Selected Podcast
Pack Your Bags! Heading to the ASHRM Annual Conference 2021
Are you a new member to ASHRM? Are you a seasoned member who has not attended a conference in the past? This podcast will explore a member’s perspective on tips for the Annual Conference New Comer or maybe you have been away from the Annual Conference and you are joining us for the first time. Hear how one member has navigated national conference attendance.
Featuring:
Michelle Kinneer, PhD, JD, MSN, RN, CPHRM, CHPC, CHC
Dr. Michelle Kinneer is an experienced risk and corporate compliance professional who identifies areas of vulnerability and potential non-compliance through an enterprise-wide lens and guides organizations through the development and execution of strategic actions to correct and minimize those risks. She has served in the healthcare industry for over twenty-five years. Michelle's vast experience includes providing care at the bedside to senior executive roles. Her responsibilities have included the day-to-day management of compliance, risk, and patient safety programs along with department leadership. Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Leadership with a specialization in organizational management, a Juris Doctorate, and a Masters in Nursing. She holds the designations of Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM), Certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC), Certified in Healthcare Privacy Compliance (CHPC), and Nurse Executive Board Certified (NE-BC). Currently, she serves as Senior Director, Corporate Compliance for Comprehensive Pharmacy Services, a trusted leader in pharmacy services supporting pharmacy leadership, providing optimized pharmacy best practices and innovative technology solutions. Transcription:
Michael Carrese: Welcome to the ASHRM podcast, made possible by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management to support efforts to advance safe and trusted healthcare through enterprise risk management. Visit ASRHM.org/membership to learn more and become an ASHRM member. I'm Michael Carrese. It's time for the ASHRM Annual Conference. And this year, there will be two ways to attend from October 10th to 13th, there will be an in-person event in San Antonio. And from October 25th through the 27th, ASHRM is offering a virtual program that features a selection of the top-rated sessions from the in-person event. Both have the theme of Connecting Leaders Preparing For the Future. There'll be valuable discussions on COVID and mental health, communicating with patients and families, a leadership simulation exercise and, of course, several keynote speeches among many other offerings.
We're going to find out more about the conference and get some tips and strategies for getting the most out of the experience from Dr. Michelle Kinneer, who is Senior Director of Corporate Compliance for Comprehensive Pharmacy Services. And Michelle, welcome back to the ASHRM podcast.
Michelle Kinneer: Thank you.
Michael Carrese: So, are you going to be there in person or did you choose to attend virtually?
Michelle Kinneer: I made the decision to go virtually this year. I would have loved to attend it in person, but my professional role has changed slightly. So it makes more sense for the virtual selection.
Michael Carrese: And do you remember back to when you first went and do you have any advice for people who are first time attendees?
Michelle Kinneer: Oh, yes, I do remember. And believe it or not, I have been attending ASHRM conferences off and on since 2004. So I do have a little bit of experience with attending. I know the first one, I felt a little overwhelmed. There were so many people. I'd also been in my risk management role for a grand total of, I think, two weeks before the conference. And so it was really overwhelming. And I didn't really know where to go, what to do. And I found that networking with others in the conference, learning from them, understanding, you know, how you kind of select some options for the sessions, how to get the most out of the conference was really valuable and what I kind of stuck with. And so it's an awesome opportunity. Don't get overwhelmed. Just think about what you want to take away from the conference as you look at that agenda.
Michael Carrese: Yeah, sort of create your own agenda within the agenda to map your way through it. So what sessions will you be attending and how did you make your selection?
Michelle Kinneer: So for the virtual, as you said in the beginning, it's more of a curated event, so it's not going to have all of the options. And there are basically just one session for each kind of time slot. So that was really kind of how that was selected for me. But there are a couple of sessions that I know I am planning on really attending and was so glad to see that it was not only in the live presentation, but included in the virtual too.
One of them is race and ethics. And from an ethical perspective and risk management and decision-making, thinking about bioethics and how you make decisions, especially when you have clinical and operations, and sometimes there's a conflict. So really thinking about how you can kind of marry those two and thinking about that approach from that ethical kind of decision-making risk management standpoint. Another session that I'm really looking forward to is racism. It's risk mitigation for prejudice versus patient choice issues.
For those of us who have been in a leadership role in healthcare, sometimes you are faced with those decisions of the patients, making a request on a staffing change, or maybe your staff are requesting a patient load change, and you have to navigate what is best in this entire situation, what's the most respectful for the team member, how are you honoring patient choice and how are you making sure that you're not doing some sort of knee jerk reaction?
So those are two that I'm really looking forward to. And like I said, I am so glad that they are in-person and on the virtual platform as well.
Michael Carrese: Yeah. So, you know, you've been, as you mentioned, in many of these, can you give us an example of some takeaways and to do's that you've had after an ASHRM conference?
Michelle Kinneer: Sure. So some of the things that I've walked away with are ideas on how to improve my program, whether it be from messaging and communications, education for our team members or even those how to processes when it comes to an RCA or FMEA or whatever acronym we want to put in healthcare these days. So really learning and hearing how others do it, what were their best practices and kind of walking back into my organization and looking at, you know, I'll take our root cause analysis, the RCA process. As I listened to how the speakers talked about what they did in their organization, how I heard the other members of the audience talking about some of their best experience and what their key takeaways were, as I walked back into my organization, I looked at the RCA process, the policies I had, how the process went, and looked to see how I could make it better.
Healthcare is more of a team sport. You know, we learn from each other. And so those were some of the things that I took from that and how I was able to use the information that you hear at this conference, how others in the field are tackling the same issues that you have in your own organization and how you can learn from what they've learned and take some of those best practices into your own organization.
Michael Carrese: Yeah. And, you know, it's an area where there's just so much complexity, so many gray areas that I was thinking it would be very valuable to spend some time with peers and colleagues kind of mulling these things over and really trying to understand as much as you can about all the different dimensions and dynamics.
Michelle Kinneer: Absolutely. And, you know, another kind of takeaway that I had from my very first conference was meeting a couple of other risk managers. And even though, of course, if they're listening, they're probably going to roll their eyes and say, "Don't say my name because with how long you've been going." But there are some people that I connected with in 2004, that I still connect with regularly today. And so you really are able to build your network too and have those people where you can call up and say, "Oh my gosh, here's a situation I've never faced before," because I think in risk management, we probably have that situation, whatever it is, almost monthly, if not weekly. And so having some friends out there in the field who you can give a call to, or they can call you for some kind of thoughts and guidance, it's very helpful.
Michael Carrese: And on top of that, there's continuing education credit you can earn too, right?
Michelle Kinneer: Right. And for the most part at least in my experience, I've been able to use the continuing ed credits for not only my ASHRM certifications, but also other certifications from other professional societies, as well as my nursing CEUs that are required. So I try to use those CEUs for everything I possibly can, because that's how you can really kind of maximize what you're doing too.
Michael Carrese: Right. There was a strategy question I forgot to ask you about in terms of attending. So, you know, how does that change? How does your approach and your strategy of attending the conference change depending on your experience level, like if you've been at this for a long time versus relatively new to the field?
Michelle Kinneer: I sometimes look for the courses that are aimed at more of the advanced professional, because I have been doing this awhile. And it is kind of nice to be able to see, "Okay, what can we layer on this? I've got the foundational understanding. I know I've been in this, I've had the processes." But sometimes there are those little nuances that are a little higher level, so you tend to focus on that.
However, if let's say I was still in the hospital setting, a big new area would be like artificial intelligence, for instance, I would look for the courses that are all related to AI in some way or another, so that way I could kind of learn and get myself up to speed, so that way I can kind of talk to those IT and analyst type of individuals in healthcare so I can kind of understand what that data is and what it's showing.
So same way for clinical practices. For those that are in a hospital setting, your needs are probably a little bit different than those that are in the outpatient physician office or home health setting. So really understanding the issues that your organization has faced or some of the practices that you know you can apply across the board, that would be another strategy to think about what sessions to attend.
Michael Carrese: And what do you do if the session you want to attend is full?
Michelle Kinneer: You know, that happens almost all the time. And I think every conference I've attended, there have been people sitting or standing along the wall and the volunteers and the ASHRM staff remind us that goes against fire code. So I would say really be gracious, know that when you're going into these sessions, we do have to pay attention to local rules and regulations. We're in risk management after all. And we need to understand that the volunteers are there to help make sure that we are staying in compliance with those. So be gracious. Attend a different session. You can also see maybe there's a colleague or someone that you can sit with the next day at breakfast or one of the receptions and be able to pick their brain, "What did you get from that session too?"
So it is about being gracious. A lot of times you'll get to the session a little bit early, so you can make sure you have a seat. But once it's full, choose something else. There's so many opportunities to be able to get some really great information from other colleagues in the field.
Michael Carrese: Yeah, it does seem like a really full menu of things to choose from. And again, we're talking about the ASHRM Annual Conference. This year, there's going to be an in-person session in San Antonio from October 10th to the 13th. And then, from October 25th to 27th, ASHRM is offering a virtual program that features a selection of the top-rated sessions from the in-person event. Both of them have the theme this year of Connecting Leaders and Preparing For The Future. So Michelle Kinneer, thank you so much for joining us and giving some great advice and tips there on attending the ASHRM Annual Conference
Michelle Kinneer: well, thank you for having me.
Michael Carrese: Dr. Michelle Kinneer is Senior Director of Corporate Compliance for Comprehensive Pharmacy Services. By the way, to learn more about the conference and to register, you can go to the ashrm.org homepage and you'll see information about it right at the top. This podcast is made possible by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management to support efforts to advance safe and trusted healthcare through enterprise risk management. You can visit ashrm.org/membership to learn more and become an ASHRM member. I'm Michael Carrese. Thanks for listening.
Michael Carrese: Welcome to the ASHRM podcast, made possible by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management to support efforts to advance safe and trusted healthcare through enterprise risk management. Visit ASRHM.org/membership to learn more and become an ASHRM member. I'm Michael Carrese. It's time for the ASHRM Annual Conference. And this year, there will be two ways to attend from October 10th to 13th, there will be an in-person event in San Antonio. And from October 25th through the 27th, ASHRM is offering a virtual program that features a selection of the top-rated sessions from the in-person event. Both have the theme of Connecting Leaders Preparing For the Future. There'll be valuable discussions on COVID and mental health, communicating with patients and families, a leadership simulation exercise and, of course, several keynote speeches among many other offerings.
We're going to find out more about the conference and get some tips and strategies for getting the most out of the experience from Dr. Michelle Kinneer, who is Senior Director of Corporate Compliance for Comprehensive Pharmacy Services. And Michelle, welcome back to the ASHRM podcast.
Michelle Kinneer: Thank you.
Michael Carrese: So, are you going to be there in person or did you choose to attend virtually?
Michelle Kinneer: I made the decision to go virtually this year. I would have loved to attend it in person, but my professional role has changed slightly. So it makes more sense for the virtual selection.
Michael Carrese: And do you remember back to when you first went and do you have any advice for people who are first time attendees?
Michelle Kinneer: Oh, yes, I do remember. And believe it or not, I have been attending ASHRM conferences off and on since 2004. So I do have a little bit of experience with attending. I know the first one, I felt a little overwhelmed. There were so many people. I'd also been in my risk management role for a grand total of, I think, two weeks before the conference. And so it was really overwhelming. And I didn't really know where to go, what to do. And I found that networking with others in the conference, learning from them, understanding, you know, how you kind of select some options for the sessions, how to get the most out of the conference was really valuable and what I kind of stuck with. And so it's an awesome opportunity. Don't get overwhelmed. Just think about what you want to take away from the conference as you look at that agenda.
Michael Carrese: Yeah, sort of create your own agenda within the agenda to map your way through it. So what sessions will you be attending and how did you make your selection?
Michelle Kinneer: So for the virtual, as you said in the beginning, it's more of a curated event, so it's not going to have all of the options. And there are basically just one session for each kind of time slot. So that was really kind of how that was selected for me. But there are a couple of sessions that I know I am planning on really attending and was so glad to see that it was not only in the live presentation, but included in the virtual too.
One of them is race and ethics. And from an ethical perspective and risk management and decision-making, thinking about bioethics and how you make decisions, especially when you have clinical and operations, and sometimes there's a conflict. So really thinking about how you can kind of marry those two and thinking about that approach from that ethical kind of decision-making risk management standpoint. Another session that I'm really looking forward to is racism. It's risk mitigation for prejudice versus patient choice issues.
For those of us who have been in a leadership role in healthcare, sometimes you are faced with those decisions of the patients, making a request on a staffing change, or maybe your staff are requesting a patient load change, and you have to navigate what is best in this entire situation, what's the most respectful for the team member, how are you honoring patient choice and how are you making sure that you're not doing some sort of knee jerk reaction?
So those are two that I'm really looking forward to. And like I said, I am so glad that they are in-person and on the virtual platform as well.
Michael Carrese: Yeah. So, you know, you've been, as you mentioned, in many of these, can you give us an example of some takeaways and to do's that you've had after an ASHRM conference?
Michelle Kinneer: Sure. So some of the things that I've walked away with are ideas on how to improve my program, whether it be from messaging and communications, education for our team members or even those how to processes when it comes to an RCA or FMEA or whatever acronym we want to put in healthcare these days. So really learning and hearing how others do it, what were their best practices and kind of walking back into my organization and looking at, you know, I'll take our root cause analysis, the RCA process. As I listened to how the speakers talked about what they did in their organization, how I heard the other members of the audience talking about some of their best experience and what their key takeaways were, as I walked back into my organization, I looked at the RCA process, the policies I had, how the process went, and looked to see how I could make it better.
Healthcare is more of a team sport. You know, we learn from each other. And so those were some of the things that I took from that and how I was able to use the information that you hear at this conference, how others in the field are tackling the same issues that you have in your own organization and how you can learn from what they've learned and take some of those best practices into your own organization.
Michael Carrese: Yeah. And, you know, it's an area where there's just so much complexity, so many gray areas that I was thinking it would be very valuable to spend some time with peers and colleagues kind of mulling these things over and really trying to understand as much as you can about all the different dimensions and dynamics.
Michelle Kinneer: Absolutely. And, you know, another kind of takeaway that I had from my very first conference was meeting a couple of other risk managers. And even though, of course, if they're listening, they're probably going to roll their eyes and say, "Don't say my name because with how long you've been going." But there are some people that I connected with in 2004, that I still connect with regularly today. And so you really are able to build your network too and have those people where you can call up and say, "Oh my gosh, here's a situation I've never faced before," because I think in risk management, we probably have that situation, whatever it is, almost monthly, if not weekly. And so having some friends out there in the field who you can give a call to, or they can call you for some kind of thoughts and guidance, it's very helpful.
Michael Carrese: And on top of that, there's continuing education credit you can earn too, right?
Michelle Kinneer: Right. And for the most part at least in my experience, I've been able to use the continuing ed credits for not only my ASHRM certifications, but also other certifications from other professional societies, as well as my nursing CEUs that are required. So I try to use those CEUs for everything I possibly can, because that's how you can really kind of maximize what you're doing too.
Michael Carrese: Right. There was a strategy question I forgot to ask you about in terms of attending. So, you know, how does that change? How does your approach and your strategy of attending the conference change depending on your experience level, like if you've been at this for a long time versus relatively new to the field?
Michelle Kinneer: I sometimes look for the courses that are aimed at more of the advanced professional, because I have been doing this awhile. And it is kind of nice to be able to see, "Okay, what can we layer on this? I've got the foundational understanding. I know I've been in this, I've had the processes." But sometimes there are those little nuances that are a little higher level, so you tend to focus on that.
However, if let's say I was still in the hospital setting, a big new area would be like artificial intelligence, for instance, I would look for the courses that are all related to AI in some way or another, so that way I could kind of learn and get myself up to speed, so that way I can kind of talk to those IT and analyst type of individuals in healthcare so I can kind of understand what that data is and what it's showing.
So same way for clinical practices. For those that are in a hospital setting, your needs are probably a little bit different than those that are in the outpatient physician office or home health setting. So really understanding the issues that your organization has faced or some of the practices that you know you can apply across the board, that would be another strategy to think about what sessions to attend.
Michael Carrese: And what do you do if the session you want to attend is full?
Michelle Kinneer: You know, that happens almost all the time. And I think every conference I've attended, there have been people sitting or standing along the wall and the volunteers and the ASHRM staff remind us that goes against fire code. So I would say really be gracious, know that when you're going into these sessions, we do have to pay attention to local rules and regulations. We're in risk management after all. And we need to understand that the volunteers are there to help make sure that we are staying in compliance with those. So be gracious. Attend a different session. You can also see maybe there's a colleague or someone that you can sit with the next day at breakfast or one of the receptions and be able to pick their brain, "What did you get from that session too?"
So it is about being gracious. A lot of times you'll get to the session a little bit early, so you can make sure you have a seat. But once it's full, choose something else. There's so many opportunities to be able to get some really great information from other colleagues in the field.
Michael Carrese: Yeah, it does seem like a really full menu of things to choose from. And again, we're talking about the ASHRM Annual Conference. This year, there's going to be an in-person session in San Antonio from October 10th to the 13th. And then, from October 25th to 27th, ASHRM is offering a virtual program that features a selection of the top-rated sessions from the in-person event. Both of them have the theme this year of Connecting Leaders and Preparing For The Future. So Michelle Kinneer, thank you so much for joining us and giving some great advice and tips there on attending the ASHRM Annual Conference
Michelle Kinneer: well, thank you for having me.
Michael Carrese: Dr. Michelle Kinneer is Senior Director of Corporate Compliance for Comprehensive Pharmacy Services. By the way, to learn more about the conference and to register, you can go to the ashrm.org homepage and you'll see information about it right at the top. This podcast is made possible by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management to support efforts to advance safe and trusted healthcare through enterprise risk management. You can visit ashrm.org/membership to learn more and become an ASHRM member. I'm Michael Carrese. Thanks for listening.