HPA e-Newsletter — Spring 2008
Alumni News
Morales-Muniz is Puerto Rico’s voice on Capitol Hill
Within weeks of accepting a 2007 health policy fellowship with the National Puerto Rican Coalition, Shaira Y. Morales-Muniz ’07 HPA found herself on Capitol Hill visiting congressional offices and urging federal lawmakers to keep in mind Puerto Rico when penning legislation.
Morales-Muniz says her first taste of health policy came in her HPA 101 class at Penn State. Ever since, she says she has been passionate about understanding health policy issues plaguing the United States and her home country of Puerto Rico.
“With the experiences acquired at Penn State and how intensely I learned how the health care system works in the United States, I kept thinking about how the U.S. system applies to Puerto Rico and how can we incorporate those policies into the Puerto Rican health care system,” Morales-Muniz says, explaining that she is easily adapting her education and ethnic background to her one-year fellowship at NPRC. “This is the perfect job for me. I am getting the best of both worlds.”
Morales-Muniz is from the small town of Rincon on the west side of the island of Puerto Rico. She says being an advocate for better health care in Puerto Rico will be her lifelong quest. She is currently working for more federal reimbursements for her home country and is persuading lawmakers to collect data in order to include Puerto Rico in national health surveys where the island has been historically excluded. Also, through NPRC, she has conducted analyses on the current Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) legislation and more recently evaluated the Farm Bill in hopes of achieving better equity within Puerto Rico’s food stamp program.
Morales-Muniz is looking forward to the remainder of her fellowship. She also has her sights set on graduate school, where she would like to earn a law degree with a joint master’s degree in public affairs.
Reap the rewards offered by an HPA intern
HPA students and alumni recognize the HPA internship program as one of their most valued experiences of their academic careers. The program provides a unique opportunity for interns to integrate classroom learning and actual workplace experiences. HPA alumni now working in the field and other professionals have been mentoring HPA students for the past thirty years through this program.
Hospitals, long-term care facilities, group practices, clinics, and non-provider organizations such as insurers, trade organizations, business coalitions, and government agencies continually show an interest in HPS interns. Last summer, ninety-four HPA juniors served as interns in these environments.
Serving as a preceptor for an intern is a rewarding experience that contributes to student growth and the future workforce. Interns bring new skills and knowledge with them and can add a fresh dimension and efforts to the work at hand.
Anyone interested in serving as a preceptor or if anyone has a particular need for an intern, please contact Mr. Richard Shurgalla, HPA director of professional development, via e-mail at rns12@psu.edu or by calling 814-863-2670.
To read more about the benefits of serving as a preceptor, please read the 
HPA Preceptor Manual (.pdf file).
Alumni, Students and Faculty Network at ACHE Congress
On March 11, nearly fifty HPA alumni, students, and faculty members had a chance to mix and mingle at the American College of Healthcare Executive’s Annual Congress in Chicago. This year a total of twenty-seven (fifteen undergraduate and twelve MHA) students attended Congress.
Student News
Doctoral student rebuilding goals at Penn State
Grant Martsolf and his wife Christy found themselves quite content with their new life in New Orleans. After earning his master’s degree from Tulane University School of Public Health in New Orleans, Martsolf was accepted as a doctoral candidate at Tulane. Clouds, however, loomed over horizon.
August 29, 2005, brought immense change for the Martsolfs and the rest of the Big Easy as Hurricane Katrina bore down on the Gulf Coast. Martsolf lost his home, some of his belongings, and his goals of a Tulane University doctoral degree.
Martsolf and his wife relocated to Washington, D.C., where he served as a health care consultant for a short time. Similar to his life, however, Martsolf began to rebuild his goals in 2007. Being a native of western Pennsylvania, he investigated graduate school opportunities at Penn State and liked what he saw in the Department of Health Policy and Administration.
“The (HPA) department is on an upswing,” Martsolf says, explaining that he was attracted to HPA’s recently-updated doctoral curriculum and its “well-known and respected faculty members.”
Another “selling point” for attending Penn State, he explains, was an opportunity to work with Dr. Dennis Scanlon on the “Aligning Forces for Quality” initiative through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Aligning Forces evaluation, administered through the Center for Health Care and Policy Research at Penn State, includes a team of national experts on organizational behavior, health care quality, and health systems change. Scanlon, the lead investigator of the study, and his team will evaluate the communities' efforts and progress toward the benchmarks set by the communities and the foundation. Scanlon also heads the department’s Ph.D. program.
Martsolf was born into a four-generation family of physicians, so his interest in health care is understandable. He received bachelor of science degrees in nursing and economics from the University of Pennsylvania and then spentspent two years working as a registered nurse at the Children’s Hospital in Denver. Martsolf says he enjoyed working in pediatrics, as opposed to caring for older patients nearing the ends of their lives. “Generally, pediatric patients come in sick and leave healthy,” he says.
Martsolf is no longer as interested in the clinical aspects of health care as in health care policy issues. Martsolf’s interests include health care reform, specifically in vulnerable populations. Health care is on the verge of many changes, many of which Martsolf sees as important. He supports changes that will reward physicians for the quality of care they administer rather than the quantity of care they give. He also favors measures that will entice insurance companies to be more generous in their coverage of preventative care.
Martsolf predicts that his doctoral research will be challenging and insightful. He says he hopes to build upon his experiences to stand out among other academics and become “a versatile player in the health care field.
Four inducted into Health and Human Development Honor Society
Four Health Policy and Administration students were among this year’s inductees to the Health and Human Development Honor Society. Kristina Grenaldo, Mackenzie Shields, Emily Doll, and Carly Peters received certificates at the induction ceremony. The Health and Human Development Honor Society is open to any HHD undergraduate student who maintains a 3.3 grade-point average or higher.
From left, HPA students Kristina Grenaldo, Mackenzie Shields, Emily Doll, and Carly Peters display the certificates they were awarded at the induction ceremony. The students are pictured with Dr. Marianne Hillemeier, assistant professor of health policy and administration.
Ashley Kaper
Lauren Lubus
Nathan Elliott
M.H.A. students compete to solve national health care issue
Finding a remedy to lower the amount of time a patient waits in a hospital emergency room is no easy task. Hospital administrators across the country regularly struggle with this health care issue and evaluate how it affects their strategic plans and budgets.
In early February, students from twenty-one universities offered their solutions to the national “throughput” problem as part of the National Case Competition at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Representing Penn State were three Master of Health Administration students, Ashley Kaper, Nathan Elliott, and Lauren Lubus.
The contest challenged the students to solve the waiting issue at an actual hospital. The M.H.A. students concluded that the hospital needed to re-evaluate its organizational structure and how that structure related to chains of command. The team also suggested changes concerning staff and layout of space.
“We presented what we saw as the solutions that had the most impact,” Kaper says. "Participating in the case competition was an extremely valuable experience. It allowed us to apply everything that we have learned inside of the classroom to a real world....Being able to see our ideas come together into a workable solution was something that we are each very proud of.”
Their efforts placed the team members among the top ten schools.
Lubus says she valued the opportunity to solve a current issue facing U.S. hospitals. “After receiving positive feedback, we are all more confident in our ability to tackle such challenges upon entering the workforce,” she says.
Student receives Penn State leadership award
In recognition of academic excellence, leadership, and contributions to student activities, Shane Flickinger, an HPA junior, is a recipient of Penn State’s Student Leadership Award. Flickinger explains that the news of the award surprised him because he has yet to learn who nominated him.
“I was completely shocked and honored,” he says. “I attribute (receiving the award) to my involvement in student activities and how the HPA department has given me so many academic and professional opportunities.”
Flickinger, who maintains a 3.93 grade-point average, is involved in the HPA/ACHE Club, where he serves at the junior representative and 2008 THON co-chair; Lion Ambassadors; and the Penn State Glee Club.
Penn State offers the award through support from USA Today. The award honors and recognizes undergraduate students who have achieved superior academic records or show promise of outstanding academic success. Additionally, recipients show leadership and services through involvement in student activities. Flickinger, a Lancaster, Pennsylvania, native, will receive a $1,000 scholarship and will be recognized at an April 5 awards ceremony at Penn State.
HPA club, THON reach milestones
By Emily Kirsch, 2008 THON Co-Chair for the HPA/ACHE Club
Penn State's IFC/Panhellenic Dance MaraTHON and the HPA/ACHE Club reached new heights at THON 2008. THON raised a record-shattering $6,615,318.04, an announcement that was met with cheers at the end of the 46-hour no-sitting, no-sleeping dance marathon February 22-24.
HPA/ACHE Club contributed more than ever to the total this year by raising more than $11,000. The donations help conquer pediatric cancer by providing emotional and financial support to the children, families, researchers, and staff of The Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
The HPA Club sponsored four dancers—Nicole Boucher, Julie Marshall, Lexi Shriner, and Kelsey Midgett—all of whom made it through the 46 hours successfully.
HPA students Ali Van Horn, Jess Havern, Nathan Thomas, Kess Ballentine, and Shannon Carroll were also among students dancing for other organizations. Additional HPA students were involved on committees supporting THON, including the Rules and Regulations, Morale, Hospitality, Finance, and Operations committees.
See more HPA photos of THON >>
Faculty and Staff News
DelliFraine, Dansky see benefits to telemedicine
Kathryn Dansky
Telemedicine offers patients the ability to communicate with their doctors without ever leaving their home. Despite the obvious benefits for rural and housebound individuals, both patients and physicians have been slow to accept this new way of practicing medicine. For many physicians, there has simply not been enough evidence that telemedicine is effective. Assistant Professor Jami DelliFraine and Associate Professor Kathryn Dansky, both of Health Policy and Administration, recently presented a comprehensive analysis of telemedicine clinical studies at the British Royal Society of Medicine Telehealth and E-Health meeting in London and say that telemedicine does work.
Jami DelliFraine
Says DelliFraine, "Though there are a large number of studies of telemedicine, those studies have been so diverse that the overall efficacy of telemedicine remained unclear. The research has been in different settings, using different measures of effectiveness and showing conflicting results." DelliFraine and Dansky attempt to provide a useful and comprehensive synthesis of the research. They reviewed more than 145 health sciences articles evaluating telemedicine, 49 of which provided statistically sound assessments of the clinical effectiveness. Their analysis of the overall picture? The studies do suggest that telemedicine works—particularly for chronic conditions that require constant monitoring.
Telemedicine can include a number of means for patients to communicate with their doctors—from units to collect blood sugar readings to computers with audio/video links allowing doctors and nurses to view how a wound is healing and to listen to a patient's heart and lungs. It appears that these devices, allowing exchange of information between office visits, do help patients maintain their health and stay out of emergency rooms and doctors' offices. According to the studies, many patients using telemedicine report generally better health status, less severe symptoms, and better self-management behaviors than patients without access to the technology.
Given the still rapidly increasing costs of health care in the U.S., telemedicine may provide the best avenue for reducing costs while still improving the quality of health care services. A number of barriers need to be overcome—health care professionals are reluctant to accept new technologies, and in an era of identity theft, patients are understandably concerned about privacy over phone lines and the risks associated with faulty equipment. However, "the benefits do outweigh these concerns," says DelliFraine, "particularly for individuals suffering from conditions requiring close monitoring." It is also a mode of treatment that could be useful in rural areas currently underserved by physicians. Preliminary information also indicates it could also be useful in treatment of obesity, though DelliFraine cautions, "we need more work in those areas."
Treatment foster families lack proper training, study shows
Examining the practices of foster parents who typically care for mentally and behaviorally challenged children is the focus of a current study by Dr. Elizabeth Farmer, associate professor of health policy and administration.
Elizabeth Farmer
Specifically, Farmer is concerned with the characteristics, knowledge, and beliefs of these front-line providers regarding care and treatment. Data for the study was gathered from a North Carolina trial of Treatment Foster Care (TFC).
More than half of the parents, according to Farmer’s research, viewed themselves as parents rather than treatment providers. Also, most of the parents cited being parents themselves as their primary qualifications to care for these children. Although 93 percent of these parents attended TFC training before receiving treatment foster children, the majority reported that this initial training did not cover basic behavior management skills.
After this training, only 25 percent of the parents attended scheduled in-services; furthermore, additional contact with the supervisors to discuss training, supervision, and skill-building infrequently occurred.
“Given all of this, it is not surprising that treatment parents, overall, used ineffective approaches to addressing behavioral problems,” Farmer says. “However, many of them indicated that they knew something about more effective strategies, but they weren’t using these with the youth in their homes.”
Based on her findings, Farmer believes that the training for TFC providers is adequate in pre-service hours; however, the training lacks content. Farmer suggests that additional efforts need to be directed toward training, recruiting, and supervising TFC parents. She adds that further research should examine other factors, such as number of children per foster home, permanency requirements, and funding sources.
“While treatment parents say that behaviorally oriented techniques are effective, they rarely use these with youth in their care,” Farmer explains. “Treatment parents tend to view themselves as parents rather than professionals, and there is too little training and supervision to counter this view.”
HPA welcomes new staff assistant
Sarah Ransom joined the department in January as the lead academic programs staff assistant. Staying within the College of Health and Human Development, she joined HPA from the department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management, where she worked with graduate and undergraduate programs and supported academic advising. Along with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Lock Haven University, Sarah brings an upbeat, friendly personality to HPA’s student service office.
Announcements
Palliative care focus of next Mayers lecture
The 11th annual Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture will feature Dr. Diane E. Meier, M.D., who will speak on “Palliative Care in Hospitals.”
Meier’s lecture will draw from her experiences serving as director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, a national organization that aims to increase the number of palliative care programs and improve quality of palliative care. Meier also serves as the director of the Lilian and Benjamin Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute and has been on the faculty in the departments of Geriatrics and Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City since 1983.
The Mayers Lecture, which will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 14, 2008, at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. View the announcement and invitation (.pdf, 124k)
2008 Pennsylvania Rural Health Conference set
The Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health will host the 2008 Pennsylvania Rural Health Conference on June 18 and 19 at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel in State College, Pennsylvania. The call for nominations for the 2008 Rural Health Awards is underway.
Please click here to access the award nomination form. For more information on the conference, titled “The Power of Intention! Accomplishments in Rural Health,” please call the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health at 814-863-8214.