2010 Letter from the President 

Welcome to Your Chapter’s Website

As your elected President and Chair for 2010, welcome to the web site of ACHE – SouthEastTexasChapter. I look forward to the privilege of chairing this year, following the outstanding leadership of your 2009 President, Ed Tucker. Your Chapter has a proud tradition of supporting its members by providing high-quality educational programs and the opportunity for early, mid, and senior careerists to interact with many other healthcare professionals to enhance their learning experience. In addition, as a result of generous sponsorships, your Chapter provides opportunities for health administration graduate students to earn academic scholarships as well as a chance for students to compete for scholarships that provide funds to attend the annual ACHE Congress on Administration.

Our mission for the Chapter this year is to further strengthen its presence in the Southeast Texas region with the continued support of the Brazos Valley Local Program Council in College Station and the Golden Triangle Local Program Council in Beaumont, Texas. Additionally, our goal is to continually enhance our diversity through increased membership in ACHE National.

The “theme” for this year’s quarterly educational sessions is, “Bending the Cost Curve of Healthcare Delivery.” This past year has been tumultuous with respect to health reform legislation. While a clear pathway has yet to be determined for moving toward a plan for universal access the major issue remaining unresolved is how to reduce health care costs.

If you haven’t seen the September-October issue of the policy journal Health Affairs I would encourage you to obtain a copy.  Bending the cost curve of health care expense to the growth rate of the rest of the United States economy is a major theme of this issue. Several articles make the case that the way we have controlled cost in our nation to date is by limiting access. As pointed out, in one of the articles, that while US citizens pay the most per capita for their healthcare, they see their physicians less often and spend fewer days being hospitalized. Does this mean that the unit cost of a bed day, hospital visit, prescription, or anything we consume in the healthcare arena is more expensive than the same services or products provided in other countries? Absolutely! According to the mathematicians these costs are about 30 – 40% higher and account for the reason our citizens pay more and consume less. If our goal, as healthcare leaders, is to make significant progress on bending costs and keeping the delivery system we have then what are our choices? This year our guest speakers will explore various scenarios for bending the cost curve as we go forward. I strongly encourage all of you to attend all sessions and be a part of a leadership movement to make a difference in a system of care that is currently inefficient.

Whether you are a new or current member please take the time to explore the services offered by your Chapter.  We welcome volunteers and encourage feedback to help us improve our goal to continue to serve as a premier Chapter of ACHE. If you have any questions please email us: quantumleadership@ache-houston.org

Together, we can make ACHE – SouthEastTexasChapter the best part of your local professional association experience.

Please let me know how I can help you maximize your experience through your membership with your chapter.

Cordially,    

Ron Castagno

 

ACHE – SETC 2010 President/Chair
Ron Castagno, FACHE