Category Archive

This week we’re having a conversation with Tim Wolters, Director of Reimbursement, Citizens Memorial Hospital, Bolivar, MO.  Tim is also Reimbursement Specialist for Lake Regional Health System, Osage Beach, MO.  Prior to joining these health systems in 2010, he spent 26 years with BKD, a CPA and consulting firm based in Springfield, MO, where he worked with hospitals and health systems around the nation … Read More

This week we’re having a conversation with Dr. Emily Gill, a Family Physician practicing in rural New Zealand.  Emily Gill, M.B.Ch.B., B.Med.Sci., is a 2017-18 New Zealand Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, a research fellowship awarded by The Commonwealth Fund.  She is currently based at The Brigham and Women’s Hospital, affiliated with the Harvard Medical School, Boston. “I work in a … Read More

This week we’re having a conversation with Jonathan Sprague, the President of Rocky Coast Consulting (RCC), located in Bangor, Maine.  Jonathan has over forty years of health care related management consulting experience focused on strategy and business development, organizational leadership, and hospital-physician relationships.  He has extensive experience providing consulting to rural hospitals, physicians, FQHCs, and other health care organizations across the country. “Rural people are at … Read More

This week we’re having a conversation with Austin Gillard, CEO of Clay County Medical Center, in Clay Center, Kansas.  Austin is a Kansas native having grown up in Overland Park, Kansas. He received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Kansas and a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Administration from the University of Missouri. “I was still green, but the good thing is I had over 20 mentors helping me launch … Read More

This week we’re having a conversation with John Henderson.  John has been the CEO at Childress Regional Medical Center, his hometown hospital in Childress, Texas, for 16 years.  Soon he will be moving to Austin, Texas, to serve as the President & CEO or the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, otherwise known as TORCH.  TORCH is an advocate for … Read More

This week we’re having a conversation with Evalyn Ormand, CEO at Union General Hospital in Farmerville, LA.  Farmerville is in the northeast part of Louisiana, about 25 miles from the Arkansas border.  This year marks Evalyn’s 40th year in healthcare administration.  During those 40 years, she has served two rural hospitals, approximately 20 miles apart. “Don’t swallow a camel and gag on a gnat.”  The first hospital she … Read More

This week we’re having a conversation with Dr. Burke Kline, CEO of Greeley County Health Services in Tribune, Kansas.  Tribune is a town with a population of 750 in a county with a population of 1,200, one of the least populated counties in the state of Kansas, located on the Kansas/Colorado border. “Verbal judo is a practice that’s taught to law enforcement. It’s … Read More

This week we’re having a conversation with Corie Kaiser, the Director of the Oklahoma Office of Rural Health.  Corie joined the Office of Rural Health in 2005.  Since that time, she has maintained the office’s community engagement programs as well as coordinated and maintained quality and performance improvement and financial programs to assist critical access hospitals. “We had three critical access hospitals convert to critical access … Read More

This week we’re having a conversation with Joanna Hiatt Kim, Vice President of Payment Policy, with the America Hospital Association (AHA).  Joanna leads the association’s work on Medicare payment, including for inpatient and outpatient hospital care, post-acute care, and physician services.  “That is really where leadership comes into play and where the rubber meets the road to make these strategies work.”  Joanna came to the AHA … Read More

This week we’re having a conversation with Mark Deutchman, M.D., a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.  Dr. Deutchman has been involved in rural medical practice or teaching for over 35 years. He also has faculty appointments in the School of Dental Medicine and the School of Public Health.   He practiced Family Medicine in rural, southwestern … Read More