White Papers 

Healthcare Trends – 2011
by Doug Smith, MBA, MHA and Christine Ricci, RN, MBA
B. E. Smith’s annual survey of more than 200 healthcare executives provides insight into issues industry leaders expect to face in the coming year. The results of the most recent survey revealed a common theme.

10 Questions for Improving Your Rehab Performance
By Rita Green, BAABS, MBA
Your inpatient rehbilitation unit (IRU) has always been a premier service for your organization. But with ever-tightening regulatory constraints, your IRU isn't the performer it once was. Why? It's time to ask some tough questions to gauge your organization's readiness to face the challenges of changing a business market.  

Leadership Onboarding: A Short-Term Solution for Long-Term Success
by Doug Smith, MBA, MHA
From the moment a healthcare organization begins engaging candidates to the end of the first six months, a successful onboarding program implemented by an interim leader who is intimately familiar with the department and the organization can ensure the leader gets a good start—often making the difference between success and failure.

Interim Leadership: Is It Right for You?
by Doug Smith, MBA, MHA
With healthcare organizations increasingly turning to interim leaders to solve their most difficult challenges, opportunities abound—for the right candidate.

Interim Leadership-Healthcare's Future Talent Strategy
by Doug Smith, MBA, MHA
This the final in the Interim Leadership white paper series. With an aging population, healthcare reform and the recent recession all putting pressure on healthcare organizations, the need for experienced leadership is greater than ever. Already the the talent solution of choice for many healthcare organizations, opportunities for interim leaders will grow as top-level positions become increasingly difficult to fill. 

Healthcare Trends – 2010
by Doug Smith, MBA, MHA and Christine Ricci, RN, MBA
Twice each year, B. E. Smith surveys 200 leading healthcare executives to provide insight into the issues they expect to face in the coming year. The results of the most recent survey conducted in late 2009 continue to reinforce historical issues, however, new issues have come to the forefront.

Interim Leadership Services
by Doug Smith, MBA, MHA
In spite of the challenges it presents, a leadership void doesn’t have to be a liability. Rather, it is an ideal opportunity to leverage a skilled interim leader who will take the organization to the next level.

A Social Media Mecca: It's Key to Furthering Your Career
by Katie Schuckman, MBA
Social media Websites are taking the world by storm, even in the healthcare arena. With new sites emerging daily, you may be asking yourself how you can successfully navigate and select a network that will meet your professional needs.

Effective Revenue Cycle Management:
by Judith Myers, BS, FHFMA; Stacy Mays, MBA, MHA;
and Julee Thompson, RN, MSN, MBA
5 Actions You Can Take to Ensure Your Revenue Cycle Rises Above a Difficult Operating Environment.

Solve Your Next Crisis with Expedience and Experience
by James Brophy, FACHE and Colleen Chapp, RN, MHA, MSN, FACHE
Judicious healthcare leaders realize that crisis is inevitable. Crisis situations demand a focused approach and swift response. However, with all of the distractions that naturally accompany any crisis, it’s easy to panic and lose focus—resulting in mistakes that magnify negative outcomes and jeopardize the reputation and viability of the organization.

Achieving Financial Stability With Effective Resource Management
by Patricia Burns, RN, MSN; Teresa Golden, RN, MSN, NE-BC;
and Julee Thompson, RN, MSN, MBA
With myriad economic, regulatory and staffing pressures impacting today’s healthcare environment, effective resource management is critical to the financial stability of healthcare organizations. Yet, in spite of dramatic industry changes in recent years, many providers rely on oversimplified, outdated practices to manage resources.

Improving Financial Outcomes with High-Performing Charge Nurses
by Patricia Burns, RN, MSN; Beth Eagleton, RN, MN, Ph.D.;
Teresa Golden, RN, MSN, NE-BC; and Julee Thompson, RN, MSN, MBA
As the frontline leaders on the hospital unit, the performance of charge nurses makes a tremendous impact on the hospital’s success in terms of financial outcomes. It’s clear that the job responsibilities of a charge nurse have expanded significantly in scope and complexity. Yet, many healthcare organizations have failed to legitimize the role with a definitive job description and competency requirements.

Risk Management with Healthcare Construction Initiatives
by Dennis Smith, CHFM, CCM, CEM
In healthcare, risk is something to be avoided, or at the very least shifted to an entity with higher tolerance. Given the number of stakeholders involved in a construction initiative, complexity and therefore risk, is amplified in the healthcare setting. A major consideration in the process is design. Healthcare has unique design issues not found in other construction projects.

Risk-Proof Your Interim Leadership Hiring Process
by Ilah Stolz, RN, MS and Terri Mujica, MA
Interim leadership and consulting is a growing trend in healthcare leadership staffing. Healthcare organizations are increasingly turning to contracted professionals to fill short and long-term gaps in key leadership positions. What many healthcare executives do not realize is that if an interim leadership or consulting arrangement is structured improperly, it can expose a healthcare organization to considerable financial, legal and organizational risks.

Hospital Leverages Interim Leader to Fill Critical Gap
by Colleen Chapp, RN, MHA, MSN, FACHE
For Harris Regional Hospital, the unexpected resignation of the Emergency Department manager came at a critical time. The department was gearing up for a renovation that would add six exam rooms. At the same time, staff were making a concerted effort to maintain recent gains in ED patient satisfaction. An interim leader stepped in to address the major issues confronting this department and put a plan into action that would place the group on a path to success.

Baby Boomer Healthcare Exodus
by Brian Krehbiel
About 77 million baby boomers are about to retire or have retired (Non-Profit Times, February 2006), and as a result, the United States is about to undergo fundamental and dramatic economic, sociological, and demographic changes. It is questionable whether the bedrock institutions that formed the foundation of the American lifestyle are ready.

Charge Nurses: Investing in the Future
by Cherie Fulks, RN, MSN and Julee Thompson, RN, MSN, MBA
For years, many in healthcare have believed the premise that a good clinical nurse must also be a good leader. But this is not always true. Placing clinical nurses into leadership situations for which they are unprepared is counter-productive and the long-term effects will be felt throughout the entire healthcare organization.

Winning the War for Talent
by Katie Welter, MHSA
Hospitals can no longer focus on what other facilities are paying statewide or region-wide, but rather, nationwide, if they want to secure the best talent. Despite a hospital's location, the competition to secure excellent leadership is a national contest that spans all bed sizes. This fact is more prevalent than ever for several reasons.

Key Issues Impacting U.S. Healthcare
by Kathy M. Noland, RN, PhD, Michael Myers, MBA and Stephanie Green
The key issues impacting our complex and fast-moving healthcare environment will require innovative, dynamic and ever-stronger executive leadership. In addition to increasing pressures to accurately define and achieve strategic goals to ensure their organization's long-term success, healthcare executives will face challenges in the next few years that will test workforce talent and organizational performance as never before.

No Need for Short-term Pain to Achieve Long-term Gain
by Tim Morgan, BSN, MBA
Faced with a major workforce shift as the result of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Slidell Memorial Hospital needed an OR Director who could step in and help maintain Slidell's record as one of Louisiana's top hospitals for patient safety, as well as develop a strategic plan for the long term. Based on a recommendation, Slidell looked into an alternative it had never tried: interim leadership. The goal was to stabilize its respected OR while also moving forward during a careful search for a permanent leader.

Surviving the "Other" Nursing Shortage
by Jodi Wilson, BSN, MBA, CEN and Ilah Stolz, RN, MS
America's nursing shortage is receiving increasing attention, both within the healthcare world and from the general media. One new strategy is proving to be an effective solution: engage skilled interim managers to mentor promising but less experienced candidates. This strategy not only makes it easier to fill management positions but it also can reduce many of the risks of the hiring process while enhancing the hospital's organizational culture.

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