Having been a service provider and policy advocate in healthcare for over 30 years, I’ve been fortunate to collaborate and create strategic partnerships with many subject matter experts in a variety of areas within healthcare (legal, regulatory, risk and claims management). In 2021, the firm created a strategic partnership with Mettle Health, Mettle Health, on on-line palliative care consulting group, to form an alliance quality of life and person-centered care and end-of life initiatives. The Empathic Leadership Institute is another strategic partner and is committed to supporting organizations to embrace empathic leadership responses, mindsets, habits and structures. Its experience leading corporate change shows that empathic responses create a fundamental cultural shift where everyone in the organization feels empowered and accountable. Empathic Leadership Institute - Home NEW
I am excited for you to now meet Dawn FitzGerald, founder and President of First Light Health, First Light Health. While Dawn’s consulting firm is a new endeavor, I’ve known Dawn for over ten years when we collaborated on several quality improvement projects as well as a provider dispute resolution program.
Prior to First Light Health, she led a highly successful non-profit organization, providing services to healthcare organizations in support of their quality programs (where we met).
She has managed over 30 federal, state, and grant contracts, including multi-state, multi-year healthcare quality improvement contracts with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). As an expert in quality measurement, she served on the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Committee on Future Directions for the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports and National Quality Forum (NQF) performance measurement workgroups.
Establishing strategic partnerships between my law firm and claims management company and consultants like First Light Health allows us to serve our clients in innovative and specialized ways. First Light’s focus is on supporting small to mid-sized, start-up and non-profit healthcare innovators and quality improvement organizations to achieve mission aligned growth while cultivating leadership based on community, compassion, capability and caring.
I spent some time with Dawn to learn more about First Light Health.
How did you choose “First Light Health” as the company’s name?
At first it seemed a little too obvious, but First Light was initially a cheeky take on my first name! But once I really began thinking of ideas for naming my company, the symbolism of a rising sun, and its first light, represented enlightened change that I wanted to pursue. The change related not only to my personal career, but also in how I wanted to support the pursuit of real improvements in healthcare. With that, First Light Health, LLC was born.
What is First Light Health and what should we know about you or your services?
“First Light Health is a woman-owned small business devoted to creating value in healthcare by focusing on what matters most to providers and patients. Many organizations seek to extract value from our healthcare system by figuring out how to leverage the system’s inefficiencies. I am focused on adding value by addressing clients’ needs and supporting their success and long-term sustainability.
First Light [Health] offers expertise in leadership, mentorship, strategic and business planning, quality improvement (QI) program development, and effective proposal strategies. My goal is to help clients engage passionate and productive teams to create meaningful healthcare improvement solutions.”
What’s the best thing about your role as Founder of First Light Health?
“I’ve learned that the key to happiness is finding joy in the workplace. For me that means being a part of meaningful work with a team of people who I love working with. Since starting First Light, I’ve been blessed to work with an incredible mix of small to mid-sized, start-up and non-profit healthcare innovators and quality improvement organizations to explore mission aligned growth and cultivate their leadership teams. I’ve also been able to re-connect with peers and former colleagues that have been so incredibly generous with their ideas and support. It’s been phenomenal.
Working outside of government, with entrepreneurs and innovators has taught me that being flexible, passionate, and engaged in one’s work leads to success, and let me tell you, I have some pretty passionate clients, including the Adelman Firm. Together we’ve been working on some very exciting new projects that I believe will transform adult living provider compliance and improve resident engagement.”
What’s unique about your business that makes it stand out?
“First Light was born out of frustration with the status quo. As a former leader in governmental contracts and grants, we frequently sought to improve quality using systems and measures that were inherently flawed, especially in term of what we measure and how we incentivize provider success.
Healthcare facilities have always been motivated to achieve the best outcomes for their residents, but the system for motivation and quality improvement seems to imply otherwise. To improve healthcare, we need to change the culture of quality and assist providers in understanding the significance of leadership as the key to that change. Culture drives success and effective leadership embraces collaboration, compassion, and caring. By spending time with clients, I can drill deep into their challenges and find solutions that fit their situation, their goals, and their needs. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.”
As we covered last month here in this column, there are a myriad of changes with CMS, survey quality improvement and education. I look forward to collaborating with First Light Health and Dawn to offer innovative strategies and solutions to our clients and the senior living industry.
