FW: [ANI] Request for AHIC Successor Nursing Representation

Published

Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

Greetings Nursing Informatics Colleagues,

Please find below the letter that was sent via email to the AHIC

Successor leadership team on behalf of the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI).

FYI, If you are a member of a local Nursing Informatics group then you are also a member of ANI. If you are not a member of any formal NI group I still wanted to make sure you were kept in the loop as practicing Nursing Informatics professionals.

Angela

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AHIC Successor leadership,

We are writing you today on behalf of ANI, the Alliance for Nursing

Informatics. ANI is a collaboration of organizations, representing a

unified voice for nursing informatics. We represent more than 8,000

nurses and bring together over 25 nursing informatics groups that

function separately at local, regional, national and international

levels. Our members work in collaboration with the 2,960,000 nurses

practicing in the U.S. today to advance our shared goal of EHR adoption.

Earlier this year we had the pleasure of nominating three nurse leaders

for the AHIC Successor, Inc. Board of Directors. Our nominees are

recognized leaders in nursing informatics. Each of our nominees was

chosen specifically for their expertise in nursing informatics as well

as their desire to serve as the representative for a unified voice for

nursing informatics. Each of these nominees met the Proposed

Qualifications as recommended by the Governance Planning Group, and

individually provides a unique and broad set of experience and

expertise.

We recognize that the work of the conveners in choosing the board

members must have been difficult and that you had many excellent

candidates to choose from a broad range of stakeholders. We are very

concerned however that one of the largest stakeholder groups is not

represented on the AHIC Successor, Inc. Board of Directors. None of our

three consensus candidates - well respected, experienced nursing

informatics leaders - were selected to serve and we are extremely

disappointed.

As the single largest group of healthcare providers, nurses are an

integral part of the care team and connect many segments in the

healthcare community. Failure to include adequate representation at the

AHIC leadership level was a missed opportunity to capitalize on recent

IOM recommendations for "patient-centered, informatics rich, and

team-based care."

Over the last several days, there have been hundreds of messages of

concern that have circulated in our nursing informatics community.

Several of our nursing informatics leaders have expressed these concerns

both in person at the AHIC meeting and via e-mail to AHIC leadership. We

are taking this additional opportunity to share our thoughts with you.

While we remain committed to the AHIC effort and will continue to

support this work, we again express our disappointment that our voice

was not heard. We are steadfast in our commitment to be the united

voice for nursing informatics and we urge you to include us as part of

your leadership team. We look forward to working together with you to

address these concerns.

Carole A. Gassert, PhD, RN, FACMI

Joyce Sensmeier MS, RN-BC, CPHIMS, FHIMSS

Co-chairs, Alliance for Nursing Informatics

Specializes in Informatics, Surgery.

I've been following this on the CARING ListServ. I am so dismayed at the lack of nursing representation. Thanks for keeping everyone informed!

The chair of the AHIC transition committee is a nurse.

Ms. Lillee Smith Gelinas, RN, MSN (Co-Chair)

Ms. Gelinas, R.N is vice president and chief nursing officer at VHA. As a member of VHA's Clinical Affairs leadership team, she supports efforts aimed at system wide achievement of clinical excellence that focus on several key areas including: evidence-based improvement, effective leadership development, clinical team collaboration, enhancing physician/hospital relationships and making the business case for quality. She also works extensively with both health care organizations and VHA's 18 local offices to 'close the quality gap' through VHA's clinical agenda. Ms. Gelinas spearheaded the formation of the VHA Nursing Initiative that provides direction to help health care organizations improve patient care delivery.

Ms. Gelinas earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Southern Louisiana in Lafayette and a master's degree in nursing, with honors, from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also studied at the Wharton School of Business.

Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

That is correct the Co-Chair of the "transition" board (Lillee Smith Gelinas) is a nurse and one and only one AHIC 2 board member - Laura Adams is a nurse

Although you might not know of Ms. Adams background as her credentials are missing from both the AHIC website, the press release and from the presentation materials at the meeting in Washington..........

http://www.ahicsuccessor.org/hhs/ahic.nsf/newsroom.htm

You will notice that there are 5 physicians on the AHIC 2 BODs, a social worker and someone from Wal-Mart ...........but only one nurse.

That one of the AHIC directors happens to be a nurse is not the same as having someone appointed to represent nursing on an important panel such as AHIC.

ANI members were aware of Ms Adams credentials prior to the drafting of the letter included in my original post. There was consensus that this is one time we (Nursing) should not accept that we have no representation.

The issue is the the lack of nursing representation on the AHIC2 board. Nurses as the largest group of healthcare providers are not represented adequately on the AHIC2 -AHIC Successor BODs

The lack of qualified nursing representation on the AHIC2 board is also unacceptable considering the submission in July by ANI of three extremely qualified, incredibly competent and accomplished nursing candidates:

Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN,

FAAN, FACMI, Dean, University of Minnesota School of Nursing

Judy Murphy, RN, FACMI, FHIMSS,

Vice President, Information Services, Aurora Health Care

Jacqueline Willis, RN, MS, VP

and Chief Clinical Information Officer, Adventist Health System, Information

Services

The letter and discussions highlight the notable omission of nurses and nursing that needes to be addressed.

The chair of the AHIC transition committee is a nurse.

Ms. Lillee Smith Gelinas, RN, MSN (Co-Chair)

Ms. Gelinas, R.N is vice president and chief nursing officer at VHA. As a member of VHA's Clinical Affairs leadership team, she supports efforts aimed at system wide achievement of clinical excellence that focus on several key areas including: evidence-based improvement, effective leadership development, clinical team collaboration, enhancing physician/hospital relationships and making the business case for quality. She also works extensively with both health care organizations and VHA's 18 local offices to 'close the quality gap' through VHA's clinical agenda. Ms. Gelinas spearheaded the formation of the VHA Nursing Initiative that provides direction to help health care organizations improve patient care delivery.

Ms. Gelinas earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Southern Louisiana in Lafayette and a master's degree in nursing, with honors, from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also studied at the Wharton School of Business.

Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

Greetings ANI member organizations,

Please share this message with your members.

A meeting was held on October 27th in Alexandria, Virginia with AHIC

Successor, Inc. leaders and a group of seven nursing informatics leaders

from the Alliance for Nursing Informatics community. The meeting

provided a great opportunity for the participants to sit and talk about

priorities, the value proposition of our shared vision, constituencies,

and relevance within industry. It was a productive discussion and we

look forward to working together with the AHIC Successor, Inc. team to

achieve our common goals by demonstrating our leadership, knowledge,

value and real world input.

There are many opportunities for further engagement between AHIC =

Successor, Inc. and the ANI community including the appointment of a

nursing representation on the AHIC Successor, Inc. Nominating Committee,

providing feedback on prioritization of their efforts/Value Cases, and

identifying common communication vehicles and education opportunities.

We have already provided ANI comments on the draft Bylaws which you will

find on the ANI web site at http://www.allianceni.org

We will reach out to you as the opportunities for participation present

themselves moving forward. Thank you for your passion and willingness to

share your expertise with these efforts. The health and well-being of

individuals and communities in the U.S. will be improved as a result.

Thank you,

Joyce and Carole, ANI Co-chairs

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