Medical College of Wisconsin CEO Dr. John Raymond wants to make Milwaukee one of the nation’s healthiest and safest cities. To do that, MCW is partnering with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation on an initiative aimed at addressing social determinants of health including workforce, housing and food insecurity.

It’s also continuing its focus on the state’s looming physician shortage and increasing access to behavioral health.

At a newsmaker event on February 12, Raymond will provide an update on the Flourishing Lives Initiative, discuss what’s next for MCW’s regional campuses and more.  The event will be held at the Wisconsin Club (900 West Wisconsin Avenue); lunch served at 11:45am, with the program to follow from 12:15pm to 1pm.

Register Now (link)

As a developing leader in an industry experiencing fast-paced and disruptive changes, the ability to lead effectively has never been more critical nor more marketable. Today’s leading healthcare organizations require the talent and skills of strong leaders to influence others in realizing the vision of the organization. The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) – Wisconsin Chapter Leadership Development Program combines site visits, lectures, group exercises, participatory events, skills assessments, and individual coaching sessions to prepare emerging leaders with the skills to influence others and immediately impact their organizations. The program will enlighten the emerging leader about their leadership abilities, enhance their knowledge of the healthcare industry, and provide them with the opportunity to immediately apply what they have learned for personal and professional growth. In addition to the core curriculum, the program also offers the emerging leader the opportunity to interact with peers from across the state, receive coaching from successful early careerists and executives, increase exposure in the Wisconsin Chapter of ACHE, and the ability to network with Wisconsin’s leading healthcare executives.

As a member of the Leadership Development Program, you will:

• Get a fresh look at your leadership skills and assess the value to your organization
• Better understand the elements of leadership in healthcare
• Cultivate leadership skills in a supportive environment with a peer cohort
• Further develop your personal leadership profile
• Develop a professional network of fellow early careerists
• Build relationships with a variety of healthcare executives throughout Wisconsin
• Grow leadership skills and prepare emerging leaders with the skills to influence others and immediately impact your organization
• Attend ACHE Wisconsin Chapter’s Annual Conference and earn up to 12 Face-to-Face Education hours, with Conference registration fee provided by the Chapter

Apply Today!

The ACHE Nominating Committee has agreed on a slate to be presented to the Council of Regents on March 2 at the Council of Regents meeting in Chicago. All nominees have been notified and have agreed to serve if elected. All terms begin at the close of the Council meeting on March 2. The 2019 slate is as follows:

Nominating Committee Member, District 2 (two-year term ending in 2021)
Donald G. Henderson, FACHE
President/CEO
Central Florida Health
Leesburg, Fla.

Nominating Committee Member, District 3 (two-year term ending in 2021)
David A. Stark, FACHE
President/CEO
UnityPoint Health
Des Moines, Iowa

Nominating Committee Member, District 6 (two-year term ending in 2021)
COL Mark D. Swofford, PhD, FACHE
U.S. Army

Governor (three-year term ending in 2022)
Kurt A. Barwis, FACHE
President/CEO
Bristol (Conn.) Hospital & Health Care Group Inc.

Governor (three-year term ending in 2022)
Brian C. Doheny, FACHE
Associate Vice President
Humana Inc.
Louisville, Ky.

Governor (three-year term ending in 2022)
Michael A. Mayo, FACHE
Hospital President
Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville (Fla.)

Governor (three-year term ending in 2022)
Mary C. Starmann-Harrison, RN, FACHE
President/CEO
Hospital Sisters Health System
Springfield, Ill.

Chairman-Elect
Michael J. Fosina, FACHE
President
NewYork-Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospital
Bronxville, N.Y.

Additional nominations for members of the Nominating Committee may be made from the floor at the annual Council of Regents meeting. Additional nominations for the offices of Chairman-Elect and Governor may be made in the following manner: Any Fellow may be nominated by written petition of at least 15 members of the Council of Regents. Petitions must be received in the ACHE headquarters office (American College of Healthcare Executives, 300 S. Riverside Plaza, Ste. 1900, Chicago, IL 60606-6698) at least 60 days prior to the annual meeting of the Council of Regents. Regents shall be notified in writing of nominations at least 30 days prior to the annual meeting of the Council of Regents.

Thanks to the members of the Nominating Committee for their contributions in this important assignment:

Edward H. Lamb, FACHE

Charles D. Stokes, FACHE

Chisun S. Chun, FACHE

Dolores G. Clement, DrPH, FACHE

Carle-Marie P. Memnon, FACHE

Stephen J. Pribyl, LFACHE

Michael O. Ugwueke, DHA, FACHE

Adam C. Walmus, FACHE

Did you know you can apply for healthcare management positions quickly and easily with ACHE’s Job Center? This member-exclusive resource allows you to search through nearly 1,500 open positions across the nation based on your preferences such as location and desired salary. We’ve recently added an Internship Tab to help students and recent graduates navigate opportunities. To gain more exposure to potential employers, all members have the option of posting a resume for review. To provide additional value, the Job Center is complete with a Career Learning Center to help you enhance your resume and leave a lasting impact during your next interview. To take advantage of these resources and more, visit ache.org/JobCenter.

Improve your visibility in the healthcare field and build your professional brand by sharing career updates with ACHE. Have you started a new job or been promoted recently? Are you planning to retire? Let ACHE know for a chance to be listed in the “On the Move” section of Healthcare Executive magazine. All you have to do is email the job title, organization and location of both your former and your new job, as well as a high-resolution headshot, to he-editor@ache.org.

ACHE’s Congress on Healthcare Leadership gives you two exciting opportunities to share your innovations, network with other innovators and discuss pressing issues in healthcare with other leaders seeking similar solutions. You can apply to participate in the Management Innovations Poster Session and/or the Technology Innovations Session.

The 35th Annual Management Innovations Poster Session is a unique opportunity for you to share the innovative work being done at your organization that might be helpful to others, including innovations to improve quality or efficiency, enhance patient or physician satisfaction, implement EHRs, use new technology and similar topics.

Innovations that apply technological or digital solutions (e.g., apps, software, automated texts, etc.) to meaningfully improve the efficiency of an organization or the effectiveness and/or access of care delivered can also be submitted for ACHE’s first ever Technology Innovations Session.

Applications for both the Management Innovations Poster Session and the new Technology Innovations Session are due Jan 10. To learn more about application requirements and selection criteria, visit congress.ache.org/your-congress-experience/showcase-innovations/.

The American College of Healthcare Executives’ Congress on Healthcare Leadership brings you the best in professional development and opportunities to network with and learn from peers. At the 2019 Congress, to be held March 4–7 at the Hilton Chicago/Palmer House Hilton, you will have access to expert faculty and the latest information to enhance your career and address your organization’s challenges in innovative ways.

Join us in 2019 for countless opportunities to innovate, collaborate, grow and transform. The opening date for Congress 2019 registration and to reserve hotel accommodations was Nov. 13. Save your spot today!

Clinical documentation improvement was identified as a top priority by hospital technology, financial and physician leaders in a recent Black Book Market Research report.

“Because of increased patient engagement, the need for proper clinical documentation improvement driving quality outcome scores has never been more essential,” says Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book.

Highlighted below are four additional findings from the survey.

• Nearly 25 percent of all U.S. hospitals now outsource some or all coding functions.
• Ninety-one percent of hospitals with more than 150 beds that outsource their CDI processes reported significant increases in appropriate revenue and proper reimbursements in the third quarter of 2018.
• Eighty-eight percent of hospitals confirm documented quality improvements and increases in case mix index within six months of CDI implementation.
• Eighty-nine percent of hospital financial officers say that the above factors do influence their motivation to adopt CDI practices.

—Adapted from “Black Book Survey: New Generation CDI Enhances Patient Care and Reduces Financial Risk,” Black Book Market Research, Oct. 19, 2018.

Healthcare is approaching a tipping point as burnout and dissatisfaction with work-life integration in healthcare workers continue to increase. Addressing work-life integration issues is crucial, as poor work-life integration has been linked to higher levels of burnout and patient safety risk, according to original research published in BMJ Quality & Safety.

Cross-sectional survey study was completed in 2016 and included more than 10,600 healthcare workers across 440 work settings within seven entities of a large academic healthcare system. Researchers created a work-life climate scale to assess the frequency of behaviors such as skipping meals, taking breaks and changing personal plans for work among healthcare professionals.

The study found that work-life climate was strongly associated with personal burnout and burnout climate, which describes how often professionals see signs of emotional exhaustion in their colleagues.

“Burnout has implications for patients, the individual healthcare worker and their families, and is linked to lower perceptions of safety culture, increased medical errors and lower quality care,” according to the study. “Targeting [work-life integration] behaviors may provide tangible interventions at the work setting level that reduce burnout.”

In addition to lower burnout, quartile analyses of the results revealed higher work-life climate scores were associated with better teamwork and patient safety norms, better leadership and increased readiness for quality improvement.

“Improving this climate should be a strategic priority for leaders interested in building capacity and resilience in their workforce,” wrote the study authors. “Improving [work-life integration] is likely to improve healthcare worker’s quality of life, organizational outcomes and, ultimately, quality of care for patients.”

—Adapted from “Work-life balance behaviours cluster in work settings and relate to burnout and safety culture: a cross-sectional survey analysis,” by Stephanie P. Schwartz, Kathryn C. Adair, Jonathan Bae, et al., BMJ Quality & Safety, Oct. 11, 2018.

Marijuana was among the big winners at the polls in November, with voters in counties across the state signaling their support for legalization. Backers also have a friend in Gov.-elect Tony Evers, who has said doctors should be able to use cannabis to treat patients.

Meanwhile, CBD, which is extracted from hemp plants, has been heralded as a cure-all for everything from seizures to chronic pain to better sleep. State lawmakers recently approved its use, but questions over its health benefits – and legality – remain.

A Jan. 8 Wisconsin Health News panel in Madison will take a closer look at the legal and health issues around marijuana and CBD oil – and their future in the state.

Confirmed panelists:

• Rep.Chris Taylor, D-Madison
• Mike Miller, American Board of Addiction Medicine
• Additional panelists to be named soon.

Register now (link).