2009 Health Administration Symposium

We are pleased to announce our second annual health administration symposium here at Saint Joseph's College of Maine!! The symposium will be held on campus the week of July 20, 2009. We will be posting additional information here as things move forward, but here is the tease:

Managing Healthcare with Values in Turbulent Economic Times

A Symposium for Health Administration Professionals

The Graduate and Professional Studies division of Saint Joseph’s College of Maine is holding it’s second annual symposium for health administration professionals July 20th through 24th in 2009! This symposium is designed for individuals with an interesting in how healthcare systems work and ways to improve the system. Students may earn academic credit (undergraduate and graduate). Continuing Education credits will also be offered. Students who attended last year’s event may also attend in 2009 to earn credits in the health administration elective courses area.

This symposium will be focused on managing the business of healthcare, using values and integrity, in spite of the unpredictable economic times. Special topics will be included that are particularly relevant in these difficult times and will be presented by nationally-known experts in those areas.

As noted by The Joint Commission,“while health care has long been thought to be ‘recession-proof’ because of an endless supply of sick patients and reliance on government payment, health care organizations are as vulnerable to the tightened credit market as any industry”
(Guiding Principles for the Development of the Hospital of the Future, The Joint Commission, 2008, p. 11).

View video testimonials of some of last year's participants: http://sigma.sjcme.edu/gps/Symposium/Symposium_Broadband.mpg.

Check our web site soon for additional information!!

www.sjcme.edu/gps/health-administration-symposium.php

An Additional New Committee Member!

We are very pleased to announce that Sister Constance Veit, lsp has also been appointed to our advisory committee!!! Sister Constance is a student in our Master of Health Administration program. She brings a great deal of experience in healthcare to the committee, but she also brings the student perspective!

Sister Constance Veit discovered her love for the elderly as a high school volunteer with the Little Sisters of the Poor in Latham, NY. After graduating from Boston University’s Sargent College of Allied Health Professions with a B.S. in occupational therapy in 1984, she entered the community and made her profession as a Little Sister in 1987. For the past twenty years she has served in various capacities in the homes for the aged administered by her Congregation throughout the United States and in Paris, France. From 1994–2001 she served as editor of her community’s magazine, Serenity. She then served on the Provincial Council of the Chicago province, which covers homes from Kentucky to California, from 2001–2005. After that she returned to the direct care of the elderly, supervising a 36-bed nursing unit, the activities program and a flourishing youth volunteer program at Our Lady of Hope Residence in Latham, NY. She is currently enrolled in the Masters in Health Care Administration program at St Joseph’s College and in November 2008 returned to her position in the Little Sisters’ Publications Office in Baltimore, MD.

The Little Sisters of the Poor are an international Congregation of women religious serving the needy elderly in 32 countries around the world. The Congregation administers 30 homes in the United States.

Joint us in welcoming Sister Constance!! We are very pleased to have her working with us to ensure our programs are of the highest quality!

Interview with John Pratt

Gary Tetz interviewed John Pratt for an article in the Long-Term Living Journal. It has some interesting bits of information! Check it out by clicking on the title above!

Changes in Health Administration at SJC

As you may know, there have been a number of changes here at Saint Joseph's College of Maine recently.

Dr. Joseph Lee has accepted the position of President of the college and will be inaugurated later this month. We look forward to working with Dr. Lee!

In the Health Administration programs we continue to work to ensure the quality of our programs. We are particularly excited about some new developments with our Master of Health Administration program. We are planning to develop a specialization in Catholic healthcare leadership, recognizing that many Catholic health organizations are working to strengthen their Catholic foundation. We have also applied for membership to the US Catholic Health Association. We're very excited about the opportunities this affords us to combine our expertise in equipping and supporting healthcare leaders with our Catholic heritage, to meet the needs of the profession.

We are already making plans for summer 2009 and intend to offer a greater variety of hybrid courses, as well as hosting another symposium. The symposium was very popular this past summer and we anticipate it will be even better next year! If you have ideas for topics for this event, please comment to this post. We would love to hear from you!

We will let you know as we progress!

Summer Hybrid Courses a Hit

During the past year, GPS eliminated the requirement that students attend an on-campus summer residency session. That presented a challenge for us to find ways to get students to come to campus voluntarily. One way we did that was to create several hybrid courses that combined online and in-class segments. We offered six such courses. They included four weeks of online course work, a one-week session on campus, and a final week online.

These courses were a great success, with students commenting very favorably about the flexibility offered by the hybrid courses.

Meetings have already been held to review the overall 2008 summer programming and to begin to plan for 2009. While we still do not know the final format or timing, we are sure some type of hybrid courses will be offered. We are also looking at other course options.

SJC Health Administration Symposium 2008

The Graduate and Professional Studies division of Saint Joseph’s College of Maine held its first annual symposium for health administration professionals July 15th through 19th this year. The focus of the symposium was “Managing the Business of Healthcare.” The event was unique in that it was designed for both students wishing to gain academic credit (undergraduate and graduate) and others who attended the sessions for continuing education credit.

This exciting event brought together a national panel of experts to discuss a variety of subjects relevant to the success of healthcare organizations. Specific topics included ethics and advocacy, improving physician/hospital relations, the challenges of developing and maintaining interdisciplinary teams, an analysis of changing trends in health care, and more – a total of ten sessions.

Thirty individuals participated in the symposium in addition to the presenters. The participants were very active and each session was vibrant with exchanges of ideas and experiences! While there was general acknowledgement that the larger national health system issues could not be solved in that venue, there was a great deal of energy around initiating improvements in each person’s scope of influence, resulting in benefits to the larger system.

Michelle Sinclair’s comments reflected that of many of the participants when she stated, “overall I thought the entire program was excellent. It was an opportunity to network with people from all over country and from different disciplines as well as the instructors and the experts in their fields. I feel much more informed as to the latest trends and issues affecting healthcare and I know we just reached the tip of the iceberg. The seminar left me wanting more! Thank you to all of you who organized, coordinated, developed and presented the symposium. I'm looking forward to next year.”

The college plans to host this event annually and will engage experts on a variety of current topics each year. The symposium is open to all individuals working with or interested in healthcare. Most participants stayed on campus and enjoyed dining in the café, networking with others and participating in other on-campus events during their stay.

Jean & Stephen Szilagyi are honored!

On July 8, 2008 the Ambassador of the Ukraine, Oleh Shamshur, presented Dr. Stephen Szilagyi with the order “For Merits” III degree, awarded by the President of Ukraine for significant personal contribution to the strengthening of Ukraine’s authority in the world, promotion of its history and cultural heritage.

Dr. Szilagyi is founder and Executive Director of SARA (Sharing America's Resources Abroad) – a non-profit organization which has been supplying medical equipment and expertise to Ukraine.
Stephen Szilagyi assists physicians from Ukraine to come to the United States to receive additional medical and surgical training to provide improved health care in hospitals back in Ukraine. He has been very active in helping to establish long-term cooperation between the medical institutions of the two countries.

Dr. Szilagyi's wife and partner in SARA is our very own Jean Szilagyi, adjunct instructor for Long-Term Care Laws & Regulations. Jean is also a graduate of SJC! We are very proud of their efforts to bring health care services to areas of the world in which they are not otherwise available. It is an honor to be associated with them.

Long Term Care Educator Receives National Award

Reston, VA, June 8, 2008 – John R. Pratt, FACHCA, professor of Health Administration at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine and Director of the Long-Term Care Management Institute at the College, was honored with the 2008 Education Award by the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA) at its 2008 Convocation in Covington, Kentucky on May 18. This annual award recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to education in long term care.
Having served as a health care administrator for twenty-five years before joining academia, Pratt brings a broad range of knowledge and experience to his role of educator. He is author of a textbook, Long-Term Care: Managing across the Continuum, now in its second edition. In 2008, Pratt developed and taught the highly-rated and innovative workshop Leadership Skills for Long-Term Care Administrators, which was hosted by the New England Alliance of ACHCA. “John is exceptionally deserving of this honor,” commented Stephen Esdale, chair of the ACHCA Board of Directors. “His unique perspective and creative approach to education has made him one of the leaders in our field.”
Founded in 1962, the American College of Health Care Administrators is the only professional association devoted solely to meeting the professional needs of today's long-term care administrator and executive. The College's mission focuses on advancing leadership excellence in long term care through the provision of leadership education, promotion of professional advancement programs such as Fellowship and professional Certification, and facilitation of leadership development. The College’s diverse membership includes administrators across the continuum of long-term care and senior housing.
For more information about The College, call the National Office at (703) 739-7900, visit www.achca.org, or email mailto:ccandrews@achca.org.

Class of 2008 Graduates!

We are pleased to announce that 114 students have completed health administration program degrees and are proceeding to graduation! Of these 75 students have earned a Master of Health Administration degree, six have earned Bachelors degrees in Long-Term Care Administration, one in Radiologic Science Administration and 32 in Health Care Administration!

Congratulations to each of you! We are very proud and we welcome you as alumni!

New "Get Connected" Feature on Web Site

We are pleased to announce an exciting new feature on the Saint Joseph’s College website www.sjcme.edu/gps.

It is called “Get Connected”. Although it can be found on the Current Students page, it is available to anyone.

In this section, you can:

• Read the SJC Magazine
• Buy SJC merchandise
• Read the SJC student newspaper
• Attend a summer session
• Tell us your stories and send us your pictures
• Make a gift

This new initiative is another way we are trying to help you to remain connected to your college! We hope you will take advantage of it.

We especially would like students and graduates to “Tell us your stories and send us your pictures” and let us – and your fellow students and graduates – know more about you and what you are doing. We would also like to hear any comments or suggestions you have about this or any other section of our web site.