MARCH 2011 Issue

Regional Health Care Initiative welcomes Scott Lakin

Scott Lakin has been hired as the director of MARC’s Regional Health Care Initiative (RHCI). He will begin work on March 21. Lakin has extensive experience in health policy and insurance. As Missouri Insurance Director, he was responsible for a department of 225 employees and an annual budget of $13.7 million. Lakin also served in the Missouri House of Representatives from 1993 to 2001. As a state representative, Lakin was appointed chairman of a number of influential committees, including the Joint Committee on Health Care Policy and Planning (1994-1997), the Committee on Social Services and Corrections Appropriations (1997) and the Committee on Education, Public Safety and Judiciary Appropriations (1998-2001). In addition, he served as chairman of the Missouri Certificate of Need Committee and the Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan for state employees.

Lakin has extensive experience and training in building coalitions and bringing disparate views and interests together around common agendas. He is currently enrolled in the Executive MBA program at the Henry Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and expects to graduate in May. Lakin currently resides in Kansas City, Mo., with his wife Cindy, an educator and elementary school principal in the North Kansas City School District. Together they have three grown children.

Lakin will continue to advance the principal focus of the RHCI, which is to facilitate system change in the provision of quality, affordable, accessible health care for the uninsured and underserved — resulting in improvements to access to health care for the uninsured, the quality of care and system capacity. He is eager to meet with health care stakeholders and begin building the relationships which are necessary for success. 

Report focuses on disparities in health care

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently published 2010 National Healthcare Disparities, a yearly report which focuses on disparities in health care delivery related to racial and socioeconomic factors as well as progress and opportunities for improving health care quality and reducing disparities. The report presents expanded analyses of care across the urban-rural continuum, summarizing the care received by residents of different types of geographic areas.

The report identifies four key themes that emphasize the need to accelerate progress if the nation is to achieve higher quality and more equitable health care in the near future.

• Health care quality and access are suboptimal, especially for minority and low-income groups.
• Quality is improving, but access and disparities are not improving.
• Urgent attention is warranted to ensure improvements in quality and progress on reducing disparities with respect to certain services, geographic areas and populations, including:
  • Cancer screening and management of diabetes
  • States in the central part of the country
  • Residents of inner-city and rural areas
  • Disparities in preventive services and access to care.
• Progress is uneven with respect to eight national priority areas:
  • Two are improving in quality: Palliative and End-of-Life Care and Patient and Family Engagement.
  • Three are lagging: Population Health, Safety and Access.
  • Three require more data to assess: Care Coordination, Overuse and Health System Infrastructure.
• All eight priority areas showed disparities related to race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

First president and CEO selected for eHealthAlign

James M. Brophy has been appointed to serve as the first president and CEO of eHealthAlign, the nonprofit health information exchange for the Kansas City region. The vision of eHealthAlign is to significantly improve the quality, patient safety and cost efficiency of health care in the Kansas City region.

Brophy is an experienced health care executive who served as CEO of Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City and Saint Luke’s Northland Hospital.  Jim also served as senior vice president of Truman Medical Centers.

“Providing accurate and timely information through an electronic health record will enable both providers and patients to make better informed decisions,” said Brophy.

In addition to serving as the region’s health information exchange, eHealthAlign can serve as a forum for collaboration and care coordination among health care stakeholders, including patients, hospitals, physicians, safety-net clinics, public health departments, long-term care facilities and other health care providers.

eHealthAlign serves the entire Kansas City region including 12 counties in Missouri and 13 counties in Kansas. eHealthAlign has received generous support from many philanthropic institutions, including the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, Hall Family Foundation, REACH Healthcare Foundation, John W. and Effie E. Speas Memorial Trust (Bank of America, Trustee)  and many others.
For more information about eHealthAlign, please contact Jody Denson.

Turner House names new executive director

The Board of Directors of Turner House Children’s Clinic (Turner House) has announced the appointment of Janet Burton as executive director. “Janet is an experienced leader who brings a strategic viewpoint and the ability to bring clarity to teams to generate improved results,” said Sallie Veenstra, M.D., president of Turner House’s Board of Directors. “We’re excited to welcome her to the Turner House family.”

Burton previously served in senior leadership positions in nonprofit community health care organizations in Kansas City, leading external affairs, marketing, communications and fund development efforts.  As a management and marketing consultant, she has led the development of strategic business and marketing plans and market research and operations studies for nonprofits and business start-ups.  In addition, Burton has more than 20 years experience in corporate marketing and strategic planning in the cable television and telecommunications industries, leading new market launches and growth initiatives. 

Burton holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Rockhurst University and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas.  Her continued education has included executive management course work in market strategy and strategic pricing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. 

“Thanks to the hard work of its staff and Board of Directors, Turner House is a well-run, financially healthy and well-respected organization,” said Burton. “I’m so pleased to have the opportunity to work with Turner House’s caring and professional staff and its talented, committed directors as we provide much-in-demand pediatric services and chart our path to the future in changing times.”
Turner House  is a nonprofit pediatric clinic located in Kansas City, Kan.  It is dedicated to providing high quality primary health care to approximately 4,000 underserved and uninsured children in each year.  Services are offered to families with incomes at 200 percent of poverty or below. Currently, 86 percent of its patient population is Hispanic.

Safety Net Collaborative holds open meetings

The Safety Net Collaborative (SNC) comprises leaders of nonprofit organizations whose primary mission is to provide health care to the uninsured and underinsured residents of the bistate Kansas City region. SNC meetings are held on a monthly basis and are open to all community stakeholders.  Persons or organizations wanting to be on the SNC meeting agenda should submit a request to the co-chairs, Amanda Lowe, CEO of the Health Partnership of Johnson County, or Sheri Wood, CEO of KC Free Health Clinic, at least two weeks in advance of the next regularly scheduled meeting. Agenda requests will be assessed to determine whether the proposed topic is germane to the SNC’s mission.