Register today for JHC's IDN Insights East; Healthcare Links appoints VP of Clinical Affairs, National Accounts; CommonSpiritHealth appoints Senior Executive VP, COO; plus Jobs!

December 29, 2023

Hello NAW Subscribers -

I hope you like this issue of National Accounts Weekly.

Sincerely,

John Pritchard

President of ANAE

Publisher of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting

The IDN Insights meeting highlights some of the most progressive, largest healthcare systems in the East. Attendees will hear how large health systems measure successful contracts, the challenges these health systems are dealing with, what successful supplier/provider relationships look like, how best to partner with your GPO, and much more! Agenda coming soon!

Registration

General Registration: $1,375

ANAE Members: $1,080 (savings of $295)

*Please contact Anna McCormick at amccormick@sharemovingmedia.com for your ANAE discounted rate or go to the ANAE website.

Special Group Rate: Buy 3, get the 4th one free!

Meeting Times & Agenda

Beginning at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, March 20 Adjourning by 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 21.

Hotel

Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway 2020 Convention Center Concourse, Atlanta, GA, 30337

Group Rate: $256/night

*March 4, 2024 is the deadline to reserve your hotel room at the group rate!

Sponsorships are available!

For more information please contact Anna McCormick at amccormick@sharemovingmedia.com

Healthcare Links appoints new VP of Clinical Affairs and National Accounts

Healthcare Links recently appointed Shannon Hunt, RN, CVAHP, CMRP, BSBA and Six Sigma Lean Black Belt to as VP of Clinical Affairs and National Accounts.

Ken Murawski, President and Founder of Healthcare Links stated, “the addition of Shannon Hunt, VP of Clinical Affairs and National Accounts, continues our trend in bringing in top talent to our organization, expanding our services, and providing even more value to our GPO, IDN and Client relationships.”

Hunt is a results driven healthcare executive with more than 20 years’ experience managing portfolios ranging from $100M – $35B+ while leading high performing teams.

She has a proven track record of helping large, multi-disciplinary health systems and suppliers create, implement, and measure best-in-class programs focused on improving supply chain efficiencies, patient outcomes, revenue growth, and customer experience.

Shannon developed her approach through experience gained as a corporate dean, surgical nurse, value analysis leader, GPO professional, distribution representative, and top performing medical sales executive. She has experience working on every side of a product going through the continuum of care.

Hunt has a passion for the healthcare industry and has been a speaker for multiple organizations including Medtronic, GHX, IDN, AHVAP, AHRMM, and HIDA. As a previous board member for the Association of Healthcare Value Analysis Professionals (AHVAP), Shannon helped lead the creation of the healthcare industries first credentialing program for healthcare value analysis professionals.

Hunt has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Franklin University and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Mt. Carmel College of Nursing. She is a member of AHRMM and is a Certified Materials & Resource Professional (CMRP). She is also a member of the AHVAP and is a Certified Value Analysis Healthcare Professional (CVAHP). Hunt obtained her Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from MSI. She resides in California with her husband and children and enjoys traveling, making new connections, and volunteering for medical philanthropic organizations.

AHA names winner of Rural Hospital Leadership Team Award

The American Hospital Association announced the team from Queen’s North Hawaiʻi Community Hospital, a 35-bed rural acute care hospital located in Waimea (Kamuela) on Hawai‘i Island, as the 2023 recipient of the Rural Hospital Leadership Team Award. The award recognizes small or rural hospital leaders who guide their hospital and community through change and innovation. The awardees display outstanding leadership, responsiveness to their community’s health needs and a collaborative process that has led to measurable outcomes. The award will be presented at the 37th annual AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference, which will be held Feb. 11-14 in Orlando.

Queen’s North Hawaiʻi Community Hospital serves a population that is approximately 30% Native Hawaiian, and some communities in its service area have even larger percentages. Native Hawaiians experience tremendous health disparities with poorer health status, higher chronic disease risk and a life expectancy that is seven years less than everyone else in the state. Hawai’i Island faces significant disparities in access to health care due to provider shortages, limited health services and challenges in transportation. Guided by its Kahua Ola (foundation of health) plan and Hawaii’s Community Health Needs Assessment, Queen’s North Hawaiʻi Community Hospital implemented initiatives toward eliminating the existing health disparities and improving the quality of life for vulnerable patients with complex care needs.

The AHA Rural Hospital Leadership Award also recognized the teams at Providence Alaska in Seward, Valdez and Kodiak, Alaska, and CEO Ella Goss; Cass Health in Atlantic, Iowa, and CEO Brett Altman; and Hannibal Regional Healthcare System in Hannibal, Mo., and Todd Ahrens president and CEO as finalists.

Urgent care rollup

The number of urgent care centers continues to rise. According to the Urgent Care Association, there are over 14,000 such centers in the U.S. (not including retail clinics), and the current growth rate for new ones is 7%. Over 78% of the U.S. population lives within a 10-minute drive of an urgent care center. As such, they represent a growing opportunity for distribution. And they’re getting bigger – through consolidation – all the time.

Urgent care bridges the gap between primary care and emergency care, providing evaluation and care for urgent, but not emergent, conditions, according to the UCA. This includes treating minor burns, scrapes and cuts, but also treating conditions such as allergic reactions, ear infections and strep throat. Care volume can be seasonal, typically spiking during late fall and winter, during the respiratory season, correlating to the intensity of the flu, COVID-19, RSV and other respiratory illnesses.

Most centers stabilize and treat fractures and offer onsite X-ray, laboratory and lab services. Where allowed by state law, many centers dispense commonly prescribed pre-packaged medications. They do not care for life- or limb-threatening situations but do stabilize patients while securing emergency transport. The majority of urgent care centers employ family practice and emergency medicine trained physicians, as well as licensed healthcare professionals, including physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses and radiology technicians.

Urgent care centers provide laboratory testing both onsite as well as those that can be sent out to regional or national laboratories, says UCA. Examples of available testing may include blood testing services such as Complete Blood Count, Comprehensive Metabolic Profile, diabetic testing (hemoglobin A1c, fingerstick glucose), urine pregnancy, urinalysis, rapid strep throat cultures, and rapid influenza testing. Centers also routinely offer tuberculosis testing; drug screens from urine, hair and saliva; and cultures for STIs and urinary tract infections.

Intermountain Health home care program reaches important milestone

Intermountain Health’s Hospital-Level Care at Home program has reached an important milestone: safely and effectively treating 1,000 patients at home, rather than keeping them in the hospital, since the service began in May 2020.

This innovative program is available for patients with qualifying acute or chronic conditions who live near 16 Intermountain hospitals in Utah, from Logan to St. George. The service is provided through Castell, the population health entity of Intermountain Health.

Hospital-Level Care at Home is available to Intermountain patients who meet specific clinical and non-clinical criteria and come in through an emergency department visit or have been admitted to the hospital and qualify for early transfer home.

Care for patients is provided through a partnership with Castell, which helps improve patient outcomes and aims to keep costs more affordable. The services are provided by in-person caregiver visits by Intermountain Homecare, as well as remote monitoring and virtual visits by telehealth providers located at the Intermountain virtual hospital in Murray, Utah.

Providers learn more about how well patients are able to follow a provider’s care instructions or adhere to new medications. By being in the patient’s home environment, there’s a higher success rate of following the provider’s instructions, and the ability to problem-solve for people having difficulty with new routines and medications.

Mayo Clinic opens Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Building for research

Mayo Clinic celebrates the grand opening of the 11-floor Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Building. The building will support hiring more scientists to contribute to Mayo's unique capabilities to bring scientific discoveries to patients. It joins other Mayo Clinic research facilities where investigators discover scientific advancements that affect patient care, leading to better outcomes and improved quality of life in Minnesota and beyond.

Work on the building began in June 2021 with a lead gift from the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation. Contributions from the Kellen Foundation and other generous benefactors have supported the majority of the construction costs for this new research building. It features flexible facilities for basic and translational research to address serious and complex conditions, with a focus on discoveries in neurosciences and cancer research. The research floors include open, collaborative areas and lab space.

The Kellen Building features 11 floors, 176,000 square feet and subway connectors to other Mayo Clinic buildings. The new research facility joins other community and industry partners dedicated to improving patient care, health and wellness in downtown Rochester's Destination Medical Center Discovery Square district, a research, innovation and development hub.

CommonSpiritHealth appoints Senior Executive VP and COO

CommonSpirit Health has selected Terika Richardson as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Richardson will serve as a member of the organization’s Executive Leadership Team and report to CEO Wright Lassiter III.

Richardson joins CommonSpirit with extensive executive operations experience and a rare blend of nonprofit and for profit as well as faith-based health care. As the organization’s Chief Operating Officer, she will provide both strategic and operations-related leadership, ensuring optimal operating effectiveness for the organization and its operating regions. Richardson will help drive opportunities to innovate the system and lead the organization’s efforts to achieve its growth targets related to revenue and market share, identify opportunities for growth in our operating regions, support regional executives and local leaders in pursuit of their goals and objectives, and help identify and implement physician alignment strategies to reach our quality and patient safety goals.

Prior to joining CommonSpirit, Richardson served as the Chief Operating Officer at Ardent Health Services in Tennessee, providing operational oversight of the system’s 30 hospitals and 200 care sites. While there, she realigned the service portfolio to better meet the needs of the communities the system served as well as the system’s overarching business priorities. Richardson also served as the president of Advocate Health Care’s Chicagoland market as well as the president of two of the health system’s hospitals, Lutheran General and Trinity/South Suburban. She also spent 14 years with HCA holding various leadership positions.

Richardson received both a bachelor’s degree and a Master’s Degree of Public Health from the University of Michigan. She has twice been acknowledged as one of Modern Healthcare’s “Top 25 Minority Executives” and is the recipient of the American College of Healthcare Executives (Chicago Chapter) - Young Healthcare Executive Award. Richardson currently serves on the American Hospital Association (AHA)’s Board of Trustees and is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago. She has served on other AHA committees and as a regent-at-large for the American College of Healthcare Executives.