Newsletter

March 29, 2021

 

 

Program Spotlight: Spring Into the New Season With Virtual Education 

It’s time to start planning for your professional development in the season ahead. This spring, healthcare leaders can continue to earn ACHE Face-to-Face Education credits from the safety and comfort of their home or office while learning new skills with our very popular Virtual Face-to-Face Education Courses. These innovative, interactive virtual courses address an array of trending topics for executives including burnout and resilience, strategic planning, financial management and more.

"Mentor, Coach, Lead to Peak Professional Performance" is one of our newest sessions, and it addresses the compelling need to build bench strength by developing leaders within our organizations and profession, facilitating succession planning, and driving performance, engagement and outcomes. Another new course, "Making the Business Case for Quality," will help participants connect quality initiatives to their anticipated financial benefit. Both of these courses are worth up to 6 ACHE Face-to-Face Education credits.

Other hot topics for the spring season include health law; power, influence and trustworthiness; creating a committed workforce; service-line planning, and the always popular Virtual Board of Governors Exam Review Course, worth up to 14 ACHE Face-to-Face Education credits. The first Exam review course scheduled April 13–May 20 is already sold out, so be sure to register soon for the second session scheduled June 1–July 8.

Finally, we hope that those who attended our first virtual Congress on Healthcare Leadership last week had a great experience connecting with the ACHE community and hearing from thought leaders who help shape the healthcare landscape. As a reminder, registered attendees can watch sessions in the on-demand library on the virtual Congress platform until April 20.

The Importance of Creating an Agile and Resilient Supply Chain

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced supply availability and operational challenges throughout healthcare. These challenges have raised the bar across supply chain logistics, demanding new levels of collaboration and communication among leaders, distributors and manufacturers to ensure supply chain integrity and product availability. Healthcare providers are realizing that in addition to financial pressures, there are internal challenges to optimizing and improving their supply chains. These obstacles include inefficient and manual processes, incomplete data and reports, and lack of advanced technology and analytics. Common challenges include:

  • Incomplete product information in the item master (data completeness and accuracy).
  • Procure-to-pay manual processes and lack of automation.
  • Staff variation of work processes (standard operating procedures).
  • Inadequate data to engage physicians and clinicians on standardization and utilization opportunities.
  • Inability to monitor implemented savings and measure realized savings against goals.
  • Lack of data and performance-improvement metrics across departments.
  • Inability to develop supply/demand forecasting and real-time data analytics.

Creating an agile and resilient supply chain includes automating and aligning the people, processes, data and technology. This approach will transform your organization through increased visibility and flexibility using fast, efficient, responsive purchasing and logistic processes. It will also provide real-time intelligence and actionable data to reduce operational and financial disruption and build a more resilient supply chain through the engagement and empowerment of clinical, financial and operational staff.

Additionally, COVID-19 has highlighted the need for healthcare organizations to standardize their procure-to-pay processes through automation and metrics. Another article by BRG discusses optimizing the procure-to-pay process and provides a case study illustrating the impact this can have.

BRG, an ACHE Premier Corporate Partner, provided the content above.

 

ACHE Celebrates Congress Award Winners

Last week during Congress, ACHE recognized its award winners, including the recipients of the Gold Medal Award, the Robert S. Hudgens Memorial Award for Young Healthcare Executive of the Year, and Honorary Fellow. Charles D. Stokes, FACHE, founding partner, Relia Healthcare Advisors, Houston, and ACHE’s 2017–2018 Chairman, was the recipient of the Gold Medal Award—ACHE’s highest honor bestowed on outstanding leaders. Mark Schulte, FACHE, market president, Monument Health Sturgis (S.D.) Hospital, was the recipient of the Robert S. Hudgens Memorial Award for Young Healthcare Executive of the Year. And, Sister Carol Keehan, DC, HFACHE, former president/CEO, Catholic Health Association of the United States, was selected as an Honorary Fellow of ACHE.

Winners of the Publishing Awards were:

  • James A. Hamilton Book of the Year Award: National Academy of Medicine for Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being (National Academies Press, 2019).
  • Dean Conley Award: Nancy M. Schlichting, FACHE(R), for “Succession Planning in Healthcare: Myths, Realities, and Practical Advice,” published in the summer 2020 Frontiers of Health Services Management.
  • Edgar C. Hayhow Award: Beth A. Lown, MD; Andrew Shin, JD; and Richard N. Jones, ScD, for “Can Organizational Leaders Sustain Compassionate, Patient-Centered Care and Mitigate Burnout?” published in the Nov/Dec 2019 Journal of Healthcare Management.

Other recipients of this year’s awards included Bernard J. Tyson and Stephen M. Shortell, PhD, who were inducted into the Modern Healthcare Health Care Hall of Fame; winners of the  Richard J. Stull Student Essay Competition; top Leader-to-Leader Rewards Program participants; and winners of the  Higher Education Network Awards. General information about the awards can be found in the ACHE News and Awards section of ache.org.

Share the Value of ACHE, Diversify Our Community

When you refer colleagues to join or help them earn their FACHE® credential, you’ll earn points you can redeem for ACHE-branded items or discount coupons. In addition, your encouragement will result in a more diverse and inclusive ACHE community.

The Leader-to-Leader Rewards Program supports your recruitment efforts by rewarding you with ACHE-branded merchandise or discount coupons. Use the referral form to share details about membership, or forward this email to those you believe can benefit from all that ACHE has to offer.

To earn points, your name must be listed as the referral on a new Member application or an FACHE application. Once the membership is activated or all Fellow requirements have been met, you will receive points to redeem for rewards. Points expire the year after they are earned on Dec. 31. Log in to your My ACHE account to see if points earned are expiring soon. If you have any questions, please contact the Customer Service Center at (312) 424-9400 or email contact@ache.org.

Bundled Board Exam Study Resources Available 

Now that the membership tenure requirement for initial Fellow advancement is one year, more Members are newly eligible to take the Board of Governors Exam. The Board of Governors Exam Study Bundle has everything Exam takers need to prepare to become a Fellow—the premier credential that builds mastery around a core body of knowledge needed for effective healthcare management.

The bundle consists of the Board of Governors Exam Flashcards and four books selected specifically to help prepare Fellow candidates for the Exam, including the recently published ninth edition of Information Technology for Healthcare Managers.

Available for the discounted rate of $395, the bundle is for members in the early stages of Exam preparation. Order the bundle today.

IHF Announces 2021 Young Executive Leaders

Last week, the International Hospital Federation announced the 2021 Young Executive Leaders cohort, which includes 34 participants from 19 countries. Launched in 2019, the Young Executive Leaders program is designed for healthcare leaders who have proven outstanding merit in healthcare management. The program builds capacity in and fosters relationships among young hospital executives, and it creates a voice for the next generation of international healthcare leaders.

From April to November, participants will interact, exchange ideas and collaborate on various healthcare issues with peers and leaders from around the world through the program’s learning sessions and masterclasses. The program will conclude with a capstone experience at the 2021 World Hospital Congress in Barcelona, Spain, November 8–11, before participants graduate and join the ranks of YEL alumni.

Learn more about the YEL program and the 2021 cohort here. For any questions about the program, please contact IHF at ihf.secretariat@ihf-fih.org.