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Dear ASHHRA Members,

In late July, I had the opportunity to attend the AHA Leadership Summit in San Diego on behalf of ASHHRA. During the summit, two events made a big impact on me. The first was the ASHHRA Thought Leader Forum which this year was co-hosted with the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), one of our sister AHA Personal Membership Groups (PMGs). The topic of this year's thought leader forum was Workplace Intimidation—and what health care human resources and risk management department could and should be doing about it. 

The second was a luncheon sponsored by Liz Summy, the VP of PMGs for the AHA. The luncheon featured many of the various PMG executive directors plus board members from a variety of the AHA PMGs: American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), American Society for Healthcare Environmental Services (ASHES), Association for Healthcare Volunteer Resource Professionals (AHVRP), and Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development (SHSMD). It was an excellent opportunity for the executive committee of ASHHRA to 'meet and greet' our counterparts at the other PMGs.

Why did these events make such an impact on me? It hammered home the reality that health care is truly unique regardless of the professions we gravitate toward. Take engineering—retail engineering departments obviously are concerned about the safety and welfare of department store shoppers—but health care engineering departments have to consider how to keep oxygen flowing for surgeries in the event of power failures. 

Human resource management is like that, too. When I worked in HR for Macy's, we had a mission to find the very best people who could provide excellent customer service...a tall order indeed. But in health care, we need people who can provide care and compassion to a mother giving birth as well as an elderly person who is dying, an extraordinary mission for an HR professional.

Health care is different. And health care HR is different. And of all the HR groups out there, ASHHRA is the largest and most capable organization that can provide you with the knowledge and community that you, the health care HR professional, need.

Jeff Payne, SPHR
Vice President, Human Resources
Lakeland Regional Medical Center
1324 Lakeland Hills Boulevard
Lakeland, FL 33805-4500
P: 863-687-1045
F: 863-284-1971