Health Administration Symposium

Interpersonal relations in organizations combines theory and practice by encouraging students to learn traditional and contemporary organizational theories and apply them to the analysis of their experiences in organizations.

Speaker: John Lemire, MBA, SPHR
John Lemire is currently a human resources consultant, and has devoted nearly three decades to human resource management. He has worked in the field of journalism, and in education and human services roles for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Most recently, he has embarked on a dual career that includes a return to academia. In addition to consulting with HR consultants and organizational training groups, he is a faculty member at Saint Joseph’s College, and adjunct faculty for Thomas College, Southern New Hampshire University and New England College.

The last two decades have presented technological, biological and economic events not even envisioned by earlier generations. Today, health care costs have risen to unprecedented levels, and annual costs continue to increases at rates greater than overall inflation. Our population now exceeds 300 million with senior citizens presenting the largest element of our society—and the largest consumers of health services. Business leaders decry the ever increasing portion of their operating expenses dedicated to employer paid health care benefits and predict losing in internationally competitive markets. Despite these titanic issues, there are still a great many successful health services organizations in the U.S. This session will examine the management and leadership activities at these organizations, and provide insight into what it takes for other organizations to adopt these best practices to be successful.

Speaker: Jim Shedno, FACHE
James Shedno is the Deputy CEO of a large behavioral health HSO in New Jersey. He has served as a senior level executive in hospitals ranging in size from a 130 bed, acute, general community rural hospital, to a 600 bed, tertiary, teaching, urban health sciences center. Mr. Shedno has served on the Board of Directors of a private, health advocacy agency and a health maintenance organization. He has also held academic appointments in health administration with the University of Minnesota, University of Missouri at Columbia, St. Joseph’s University of Philadelphia as well as Saint Joseph’s College of Maine. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

This session will assist new and experienced health care professionals in recognizing and analyzing ethical concerns and in formulating action plans to address ethical and legal issues in a variety of health care settings. The panel members will address the needs for advocacy models in health care delivery settings and the role of institutional ethics committees in both acute and long-term care settings. The presenters will discuss the distinctions between ethical and legal concerns in health care settings with special emphasis on long-term care. This interactive session will employ individual and panel presentations, participant discussion, and analysis of case studies from health care settings. Audience participation is welcomed as are example cases.

Speaker: Dr. Margaret Stone
Margaret E. Stone, Ph.D., MPH, MSW. Dr. Stone is a mental health consultant and also teaches graduate courses in health administration. She currently serves as co-chair for the Institutional Ethics Committee and is a member of the Palliative Care Development Committee of the Western Missouri Medical Center. She is a frequent speaker and statewide trainer for the Missouri League for Nursing and does staff training for the Missouri Departments of Health and Human Services and Aging.

Speaker: Jean Szilagyi, RN, MHSA
S. Jean Szilagyi, RN, MHSA. Jean Szilagyi has been a Registered Nurse for almost 43 years. Her most recent position was that of Health Care Facilities Surveyor and Life Safety Code specialist for the Ohio Department of Health, under contact to CMS. She is the co-founder of SARA (Sharing America's Resources Abroad), an international health care not-for-profit humanitarian mission. She is also a health administration instructor with Saint Joseph's College of Maine.

Speaker: Dr. Alice Rose
Alice Rose, J.D., Ph.D. has taught law and ethics courses at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine since 1991. While actively practicing law, she gained experience in the areas of civil and criminal law, served as a guardian ad litem, and also worked as a Medicare B Hearing Officer. She has served as a health care consultant to legal and policy issues effecting rural health care providers, moderated discussion among Maine health care providers on physician-assisted suicide and facilitated two literature and medicine discussion groups under the auspices of the Maine Humanities Council.

Physicians and hospitals need each other to improve quality of care, increase scope of services, enhance the financial position of the hospital and its physicians, respond to regulatory changes, adapt to new technologies, and address heightened consumer expectations. Unfortunately, the health care landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade, straining the relationship between hospital and physician. Hospitals are dealing with staff and physician shortages, reduced revenues from government and other payers, and pressure to reduce expenses while improving quality.

This session will examine the evolving culture of hospitals and physicians, apply new techniques for improved communication and dialogue, and provide strategies of collaboration between health administrators and physicians.

Speaker: Keith Baldwin, MHA, FACHE
Keith Baldwin, MHA, FACHE, recently completed a consulting engagement as VP Medical Staff Relations for Empire Health Services at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, Wash. He launched a consulting practice in 2006 and has continued to work with Perspectives Imaging, a firm that provides mobile imaging solutions for hospitals and physician groups. Prior to consulting, he held positions as COO Valley Hospital and Medical Center and VP of Physician Relations for Empire Health Services. He has served as CEO of Samaritan Healthcare in Moses Lake, Wash., and several other hospitals of Hospital Corporation of America.

This session will present a comprehensive model of multi-disciplinary team performance which includes team member characteristics and process variables. It will include a discussion of individual, cultural, and organizational barriers to the development and maintenance of interdisciplinary teams. Sources of interdisciplinary team conflicts, and methods to resolve them, will be investigated. The session will use case examples to illustrate concepts and enhance group skills in working with interdisciplinary teams. The session will identify characteristics of effective health care teams and focus on techniques for achieving and maintaining high-functioning multi-disciplinary teams.

Speaker: Dr. Patricia Decker
Dr. Patricia Decker holds a doctorate in Counseling Psychology and is currently employed as Director of Undergraduate Research at the University of Central Missouri. She has experience in both private industry and education. She has worked as a consultant, conducted research on organizational climate, conducted team training, and worked as a team facilitator. As recipient of an undergraduate research grant, Dr. Decker coordinated a 2-year research project involving students and faculty from seven disciplines. In addition, she has over twenty years of experience teaching in higher educational settings.

Health care managers are preparing for a “double onslaught”—one that could have either positive or negative effects on operations. This year, the oldest Baby Boomers became eligible for social security; in 2011, they will enter the already strained Medicare and Medicaid systems. Their needs and expectations will demand changes in services successful health care organizations must meet. The projected change in workforce composition, reflected by aging workers, is another challenge of this boomer population. This session will examine strategies designed to meet these changing consumer expectations for acute and preventive services, services that assist “aging in place”, and in residential long-term care. In addition, recruitment and retention strategies, and other workplace issues will be addressed.

Speaker: Dr. Janet Douglass, D.N.Sc.
Dr. Douglass has been teaching health administration courses at Saint Joseph's College of Maine since 1985, and is currently full-time “faculty-at-a-distance”, sharing her time between these programs and the graduate nursing program. She retired from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and moved to Maine in 2000. Her two major areas of interest are gerontology and research methods.

Speaker: John Pratt, FACHE
John Pratt is Professor of Health Administration at Saint Joseph's College of Maine, where he teaches health administration. Prior to joining Saint Joseph’s College, he spent twenty-five years as a hospital administrator. He is a Fellow of the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA) and a Life Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He serves on the board of the Education and Professional Advancement Committees of ACHCA, is Vice Chair of the Education Committee of the National Association of Long-Term Care Administrator Boards (NAB), and is Director of the Long-Term Care Management Institute. He is a regular contributor at professional conferences, and is author of a textbook, Long-Term Care: Managing Across the Continuum.

The health care scene in the United States is constantly changing, influenced by both external and internal forces. Successful health care administrators need to be aware of how the system is changing, why it is changing, and what they can do to be ready for those changes. This session will review the trends that are currently impacting the health care system, its consumers and its providers, including trends relating to consumer demographics, reimbursement and financing, regulations, organization and delivery, technology, workforce concerns, quality, and ethical issues. These trends, as well as the reactions from providers and consumers will be analyzed, and their likely effect on how health care is delivered today and in the near future will be discussed.

Speaker: John Pratt, FACHE
John Pratt is Professor of Health Administration at Saint Joseph's College of Maine, where he teaches health administration. Prior to joining Saint Joseph’s College, he spent twenty-five years as a hospital administrator. He is a Fellow of the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA) and a Life Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He serves on the board of the Education and Professional Advancement Committees of ACHCA, is Vice Chair of the Education Committee of the National Association of Long-Term Care Administrator Boards (NAB), and is Director of the Long-Term Care Management Institute. He is a regular contributor at professional conferences, and is author of a textbook, Long-Term Care: Managing Across the Continuum.

A three-person panel presentation will provide information about how the facility’s administrator and nursing executive’s communication works, what the communication entails, and what the benefits are to the facility, staff, patients and families involved. Twila Weiszbrod will describe the dearth of literature in this area and review the research for best practices to date. Lois Hamel, using curriculum from the graduate End of Life Nursing Education Curriculum (ELNEC), will provide details on communications and symptom management. Kathy Atwood will provide a unique perspective of working in the same long-term care facility for more than 25 years, with current responsibilities as that facility’s administrator. She will offers practical advice for enhancing communication to improve effectiveness at all levels of the organization.

Speaker: Twila Weiszbrod, MPA, RHIT
Twila Weiszbrod is the Director of Health Administration Programs at Saint Joseph's College of Maine, where she teaches health informatics. Prior to joining Saint Joseph’s College in 2006, she worked for a large county health system, in which she oversaw the health and mental health clinics. In this capacity, she coordinated the implementation of a system-wide information system. She is a Registered Health Information Technician with the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).

Speaker: Kathy Attwood, RN, BSN
Kathy has been a Registered Nurse for 32 years. For the last 26 years Kathy has been employed at a multi level Skilled / Long term care / Residential Care facility in Maine. She has been the Administrator for that facility for the last seven years.

Speaker: Lois C. Hamel, PhD, APRN, BC-ANP
Dr. Hamel is the new director of online nursing programs at Saint Joseph’s College. A certified adult nurse practitioner, she has a doctorate in Adult Health Education from the University of Maine-Orono. Previously, she was the director of education and gerontological consultant for SBS, Inc., providing gerontological services in contracted nursing homes for behavioral care problems. She has been a nurse for 20 years and has taught for 10 years at several colleges in Maine, where she pioneered some of the distance education health courses.

While the American health care system strives to implement electronic health records, long-term care is a few years behind the other parts of health care in developing comprehensive solutions to managing the health record of the patient. If long-term care organizations fail to implement electronic records, they will be unable to compete and communicate with other segments of the health care delivery system. Additionally, demands from public policy makers are forcing the use of electronic health records as a strategy for controlling costs, improving quality, and providing choices and options for consumers of health care. This session will review overall progress made toward electronic health records and upcoming legislative mandates, and provide a framework for long-term care professionals to create their own strategies for meeting this coming requirement.

Speaker: Steve Chies
Steven E. Chies, Senior VP for Operations at the Benedictine Health System Corporate Office in Cambridge, Minnesota, is responsible for operations at 60 long-term care facilities. Prior to joining the Benedictine Health System, he served as an administrator at Park River Estates Care Center for 21 years. In addition, he served as the president of Care Paradigms Management, Inc. and president of North Cities HealthCare, Inc. He has recently served as Chairman of the American Health Care Association, and is a past chair for the National Association of Boards of Examiners of Long Term Care Administrators (NAB).

Speaker: Twila Weiszbrod, MPA, RHIT
Twila Weiszbrod is the Director of Health Administration Programs at Saint Joseph's College of Maine, where she teaches health informatics. Prior to joining Saint Joseph’s College in 2006, she worked for a large county health system, in which she oversaw the health and mental health clinics. In this capacity, she coordinated the implementation of a system-wide information system. She is a Registered Health Information Technician with the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).

This session will equip the learner with a base of knowledge about disaster preparedness. This frequently overlooked area of operation can make or break a facility’s ability to carry out their mission in a time of crisis. In addition to exploring what constitutes a crisis, an examination of how a facility can ensure that they are taking the right approach to preparedness will be made. Planning activities will be discussed; to include common pitfalls, as well as potential solutions. Risk assessment will be examined, with an emphasis on planning for the likely events more heavily than the dramatic events.

Speaker: Rick Anderson, MS, CCEMT-P
Rick Anderson is a paramedic instructor at Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin Rapids, WI, where he recently completed his fifth year as a full-time faculty member. He has worked in many facets of emergency services, including experience as a paramedic, an EMS Director, and a Police Chief. He has also served as a volunteer Fire Chief, a HAZMAT Team Leader, and was the coordinator for a regional fire investigation task force. His work as an EMS Director involved heading an agency that was also responsible for Emergency Management functions and E-911 communications.