The National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) announced last month that its research programs, evidence-based management tools and demonstration projects will be managed under a new partnership between Rush University Medical Center and the University of Michigan School of Public Health, beginning January, 2011.
“We are excited to be part of these two distinguished academic institutions, which have been longtime collaborators with NCHL and are committed to our national role as a catalyst to improve leadership, institutional performance, and population health” NCHL’s founding chairman Gail L. Warden said.
NCHL also said that its current president and CEO, Marie E. Sinioris, will assist with the transition and then will retire in early 2011 to pursue some of her personal interests. Sinioris said she hopes to return to healthcare in the near future as a teacher and mentor on leadership and quality issues.
Andrew Garman and Christy Lemak will serve as the new initiative’s leads at Rush and the University of Michigan, respectively. Garman is Associate Chair of the Health Systems Management department is well-known in the field for his research, books, and applied work in healthcare leadership. Lemak is Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy and directs the Griffith Leadership Center at Michigan.
”Healthcare in America is undergoing some of the most fundamental changes we have seen in a generation, and it has profound implications for the leadership development agenda within healthcare,” said Peter Butler, Rush President and COO, and Chair of the Health Systems Management department at Rush University. “The NCHL and its supporters have developed valuable knowledge and tools to meet those needs. Through this collaboration we hope to make evidence-based management tools more accessible to healthcare leaders.”
"The University of Michigan School of Public Health, including the Griffith Leadership Center, shares in the mission of NCHL to use research and knowledge about best practices and policies to transform the quality of healthcare in the United States,” said Paula M. Lantz, S. J. Axelrod Collegiate Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan. “We look forward to working with our colleagues at Rush to carry on this important work."
“This new collaboration will enhance the value that NCHL has been to UCLA Medical Center. As a member of NCHL’s Leadership Excellence Network (LENS), we have benefited greatly from the benchmarking and shared learning in the LENS and this new collaboration and increased focus on research and innovation will further the value,” said David T. Feinberg, MD, UCLA Medical Center’s CEO.
“I am very pleased that two AUPHA member programs have seized this opportunity to carry on the good work of NCHL and hope that this will provide an opportunity for broad distribution of the valuable tools and data developed through the university-based demonstration projects, “ said Lydia Middleton, President & CEO of AUPHA.