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Kathleen Jennison Goonan, MD
In Their Own Words:
"After twenty years as a senior executive at every stage of the health care 'food chain' from insurance to patient care delivery, I've been on both sides of many consulting engagements. Some deliver value and others don't. It is imperative to me that in our work as MGH CPE, we are ensuring our client organizations move from wherever they are today to significantly higher levels of performance. That success must be visible at every level of the organization. People need to feel more capable of overcoming their challenges and proud of the results they can post on their Web site or present in their board room or boast about at the grocery store.
When we conduct an assessment, we always work with the organization to shape an action plan with milestones and accountabilities for making meaningful change. Then we collaborate with internal people to deliver on that plan. What gets me out of bed each day is the pleasure of seeing these dedicated folks when they get the results they are hoping for. Everyone works hard, but hard work does not always translate into better patient outcomes and experience, or better working conditions for the staff. When we help make hard work product meaningful results, their pride is infectious. Sometimes it's an award, other times it can be getting out of a crisis. Either way, people feel tremendous pride in their success. It's a true pleasure to watch organizations and their leaders grow more capable and achieve better results.
I am incredibly proud of our team. My friends call me a 'talent magnet.' The people we have in on our team and in our network have exceptional knowledge, skills, and gifts for teaching and coaching others. When we don't know the answer, we'll say so and do what is needed to find the right resource for the clients we serve.”
Kathleen Jennison Goonan, MD
Experience
Kate has twenty years of experience as a physician executive and ten years of clinical practice experience as a board-certified internist. She has worked as a senior executive with diverse delivery and managed care organizations throughout Massachusetts. She has consulted for the Juran Institute and independently throughout the United States since 1988, supporting health care leaders building high-performance organizations.
Kate served on the nine-member Panel of Judges for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (2000-02). She serves as Overseer for MassExcellence, the Massachusetts state Baldrige program, and as a Judge for the AHA McKesson Quality Award; she has also judged the Joint Commission's Codman Award. Kate is former Senior Vice President of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), including seventeen years as IHI faculty. She was also Senior Vice President/Chief Medical Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, overseeing all medical management and quality operations (300 employees), and Vice President of Quality for UMASS Memorial Health Care, a five-hospital, 900-bed hospital system.
A faculty member for the Leadership Development Program for Physicians from Academic Health Centers at the Harvard School of Public Health (1996–2007), member of the Board of Directors, Masspro (1998-2006), Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Associate in Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital, she speaks nationally on topics related to high-performance organizations, leadership and strategic planning, organizational culture change, and Baldrige.