Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 21 M AY 1 8 , 2 0 1 5 Hospital Association and president of the Maine Health Information Center (now Onpoint Health Data), expects the Hanley Center's impact will con- tinue to grow as literally hundreds of physicians trained as leaders work with other stakeholders to improve health care in Maine. Within another year or two, the center will achieve its goal of training roughly 10%, or 400, of Maine's practicing physicians to take on greater leadership roles in improv- ing care and moderating the growth of health care costs. "I feel lik e the organization is poised for substantial growth," he says. "It has a solid base of support. In order to move to the next level, we need the input of new energy, passion and drive. I'm 62. When we launched the physician leadership program there was one full-time person: me. It was our biggest initiative, a huge eff ort, a huge risk. It took 10 years to get a clear fi x on what the organiza- tion's mission would be. en it took a couple of years to get strong enough to get staffi ng in place. en it was off to the races." Ja m e S M C Ca rt H y , M a i n e b i z s e n i o r writer, can be reached at JmCC artHy @ mainebiz.biz and @ Jame SMainebiz eatonpeabody.com A s the non-physician CEO of InterMed, a physician-owned medical group focusing on primary care along with integrated specialty services, Dan McCormack answers to a board of directors that includes 11 physicians in its mem- bership. Several have taken the Hanley Center's Physician Executive Leadership Institute program, while others have participated in an onsite "foundational course" developed by the center for physicians who are beginning to take on roles that require management and leadership skills. "Without a doubt, the physicians who come back from these programs have a much better sense of who they are," says McCormack, who serves on the Hanley Center's board as treasurer. "They're more aware of their tendencies and how they're perceived by their peers. They've learned how to infl uence discussions and infl uence people. They've become better at collaboration. So much of effective collaboration begins with people knowing who they are." He's also appreciates having doctors on his board who understand the sea change taking place in health care today and are willing to take on the real work of transform- ing the old fee-for-service model of primary care based on sick patients walking through the door seeking care into a patient-centered approach focused more on proactively help- ing them stay healthy. That's led to expanded offi ce hours at InterMed's offi ces in Portland, South Portland and Yarmouth, including weekends, which is helping to reduce expensive emergency room visits for routine care. The medical group also has embraced "patient portals," computer-based com- munication between doctors and patients that can be used for scheduling appointments, renewing prescriptions or providing updates about ongoing health issues. "It's the physicians who are leading this process, and that makes my job that much easier," he says. Dr. Sean Hanley, a surgeon with MaineOrtho in Portland and chairman of the Hanley Center's board, says the non- profi t named for his father has "far exceeded our expecta- tions. We never anticipated we'd have the successes we've had." The initial group of physicians who signed up for lead- ership training, he says, had been younger colleagues of his father. In the last fi ve years, the leadership graduates have transitioned to a new generation of physicians who didn't know his father. But like his father and the center's fi rst leadership trainees, they've bought into the idea of improving health care through collaboration and using data to identify opportunities for improvement. "In thinking about why my Dad made a difference, kind- ness was one of the things we identifi ed," he says. "Also hard work: He was not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get involved. He was a collaborator and worked well with others. He had a phrase he'd like to say, 'You can accomplish a lot when you don't care who gets credit for it.' That phrase sort of epitomizes what he was about. And the other trait that comes to mind, he was an innovator. He was pretty innova- tive in his thinking." Hanley Center is training a new generation of physician-leaders in Maine

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