Profiles in Nursing: Maureen Kahn
We extend our warmest welcome to Maureen Kahn, RN, MHA, president and chief executive officer of Blessing Hospital (Quincy, IL) as she begins her tenure as chair of the CNO Partnership Council. We thought you'd appreciate getting to know her a little better and learn about the important contributions Blessing Hospital is making in the areas of clinical information technology and nursing education.
A registered nurse who rose through the ranks of hospital administration - serving as chief nursing officer for 20 years, then chief operating officer, and now as president and CEO - Maureen brings considerable experience and a global clinical background that serves Blessing Hospital well as it focuses on quality healthcare.
Background
Maureen holds affiliations with the American Organization of Nurse Executives, the VHA Nursing Advisory Council, the Illinois Organization of Nurse Executives, Sigma Theta Tau, the American Organization of Healthcare Executives, and is a "Little People" Board Member. Past affiliations include the Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives, and the New York Organization of Nurse Executives, and she has served as a board member for the American Red Cross, the Evergreen Home Care, and the Clinton Community College.
She holds a Master in Healthcare Administration from Hamilton University and bachelor's degrees in Business and Healthcare Administration from Gwynedd-Mercy College. She received her nursing education from Frankford Hospital School of Nursing in Philadelphia and currently is finishing a master's degree in nursing from the University of Phoenix.
"Maureen delivers an extraordinary focus on quality that permeates the entire organization, from the Board of Directors to medical and nursing staff leadership, as well as individual caregivers," says Jim Cato, Eclipsys chief nursing officer. "Moreover, her long-time role as a nurse leader and her ongoing commitment to nursing education reflects a keen understanding of the needs of nurses. She applies that knowledge to lead Blessing Hospital - and, through her leadership of the CNO Partnership Council, all of our clients - into the future of healthcare."
Technology and Nurses
In fact, Blessing Hospital's commitment to quality healthcare has been a key driving force since it began in 1875 with the mission of serving the county's sick and destitute. Today, Blessing Hospital's 426-beds serve 15 counties in northeast Missouri, western Illinois and southeast Iowa. Maureen has actively engaged the board, community and physicians in the transformation of care through technology. Implementing a clinical information system takes leadership and a team effort.
Maureen understood this as she led the organization on its journey to implement Sunrise Clinical Manager™ and Knowledge-Based Charting™. Under Maureen's direction, the organization transformed core work processes to help improve quality and patient safety by delivering information to virtually every member of the healthcare team, anytime, anyplace and anywhere it's needed.
Engaging the Healthcare Team
Maureen credits Blessing Hospital's successful big-bang activation of Clinical Manager to the hospital's ability to engage people and resources from five key areas - IT, senior leadership, a strong physician champion, the Clinical Analyst team, and Patient Care Services. Under Maureen's direction, Blessing Hospital transformed core work processes to help improve quality and patient safety by delivering appropriate information to virtually every member of the healthcare team, anytime, anyplace and anywhere it's needed.
"Organizational commitment to change plays as large a part as sound project management and information technology support - it's also something that touches every area of the hospital, from workflow redesign to process transformation and clinical adoption of the system, and more," Maureen says. Blessing Hospital enlisted Eclipsys Consulting Services™ to recommend best practices and to help guide the adoption of CPMRC™ partnership models through workshops and training sessions. "The partnership model we implemented as part of our clinical transformation effort has spread throughout the organization, with all departments encouraged to set up their own partnership councils. This is giving Blessing Hospital a sound method for collaborating and sharing success," Maureen says.
School of Nursing faculty are on the hospital's nursing council and dedicated to a successful implementation of Knowledge- Based Charting. Ongoing training sessions with CPMRC staff help ensure adoption of clinical practice guidelines throughout the organizations. By orienting tomorrow's nurses toward evidence-based practice and active use of clinical information technology, nurses graduate with a commitment to excellence that will stay with them throughout their careers.
Innovation for Nursing Education
Alongside a keen focus on using technology to improve care, Blessing Hospital, together with Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing, has put into practice a series of innovative programs focusing on nursing education. Providing top-notch training for tomorrow's nurses is ever-important as the nation faces nursing shortages that are projected to continue for years. Blessing Hospital's programs center around incorporating best-practice guidelines and technology into the nursing curriculum.
For example, Blessing focused on preparing nursing students for the workforce with a program called Nursing Residency: Fostering Clinical Excellence. This purpose of this program is to help improve RN retention rates and decrease staff turnover rates. The program pairs recent graduates with experienced experts on the nursing units for a period of six months. The program includes a traditional classroom component, web-based content, guided clinical experiences and weekly teleconferences that help novice graduates transition to an advanced beginner practitioner.
But then, Blessing Hospital has a long standing tradition of preparing nursing students for work. Significant to the development of healthcare in Quincy was the founding of the Blessing Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1891, one of the first accredited nursing schools in the Midwest to be organized outside of Chicago. From the first graduating class in 1894, the now Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing has experienced tremendous growth. The College of Nursing offers a four-year BSN program and is accredited by the National League for Nursing - a designation denoting excellence in nursing education.
Blessing Health Professions Library received a Technology Improvement Award from the National Network/Libraries of Medicine Greater Midwest Region for its efforts to incorporate personal digital assistants (PDAs) at the bedside. Library personnel and nursing clinical faculty partnered to conduct a research project with senior nursing students to introduce PDAs as a clinical tool to the students, faculty and mentoring clinical staff of Blessing Hospital. Library staff trained and monitored the students' use of the PDA - which was loaded with valuable information such as Davis's Drug Guide for Nurses, RNLabs (Nurse's Manual of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests), and RNDiseases (Diseases and Disorders: A Nursing Therapeutics Manual) - in their senior clinical rotations, greatly adding to their ability to gather the knowledge and information needed to treat patients more efficiently.
These are just a few of the exciting initiatives that Blessing Hospital, under Maureen's leadership, has put in place to ensure nursing students transition successfully to professional practice.
rse Executive Solutions™ in which to best manage the fragile balance of care quality and the cost of care. We welcome the entire VSA team to the Eclipsys family!
"The partnership model we implemented as part of our clinical transformation effort has spread throughout the organization, with all departments encouraged to set up their own partnership councils. This is giving Blessing Hospital a sound method for collaborating and sharing success."
Maureen Kahn, RN, MHA President and Chief Executive Officer Blessing Hospital
Quincy, IL
This article appeared in the Outcomes in Nursing newsletter.
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