Judith Coleman, Office Manager at GBMC Healthcare System, is being recognized by Diligent’s Modern Governance 100 program. The Modern Governance 100 is a community of governance professionals who have been nominated for their innovation, resilience, dedication and empathy in the face of a complex and ever-changing world.
As the point person for Diligent governance at GBMC, it’s Coleman’s role to champion implementation, training and development across an array of boards and committees. While that might seem like a daunting prospect to some, it’s a challenge on which Coleman has thrived. Patient information a valuable commodity for hackers, so the issue of cybersecurity is very much front and center at hospitals and medical centers. Through her adoption of a modern governance system, Coleman has bought something invaluable to her colleagues: peace of mind that sensitive information is safe and secure.
A natural innovator with a “can-do attitude,” according to Lee Greenbeck, Executive Assistant/Office Manager at Gilchrist Hospice Care, Coleman’s hands-on approach to digital governance, together with excellent customer support from Diligent, has ensured friction-free implementation – no mean feat when a large proportion of her board members are more familiar with traditional processes.
Digital governance has allowed Coleman to save time and streamline processes across the board. Gone are the days of house visits to capture signatures or sending information via an unsecure web.
For her, the benefits are wide-ranging:
“My boards and my committees are very pleased with the paper savings, the time savings, the safety, the security, just the ease of the product. Overall, I think it’s a smashing success for our hospital.”
How Coleman Uses Diligent
- Evaluations provides an efficient alternative to cumbersome spreadsheets and off-the-shelf surveys, increasing time-savings and cost effectiveness whilst streamlining the process of board assessments
- Virtual meeting management and secure dissemination of meeting materials and video conference links
- Move ingrained paper-centric legacy processes online, driving efficiency, decreasing the potential for mistakes and providing a better experience for all directors involved
Coleman and her team made it possible during these days of virtual meetings to bring modern governance to her hospital and its boards. Without it, she thinks, “we would struggle immensely.” But with it? Coleman is unequivocal: “It’s been a huge success.”
As she notes: “I think the way that we used to do our board books was antiquated. It wasn’t safe, it wasn’t secure. We’re a hospital. You have the element of HIPAA violations. You have so many key factors when it comes to cyber security. Diligent puts our board at ease. They know that we’re taking these measures to be secure, to keep our information private and to really protect our patients.” “As a hospital, I think that modern governance has been especially important to us,” reflects Coleman. “I’ve learned so much, and I feel like [it’s] made such a huge difference to our Boards, Committees and to our hospital. I’m very proud of our accomplishment as a team.”
About the Nominee
Coleman is the Office Manager and Executive Assistant to the Executive Vice President/Chief Executive Office and Vice President/Chief Information Officer of Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC). She has been there for over eight years but, as she notes, “during my 1st day at GBMC when our President and CEO said: “To every patient, every time, we will provide the care that we would want for our loved ones” I knew I was home.”
About GBMC Healthcare System
The GBMC HealthCare system includes Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC), a 342-bed medical non-profit hospital, which handles more than 23,000 admissions and 52,000 emergency room visits annually; GBMC Health Partners, a collective of more than 300 primary care providers, specialists, advanced practice clinicians, and hundreds of support staff; and Gilchrist, Maryland’s largest eldercare company, which includes Gilchrist hospice, offering both in-home and inpatient care, with 74 beds split among 3 inpatient units. It provides medical care, grief counselling, and bereavement services to patients and their families at every stage of serious illness. GBMC HealthCare is a 2020 recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest presidential honor for performance excellence.
