Certificate Program: Operations Management

General practice operations are defined and guided by policies and procedures that ensure patients are scheduled accurately and quickly, patient wait times and visits are efficient and effective, and patients receive quality health care and accurate communications. Once these processes are in place, it is then important to develop a program to consistently improve them, as needed, to achieve sustainable growth, account for changes in the external environment, and keep up with changes within the business itself. Participants of this three-part session will learn about the common sourcing and uses of benchmarking data, the application of total quality management techniques such as Six Sigma and LEAN, and best practices for policies and procedures for patient scheduling, among other operational programs. Attendees will also gain an understanding of various business ventures and ownership types including sole proprietorship, LLCs, partnerships and corporations.   

This program will provide you with the knowledge to:    

• Manage total quality management techniques such as Six Sigma and LEAN  
• Create and upkeep company policies and procedures  
• Summarize the different types of organizational ownership models     

Agenda Overview   

• Assessing and Improving Your Organization 
• Policies, Procedures and Making It All Work
• Understanding Organizational Ownership Models 

Strategic planning in today’s chaotic and challenging times has become paramount to a medical practice’s success. It focuses on longer-term goals and the strategy and tactics to reach those goals. This important process allows all stakeholders to have a clear understanding of the direction of the organization. Whether your strategic goals are big or small, project management methodology can help you achieve them. Participants of this four-part session will learn about the importance of strategic planning in healthcare and how that aligns with mission, vision and values. You will also develop the skillset and tools to successfully manage a project from beginning to end. This certificate program will include an interactive case study on project management.  

This program will provide you with the knowledge to:   

• Develop organizational goals and needs  
• Design business plans aligned with strategy  
• Generate a successful project plan and schedule  

Agenda Overview  

• How to Project Manage Like a Boss 
• Project Management: A Case Study
• The Importance of Strategic Planning in Healthcare
• Hope is Not a Strategy: Strategic Planning for Medical Groups

The effective management of physician compensation is complex, requiring sophisticated interpersonal and technical skills. The Healthcare Data Analytics certificate program will provide healthcare leaders with a roadmap to design and implement compensation packages that support the practice’s mission. Benchmarking provides a means to assess the competitiveness of physician compensation. This certificate program will show attendees how to assess which benchmarks are needed for a compensation plan, as well as the practice’s goals and strategies. Through examples of quality management initiatives, attendees will learn best practices to design, implement and measure quality care initiatives that ensure patient safety and the consistent delivery of high-quality care.  

This program will provide you with the knowledge to:   

• Establish a physician compensation plan that aligns with organizational goals   
• Assess physician compensation plans via benchmarking tools  
• Evaluate performance via analytical processes, such as Lean or total quality improvement programs 

Agenda Overview  

• Establishing a Physician Compensation Plan That Aligns with Organizational Goals 
• Healthcare Analytics and Benchmarking 
• Using Quality Initiatives in Daily Operations

Equipment purchasing and inventory control are key components in the operation of any medical practice. Medical groups must procure and distribute the right goods and services in the right place, at the right time, for the right price, and in the most efficient and effective way possible. Participants in the session will learn how effective management of equipment and inventory requires competence in understanding the organizational objectives of the practice, knowing when to lease equipment and when to buy it, leveraging group purchasing options, and implementing an effective inventory control system. Attendees of this two-part section will also develop a mastery of facility management, learning how the role of design, construction, maintenance, and appearance of a practice’s office play a critical role in the quality of patient care and the efficiency of the organization.  

This program will provide you with the knowledge to:    

• Determine effective inventory control systems  
• Evaluate when to lease and when to purchase medical equipment   
• Establish maintenance, safety and security programs  

Agenda Overview   

• Keys to Successful Supply Chain Management and Asset Management

The Information Technology (IT) section within the broader Operations Management Certificate Program will cover the main areas required to effectively lead and make decisions about IT structure, governance, oversight and operations. Almost everything we do in healthcare and within physician groups involves or is dependent on computers or Information Technology Systems. In this session, participants will learn about the optimal way to plan and oversee how the IT needs of the group are handled including clinician involvement, strategy, and in-house versus contracted services. The session will also cover IT integration with Electronic Health Records/EMR’s and billing systems as well as the IT security environment, providing a roadmap to measures you should take to address both known and potential cybersecurity threats.  

This program will provide you with the knowledge to:    

• Assess technology needs  
• Select IT to support operations  
• Establish cybersecurity processes and procedures  

Agenda Overview   

• Developing an Information Technology and Cybersecurity Plan

Marketing for a medical practice involves positioning the practice with consumers, patients, competitors, and others in the market as the practice of choice for the services they provide. Typical marketing tasks may include market research, patient needs analysis, strategic decision making about service design, and promotion of the practice. These marketing tasks can be best accomplished when analyzed through the four A’s of marketing for medical practices: access, availability, accountability, and accommodation. Keeping patients at the forefront of your marketing plan will ensure that a practice’s services best match patients’ needs and expectations. This session will address best practices for marketing the practice, effective use of digital technology in building trust with patients and compliant ways to attract and retain patients at your practice.  

This program will provide you with the knowledge to:    

• Appraise available data to identify key trends, demographic shifts and other economic factors to build an effective marketing plan  
• Decide where to invest in digital channels to improve passive patient acquisition   
• Develop reporting metrics deliver KPIs that matter when determining marketing success  

Agenda Overview   

• Communications, Marketing, and Community Relations Plans

Assessing and Improving Your Organization 

Adrienne Lloyd, MHA, FACHE 
MGMA Consultant and CEO/Founder, Optimize Healthcare Consulting 

Adrienne Palmer Lloyd, MHA, FACHE, is the Founder of Optimize Healthcare and an MGMA consultant.  With over 20 years in healthcare leadership roles, including time at Mayo Clinic and Duke University Health System, she has held executive roles across a variety of specialties and worked with both large academic systems and small group practice organizations.  Adrienne has led multiple multi-million-dollar transformations through a combination of process improvement methodologies and other techniques to create cultures of team engagement and innovation, while increasing satisfaction for patients, staff and providers.  She is passionate about helping leaders as they strive to optimize their own organizations through the challenging environments they are facing. 

She has experience in strategic planning, IT system and telehealth implementations, space planning and design, operational management, clinical integration and standardization, and leadership development.  She is certified in Lean and Six Sigma and as a trainer, coach and speaker with the John Maxwell Team.  She holds Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Healthcare Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is also a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.   She currently lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 

Policies, Procedures, and Making it All Work 

Katie Lawrence, MHA CMPE 
Director, Ambulatory Optimization, Prisma Health 

Katie Lawrence, MHA, CMPE, has nearly 20 years of experience in executive leadership and change management. Her passion is simple: to partner with leaders to create organizational cultures where team members, leaders, and the business itself all flourish together. 

Katie has deep industry experience in healthcare, yet the skills and systems she teaches cut across all industries to shape resilient leaders and teams. Today’s working world requires knowledge of tools and techniques for excelling in leadership while avoiding burnout and personal exhaustion.  

Principal consultant for Willow Strategy Group, Katie provides insight and inspiration for confidence among leaders of all experience levels. Her energy is palpable – whether the audience is live in the room or streaming through a computer screen. She provides real life examples to connect concepts to action, empowering leaders with tools they can put into use immediately. 

Katie has spent the majority of her career fostering growth in the Prisma Health medical group through escalating leadership roles that have crossed clinical departments and geography, currently as Executive Director of Ambulatory Optimization. Managing through partnerships and influence, Katie leads projects that focus on improving all aspects of the Quadruple Aim: patient experience, clinical quality, cost management, and provider/employee experience.  

Understanding Organizational Ownership Models 

Isabelle Bibet-Kalinyak, JD, MBA 
Attorney and Partner, Brach Eichler 

Isabelle Bibet-Kalinyak (Maitre Bibet-Kalinyak) is a partner at McDonald Hopkins and a healthcare attorney (compliance and transactional) in our national Healthcare Practice Group. She also leads the firm's Immigration Practice Group, which is specialized in employer-based immigration. In addition, as one of the few French business attorneys in the U.S., she advises U.S. clients with overseas operations/deals in French-speaking countries and French-speaking companies that desire to expand operations/scope in the U.S. In 2019, she received the honor to be nominated by France as Honorary Consul with jurisdiction over northern and central Ohio. 

Isabelle is passionate about business and the law. Fluent in French, her native language, Isabelle has more than 30 years of international business experience in the healthcare, aerospace and plastics industries. Prior to joining McDonald Hopkins, she worked as a corporate health care attorney for the law firm of Brouse McDowell after honing her legal skills in-house for a major health system (Akron General Health System, now part of the Cleveland Clinic) and a local county hospital (Robinson Memorial Hospital, now part of University Hospitals). She served in senior strategic business development positions for a global pharmaceutical company (Sanofi-Aventis). She also served as General Manager of a division for a global manufacturer of aircraft and train parts in Paris, France (Schneller Inc., now a division of the Transdigm Group). She is a frequent presenter at national and local conferences (American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA), the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO/AAOE), American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators (ASCRS/ASOA), Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), Ohio Hospital Association, Academy of Medicine of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, etc.) on topics related to health care, mergers and acquisitions, and business immigration. 

How to Project Manage like a Boss 

Ava Cannon, PMP
Project Manager, MGMA 

Ava Cannon is a seasoned healthcare Project Manager who loves problem-solving, improving team workflows, and unsticking complex cross-functional projects. Ava began her career supporting hospital EMR systems and clinical administration for addiction services, where she discovered her passion for helping others and supporting clinical implementation from “nose to tail.” Since joining MGMA, Ava has been excited to support local and national practices to reach their full potential. She is a certified Lean Facilitator and Provider Coach, Mental Health First Aid practitioner, and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. 

Project Management: A Case Study 

Owen Dahl, MBA, LFACHE, CHBC, LSSMBB 
Consultant, Owen Dahl Consulting, MGMA

Owen Dahl is a nationally recognized medical practice management consultant with more than 48 years’ experience in consulting and managing medical practices. His expertise includes revenue cycle management, strategic planning, organizational behavior and information systems implementation. Dahl is a recognized national speaker on topics such as Lean, revenue cycle, scenario planning, practice operations, change and disaster preparedness. He is the author of such titles as Think Business – Medical Practice Quality, Efficiency, and Profits and The Medical Practice Disaster Guide Book, and coauthored Lean Six Sigma for the Medical Practice. In addition, he writes and contributes articles that appear in MGMA Connection, Medical Economics, Physicians Practice and several other publications. Dahl received his Bachelor’s degree in hospital administration from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., and his MBA from the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley. He has completed doctoral work at NOVA Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 
 
The Importance of Strategic Planning In Healthcare 

Ron Holder, MHA, FACMPE, FACHE, CAE 
Chief Operating Officer, MGMA 

Ron Holder, chief operating officer of Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), brings decades of experience to his role at MGMA as a seasoned healthcare and medical practice executive. His background includes driving financial growth, leadership development, operational process improvement, increased employee engagement, and elevating patient satisfaction scores at healthcare organizations large and small. As chief operating officer, he is responsible for overseeing all of the operational and financial functions that directly impact the strategic direction of MGMA. Ron is also focused on ways in which MGMA can grow and foster innovation to meet the ever-fluctuating needs of medical practices. In September 2021, Ron was recognized by the Denver Business Journal as one of the top C-Suite executives in the Denver metro area during their annual C-Suite awards. 

 Holder was most recently a Vice President of Operations at Baylor Scott & White Healthcare, the largest non-profit healthcare system in Texas and one of the largest in the nation. In this role, Holder had strategic, operational and financial executive responsibility for the practices of 235 physicians and 85 advanced practice professionals, as well as related hospital functions across 47 sites. Holder was also the service line administrator for cardiovascular services and played a large role within the oncology service line. In these roles, Ron drove significant financial improvement by focusing on organizational efficiency and effectiveness, while also improving patient and employee satisfaction.  

 Previous roles for Holder include administrator for the department of surgery at Scott & White Healthcare, executive director for the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine and the University Anesthesiology Associates, PSC, at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and serving in progressive administrative roles at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine in the Department of Surgery. 

Hope Is Not a Strategy: Strategic Planning for Medical Groups 

Will Latham, MBA 
President, Latham Consulting Group 

For more than 30 years, Will Latham has worked with medical groups to help them make decisions, resolve conflict and move forward. 

During this time he has: Facilitated over 950 meetings or retreats for medical groups; helped hundreds of medical groups develop strategic plans to guide their growth and development; assisted over 250 medical groups improve their governance systems and change their compensation plans; and advised and facilitated the mergers of over 200 medical practices representing over 2,300 physicians. 

Will has an MBA from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte and is a frequent speaker at local, state and national, and specialty-specific healthcare conferences. He has written award-winning articles on medical group governance for various healthcare publications.

Establishing a Physician Compensation Plan That Aligns with Organizational Goals 

Owen Dahl, MBA, LFACHE, CHBC, LSSMBB 
Consultant, Owen Dahl Consulting, MGMA

Owen Dahl is a nationally recognized medical practice management consultant with more than 48 years’ experience in consulting and managing medical practices. His expertise includes revenue cycle management, strategic planning, organizational behavior and information systems implementation. Dahl is a recognized national speaker on topics such as Lean, revenue cycle, scenario planning, practice operations, change and disaster preparedness. He is the author of such titles as Think Business – Medical Practice Quality, Efficiency, and Profits and The Medical Practice Disaster Guide Book, and coauthored Lean Six Sigma for the Medical Practice. In addition, he writes and contributes articles that appear in MGMA Connection, Medical Economics, Physicians Practice and several other publications. Dahl received his Bachelor’s degree in hospital administration from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., and his MBA from the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley. He has completed doctoral work at NOVA Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 

Healthcare Analytics and Benchmarking 

Lauren Jones 
Senior Data Strategist, MGMA 

Lauren Jones is MGMA's primary Healthcare Data Strategist. Lauren believes in the importance of advancing medical practice performance in the healthcare industry and considers one of the greatest ways to do this is through benchmarking data.  Previously a practice manager and having worked in healthcare over the last 10 years, Lauren has a unique background with multiple specialties and extensive experience in benchmarking. After applying MGMA benchmarking data to her previous practice, she exceeded their budgeted annual revenue goal by $1.12M in 10 months while also improving their patients' experience scores to almost 100% month-to-month. She has become knowledgeable in operationalizing and analyzing MGMA's DataDive tool and now travels to educate members to better understand how to apply MGMA's data to their own organization. Since joining MGMA and the Organizational Membership Department, Lauren has engaged over 200 organizations helping to better benchmark against MGMA's DataDive Tool. 

Andrew Hajde, CMPE
Assistant Director, Association Content, MGMA

With more than 20 years of healthcare experience, Andrew Hajde, CMPE, Assistant Director of Association Content at MGMA, has held numerous high-level operations management positions in the healthcare industry. His most recent role in healthcare prior to working at MGMA was supervising 14 medical practices, with 78 providers and more than 200 employees, for a Fortune 500 healthcare company. The practice specialties he supervised included internal medicine, OB/GYN, urology, endocrinology, radiation oncology, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, vein surgery, bariatric surgery, cardio-thoracic surgery and cardiology.   

During his career, he also worked in various operational- and medical billing-related management roles, opened/acquired 25 medical practices, and managed an occupational medicine and rehab (PT/OT) practice. He has many years of experience with strategic planning, benchmarking, revenue cycle, operational improvement, employee/manager development and strategic marketing. 

Using Quality Initiatives in Daily Operations 

Dawn Plested, FACHE, MBA, JD, ESQ
Consultant, MGMA

Dawn has an extensive background in healthcare management and consulting. She has experience in operations leadership, value-based purchasing arrangements and innovative payment models, strategic planning, risk and compliance, marketing and communications, employee and physician engagement and management, and policy and procedure development. She has worked with private practices, hospital-based systems, rural health clinics and FQHCs.   

Dawn has an MBA with an emphasis in healthcare and international leadership and a juris doctorate with a health law emphasis. She is licensed to practice law in Minnesota. She is trained in Alternative Dispute Resolution as a mediator and arbitrator. She has spent more than 15 years in a variety of healthcare leadership roles. Her education combined with her broad experience in operations, finance, policy, leadership, marketing, communications and public relations has given her a unique skill set healthcare. This skill set, combined with her experience and education, makes her uniquely qualified to provide expertise in a consulting role. 

Keys to Successful Supply Chain Management and Asset Management 

Les Jebson, MHA, MBA, FACHE, FACMPE 
Executive Director of Clinical Strategy and Initiatives, Texas A&M Health 

Les Jebson currently serves as an operations executive with Texas A&M Health. In this role, he serves as an inter-collegiate clinical practice facilitator tasked with leveraging the collective clinical faculty-staff expertise of Texas A&M Health's five colleges in implementing innovative and sustainable care delivery models throughout the state [Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, Pharmacy, Dentistry]. He has held research, operational, financial and clinical roles in both private and academic healthcare delivery settings, with over 20 years of healthcare management experience.  

Mr. Jebson is certified and a fellow with The American College of Healthcare Executives [ACHE] and The Medical Group Management Association [MGMA] and is also a Certified Healthcare Patient Safety and Risk Manager. He periodically serves as a guest instructor for several universities and advisor to healthcare organizations and has authored numerous on healthcare operations improvement. 

Developing an Information Technology and Cybersecurity Plan 

Lee Holmes, MHA/MBA, FACHE, FACMPE  
Chief Executive Officer, Intensive Specialty Hospital 

M. Lee Holmes, MHA/MBA, FACHE, FACMPE, is a clinical operations senior executive with over 25 years in the healthcare profession, Lee's career has been comprised of progressively higher leadership roles. He recently completed a multi-year tenure as CEO of both Intensive Specialty Hospital and for Imperial Health, a 90-provider/20-location, multi-specialty group. Previously, he held leadership positions in both private group practices and large academic medical centers. 

Lee completed his undergraduate at Texas A&M University and his MHA/MBA from the University of Houston - Clear Lake. He is a Fellow in both the American College of Healthcare Executives and the MGMA's College of Medical Practice Executives. A 28-year veteran of the Air Force, he is also currently serving as a Colonel on the 8th Air Force Headquarters' command staff.

Communications, Marketing, and Community Relations Plans 

Jennifer Thompson
President, Insight Marketing Group 

Jennifer Thompson has served as President of Insight Marketing Group since 2006 and helps physicians and private medical practices throughout the U.S. attract and retain patients and rock-star employees. Jennifer has 20+ years of experience in marketing and business development for start-up organizations and as a marketing director for a Fortune 500 company.  

Twice elected to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners where her decisions impacted 1.2 million citizens and 60+ million visitors, Jennifer was often recognized for her use of social media and customer service outreach in her elected role.  She has repeatedly been recognized for her leadership in both public service and business and draws upon her successes, failures, and missteps as teaching opportunities to propel the organizations she works with toward their goals.  

Jennifer regularly speaks on the topics of ‘Social Customer Service’ and ‘Medical Practice Marketing’ to large medical practice management associations including MGMA, ASOA, ATAF, SROA, and the AOA.  Jennifer has been called upon as an expert in marketing during the COVID-19 pandemic by the MGMA at the national and state levels.