ACHE OF SOUTH FLORIDA CELEBRATES A SUCCESSFUL YEAR

By Vanessa Orr, South Florida Hospital News, for ACHE of South Florida

As 2022 draws to a close, Oyinkansola ‘Bukky’ Ogunrinde, MHSA, president, ACHE of South Florida, is grateful for all that the chapter was able to accomplish this year.

“As the first Black woman to lead this chapter, I came into this role with great expectations and the determination to continue in the steps of those who came before me and to leave it a better organization for the next leader,” she said.

“I wanted to bring a different perspective to chapter activities, a goal that was met even beyond my expectations,” she continued. “And I attribute this success to a great team of fellow board members and committee volunteers, and our engaged membership.”

Ogunrinde’s goals focused around five core concepts: innovation, collaboration, connection, inclusion and well-being.

“Innovation played out in a number of our events; for example, for the first time, our networking events included executive guest spotlights,” said Ogunrinde. “This allowed us to not only create an event where professionals could connect, but a place where senior executives could motivate and inspire others and do so in a social environment.”

The chapter held its first appreciation event to honor impactful industry leaders, and to celebrate the contributions of members and the support of sponsors, which led to the creation of the legacy series. In 2022, Aurelio Fernandez, III, FACHE was honored.

The chapter focused on leveraging synergies wherever possible as a way to augment benefits to its members. The organization reconnected with the South Florida Health and Hospital Association (SFHHA) and partnered on a number of educational programs about relevant healthcare topics during the 16th annual SFHHA Healthcare Summit.

“We also collaborated with our sister chapters, including Central Florida, Northern Florida and the West Florida Chapter on educational programs, a first ACHE-FL statewide offering,” said Ogunrinde.

In addition to helping members better connect to general services and resources that ACHE offers, the chapter focused on meeting the needs of specific segments of the membership. This included holding its inaugural C-Suite retreat, which focused specifically on the needs of CEOs and brought in experts to speak on the top healthcare issues of the day, including financial sustainability, workforce recruitment and resiliency.

“We connected with early- to middle-careerists by holding an inaugural Healthcare Leadership Development Forum and Job Fair,” said Ogunrinde, adding that ACHE partnered with Nova Southeastern University (NSU) a member of the Higher Education Network, for this event. The chapter also held its first in-person Fellow-only event, presenting the first-ever chapter Fellow service award.

“Because inclusion is very important to us, we operationalized our DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) and community outreach board role,” said Ogunrinde.

DEIB programs and activities were held throughout the year, including educational programs that focused on various healthcare populations such as people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, minority communities and the elderly population; the importance of diversity in healthcare leadership; and the first in-person women’s focused event.

The chapter also partnered with One Blood to support their blood drives in conjunction with Jackson Health System West, and hosted a social media awareness campaign focused on the importance of volunteering.

The chapter held its first behavioral health-related program at a specialty health center and at the VA Medical Center, and the importance of mental health care was also highlighted through a social media campaign.

“Our mission was to elevate all of our educational, networking and special event activities in service to our members’ professional development,” said Ogunrinde. “I’d like to give a shout out to our 2022 board members, committee volunteers and engaged members for our ability to do just that.”

Mission accomplished.