Since 2010, membership has grown 60%. “The growth that's taken place is phenomenal,” said Jenni Bradley, director of talent development for NHCC. “I think it speaks to the quality of the programming and the quality of professionals participating.”
LHC programming is a combination of executive briefings, networking receptions, fundamentals discussions on key industry topics, industry facility tours and an annual delegation trip to Washington, D.C. According to LHC Board Chair and Director Benson Sloan, who is also director of business development at MEDHOST, LHC is meeting the area's needs by offering a diverse programming mix that's unmatched in Nashville and beyond.
“I don't know of any other group like LHC in any industry,” Sloan said. “It covers all the different niches in healthcare, while opening the doors to top organizations where senior executives give you the rundown on their industry and business.”
Earlier this spring, 100 Leadership Health Care members made the 13th annual trip to Washington, D.C., where they heard from Obama administration officials, legislators, congressional staff, healthcare industry experts and political analysts about Washington's impact on Nashville's $70 billion healthcare industry. The delegation to D.C. is an annual highlight for LHC membership.
“When I started attending their annual delegation trip to D.C. was when I really fell in love with Leadership Health Care,” said West, the public relations professional who relocated to Nashville in 2007. “You get to know the staff, you have one-on-one time with other people, you're away from the office, and you're in D.C—where all the policy happens.”
Sloan said the quality of networking offered by Leadership Health Care has been both invaluable and incomparable. “If I have a direct question about something I'm facing in my job here at MEDHOST and need to understand a different perspective, I have connections that I can reach out to that I've gained through LHC for the past six years,” Sloan said.
West, too, is quick to point out that the very thing that makes LHC so valuable is the continued generosity of its founders and members.
“Leadership Health Care wouldn't work if it didn't have the support of the executives and the CEOs of our healthcare companies,” West said. Executives may participate in the occasional Executive Briefing Series and many also serve on the 30-member board of directors. Board members also chair three different committees consisting of up to eight LHC board members and eight LHC members that are established by application on an annual basis.
“Being involved in LHC is one of the single biggest things that has impacted my career and professional development,” said Angela Humphreys, chair of the healthcare group at law firm Bass Berry & Sims PLC. A member since 2002, Humphreys said the Leadership Health Care program allows her to gain insight from industry leaders and to learn about policy and the drivers behind the healthcare industry generally. “That is, in my experience, atypical of industry or trade organization.”
Humphreys said perhaps what is most exciting is that members who joined with her in the early days of LHC have gone on to senior leadership positions and others have started their own companies that were birthed as a result of LHC.
“We're now seeing the benefits to those people who joined LHC 10 or 15 years ago, as they have moved into senior leadership positions within their organizations,” Humphreys said. “We have people who were vice presidents of organizations who are CFOs and CEOs of organizations today.”
