The annual Kentucky Healthcare Coalition Conference took place in Lexington Sept. 26-28.
The conference, which also served as a yearly training event for Region 2 of the International Association for Healthcare Safety and Security, featured keynote speakers, expert roundtables, networking events, vendor exhibits and more.
“I think it’s important for IAHSS to have this conference each year,” IAHSS Region 2 Chair Bill Navejar, said. “The goal is to impart information that healthcare security directors and managers need and to share daily and long-term best practices. This conference fulfilled that.”
The conference had almost 200 attendees, including people from Kentucky, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and Maryland. Healthcare security managers, directors and supervisors attended the event to meet with vendors, network with peers and learn from a series of breakout sessions hosted by experts with a lifetime of experience in the industry.
“The networking is always the best part for me,” Scott Hill, the Director of Security at King’s Daughters Medical Center (Ky.), said. “Most of us are dealing with similar issues, so just to be able to sit down with these guys is hugely valuable. We share emails and phone numbers and just knowing that we’re there to support one another is great.”
Hill was among an impressive list of security professionals that gave presentations at the healthcare conference. Other speakers included Bryan Warren, the Director of Corporate Security for Carolinas HealthCare System, Kevin Tuohey, the Executive Director for Research Compliance at Boston University & Boston Medical Center and Ryan Bonacci, the Chief of Police at Mercy Health Youngstown in Ohio.
“There’s a really wide variety of subject matter in each discipline, you don’t want to come to a conference and see five people talk about the same thing, so there’s a good mix of diverse information,” Bryan Warren. “You got a good mix and match as far as safety, fire safety, engineering and more.”
In addition to the security track, the conference featured sessions for management/leadership, facilities maintenance and materials management.
“The other thing that sets this conference apart is the fact that you get together with IAHSS, ASHE and KSHPMM which is the leading association for healthcare facility managers, and the product and services management group, the leading authority in purchase management, all under one roof with shared speakers,” Navejar said. “This is the only conference that’s like that.”
KSHE is a professional society devoted exclusively to the education, development and expansion of skill and standards of the Environment of Care disciplines performed in healthcare industries. For more information, visit their website.
