3.0 Hours Face-to-Face Credits Approved, 1.5 Per Panel

3:30 – 5:00pm – Panel 1: Telemedicine in the Healthcare Delivery System

Innovative benefits of telemedicine are of vital interest amid the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. This program will explore the current and future role of telemedicine in the delivery of health care. Technical, operational, regulatory and financial aspects of the development of telemedicine programs will be investigated. The expanding role that telemedicine holds in daily medicine and its direction into the future of the healthcare delivery system will be explored.

Moderator:

Michael R. Hicks, MD, MBA, MHCM, FACHE
Executive Vice President for Clinical Affairs, University of North Texas Health Science Center,
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Acclaim Physician Group

Dr. Michael Hicks joined the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) in 2015 as Executive Vice-President for Clinical Affairs. He also serves as the Interim Chief Executive Officer of Acclaim Physician Group, Inc. (“Acclaim”), the newly formed multi-specialty group practice of the John Peter Smith Health Network. In these roles Dr. Hicks leads several hundred physicians and advanced practice professionals in creating an academic and research oriented group practice dedicated to delivering high value clinical care to the residents of Tarrant County and North Texas today while developing the clinicians and care delivery models for the future. Dr. Hicks leads a UNT Health Science Center team that is partnering with local and national telehealth pioneers to develop educational curriculum and create clinical training opportunities in telehealth for health care students.

Dr. Hicks has held numerous leadership positions in a wide variety of clinical delivery organizations. He is a frequent invited speaker on practice management, group practice development, strategic planning, negotiation and decision-making theory and practice, consolidation in the health care industry and evolving care delivery platforms and clinician skills needed for the future. Additionally, Dr. Hicks is a member of the management committee for the recently announced medical school in Fort Worth being collaboratively developed by Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas Health Science Center.

Dr. Hicks received his M.D. from West Virginia University School of Medicine, his residency training at the University of Texas Southwestern and Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, as well as the Texas Heart Institute in Houston. He holds advanced management degrees in business (University of Dallas MBA) and healthcare management (Harvard School of Public Health) and has board certification in both Anesthesiology and the medical subspecialty of Clinical Informatics.

Panelists:

Carl Couch, M.D., MMM, FAAFP
Vice President, Innovation, Baylor Scott & White Health 

Dr. Couch has been an active family physician for 39 years and is currently the Vice President Innovation at Baylor Scott & White and the immediate past President of Baylor Quality Alliance, a clinically integrated Accountable Care alliance of over 4,000 physicians and 46 hospitals aligned with Baylor Scott&White Health Care System from 2011-2015.

Prior to this he was Vice President of Health Care Improvement of Baylor Health Care System, from 2010-11. He was also the Founding director, and 13-year Chairman of the Board of Health Texas Provider Network, an organization of 700 physicians employed by the Baylor Health Care System and Founder of Family Medical Center at Garland, Texas.

He was the founder and Executive Director of ABC Baylor, the Baylor Health Care System’s 4-day course on clinical quality improvement, graduating over 2,800 physicians, nurses, and administrative leaders 2001-2011.

He was also Co Chairman, Best Care Committee, Baylor Health Care System senior quality committee 2005-2011 and Director of Physician Leadership training in Baylor for over 8 years.

His interests as a physician leader include Accountable Care, physician group dynamics, group practice organization and function, physician compensation, physician leadership development, population health, systematic quality improvement, and medical informatics.  As founding President of a large, successful Accountable Care Organization, Dr. Couch is a recognized authority in ACO formation, development, and management.

Dr. Couch is a Board certified Family Physician, Diplomat, American Board of Family Practice; FAAFP, Fellow, AAFP. He is an AOA graduate of the University of Florida Medical School and did his Postgraduate training at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. He received his Master’s in Medical Management from Tulane University in New Orleans.

Dr. Couch is happily married for 50 years to his wife, Jo Anna, who is a certified Personal Life and Executive Coach.  They have two children, Kimberly McMillin, MD (who is also a Family Physician in Health Texas and who has two daughters), and Dr. Christopher Couch, Ph.D., Chief Technology officer for Lear Corporation in Detroit.  Chris and his wife have a son and daughter.  He enjoys golfing, boating, travel, and is actively involved with his wife as co-teachers in adult education at Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas, where he serves as a deacon.

Michael Lemnitzer, CPA, CCP
Phillips Health

Michael Lemnitzer, CPA, CCP (Certified Public Accountant, Chronic Care Professional Health Coach), has over 32 years of healthcare experience, including 14 years related to geriatrics and long-term care and the most recent 18 years related to remote monitoring in home care and telemedicine. During his healthcare career, Mr. Lemnitzer has been involved in new startups, finance, operations, reimbursement, new technology advancements, regulatory, legislative, and strategic business development with increasing responsibilities each year.

Mike joined Philips in 2006 and is responsible for driving success with Population Health Solutions, formerly known as Hospital to Home. Mike is confident that the healthcare industry will continue to expand, further increasing benefits including financial, clinical, and operational, and that ongoing new technology advancements and processes will change, in a positive way, how healthcare is delivered and managed across high risk/high cost patient populations.

Mike resides in Texas and has a daughter and son.

Alexander M. Nason
Vice President
Specialists On Call

Mr. Alexander Nason directs the development of the new services for Specialists On Call. Through this effort, he leads the strategic planning, physician development, sales and implementation of new telemedicine programs. In 2014, Mr. Nason launched the Teleintensivist (aka Critical Care) service line which supports over 150 critical care beds in 7 states. Mr. Nason evaluates telehealth opportunities and develops appropriate strategies to implement a successful program for the client. Prior to joining Specialists On Call in 2013, Mr. Nason lead the telehealth programs at Johns Hopkins Medicine where he consulted on telehealth implementations and installations. Successful programs included a pediatric emergency medicine program, a tele-translation service, an international tumor board and a global second opinion service. Additionally, Mr. Nason successfully launched the centralized e-learning platform at Johns Hopkins Medicine to facilitate corporate training across the enterprise. When he left, the platform had over 1.7 million completions in less than 5 years.

Mr. Nason has more than 25 years of healthcare industry experience in research, political, clinical, academic and consulting environments. Mr. Nason holds a Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Health Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and a B.A. in Biology from Tulane University.

5:00-6:00pm – Hors d’oeuvres and Networking

6:00-7:30pm – Panel 2: Management and Prevention of Hospital Acquired Infections

HAIs are among the leading causes of death in the United States accounting for an estimated 1.7 million infections and 99,000 associated deaths in 2002. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of HHS has shown that about 36% of these infections are preventable through the adherence to strict guidelines by healthcare workers when caring for patients. This discussion will be focused on the causes of hospital acquired infections and the impact leadership can have on the quality, financial health and safety of their organizations.

Moderator:

Kevin Stevenson, MBA, FACHE,
IntegraNet Health

Kevin Stevenson has served in leadership roles in hospitals, systems and healthcare organizations for over 25 years.  Kevin’s expertise lies in service line development, physician relations, branding, messaging, crisis communications and operations.  He and his teams have been recognized for leadership in quality, safety, patient satisfaction and Kevin was named 2001 Marketer of the Year by the Greater Omaha Chapter of the American Marketing Association.

A Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives since 2001, Kevin has served in a variety of roles within ACHE chapters, including his current service as Secretary of the ACHE of North Texas Chapter, and on Regent Advisory Councils in Kentucky and in North Texas.  Kevin is passionate about mentoring the next generation of healthcare leaders and has mentored many both formally through ACHE of North Texas and informally.  In 2014, Kevin was recognized by ACHE for his contributions with the ACHE Service Award.

Kevin currently serves as a consultant for a number of healthcare-related organizations and ventures and as an adjunct professor for healthcare management at Concordia University in Austin.  He earned his Master’s degree in Business Administration from Baylor University and is a rabid supporter of Baylor football.  He and his wife have two daughters and are active in their church and community.

Panelists:

Michael Siebert, M.D.
Medical Director Infectious Diseases
Children’s Health & Infectious Diseases Faculty UT Southwestern

Dr. Sebert is a member of the Pediatric Infectious Disease faculty at UT Southwestern and serves as the Medical Director for Infection Prevention & Control at Children’s Health.  His professional interests include prevention of hospital-acquired infections and preparedness for emerging infectious diseases in the healthcare environment.  Prevention of infections associated with central vascular catheters and urinary catheters has been a focus of his work at Children’s.

Dr. Sebert completed residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).  He then joined the faculty at CHOP and conducted research on respiratory tract infections before moving to Children’s in 2014.

Pranavi Sreeramoju, MD, MPH, CMQ, FSHEA, FIDSA
Associate Professor, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Chief of Infection Prevention, Parkland Hospital

As Associate Professor in Medicine-Infectious Diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Chief of Infection Prevention at Parkland, Dr. Sreeramoju has led quality, safety and process improvement efforts related to healthcare-associated infections and sepsis mortality, and accelerated training and research in infection-related quality and safety. Key accomplishments during her 10-year tenure in the University of Texas system have been reduction in several HAI in hospitals she served, implementation of prevention programs including hand hygiene and healthcare personnel vaccination programs, enhancement of data infrastructures, and establishment of training programs in healthcare epidemiology. She is currently leading the RITE (Reduce Infections Together in Everyone) program, an 1115 waiver initiative at Parkland. She chairs the infection prevention and control committee at Parkland and serves on several national and regional quality and safety committees including the education committee of the American College of Medical Quality, the public policy and government affairs committee of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and the Texas Medical Association Council for Quality and Patient Safety. She has been named as one of the ‘Top 50 leaders in Patient Safety in 2015’ by Becker’s Hospital Review and she is the recipient of the SHEA-APIC Judene Bartley Award for Public Policy and Advocacy in 2015.

Brenda Helms, RN, AAS, BSN, MBA/HCM, CIC, CPHQ
Regional Director of Clinical Compliance and Accreditation
Baylor Scott & White Health

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