Mainebiz

May 18, 2015

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V O L . X X I N O. X M AY 1 8 , 2 0 1 5 18 who've done that, and that's a significant measurement: When you're out trying to build support for your organization, that's a very helpful data point." But Harnar says that simple metric of leadership really didn't capture the essence of leadership exemplified by the organization's namesake, Dr. Daniel Hanley, who died in 2001 after a long career in sports medicine that included an eight-year stint as chief physician of the U.S. Olympic team and serving as executive director of the Maine Medical Association and edi- tor of its journal. Soon after Hanley's death, Harnar joined family members and a small group of close colleagues at a dinner at Bowdoin College. ey talked about the qualities that had made Daniel Hanley such an influen- tial leader in health care — compas- sion, courage, collaboration, kindness and hard work being among them — and decided to create a nonprofit that would carry his legacy forward. "We seized on one trait: collabo- ration," Harnar says, regarding what became the center's guiding principle and a hallmark of its work since 2002. Twelve years later, upwards of 600 health-care professionals in Maine have completed at least one of the Hanley Center's innovative leadership programs. Almost 300 of them have been physicians who've taken part in the center's Physician Executive Leadership Institute, which provides training in "whole system improve- ment," strategic decision-making, financial business skills, team-building skills and health care trends. Others, including medical providers who aren't doctors, have taken its 16-day Health Leadership Development program or participated in Hanley Leadership Forums focusing on topics as diverse as behavioral health, health information technology, paying for quality health care and transforming Maine's primary care system. Other states have taken note. Some have asked the center for help in cre- ating similar programs. "We helped Texas start a statewide program last fall," Harnar says. "We're under con- tract with South Dakota to build a program similar to ours and we're in discussions with New Jersey, which is looking at a collaborative institution aimed at improving end-of-life care." e Hanley Center also is one of several Maine health care nonprofits helping Maine meet its goals as one of six states receiving a State Innovation Models grant from the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to identify and implement health care reforms that might lower costs for Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program while also improving the health of Mainers enrolled in those federal programs. Maine's $33 million share of the overall $250 million first-round grant will pay for improvements to primary care, public health, behavioral health and long-term care, among other goals. Even those metrics don't entirely satisfy Harnar's need to measure the Hanley Center's impact as he passes the baton of leadership to Judiann Ferretti Smith, who most recently has served as vice president of strategy and government relations at Spurwink, a statewide behavioral health organiza- tion with more than 800 employees. Having worked closely with Dr. Daniel Hanley, who was a stickler for data to support assertions about quality of care and patient outcomes, Harnar says he keeps coming around to "projects" as perhaps the best way of demonstrat- ing how the center and its leadership graduates are slowly transforming health care in Maine. Breaking down silos "We've tried to make sure those projects are 'real time' and relevant, that they actually do require physician leader- ship and that they are aligned with the organization's strategic priorities," Harnar says. "ere's a discipline to Transforming health care Portland nonprofit trains doctors to be health care leaders B y J a m e s M c C a r t h y F O C U S » C O N T I N U E D F R O M C O V E R Jim Harnar, executive director of the Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership, retires this month and will be replaced by Judiann Ferretti Smith. They are pictured next to a portrait of Dr. Daniel F. Hanley at Medical Mutual Insurance Company of Maine in Portland.

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