Risk Issues We Face in Our Daily Lives
This panel has been approved for 1.50 ACHE Virtual Interactive Education Credits.
Since 2000 and the publication of the Institute of Medicine’s seminal work To ERR is Human, the healthcare community has placed an increased focus on patient safety issues. Organizations such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the National Quality Forum, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Joint Commission have all focused on strategies to improve quality of patient care and to reduce the risk of harm. Organizations are now driving towards “zero harm” initiatives that involve the entire organization to be onboard with the concept to succeed. In today’s challenging healthcare environment, organizations face many types of risk such as quality and safety, financial, competition, care for the uninsured, resources for technology, workforce shortages, the political and economic environment. The purpose of this program is to explore the impact of the identified risk issues for hospitals.
Moderator:
Herron Mitchell, FACHE
COO, Foremost Family Health Centers
Panelists:
Barrett Hunter
Director of Payor Relations, Compliance, and Contract Integrity, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences
Ajith Pai, FACHE
President, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest Fort Worth & Texas Health Hospital Clearfork
Ashley Vertuno
Chief Executive Officer, Arizona Market I HOPCo
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Speakers’ Bios:
Barrett Hunter is the Director of Payor Relations, Compliance, and Contract Integrity at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, home to Oklahoma State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine and academic clinic system. He also serves as the institution’s Privacy Officer.
Barrett’s path to healthcare began after graduating from the University of Tulsa, where he played basketball, and then earning his law degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. He began his legal career as Assistant General Counsel at the Oklahoma Tax Commission but always intended to move into healthcare. After a few years in state government, he joined OSU Center for Health Sciences as its first Director of Compliance and Risk Management.
At OSU-CHS, Barrett’s work spans compliance, privacy, risk management, internal policy development, conflict of interest oversight, payer relations, and clinical contract integrity. In 2020, he was asked to manage the institution’s COVID-19 response, including its testing and vaccine sites, while helping develop processes and mitigation strategies to keep patients, students, and employees safe.
In his current expanded role, Barrett negotiates terms and reimbursement rates with third-party payers and manages the institution’s clinical contracts. Outside of work, he continues his connection to basketball by helping coach the Cascia Hall High School Girls Basketball Team with a former college teammate. Barrett and his wife, Rachael, have three children and recently welcomed their first daughter earlier this year.
Herron Mitchell, MBA, FACHE, SSGB is a healthcare executive with over 20+ years of leadership experience spanning both the automotive and healthcare industries. He currently serves as Chief Operations Officer at Foremost Family Health Centers, where he oversees patient access, revenue cycle, facilities, and strategic growth initiatives to expand care in underserved communities. Prior to this role, he spent more than a decade at Parkland Health leading multi-site ambulatory operations, advancing access, and driving system-wide performance improvement through Lean Six Sigma. Herron began his career with General Motors, where he built a strong foundation in operational excellence and process improvement. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a Lecturer at the University of Virginia, dedicated to advancing health equity and high-performing care delivery systems.
Ajith Pai, PharmD, MBA, FACHE leads Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest Fort Worth with a steady focus on excellence, collaboration, and community impact. Since assuming the role of president in July 2022, he has guided the hospital through a period of remarkable achievement and growth. Under his leadership, Texas Health Southwest earned recognition as the #9 hospital in Dallas–Fort Worth in the 2025 U.S. News & World Report rankings, was named the #1 hospital in Fort Worth and #19 in Texas on Newsweek’s 2025 America’s Best-in-State Hospitals list and was honored as a Premier Top 100 Hospital. The hospital also recently embarked on a transformative $223 million expansion, including a new five‑story patient tower slated to open in 2028.
Before joining Texas Health Southwest, Ajith served as President of Texas Health Cleburne, where he built strong partnerships with physicians, strengthened operational performance, and fostered a culture centered on safety, quality, and engagement. Across his leadership roles, he has remained committed to advancing patient care while nurturing meaningful relationships with employees, medical staff, governance leaders, and the broader community.
Ajith’s professional foundation blends clinical expertise with business acumen. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy and later completed his Master of Business Administration at The University of Texas at Dallas. A Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, he served as the 2025 Chapter President of ACHE of North Texas. His belief in the power of advocacy has shaped his service beyond the hospital walls—most recently as the 2025 Chair of the Texas Hospital Association Political Action Committee (HOSPAC), as a member of the Texas Hospital Association Board of Trustees, and as a representative on the American Hospital Association Regional Policy Board 7.
Away from his professional responsibilities, Ajith finds his greatest joy in time spent with his family—his wife, Myriam, and their three children, Elyse, Nikhil, and Yvette.
Ashley Vertuno is an award-winning healthcare executive recognized for leading large-scale organizational transformation, accelerating growth, and building high-performing cultures across complex healthcare enterprises. With more than 15 years of executive leadership experience, she has established a reputation for driving measurable results through operational excellence, physician alignment, strategic vision, and disciplined execution.
As Chief Executive Officer of HOPCo’s Arizona Market, Ashley provides executive leadership across one of the nation’s premier musculoskeletal care platforms. She is responsible for market-wide strategy, operations, physician alignment, growth, and performance across The CORE Institute, Elevation Surgery Centers, and The CORE Institute Specialty Hospital (CISH). Her leadership spans physician practices, ambulatory surgery centers, specialty hospital services, ancillary care offerings, and strategic growth initiatives throughout Arizona.
Ashley is known for her ability to align physicians, executive leaders, and clinical teams around a shared vision while translating strategy into measurable outcomes. Through a physician-partnership model, she focuses on integrating care delivery, improving patient outcomes, strengthening organizational culture, and driving sustainable growth across the continuum of care.
Prior to joining HOPCo, Ashley served as Chief Executive Officer of HCA Florida JFK North Hospital, where she led a significant organizational transformation. Under her leadership, operating margin increased from 1.8% to more than 15%, EBITDA grew at a 37% CAGR, and the organization expanded key clinical service lines while strengthening physician partnerships and workforce engagement. The hospital earned national recognition from Healthgrades as a Top 100 Hospital for Orthopedic Surgery and Spine Surgery, as well as Patient Safety Excellence distinctions four consecutive years in a row.
Ashley has built her leadership reputation on the belief that exceptional performance is achieved when culture, accountability, and vision align. Her ability to connect strategy to execution has enabled organizations to navigate growth, transformation, and increasingly complex healthcare environments while maintaining a relentless focus on quality, service, and outcomes.
A nationally recognized thought leader, Ashley frequently speaks at leading healthcare conferences and executive forums, including the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), Becker’s Healthcare, and healthcare leadership events across the country. Her areas of expertise include physician engagement, healthcare transformation, leadership development, workforce strategy, organizational culture, and building high performing healthcare organizations.
Her professional honors include the 2024 Robert S. Hudgens Memorial Award for Healthcare Executive of the Year from the American College of Healthcare Executives, the 2024 Baldrige Foundation Award for Healthcare Leadership, recognition as a Modern Healthcare Emerging Leader, and inclusion among Palm Beach County’s Top 100 Business Leaders.
Ashley serves on multiple nonprofit and professional boards and remains actively committed to mentoring the next generation of healthcare leaders. She currently serves as Forum Officer for the YPO Healthcare Business Network, helping foster collaboration and leadership development among healthcare executives around the world.
Ashley is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) and a certified Six Sigma Green Belt. She holds a Master of Health Administration from the University of South Carolina and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.
