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The May 2026 edition of Healthcare Management Forum (HMF) is dedicated to patient advocacy, an essential component for building trust, addressing health inequities, and enhancing system quality and efficiency.
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In this edition:
GUEST EDITOR
The Guest Editor for this edition is Carl Balcom, DNP, MBA, RN, LSSBB, NEA-BC, FACHE, a seasoned health leader with extensive experience across the continuum of care, from quaternary critical care to community outreach services in both Canada and the United States. He currently serves as Assistant Vice President of Innovation Location Operations for HCA Healthcare and is member of the Editorial Board for HMF
WEBINAR
Join us on May 27 from 12- 1 p.m., EST for a webinar with Briana Milavec, MEd, as she discusses the importance of keeping people at the centre of care. This webinar will outline a human-centred change management approach at a large integrated health system in the United States, using two digital cases (a nurse handoff tool and a scheduling staffing platform) to illustrate how co-authorship in design and implementation builds a sense of ownership and advocacy. Specific recommendations about how organizations can cultivate a culture in which clinicians champion transformation will be provided. Her approach reframes change management as a strategic lever for advocacy, all while aligning digital innovation with patient-centred values. Briana Milavec, MEd, is the Director of Change Management for Products at HCA Healthcare. This session is moderated by Carl Balcom, DNP, MBA, RN, LSSBB, NEA-BC, FACHE.
VIDEO
Watch the author insights video by Nahya Awada, PhD, as she talks about the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, which undertook a comprehensive review of the hospital’s clinical research ecosystem to identify systemic challenges and opportunities to better integrate clinical research within operations and patient care. Interest holders were engaged through qualitative interviews and pre- and post-review quantitative surveys. Barriers identified included limited funding access, lack of protected research time, fragmented technology infrastructure, inconsistent support for non-physician researchers, and limited access to patients for research purposes. Findings informed an action plan comprising over 30 initiatives under four strategic goals: strengthening infrastructure, building capacity and culture, enhancing patient access to research opportunities, and streamlining governance
BLOG
Read the blog by Joanna Seeley, RN, MAHSR-T, CHE, as she examines how patients and families can help shape policies about how their health data is used. They have an important role to play in creating systems that learn from harm and improve everyone’s safety. Seeley and her co-authors conducted a study in New Brunswick that demonstrates that patients support the secondary use of their information when it is secure, their identities are protected, and the purpose is directly tied to preventing future harm. Their perspectives challenge the assumption that patients are reluctant to share incident information; they support its use when it clearly contributes to safer care. Transparent communication about the privacy and security measures that protect this data can strengthen public trust and build broad support for health information exchange.
ARTICLE
Read the article by Mylaine Breton, PhD, as she outlines the work of an independent expert panel tasked with making recommendations to guide the first government policy addressing the primary care crisis in Quebec. Conducted over a period of 4 months, this work combines a targeted literature review, 59 consultations with more than 200 stakeholders, and a provincial forum to develop recommendations grounded in evidence and local realities. The expert panel formulated six coherent and locally adaptable key recommendations aligned with international best practices. They provide a pragmatic and comprehensive roadmap to strengthen primary care in Quebec through interdisciplinary teams, territorial governance, protected and dedicated funding, data infrastructure, and user involvement.
ARTICLE
Read the article by Katherine Zagrodney, PhD, as she reviews her research with a large homecare employer to co-design the first known homecare cost of turnover model. The resulting model accounts for sector-specific cost differences and can be used to estimate the costs of homecare worker turnover. As homecare continues to face high workforce instability, clear estimates of the cost of turnover can guide organizations and decision-makers in the evidence-based design of retention policies and programs to the benefit of homecare workers, funders, those seeking homecare, and the broader health and social care system.
ARTICLE
Read the article by Charleata Battle, DBA, MBA, as she introduces a qualitative multiple-case study involving 21 physicians in the United States. Findings demonstrate how physician entrepreneurs navigated uncertainty through five effectual principles: bird-in-hand, affordable loss, crazy quilt, lemonade, and pilot-in-the-plane. These principles informed the development of the Dual Acumen Model, an empirically derived framework explaining how physicians translate clinical insights into entrepreneurial practice and system-level innovation. The study contributes empirical evidence that hybrid physician leaders advance healthcare improvement by integrating scientific and innovation competencies that build leadership capacity and organizational adaptability.
Did you know as a published Healthcare Management Forum author you will have the opportunity to share your article and increase its impact?
Published authors receive a link that can be shared with co-workers and or used for non-profit teaching purposes (other distribution and on-line posting not permitted). In addition, through the KUDOS platform, authors have the opportunity to write a summary of their article to share through their social networks.
Want to submit an article to Healthcare Management Forum?
Go to: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/hmf
Have a question? Email the Managing Editor at lwilson@cchl-ccls.ca