Please Welcome to the team NAHC’s Chief Operating Officer! Ana M. O’Connor Ana comes to us with a wealth of knowledge, experience and commitment to community health!
Ana holds a Law degree, a Master’s in Business Administration, and a Master’s of Science in Counseling. Her education will be extremely valuable in her role as COO. She will be responsible for leading our continuous quality improvement efforts related to operations, efficiency, services and ensuring the financial health of our agency. She has been selected through a highly competitive recruitment process, which identified her as the candidate with the highest level of expertise and qualifications to support NAHC’s transition through health care reform, lead the integration of services, enhance our competitive edge and guide our success into the future.
“I'm originally from El Salvador in Central America and immigrated to the United States when I was 9 years old. My passion for community health comes from my belief that healthcare is a right and not a privilege. I value assisting the underserved to ensure they receive the healthcare they deserve. My job is to reduce the barriers imposed on them.” ~Ana M. O’Connor
Ana’s professional background is just as impressive as her academic success. In her roles as Chief Operating Officer for Mission Neighborhood Health in San Francisco, California and as Interim Chief Operating Director for Alameda County Medical Center she developed and led multi-disciplinary efforts to restructure their public health clinics to support the implementation of electronic health records and successfully established strategies to support the financial feasibility of their primary health clinics. Her work successfully enhanced overall productivity, increased employee morale, reduced costs and improved the quality of services. All of Ana’s work has been dedicated to improving services for underserved communities! Her professional choices and personal commitment are aligned with NAHC’s mission:
To assist American Indians and Alaska Natives to improve and maintain their physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual well-being with respect for culture traditions, and to advocate for the needs of all Indian people, especially the most vulnerable members of our community. We look forward to having her join our team!
A Message from the CEO This year, NAHC will celebrate its 40 year anniversary. We have built a model that brought us much success and has contributed to the agency’s phenomenal growth. However, this model needs an update to serve us well in the new environment created by health care reform. We need to evolve in order to ensure we are here for another 40 years.
Health care on a national level is undergoing dramatic transformation and will initiate changes that will greatly impact our agency. As a response to this change, NAHC is implementing new strategies and creating new, key positions to help us best serve our community to support the agency through change. Based on internal and external advice, we have decided to restructure the organization and recruit staff that will have the experience, knowledge and passion to ensure survival in the new health reform environment and continue the expansion aligned with the mission of our agency.
One step toward this change is the implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHR)/NextGen, which will improve and streamline our documentation efforts and allow us to provide services more efficiently. The move from a paper to an electronic system has been mandated under health care reform. For the past 12 months, key staff worked on the selection and implementation of an electronic medical system for the business and clinical functions of the clinic.
The second is hiring a Chief Operating Officer (COO.) This position will improve operations within the agency and bring much-needed expertise that will enhance NAHC's ability to thrive. The COO is part of an executive-level leadership team that includes myself, the Chief Financial Officer, Human Resources, and will also include an Assistant Executive Officer and Chief Health Officer in the very near future.
In October, recruitment for the COO began, and we received nearly 100 applications. A hiring committee formed and interviewed five candidates. The interview process was given extraordinary attention and care. I was very impressed by the highly qualified applicants received from throughout the United States. The hiring committee chose an outstanding candidate who has extensive experience working in an operations capacity with community clinics in the Bay Area. She will begin February 6th, 2011.
These changes along with your passion and commitment will position NAHC to continue to provide quality services and allow us to positively adapt to the new health care environment by integrating our programs and services. Together, we are 7 Generations moving in 1 Direction.
Martin Waukazoo, CEO