Tuesday, March 29, 2011 – 8:30-10:00 a.m.
SNMIC Offices (Training Room on 1st Floor)
101 Convention Center Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89109
* Coffee and continental breakfast will be provided.

Please RSVP to rsvp@snmic.com

A copy of the RFP can be found here.

If you are interested in joining the SNMIC team please contact Doug Geinzer – doug[at]snmic.com.  We will be looking for strong team members who have experience working with youth and have a passion for health care.

Approve the recommendation of workforce CONNECTIONS staff to negotiate and execute a $750,000 contract with Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition for PY10 to conduct a Healthcare program to deliver employment and training services as a result of the competitive procurement process. The program dates will be from October 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011.

This is awesome!!!!!!!

What an amazing journey this has been to get here.  SNMIC pulled together and delivered the winning grant proposal.  We should all be proud.  We will be able to do amazing things for health care and for the Southern Nevada community with this grant award.

However, the real work is just beginning.  We now need to execute on our proposal.  I have no doubts that we will.  But, we have plenty of work to do.  And our goal is to ‘over-perform’ so we can grow the grant.

Next steps are:

1. Negotiate the contract
2. Get formal award on September 28, 2010
3. Execute
4. Grow the grant award

More to come…………

I want to personally thank everyone that participated on the Grants Planning Committee for all of your hard work and contributions.  Over the course of the past several weeks, the group met on multiple occasions to plan and write the grant proposal.  When volunteers were needed, our team stepped up.  This is why we all do what we do.

Many thanks go out to Katherine Cylke who really was the nucleus throughout the entire process.  Without her initial studies and surveys, we never would have had the quantifiable data necessary to present our case.  She presented her findings to various committees, sub-committees and, finally, the board of directors of Workforce Connections.  Without all of that leg-work, it is likely Workforce Connections would not have addressed the workforce shortages in health care.  And when it came down to the actual grant writing, Kat was the pivot person that got us through the entire process.  She is absolutely amazing to work with!!

Carolyn Yucha was an absolute champion throughout the process as well…. contributing a tremendous amount of time on the grant writing as well as bringing the assets of the Clinical Simulation Lab to the table.  When we chose to modify the workflow of the ‘internship’ program to compliment the residency programs deployed by many of the systems, Carolyn was instrumental.  Thank you for your leadership and commitment to the nursing profession.

Debra Solt was a true hero in the process as well.  Deb brought decades of grant writing experience, economic and workforce development and an in-depth knowledge of the Workforce Investment Act to the group.  She did an amazing job at identifying all of the ‘matching’ opportunities we included in the grant.  I cannot share how much I learned from Deb during this process.  She really made a difference.  Thanks Deb!!!

The HR professionals sub-group needs to be applauded for their candidness and willing to work with one another for the best interests of the health care community and this grant opportunity.  Many thanks go out to Vicki Perfect, Leanna Nalley, Leroy Walker, Dana Thorne, Wayne Cassard, Ron Winkler and Barbara Fraser.  Without employer support, this grant would not mean a thing.  And when it was said and done, we had 100% support from the hospitals.

Other folks that need to be recognized for all of their heard work include:

Tamya Lemke – who updated the SNMICgrants website on an hourly basis

Ruby Wertz – for designing the health care career ladder

Robyn Nelson – for contributing to the components of the career ladder

Dina Faucher – for gathering student enrollment (diversity) statistics

Charles Perry and Daniel Mathis – for their input on Long Term Care Facilities and entry level training needs

John Mierzwa – for researching workforce shortage statistics and overall proposal recommendations

Sue Christensen – for goal identification

Michele Nichols, Ann Lynch, Mable Smith, Roseann Colisimo, Loretta Kennedy, Laura Fillmore, Harry Ray and Gregory Mesa for your valued input and feedback.

Of course, the support of our Board of Directors and Marketing/PR team over at Imagine Marketing were instrumental with their support and willingness to pitch-in where needed.

Thank you all.  It has been a true pleasure working with everyone on this grant proposal.  Now, we wait………

1. This means SNMIC received letters of support from 100% of the hospitals in Clark County.
2. Boulder City Hospital is recognized as the only rural hospital in Clark County.

Boulder City Hospital is a non-profit 20-bed acute care Critical Access hospital and a 47-bed skilled nursing facility.  Many thanks to Tom Maher and the good folks at BCH.  We appreciate your support.

SNMIC is very happy to report that Vegas PBS has offered their full support and partnership for our Career Advancement and Retention in Healthcare grant! Vegas PBS is a valued community leader and we are thrilled to have their support. With the current employment rate over 14%, Vegas PBS has provided vital information for our community through their programming efforts and continues to partner with organizations promoting training opportunities and employment programs in Nevada. Broadcasters are required to serve their local communities, and Vegas PBS has created programming that reponds to our community’s greatest needs. They currently have over 200 online job training courses and 50 career training programs on their website. We look forward to partnering together on our grant and making a true difference in the Las Vegas community. Thank you for your support!

Great news, The Valley Health System University, the training/education division of The Valley Health System, has pledged their support and partnership. Their Chief Learning Officer, Michele Nichols, is an active member of our SNMIC Education Task Force and has already provided valuable input in creating our Career Advancement and Retention in Healthcare grant, specifically the Registered Nurse Internship program. We look forward to working closely with Michele and the VHS University in implementing the grant, as well as the valuable feedback and knowledge they will contribute. Thank you Michele and VHS!

HealthInsight is the latest organization offering their support to SNMIC and our grant!  HealthInsight is a private, non-profit community based organization dedicated to improving the healthcare systems of Nevada. HealthInsight is the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) – designated Chartered Value Exchange, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO), and the Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (REC) in Nevada. This organization is very well known, especially for their HealthInsight Quality Award which, since 2004, has recognized Medicare-certified providers for demonstrating high quality health care and excellence in performance on publicly reported quality of care measures. Beginning in 2009, HealthInsight also began recognizing physician office practices for their effective use of health information technology, patient care management practices, as well as reporting of and exemplary performance on nationally-recognized quality of care measures.  We look forward to their partnership and providing valuable expertise as we begin our programs. We very much appreciate your support!