Health Leader Forge

Today’s guest is Lucy Hodder, Director of Health Law Programs and Professor of Law at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, and a member of the Institute for Health Policy and Practice in the College of Health and Human Services also at the University of New Hampshire. With her dual appointment, she both helps train the next generation of attorneys in the state in the application of legal...

Today's guest is Dr. Raymond A. Levy, the Executive Director of the Fatherhood Project. The Fatherhood Project is a non-profit fatherhood program in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston, MA. The mission of the program is to improve the health and well-being of children and families by empowering fathers to be knowledgeable, active, and emotionally engaged wi...

Today’s guest is Luanne Rogers, the President and CEO of The Courville Communities, a long term care system in southern New Hampshire. The Courville Communities include two nursing homes, assisted living communities, and retirement apartments. The Courville Communities is a private, family owned organization, something that is becoming less common as corporations have come to dominate the competit...

Today’s guest is John Fernandez, the President and CEO of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, Massachusetts. Mass Eye and Ear is one of the world’s leading specialty hospitals dedicated to ophthalmology and otolaryngology care, or as John says, they take care of everything from the neck up except the brain, but maybe the brain too sometimes. In this podcast John talks about his jour...

Today's guest is Katie Fullam Harris, the Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Accountable Care Strategy for MaineHealth, in Portland, Maine. Katie oversees the development, implementation and coordination of state and federal advocacy on behalf of the MaineHealth System, and also leads the development and implementation of strategy that supports improved access and value for health c...

Today's guest is Dr. Nirav Shah, the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Clinical Operations for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, in Pasadena, California. Nirav oversees the health plan and hospital quality, service, accreditation, regulatory compliance, and licensure, as well as nursing, the continuum of care, and the effective use of technology, data, and analytics to pro...

Today’s guest is Brigadier General R. Scott Dingle, the director plans, operations, and training for the US Army Medical Command, also known as the MEDCOM G-3/5/7. BG Dingle has had an extraordinary career, including attendance at some of the Army’s most respected training schools, battalion and brigade commands, and combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. I really enjoyed hearing BG Dingle’s career...

Today we return to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and our guest is the Reverend Frank Macht, the director of the Chaplaincy. Frank is a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, although he is originally from Germany. Together we reflect on his journey, as he refers to it, and the experiences he has had as he served and trained all over the United States, from Berkley, California...

Today we return to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and our guest is the Reverend Frank Macht, the director of the Chaplaincy. Frank is a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, although he is originally from Germany. Together we reflect on his journey, as he refers to it, and the experiences he has had as he served and trained all over the United States, from Berkley, California...

Today’s guest is Sheila Woolley, the Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services at Wentworth-Douglass Health Systems in Dover, New Hampshire. Wentworth-Douglass Health system includes Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, a 178-bed non-profit, acute-care hospital that employs 2,300 individuals with 1,700 FTEs, has 50,000-visits annually, and is a Level III Trauma Center. The Health S...

Today’s guest is Roderic "Roddy" Olvera Young, Executive Vice President, and Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health. In this podcast, Roddy shares his nearly three decades of experience in communications and public relations in a wide variety of governmental and private organizations, among them including being the press secretary for NASA, as well as being a consult...

Today's guest is Laura Curnan, the Executive Director, High Point Village Retirement and Assisted Living Community in Enumclaw, Washington. Laura has been the Executive Director at High Point since 1990, coming to assisted living management after having worked in retirement community management. In this podcast we talk about how assisted living works, what kind of services are provided, and how th...

Today’s guest is Dr. Kenneth Anderson, DO, the Chief Operating Officer for the Health Research and Educational Trust, a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association in Chicago, Illinois. In this podcast, we trace Ken’s career in medicine, from his training in both family practice and internal medicine, then as nephrologist and kidney transplant specialist, followed by his movement into the phys...

Today's guest is Dr. Joseph Pepe, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Medical Center Healthcare System. Dr. Pepe has served the CMC Healthcare System since 1990, first as a staff physician, then as Chief Medical Officer, and since 2012 as the system President and CEO. The advice he gives early careerists entering the field of administration is to volunteer for additional responsi...

Today’s guest is Gerald “Gerry” Vicenzi, the President of Synernet, Inc. Synernet is a for-profit provider of a broad portfolio of administrative and management services to healthcare organizations including workers compensation administration, clinical engineering, credentialing, coding, and transcription. Gerry has been the President of Synernet since 1999, and under his leadership, Synernet has...

Today’s guest is Patricia "Patsy" Aprile, FACHE, the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford, Maine. Patsy started her career on the clinical side as a medical technologist, working her way up through leadership positions in the laboratory, then clinical operations. In this podcast she talks about her experiences in a variety of organizations,...

Today's guest is Kathleen Bizarro-Thunberg, MBA, FACHE, Executive Vice President for the New Hampshire Hospital Association ("NHHA"). Kathy has worked at the New Hampshire Hospital Association for thirty years. In this podcast, Kathy tells how she worked her way up in the organization from data technician to Executive Vice President. We talk about how the Hospital Association works with member hos...

Today’s guest is Dr. Kristy Fassler, ND, co-founder of North Coast Family Health Integrative Medicine Clinic, a naturopathic practice in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In this podcast Dr. Fassler and I discuss the training naturopathic doctors take, the philosophy behind naturopathy, and how naturopathic doctors work with patients to identify underlying dysfunction within the body and mind and correct...

Today’s guest is Karen Clements, the Associate Chief Nurse for Ambulatory and Primary Care Nursing, Emergency and Patient Placement Services, and Care Management and Psychiatric Services for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System, or as her staff tell her, she is the Associate Chief Nurse for Team Awesome. Despite its rural location, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is the largest hospital in New...

Today’s guest is Betsey Rhynhart, the Executive Director of New Hampshire Accountable Care Partners, an Accountable Care Organization or ACO headquartered at Concord Hospital in Concord New Hampshire. New Hampshire Accountable Care Partners was formed as a partnership between four community health systems in Southern New Hampshire: Concord Hospital, The Elliot Health System, Southern New Hampshire...

Today’s guest is Betsey Rhynhart, the Executive Director of New Hampshire Accountable Care Partners, an Accountable Care Organization or ACO headquartered at Concord Hospital in Concord New Hampshire. New Hampshire Accountable Care Partners was formed as a partnership between four community health systems in Southern New Hampshire: Concord Hospital, The Elliot Health System, Southern New Hampshire...

Today's guest is Dr. Michael Sherman, the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Health Services at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Harvard Pilgrim is a New England-based regional health plan with 1.25 million members. It has been ranked #1 by NCQA for the past ten years. Michael holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in Medical Anthropology, he attende...

Today's guest is Dr. Michael Sherman, the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Health Services at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Harvard Pilgrim is a New England-based regional health plan with 1.25 million members. It has been ranked #1 by NCQA for the past ten years. Michael holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in Medical Anthropology, he attende...

Are you a leader? How much do you trust your subordinates? Enough to let them strap you to a litter and let them lower you on a rope over the side of a 30 story sky scraper? Daniel Andrus, the Fire Chief for the City of Concord, New Hampshire, let his subordinates do exactly that. In today’s podcast, Dan tells the story of his 37 year career as a firefighter. Dan has a long list of credentials inc...

Are you a leader? How much do you trust your subordinates? Enough to let them strap you to a litter and let them lower you on a rope over the side of a 30 story sky scraper? Daniel Andrus, the Fire Chief for the City of Concord, New Hampshire, let his subordinates do exactly that. In today’s podcast, Dan tells the story of his 37 year career as a firefighter. Dan has a long list of credentials inc...