As the year started, we argued that our work was vital to the health of the nation because we provide the future leaders of the healthcare system with the competencies necessary to succeed. We know, however, that keeping ourselves up-to-date, energized, and networked can present a challenge. To help us update our knowledge, skills, and competencies, AUPHA sponsors a number of events throughout the year designed to assist all faculty to continue to be the best they can be. The Leaders Conference scheduled for March 25, 2014, in Chicago is designed to educate, inform and revitalize each of us.
Leaders Conference is a unique event that occurs within ACHE’s Congress on Healthcare Leadership. Current and many of the future leaders attend this annual event and we are fortunate to be an integral part. As we strive to continue to learn and most importantly stay connected to practice, ACHE’s Congress on Healthcare Leadership is an ideal environment. The structure of the Leaders Conference is a little different this year but it still utilizes the setting to full advantage.
Thanks to the support of ACHE, we are able to provide an outstanding keynote speaker each year followed by presentations and discussions designed to motivate and inform. This year’s keynote speaker is Ms. Nancy Schlichting, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of the Henry Ford Health System. Ms. Schlichting has been a remarkable healthcare leader, rising to the top of one of the nation’s premier health systems. Founded in 1915, the Henry Ford Health System now employs 23,000 people and operates with the vision of “Transforming lives and communities through health and wellness - one person at a time.” Ms. Schlichting followed the legendary Gail Warden in this role and has moved the system forward with an astonishing array of accomplishments. One particularly notable event was receipt of a 2011 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. This clearly demonstrates the system’s operationalization of performance excellence. I am sure that Ms. Schlichting’s insights will inform us all and the title of her presentation, “Leading Innovation, Quality, and Passion in Healthcare Delivery,” clearly reflects what many of us try to instill in our students, particularly innovation and passion.
After the keynote we have two equally valuable panel discussions. Now that we are fully into the middle of implementation of PPACA, many organizations have a clearer idea of the resources that they need to implement their responses to reform. Consequently, the first panel includes healthcare leaders who will reflect upon if, and how, the implementation of healthcare reform is changing the competencies they seek for their leadership team. The panel includes Peter Butler, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Office, Rush University Medical Center; Frank Coyne, Vice President of Operations and Chief Transformation Officer, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; Dr. Mark Shields, Senior Medical Director, Advocate Physician Partners (retired); and Bill Leaver, President and Chief Executive Officer, UnityPoint Health. This group was selected to capture some of the diversity of healthcare organization types and locations that our students pursue.
We recognize that with healthcare reform on the horizon, organizational leadership is engaged in a variety of strategic and operational assessments designed to assure success of their organizations in a changing world. While some initiatives were evident, a great deal of uncertainty existed for many aspects of reform. Now that we are into implementation of reform, we hope that the panel can reduce some of the uncertainty regarding necessary competencies. They will be asked to address the following questions:
- What are the competencies along with knowledge, skills, and abilities that you look for now that were not seen to be as essential prior to formal healthcare reform?
- How well are more junior members of your team doing with regard to challenges posed by reform?
- What professional development opportunities have you instituted to fill gaps?
The second panel will focus more on directly on our world by examining the “Challenges Facing the Evolution to Web Enhanced Health Management Education.” This too is vital to our future because new technologies have the potential to change what we teach and the manner in which we teach. Our discipline must always be open to finding the best method of discovering, evaluating, adopting, and adapting these technologies to further our goal of providing the best education to our students. Currently, programs place themselves along a continuum with respect to employing Web Enhancements and have experienced varied degrees of success.
The panel members are heavily involved in the design, delivery, monitoring, and assessment of the existing array of health management education offerings that employ Web Enhancements. This panel will explore challenges and opportunities uncovered from this experience as we all consider moving along that continuum from traditional classroom and paper-based educational delivery to fully on line, virtual educational offerings and everything in between. The members include Linda Mast, Rosalind Franklin University, Chicago; Len Friedman, George Washington University, Washington DC and Reid Oetjen, University of Central Florida, Orlando The moderator of the panel will be Pamela Paustian, University of Alabama at Birmingham. As above, the members were selected because they represent of organizations operating on different points of the continuum. We have asked them to address the following questions:
- How do you assure students engage fully in the educational process with changes in adoption of Web Enhanced technologies?
- How can you train faculty to engage fully in the educational process as they adopt Web Enhanced technologies?
- What are the major challenges and rewards of moving along this continuum?
Finally, because of the importance of accreditation to our member organizations, we are going to close with CEO Margaret Schulte and Board Chair Dan Gentry providing a CAHME update. After a year of anxiety, it will be highly beneficial to have them discuss “CAHME 2014 and Beyond.” Among other topics will be some initial directions from their recent strategic planning retreat.
Hope to see you all in Chicago on March 25th. Please remember to bring your boots and gloves.