Richard Feifer, MD, MPH, FACP
Candidate - Director at Large
Personal Statement
I have focused my entire professional career on helping the US healthcare system to more effectively achieve the quadruple aim: clinical quality, patient experience, waste reduction, and provider wellbeing. This is what has drawn me to caring for frail seniors in the post-acute space, since arguably the opportunities for improvement are among the greatest in our setting. As a potential board member, I bring a broad perspective and can leverage my diverse experiences from across the healthcare system, including a variety of care settings, different populations served, and alternative payment models underlying them. Organizational leadership in healthcare requires a strong clinical grounding and compass, but that isn’t enough. As leaders, we also need to be fluent in various other languages, including finance, regulatory affairs, compliance, and health policy. PALTmed board members must deeply understanding the various challenges that our stakeholders face on a day-to-day basis. This empathy comes from direct experience, having walked in their shoes. In addition to this, impactful advocacy for our organization and our members is most likely if board members continually seek to understand alternate perspectives and competing demands, searching for common ground. In doing so, we can become even more successful as an organization, and more relevant to our members. This, ultimately, is what will drive continued membership engagement and growth. I would like to join the PALTmed board at this time, as a Director at Large, so that I can leverage my experience as a clinical and organizational leader in the post-acute space, and also my background from other segments of the healthcare system. My prior roles as a healthcare business leader should also prove useful, as we always need to be organizationally savvy as we tackle important challenges and opportunities. I’m eager to support PALTmed both internally as well as externally, as we seek to maximize our impact.
An area where I think PALTmed might have opportunity involves strengthening partnerships and alignment with other professional and advocacy organizations. Doing so will require focusing on areas of common interest, while not letting minor differences get in the way. The US healthcare is among the most complex components of our society and our economy, with countless organizations vying for attention, prioritization, funding, and membership. Strategically and opportunistically aligning with other entities may provide ways to increase the impact and visibility of PALTmed, which will ultimately help it achieve its mission on behalf of our membership.