April 2013 Volume 128 • Number 4

Medical Affairs Update
zPart of our key Senior Leadership at the
Home Office in Tampa., I would like to
introduce you to Dr. Kenneth J. Guidera,
our new Chief Medical Officer, for his
thoughts about the Medical Philosophy of
our Hospital System.
Dr. Guidera has over 20 years of
experience working in the Shriners Hospitals
for Children organization. After initially
being a volunteer surgeon at our Tampa
Hospital, he left his private practice to join
our healthcare system. He was soon
promoted to Tampa’s Assistant Chief of Staff
and then in 2004, advanced to the position
of the Chief of Staff of the Twin Cities
Hospital. Dr. Guidera has served in the US
Army in Korea and has had medical
missions in Haiti, Armenia, and with the
Red Cross.
His clinical interests are in the areas of
spine and lower extremity surgery. He is a
member of several Medical Societies and
involved with numerous Research Projects.
Ken is also a Shriner and an “Associate
Member” of five Midwestern Temples.
Mounds View High School SkillsUSA
students selected Shriners Hospital for
Children — Twin Cities for the third
year as their Community Service Project
for the State Championships. SkillsUSA
is a partnership of students, teachers
and industry working together to ensure
America has a skilled workforce and
that students excel in all they do. This
national organization builds and
reinforces self-confidence, work
attitudes and communications skills.
Mounds View Chapter members
Dear Nobles and SHC Staff:
It has been a great honor to be
appointed as the Chief Medical Officer of
Shriners Hospitals for Children.
In this capacity, my role is to ensure
high quality healthcare for our patients,
assure medical compliance with
governmental regulations, and foster
effective communications between the
physicians and other staff or leaders of this
organization.
Our hospitals recently had their 90th
anniversary. As you may know, SHC
started as a system for pediatric polio
victims. These potentially gloomy
inpatient units quickly became
comforting and loving second homes for
the children. The patients found more
than just the best treatment, as their care
was administered by a complete team of
devoted and caring healthcare
professionals.
As polio waned, Shriners Hospitals for
Children developed more pediatric
orthopedic programs and became known
Mounds View High School SkillsUSA
collected and donated travel size
personal hygiene products, play-doh,
coloring books, crayons and yarn to knit
hats and scarves. The students organized
fundraisers and earned enough to
purchase fabric for 21 tie blankets. They
included Highview Middle School in
their annual pop tab collection and
because of this relationship, their
donation tripled from last year and
came in at a whopping 56 pounds.
Thank you SkillsUSA students for
donating more items to the hospital this
year than in the past 2 years combined!
Dr. Ken Guidera
for this high quality care.
Our Vision Statement included the
goal to be the unquestioned leader in our
area of expertise. We achieved this goal,
but now the challenge is to maintain this
objective in a changing medical
environment.
In the 1980’s we built beautiful new
hospitals, staffed with the same type of
caring staff and wrap around/full service
care. These great facilities carried us into
the present time, with the radical changes
that were taking place in health care.
In the current medical climate we have
faced some challenges that have caused us
to adjust our model of care delivery. We
now do more outpatient work, bill third
party payers, and compete with
neighboring institutions for a smaller pool
of patients.
In order to compete and stay viable,
hospitals and health systems are
organizing and working together in
groups such as Accountable Care
Organizations.
Several Shriner Hospitals have started
affiliations with larger organizations such
as Universities and larger health systems.
These affiliations will allow us to grow and
become more financially solvent in this
changing environment.
We have had financial challenges in
this new healthcare setting. The draw on
the endowment and the need to develop a
revenue cycle have necessitated that we
become more efficient and develop more
patient volumes. Increasing governmental
regulations and decreases in insurance
payments have mandated that we tighten
our belts and comply with Federal and
payer regulations.
This has changed some aspects of how
we practice medicine, but it has not
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