American Hospital Association Honors Two Federal Health Care Leaders with 2010 Awards

Press Release

American Hospital Association Honors Two Federal Health Care Leaders

The American Hospital Association's (AHA) Section for Federal Hospitals today presented two hospital leaders with awards recognizing their outstanding service in the health care field.  These awards recognize federal health care executives who have distinguished themselves through singularly significant achievements and leadership or innovative achievements that have contributed substantially to the mission of the federal health system. 

"Today's winners exemplify commitment and excellence with their service to their country and through the improvements they have made to the delivery of care" said Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the AHA.  "Because they would never ask for it themselves, on behalf of the AHA, I thank them for the incredibly inspired work they do every day."

The winner of the 2010 Federal Health Care Executive Award for Excellence is Cynthia J. Gantt, NC, USN, FNP-BC, Ph.D., senior nurse executive and director of Nursing Services, U.S. Naval Hospital in Guam.   

Captain Gantt is recognized as an innovative and inspirational leader and mentor in Navy Medicine and across the military health system, whose efforts have directly contributed to the improvement of the federal health care system.  Her achievements include developing a new model, Nursing Clinical Competency Model, which is widely recognized and respected within her field, to improve the delivery of care at her remote facility in Guam.  The model helps address staffing issues and is easily replicable at others facilities.  The model was also recognized by the Joint Commission as an example of how safe, high-quality, evidence-based patient and family-centered care is delivered at the command. 

Previously as director of Population Health and Medical Management, at the TRICARE Management Activity for the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) from 2005 to 2008, she led the complex modification and implementation of the managed care contracts that included the first ever uniform approach to disease management.  She led the 2007 Tri-service National Defense Authorization Act Report to Congress work group, charged with integrating disease management across the military health system, as well as a study that measured overall impact on health, quality of life, and costs using a new disease management scorecard that caught the attention of Congress, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Veterans Health Administration.

Gantt was also a key member of the team assembled by the Secretary of Defense to diagnose and correct issues related to the care and case management of wounded, ill and injured service members and their families. She produced landmark case management policy, information sharing, and data capture strategies that resulted in new abilities to track, analyze and evaluate case management services, including new workload modeling capabilities for all types of case management patients.

The recipient of the 2010 Federal Health Care Executive Special Achievement Award is Lieutenant Colonel L. Michaelle Guerrero, Commander, 82d Medical Support Squadron/Administrator, 82d Medical Group, Sheppard AFB, Texas.  Currently, she is deployed to Craig Joint Theater Hospital, Bagram AB, Afghanistan, as the 455th Medical Support Squadron Commander.

Lieutenant Colonel Guerrero's 17-year career has included involvement in some of the most dynamic modernization efforts that have transformed the Air Force Medical Service and the military health system.  By appointment of the Air Force Surgeon General, Guerrero chaired a multi-disciplinary workgroup charged with developing and employing a secure, real-time tele-radiology architecture. Her team established a radiology hub-spoke model, providing 24/7 coverage for 75 fixed military health care facilities worldwide, which decreased turnaround time by 60 percent, enabled troops to return to duty over four times faster, saves $l.4 million annually and garnered the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Award for Best Practice.

Guerrero was named by the Air Force Surgeon General to lead the Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure Medical Joint Cross Service Group analytical cell. Charged with developing and executing analyses for a comprehensive review of the $24 billion military health system, Guerrero led a 5-person Tri-Service team that helped shape the final recommendations, which resulted in the largest Department of Defense medical infrastructure restructuring since World War II, netting $5 billion in savings and transforming the system into a modernized military health care platform.

In 2008, Guerrero was named as the 18th Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century subject matter expert for aeromedical evacuation operations. In this capacity, she led the development of an automated reporting tool that provides a snapshot of aeromedical evacuation assets/capability on-hand - which received recognition as a key mission of Air Mobility Command. Additionally, she worked with the Medical Service Corps Chief for Aeromedical Evacuation to lay the foundation for the Medical Service Corps career path in Air Force aeromedical evacuation operations.