Salute to Long Term Care Administrators

March 12-16, 2012 is National Long Term Care Administrator's Week. As part of that celebration, Long Term Living magazine has published an article on its website. The article, by Marianna Kern Grachek, President and CEO of the American College of Health Care Administrators, is titled “Saluting today’s (and tomorrow’s) LTC administrators.” It describes the role of today’s long term care administrators and the pressures they face. The article, which can be found at http://www.ltlmagazine.com/article/saluting-today-s-and-tomorrow-s-ltc-administrators. Our own John Pratt, Assistant Program Director, assisted Ms. Grachek in developing the article.

March 12-16, 2012 is National Long Term Care Administrator's Week. As part of that celebration, Long Term Living magazine has published an article on its website. The article, by Marianna Kern Grachek, President and CEO of the American College of Health Care Administrators, is titled “Saluting today’s (and tomorrow’s) LTC administrators.” It describes the role of today’s long term care administrators and the pressures they face. The article can be found at http://www.ltlmagazine.com/article/saluting-today-s-and-tomorrow-s-ltc-administrators. Our own John Pratt, Assistant Program Director, assisted Ms. Grachek in developing the article.

Happy Long Term Care Administrators’ Week!

 The week of March 12-16 has been designated by the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA) to celebrate the contributions of Long Term Care Administrators nationally, and to recognize the importance of such a noble profession.

The first known example of a long-term care administrator is referenced in the Biblical story of the Good Samaritan. The injured man was left with an innkeeper who agreed to tend to his needs for a length of time. Today, the administrator’s role and responsibilities have grown tremendously. In an age of increasing elder demographics, a baby boomer generation with a strong consumer orientation, mobile extended family, increasing expectations regarding quality, increasingly complex medical conditions and treatments, growing rate of lawsuits, stringent regulations, uncertainty around various health care reform initiatives, a need to provide “quality of life” as well as “quality of care” amidst a more diverse cultural population, and the need to exercise financial stewardship when revenues decrease and expenses increase, the administrator must strike a balance that is increasingly challenging to find. Nursing facilities are responsible for the entire care of their residents 24/7/365, sometimes for years, with a margin for error of essentially zero. All of this care ultimately rests on the shoulders of the administrator.

Today’s administrators serve out of an enormous sense of dedication and compassion. Despite the challenges they face, they diligently and enthusiastically aspire to meet the needs and desires of each resident to the best of their ability. Most administrators will deflect any praise to their front-line staff, as is deserved. For this week, let’s tip our hats to the devoted professionals who have chosen the career of long-term care administration. To my colleagues in this field, I salute you!

Phil DuBois

Congratulations to the Maine Chapter of ACHCA!!

The Maine ACHCA chapter was selected to receive two (2) achievement awards at ACHCA's 50th anniversary convocation in Nashville. The first award is for their business affiliate program and the other for the membership recruitment and retention project! This is certainly an outstanding accomplishment and contributes to the five (5) awards they have received in the past for the following initiatives:


1. Maine Chapter Newsletter
2. Leaders as Mentors Program
3. Chapter Participation in ACHCA Initiatives
4. Chapter Leadership Initiative
5. Chapter Revitalization Project

Congratulations for all of your hard work and dedication!!  We are proud to be affiliated with you!

Healthcare's Future: Realizing the Promise

The 5th Annual Health Administration Symposium at Saint Joseph's College of Maine is scheduled for

July 23 through 27, 2012

In keeping with this year's 100 year anniversary of the college, this year the symposium will be bigger and better than ever!

Sr. Carol Keehan, CEO of the Catholic Health Association is scheduled to give us an update of health care reform.

Dr. Merrill Matthews will be speaking about the ethics of health care reform.

Keith Baldwin will be discussing physician integration in light of recent mandates of health care reform.

We have also planned three panel discussions:

• Steve Chies, Keith Baldwin and Dr. Doug Salvador will be taking on the difficult issue of preventing hospital readmissions.
• Debra Kramlich, Deb Palmer and Lois Skillings will be applying the concepts of evidence-based practice to interdisciplinary leadership in a real world context, and
• Ben Sawyer, Tom Brunelle, Jon Abeles and Dr. Inron Androbi will be tackling the topic of really improving operational performance in health care organizations.

New this year, we will also be offering three tracks of breakout sessions!  One track will feature topics specific to the field of radiologic technology, another will focus on issues related to long-term care administration and the last will focus on interdisciplinary leadership.

More details will follow, but you will definitely want to reserve the date!!!  You are welcome to attend the entire week-long symposium on beautiful Sebago Lake or you can come for one or more days!

Saint Joseph’s College announces new hire for Long-Term Care Admin Program

Philip DuBois of Oxford, Maine, recently joined the faculty at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine as an instructor in the online Long-Term Care Administration bachelor’s degree program.

A long-term care consultant and former nursing home administrator of Market Square Health Care Center in South Paris, Maine, he holds a master’s degree in health care administration from California College for Health Sciences. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in theology and Christian music ministries from Berkshire Christian College and is a licensed minister involved with music and foster/adoptive ministry.

DuBois is past president of the Maine Chapter of the American College of Health Care Administrators and is a member of the 2008 class of the American Health Care Association’s “Future Leaders in Long Term Care” fellowship. He has successfully led two facilities through four OSHA inspections that recognized his facilities with exemplary workplace safety programs. In 2005, Advance for Providers of Post-Acute Care Magazine recognized his facility as the Best Long Term Care Team in America. In 2009, his facility received AHCA’s Step 1 Quality Award.



In 2007, DuBois was involved in a car accident in which he and family members were seriously injured. As a result, he spent 2 ½ months as a resident at the nursing care facility where he was the administrator. He has used that life-changing experience to speak to long-term care professionals nationally regarding lessons he learned, the perspective he gained, and the impact the experience made on his administrative style.

Maine ACHCA Chapter and Maine Health Care Association form Alliance

The Maine Chapter of the American College of Heath Care Administrators (ACHCA) and the Maine Health Care Association (MHCA) have formed a business alliance. MHCA has been very supportive and helpful to the Chapter as it renewed itself over the past several years. The two organizations have now taken steps to further the ways in which they can work together to benefit their members.

The two organizations have become reciprocal Associate Members. Benefits of the new alliance include access to each other’s publications, mailing lists, educational programs, links to their respective websites, and the opportunity to participate in members-only events. The Maine Chapter also had a table at the MHCA Fall Conference & Expo at the Samoset Resort in Rockport. Saint Joseph's College is a Business Affiliate of the Maine ACHCA Chapter.

Find out more at

ACHCA Chapter: http://www.maineachca.org


MHCA: http://www.mehca.org

National Radiologic Technology Week

In celebration of National Radiologic Technologist Week, November 6th through 12th, we congratulate all Registered Radiologic Technologist and thank you for the vital role that you play in the provision of patient care!

Did you know that Saint Joseph’s College of Maine offers a progressive executive track from the radiology Certificate to an Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree and even graduate degree? 

If you are interested and would like to apply, please visit http://online.sjcme.edu/apply.

If you have any questions regarding the admission process, please phone 1-800-752-4723. The admission counselors will be happy to assist you. Please feel free to contact Brenda Rice at brice@sjcme.edu if you have any questions regarding our online programs in Radiologic Science or Health Administration.

For additional information on ways to celebrate and honor your staff, please visit www.asrt.org

Online Learning Netiquette

One of our very own instructors, Valerie Connor, published an article outlining the rules of etiquette that apply to electronic communication, including online courses!!!  This is excellent information and some of her suggestions may surprise you!  Check it out by clicking on the title above.

2011 Health Administration Symposium

The Health Care in the 21st Century: New Challenges, New Opportunities symposium in July on the Saint Joseph's College campus was amazing!!!!  There were ten presentations by experts from various areas of health care.  We learned a lot and had great opportunities to network and learn from each other too.  I wanted to share some of the comments attendees made:

• This topic is very appropriate for healthcare. It is a very diversified subject because of the professional disciplines and respect for each, including the generation gaps. We could talk all day on this topic.

• Good interaction with the audience. I learned much from them as well as from the presenter.

• Fabulous! Really encourages audience/student involvement. My only complaint was that I would laugh so hard he would make me snort - and I am not a snorter. Kidding... his humor was perfect.

• The presenters brought up issues I had never ever considered in regards to sustainability and conservation.

• Excellent information in a simplified way to learn it. Great ideas to bring back to senior leaders and helpful ways to improve processes for frontline staff.

We are already planning the symposium for next year! 

July 23-27, 2012

Save the date!!!!