Sound Physicians Hosts National Leadership Conference “Amplify 2015”

April 25, 2015 – TACOMA, WA — Nearly 500 Sound Physicians leaders gathered April 22 – 23 at our National Leadership Conference in San Diego, California. Themed Amplify 2015, the conference featured educational seminars, service celebrations, and team-building activities for leaders. Keynote presentations featured Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, author of Reinventing American Healthcare, and Robyn Benincasa, New York Times best-selling author and world champion adventure racer.

Ezekiel, one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act, shared megatrends he sees in the future of health care. Emanuel outlined these trends in his book, “Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act will Improve our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System.” He predicts that, by 2025, Americans will see:

• The end of insurance companies as we know them
• The diffusion of VIP care for the chronically and mentally ill
• The emergence of digital medicine and the closure of hospitals
• The end of employer-sponsored health insurance
• The end of health care inflation
• The transformation of medical education

One of his predictions, the closure of hospitals, underscores Sound’s role in making the hospitals we serve become ‘healthier’ with improved clinical outcomes, patient experience of care and financial performance. Hospitals that don’t focus on these responsibilities will close, he warned; therefore, we will continue to align with our partner hospitals to ensure that people in their communities are well cared for, for years to come.

The second keynote speaker, Robyn Benincasa, is a world adventure racer who works as a firefighter and EMT, was named a CNN-hero, and is the founder of a non-profit, Project Athena. The non-profit idea came to her after she was grounded from adventure racing when osteoarthritis resulted in four hip replacements. Robyn founded Project Athena to help women who are survivors of medical or traumatic setbacks live an adventurous dream as part of their recovery. Just four weeks after her sixth hip replacement surgery, Robyn shared with Sound leaders what it takes to build world-class teams, followed by a competitive adventure challenge that lead to three teams of winners.

There were also breakout sessions on topics such as Diversity Matters in Healthcare, The Palliative Care Conversation, Successful Strategies with Stakeholders, Sound Performance Management, Critical Inflection Point for Women in Healthcare Leadership, and Breaking Down Silos: Sepsis and Transitional Care. The conference also featured our first annual National Clinical Innovation Session, which showcased several innovative clinical poster projects that colleagues completed. The winner of the NCIS competition is Patient Safety Checklist by Ryan Soliz, RN. It will be rolled out as the next Big Clinical Pilot in 2016.

In addition, Sound Physicians colleagues who are chosen to participate in “EmLe” (Emerging Leaders Program) and “HiPo” (High Potential Colleagues Program) are invited to the National Leadership Conference each year. Each year, one of the highlights of the conference is the Evening of Honor, which awards colleagues who demonstrate exceptional commitment to our values of quality, service, teamwork, innovation and integrity. This year’s award recipients include:

• Reverb Award: Team that has the most improved year over year. Small Site: Sutter Amador Hospital Large Site: Wyoming Medical Center
• Symphony Award: Team with the highest overall scores. Small Site: St. Alphonsus Medical Center Large Site: Baptist Medical Center
• Integrity Award: Person or team that honors commitments to our patients, our practice, and our partner hospitals; doing the right thing even when no one is watching. Steen Trawick, MD, Regional Medical Director Christoffer Spoja, DO, Regional Medical Director
• Service Award: Person or team that strives to exceed the expectations of our patients and medical community. Mariette Amadi, MD, Chief Hospitalist, HUMC
• Teamwork Award: Person or team that exemplifies a commitment to collaboration in patient care. Mercy Health – Anderson Hospital Team San Joaquin Community Hospital Team
• Innovation Award: Person or team that exhibits creative and skillful problem solving proven to drive performance improvement. Mohamed Abou El Fadl, MD, Program Medical Director, Intensivists, Mercy Suburban Hospital Quality Award: Person or team that demonstrates dedication to creating the best clinical outcomes and processes. Muhammad Adnan, MD, St. Alphonsus Medical Center
• Summit Award: Sound Physicians leader who embodies the core values – who sets the example of the kind of leader we’d all like to be. Denise Britt, RN, A-Team Region

Ending the Evening of Honor were videos that departments throughout the organization created to share with the field organization, giving a glimpse inside People Support, Compliance, Echo, Performance Management, Physician Development, Physician Services, Resonant, and Communications & Marketing.

To see more event photos and recaps, visit our Facebook page: facebook.com/soundphysicians

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