Hello, AUPHA Colleagues! I hope this newsletter finds you and your families enjoying a great Spring! I have recently returned from a deployment with “America’s CSH”, the 47th Combat Support Hospital (CSH), as the Deputy Commander for Administrative for the Medical Task Force and Officer-in-Charge of the hospital facility at Contingency Operating Base Adder in Southern Iraq. Our facility was the last combat support hospital in Iraq supporting Operation New Dawn. The unit Soldiers performed with excellence through the blistering summer heat (140 degrees!) and into the last cold days of convoys and flights back to Kuwait. One interesting element of our deployment was that the 47th CSH was unofficially dubbed “Task Force Baylor” as the DCA, Hospital Chief Nurse (MAJ Josh Paul), S-1 (MAJ Gene Fine) were Army-Baylor MHA\MBA alums in addition to the Company Commander (CPT Greg McCrum) and Physical Therapists (CPT Alisha Harvey, CPT Tim Eckard) having graduated from the Army-Baylor DSci Physician Assistant Program and Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy respectively. In fact, I assumed administrative duties at the base hospital from my own Army-Baylor classmate and our current Alumni Association President, LTC Rob Letizio, serving as the DCA of the 86th CSH. During the deployment, I had a number of service-learning observations that I hope will serve our research efforts and curriculum development. Additionally, I found that the battlefield is a great place to recruit future healthcare executives and Army-Baylor MHA\MBA students! Furthermore, it is clear that the application of competent healthcare management is absolutely relevant and critical in both traditional institutional settings and combat health support units as healthcare executives lead their organizations and serve beneficiaries\patients by effectively and efficiently using the resources provided to yield value.
Our Army-Baylor program was very well-represented by a team of students from the Army-Baylor Class of 2013 (MAJ Matt Fandre, CAPT Chris Ogren, and Ms. Kelly Roy) at the annual University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) Case Competition. The team finished as National Runner-ups among 34 teams of CAHME-accredited, nationally-ranked programs.
The Army-Baylor Class of 2012, led by Dr. Delicia McLean, earned national recognition during the recent ACHE Congress as the 2012 Higher Education Network Award Winners. The class earned this honor through their participation in professional and community development and by achieving a near 100% member and\or advancement rate within ACHE during the year.
The Program will conduct the annual Preceptor’s Conference and Comprehensive Oral Examinations 14 – 15 June in San Antonio. In addition, to the portfolio of high-quality MTFs, LTC Brad Beauvais, our Administrative Residency Director, has developed Administrative Residency opportunities at all of the Top 5 U.S. News Honor Roll Hospitals: Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General, Cleveland Clinic, and UCLA Medical Center. Our residency program is developing a number of network resources and opportunities for collaboration. In March, Ms. Patti Harvey, Senior Vice President for Quality at Kaiser Permanente, and Preceptor for CAPT Angel Vargas, recently visited Brooke Army Medical Center and the Program with a team of quality experts to provide presentations and seek opportunities for knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Our program will welcome a number of new faculty members this summer: Major Mishaw Cuyler will complete doctoral studies in Management at the University of Texas-El Paso; Major Fred Weigel will arrive having recently earned a Ph.D. in Management from Auburn University; Major (Chaplain) Thomas Brooks recently completed a Masters Degree in Medical Ethics; and Colonel Linda Fisher recently earned a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from Vanderbilt University. As you would expect with a military organization, colleagues arriving is generally matched with colleagues departing and we bid best wishes to Major Mark Mellott and Major (Chaplain) Doug Swift and their families.
Army-Baylor continues to develop future faculty through doctoral studies at our host AUPHA colleague programs and AACSB-accredited Schools of Business. Currently, we have the following future Army-Baylor faculty completing or beginning doctoral studies: Major Steve Richter, Ohio State University; Lieutenant Colonel Tanya Peacock, University of Hawaii; Major Don Sexton, University of Michigan; Major Chris Besser, University of Florida; and Major Alan Jones, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
In closing, I want to take the opportunity to thank LTCOL Matt Krauchunas, our Deputy Program Director (Air Force), and VCU Ph.D. alum, for serving as Interim Program Director during my deployment. His leadership and administration of the Program was superb. Additionally, on behalf of our faculty and students, I want to thank the Army-Baylor Alumni Association for the truly splendid support of the Program during the 60th Anniversary of affiliation with Baylor University which made many activities positively distinctive and befitting a top-tier graduate program that seeks to educate the next generation of federal healthcare executives.
Respectfully,
LTC Lee W. Bewley, Ph.D., FACHE
Program Director
Army-Baylor MHA Alum ‘99
UAB Ph.D. Alum ‘05