This is the time of year that we all like to reflect on the past 12 months and evaluate what has gone well and what could have been better, both personally and professionally. Looking back at my own year, what a year 2020 has been! As KAHCE President, I have had the opportunity to work with wonderful leaders from across the state. It is working with this team of leaders that gives me hope for our state as we face many challenges to providing care and serving our communities. 

COVID has definitely been one for the books in regards to challenges and disruptors in healthcare. It has forced us to come together and reimagine how we provide care during a global pandemic. Whether it has been innovations in telehealth platforms or relaxing insurance regulations that allow us to provide care in a safe environment for our patients, we can all agree that this has not been business as usual. Historically, if we were going to launch these initiatives across our health systems, we would take time to carefully plan, utilize pilot groups, gather feedback from patients, and then strategically roll these initiatives out across the system. However, during a pandemic, this does not allow for the appropriate amount of planning time. Instead, it takes groups of leaders putting in countless hours and constant communication between all parties as things are changing by the hour. Flexibility has been the key for 2020. Things are not “per usual,” and we are all adapting to make sure we are staying as safe as possible and still serving our communities. 

As for KAHCE, we have also had to adapt and have moved our usual Face-to-Face offerings to a virtual platform and continuously working on how to still engage members and participants in a meaningful way. This is something our Board has been working on as we get our feet wet in the COVID world, I look forward to 2021 and to see what we can offer to our leaders across the state. Since the 2021 ACHE Congress will be virtual, this allows us to allocate the funds that would have historically been used for student travel scholarships to offer more student membership scholarships and other initiatives that help our organization grow. It is this flexibility and thoughtful leadership that makes me proud to be a part of KAHCE. As we have voted to keep the current slate of officers, I know the momentum and knowledge that we gained in 2020 will serve us well as we tackle 2021. Be on the look out for the various offerings that KAHCE will be presenting next year, such as education, networking, roundtables, and more. 

Ultimately, 2020 has been an interesting year with its fair share of ups and downs. With the vaccines currently being distributed across the US and Kansas health systems, I cannot help but to feel a little bit of hope as we continue to navigate through these difficult times. And as we all continue to crank out work, do not forget to take care of yourselves – the state is counting on all of us. I want to sign off by wishing you all a Happy New Year and hope you all are able to get some much needed rest as we charge into 2021. Take care.