Turning Vision into Action

By Ernesto A. Cerdena, PHDc, RT, CRA, FAHRA

As fall begins, many things start to happen: the temperature drops, football season kicks off, and leaves change color, among many other changes. As those of us in medical imaging administration know all too well, changes are inevitable. Mandates on quality improvement, cost control, operational efficiencies and effectiveness, and value-based care have all had a significant impact on the way healthcare leaders lead. To be successful amidst all of healthcare’s transformational changes requires visionary leaders with great attributes such as creativity, assertiveness, passion, and visibility.

Leaders with vision are paramount in any organizations.  As a member-driven association, AHRA is blessed with visionary board leaders. The board of directors, along with the staff, is working very hard to realize our vision:

VISION: The AHRA will be the association of choice for leaders in medical imaging management. It will be dedicated to developing products and services driven by member needs; such as leadership development, financial outcomes, quality of patient care and clinical outcomes, workplace, and patient safety. The association will be a driving force toward improving the healthcare environment.

The actualization of our association’s vision can be accomplished through alignment with our strategic plan. In my last communicatio to our members, I shared that the board of directors has been fully engaged and took a deep dive into our major goals and strategies.  As your president, I am very pleased to share a few updates as we transition from the strategic planning to operational planning:

• Our collective board has approved the promotion of Debra Murphy to Deputy Executive Director of AHRA. In her new role, Deb will continue to direct the association’s publications and communications strategy, and she will now also co-lead with our CEO, Ed Cronin, towards the identification of action items and implementation of an operational plan guided by our strategic goals and objectives.
• The board has continued to reach out to our first time Annual Meeting attendees and new members to share our successes and to seek more opportunities to improve the association’s value to our members.
• The Virtual Fall Conference is advancing very well. To date, we’re nearing 200 registrants and are also attracting major exhibitors/sponsors.  The live keynote session is scheduled for October 16 at 2:00 PM EST with renowned speaker Dr. Richard Duszak. Unique to this new format, there will be live chats scheduled throughout the conference for each of the on demand sessions. For more information, please visit:  www.ahraonline.org/FallConference.
• I’m very excited to share that we have crafted a new online staffing model tool that is coming to its final stages and will soon be available. A white paper was developed explaining the background and methodology for the tool.  It has been in the making for a year and a half and is currently being refined for better usability. Keep an eye out for more information very soon!
• The Regulatory Affairs Committee has been making waves in the medical imaging industry. The committee, led by Sheila Sferrella, continues to attract major media attention with the impressive work they have done on NEMA Standard XR-29 and Low-Dose CT Lung Cancer Screening Billing Requirements communications to CMS.
• As both a collective board and as individuals, we devote a lot of time and effort to achieve vitality and success for our association. Hence, it is salient to measure our performance both collectively and individually. The directors are in the process of completing board assessment surveys. Once completed, the results will be tallied and discussed at our board meeting in early December. The baseline result will be compared to the final survey we will complete during the Annual Meeting next year to validate that a “good board can always be better.”

Also at our meeting in December, the entire board will participate in a workshop entitled “Full Value Engagement.” During this workshop, we will explore how the culture of the board drives engagement and is highly dependent on its mission focus, ability to adapt, level of individual board member involvement, and consistency of values, agreement, and integrated action. Loretta Donovan, an executive coach from I-attain, will lead these interesting and important discussions.

Speaking of engagement, I’d like to give a shout out to Jason Elliot for his feedback on my last article about marketing the CRA to prospective employers. Indeed, the CRA is an achievement that we need to brag about! The RACC and AHRA will continue their joint efforts to produce communications that highlight the significance of the CRA to hiring managers and executive hospital leaders. Jason’s feedback is what we are looking for from our membership. I invite more members to get involved; our association is what we make it. AHRA is YOU!

Bibliography

Axelrod N. The Governing Board: Key Responsibilities for Association Boards and Board Members. Washington, DC: ASAE Association Management Press, 2013.

Selcer A, Goodman G, Decker PJ. Fostering transformational leadership in business and health administration education through appreciative inquiry coaching. Business Education Innovation Journal. 2012;4(2):10-19. doi.org/10.2478/cplbu-2014-0051

Ernesto A. Cerdena, PHDc, RT, CRA, FAHRA is the president of the 2015-2016 AHRA Board of Directors. He is the director of diagnostic imaging/radiology services at Waterbury Hospital in Waterbury, CT. He can be reached at ecerdena@wtbyhosp.org.