Trinity University HCAD Herald

In the HCAD's on-campus graduate program, first-year students occasionally take part in what are called "Briefcase Studies" as part of their Health Services Organization & Policy course. In these brief case studies (hence, "Briefcase Studies"), students are provided with a scenario in which they are broken into groups and play roles according to that scenario as they work in a short time frame to identify a policy solution or strategy.  For example, in one Briefcase Study, teams represented major hospital-based providers in the fictional market of Trinity Falls, and they were given the task of determining outpatient service location strategies based upon the characteristics of the local market and the characteristics of the organization they were assigned to.  Most recently, students participated in a Briefcase Study in which they were divided into three groups: Federal policymakers, state policymakers, and local policymakers.  Within these three groups, ind

As part of their administrative residency experiences, Trinity HCAD students complete monthly journal entries in which they reflect upon their past experiences and look ahead to the future.  Our students are doing great and exciting things throughout their residencies, and from time to time we like to share with others what they've shared with us as they document their lives as administrative residents.  The following is an account of one of our students, Wil, and his experiences this past October as a resident at a major Texas hospital system. The first week of October was my last week at one of our system's facilities. This was bittersweet, because though I thoroughly enjoyed my rotation at this facility, I know that my next rotation will be beneficial and educational as well. One of my main goals of this week was to successfully hand off my project to the facilities manager. I read an article which stated the mark of a successful leader is when someone else can come i

The first-year students are working hard on their departmental projects that are due the first week of December. The goal of the project is to develop a comprehensive understanding of how departments of a hospital function. Each group, comprised of 2-3 members, is responsible for studying a specific sector assigned by Dr. Schumacher.  In addition to reading academic journals and periodicals, the groups will interview department heads and clinicians to gain a full understanding on how these departments measure themselves and the technology they use.  First-year students  pose with Tom Malone, Chief of Nutritional Services as the VA Hugh, Mariah, and Aashini are currently visiting and learning about the dietary departments of hospitals. After the students become "experts" in their respective departments, they will present their findings to Dr. Schumacher, Dr. Kim, and the first-year class in early December.  

First year students: Rebecca, Christina, Emily, Anna and Caroline We would like to extend our gratitude to AnneMarie Witecki, Megan Powe and Patra Katsigiannis for inviting the first-year students to the Women’s Forum on Thursday, October 30 th .  We were fortunate to listen to Keynote Speaker, Christann Vasquez, President of Seton Medical Center and a prominent figure in the health care industry.  Following our discussion with Ms. Vasquez, the students formed small discussion groups to speak about the challenges that females have in executive and leadership positions. The session ended with the opportunity for students to ask questions to a panel of successful Trinity Alumni including Xochy Hurtado, Tina Ortega, and Leah Spann-Lacy.  Many of the questions focused on work-life balance, raising children while in the work force, and the general challenges that women face in the business world.  Overall, this was a very informative and engaging session. We hope to pass this

Mr. John Hornbeak and Rebecca Phillips The first-year students are excited to have the opportunity to interact and learn from Mr. John Hornbeak, former CEO of the Methodist Healthcare System. Currently, they are studying lean methodology and Six Sigma. Today, the students participated in a game involving red and white beads. The game included six workers and two inspectors. The job is to produce white beads and minimize the amount of red beads, otherwise known as “defects” of the process. This experiment was done to illustrate bad management, system variation, ranking workers, and workers’ performance. Overall, it was a simple experiment with a meaningful message.   Mr. John Hornbeak giving directions to the "above average employees" Congratulations to Katherine! She had the least amount of defects for the first day

In the on-campus program's Health Services Organization & Policy course, students periodically engage in an in-class activity known as "Lightning Lab." This activity challenges students to exercise creative thinking and problem solving skills in a short period of time, requiring bursts of innovation to address varied problems or scenarios.  In short, students are challenged to catch that one idea that could be lightning in a bottle, often in less than one hour. The most recent Lightning Lab activity had students working together in groups to devise innovative technological solutions to current issues surrounding health care organizations.  In the days leading up to class, students were encouraged to be thinking about possible innovative ideas incorporating health care technology to some degree.  During class, students were divided into groups, and group members shared their different ideas and eventually developed a more thought-out proposal.  Groups then p

Many of the first-year grad students joined a social kickball league. This past Tuesday was their very first game as well as their very first victory! The final score was 5-3. Congratulations to Shawntae Batiste, voted as the team’s MVP! HCAD First-year girls Overall, this league serves as a great way for the first- year students to bond and get to know each other outside of the classroom.The games are every Tuesday at the STAR Soccer Complex (timings are still TBA), so come and cheer your fellow classmates on as they continue their undefeated season. A very special thank you to Katherine Le for coming out and supporting the team, despite the chilly weather! Intimidation is key

A few of the first-year graduate students spend their Wednesday evenings volunteering at the San Antonio Refugee Clinic (SARHC) through the Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI) .  SARHC is a student-run clinic with faculty from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. It is a cooperative effort between nursing, dental, and medical students with the help of several volunteers. Not only is SARHC an acute care clinic with the primary goal of serving the needs of about 5,000 immigrant refugees living in the San Antonio area, it also operates as a teaching clinic where students can observe and learn as they help patients.   First-year students, Dolapo and Beatrice   So where do we as health care administrators fit in? The first-year students are working to streamline the flow of patients in and out of the clinic. Currently, they are collecting data and timing how long it takes for patients to be triaged by the nurses, be seen by the stu

Are you interested in learning how to demonstrate a process improvement strategy in an effective and meaningful way? Use puppets! This is exactly what the first-year students did in Dr. Schumacher’s class this past Wednesday. Dolapo, Aashini, Livia, Shawntae, and Anna served as members of a production team, making puppets with paper. Christina judged whether each puppet was accepted or rejected. The team was able to make 23 puppets in 20 minutes.  This sounds impressive, right? Wrong. Only 9 of the 23 were deemed to be “effective” and passed quality control.  Although this was a fun classroom activity, this demonstrated prevalent problems that all companies and organizations encounter: the effective use of their resources and employees.  After the activity, the students came up with various ways that the team may have improved their overall productivity and perhaps made higher-quality puppets in a sufficient amount of time.   On another note, congratulat

On Friday, September 26 th , the first-year HCAD students attended the South Texas Chapter ACHE student symposium at the Dominion Country Club.  They were able to meet and network with students from the University of the Incarnate Word, Texas State University, the U.S. Army-Baylor MHA program, and Texas A&M University.  Following lunch, the students heard prominent healthcare leaders discuss developing high performance teams and the challenges that accompany them.  This panel consisted of Don Beeler ('73), Sam Maley, and Major Janet Blanchard. The students then viewed a presentation given by David Tapia regarding Healthcare Executive Career Management in a Web 2.0 era. He explained the importance of social networking and how students should utilize LinkedIn to make connections with leaders in the field. Because many companies and potential employers use Facebook as a tool to research their interviewees, students should use

This past summer, second-year student Kurt DeVaney participated in the Summer Institute 2014 , a week-long event and education program organized by the School of Community Medicine at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa. Kurt, who will be starting his administrative residency with INTEGRIS Health in January 2015, was the lone health care administration participant in the entire program, and we thought his experiences were fascinating and worth sharing!  He was gracious to provide the following account: "During this past summer, I had the opportunity to attend the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine's Summer Institute.  The Institute took place over a week's time and focused on the state of Oklahoma's health along with that of the community of Tulsa.  It started with a bus tour of Tulsa, showing us historical parts of town and where low-income communities are located.  The program focused on low-income families and those who cannot afford to purchas

Trinity HCAD first year students attended a film hosted by Trinity's HCAD Department and IHI called Escape Fire: The Fight to Save American Healthcare. Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke deliver a feature length film that parallels America's broken healthcare system with that of a massive forest fire that engulfed Mann Gulch, Montana. The film identifies the broken aspects of the healthcare system and how we can create an " escape fire " to redefine and reshape the healthcare system for the future. Escapefiremovie.com  allows blog readers the opportunity to learn more about the movement and perspectives of this film. We encourage any healthcare administrators or alumni to take time out of your busy schedules and watch this life changing movie.  Director's Quotes: "WE HOPE OUR FILM CAN HELP CATALYZE A PARADIGM SHIFT IN HOW OUR COUNTRY VIEWS HEALTH AND HEALING." - Matthew Heineman "THE GOAL OF ESCAPE FIRE IS TRANSCEND THE MISINFORMAT

On Friday, September 12 th , the first year HCAD students made a visit to University Health System.   Katherine and Mariah, 1st year HCAD students We love the bowties! The students were greeted by Leni Kirkman, VP of Strategic Communications and Patient Relations. They made their way to the boardroom where they met Tim Brierty, CEO, and Nancy Ray, CNO. After brief introductions, Mr. Brierty provided a presentation on University Health System (UHS).  He gave the students a breakdown on how the hospital staff managed to open the new hospital tower and move patients in less than 16 hours.  As you can imagine, this took a significant amount of teamwork and strategy! Apart from being the largest provider of primary care in San Antonio, UHS also has the most high tech operating rooms in the region. With the introduction of Image Stream, every operation can now be filmed or have a live feed.  This supports integration between physicians and nurses. Essence of

Dr. Schumacher held the annual Trinity HCAD kickoff social at his residence on Friday evening. Faculty, staff, and students from both the class of 2015 and 2016 came together to socialize and "break the ice" between the first and second year students. Professors made it a point to offer advice to any of the incoming first years about upcoming ACHE planning, class work, program questions, or any personal inquiries that were made. Second year students were seen excitedly talking about their residency placement and offering advice to fellow first years. All in all, the food was tasty, the beverages cold, and the company entertaining.

The first year students in the on-campus program (class of 2016) made their very first campus visit to CentroMed !  They were fortunate to meet Raymond Wei (Vice-President of Business Development & Ancillary Services) and Anna Maria Garza Cortez (Vice President of Development & Marketing). Mr. Wei, an alumni of the Trinity MHA program, gave an informative presentation on CentroMed . Some of the aspects he discussed included: services provided by the facility, a background on Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), sources of revenue and funding, rapid changes within the organization, and areas for improvement. After the presentation, students divided into two groups and toured the facility. This gave them a chance to see many of the services that CentroMed provides in addition to asking questions. Overall, this visit allowed the first year students to understand how this organization operates on a day-to-day basis. The students are looking forward to future F

The second-year students in the on-campus graduate program (Class of 2015) traveled to University Health System's Robert B. Green campus this afternoon to take part in Performance Logic project management software training. The training, provided graciously by Carol Huber, Director of Regional Healthcare Partnership Facilitation at University Health System, is part of the second-year students' DSRIP (Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment) assignment within their capstone course.  Teams of students have been assigned to specific projects with major health systems in San Antonio, and over the course of the 15-week semester, they will be working directly with project owners and their staff members at these health systems to accomplish tasks related to various DSRIP projects.  This assignment provides students with a unique and rare opportunity to actively take part in current, meaningful projects at local health care systems while wrapping up their academic work and look