Newsletter

April 13, 2020

Leadership Spotlight: New COVID-19 Resources for You

This Friday, join Michael Slubowski, FACHE, president and CEO of Trinity Health, for a free webinar that will discuss his organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and best practices that can be applied to your own organization. During this webinar, Slubowski will discuss how his organization is approaching capacity, workforce and supply chain management in its fight against COVID-19. This complimentary ACHE webinar, to be held April 17, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., Central time, is part of a series of executive insights related to their organizations’ responses to this unprecedented crisis. Participants are eligible for 1 ACHE Qualified Education credit. Register today.

ACHE understands and supports the need for our members to respond effectively to patient and community concerns around COVID-19. To help you navigate these unprecedented events, we will continue to provide new resources that may be helpful in addition to those we have already compiled at ache.org/COVID.

For example, recordings of recent webinars with J. Scott Steiner, FACHE, president/CEO, Phoebe Putney Health System, and Chris Van Gorder, FACHE, president/CEO of Scripps Health, are available if you were unable to tune in live. These front-line healthcare leaders share insights into how their organizations are addressing this unprecedented crisis and best practices that can be applied to your own organization. Both webinars are available here. 

Leading w Influence

Prepare for and Save $225 on Your FACHE® Journey

Submit your advancement application by July 31 and, if approved, ACHE will waive the $225 Board of Governors Exam fee. Earning the FACHE credential demonstrates you have met rigorous standards and proven your competency in all areas of healthcare leadership. We want to thank you for your efforts, which is why when you submit your completed application by July 31, along with the $250 application fee and all supporting documents, ACHE will waive the $225 Board of Governors Exam fee for your approved application.

We also want to ensure you know about the resources you’ll need to prepare to become a Fellow. The Board of Governors Exam Flashcards have been a particularly popular resource with Exam takers. Color-coded by knowledge area to facilitate sorting, they are also available in a convenient digital format when you purchase the traditional set of 415 flashcards for the price of $140. We also offer the Board of Governors Exam Study Set, which consists of four books selected specifically to help prepare you for the Exam. They can be used to supplement ACHE’s official tutorial study guide and are available for $295—40 percent below individual cover prices. Finally, there’s the Board of Governors Exam Study Bundle that consists of the flashcards—with digital access included—and the four books in the study set for the discounted rate of $395. Order your Exam study resources today.

Take a step toward elevating your professional status today and learn about the requirements to sit for the BOG Exam and resources available to help you prepare here.

CMS: $34B Delivered Last Week

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services delivered nearly $34 billion last week to healthcare providers on the front lines battling COVID-19.

The funds were provided through the expansion of the Accelerated and Advance Payment Program to ensure providers and suppliers have the resources needed to combat the pandemic, according to CMS. “Healthcare providers are making massive financial sacrifices to care for the influx of coronavirus patients,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “Many are rightly complying with federal recommendations to delay nonessential elective surgeries to preserve capacity and personal protective equipment. They shouldn’t be penalized for doing the right thing. Amid a public health storm of unprecedented fury, these payments are helping providers and suppliers—so critical to defeating this terrible virus—stay afloat.”

IHF World Hospital Congress: Early Bird Registration Now Open

The 44th International Hospital Federation's annual meeting in Barcelona, Spain, is offering discounted registration through July 31. The World Hospital Congress, to be held Nov. 2–5, is a global forum that brings together leaders of key national and international healthcare organizations, drivers of healthcare policy, management, financial trends and solutions in healthcare management, and service delivery. With a theme of “People on board: Transforming Healthcare. Future Is Now,” this year's Congress will explore how transforming healthcare will require holistic and coordinated efforts from everyone. Among IHF's full, group and associate community of members, ACHE is an IHF Premier Member. ACHE members can avail themselves of the discounted IHF member rate by entering the promo code IHF2020 during registration.

Additionally, IHF is hosting a series of COVID-19 webinars and live Q&As to share experiences, best practices and recommendations from IHF members, partners and other organizations.

Preparing for a Pandemic Then and Now

Before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced the now-ubiquitous “flattening the curve” chart, the authors of a Journal of Healthcare Management article shared a similar chart. It described how delaying the spread of a flu-like virus—in this case, H5N1 or “bird flu”—would give the healthcare system time to prepare and the pharmaceutical industry time to develop vaccines. Those authors were Nancy A. Thompson, PhD, LFACHE, and Christopher D. Van Gorder, FACHE, and their article in the March/April 2007 issue of JHM described a new paradigm for disaster planning and the role of healthcare executives in preparing for a pandemic.

This piece is just one example of the high-quality peer-reviewed research articles, insightful columns by experts and interviews with prominent leaders that the Journal has consistently provided healthcare leaders during its 65 years of publication. Learn more about the Thompson and Van Gorder piece in an ACHE Blog post excerpted from an editorial written by Eric W. Ford, PhD, for the May/June 2020 issue of the JHM. 

ACHE members have access to current and past issues of JHM at ache.org/Journals when they are signed in with their ACHE user name and password. For more ACHE resources on COVID-19, visit ache.org/COVID.

Congratulations to the 2020 Publishing Award Recipients 

Following are the winners of the 2020 Publishing Awards. Recipients typically would be presented these awards at Congress. Please join us in congratulating your fellow healthcare leaders and ACHE colleagues on their accomplishments.

James A. Hamilton Book of the Year Award
Essential Operational Components for High-Performing Healthcare Enterprises, written by Jonathan Burroughs, MD, FACHE, won the 2020 James A. Hamilton Book of the Year Award. Burroughs’ book was published in 2019 by Health Administration Press.

Edgar C. Hayhow Award
Gary J. Young, JD, PhD; Stephen Flaherty, PhD; E. David Zepeda, PhD; Simone Rauscher Singh, PhD; and Sara Rosenbaum, JD, were recipients of the 2020 Edgar C. Hayhow Award for their article “Impact of ACA Medicaid Expansion on Hospitals’ Financial Status,” published in the March/April 2019 issue of the Journal of Healthcare Management.

Dean Conley Award
Stephen A. Purves, FACHE, was awarded the Dean Conley Award for his article “How Transparency Efforts Helped One System’s Financial Turnaround,” published in the spring 2019 issue of Frontiers of Health Services Management.

General information about these and all other ACHE awards can be found at ACHE News and Awards on ache.org.