28)
- Seminar – CEO Governance – Errol L. Biggs and J. Larry Tyler (Members) (pg 31)
- Seminar – EHR Implementation – Karen Wager (Member) (pg 34)
- Seminar – Global Health Management – Andrew Garman and Dan West (Members) (pg36)
- Forum on Healthcare Management Research – Julie Robbins, Brenda Freshman (Board Member), Allyson Hall, Ann Scheck McAlearney, and Erik Carlton (Members) (pg 38)
- Seminar – Clinical Engineering – Alfred Hamilton (Member) (pg 41)
- Seminar – Leadership – Jody Rogers (Member) (pg 46)
Third, as you walk the halls of ACHE you can not help but be reminded that the professionals you pass were largely educated initially in your program or in a program of one of your AUPHA colleagues. As you get on in years, more and more of these individuals will call your name and ask how you are doing. Those conversations most often convince me that we did a great job in preparing these “kids” for their careers. They are doing interesting and exciting things and generally are excited about their work. It appears that our future is bright because they attained the competencies to get their first few jobs and launch a career. They will be receiving the awards in the future. What is more, as evidenced by attending Congress, we taught them that professional networking and life long learning are vital for a successful healthcare management career.
For those able to attend this year, I hope that you shared my perceptions. For everyone else, try to get to Chicago next March for Congress!