The Goody Two Shoes of this world have had some pretty bad press over the years. At Bethesda Memorial Hospital, our volunteers are the “heart and soul” of our hospital.

In the Volunteer Office – the Goody Two Shoes Rule! One person can make a difference and our volunteers demonstrate this daily. During the last few months you might have noticed that South Florida has been chilly. Our volunteers have knit and crocheted hundreds of small blankets and given them to patients of all ages. They also knit hats for each of our newborns to wear home, having completed 4,500 hats last year. Two of our volunteers are shut-ins who live in a nursing home. These wonderful ladies cut-out, fold and assemble hundreds of paper pyramids for our patient rooms that list important telephone numbers and names.

Whether it’s pushing a patient in a wheelchair, or escorting a lost visitor to a patient’s room, our volunteers help patients and visitors get where they need to go. Our volunteers give hugs, and they’re not afraid to tell a joke. Some of our volunteers even come dressed as clowns, bringing smiles to the faces of our patients and staff, alike. Through Bethesda’s Pet Therapy program, they bring pets for our patients to meet.

Bethesda’s volunteers help the hospital by raising money in the Auxiliary Gift Shop and at the hospital’s thrift shop, the Bethesda Bargain Box. They help the hospital staff by raising funds for education through the Auxiliary scholarship program. In addition, the Auxiliary volunteers also help hospital staff members who cannot afford day care costs, by providing assistance for Bethesda’s onsite childcare facility, the Ripley Early Learning Center. Plus, the volunteers help purchase equipment for hospital departments with special unexpected needs.

When one good deed is done it comes back threefold. In February 2010 nearly 500 volunteers came to Bethesda and gave of their time. They ranged in age from 14 to 96. Among the adults we have about three women volunteers for every man. Among the teens the ratio is about even. The community is catching on that the rewards of volunteering grow exponentially, as Bethesda’s volunteers are the “heart and sole” of our community hospital who make a difference every day.



Southeast Regional Vice President, Materials Management
Holy Cross/Mercy Hospitals

Proudest Accomplishment: Election to the president of the national Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management (AHRMM)

First Job: Washed pots and pans and transported patients while in college; first full-time job was a Store Room Supervisor at a 300-bed Hospital in Ohio

Education: BA in Business Administration, Northeastern, Chicago, IL; MBA, Baldwin Wallace College; MHA, Ohio State University.

What skills do you need to succeed in your job: You need to be intuitive, analytical, action- and results-oriented as well as possess excellent people skills.

Work habit you possess that you are most proud of: I consider myself visionary, with an innate ability to anticipate problems and lead others.

Most valuable lesson you learned in your career: People are different – some assertive, some compassionate, some reserved, and some down right impossible. There are a number of ways to get something done. Your way is not always the only way.

The toughest part of your job: Striking the delicate balance between high quality and low cost; and delivering a consistently high level of service.

Your philosophy of success: Work hard, respect others, and above all, do what is right.

One of your goals: I have a compassion for Healthcare Supply Chain and a desire for innovation. I have been active in AHRMM in facilitating the adoption of bar code scanning for healthcare products and hope to see this come to fruition within the next 3 years.

Person You Most Admire: Paul Balcom, the former CEO of Catholic Health Partners (Lorain, OH) & my mentor, for his honesty, integrity, compassion for people, and ability to get things done.

Favorite Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins

Biggest Challenge Confronting Healthcare: To provide a high level of quality care and service to all in a declining and restrictive reimbursement arena.

Suggestions on how you would solve a particular problem in healthcare: Although hospitals are largely information-based systems, most can not afford all the information software upgrades they need. If the government would subsidize some of these requirements they would eventually receive a return in more efficient healthcare, improved billing, etc.

Your predictions on the future of health care: Computer software will provide additional opportunities to screen and rule out diseases and symptoms. This will affect change in our entry-level patient care and potentially compete with similar clinical services offered by practitioners.

Best Thing About Healthcare in South Florida: Patient volume is much more desirable than that in the nation’s Rust Belt.

Worst Thing about Healthcare in South Florida: The cost of living and the access to sufficiently trained personnel.

What advice would you offer young people considering a career in Health Care: To align your education with your ultimate career goal. Ideally, earn an undergraduate degree in a clinical area and a graduate degree in either business and/or your clinical concentration.



Northwest Medical Center views our volunteers as valuable resources to our staff, physicians, patients and our community. We strive to effectively motivate our volunteers and maintain their loyalty by providing them with the necessary skills to enhance their usefulness and personal growth. The Volunteer Services Program recognizes the needs of every individual volunteer and respects the following as reasons for participation in our Program:

  • to help people
  • to contribute to a cause
  • to gain or enhance a sense of self-confidence
  • to meet other people and develop friendships
  • to share ideas, knowledge, expertise and experiences
  • to share, gain or maintain skills or interests
  • to gain or maintain a strong connection with our community
  • to gain experience that contributes to making education, career or other choices
  • to fill in spare time with meaningful activity
  • to enhance self-confidence
  • to gain information, education or training
  • to be an active member of a dedicated team of healthcare workers

The Northwest Medical Center Program currently consists of approximately 130 senior and junior volunteers from our local community.

Many volunteers have received special recognition as a result of their dedication and hard work. Rita Dube was the recipient of the Volunteer Frist Humanitarian Award . This award was created to honor an outstanding volunteer who gives unselfishly in their service to patients in our facility. Just recently as we dealt with the many burdens created by the hurricanes, Rita remained firm in her commitment to helping wherever possible, even to the point of staying at the hospital throughout the night in order to assure her post at the patient information desk the following morning.

Volunteers Anne Engle and Sarah Lee Steckler also demonstrated their loyalty during one of the hurricanes by making sure they came in on the Labor Day Holiday to provide services at the patient information desk.

Junior volunteer, Alex Nemeth, also assisted in Engineering and Patient Transportation during both hurricanes.

Many other volunteer acts of kindness and unselfish giving could be told, and at Northwest Medical Center we all agree that each and every volunteer is a valuable team member that participates in “Sharing the Caring”.



The past 12-15 months have been witness to monumental changes in the health care industry. On the compliance front, we saw the finalization of the Phase II regulations under Stark II. The government has made clear that now that the final regulations are in place, it intends to aggressively enforce the Stark laws and regulations. We also saw the government continue its aggressive stance in its criminal and civil monetary actions as well as in its recoupment efforts. In addition to excluding record numbers of providers from the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the government successfully recovered billions of dollars from providers. On the liability side, we have seen wholesale changes to our medical malpractice laws beginning with the introduction of fee caps on non-economic damages and the subsequent passage of three constitutional amendments.

Going forward, and on the compliance side, the government is likely to increase its aggressive stance with regard to overpayments and fraud and abuse. Recently enacted reporting requirements, sophisticated computer programs and the efforts of the Program Safeguard Contractors will all lead to greater levels of scrutiny. The OIG, in its 2005 work plan, has identified several areas where it perceives abuse and has reiterated its intention to focus on improper coding and the enforcement of the supervision requirements applicable to many procedures. Once again, there will likely be much more aggressive enforcement of Stark given the lower burden of proof required of the government (in comparison to enforcement of the Anti-kickback Statute, which requires that the government establish intent). Medicare recently reported that intermediaries and carriers made nearly $20 billion in erroneous or questionable payments last year – an error rate of 9.3 percent. In many instances, the claims were paid despite being medically unnecessary, inadequately documented or improperly coded. Medicare intends to reduce this error rate by half, which is certain to translate into greater scrutiny of claims. Finally, the HIPAA Security Standards must be implemented no later than April 20, 2005. Compliance with these standards will require the adoption of a series of administrative, technical, and physical security procedures for covered entities to use to assure the confidentiality of electronic protected health information. On the medical malpractice side, we will see how the statutory and constitutional amendments will play out. How will they be implemented? How will the legislature enact laws to coincide with the constitutional amendments? Will the amendments be challenged? How will they affect practitioners in the real world? Will they really do anything to lower malpractice premiums?

Given the foregoing, 2005 is almost certain to be a pivotal year for the health care industry.



Carlos M. de Cespedes and Jorge L. de Cespedes, founders of Pharmed Group Corporation, have been named to the 2005 Florida International University (FIU), College of Business, Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame. The prestigious award honors FIU alumni who have achieved distinction as founders and builders of businesses. Both Carlos and Jorge de Cespedes were recognized for their outstanding achievements as the founders of Pharmed Group. The company has created a reputation as a leading national and international distributor of medical, surgical and pharmaceutical supplies and is considered to be on the cutting-edge of their industry.

(l to r) Joyce J. Elam, executive dean of Florida International University’s College of Business Administration presents Jorge de Cespedes, President & COO of The Pharmed Group with the South Florida Entrepreneur of the Year award.

“This is a great honor coming from such an established business program as Florida International University,” commented Carlos de Cespedes, Chairman and CEO of Pharmed Group. “Knowing that FIU has made huge strides in the local community over the years makes this award even more significant for us,” commented Jorge de Cespedes, President and COO of Pharmed.