Effective immediately, Jim Kovac will help grow the Community Hospital 100 Leadership and Strategy Conference as director of business development. The conference takes place October 20-22 near Atlanta. DOTmed News spoke with him about his new role.
DMN: How long have you been working in the industry?
JK: Just over 9 years.
DMN: What are the specific areas in your field that you are focused on?
JK: Hospital and health system development strategy, healthcare financing, hospital and physician practice integration including mergers/acquisitions/joint ventures/divestiture and human capital strategies, and growth companies impacting healthcare.
DMN: What are your goals as director of business development for Community Hospital 100 Leadership and Strategy Conference?
JK: Expanding awareness of the program throughout the entire healthcare spectrum. The CH100 program is highly regarded among past and current attendees for its ability to foster ideas and relationships that create both immediate and long-term positive changes. Our healthcare system is as diverse as the population it serves and many of our system's challenges need diverse solutions -- so we want to continue getting the word out that we have an opportunity for leaders to collaborate on ideas for solutions through our CH100 program.
DMN: What will be some big themes at this year's conference?
JK: Working across the continuum of care -- this looks at the hospital and health relationship beyond just core services to the role ancillary services, long-term care, unique partnership opportunities and other entities along the healthcare value chain. We will also be digging into healthcare asset valuation, population health, technology advances, policy and regulation, physician alignment and improving efficiency in hospital operations as well as a few other topics.
DMN: What excites you most about the industry these days?
JK: The leaders -- it is really exciting to see the high-level collaboration taking place among hospital and healthcare system leaders and their determination to navigate the most obscure economic and policy/regulatory climate in years.
