ChrysMarie Suby is the owner and co-founder of the Labor Management Institute, Inc. and an international healthcare consultant. The Labor Management Institute (LMI), an international educational institute providing certifications for scheduling, staffing, labor management analysts and resource coordinators; a national database for comparing labor hour and productivity, and annual forums on labor management and productivity.
Her background and expertise includes consultation and implementing innovative, practical strategies that balance the workforce andworkplace. Her specialty areas include labor management, scheduling and staffing to budget in healthcare organizations, casino/resorts and retail management nationally and internationally. Clients include nationally known airlines, major casinos and resorts, and retail clients including supermarkets, energy plants, manufacturing companies in the United States. International clients include cultural institutes, universities and national health authorities in Japan, England, Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and many more.
Ms. Suby is a graduate of Metropolitan Community College and the University of Minnesota.
Ronda Hughes, PhD, MHS, RN, FAAN
Dr. Hughes has over 20 years’ experience in leadership, management and research. She works with national policy makers, leaders and researchers in various ways, improving the quality and safety of care throughout the nation. Her work experience includes academic and public service. She was a Senior Health Scientist in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) where she was involved in both intramural and extramural research and led AHRQ’s quality improvement initiatives for nursing involving research and implementation of evidence. Dr. Hughes combines her experience with research, large databases and evidence to transform organizations and care at the bedside.
She writes regularly on patient safety and quality improvement as well as research methodologies. She was the editor and major contributor of the joint AHRQ and RWJF book, “Patient Safety & Quality: an Evidence-based Handbook for Nurses,” which is targeted to nurses across settings and is being utilized by schools of nursing and hospitals nationally and internationally. This book has received numerous awards for its importance to clinicians, administrators and managers, policy makers and educators.
Dr. Hughes received a B.S. in nursing from Boston University, a M.H.S. in health policy with a minor in biomedical ethics from Johns Hopkins University, and her Ph.D. in Health Policy and Health Services Research from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Hughes is also a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.
Jane T. Wall, RN, MSN, CNA
Ms. Wall comes to LMI with over forty years healthcare experience in governmental and private organizations and has held positions ranging from critical care staff nurse, middle management to administration. Areas of expertise include workload measurement, patient classification predictive validity and reliability, productivity management systems, establishing centralized staffing systems and pools as well as scheduling systems. She has lead organizations in the implementation of four staffing scheduling systems and productivity management systems. She has led organizations in evaluating and defending nurse staffing resources to senior leadership for the past 20 years. Most recently she worked with nursing leadership to implement the universal room concept for a cardiac tower.
Other areas of expertise for Ms. Wall include regulatory compliance (The Joint Commission, state regulations, Department of Community Health, and CMS). Ms. Wall has experience in conducting root cause analyses and work plan follow through for major adverse events and complaint resolution. She coordinated Joint Commission and other regulatory agency survey activities for as many as 4 Joint Commission programs – Hospital, Long Term Care Sub-acute, Behavioral Health, and Home Care.
In her healthcare leadership roles she has: · Coordinated the development of a 39 bed Diabetes and Medicine unit. · Leading, guiding, mentoring the Administrative Nursing Supervisors (5) Developed the concept for specially trained Resource Coordinators (SWAT nurses) (8) who serve as panel of expert critical care nurses to mentor unit staff and respond as RRT nurses and patient arrests. · Established a 150 (or so) member float pool of nursing staff; leading, guiding, mentoring, and budgeting a central staffing office (4); · Coordinated the development of a 19 bed Observation Unit. · Coordinated the development of a group of nurses who function as Direct Admit nurses (float all over the hospital to admit patients for units). · Coordinated the development of a Palliative Care Program and setting up the 16 bed unit.
Ms. Wall graduated from Macon Hospital School of Nursing, and received both her BSN and MSN from the Medical College of Georgia. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, GHA, and AONE.She served as a taskforce member on the ANA task force to revise the Administrator’s Scope and Standards of Practice in 2004. She has numerous publications on the topics of workload measurement, patient classification inter-rater reliability, implementation of and staff perception on use of smart pump medication infusion technology, and management of hyperglycemia.
Diane Maki, MBA, PhD.
Diane Maki is a consultant in organization development specializing in motivation and change management. She is president of Strategic People Development, LLC, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota in the Human Resource Development program and an Associate of the Labor Management Institute.
Dr. Maki combines fifteen years of management experience in industry with her research in motivation to work with healthcare organizations in discovering factors that attract, motivate, and retain staff. She also conducts workshops in facilitation and meeting skills, planning and decision-making skills, managing work teams, conflict resolution, and systems thinking. Her fluency in Spanish has allowed her to expand her work into the Spanish speaking community.
Dr. Maki has developed and tested a scientific instrument that evaluates staff motivators in the workplace. This measurement tool goes beyond what satisfies staff in their work place to what actually motivates them to do the job.
Her research activities are focused on attracting, retaining, and motivating staff in healthcare organizations.
She is frequently asked to present workshops, seminars and keynote addresses on the topics of motivation, leadership and change in the work place.
Prior to her work as a consultant, Dr. Maki worked for over fifteen years as a manager in industry.
Dr. Maki earned her Ph.D., Human Resource Development, University of Minnesota; MBA, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN.
Dr. Christine Meade
Dr. Chris Meadeis President of Meade Research in Charlottesville, VA. Chris is an accomplished healthcare researcher with over 20 years of experience conducting research studies for many of the largest health systems, community hospitals, and disease management companies in the United States. After obtaining her doctorate at Virginia Tech, she founded a research measurement firm in 1989. The firm specializedin healthcare service quality research. She sold it in 1997.
She was a full-time research retainer with Tenet Healthcare Corporation from 1997-2004. She completed 97 different research studies for Tenet’s hospitals that ranged from reasons for employee turnover, nurse retention studies, ED best practice studies, physician satisfaction and research to support the development of an online health learning company. She was the Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Care Research, a subsidiary of the Studer Group, until 2008.
Chris recently published on the feature article in the American Journal of Nursing’s September 2006 issue on Nurse Hourly Rounding to reduce patient call lights and increase patient safety. The Journal of Emergency Medicine recently accepted her study on Emergency Department Rounding to reduce LWBS, leaving AMA, patient call lights and nurse interruptions. It was published in the third quarter of 2008.
Dr.KT Waxman has over 25 years of experience as a nurse leader in California. She currently is the Program Director for the Bay Area Simulation Collaborative (BASC) and the California Simulation Alliance (CSA) for the California Institute for Nursing & Health Care (CINHC). She is also president of KT Waxman & Associates, a healthcare consulting firm. Waxman began her career as an RN at UCLA Medical Center in the medical/surgical division. A nationally known speaker, Waxman addresses such topics as leadership development, healthcare finance, networking and communication. Waxman holds an RN degree from Napa Valley College, a bachelor’sdegree in Healthcare Administration, an MBA from the University of La Verne,and a doctorate in nursing practice (DNP) from the University of San Francisco with a concentration in health systems leadership, with an emphasis on simulation. She is now a part-time faculty member and teaches masters students in USF’s nursing program.
Mary Lou Schmidt, MSN
Ms. Schmidt has over 30 years experience in Healthcare ranging from clinical practice, education, management, organizational assessment, quality improvement, utilization management and consulting. In the past, acting as the Director of Quality and Risk in both a small community district hospital and a large HMO system with responsibilities including Performance Improvement, Risk Management, Compliance, Utilization/Case Management, Regulatory issues and administrative oversight for clinical and nonclinical departments. Areas of strength include:
o Administrative leadership o Organizational performance assessment o Project management o Teaching skills focused in adult education o Strategic planning o Training o Utilization of Resources
Her administrative interest have centered around system and process improvement. To that end she has been a an member of the Board of Examiners for the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige Award for 4 years as well as an Examiner for the California State Quality Award for 2 years.
Mary Lou graduated with Distinction in Nursing from Sonoma State University in California and received her MSN at the University of California, San Francisco in Community Health Administration. She was inducted into the Nursing Hono rSociety at UCSF and has been a member since, including the past board president of the Sonoma State Chapter from which she was presented an award for Excellence in Leadership She is also a member of the American Society for Quality.
ChrysMarie Suby, RN, ANP, MS