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Rural Health Leadership Radio™

Over the last ten years, over 100 rural hospitals have closed their doors. Roughly one in three rural hospitals have been identified as “at risk.” If there was ever a need for strong leadership, that time is now. RHLR’s mission is to provide a forum to have conversations with rural health leaders to discuss and share ideas about what is working, what is not working, lessons learned, success stories, strategies, things to avoid and anything else you want to talk and hear about. RHLR provides a voice for rural health. The only investment is your time, and our goal is to make sure you receive a huge return on your investment. For more information, visit www.rhlradio.com or e-mail bill@billauxier.com.
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Now displaying: October, 2020
Oct 27, 2020

Antibiotic stewardship is a critical component of creating value in concert with quality care. Two of the country’s leading experts on this topic are Randee Mason and Dr. Mike Keegan. Dr. Keegan has been a guest on Rural Health Leadership Radio previously; that conversation is the second most listened to episode in the program’s history.

“You don’t have to be titled the leader to lead through creating value.”

~Mike Keegan, M.D.

Randee Mason, RN, BSN, CPHQ, is a KMA principal partner and innovative healthcare leader dedicated to driving change by creating value across the healthcare industry.  As a certified healthcare professional with a strong Lean methodology approach, Randee can lead organizations through quality and patient safety improvements at all levels.

Her vast experience in healthcare includes leading a 30-hospital Antibiotic Stewardship collaborative as well as a statewide hospital quality benchmarking initiative. In addition, Randee has been instrumental in the development of high standards of practice, evaluating patient care for effectiveness, and implementing cutting edge changes to organizations in the most cost-efficient manner possible utilizing Lean methodologies.

Randee excels in large strategic projects requiring tight project management to meet impactful goals. Randee is certified in Quality, Epidemiology, Infection Control, and Antimicrobial Stewardship and received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from South Dakota State University. 

James M. Keegan, MD, is a KMA principal partner and infectious disease specialist with more than 35 years of experience in the medical field as well as 20 years’ experience in Antibiotic Stewardship.  Throughout his career of practicing medicine, Dr. Keegan has taken an active role in improving the quality of healthcare and patient outcomes by serving in numerous medical director and hospital executive leadership positions including Chief Medical Officer of a health system. 

Dr. Keegan has taken special interest in solving the negative impact of the overreliance on broad-spectrum antibiotics and has designed and implemented numerous and successful antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) that have shown to decrease the incidence of drug-resistant bacteria.

You can learn more about Randee and Mike’s work by visiting their website at www.keeganmasonllc.com.

Oct 20, 2020

Greg Puckett is a member of the Mercer County Commission in Princeton, WV, and known for local advocacy in everything from addressing the opioid addiction crisis to making the environment cleaner. He is also executive director of the nonprofit organization, Community Connections, Inc., also in Princeton, and was awarded the Louis Gorin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rural Health Care by the National Rural Health Association in May of this year.

“It’s pretty difficult to look at how you impact health in a given culture.”

~Greg Puckett

Greg wears a lot of hats working in rural health. He grew up in Southern West Virginia and has been an advocate for others his entire life. He comes from a family of hard-working educators. His mom was a teacher and a principal while his dad was a truck and UPS driver. Greg gives his mom credit for his knowledge and credits his dad for his work ethic.

Oct 13, 2020

Anna Marie Anna, RN, BSN, MHA, NE-BC, was appointed the CEO of Tyrone Hospital in July of this year, after having served as the Interim CEO since April 2019. Under her leadership, Tyrone Hospital joined The Pennsylvania Rural Health Model, an innovative payment model that transitions rural hospitals to global budget payments and allows them time to transform care to better meet the health needs of the community.

“The participation in the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model for us has been very beneficial to our survival.”

~Anna Marie Anna, CEO

Anna has served in an executive leadership role since joining Tyrone in 2016. She first served as Chief Nursing Officer. Later she was promoted to the position of Acting CEO.

Mrs. Anna provided executive leadership for Tyrone Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the safety of patients, staff and the community while continuing to provide the highest quality of patient care.  She continues to facilitate planning for potential future needs associated with the ongoing pandemic.

Mrs. Anna’s professional experience includes over twenty-six years in executive and management roles in the healthcare industry.  Prior to joining TRHN, she held leadership positions at Conemaugh Health System, Clearfield Hospital and Golden Living Center.

Mrs. Anna has a Master’s Degree in Health Administration from Ohio University. She is also a Board Certified Nursing Executive and recently completed the NRHA Rural Hospital CEO Certification Program.

Oct 6, 2020

Jason Bleak grew up in a small frontier community in Nevada and finds comfort and enjoyment in practicing his profession as the CEO of a frontier hospital in Battle Mountain, Nevada. 

“Sometimes you have to wear a tutu.”

~Jason Bleak, CEO

Jason loves his profession working in healthcare; however, his highest priority and true love is being a husband and father to a wonderful wife and 5 kids that bring him much joy.  They have been very supportive throughout his career. 

With a bachelor’s degree in Sports Injury Management from the University of Nevada – Las Vegas and an MBA with an emphasis in Health Care Management from the University of Phoenix, Jason has been able to find success in a variety of healthcare settings throughout his 18-year career.  Jason’s career began when he received his Long-term Care Administrator’s License and worked as an LTC Administrator in several western and midwestern states.  For the past 15 years, Jason has worked as the Chief Executive Officer in two different frontier critical access hospitals in Nevada: Grover C. Dils Medical Center & Battle Mountain General Hospital. 

During his years of healthcare administration, Jason has pursued and acquired his Fellow status with the American College of Healthcare Executives.  Jason has had great pleasure working in two great critical access hospitals that provide a full range of services.  The services include primary care in rural health clinics, long-term care services, emergency medical services, and critical access hospital services.  His preference is to work in small rural communities where he can see and feel the benefits of high-quality healthcare.

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