First and foremost let me offer a heartfelt congratulations to my newly-named successor, Jerry Glandon. I have known Jerry for as long as I've been at AUPHA and I have every confidence that he will continue to grow and nurture AUPHA in the way that I have tried to do over the past 17 years.
In my remarks at the Annual Meeting I reflected a bit on what advice I would give to my successor, and now that we know who it is, I thought I would take this opportunity to share some thoughts about this job more broadly.
First and foremost, it’s about the mission…When I first came to AUPHA in 1996, AUPHA was all about USAID contracts to train hospital managers and grow partnerships between US-based programs and universities in the NIS and former Soviet Union. While this was interesting stuff to me, I never really understood how it fit with what AUPHA said it was all about. Granted, our mission statement was a bit clunky back then: “The Association is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 association of university-based educational programs, faculty, leading executives and provider organizations, whose interest is the development and continuous improvement of health management education. The Association encourages cooperation and exchange among educators of health services administration in North America, enables the field to speak with one voice, and assists in defining the discipline and its objectives to the benefit of the health and welfare of society.” But it least it told us what we were supposed to be doing.
Nonetheless, this was not where the staff was spending its time nor where the dues of the Association were being spent. It wasn’t long before the membership pushed back asking for more focus on their needs. “Stick to your knitting,” a phrase I’d never heard before, was often repeated by members when we asked them what they wanted from us. It was in those early days of my life at AUPHA that I learned that a successful CEO must keep a laser-like focus on the mission of the organization, and be able to explain how every new initiative, every foregone opportunity, and every change in direction is driven by a commitment to further the explicit mission of the organization.
Second, it’s about relationships…Healthcare is a relationship business, and so is association management. First and foremost is the relationships the CEO develops with each and every member of the Association, because even if you don’t know their name, they know yours and feel that they have a relationship with you. The members pay your salary and expect you to be there for them when they need you. Responsiveness is key to success in this business. It’s also about the relationship with the staff. I’ve worked very hard to build and grow a staff of remarkable professionals who are wholly dedicated to the mission of AUPHA and ensuring the success of our members. That relationship must be nurtured as well to continue to grow and flourish.
Third, it’s about partnerships…AUPHA is a small organization, but we have many good friends that support us and give us a louder voice. Those organizations include CAHME, ACHE, MGMA, HIMSS, The Studer Group, and many others. Nurturing those partnerships and exploring opportunities to grow them is a vital part of this role, and one which I wish I’d had more time to pursue. A new CEO will breathe new life into those partnerships and have the opportunity to push the boundaries much farther than I did.
Fourth, it’s about transparency and communication…This is another lesson that came at the expense of a few battle scars along the way. I came to find that no matter how well informed you think your stakeholders are about your actions and intentions, you can and should always do more to ensure that the associations operations and policies are as transparent as possible. In my early days at AUPHA the association was widely considered to be an “old boys club” of long-established graduate program directors. There was a perception that undergraduate programs, and faculty of all kinds, were not really part of the club. As you all know, I hope that the legacy that I leave behind is the transformation of that environment into one in which everyone has a voice, everyone is welcome and engaged, and everyone can participate in a way that is meaningful to them. Yet even now I know there is work to be done to ensure that there are no surprises and that every member feels their voice is heard.
It’s about vision…By design, AUPHA sits at the crossroads of two fields undergoing tremendous and simultaneous transformation. We spend a lot of time talking about how healthcare is changing. As a field we’ve been slow to take up the charge of redesigning the curriculum to meet the needs of a world in which the ACA is fully implemented, perhaps because nobody is sure that it will be. But we spend very little time talking about how education is changing and what we must do to address those challenges. The growing attention to online education and the role that fully online programs play in the field is progress but, in my view, about 10 years too late. We should now be talking about how to incorporate MOOCs into our courses and work to build partnerships with organizations like Coursera to ensure that we are on the cutting edge of this trend rather than racing to catch up in a few years. So balancing these two massive transformations in our worlds and ensuring that our members are prepared to meet them is a tremendous challenge, and one which I hope Jerry and the Board are eager to take on.
I often wish that I had done more to prepare AUPHA and our members for these transformations. However, I do believe that I’ve gotten the ball rolling and the conversation started. Now it’s time for Jerry to pick it up and start running while I rest on the sidelines and enjoy the show!
I want to thank each and every person that is reading this for the giving me the opportunity to lead this wonderful organization for the last nine years, and be a part of it for the better part of my professional career. It has been an honor and a privilege, and I will deeply miss my regular interactions with you. I wish Jerry all the luck and success that I have had, and know he will find this role as rewarding as I have.
Hasta la vista my friends!
Lydia