For those of you who work for a nonprofit organization or who serve on a nonprofit board, you know the importance and dedication of the folks who serve as board members. Last week HCF had six of our founding director’s leave the board as their board terms expired. These founding board members were simply amazing.

In September 2003 Missouri Attorney General Nixon named our founding board members and provided them with money from the sale of Health Midwest Hospitals to HCA but gave little other direction other than to “do what was right”. The founding board had to determine funding priorities, develop financial management and investment practices, hire consultants and vendors, find office space, hire staff, and most importantly listen to needs of the community.

This foundation has benefited greatly from the leadership of these outstanding men and women. They developed an ethics and conflict of interest policy for board and associates that is very strong and comprehensive. They established funding guidelines and grant making procedures that are transparent and fair. They made sure we provided training to small grass roots and faith based organizations so they could compete for funding. They challenged us to take risks and to get deeply involved in public policy discussions that affect the uninsured and underserved.

As HCF transitions to new board leadership I want to take time to thank our outgoing founding board members: Dr. Harry Jonas, Mary Lou Jaramillo, Larry Blankinship, Rod Minkin, Landon Rowland and Mark Flaherty. Thanks for your leadership and friendship!

We welcome new leaders to the HCF foundation board: Al Mauro, Sr., Marie McCarther, Marcia Nielsen, Dr. Dan Purdom, Kenny Southwick, Ken Stremming, & Susan Wilson. We look forward to working with these new board leaders as we continue the journey of providing leadership, advocacy and resources that eliminate barriers to quality health for uninsured and underserved in our service area.

For those of you who know me, it will come as no shock to hear me say that I am not skilled in matters that pertain to computers or technology. In fact, some would say that I am totally lacking in these skill sets. I do, however, understand the power and usefulness of technology and am inspired to learn and work on policy issues that attempt to take advantage of technology to better our community and nation.

A few weeks ago Ron Levy, Director of the Missouri Department of Social Services, asked me to provide leadership to an effort to determine how the state, working with other interested partners, can use technology to improve health access and health outcomes for all Missourians at an affordable cost. Director Levy has assembled over 200 people with various backgrounds/expertise from all over the state to provide leadership for this important assignment. Various committees have been established and much progress has been made. I am particularly proud that Missouri is one of the few states that are including consumers as an equal partner in this important process.

A web site has been established so everyone can follow our progress. All Missourians are invited to comment and give us direct feedback as we develop a statewide strategic plan. I invite you to visit this web site http://www.dss.mo.gov/hie often. For those of us who live in Kansas City, we know how important it is that health providers in Missouri and Kansas are able to share patient health information with each other across the state line because many of us have health providers in both states.

The federal government is offering monetary incentives to states and health providers to improve our health information technology. This reform is long overdue! As we continue on this journey of reforming our health information technology we should be asking ourselves one basic question: What is in the best interest of all consumers – either insured or uninsured. By keeping our focus on this question we will find acceptable solutions.