Cleveland Clinic Administrative Fellowship Blog

Welcome back to the Cleveland Clinic Administrative Fellow Blog!

The 2014 – 2015 Administrative Fellowship class is excited to share the latest and greatest news on the Fellowship! Building on the work of previous classes, this blog is your source for information on current fellows and project work, Cleveland Clinic news, and updates about some of our Administrative Fellow Alumni. We hope this will help keep you informed about our current and alumni fellows. Keeping with past formats, you will find five new posts in this update:

·        Alumni Fellow Spotlight (Josh Snowden)

·        Cleveland Clinic Enterprise Update (Jay Thaker)

·        Meet the Incoming 2015-2016 Fellows (Kim Fierst)

·        Overview of Current Fellows (Vivian Yu)

·        Administrative Fellowship Program Update (Deanna Stovicek)

You will receive annual updates via this blog, courtesy of the current fellows. In the meantime, if you have personal or professional updates, along with changes to your current contact information, please share them with Joan Cook (COOKJ8@ccf.org), our Administrative Fellowship Education Coordinator.

Enjoy!

Andrew Patzke – Chief Editing Officer (CEO)

Administrative Fellow

2014-2015

Alumni Fellow Spotlight – Erin Shaffer

Cleveland Clinic Florida (CC Florida) is in the midst of impressive organizational transformation. With CC Florida’s growth in footprint and strategic expansion of services, it’s on its way to becoming the preferred tertiary referral center while also providing value-based care for the southeast Florida population. Helping to lead this transformation is Erin Shaffer, Senior Director of Clinical Operations for CC Florida, and an alumnus Fellow from the class of 2010. We wanted to check in with Erin to hear firsthand about her experiences in CC Florida and to learn about how the Cleveland Clinic has brought its model of medicine to Florida.

1.         Please describe your role as Senior Director of Clinical Operations at Cleveland Clinic Florida (CC Florida) and briefly explain how the CCFL culture/Institute model works remotely.

As Senior Director of Clinic Operations, I’m responsible for our physician practice (outside of hospital-based services such as Imaging and Lab), as well as ambulatory operations in our clinic facilities. We have a total of 17 Clinical Institutes here in CC Florida, a 155-bed hospital, a multi-specialty clinic attached to the hospital, and 5 smaller ambulatory remote sites. Our Institutes are led by a physician Center Director who reports directly to the Institute Chairs in Ohio in matrix with our local Chief of Staff and President. My role is to work with the Center Directors, in collaboration with both Ohio and Florida leadership, to manage the service lines.

2.         How will your role in administration change with the growth CC Florida is experiencing? How will administration at CC Florida evolve with the opening of the Neurological and Cancer Institutes building?

I have already experienced changes in my role given the growth of our organization, and I expect them to likely continue as we expand. As the Institutes became more structured and embedded here in Florida, it became apparent we were understaffed administratively. In the fall of 2014, we were able to hire three assistant administrators to divide the support of the Center Directors in a more equitable and manageable way. Our hope is that this will allow for a stronger boots on the ground approach for physician leadership and provide more time for strategic work to our leadership team. One of the assistant administrators has been hired specifically to manage the Braathen Center, which opens March 2 of this year. I think we are all excited to see this growth to the team and looking forward to all we will be able to accomplish in the future.

3.         What has been the most surprising aspect about health care in Southeast Florida?

After working in the Northeast Ohio market where there are few remaining private practices and the market has largely consolidated to three core systems, the fragmentation of the South Florida market has been most surprising. The private practice environment is still very much alive and instead of two competitors we now face five major systems and several community standalone hospitals. Where the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has a stronghold on the NE Ohio market, CC Florida has less than 5% of overall market share in SE Florida. These differences create the need for a different strategic approach, and it’s been a great learning experience having the opportunity to work in this environment.

4.         What has been your most memorable experience at CC Florida thus far?

My most memorable experience has been the ongoing process of opening the Braathen Center this March. The Egil & Pauline Braathen Center is a five-story ambulatory clinic for our Neurosciences and Cancer Centers. Most importantly, the $94M project will allow CC Florida to offer Radiation Oncology for the first time. I was able to participate and lead this project from day one—programming, business planning, design, construction, and now activation. It’s been one of the most professionally fulfilling experiences of my career.

5.         What is one piece of advice that you would provide to current fellows and/or recent fellow alumni?

Don’t stop learning and keep your mind open to all opportunities. Although you won’t have the learning environment as structured for you as when in the Fellowship, there are always ways to gain new experiences and further your professional development. It requires more of a concerted effort, but be sure to make time for mentoring and taking on those stretch projects that may be outside of your typical job description.

Cleveland Clinic Enterprise Update

New Cancer Building

The new 377,000 sq ft outpatient cancer facility located east of Crile is targeted for completion in 2017. This new building will enable both traditional and incremental service and programming growth, and will be focused on multidisciplinary care, organized by disease group in order to optimize patient experience and outcomes.

Health Education Campus

Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic, in a joint effort, will be building an iconic educational campus that is intended to make the city a national mecca of medical education. The 485,000 square foot building will be designed by Lord Norman Foster of London, who also designed the master campus plan for the Clinic.  The Health Education Campus will bring the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine together with Case Western Reserve University’s Colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, and Nursing under one roof. Groundbreaking is anticipated to occur this summer with the first student expected to be in late 2018 early 2019.

Avon Hospital

West of downtown Cleveland, the enterprise broke ground in October on Avon Hospital, a 126-bed inpatient facility contiguous to the Richards E. Jacobs Family Center (REJFHC). With the opportunity to incorporate modern design and the latest healthcare technologies, Avon Hospital will utilize best practices to increase operational efficiencies, reduce duplications, and improve the overall patient experience. Focusing on lower acuity inpatient care, including general medicine, general surgery, orthopedics, and urology, the three-story inpatient bedtower serves as a natural link between the outpatient services of REJFHC and the tertiary and quaternary care provided at nearby Fairview Hospital and Main Campus.  The hospital is set to open in September 2016.

Lorain Integration

As of November 2014, Clinic facilities in Lorain are being thoughtfully integrated with Regional Operations, Surgical Operations, and the clinical Institutes. The timing of this integration, along with the building of the new hospital in Avon, will further reinforce the goal of becoming One Cleveland Clinic. The Lorain Institute will continue to have full responsibility for all its operation in 2015, with a fully integrated date of January 1, 2016.

The Lorain Institute has been very successful through the years in managing the care of our Lorain County patients. As the Clinic has seen with many examples, working together as one organization leads to advanced innovation, increased productivity and efficiency, better collaboration, and continued success.

Clinical Transformation

A new area in the organizational structure – Clinical Transformation – has also been formed, led by Michael Modic, MD, and Joanne Zeroske, president of Marymount Hospital prior to taking this role. Clinical Transformation will include the Cleveland Clinic Integrated Care Model, care path bundles, value-based care, care coordination, distance health, patient-centered medical home, population health, quality, patient safety, patient experience, continuous improvement, medical management of the Employee Health Plan, the Quality Alliance, health-enabling technology, and data integration and analytics.

Lakewood Hospital

In mid-January, Cleveland Clinic in conjunction with Lakewood’s City Council announced plans to close Lakewood Hospital once the construction of a new $32 million Family Health Center in Lakewood has been opened.  This new 62,000 FHC will focus on treating chronic disease, promoting wellness, and better addressing the needs of the Lakewood community; it will include a full-service emergency department.  This will directly support the City of Lakewood’s initiative to become the healthiest city in America.  Cleveland Clinic is working proactively to employ all current Lakewood employees within other areas of the enterprise.  Lakewood Hospital has not been profitable for several years; it is slated to close after September 2016 when Avon Hospital opens.

Cleveland Clinic Accountable Care Organization

As of 2015, Cleveland Clinic and many independent Quality Alliance physicians are participating in a Medicare ACO as part of the Medicare Shared Savings Program. The Cleveland Clinic ACO includes Cleveland Clinic Ohio hospitals, all employed physicians, and select QA independent PCPs. As an ACO, the Cleveland Clinic is responsible for the quality and efficiency of care for approximately 60,000 Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare will reward Cleveland Clinic for 33 key performance metrics based on our historical benchmarks (there is no down-side risk). To ensure the success of the ACO, the Clinic will continue to build our capabilities around reporting, quality improvement, and care efficiency.

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi is continuing on track for soft openings rolling out from February – May of this year, starting with the first outpatient appointment at the end of February, first inpatient admissions at the end of March, and opening of the emergency department in May.  Major service lines offered will include: Heart and Vascular Institute, Digestive Disease Institute, Respiratory Disease Institute, Eye Institute, and Neurological Institute.  This 4 million square foot facility will bring together caregivers from 59 countries.

Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit

In July 2014, the City of Cleveland became the second community in the United States and one of only a few around the world to benefit from a Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit.  The large ground ambulance unit, operated by Cleveland Clinic’s Critical Care Transport team, includes a CT scanner, two-way video telemedicine unit linked to Cleveland Clinic’s telestroke program, and clot-busting stroke medication.  When an individual in Cleveland calls 911 and reports symptoms of a stroke, the Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit is simultaneously dispatched with Cleveland EMS to evaluate the patient.  “Due to how critical time is in the treatment of stroke, using mobile stroke treatment units to provide pre-hospital evaluation and treatment of stroke should revolutionize the care of these patients,” said Muhammad Shazam Hussain, M.D., Head of Cleveland Clinic’s Stroke Program.  A research study presented at the American Stroke Association’s annual meeting in January demonstrated improved outcomes in stroke patients treated by the Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit over conventional ambulance services.  Cleveland Clinic’s Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit was listed #1 among medical innovations of 2014.

The Power of One Campaign

As part of Cleveland Clinic’s seven-year centennial campaign, the Clinic is preparing to host its second annual VeloSano fundraiser.  VeloSano, Latin for “swift cure,” is a major community fundraising initiative with 100 percent of the dollars raised benefiting cancer research at Cleveland Clinic. At its core, VeloSano is a cycling event where riders commit to raise a pre-determined dollar amount by requesting support from personal contacts. Riders start and finish in downtown Cleveland.

The event will be held July 18 through 19th with a kick-off event on the evening of the 17th.

Incoming 2015-2016 Fellows

Walle Ali Graduate School:  University of Michigan – School of Public Health Undergraduate School: University of California, Los Angeles

Brian Allyn Graduate School:  George Washington University – Milken Institute School of Public Health Undergraduate School: Hobart College

Joey Chan Graduate School:  Yale School of Public Health Undergraduate School: University of California, Berkeley ·

Stewart Clark Graduate School:  University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Undergraduate School: University of Central Arkansas

Phylicia McCalla Graduate School:  University of Pittsburgh – Graduate School of Public Health Undergraduate School: University of Pennsylvania

Elliott Wortham Graduate School:  University of Minnesota - School of Public Health Undergraduate School: Virginia Tech

Overview of Current Fellows

Kim Fierst

1.    Hometown: Pleasant Hills, PA

2.    Undergraduate School: Allegheny College

3.    Graduate School: Carnegie Mellon University

4.    Favorite Cleveland Clinic Word/Phrase: “We can wordsmith this later…”

5.    Most Memorable Fellowship Experience:  Completing the Ice Bucket Challenge as a fellowship class on East 4^th, challenging our executive mentors, and having to edit the end of the video due to “all the feelings.”

6.    A Sampling of Projects:

a.       Avon Inpatient Bedtower Playbooks (Travis Laird)

b.      Cancer Programming (Shannon Faulhaber)

c.       International Medical Travel Companies Network (Aura Lopez)

           

Andrew Patzke

1.    Hometown: Madison, WI

2.    Undergraduate School: Cornell College

3.    Graduate School: THE University of Iowa

4.    Favorite Cleveland Clinic Word/Phrase: Playbook

5.    Most Memorable Fellowship Experience:  Friday fellow froyo!

6.    A Sampling of Projects:

a.       Local ACO Impact Analysis (Douglas Cates)

b.      Pediatric Integrative Medicine (Jennifer Manning)

c.       International Strategic Transactions (Dan Towarnicke)

Joshua Snowden

1.    Hometown: Buenos Aires, Argentina

2.    Undergraduate School: Missouri State University

3.    Graduate School: The Ohio State University

4.    Favorite Cleveland Clinic Word/Phrase: “We need to scrub [insert non-surgical clinician’s name] in on this topic.”

5.    Most Memorable Fellowship Experience:  After a late Thursday night of working, I was dead tired come Friday afternoon. Another fellow and I were on the same 4:00pm conference call in TT3-311 with about 10 individuals in Market and Network Services. We had our line on mute and were listening to report out on four different topics. I couldn’t fight my closing eyelids, so I laid my head down on the table for a quick shuteye. I awoke to the speaker on the phone thanking people for their time. I thus unmuted the line and said, “Thanks, everyone; have a great weekend!” What I didn’t realize was that we had finished the second topic and had two more to discuss.

6.    A Sampling of Projects:

a.       GPS Plus (Jackie Spence)

b.      Lorain Integration (Chris Soska)

c.       Cleveland Clinic Case Competition (Gina Cronin)

Deanna Stovicek

1.    Hometown: Willoughby, OH

2.    Undergraduate School: Baldwin Wallace University

3.    Graduate School: Virginia Commonwealth University

4.    Favorite Cleveland Clinic Word/Phrase: Make sure we are   comparing “apples to apples”

5.    Most Memorable Fellowship Experience:  Jay and Josh’s prank calls and fellow dinners at Jay’s condo

6.    A Sampling of Projects:

a.       Strongsville Breast Center (Nehemiah Smith)

b.      Main Campus ED Throughput  (Sandy Ferguson & Seth Podolsky, MD)

c.       GPS Embassy Staff Visit (Jackie Spence)  

Jay Thaker

1.       Hometown: East Lansing, MI

2.       Undergraduate School: Michigan State University

3.       Graduate School: Johns Hopkins University and University of Michigan

4.       Favorite Cleveland Clinic Word/Phrase: “Let’s put it in the parking lot.”

5.       Most Memorable Fellowship Experience:  Being unable to contain our laughter during the guided meditation session at new employee orientation

6.       A Sampling of Projects:

a.       International Business Development (Rob Stall & Curt Rimmerman, MD)

b.      Global CARE Operations Transition (Damon Kralovic, DO)

c.       US News and World Report Rankings Strategy (Peter Miller)

Vivian Yu

1.            Hometown: Atlanta, GA

2.            Undergraduate School: University of Michigan

3.            Graduate School: University of Michigan

4.            Favorite Cleveland Clinic Word/Phrase: Whenever we look at a plan or process and realize we need to just “blow this up”…

5.            Most Memorable Fellowship Experience:  Well, this one time at the carnival…but seriously, all of our fellow dinners (shout out to Jay for hosting!).

6.            A Sampling of Projects:

a.                   Atlanta Wellness Business Plan (Regina Chandler)

b.                  Medicaid HMO Infrastructure (Liz Matuk)

c.                   Revenue Cycle Management  & Controllable Loss Initiatives (Deb Lauricia)

Administrative Fellowship Program Update

BOLD Award

In September, 2014 The National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) identified 19 “Best Organizations for Leadership Development” (BOLD)  that are leading the field in preparing current and future generations who are transforming our health system. These organizations were selected from 120 health systems that participated in NCHL’s 2014 National Health Leadership Survey. We are proud to say that Cleveland Clinic was named as one of the top ten highest ranking BOLD organizations, in large part due to our successful Administrative Fellowship Program.

2014 Administrative Fellowship Recruitment

We received 110 applications representing 30 states. Of those, 74 applications were reviewed and a total of 15 candidates were invited for an on-site interview in the second week of October. The top schools represented were Cornell, Michigan, UNC, OSU, University of Pittsburgh, Iowa, and Minnesota.

We would like to extend our appreciation to all those who helped this year’s recruitment run so smoothly. From reviewing applications, to interviewing candidates, the support of our alumni is critical to this process.

National Center for Healthcare Leadership

In 2014 the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL), in collaboration with AUPHA and CAHME and with the assistance of ACHE, began an exploratory project to determine whether there was a large interest within the field to pursue a more organized and collaborative approach to the fellowship recruitment process. This process began with two national surveys,  one of graduate program directors and one of fellowship preceptors, followed by working group and informational sessions with representatives from stakeholder groups throughout 2014.

The above efforts indicated clear interest and need for two next-steps:

1. The establishment of a voluntary “code of good practice,” and

2. The establishment of an oversight body to ensure the code is adopted and upheld.

The Code of Good Practice will include a uniform date for fellowship application deadlines, as well as guidance concerning how offers are extended to student applicants. Over time, the code could evolve to include requirements such as a standardized application process or minimum educational requirements for fellowships. 

Additionally, in October of 2014, the National Council on Administrative Fellowships was established. 

This council, which is made up of fellowship preceptors and graduate program directors, will provide oversight and guidance moving forward. A list of all members, including Cleveland Clinic, can be found at the following link, http://nchl.org/static.asp?path=6584.

Fellowship Program participation in this new process will be voluntary. Those programs that choose to participate will be highlighted on the ACHE website.

Leadership Development

Administrative fellows participate in a variety of professional development sessions and programming across the enterprise as well as under the tutelage of key senior leaders and HVI Executive Coach, Kevin Shoda.

• Individual Development Plans
• Leadership Rounding
• StrengthsFinder 2.0
• Deep Dive Sessions: HVI Affiliations, Dashboards, Malpractice, Investments Strategy, Governance, Human Resources
• Thinking Rounds
• Shark Tank Competition Case Study

Masters in Healthcare Management Conference

Inside Cleveland Clinic, Masters in Healthcare Management Conference is our trademark educational event for MHA and MBA graduate students interested in healthcare. Students from select schools were invited to participate in this full day experience that takes place on Friday, April 18th.  In its fourth year, ICC’s dedicated theme is “Cleveland Clinic’s Role in Population Health.”  The day will include tours of the Service Center, HVI ORs, Cath Labs and the campus Master Plan Model Room.  Additionally, students will have the opportunity to interact with: Chief Executive Officer and President Toby Cosgrove, MD; Chief Financial Officer, Steve Glass; Chief Strategy Officer, Ann Huston;  Associate Chief Information Officer, Will Morris, MD.  Winners of the Cleveland Clinic Case Competition will also be announced and presented an award from Dr. Cosgrove.

MBA/MHA Case Competition

Cleveland Clinic will be hosting the Second Annual Inside Cleveland Clinic MBA/MHA Case Competition on Thursday, April 17th. The competition has grown from a small regional competition of 12 teams to a national competition with 54 teams representing 28 top MBA and CAHME-accredited MHA programs from Florida to California. The Cleveland Clinic Case Competition is designed to offer graduate level students in health administration

the opportunity to apply their coursework to a real-world situation and develop recommendations to a team of executives at an internationally recognized health system.

This year’s case focuses on strategic growth of Cleveland Clinic Florida and required participants to use both quantitative and qualitative skills to develop a five-year growth plan for Florida. Participants were given a weekend to develop recommendations through a written executive summary and PowerPoint. Recommendations ranged from increased marketing efforts to development of freestanding emergency departments, from formalizing a relationship with Florida Blue to improving synergies with Main Campus.

The full day competition involves both semi-final and finalist rounds that take place here on Main Campus. Judges include: Chief of Staff, Brian Donley, MD; Chief Financial Officer, Steve Glass; Chief Strategy Officer, Ann Huston; and Chief Transformation Officer, Michael Modic, MD. Winners will receive cash prizes with the top team receiving $2,000.

Cleveland Clinic Administrative Fellowship Alumni LinkedIn Group

Again, we are excited to invite all Alumni to our Alumni LinkedIn page. We hope that the LinkedIn group will be a convenient source to find updates on this blog and other Fellowship news.

To Join the Alumni LinkedIn page, please follow this link (https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=3164013&trk=anet_ug_hm) or search for “Cleveland Clinic Administrative Fellowship Alumni”.