Medical Directors from the state’s public mental health system get updates from the state’s new Medicaid Director.
Carol Steckel, MPH, the state’s new Medicaid director, updated medical directors on proposed Medicaid changes in the new administration and their impact on the public mental health system at the Third Annual Medical Directors’ Network Symposium. (Steckel recently resigned her position as Medicaid Director.)
Nearly 80 medical directors from Critical Access Behavioral Health Agencies (CABHAs) and Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), Carolina Care North Carolina (CCNC) psychiatrists and other medical health professionals from around the state attended the day-long meeting at the UNC Friday Center June 1, 2013.
Benson Rosen, PhD, MA, Robert March and Mildred Borden Hanes Professor of Organizational Behavior at the UNC Kenan Flagler Business School, presented a morning management seminar titled “Setting Priorities and Empowering Employees.”
In the afternoon panel on “Being an Effective Director in a Changing System,” medical directors discussed addressed how they perform certain responsibilities in their organizations. Topics included developing a QI project, managing clinicians and patient care, reviewing charts and communicating with physicians in integrated medicine.
“The North Carolina Mental Health System is undergoing constant change” says John Gilmore, MD, director of the Center and the Network. “Medical leadership is critical for good care, regardless of what the system ultimately looks like.”
“Through the Network we will continue to help psychiatrists develop the skills they need to provide good leadership.”
The program was a collaboration of the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (NC AHEC) the North Carolina Psychiatric Association (NCPA) and MHDDSAS. Wake AHEC sponsored the continuing education credit.
The North Carolina Community Mental Health Medical Directors’ Network was formed in 2010 through a partnership between the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health and NC AHEC. The Network also works closely with AHEC Psychiatry Directors in medical schools at UNC Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, East Carolina University and Duke. Contact Alice Lockhart at alice_lockhart@med.unc.edu for information.