Progressed from Hospital Corpsman (E1) to Environmental Health and Safety Officer, Lieutenant Commander (LCDR), Medical Service Corps, USN. Career spanned 4 wars and multiple conflicts around the globe. Responsibilities ranged from Officer-in-Charge, Director, and Consultant to the State Department

Responsible for financial and operational operations for the medical center campus.

• By implementing staff productivity benchmarking, improved the hospital’s financial position by $1.3 Million and increased net patient revenue by 33 percent in the first year

• Expanded nursing home occupancy rates by 38 percent and received Board Certification as a Nursing Home Administrator

• Conceptualized and developed/established the organization’s first Hospital Foundation and planned/developed a new $1.2 Million Radiology wing utilizing philanthropic dollars

• Secured grants totaling $420,000 for new construction/capital equipment and staff education and training

Senior executive responsible for the management, development, and financial results of the organization’s laboratory services, diagnostic imaging, outpatient service centers, wellness centers, women’s centers, walk in medical care, occupational medicine, employee health, and joint ventures with Dover Surgicenter & Express
Care (Bayhealth's regional network of off-campus ambulatory care services to the communities in Delaware and the Delmarva Peninsula).

• Consistently beat net operating margin expectations for all areas of responsibility through expansion of services, improving quality, Top Box customer satisfaction scores, and driving down costs

• Developed and deployed Studer & Balance Score Card methodologies throughout the organization

• Instrumental in creating physician joint ventures resulting in a profitable free-standing surgery center and walk-in clinic

• Led turnaround of a failing free-standing surgery center by reversing its $1.2 Million in losses

• Led turnaround of regional walk-in clinics by reversing $800K in annual losses

• Successfully renegotiated with the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) to eliminate inpatient block scheduling and reduce nurse/patient ratios. Despite a tense and robust renegotiation, relations with MNA have remained cordial. 2014-2018 results: Nurse productive hours moved from 38 percent to 110 percent, system inpatient safety measures were met or exceeded year after year

• Assigned Systemwide Performance Improvement Initiatives

o Senior executive assigned to Introduce Allina’s leadership to Southcentral Foundation’s two time Malcomb Baldridge Award winning (Anchorage, AK) Whole Person Care Primary Care Model of Care and implement system wide redesign changes into new clinic space design, layout while simultaneously interweave new care concepts into physician patient management, care coordination, system wide specialist referral, in-house wellness program access, clinic mental health counseling, and patient and patient/family satisfaction initiatives

o Executive leader tasked to build a $9 Million Whole Person Care outpatient clinic in Isanti County (pilot based on the Alaska model). Goal of the new site was to have family practice, midlevel’s, and ancillary care providers manage high acuity family care as a team. 2016-18 results: Three-year volume projections were achieved in year one for family practice, mental health assessments, and physical therapy. New patient visits increased by 100 percent, in house physical therapy referrals increased by 100 percent, wellness programs which include massage, dietetics, and mental health counseling flourished, clinic patient satisfaction consistently exceeded the 90th percentile

o Imaging Executive sponsor for systemwide radiology resources. 2015-18 results: Created Imaging Strategy Steering & Program Committees which adopted and deployed system wide best practices. Defined and deployed acquisition policies for imaging resources acquired for all hospitals and clinics. Created system wide radiology dosimetry protocols, Radiation Safety Officer contracts, and an imaging document management system that mandated moving from site specific to system imaging policies and procedures to system only

o Executive leader for the Allina Medical Equipment Imaging Subcommittee. Tasked to inventory system wide capital assets and implemented recapitalization prioritization policies and procedures. 2015-18 results: Moved system away from single site major equipment purchases to bulk buys. Example: System savings in CT allowed the purchase of 6 CT scanners versus 2, 5 MRI versus 2, 100 ultrasounds versus 20, 6 Tomography versus 3

• To remove chronic problems that hindered Emergency Room clinical quality, drove high cost, created low physician and nurse engagement, and poor patient satisfaction scores, I outsourced Emergency Room Medical Director responsibilities, Physician Services, and ED operations. This was a tough internal physician and nurse leader negotiation as it required elimination of the long-standing in-house ED medical director position and 11 employed physicians. It also required movement of the 11 providers to outsourced employment if success was going to be achieved. 2017-18 results: All of the 11 ED physicians accepted outsourced employment offers and continued working internally under outsourced ED Boarded Medical Director leadership. ED physician and nurse engagement scores moved from the lowest in the system to the highest (35th-90th percentile), patient satisfaction moved from the 50th percentile to the 75th percentile, patient care quality met system goals, and expense beat budget

• Improved ED operating efficiency, expense and revenue by flexing unused ED rooms, reducing nurse staff expense, standardizing physician preference cards, supplies, work processes, and adding midlevel’s to manage peak patient demand times. This was a robust Minnesota Nurses Association and physician leader negotiation as it required moving nurse productivity from the 45 percent to 105 percent and adding midlevel’s into a group that had not desired their presence. 2016-18 results: Nurse union negotiations were successful, midlevel’s were successfully integrated, operating expense dropped by $5 Million, ED inpatient admit capture rates increased by 25 percent, ED and inpatient hospital revenue attributed to improved ED inpatient admit rates increased by $10 Million. Net improvement in two years was greater than $15 Million

• To remove barriers that impeded capturing Operating Room volume, stagnated efficiency, and increased expense, outsourced Anesthesia Services and created a physician surgical services committee to manage OR outcomes. This was a tough negotiation with surgeons and nursing as it required job elimination of longstanding employed Anesthesia providers and key nursing staff. 2015-18 results: Consolidated OR block times and enhanced scheduling which drove OR utilization from 35 percent to 95 percent, staff productivity to 33 percent to 98 percent, standardized surgical preference cards, reduced operating costs by $2 Million, increased revenue by $2 Million. Net improvement of $4 Million

• Restructured Same Day care by transitioning away from an all Physician Model to Midlevel’s. 2015-18 results: Net savings improvement realized was $1.2 Million

• Redesigned Chemical Dependency programs: Reversed financial losses by closing the inpatient chemical addiction program and opening a partial day inpatient chemical dependency program, mental illness and chemical dependency program, and intensive outpatient chemical addiction therapies program. 2015-18 results: Reversed a $500 Million annual net loss to a $2.5 Million net profit. A $3 Million operating improvement

• Consolidated Mental Health programs. Increased access and service delivery through the addition of new Psychiatrists, midlevel practitioners, therapists, and outpatient counselors. 2015-18 results: Patient access to outpatient services increased 20 percent/6,000 visits per year

• Improved access and care delivery in OBGYN & Surgery through recruitment and retention of Surgeons and Obstetricians/Gynecologists 2013-18 results: Recruited 2 new surgeons and 4 obstetricians. Integrated surgical and OB services into existing system service lines which standardized service delivery and revenue/expense management. Market capture rate moved from 50 to 75 percent in OB and 40 to 65 percent in surgery

• Introduced Medical Center wide Healing Environment programs, services, art, and music. Patient satisfaction, staff engagement and new hire comments routinely focused on the calming and positive impressions these programs created