Kirk Shaw, the administrator at the WahZhaZhe Health Center, has been named one of five people in the United States to win a “Future Five” award from the Medical Group Management Association – a group that represents more than 350,000 doctors and 60,000 medical administrators nationwide.
Shaw will be presented with the award Oct. 10 during the MGMA Leaders Conference in Boston.
The WZZHC’s chief executive officer, Mark Rogers, told Shaw at a recent meeting that he’d best prepare to address 15,000 people at the conference.
Rogers nominated Shaw for the award in July, noting that he smoothly led the clinic through some rough times.
“[H]e single-handedly fused together organization stability during a period of rapid transitional key vacancies, growth, and changes in organizational structure during the years’ long world-wide pandemic impacting his tribe and their patients serviced,” Thomas wrote. “As a direct result of his leadership, crucial health services were maintained without interruption – a Herculean effort at the very least!
“Mr. Shaw’s distinct leadership style, tribal-centric population management approaches to complex, culturally sensitive needs of tribal people, have all been above reproach, and directly responsible for the successful operations of the $22 (million) I.H.S. funded tribal health services in Pawhuska … and surrounding areas.”
The nomination goes on to say that Shaw has helped grow the clinic from 5,795 patients to over 21,678 in a few years, and that he led the effort for re-accreditation with the Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Healthcare.
“He has increased access to multitude of specialists within the health system, decreasing wait times by over 50 percent and increasing quality of care provided to tribal members as measured consistently by a customer service satisfaction index score (greater than) 95.9 percent,” Rogers added. “He increased access to care by assuring adequate funding of purchase referred care services, decreasing usage of emergency room visits, and increasing appropriate access to quality and continuity of care within the health programs.” According to MGMA, the Future Five Award recognizes five leaders in healthcare who are in the “early phases of their careers who have demonstrated exemplary leadership, innovative ideas, and a passion for what they do daily.”
