Operational Excellence Boot Camp

Michael Anderson, MSIS, CSSMBB is a cutting-edge visionary leader with more than 20 years of immense expertise in strategic planning, market development, new service initiatives, financial analysis, and fiscal management within the healthcare industry. Michael is the director of operations at Jefferson Methodist Hospital. In this role he is responsible to provide oversight and consultation for execution of initiatives within quality/safety, patient satisfaction and finance and to devise efficiency strategies and quality control improvement plans conducive to growth and profitability. He is also Assistant Program Director for the Operational Excellence program at JCPH.  Prior to his role at Jefferson, he was the Associate Director for Clinical Effectiveness & Quality Improvement at University of Pennsylvania Health System.   Michael holds a certifications in  (CSSMBB) Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and (PM) Project Management.  

Shane Flickinger, MHA, FACHE, CLSSBB,  is a proven results-oriented healthcare operations leader embracing a bottom-up, people-centric leadership and management approach. He is accomplished in forming, developing, managing and leading interdisciplinary teams using quality and process improvement tools to achieve results in clinical and non-clinical settings. He worked with Dr. Dennis R. Delisle to found the Master of Science degree program in operational excellence, one of the first in the kind in the nation; he is the currently the associate director for that program. Shane holds a certification as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. He is also a trained Baldrige Examiner through Pennsylvania’s performance excellence program and is credentialed as a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Shane completed his Bachelor of Science in health policy and administration and his Master of Health Administration degrees at The Pennsylvania State University.  Shane Flickinger is Vice President of Operations at Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital. He is responsible for leading and managing a portfolio of programs and services across all sites of service and across the entire continuum of care. Prior to his current role, Shane was Vice President of Operations at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Inc.  In this role, he had responsibility for the Center for Operational Resource Efficiency (CORE), a command center leveraging people, actions and analytics to drive care coordination, quality and safety, and operational excellence. In addition to centralized bed management, enterprise transfer center, environmental services and patient transport operations, CORE leverages real-time care progression delay alerts to reduce excess patient days, such as procedural, diagnostic and clinical delays. Shane has also held other positions in operations, quality and process improvement, project management and regulatory affairs.

Leigh A. Elko, MS, LSSGB, PMP, RRT  has over sixteen years of health care, managerial, information technology, operations, and clinical bedside experience. Leigh started as a Respiratory Therapist at Doylestown Hospital while finishing her undergraduate degree in 2006 and came to Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in 2007. While working full-time, Leigh earned her Master of Science in Healthcare Administration from Saint Joseph’s University. Completing her studies propelled her experience into a role working with hospital administration. It was within this role where Leigh was able to lead by example and provide education on Lean, project management, and efficiently working to train leaders from across the health system. Leigh’s leadership style allowed her to collaborate with Senior Leadership to accomplish Strategic Goals and Initiatives. When transferring to ChristianaCare Health System, Leigh was able to lead efforts to better the patient and employee experiences. For example, Leigh led an effort to implement a digital experience pilot with Women’s and Children service line resulting in a fifty percent reduction in patients waiting onsite for a bed to become available while improving staff engagement by twenty percent.  

Through various roles, Leigh has developed a keen sense of responsibility, effective interpersonal skills, a passion for mentoring, and the ability to lead teams, even in high-pressure environments..

Brian Glynn, MSHQS, RRT, is the Director of Quality & Safety at Jefferson Health Northeast. Brian has worked for Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for the past 20 years in various roles and most recently he served as the Director Enterprise Business Intelligence.  Brian is an innovative healthcare professional, and thought leader in quality, safety and analytics, who possesses a strong commitment to team dynamics. He is skilled in Healthcare Information Technology (HIT), quality and safety improvement methodologies, and clinical operations. He obtained a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Quality and Safety from JCPH and currently serves as a lecturer. He oversees the Quality & Safety OnPoint Program at the Jefferson Health Northeast Division of Jefferson Health.  

Andrew Wierzbieniec, MHSA,  has more than fifteen years of progressive leadership experience in the healthcare industry. His experience includes inpatient and outpatient operations, operational excellence and strategic planning.  He is currently the Executive Director for Strategic Planning and Organizational Transformation at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, NY,  and a lecturer at JCPH where he teaches on evaluating healthcare organizations.  Andrew’s journey with operational excellence and change management began in 2008, when he was trained in Lean Performance Improvement Methodologies, CAP program facilitation and Work Out facilitation through a Jefferson/GE Skills transfer initiative.  Using the skills learned there, he led performance improvement programs in Jefferson’s Inpatient & Outpatient Labs, Emergency Department, Oncology Infusion Program and Blood & Marrow Transplant Program.  He  further developed his change management background by serving as an examiner for the state of Pennsylvania's Baldridge Examiner group, the Keystone Alliance for Performance Excellence (KAPE) from 2011 to 2013.  

Cassandra Wright, MBA serves as the Vice President, Human Resources and Labor Strategy, for Jefferson Health. She has experience in recruiting, training and development, performance management, career development, employee relations, labor relations, employee engagement and developing and implementing enterprise-wide rewards and recognition programs. Cassandra has worked for several organizations including Methodist Hospital Nursing Center, Methodist Hospital and Independence Blue Cross.  She has created and implemented various client projects including departmental dashboards, compliance audits, job description design and behavioral interviewing guides, implemented strategies for positive employee relations and engagement, developed content and facilitated learning for managers and employees, and recruited talent for a wide variety of positions based on the needs of the business. She is a graduate of the 2008 Urban League Leadership Institute, is certified is a DISC Facilitator and has served on the Board of New Frontier Youth Services since 2006.