As a RN and Nurse Practitioner for 40 yrs, I have focused on and provided excellent safe quality of care to my patients, while serving my country for 21 yrs in USAF Nurse Corps operating room and ICU, 15 yrs in ICU at VA Medical Center, 10 yrs at private Catholic healthcare in ICU, 5 yrs as traveling nurse in University Hospital ICU, 15 yrs Professor of Nursing, and currently for last 9 yrs as Nurse Practitioner in Cardiovascular private practice seeing patients and as sub investigator for clinical research studies.
I am the only qualified healthcare provider currently on the board that is credentialed on the medical staff at SMH with personal and professional experience in the organization's strategic focus, mission, vision, and values.
1. Continue investing in the health of our community with opening of Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion in 2023 and Jellison Cancer Institute in 2021
2. Promote leading edge clinical research and innovative training opportunities as we prepare to open The Kolschowsky Research and Education Institute in 2025.
3. Provide Healthcare access for fast growing south population with the opening in 2021 and expansion in 2024 of SMH Venice, and two new medical campuses currently in planning process now for SMH North Port and Wellen Park.
4. Bring new physicians and nurses here on Suncoast to join our Forbes awarded list of best employer and workplace team of providers that provides state of the art HC to the community.
Over the past 8 years on SMH board, I have been fortunate to monitor each years financial statements, budgets, Moody's ratings, Fitch ratings, investments, pensions, audits, charity care, bad debts, operating revenue, Medicare and Medicaid losses, just to mention a few. Currently I am Chair of Finance Committee.
"One ounce of Prevention is better than pounds of late treatment."
Primary Prevention should have priority over treatment. It aims to prevent illness and disease processes before it starts. Prevention is cost effective in relation to the high cost of late treatment.
Violence and hate of all kinds is unacceptable and is un-American. We know mental health is a major component of gun violence. As a medical provider and a Board member our hospital must continue to provide comprehensive access to mental health services in the community. That is why I support the opening of Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion.
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Neither agree nor disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
I have an MBA in Hospital Administration and have led many types of hospitals for 25 years. In those years of experience, I have built and staffed hospitals, managed the total finances of a hospital to stay within a multi-million-dollar budget, and expanded the reach of a hospital to bring medical care to underserved areas. The role of the board member is to oversee the totality of the system and to participate in the strategic planning of its future. I will use my experience and worldview, as a guide to work cooperatively with physicians, nurses, executives, and the public in the performance of SMH's mission and future development.
If elected to the Board, my top priority will be to actively participate overseeing the expansion of healthcare to a growing population and tackle the high cost of providing it. My participation in the Board's role in setting strategic direction is a priority and I will encourage the development of new and innovative patient-centered healthcare delivery systems that are cost effective and quality driven. With expansion of the health systems, an important priority, supported by my training and experience, is overseeing the management of its finances and the metrics of quality care.
I have an MBA in Hospital Administration and have led many types of hospitals for 25+ years. I know and understand their complexities and how hospitals function. In my years of experience, I have built and staffed hospitals, managed the finances of a hospital to stay within a multi-million-dollar budget, and managed the operations of hospitals to generate millions of dollars of surplus funds necessary to meet its growth and operational obligations.
Providing healthcare is very costly. If the incidence of illness is lessened with personal lifestyle habits, public health initiatives and early intervention of treatment, consumption of expensive healthcare treatment would be decreased. Strategies for personal habits include nonsmoking, weight control, routine health checkups, and getting targeted vaccines. Public health initiatives, e.g. clean water, less air pollution, and workplace hazard mitigation lessen the amount of healthcare resource use. The "balance" is a moving continuum of personal and public strategies with a goal to reduce the use of costly healthcare treatment.
Trauma care caused by gun violence is a visible cost. Grief, chaos, first responder costs, investigation, long-term PTSD, businesses affected, schools and other public facilities closed or damaged, plus countless other things are tangential costs to our public, visible and unseen. The character of our country is changed with an ever-increasing number of incidents, severity, and normalizing of our responses. Unfettered access to more lethal weapons without norms and regulation to control the use of guns is a gross failure of ours to live without danger. Ownership of guns is guaranteed, but so is freedom of fear. Public health initiatives protect us. Protecting us from the visible and unseen costs of gun violence is public health imperative.
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Neither agree nor disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
