MHA INSTALLS JAMES WENTE CHAIRMAN

Southeast Missouri Hospital administrator James W. Wente was installed Thursday as board chairman of the Missouri Hospital Association.

Wente becomes only the third chairman from the Southeast Hospital in the association's 75 years.

He was installed before a crowd of 1,000 people at the group's annual convention and trade show at Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach.

Wente, who succeeds Ross P. Marine, administrator at Truman Medical Center East in Kansas City, will serve a one-year term beginning Jan. 1.

"It is a great privilege for me to be charged with the responsibility of serving as MHA chairman at such a challenging time in health care," said Wente.

Wente's duties will include overseeing and directing activities of the board, acting as the group's day-to-day adviser, testifying before legative committees of the General Assembly and Congress, leading a state delegation to Washington twice during the year and acting as a state and national spokesman for Missouri's hospitals.

"Jim (Wente) is a dedicated leader," said Charles L. Bowman, president of the MHA, Hospital Industry Data Institute and MHA Management Services Corp. "He has led his hospital and has it in a positive position for the new century. His peers selected him to be chairman because of his strong leadership, characteristics and dedication to hospitals."

Former Southeast administrator O.D. Niswonger commented on Wente's knowledge of hospital trends and issues.

"Jim is conscientious and knowledgeable of today's health care involvement. He will be an asset to the MHA and to the state of Missouri," Niswonger said.

Robert Erlbacher, president of the hospital's board of trustees, said the board is "extremely proud" of Wente's accomplishments and of his new state leadership position.

It has been four decades since a Southeast administrator last held a top leadership post in the MHA. The late T.J. McGinty served as MHA chairman in 1937, and the late Herbert S. Wright served as chairman in 1954.

During last year's convention, Wente was selected as chairman-elect. He has served as a member of the MHA board of trustees since 1994. He served as board secretary and member of the executive committee during 1995 and 1996.

Wente previously served as president of the Southeast Missouri District Council. He was MHA representative to the Medical Practice Research Center ad hoc committee, and has also served on the MHA Management Services Corp. board of directors.

The Missouri Hospital Association, said Wente, has played a dynamic role in shaping health care policy since it was founded in 1922. "As far back as 1983, MHA demonstrated its strengths as a advocacy organization when it mounted an effort directed at fraud law, aged care and group hospitalization insurance," he said. "Since then, MHA has been a consistent, positive presence in state and national legislative arenas."

In addition to presenting issues to decision-makers at the federal and state level that reflect "the MHA membership as a whole and the continuity and quality of Missouri health care as a whole," Wente emphasized that Missouri's hospitals must never forget their social responsibilties."

"Health care is of critical importance to all of us," said Wente at the installation. "We must not get so wrapped up in the business aspects of today's rapidly changing health care environment that we forget why we're here, and the humanitarian purpose that is at the heart of all we do."

Wente traced the hospital and MHA history in the state.

"It has been 169 years since the doors of Missouri's first hospital, now known as DePaul Health Center, opened in a three-room log cabin on a western frontier called St. Louis," said Wente. The gateway city, he said, was also the setting 75 years ago when a group of 50 delegates convened to establish an organization that since has shaped the vision of healthcare in Missouri. That organization was the MHA.

"Our challenge now is to go forward, to continue to address major advocacy issued affecting the state's than 150 hospitals," said Wente. "Working together, the MHA and Missouri hospitals will shape a future for our state that will carry us into the 21st century in healthcare."

In addition to his work with MHA, Wente serves his community, where he is a member of the city's Investment Advisory Committee, a member of the Cape Girardeau Lions Club, and a member of the Cape Girardeau and Jackson Chambers of Commerce. He is board chairman of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

He is Diplomate of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and an appointee to its Missouri Regents Advisory Council, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants, and an advanced member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.