Newsletter

December 20, 2021

 


Please note there will not be a Dec. 27 issue of ACHe-news because of the Christmas holiday. ACHe-news will resume Jan. 3, 2022. 

Program Spotlight:

Explore New Offerings at the 2022 Congress 

The 2022 in-person Congress on Healthcare Leadership will feature the hallmark events it is known for, as well as some exciting new options. These include:

  • The Masters of Quality and Safety is the latest of the Master Series sessions. Join Nicole Thomas, FACHE, president, Baptist Jacksonville, and C. Wright Pinson, MD, deputy CEO and chief health system officer, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, for a discussion about advances in the field of healthcare quality and patient safety.
  • The popular Leadership Insights sessions, which debuted virtually at last year’s Congress, are being offered in person for the first time. You can learn more about some of these sessions, such as Leadership Insights: Health Equity as a Safety Imperative, in a recent ACHE Blog post.
  • The CEO All-Access Pass is a new registration option for chief executives of healthcare provider organizations. Discover all it has to offer, including 18 hours of ACHE Face-to-Face Education credits and CEO-Exclusive Discussions with some of this year’s featured speakers in small groups.
  • Planning to attend pre-Congress sessions? Following are two new education sessions to choose from:
    • Thomas A. Atchison, EdD, president, Atchison Consulting, will share successful strategies for creating sustainable employee engagement during the Employee Engagement Boot Camp.
    • Attendees of the Health System Simulation will experience the challenges of executive leadership and strategic decision-making during an immersive course offered in collaboration with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
  • The reimagined Solutions Center will be the hub for education, networking and relaxation at Congress. There, participants can find the ACHE Member Services Booth, the Health Administration Press bookstore, the ACHE Learning and Leadership Concierge and much more. Also, don’t miss the new Ignite Stage, which will feature short, high-energy, trending topic presentations.

Visit ache.org/Congress to explore all of this year’s offerings, and be sure to register by March 7 for early bird registration prices.

Renew Your ACHE Member Benefits in 2022

Thank you for your ongoing support of the American College of Healthcare Executives. You are among more than 48,000 healthcare leaders who make a difference in the field by advancing healthcare leadership excellence and keeping our communities safe and healthy. We look forward to continuing to deliver your member benefits in 2022. Renew your ACHE membership today and continue to gain access to exclusive member benefits while staying connected with your healthcare leader peers across the country.

We hope you will join us again so we can help you lead effectively, no matter the challenges you are facing. Online auto-renewal is a quick and easy way to ensure continued access to programs, products and services that will support your care for the patients and communities you serve.

Log in at ache.org/Dues using your username and password. If you have forgotten your password, use the Forgot Your Password? feature to create a new one. (Make sure ACHE emails are not filtering to your spam folder.) While you are online, you also can print a dues statement or receipt for reimbursement.

For questions about your dues, contact our Customer Service Center at contact@ache.org or (312) 424-9400.

Help for Ailing Community Hospitals

Even before the pandemic, economic sustainability was a challenge for community and rural hospitals, given the operational and financial issues they faced daily. The pandemic’s impact has made it even tougher for many to remain fiscally sound. Although government financial aid has helped, hospital leaders and board members will need to find innovative ways for their hospitals to continuously improve their performance, or face the consequences of inaction, according to David Domingue, FACHE, senior vice president, business development, Community Hospital Corporation, Plano, Texas.

An operational assessment and action plan can help boost hospital performance. Learn more about the process and how it helped one Texas community hospital maximize its performance in the wake of the pandemic.

Visit HealthcareExecutive.org/WebExtras for more exclusive coverage of emerging trends and issues in healthcare management. 

Your December Gift: Build Your Confidence, Executive Presence and Self-Awareness

Improving executive presence and confidence is frequently identified as an ongoing professional development need for healthcare leaders at all levels. This month, we are offering two free resources to help leaders build on these strengths.

In the webinar recording “Building Confidence and Defining Your Executive Presence,” presenters define the specific competencies, skills and expertise that leaders should be thinking about when it comes to developing their executive presence. Led by Michael M. Fuselier, CPA, FACHE, healthcare consultant, and Sara M. Johnson, FACHE, director, executive education, O’Neill School of Public & Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, and a past Governor on ACHE’s Board, this webinar is one of a three-part series in ACHE’s Career Resource Center created in partnership with executive coaches.

A key first step in any professional development journey is possessing the self-awareness to recognize the need to improve executive presence and other leadership skills. Lead the Way in Five Minutes a Day: Sparking High Performance in Yourself and Your Team from Health Administration Press is designed to impart practical solutions for common leadership challenges. Author Jo Anne Preston focuses on self-awareness in chapter six, offering insightful tips on how to overcome the fear of failure and receive feedback gracefully. Order this book and other HAP titles through Jan. 7 with the promo code HOLIDAY21 to receive a 20% discount. 

Cultivating a Workplace Culture of Belonging

Research has shown that ostracism and exclusion in the workplace can lead to negative feelings and employee turnover, whereas fostering inclusive environments yields positive outcomes such as greater confidence and an improved quality of work.

Many organizations that have historically failed to nurture inclusive workplaces are now at a point of reckoning as they struggle with a record exodus of women and people of color from their ranks, according to Douglas Riddle, PhD, DMin, a globally recognized thought leader in leadership and coaching, and Elizabeth Métraux, CEO of Women Writers in Medicine and a postgraduate student of medical anthropology. Conversely, organizations that invested in intentionally cultivating a culture of belonging well before the calamity of the pandemic are faring better. In a recent ACHE Blog post, Riddle and Métraux, both of whom serve in consultative roles for The Carol Emmott Foundation, offer four steps that leaders can take to prioritize inclusion in the workplace.

Visit ache.org/Blog for more expert thought leadership.

CMS Touts Patient Safety Best Practices to Improve Maternity Care and Outcomes  

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is encouraging hospitals to implement evidence-based patient safety practices for managing obstetric emergencies along with interventions to address other key contributors to maternal health disparities. To support the delivery of equitable, high-quality maternity care, CMS is encouraging hospitals to review their policies and procedures for incorporation, where appropriate, of best practices. For example, the use of “maternal safety bundles” has been successful in driving patient safety and quality of care improvements, according to CMS. These bundles have also been associated with narrowing the racial disparity gap in certain perinatal outcomes.

This guidance is part of a call to action recently announced by the Biden administration to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity, and the latest in a series of actions CMS has pursued to further advance the safety and quality of maternal care. Learn more about the guidance and other CMS actions taken.