UA Nurse Practitioner at Nurse Managed Center Completes Business Management Program at UCLA

LOS ANGELES – Families and individuals who receive medical services from the Capstone Rural Health Center, a nurse-managed Federally Qualified Health Center staffed through The University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing, will be the ultimate beneficiaries of specialized management training completed by the center’s associate medical director.

Foster David Jones, who also works as nurse practitioner at the center in Parrish, is one of this year’s 80 graduates of the Johnson & Johnson/UCLA Health Care Executive Program.

The intensive two-week program, conducted at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, is designed to enhance the management and leadership skills of community-based health care organization executives.

The Center, which opened in 2001, is designed to provide affordable, high-quality primary care to an underserved population while also providing an environment in which nursing and other health-related students can learn. Primary care at the Center is provided by nurse practitioners, registered nurses with advanced education and clinical training. All of the Center’s staff are University of Alabama employees.

Johnson & Johnson, the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and UCLA developed the program in 2002 in response to the need for community-based health care organizations to be better equipped to confront the mounting challenges in our nation’s health care and the rising cost of providing medical services.

Community-based health care organizations provide doctors, basic health services and care facilities to millions of people, particularly the medically underserved and those living in vulnerable communities. Since the program’s inception in 2002, almost 500 executives have graduated with enhanced management and leadership skills. Eighty participants, representing organizations that serve over 1 million patients and clients annually at 475 sites nationwide, will have graduated from the two programs in 2008.

Participants are selected through a competitive application process and all expenses and materials are fully funded by the program. Eligibility is limited to organizations that are currently funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, an operating division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“The UCLA Anderson School of Management is delighted to partner with Johnson & Johnson and the Health Resources Services Administration to bring needed management training to community-based health care organizations in order to ensure the viability of our country’s community health care providers,” said Victor Tabbush, faculty director at UCLA for the Health Care Executive Program.

The UCLA Anderson School is recognized as one of America’s premier graduate business schools. Its preeminent position is based on internationally acclaimed research, an innovative and distinguished faculty and exceptionally bright, highly motivated students chosen from one of the largest and finest applicant pools in the nation.

Johnson & Johnson is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly based manufacturer of health care products, as well as a provider of related services, for the consumer, pharmaceutical and medical devices and diagnostics markets. The more than 250 Johnson & Johnson operating companies employ approximately 121,000 men and women in 57 countries and sell products throughout the world.

For more information about the Johnson & Johnson/UCLA Health Care Executive Program, including future program dates and application information, visit http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/healthcare.xml.