MHA Class Trip Spring 2016

By: Kaitlyn Hunsberger

The first year MHA class had the opportunity to visit two dynamic health care organizations in Iowa for our spring class trip. We started our day at Waverly Health Center (WHS), a 25-bed critical access hospital (CAH) in Waverly, Iowa with Jim Atty, CEO and 2009 MHA Iowa alum. The morning was filled with discussion surrounding the unique issues that critical access hospital face and the importance of an organizational philanthropy program. One of the most intriguing obstacles that critical access hospitals will face in the next couple of decades is the transition from volume to value. Inherently, critical access hospitals are paid in a fee-for-service model. So the larger question becomes: How will critical access hospitals manage this shift when they seemingly do not have a place in the shift?  Mr. Atty was unable to answer this question and confirmed that healthcare leaders are also unsure of how CAHs will navigate this shift. Emily Neuendorf, the WHC Foundation Director, spoke to our class about the role of a foundation in an organization and the challenges regularly encountered. Additionally, Ms. Neuendorf articulated the importance of fostering relationships with givers by truly making them a partner in the organization which is imperative in maintaining a positive community presence.

After spending the morning at WHS, our cohort traveled to Waterloo, Iowa to visit with leaders from Unity Point Health - Allen Hospital. We heard from four leaders of the organization: Pam Delagardelle, CEO, Mary Hagen, VP/CNE, Rhiannon Harms, Executive Director of Strategic Improvement & Planning, and Jenni Friedly, VP/COO. All four leaders had a similar theme when they spoke with us: Improving Quality and Physician Engagement. More specifically, they detailed the steps the organization took in order to improve their clinical quality as well as their (fairly) new organizational structure. Ms. Friedly introduced the Physician Dyad structure that establishes an administrator-physician team that works in tandem with one another to provide support to each service line. While Allen Hospital shies away from calling their organization a “Physician-Led” organization, they are certainly creating a strong partnership between administration and physicians as well as sending a strong message to their employees, patients, and surrounding communities that they are an organization that prioritizes clinical quality and improvement.

           

Two very unique characteristics of the leadership team from Allen Hospital is that all four individuals who spoke with us are (1) women leaders, and (2) former clinicians (three trained nurses and one nuclear medicine technologist). As a woman, it is encouraging and empowering to see a successful group of women leading the changes at the organization. Additionally, while Allen Hospital has made significant efforts in creating and sustaining a physician involved organizational structure, their focus on clinical quality and improvement is also seen outside of their physician leadership. A leadership team that has direct experience in health care sets the team up to be more accountable and successful in making significant changes in clinical quality within the organization.

            

Thank you to Waverly Health Center and Unity Point Health-Allen Hospital for hosting our MHA First-Year class! We look forward to continuing to foster our relationship with your organizations and appreciate your willingness to share the challenges and successes of your organizations to give life to practical issues that Iowa hospitals regularly face.