Angela Skalla, RN, MBA, Vice President of Patient Care at MacNeal Hospital, was recently honored with the Vanguard Health Systems Chief Nursing Officer of the Year Award for the National Division, at the annual meeting.

"This is Vanguard’s highest honor recognizing outstanding nurse leadership based on clinical and administrative knowledge and her positive impact on an organization," announced Rob Martin, Sr. VP Operations, National Division, Vanguard Health Systems.

Skalla has spent almost 10 years of her 20+ nursing career at MacNeal during which she managed a variety of patient care areas including Home Care, Operating Department, Critical Care Units, Pharmacy, Radiology and Cardiology among other areas. She is credited with the development of a case management approach at MacNeal, facilitating physician/ nursing collaboration and achieving positive outcomes in patient and staff satisfaction. She has served in her most recent expanded role since 2001 with a three-year record of no ambulance diversion.

Skalla earned her nursing diploma from St. Mary’s School of Nursing, Rochester, MN, graduated from College of St. Francis with a BS in Arts and earned an MBA with a focus in Health Care Administration from Rosary College. She has served in a range of nursing and administrative positions throughout her career in several Chicagoland health organizations most recently as Vice President, Patient Care, Holy Cross Hospital.

She has co-authored a health care management series book and was a frequent presenter in health care management seminars.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital recently announced that Dean Manheimer, senior vice president of Human Resources at the hospital has been honored as the "Human Resource Professional of the Year" by the Society of Human Resource Professionals (SHRP), the Chicago chapter of the national Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM).

SHRP selects its annual recipient for "HR Professional of the Year" award though a comprehensive review of professionals from around Chicagoland who are influencing change within their organizations by developing talent along with the policies and practices that benefit the organization.

Among his many accomplishments at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Manheimer was instrumental in developing the "Best People" strategy to recruit, develop and retain the best people that share the organization’s core values. Under Manheimer’s leadership, a number of programs have been implemented to attract and retain the most talented people. For example, in 2003, the NM Academy provided more than 50,000 hours of training to staff on a variety of subjects from technology to management. The hospital also implemented a Medical Staff Diversity Initiative, which has increased minority physician representation by 71 percent since 1999.

Manheimer’s efforts have also helped decrease the amount of staff turnover from almost 14 percent in 1999 to approximately 9 percent in 2003, as well as decrease the nurse vacancy rate to below 3 percent in 2003, well below the industry average of 9.3 percent. He also has worked to recognize and celebrate the achievements of the more than 6,000 employees at Northwestern Memorial Hospital through awards like "Patient’s First – ‘One of our Finest’" and "Nursing Excellence."

Externally, Manheimer’s efforts have garnered a number of recognitions for the hospital’s efforts from Working Mother magazine as one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" for four consecutive years and one of Chicago’s "Most Preferred Hospitals" for the past ten years from the National Research Corporation.

Manheimer currently serves on the faculty of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the board of the Chicago Workforce Board, and the Advisory Board of the Chicago Public Schools Medical & Health Careers Academy.

Dr. Joseph Stella, a cardiologist with Heart Care Centers of Illinois at St. Francis Hospital & Health Center in Blue Island, has been named to the faculty of the prestigious Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2004 Symposium. Dr. Stella is one of only 200 interventional cardiologists world-wide who have been asked to lecture at the symposium.

On Monday, Sept. 27, Dr. Stella will lecture on his findings in a nation-wide research study that was launched at St. Francis last spring which examines the effects of the blood-thinning drug Angiomax (bivalirudin). Angiomax is given to heart attack patients upon arrival at the emergency room and is an alternative to a combination of drugs widely administered to prevent blood clotting and complications in heart attack patients. Dr. Stella was chosen to spearhead the study because he has more experience using Angiomax in heart attacks than any other cardiologist in the United States.