Health Leader Forge

In this podcast I had the honor of interviewing Major General (retired) David Rubenstein. Among the many duties of his career, General Rubenstein was the commander of the Army Medical Department Center and School, which was the unit where I was an instructor before I retired from the Army, and he was also the chief of the Medical Service Corps, the Army branch that I served in for 23 years. Although I did not work directly with him on active duty, I can say that General Rubenstein was one of the most respected Medical Department generals I knew of during my career. While I only saw him at a distance while we were on active duty, over the last several years I have had the opportunity to get to know him post-retirement through our mutual interest in health administration education, and we had corresponded regularly about my RWL newsletter, so it was a real pleasure to get to interview him about his remarkable career.

For more information, please see our website: https://healthleaderforge.blogspot.com/2022/03/major-general-david-rubenstein-fache-us.html

Today’s guest is Dr. Seoka Salstrom, Founder & Director of the Hanover Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapies, in Hanover, NH. Seoka has a phd in clinical psychology and specializes in evidence-based behavioral health interventions, with a special interest in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. In this podcast we discuss how she grew up in a house without electricity, how she found her way to psychology through a vision quest, her rigorous training in clinical psychology, and how she has founded not one but two successful practices, and finally what her long-term goals are in building a behavioral health practice in rural New Hampshire.

For more information see the episode page at https://healthleaderforge.blogspot.com/2022/01/seoka-salstrom-phd-founder-director.html

Today’s guest is my colleague Dr. Anita Tucker, professor of Social Work, and associate director of the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) Center here at the University of New Hampshire. She is also a co-author of the recent textbook, Adventure Group Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Treatment. Anita was an early practitioner of adventure group therapy in the Social Work field, and through her research she has been a leader in developing the practice.

In this podcast we talk about Anita’s journey to the field of Social Work, and specifically adventure group therapy. We conclude with a discussion of the Facilitated Wave Theory that is the basis for her recent book.

For more information, please see our website: https://healthleaderforge.blogspot.com/2021/12/anita-tucker-phd-msw-licsw-department.html 

Today’s guest is Andrew Calkins, the CEO of Sage Family of Companies. Andrew has extensive experience as a healthcare executive in a wide range of healthcare delivery organizations including long-term care, hospice, home health, and outpatient mental health. In this podcast, we talk about how he went from a clerk in the mailroom to managing complex, geographically dispersed organizations. Andrew’s career journey put him in contact with several private equity firms as he went through numerous mergers and acquisitions. We talk about what it is like to lead through a sale, and we talk about how private equity operates. I think one of the key take-aways from Andrew’s story, especially for early careerists, is how important professional reputation is, and how important it is to build a strong professional network.

For more information, see our website: https://healthleaderforge.blogspot.com/2021/11/andrew-calkins-ceo-of-sage-family-of.html 

Today’s  guest is Dr. Neil Meehan, the Chief Physician Executive of Exeter  Health Resources. Dr. Meehan is a board-certified Emergency Medicine  physician, and was the driving force behind the creation of the New  Hampshire Physician Leadership Development Program, a joint effort  between the New Hampshire Medical Society, the New Hampshire Hospital  Association, and the University of New Hampshire.

In this podcast we discuss Dr. Meehan’s own journey from living in a  music studio above a peanut butter factory through medical school,  residency, and his own development as a physician leader. We discuss in  detail what the medical school and residency experiences are like  because the New Hampshire Physician Leadership Development Program has a  unique flavor based on Dr. Meehan’s own experience of medical training,  as well as his observations about how physician training creates some  specific challenges for physicians who want to transition from lead  clinician to clinician-leader.

I have been part of the Physician Leadership program since its  inception, so it was fun to talk with Neil and capture some of the  stories and insight I have heard him share over the last few years.

This is the abridged version of the interview. In this version of the interview, I cut out our discussion of medical school and residency and what it is like to become a physician. If you would like to listen to the full version, please go to https://anchor.fm/healthleaderforge/episodes/Dr--Neil-Meehan--Chief-Physician-Executive--Exeter-Health-Resources-e13luf0 

Today’s guest is Dr. Neil Meehan, the Chief Physician Executive of Exeter Health Resources. Dr. Meehan is a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician, and was the driving force behind the creation of the New Hampshire Physician Leadership Development Program, a joint effort between the New Hampshire Medical Society, the New Hampshire Hospital Association, and the University of New Hampshire.

In this podcast we discuss Dr. Meehan’s own journey from living in a music studio above a peanut butter factory through medical school, residency, and his own development as a physician leader. We discuss in detail what the medical school and residency experiences are like because the New Hampshire Physician Leadership Development Program has a unique flavor based on Dr. Meehan’s own experience of medical training, as well as his observations about how physician training creates some specific challenges for physicians who want to transition from lead clinician to clinician-leader.

I have been part of the Physician Leadership program since its inception, so it was fun to talk with Neil and capture some of the stories and insight I have heard him share over the last few years.

This podcast is a recording of a live panel held jointly sponsored by the sponsors of this podcast, the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of New Hampshire and the Northern New England Healthcare Executives, the local chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives. The panel was titled, COVID-19: What We Learned - Staffing & People Resources. I had the opportunity to moderate, and our panel featured Eileen Keefe, Chief Nursing Officer, Parkland Medical Center, Derry, New Hampshire, Carol Majewski, Associate Chief Quality Officer for Patient Experience for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, and Colonel Kim Aiello, Commander, 44th Medical Brigade, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. 

If you would like to see the video of the event, please see our website, http://healthleaderforge.org

Today’s guest is Mary Helen McSweeney-Feld. Mary Helen is an associate professor at Towson University in the Department of Health Sciences. Mary Helen is the author of one of the leading textbooks in the field of long-term care, Dimensions of Long-Term Care: An Introduction, and is a recognized leader in long-term care education nationally.

In this podcast I talk with Mary Helen about her journey from an early interest in political science and international affairs to discovering the nascent field of health economics in the 80’s, and her transition to an interest in long-term care as a result of having to care for both her father and father-in-law when they suffered from debilitating terminal illnesses. Mary Helen makes a passionate case for long-term care, pointing out the economic opportunities for entrepreneurs, as well as young people looking for a meaningful and well compensated career.

For more information, please see our web site, Http://healthleaderforge.org 

Today’s guest is Steve Ahnen, the President and CEO of the New Hampshire Hospital Association. The New Hampshire Hospital Association is an independent, non-profit association representing the interests of the hospitals in the state of New Hampshire.

Steve joined the New Hampshire Hospital Association in 2008 after spending sixteen years in progressive leadership roles with the American Hospital Association in Washington, DC.

In this podcast we talk about the role of both the American Hospital Association and the New Hampshire Hospital Association, and what it is like to work as an industry advocate at the national and state levels.

For more information, please see our website: https://healthleaderforge.blogspot.com/2020/12/steve-ahnen-president-ceo-new-hampshire.html

Today’s guest is Chris Sloan, the Chief Operating Officer of Capital Medical Center in Olympia, Washington. Capital Medical Center is a 107-bed hospital with about 600 employees. It is part of LifePoint Health, a for-profit hospital system headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Chris joined Capital Medical Center after retiring from the Army Medical Service Corps in September of 2019, with 23 years of service as a military medical logistician and hospital administrator. During his service he deployed to Kosovo and Iraq, and ended his career as the Chief Operating Officer for Madigan Army Medical Center, one of the Army’s largest hospitals.

In this podcast we talk about Chris’s military career, transition to leadership in the civilian sector, his leadership philosophy, and, since this interview was originally recorded in October of 2020, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information, see our website: http://healthleaderforge.org