Message for Members                                              

Happy New Year. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. As I move into my new position as president, I must begin by thanking Michele Mills for her outstanding guidance during her term last year. Michele's dedication, knowledge, hard work and sense of humor has helped guide the SIG through a year where we grew in membership and benefits offered. I offer my heartfelt thank you to her.

I would like to introduce your Board of Directors for 2008:
          President - Sue Houston
          Vice-President - Beth Allen
          Secretary - Mary Armijo
          Treasurer - Mike Allman
          Director of Membership - Ray McIntyre
          Director of Education and Certification - Amy Kentera
          Director of Events - Rami Haddad
          Director of Development - Marie Medenbach
          Past-President - Michele Mills

I want to thank Beth, Mary and Ray for their hard work last year and look forward to working with them again this year. I would like to introduce our new members. Mike Allman has many years working as a consultant doing project management and business development. He has lead several companies from start-up to profitability over the past 20 years and continues to manage the finances for businesses outside of his consulting position. Amy Kentera directs the computer and telecommunication activities of multiple inpatient and outpatient facilities including the implementation of an EMR. Amy has also worked in many areas of the health care industry including managed care, health care software and training, and general acute care hospitals. Rami Haddad has over ten years of experience managing complex projects, implementing information systems, defining technology strategy, and analyzing governance structure. He has a comprehensive knowledge of technology governance, outsourcing, and integration. Rami has managed projects nationally across multiple healthcare organizations in medical academic institutions, integrated delivery networks, and hospices. Marie Medenbach has experience with diverse interface initiatives as well as system implementations across many facilities. She has been active in the Colorado HIMSS Chapter and will continue on their board. More extensive bios are available on our web site.

Your board looks forward to working hard this year to increase the benefits you receive for your membership dollars. Thanks and you can reach me at president@pmihealthcare.org.

Sue Houston, PMP
Healthcare SIG President

Presenter: Kiron D. Bondale, PMP, MBA - Solution Q Inc.
Date: January 22 or January 23 · 2 PM EST
Cost: Free to Healthcare SIG members
PDUs: PMPs earn 1 PDU.

The Healthcare SIG and Solution Q have teamed-up to deliver a series of three webinars offered over the next few months. The next webinar offered in this series is IT Governance: How to Prioritize Projects When Each One is Critical.

During the project intake process all projects are considered critical, all others never get approved. So how do you decide which "critical" projects are most critical? These decisions are typically made politically, emotionally or without consistency. The impact being poor resource utilization, frustrated resources, projects not aligned with strategic objectives and higher risk with lower ROI.

This webinar demonstrates a Balanced Approach to prioritizing initiatives. Projects affect many aspects of your business; all factors should be considered when taking on a new project. Learn the prioritization secrets of successful companies using a Project Portfolio Management mentality. These secrets can decrease risk, return higher ROI, optimize resource utilization and allow you to reach the maximum aggregate value of your projects.

Register Online

Solution Q offers a variety of complimentary webinars focusing on Project Portfolio Management (PPM). Learn tips and tricks, best practices and strategies from experienced professionals in project management. View the list of February webinars>

Health Care Compliance Association to Deliver Webinars on "Medicaid Enforcement Trends"

The Health Care Compliance Association is presenting audio and web casts on January 22 and 23 on Medicaid Enforcement Trends. These sessions are designed to cover how and why organizations should implement upgrades to their compliance programs to protect against new risk.

The two sessions cover:

• Part I: DRA Update: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
  January 22, 1:00 PM ET, 90 minutes, 1.2 CEUs.
• Part II: What You Can Do and How You Can Prepare for
  the Implementation of the DRA, PERM, MIP, And RACs
  to Protect Your Organization.
  January 23, 1:00 PM ET, 90 minutes, 1.2 CEUs.
  

Healthcare Financial Management Association Publishes "Building a New Payment System"

The Healthcare Financial Management Association’s "Building a New Payment System" report
considers the flaws of the current payment system, and the views of about 100 healthcare executives on a few, clear and compelling criteria of the new systems.

A new system should:

• Be simple.
• Cover the full, reasonable cost of care.
• Align with incentives for efficient care.
• Reward high-quality care.
• Cover the costs of broad social benefits.
• Stimulate innovation.
  

We Are at HIMSS 2008: Stop By, Meet Members, Participate

For all those attending HIMSS 2008 in Orlando, join us and fellow project managers at any of the following:

• Stop by our booth in Lobby C open all day hosted by the board and other members: introduce yourself, exchange something you learned at the conference, and enter your name in a raffle.
• Join us for the pre-conference workshop: The Five "Rights" of Project Management: Effective Tools for Streamlining Project Implementations. This is event #202 on page 17 of the conference brochure
• Join us for a workshop with HIMSS PM SIG on Tuesday from 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM to discuss the latest topics on project management in healthcare. Room TBD. Stop by the booth for more information.

We look forward to seeing you there. Meanwhile, contact our Director of Events with any questions.

• Is created in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, or Publisher 2007.
• Is less than 2 MB in size.
• Does not contain personal information or objectionable content.
• Contains only materials that you own or have permission to use

Ready to share? Submit your template to education@pmihealthcare.org.
Upon receipt, templates will be reviewed by a committee prior to posting.

Healthcare Project Management Jobs

Healthcare Information Technology Consultants
ECG Management Consultants, Inc., is seeking healthcare IT consultants for its Seattle office. Interested individuals should send a letter and résumé to recruiting@ecgmc.com.

Interested in posting a position?
If you would like to post a position description in HealthcareSpeaks, please email information to projects@pmihealthcare.org.