SCOTT STAFFORD, MHA, RRT

*** ******* ******, **** #***, Mandeville, LA 70448

Telephone 504-***-**** / 318-***-**** / 504-***-****

Email – actda8@r.postjobfree.com

Senior Executive with over twenty years of immense expertise & wide-ranging proficiencies involving every facet of the healthcare industry including all logistical, operational, and regulatory climates. Visionary Leader with a creative, loyal, ethical, dedicated drive to succeed with a strong desire to help serve all customers, patients, providers, and employees with proven beneficial Community impact. Proven aptitude to harness the enthusiasm and abilities of others including finding and developing exceptional employee talent both internally & externally. Extensive capacity of fostering superior Medical Staff & Employee relationships to realize organizational goals. Known for developing creative unique programs through collaboration with multiple entities targeting Community needs. Experience improving poor performing organizations during periods of instability, loss of customer confidence, and/or decreases in revenues/volumes. Extensive Strategic Plan development, core initiatives, quality improvement, financial benchmarks, customer service enhancement, and proven Medical Staff collaboration.

EDUCATION

1999 Masters of Healthcare Administration (MHA)

Tulane University Medical School

New Orleans, Louisiana

1993 Bachelors of Cardiopulmonary Science (BS)

Louisiana State University Medical School

Shreveport, Louisiana

EXPERIENCE

2015 to Present Business Development & Consultant – Premier

Occupational Medicine, LLC

2010 to 2015 Director of Business Development & Executive

Administrator – B. F. Jack Lowery, LLC

River Region Hospice House / Serenity Hospice

& Other Healthcare Ventures

2007 – 2010 Interim Vice President Clinical Services – Akron

Regional Medical Center

2003 – 2007 Chief Executive Officer/President – DeSoto Regional

Health System

1999 – 2003 Chief Executive Officer/Administrator – St. Helena

Parish Hospital/Nursing Home/Hospice/Home

Health/Substance Abuse Center/Wellness Center

1991 – 1999 Assistant Director/Supervisor Cardiopulmonary

Services – Louisiana State University Medical Center

JOB HISTORY

2015 to Current Business Development & Start-Up Consulting

Occupational & Orthopedic Medical

Clinic

Premier Occupational Medicine, LLC,

Metairie, LA

Assisted Ownership in development of a Strategic & Business plan for start-up & opening of Premier Occupational Medicine Clinic and Third Party Administrator

Assisted in contract negotiations for point of service testing of multiple agencies for pre-employment & post-employment screenings / nurse practitioner medical clinic design; including all regulatory, policy/procedure, marketing, insurance contracting, workers comp contracting, and development of partnerships with major legal firms to coordinate legal care programs

Assisted in the development of “fit test” programs for post-employment screenings with major medical and industrial related businesses

Designed and negotiated contracts for N-95 mask fit testing to meet new OSHA standards for major medical centers

Developed protocols for DOTD companies for new National requirements for air obstruction testing, treatment, monitoring, and health outcome improvements designed to lower employer health care costs over time

Assisted in developing budget, financial targets, strategic plan, and potential future expansion & growth opportunities

Assisting in negations with Premier Occupational Medicine & Jack Lowery, LLC for “fit testing” program with Louisiana’s largest healthcare provider

Negotiating potential purchase of the 2nd largest National Third Party Administrator with Jack Lowery, LLC

Most Recent Project:

Developing collaborative project with orthopedic group for potential joint venture

Interim Practice Administrator for 8 Provider Orthopedic stand-alone clinic group that opened in April 2015; Under 2 Year Confidentiality and Non-Compete Agreement

Assisted group in becoming profitable within 3 months; Adding mid-level providers, monitoring commercial insurance contracts for proper payments, decreased expenses, changed payor mix for scheduling priorities, renegotiated contracts, collaborated with surgery centers to maximum room access to increase daily surgery volumes, better utilization of Mid-Level providers to increase surgery times for orthopedic surgeons including implementation of proper billing for PA’s,

Changed billing practices to maximum reimbursements and streamline processes to maximum patient through-put, hired cross-trained employees to maximum efficiencies in clinic & surgery, coordinated with Medical Staff to improve operations & communications resulting in improved patient outcomes & satisfaction

Corrected telephone & multiple IT issues including utilization of new EMR system, significantly decreasing patient, provider, and employee complaints

Created program where patients could access physicians’ via email, telephone, and other technologies to improve satisfaction and add additional revenue streams creating more open appointment times for new patients which grew from 120 to 400 in three months

Created bases of strategic plan, developed organizational chart, human resource department, compliance program, OSHA training program, policy & procedures, scheduling protocols, and inventory control programs

Made clinic profitable – Contract expired and was not renewed

2012 to 2015 Director of Business Development/Executive Administrator

Jack Lowery, LLC - (Co-Founder

of Cracker Barrel Corporation, Chairman

of the Board & Legal Counsel)

River Region Hospice House & Serenity Hospice, New Orleans, LA

Negotiated and directed the sale of River Region Hospice, LLC on behalf of Jack Lowery to St. Joseph’s Holdings resulting in a significant profit for Jack Lowery, LLC. Secured St. Joseph’s offer for purchase of River Region. Negotiated all aspects of sale and all related paperwork including Medicare 855, Bank and Land transactions, medical record procurement, required inspections, transfer of operations, dispersed payments of required accounts payables, coordinated division of accounts receivables between parties for coarse of 6 months, prepared and received approvals for sale from all regulatory agencies as well as all other legal and required transactions for the sequence of the sale

Negotiated termination of contracts including Factoring Contract and reallocation of Medicare receivables to River Region Hospice

Served as transition Administrator for St. Joseph Hospice for one month post sale

Served as Administrator for day-to-day operations for River Region Hospice prior to sale including contact with clients, physicians, hospitals, & nursing homes; implemented new EMR for River Region Hospice; Recruited additional Medical Directors for both Hospices

Business Development for River Region Hospice House / Created Marketing/Strategic plan that helped grow census from 20 patients to 40 plus patients

Achieved an increase in bed capacity from 8 to 14 from the State of Louisiana despite a state-wide moratorium on Hospice Beds

Served on State-Wide Hospice committees and assisted the State of Louisiana in development of Hospice Regulations

Completed due diligences on multiple Home Health & Other Health Related Companies for purchase considerations for Jack Lowery, LLC throughout Southeast, USA; Completed 855 and other paper/legal work for entities purchased by Jack Lowery, LLC in multiple states. Assisted other purchased facilities with budgeting, quality programs, Medicare Conditions of Participation, and corporate compliance programs owned by Jack Lowery, LLC

Directed weekly regulatory clinical team meetings for River Region Hospice House

Negotiated all vendor contracts, responsible for P & L for each facility

Negotiating with Egan Home Health and West Jefferson Parish Hospital to procure a joint venture of building a new Hospice House on the West Bank of New Orleans due to community need; worked with State to try to obtain new bed licenses despite a State initiated moratorium

Assured compliance with all State and Federal Regulatory requirements for 14-Bed Hospice House including staffing matrix, direct reports from 4 supervisors, 3 Nurse Practitioners, and responsible for Human Resources, Management, Day-to-Day Operations and Payroll for 35 employees

Implemented policy & procedures including allowed family members to stay with patients and allowing a pet therapy programs for patients

Also served as Business Development for Serenity Hospice of New Orleans owned by Jack Lowery, LLC. Served as Assistant Executive Administrator for Serenity Hospice while serving as Administrator of River Region Hospice House

Served as Director of Quality Assure & Performance Improvement (QAPI) for Serenity Hospice, responsible for new HIS reporting to avoid 2% Medicare cuts

Renegotiated all Serenity Contracts resulting in 20% cost savings

Increased census by 10 within the first 60-days at Serenity served as Community Liaison & Marketer for both Serenity Hospice and River Region Hospice

As directed by Jack Lowery, LLC I personally would work in the field one day a month certifying and admitting patients as part of a “hands-on” Community Administrator program

Providing on-site Consulting and assistance to Premier Occupational Medicine Clinic (New Startup Occ Med Clinic/Collection Operation) in New Orleans on behalf of Jack Lowery for a potential partnership under negotiations that would include expansion of 6 new sites in LA, AL, & TX with the owners Lisa/Mike Prestenback. Assisting in expanding Companies client list including the Port of New Orleans; collection for multiple local & international shipping companies.

Oversaw sale of Serenity Hospice on behalf of Jack Lowery, LLC resulting in Jack Lowery, LLC divesting all companies owned in Louisiana

2007 to 2012 Interim Administrator/VP Clinical Service Departments

Akron General Medical Center

Akron, Ohio

Budget = $87 Million / Responsible for # of Employees = 256 / Total Facility Beds = 600

Employed by B. E. Smith for an interim management contract with Akron General Medical Center (AGMC), Akron, Ohio

Operational and Budgetary responsibility for the following clinical service lines 1) Cardiopulmonary Services 2) Neurology 3) Pulmonary Functions 4) Endoscopy 4) Cardiology 5) Sleep Laboratory obtaining “Center of Excellence” 6) Surgery 7) Multi-disciplinary Physician Clinics both Hospital-based and Community-based

Created an operational assessment and tactile 24-month plan for each area within 6 weeks after start date

Major successes included:

-Worked with administration, nursing & medical staff to make substantial Operational/Strategic/Policy changes that decreased acute & intensive care length of stay (LOS), produced substantial new revenues for outpatient service line testing, converted departments to “wired” departments, improved CMS core measure scores, improved patient & employee satisfaction scores and started new service lines (I.e. Home Sleep Study Testing - 1st hospital to offer this service in the State of Ohio)

-Received accreditation for multidisciplinary “Center of Excellence” for Sleep Disorder Center; created collaborative program with Akron General Bariatric Center of Excellence to improve patient outcomes with obesity as well as Smoking Cessation Programs

-Developed policies with the medical staff to significantly reduce/eliminate non-critical & non-appropriate ancillary inpatient testing

-Joint ventures with the Cleveland Clinic/Research Low Emission CT Scanner

2003 to 2007 President/Chief Executive Officer

DeSoto Regional Health System

Mansfield, Louisiana

Budget = $65 Million / Responsible for # of Employees = 287 / Total Facility Beds = 74

FULL Operational and Budgetary responsibility for hospital, outpatient testing center, wellness/fitness center, home health joint venture, hospice, geriatric psychiatric hospital, large hospital owned multi-physician practice and several rural health clinics in multiple service areas. (In addition, I handled all the direct reports from all mid-level providers PA’s & NP’s and managed the day-to-day activities of the respiratory department)

Major successes included:

-Exceeded and/or maintained over 70 national benchmarks in financial, operational and clinical performance receiving the SOLUCIENT TOP 100 HOSPITAL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT AWARD for Hospitals 0 – 100 Beds (2006)

-Recruited multiple primary care and specialty physicians (12); constructed/opened several new hospital owned physician clinics and mid-level provider rural health clinics

-Created & opened new 24/7 Surgical service dept. (Inpatient/Outpatient)

-Constructed & opened 11,000 square foot Wellness Center and Rehabilitation Center

-Created & constructed a Rural Regional Oncology Service Line & Free Standing Clinic; including receiving national research designation as a joint venture with Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport & the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center

-Implemented system-wide Customer-Centered Cultural Change

-Created & organized a 501 c 3 not-for-profit Foundation including recruitment of new director, corporate charter & bylaws

-Recorded the best profit year (2005) in the hospital’s 56-year history

-Created an affiliation worth $500,000 over ten years with the largest tertiary provider in the State of Louisiana for employee training, physician recruitment, technology transfer and customer service enhancements

-Initiated & completed a $3 Million Information Technology (IT) conversion including a fully integrated electronic medical records (EMR) under budget & time deadlines

-Expanded hospital’s participation in student clinical affiliations (I.e. Creation and development of the only RURAL Trauma/Emergency Services clinical rotation for the physician assistant (PA) program with Louisiana State University Medical Schools

-Created a revenue cycle management program/reorganized & centralized patient financial services departments that resulted in decreasing Net Accounts Receivable Days to 34.46 for all service entities

1999 to 2003 Chief Executive Officer/Administrator &

Nursing Home Administrator

St. Helena Parish Hospital & Nursing Home

Greensburg, Louisiana

Budget = $42 Million / Responsible for # of Employees = 187 / Total Facility Beds = 120

FULL Operational and Budgetary responsibility for hospital, nursing home, home health, hospice, geriatric psychiatric hospital, assisted living apartment complex, rural health clinics & substance abuse/mental health outpatient clinic and management of additional real estate properties

Major successes included:

-Opened, converted and received Medicare & JCAHO accreditation for the first Critical Access Hospital (CAH) in the Southeastern United States (1999), which included system-wide creation of policies/procedures, budget, strategic plan, marketing plan, continuous quality improvement programs, compliance program, hiring of key administrative/clinical staff & recruitment of physicians (4)

-Created & opened 1) After-Hours Urgent Care Center 2) Outpatient surgery 3) High-speed multi-slice CT Scan capabilities & a new Tele-radiology program

-$2 Million new construction project for Medical Office Building (MOB)

-Obtained $650,000 in grant funding for quality care initiatives, ongoing employee training and customer service programs over a 4-year period (I.e. Creation of a Certified First Responder program for community civil servants and ambulance providers) in hospital’s service area

-Cost report preparation

1991 to 1999 Assistant Director/Supervisor Ancillary Services

Cardiopulmonary Services, Pulmonary Functions, Cardiac Cath Lab., Cardiology, & Radiology Departments

Louisiana State University Medical Center

Shreveport, Louisiana

Budget = $88 Million / Responsible for # of Employees = 102 / Total Facility Beds = 550

Operational and Budgetary responsibility for clinical departments, clinical student affiliations/education & research programs for the 550 Bed Academic Medical Center & School including a separate Children’s Hospital

Major successes included:

-Expanded each areas’ service lines to include more outpatient testing programs

-Assisted medical staff and nursing in creating/implementing numerous clinical pathways/protocols, goals and quality initiatives for Level 1 Trauma/Transplant Center/Critical Care (adult, neonate & pediatric) & Research services

-Co-Creator of hospital’s rehabilitation services and department

-Joint commission compliance, hospital committees, Level 1 Trauma Center certification

-Clinical work as a Critical Care Registered Respiratory Therapist

-Co-Investigator for several published clinical research projects (I.e. Liquid Lung Ventilation & Nitric Oxide studies)

LICENSES/CLINICAL

- Registered Respiratory Therapist, National Board for Respiratory Care

- Advanced Cardiac Life Support & Pediatric Advanced Life Support Instructor

- Perinatal Pediatric Respiratory Specialist, National Board for Respiratory Care

- Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation Certified Technician (ECMO)

- Pharmacist Technician Clinical Certification Program

MEMBERSHIPS / BOARDS

Board Member – Louisiana Hospital Association, Rural Health Coalition & Louisiana Rural Health Association

Past President, Member, Rotarian International Civic Club

Past President, Member, Louisiana Society for Respiratory Care

Member, American College of Health Care Executives, American Hospital Association & National Rural Health Association

Serve as board member on multiple not-for-profit state and national boards mainly focusing on children advocacy issues (I.e. Hilman House - Cystic Fibrosis children)

Board Member, Louisiana Lion’s Club

NOTABLES

-Served on behalf of the Governor on several health care commissions (I.e. Louisiana Trauma Network Development Program (LERN); Emergency preparedness & mass causality training and certification; Part of state-wide mobile hospital clinical team

-RURAL HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD 2006

-Testified & secured funding through the Legislative Appropriation process from 1999 to 2007 (Over $650 Million secured for rural hospitals) with the State of Louisiana

-Received the outstanding Medical Student Award-Louisiana State University Medical School & Ronald B. George, M. D. Outstanding Clinician Award

-Governor’s appointee for State Licensing Board for the Clinical Laboratory Personnel Committee (CLIA)

-Created employee improvement cultural programs (I.e. Employee advisory council, 5-Star reward program, “Don’t drop the ball” customer complaint program, Merit-based evaluation systems) Created & implemented a “Senior Leadership Rounding”

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