Join us for the only symposium designed for California rural hospital leaders – a chance to discuss the unique challenges facing rural hospitals, gain insights on navigating health care’s financial crisis, and engage with CHA leadership to talk strategy and explore paths to a more stable future.
This C-suite gathering will focus on financial instability issues and feature a CEO roundtable addressing the most important topics in rural health care. It will also provide:
- A deep dive into a proven financial preparedness checklist
- Perspectives from national rural health care organization leaders
- Tips for applying data analytics to improve patient outcomes
New this year, the symposium includes an optional, half-day Governance Education Workshop for your board members and executives. Bring your thorny governance issues and hear what outstanding boards do differently from the rest. This session is specifically focused on rural hospital boards and led by nationally recognized governance expert Karma Bass.
This will be the premiere gathering of health care leaders offering strategies for surviving the financial and operational challenges crippling so many rural hospitals. Be a part of it!
This is a members-only, invitation-only event.
Governance Education Pre-Conference Workshop
Location: CalChamber California Room
1215 K St., Suite 1400
Sacramento, CA 95814
12:30 – 1:00 p.m. | Check in and grab a boxed lunch
1:00 – 5:00 p.m. | Interactive workshop
5:00 – 6:00 p.m. | Reception at CHA office, 1215 K St., Suite 700
Location: Kimpton Sawyer Hotel
500 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
8:00 – 9:00 a.m. | Check in, Continental Breakfast, and Sponsor Engagement
9:00 – 10:00 a.m. | Opening/Conversation with Carmela
Peggy Wheeler, Carmela Coyle, California Hospital Association
Hear top-level insights and up-to-the-minute updates, and pose your question directly to CHA’s CEO.
10:00 – 11:00 a.m. | Rural Hospital Closures and the Drive Toward Value
Brock Slabach, Chief Operations Officer, National Rural Health Association; John Supplitt, Senior Director, Rural Health Services, American Hospital Association
In this session speakers will review rural hospital closures and what drives them to the decisions they make. Presenters will consider what is driving value-based payments, how rural hospitals manage risk and examples of their success (or not). The session will include examples of new models of payment and delivery and approaches towards affiliation.
11:00 – 11:30 a.m. | Break/Exhibitor Engagement
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Rural Hospital Financial Best Practices – A Checklist for Improvement, Part I
Eric Shell, Chairman, Stroudwater Associates
Stroudwater has identified specific strategies, tactics and benchmarks that successful rural hospitals have deployed to set them apart from the others. This presentation provides a check-list of dozens of improvement approaches successfully implemented at peer rural hospitals. The approaches discussed will range from strategic plans to clinical operations to revenue cycle to Medicare cost reports, and the facilitated workshop environment will encourage hospital leaders to share success stories.
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. | Hosted Luncheon
1:30 – 2:30 p.m. | Rural Hospital Financial Best Practices – A Checklist for Improvement, Part II
Eric Shell, Chairman, Stroudwater Associates
Stroudwater has identified specific strategies, tactics and benchmarks that successful rural hospitals have deployed to set them apart from the others. This presentation provides a check-list of dozens of improvement approaches successfully implemented at peer rural hospitals. The approaches discussed will range from strategic plans to clinical operations to revenue cycle to Medicare cost reports, and the facilitated workshop environment will encourage hospital leaders to share success stories.
2:30 – 3:30 p.m. | Applied Data Analytics
Dr. Scott Masten, Hospital Quality Institute
Data aberrations are usually considered a nuisance by analysts, but HQI’s Sentinel Signal Detection Systems convert data abnormalities into useful information. In this session Dr. Masten will discuss how HQI’s signal detection works to identify emerging trends to provide early hospital notification and ultimately decrease the risk of harm to patients.
3:30 – 3:45 p.m. | Break/Exhibitor Engagement
3:45 – 5:00 p.m. | CEO Roundtable
Karma H. Bass, MPH, FACHE
Via Healthcare Consulting
Over her more than 20-year career, Karma Bass has been a sought-after speaker, facilitator, and consultant with deep knowledge and experience in governance, strategic planning, philanthropy, healthcare policy, and board effectiveness. Her experience gives her a uniquely valuable perspective as a consultant to hospital and health systems boards today. Before co-founding Via Healthcare Consulting, Karma worked as vice president for Accord Limited, a Chicago-based consulting firm. She served two years as president and CEO of Alliance Healthcare Foundation in San Diego, where she reported to an independent, 11-person not-for-profit board. Notably, Karma spent 10 years at The Governance Institute, holding various positions including vice president of membership services and director of research and publications. She also oversaw the prestigious biennial hospital governance practices survey tracking trends in nearly 5,000 U.S. hospitals and health systems.
Carmela Coyle
President & CEO
California Hospital Association
Carmela Coyle began her tenure as president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, the statewide leader representing the interests of more than 400 hospitals and health systems in California, in October 2017. Previously, Ms. Coyle led the Maryland Hospital Association for nine years, where she played a leading role in reframing the hospital payment system in Maryland and moving to a value-based methodology.
Scott Masten, PhD
Vice President, Measurement Science & Performance Analytics
Hospital Quality Institute (HQI)
In his work for HQI, Dr. Masten focuses on improving health care data quality and reducing patient injury, including the development of both data intake and data analytics platforms. He does this by bringing over 20 years of applied research and data experience including teaching research methods and statistics courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Eric Shell, CPA, MBA
CEO
Stroudwater
Eric Shell is an industry leader in supporting rural health care in its transition to population health management. For his nearly 30 years in health care financial management and consulting, Eric’s passion for sustainable and accessible rural healthcare has driven him to help hundreds of rural health systems achieve improved financial and operational performance. As health care transitions from fee-for-service reimbursement towards value-based payment, Eric and his rural team provide vital strategic, financial and operational improvement services to ensure that rural health systems continue to provide local, high-quality, and accessible patient care.
Brock Slabach
Chief Operating Officer
National Rural Health Association
Brock Slabach is Chief Operating Officer of the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) and has been a rural hospital administrator for more than 20 years. Mr. Slabach specializes in rural health system development that encompasses population health and the varied payment programs moving rural providers into value-based purchasing models. He is a member of the National Quality Forum’s Measures Application Partnership (MAP) Rural Health Workgroup and serves on the Board of Directors of Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC).
John Supplitt
Senior Director, Rural Health Services
American Hospital Association
John Supplitt is senior director of the Section for Small or Rural Hospitals of the American Hospital Association. Since 1993 he has worked on behalf of the AHA’s 2000 small or rural hospital including 975 CAH members to identify, develop, and advance their unique health care interests, issues, and perspectives. Mr. Supplitt manages the Section’s member services, governance, and communications including its Web site, newsletters, and technical advisories.
*Members: $395
*Members are CHA member hospitals. Education programs and publications are a membership benefit and are not available to eligible non-member California hospitals.
Cancellation Policy
A $75 non-refundable processing fee will be retained for each cancellation. Cancellations must be made in writing seven or more days prior to the scheduled event and emailed to education@calhospital.org. No refunds will be given after these dates. Substitutions are encouraged. Cancellation and substitution notification may be emailed to education@calhospital.org. In the unlikely event that the program is cancelled, refunds will be issued to paid registrants within 30 days.
Confirmations
A confirmation will be sent to all registrants. On-site registrations and any unpaid registrations may be subject to an additional 10% fee.
Special Accommodations
If you require special accommodations pursuant to the American’s with Disabilities Act please call (916) 552-7637.
Photography
CHA will photograph this event. If you prefer not to be photographed, please email CHA at education@calhospital.org.
Full participation in the symposium is a prerequisite for receiving professional continuing education (CE) credit. Registrant must complete post-event survey, attest to participation and, when required, provide a professional license number. CE certificates will be emailed approximately three weeks after the symposium. (Amount of CE offered subject to change.)
Health Care Executives — CHA is authorized to award 6.25 hours of pre-approved ACHE Qualified Education credit for this program toward advancement, or recertification, in the American College of Healthcare Executives. Participants in this program who wish to have the continuing education hours applied toward ACHE Qualified Education credit must self-report their participation. To self-report, participants must log into their MyACHE account and select ACHE Qualified Education Credit.
Kimpton Sawyer Hotel
500 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
(877) 678-6255 (reservations)
Discount Deadline is March 17.
The Kimpton Sawyer Hotel has rooms available at the discounted rate of $239 for the meeting. One-time convenience and housekeeping fees are additional. For reservations, call (877) 678-6255 and mention the “Rural Health Care Leadership Meeting.” Don’t delay; the deadline for discounted sleeping rooms is Friday, March 17. To book a room online, click here.
For sponsorship opportunities at the Rural Health Care Symposium email Lisa Hartzell at lhartzell@calhospital.org.
We would like to thank our corporate sponsors for their support of the 2023 Rural Health Care Symposium.
Platinum sponsor:
Silver sponsors:
