KFMC - Key Persons
Angie supports us - and our clients - as we execute various performance and quality review activities. She coordinates and supports projects for the Quality Review team and our new business development activities. Her skills in project support, facilitation and management ensure we meet or exceed the expectations of our customers.
Dr. Reimer currently practices at Herington Municipal Hospital. He has practiced full spectrum family medicine in a 25 bed Critical Access Hospital for over 19 years. Dr. Reimer finished a master's degree in Health Care Delivery Science from Dartmouth College in 2017 and has interests in quality improvement and healthcare delivery in the rural setting.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Care Management and Patient / Family Services at Children 's Mercy Hospital
Ashley Papenberg is the Vice President of Care Management and Patient/Family Services at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. Prior to Children's team, she served as Director of Population Health at Saint Luke's Health System. Ashley practiced bedside as a registered nurse with both pediatric and adult populations. As an experienced healthcare leader, Ashley has a history and passion for driving innovation and transformation across multi-disciplinary teams. She previously led Saint Luke's in efforts around Ambulatory Care Coordination, Primary Care Transformation, quality alignment with payor contracts, and integration of new healthcare delivery models and systems. Ashley holds a Dual Bachelor's Degree from The University of Kansas in Human Biology and Applied Behavioral Science, a Bachelor's in Nursing from Research College of Nursing, and a Master's Degree in Health Administration from Des Moines University. Ashley is currently pursing a Doctorate in Public Health Leadership from the University of Illinois - Chicago. Ashley is a Kansas City native and has a passion for improving the health of her community by providing patients with wellness and prevention tools well before they enter into sick care.
Becca has over 20 years of nursing experience. Her clinical experience ranges from intensive care, outpatient procedures, obstetrical clinic and, most recently, in the school setting. She spent two years assisting at a local high school as part of their Covid team, analyzing data and directing families in the latest guidelines. Over her career, she has also spent countless hours volunteering for The American Red Cross and Catholic Charity's Porta Caeli House (hospice care). Her broad experience lends itself to her role with KFMC as a clinical care reviewer.
Bert has more than 30 years' experience in systems design, database administration, software development and programming of mission-critical business applications. He has a strong background in client/server, object oriented, and intranet programming as well as experience in major programming languages, operating hardware and software.
Betty has nearly 25 years of experience in healthcare finance and accounting. Her previous experience includes work with Federally Qualified Health Centers and hospitals, including managing multiple federal and state grants and contracts, and assistance with implementing large-scale initiatives, such as implementation of an electronic health record.
Brenda has nearly 30 years of clinical experience in the areas of infection prevention and employee health. In her current role as Quality Improvement Consultant, she provides clinical support and infection prevention support to KFMC customers. Brenda works with members of the customer's clinical team, advisory committees, healthcare delivery personnel, and community stakeholders.
Brenda has provided operational management and leadership to large scale quality improvement initiatives for Long Term Care, including designing, supporting and leading the development of projects and initiatives to facilitate measurable improvement, while overcoming the variety of geographic, resource and human barriers that Long-Term Care facilities face today. Through her work, Brenda has recognized the value of live training and the impact training has on front-line staff to improve dementia-appropriate care while decreasing incidences of abuse and neglect. For her work, she was recognized as the 2019 National Council for Certified Dementia Practitioners (NCCDP) Educator of the year.
Brian has more than 17 years in public accounting experience in not-for-profit, governmental audits, and internal control. He entered the accounting profession with Lowenthal Singleton Webb and Wilson P.A. in Lawrence, KS in May of 2003 and has worked for a variety of CPA firms in Northeast Kansas. In May of 2018 he founded a consulting practice Nyp CPA, LLC which has a concentration on correcting accounting issues and support of accounting functions with a variety of clients. He has a heavy focus on data and data flow as it relates to financial processes, budgeting, and reconciliation.
Dana comes to KFMC with extensive experience in customer success management, process improvement, and documentation. Having served as the administrator during the life cycle of various projects, she continues her project support role as KFMC's EQRO Project Specialist. Dana is a member of the Project Management Institute.
Job Titles:
- Project Coordinator, Review Coordinator
Dana provides project management support and coordination for all KFMC customer activities. Dana has extensive experience in supporting healthcare quality and data reporting projects across the Midwest region. She supports the planning, implementation, and documentation of contract and project activities, while providing appropriate coordination and oversight of such activities to ensure timely and effective project development and completion.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor and Informatics Director of Community
David Voran, M.D. is the Associate Professor and Informatics Director of Community and Family Medicine at Truman Medical Center and Medical Director, Family Medicine Center-Truman Medical Center, Lakewood. Prior to joining Truman Medical Center, Dr. Voran was Medical Director of the Innovation Clinic at Heartland Health now Mosaic Life Care (2006-2013), Physician Executive for Cerner Corporation (2003-2006), CMIO for Health Midwest (1997-2003) and Executive Director of Information Technology at the University of Kansas Medical Center (1994-1997). Over the last 6 years, Dr. Voran has piloted various workflows and technologies with emphasis on putting as much technology in the primary care physician's exam room as possible. He is a strong believer in patient engagement and patient-directed care. He has aggressively used the patient portal, promoted point-of-care imaging and believes that, until the patient is the primary user of the EMR, medical organizations will not fully realize the power of the clinical information systems in which they are now investing. He provides medical content expertise to a number of startup companies in the greater Kansas City area. Most recently, he developed and maintained a Residency Dashboard with emphasis on Quality Metrics designed to help physicians and patients close care gaps at the point of care. Dr. Voran received his bachelor's degree in anthropology from the Wichita State University in 1974. He earned his medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1988 and post-graduate degree from University of Kansas - Family Practice in 1991. He is Board Certified in Family Practice and is an active member of the American Academy of Family Practice and was a member of the Academy's ad hoc Committee on Electronic Medical Record. Dr. Voran is active in a number of professional organizations and is a past president for the Heart of America chapter of HIMSS and is a Medical Director for CVS Minute Clinics in the Kansas City area.
Ms. Stern is a registered nurse and an attorney who recently retired from the Kansas Hospital Association (KHA) where she served as senior vice president of clinical services, general counsel and corporate compliance officer. In her role, she assisted hospitals with clinical and regulatory issues and oversaw all legal services for the association and its family of corporations. Prior to joining KHA, she was an attorney at the Alderson Law Firm and worked at Stormont Vail Regional Medical Center in the areas of nurse recruitment, home health, peer review, Joint Commission accreditation and nursing quality improvement. She holds degrees in nursing and psychology, is a 1998 graduate of the Washburn University School of Law and is past president of the Women Attorneys Association of Topeka. Ms. Stern is a native of Erie, Pennsylvania and moved to Kansas in 1977 to work as a registered nurse at the Menninger Foundation.
Bringing a diverse background in public health, cultural and medical anthropology to our customers, Beth currently serves as EQRO Senior Manager. Her background includes experience in community health, grant management, coalition development, health promotion and prevention, conducting quality review projects, program performance measurement, and academic research.
Dr. Perveen has been trained in health and disease data analysis. She provides a variety of data analysis services that support public health, program measurement and evaluation activities. She has managed epidemiology, surveillance and evaluation of statewide public health programs and initiatives.
Dr. Pezzino has worked in public health in several countries for 40 years. He obtained his medical degree magna cum laude at the University of Bologna, Italy, and his Master's degree in public health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2022, he retired from his position as senior fellow at the Kansas Health Institute (KHI) in Topeka, Kansas, where over a period of 18 years, he managed a variety of projects, including supporting local health departments in preparation for national accreditation and leading a national project to generate and disseminate knowledge on shared governance models for public health departments. Dr. Pezzino was also the director of the Center for Sharing Public Health Services, a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and hosted by the Kansas Health Institute. He was a leader at the state and national levels in the area of public health system modernization, working to identify and implement the best public health policies, programs, and practices to improve health outcomes in Kansas and elsewhere. Prior to joining KHI, Dr. Pezzino served in the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service program and later was the State Epidemiologist with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for almost ten years. Dr. Pezzino is a fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine and is Past President of the national Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. During his career, Dr. Pezzino has served on a variety of task forces, committees, and national workgroups and has testified in front of both state and federal government bodies. Between January 2007 and December 2020, Dr. Pezzino also functioned as county health officer for Shawnee County, leading the first year of response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Pezzino has obtained a certificate in evaluation practice from The Evaluators Institute, a program offered by the George Washington University. He lives in Topeka with his wife of over 30 years.
Glenda Washington came to the Greater Topeka Partnership, formally known as GO Topeka, in October of 2013 as the Vice President of Entrepreneurial and Minority Business Development and Small Business. She was promoted to Senior Vice President in 2017 where she oversees entrepreneurial and minority business development programs, small business programs and M02022 East Topeka Council for Shawnee County. She facilitates the Kauffman Fast Trac program for the Greater Topeka Partnership. She has over 25 years of providing services to and advocating for small businesses. Prior to leaving Jacksonville, Glenda was the National Multicultural Accounts Director for Visit Jacksonville. Glenda was employed at the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce (Jacksonville, Florida) as the Director of Small and Minority Business Development and later promoted to Senior Director of Economic Inclusion. She also served as the Procurement and Technical Assistance Center Manager. Glenda received a Bachelor of Science in Workforce, Education, and Development from Southern Illinois University, a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. Glenda is a graduate of Leadership Jacksonville, Regional Leadership Jacksonville, and the Jacksonville Political Leadership Institute. She has also graduated from the Economic Development Institute and attended Chamber Leadership Institute.
Jamie is an experienced programmer, developing and maintaining both web-based and non-web-based computer programming and basic analytic services in support of health care quality improvement activities. Her robust experience includes analyzing, designing and developing applications, developing automated systems for data gathering and manipulation, performance measurement, system validation assistance, and tailored application development.
Dr. Dunn is a physician entrepreneur who practices as a Tele-Hospitalist, founding Redivus Health in 2015. He is a champion of patient safety and quality being enabled by innovation and technology. Redivus Health is a physician-founded software company whose mission is to optimize patient safety during resuscitation events. Enabled by intuitive design, its software augments decision making, automates documentation, and enables analytics for the most time-critical emergencies.
Jess Baker is a Kansas board certified Paramedic with a background in quality improvement and quality assurance (QI/QA) in the prehospital field. Jess is responsible for scheduling peer reviews, recruiting reviewers, serving as the initial contact person for peer reviewers in the KFMC office, maintaining reviewer files, and conducting peer review internal quality control (IQC) activities. Her skills in project support, facilitation, and coordination ensure we meet or exceed the expectations of our customers.
Job Titles:
- Senior Health Data Analyst
John has nearly 20 years of experience leading analytics for performance measure validation projects, external quality review surveys, and utilization review initiatives. In his current role as Senior Analyst, he leads analytic functions and support of healthcare quality improvement conducted in collaboration with healthcare providers and managed care plans, creation of monitoring tools and reports, and systematic analysis of application databases for relevant patterns and trends.
Julie Roth represents large health systems, hospitals and physician practices, and counsels clients on the sale, acquisition and development of complex joint ventures. She also counsels clients on regulatory compliance matters including the Stark Law, the Anti-Kickback Statute, the False Claims Act, HIPAA privacy and security rules, Medicare and Medicaid payment rules, Conditions of Participation and EMTALA. Ms. Roth has substantial experience with electronic health records and the health information technology exchange. She assisted in the development of the Kansas Health Information Technology and Exchange Act which aligns Kansas law with the HIPAA Privacy Rules. Ms. Roth holds a JD from the University of Kansas School of Law and also earned her Masters' degree in Health Services Administration from the University of Kansas. She is a credentialed Registered Health Information Administrator.
Job Titles:
- Registered Nurse
- EQRO Project Lead
Kasey is a Registered Nurse with a background in public health, Medicaid, project and grant management, as well as conducting quality improvement projects. Kasey currently serves as EQRO Project Lead, facilitating review of managed care organizations' compliance with federal and state regulations within the Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program.
Job Titles:
- Quality Improvement Consultant
Kim brings over 25 years of healthcare experience with over 14 years nursing experience in various hospital and clinic settings, both PPS and critical access. She has expertise in infection prevention and employee health. Her background includes experience in emergency preparedness planning, response and grant management, utilization review, OR/PACU, palliative care, orthopedics, sports medicine, family medicine, and ER. She has served on numerous local, state, and regional hospital emergency planning committees and state HAI advisory committee.
Dr. Tipton has been practicing in El Dorado as an internal medicine physician since 1993. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Tipton completed his undergraduate education at Kansas State University. He graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and completed his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita. He has practiced his entire professional career in El Dorado. Dr. Tipton has been a KFMC peer reviewer since 1998 and a member of the Medicine Review Committee for the Kansas Board of Healing Arts since 1996.
Linda Farrar has dedicated her professional career to providing elders in senior living centers with quality of life and quality of care. Linda received her BSN from The University of Iowa and her post-graduate Licensed Adult Care Home Administrator education from Kansas University. Linda has served in the roles of administrator, Executive Director, Executive Management and Chief Operating Officer. In July, 2011, Linda retired from her full-time position to enable her the time to enhance her work with elders in a consulting role. During her career, Linda's passion has been person-centered/person-directed care. Linda believes that through education of staff, primarily direct-care staff, facilities can provide both quality of care and thus remain regulatorily compliant AND provide quality of life, providing enhanced, personal experiences for elders served. Linda has facilitated two different facilities in winning the PEAK Award on 4 different occasions since 2002. Linda has spoken at the national Pioneer Network annual meeting about implementing universal workers in a long term care setting. Linda is a Kansas-approved Certified Activity Director instructor, and a certified ELNEC (End of Life Nursing Education Consortium). In the recent past, Linda has presented webinars for Kansas Health Care Association, Missouri Health Care Association and the Nebraska Health Care Association on the Rules of Participation. Linda's passion is the provision of caring, compassionate care for elders residing in long term care facilities.
Job Titles:
- Registered Nurse
- Quality Improvement Consultant - Infection Control
Loretta is a registered nurse with over 15 years of experience working in the critical access hospital setting. The majority of her experience has revolved around infection prevention, employee health, and emergency preparedness planning. In her current role as Quality Improvement Consultant, she provides infection prevention support to KFMC customers. She works collaboratively with members of advisory committees, healthcare delivery personnel, and community stakeholders.
Job Titles:
- Compliance Officer
- Vice President
Lynne has more than 30 years of experience in nursing, social welfare and health care quality improvement (i.e., acute care, pediatrics, long term care, home health care, care coordination, external quality review, child welfare, social work policy and administration). In addition to overall leadership and strategy, Lynne provides general oversight to the quality review, quality improvement and health information technology teams. She is also a certified compliance and ethics professional and provides guidance to the organization in those areas.
Dr. Apley is a second generation Kansas veterinarian with experience in a general rural practice and a food animal production medicine/contract research organization practice. His PhD is in physiology with an emphasis on clinical pharmacology, completing credentials for the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology in 1994. Dr. Apley has served on the faculty in the colleges of veterinary medicine at Iowa State University and, most recently, Kansas State University where he remains today as a professor in veterinary clinical sciences, teaching professional students and mentoring graduate students in production medicine and clinical pharmacology. Dr. Apley's research focuses on antibiotic efficacy and resistance as well as antibiotic use monitoring in food animals, recognizing the challenges of data interoperability and achieving the necessary granularity to support continual improvements in antibiotic stewardship. The component of human behavior related to antibiotic stewardship is also an area of focus. His appreciation for the interaction of animal and human health has been enhanced by involvement in the Presidential Advisory Council for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB) for two terms as a voting member and as a member of the Kansas Healthcare Acquired Infection/Antimicrobial Resistance Advisory Group. Dr. Apley has a deep respect for specialty and practitioner organizations, having served as president of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, and the Academy of Veterinary Consultants.
Job Titles:
- Director of Clinical Care Review
Michelle serves as the Director of Clinical Care Review and Quality Improvement for KFMC and brings over twenty years of experience as a certified coder, utilization review manager and contract manager to this role. She has expertise in external and peer review, internal quality control and performance improvement, utilization review and coding. She also leads KFMC's process to maintain URAC Accreditation as an Independent Review Organization. Michelle is a member of the National Association of Independent Review Organizations, the American Health Information Management Association, the Kansas Health Information Management Association, and the CMS Region 7 Fraud Working Group.
Job Titles:
- Professional Nurse
- Quality Improvement Consultant - Infection Control
Nadyne is a professional nurse with over 35 years of clinical experience in healthcare quality, data abstraction and validation, infection prevention, and risk management. In her current role as Quality Improvement Consultant, she provides clinical support, quality reporting assistance and infection prevention support to KFMC customers as an extension of their teams. She works collaboratively with members of advisory committees, healthcare delivery personnel and community stakeholders.
Job Titles:
- HIT Security Consultant / Programmer
Beckie is experienced in web application, report design and development, data translation, end-user training and customer support using a variety of toolsets. She assists in the maintenance and development of both in-house and customer-designed applications. Her current work includes development of intranet and internet sub-sites, forms, and workflows for data analysis and applications development and support.
Dr. Huebner is an experienced biotechnology program manager with over thirty years of research experience with viral and microbiological pathogens and expertise in the vaccine industry, group management, and program management. Throughout his career, he has worked for a variety of organizations, large pharma companies, government agencies, and a contract research organization, holding positions of increasing responsibility at each. At the Latham BioPharm Group (LBG), he supports both commercial and US Government funded programs as a subject matter expert on biopharmaceutical development, analytics and program management. He also leads efforts to help clients win and secure non-dilutive US Government funding. Prior to joining LBG, Dr. Huebner worked at the Biomedical Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the Department of Health and Human Services where he held several positions including Acting Director of the Influenza Division, Deputy Director and Chief of Universal Influenza Vaccine Development. While serving as Acting Director, he was responsible for over 50 programs valued in excess of $5 billion. His tenure in this position was highlighted by the licensure of three new types of influenza vaccines, and approval of a new near patient diagnostic platform for influenza and RSV. Prior to BARDA, working at MRIGlobal, Dr. Huebner grew the client base for the biotechnology section he managed, bringing in projects from US Government and industrial clients to work on vaccines, detection methods and destruction methods for bacterial and viral pathogen. Dr. Huebner started his career as a bench scientist and group leader at Sanofi Pasteur working on applied research to develop new and improved vaccines against Lyme disease, influenza, Dengue, Japanese Encephalitis, malaria and pneumococcal disease. Dr. Huebner received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from Tufts University in Boston, MA and a B.S. in Biology from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
Job Titles:
- Quality Research Project Lead
Samantha has a background in program management, Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid. As a Quality Research Project Lead at KFMC, Samantha facilitates administration of statewide surveys, MCO network adequacy validation, and works with State Agency partners and others in the development, implementation, and evaluation of various projects.
Sandi brings nearly 20 years of experience in health information management, medical record data abstraction, coding, credentialing, and utilization experience in a variety of hospital settings, both Critical Access and PPS, as well as ambulatory care settings.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- President
Sarah leverages nearly two decades of experience in the healthcare delivery system, furthering KFMC's mission and bringing extensive experience in regulatory compliance, performance improvement, and operational leadership to her role. Sarah has worked in almost every healthcare delivery setting, including acute care (both PPS and CAH), long term care, behavioral health, and ambulatory care. Prior to her appointment as CEO, Sarah served as Director of Quality Improvement and then Vice President for KFMC, providing technical direction and operational leadership for the Medicare quality improvement work across Kansas.
Tammy brings expertise in practice transformation, alternative payment model, health care quality and data analysis to support KFMC customers in meeting their performance improvement goals. She brings over 25 years of experience in critical-access hospital and rural health clinic operations, including quality improvement, electronic medical record implementation and support, and case management/utilization review.
Mr. Hintz has more than 40 years of experience in auditing, tax and business consulting. He is currently involved in several organizations and boards in the Manhattan community.
Tiffany brings over 22 years of healthcare experience including provider credentialing, quality improvement and risk management within a thirteen-county community mental health center. Her experience also includes resolving consumer complaints and grievances, evaluation and customer satisfaction as well as six years as utilization coordinator for a Managed Care Organization, conducting authorizations of services and facilitating coordination of care.
Tisha brings a wide array of knowledge in health care quality, data analysis, project management, and process improvement principles to KFMC. She currently serves as Quality Review Project Lead, evaluating performance improvement projects, validating performance measure data, analyzing data, and writing reports submitted to state and federal agencies that assess quality, timeliness, and access to care provided by managed care organizations (MCOs) to KanCare (Medicaid) members.
Tracy has over 20 years of experience in social work, child welfare, and quality review. She has a wide range of experience including case management, case review, quality review, quality improvement, conducting surveys, project management, Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF) and Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) Waivers review, and writing of reports submitted to state and federal agencies that assess quality, timeliness, and access to care provided by managed care organizations (MCOs) to KanCare (Medicaid) members. Currently, she serves as EQRO Project Lead, facilitating review of Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program managed care entities' compliance with federal and state regulations.