Client Comments

Ken served as Cambridge Management Group physician liaison in a structured dialogue between physicians and hospital administrators that has allowed the two communities to work toward common goals. He earned the respect of both groups for his understanding of business processes and his outstanding ability to communicate. In part, his success is due to his years as a clinician, which gives him a knowledgeable, genuine physician perspective.

The service he provided went far beyond the scope of the project. For example, he mentored a section chief and obtained for him profit and loss figures that the section chief had never seen before. He was instrumental in helping that section chief craft a bold, far reaching presentation. He consistently reached out to the other presenters and provided them with invaluable assistance.

Ken’s understanding of the problems facing hospitals and physicians in these challenging times is outstanding. He continually offers succinct, timely advice and brilliant insight, which allowed me to chair a Medical Advisory Panel in an effective and efficient manner. I recommend hiring him because he has done an outstanding job for us on this crucial project.

Michael Ivy, M.D.
Chief of the Surgical ICU
Bridgeport Hospital

I applaud your efforts to help those of us in the trenches accomplish our personal career goals and help our patients- which is the central reason society has given us the honor and privilege of being doctors.

Frank E. Johnson, M.D., FACS
Professor of Surgery
St. Louis University

Dr. Cohn was instrumental in a successful medical staff planning process at Cottage Hospital in 2003. He gained the trust of the physicians very early on and helped them establish important clinical priorities for our hospital.

Ron Werft, President and CEO
Santa Barbara Cottage Health System

Dr. Kenneth Cohn worked with 5 change-challenged groups of physicians in oncology, general surgery, orthopedics, radiology and Family Practice to help them improve communication within their sections and come to consensus on a vision for the future and implementation planning.

Ken’s grounding in clinical surgery, which he maintains by providing locum tenens coverage in New England, allowed him to build trust and credibility rapidly. He used humor effectively to decrease tension and to maintain perspective and accomplished things that none of us would have thought possible. For example, he taught a surgeon-tyrant to express anger using “I” messages rather than his traditional “you” messages.

Ken used software creatively to summarize large amounts of information succinctly and clearly and to communicate complex points visually rather than just using words. He updated senior leadership with minutes on meetings that he chaired, which we enjoyed reading because he summarized the most important points on a single page. Because of his talent and enjoyment of challenging tasks, the CEO asked Ken to draft a vision statement for the hospital.

However, Ken’s work was not limited to qualitative measures. His ability to model on a spreadsheet the different options for surgical block time among three competing groups of general surgeons allowed them to reach consensus within 40 minutes on a task which had eluded them in the past.

In short, Ken made significant progress with all groups with whom he met. Senior leadership, physicians, and nurses enjoyed working with him immensely. Ken is a warm, highly talented physician-consultant, who truly enjoys connecting with people and does so with consummate skill. I would be delighted to recommend Ken without reservation for subsequent assignments involving the need for physicians to work more interdependently with colleagues and management.

Michael E. Peetz, M.D., FACS
Assistant Administrator for Clinical Affairs
North Colorado Medical Center

Kenneth H. Cohn, M.D., led a consulting project at my institution during 2005 and 2006. We were in a situation where we needed to consolidate two campuses for both economic and quality improvement.

Ken showed us a way to start an interface of physicians and hospital executives, alerting physicians to the complexity of running a hospital and helping hospital executives feel more comfortable engaging practicing physicians. In addition, even though I have been in Hospital Administration for many years, I now have a better understanding of the complexities physicians face and how to communicate with them with their concerns more in mind.

For the first time in our history, we now have a road map written by a consensus of our top clinicians; we also have identified several previously unidentified physician leaders who can help us go forward. Ken facilitated both processes.

Ken accomplished what he did in an atmosphere of integrity and sensitivity, increasing trust and transparency from the physician and hospital administrator perspectives.

Thomas Gagen, CEO
Sutter Medical Center Sacramento

Dr. Cohn was asked to lead our Board’s hospital/physician retreat with the goal being to improve physician-physician and physician-hospital relationships, a sensitive and vital mission. I can honestly say that as a result of his efforts we substantially exceeded our expectations.

Bob Shaffner, Board Chair
Randolph Hospital

I am currently chief of staff at a 350-bed hospital that has been bleeding red ink for two years. In ten months, we lost 20% of our hospital governing board, fired our CEO and CMO and hired a new CEO. I realized in my first year that I needed an experienced guide to help me with basic survival and to use my experiences for personal and professional growth.

Ken has been a tremendously valuable resource. He has made himself available when crises loom. His calm objectivity and talent for re-framing issues have helped me find my way forward, and, at times, I am amazed at how much better equipped I feel to deal with my daily duties as a medical staff officer.

Debra Morley, M.D.

Just a quick note to thank you again for being a part of the recent Community Hospital 100 conference in Pinehurst, North Carolina. It was a pleasure to meet and talk with you at the social events, but I was especially pleased to be in the audience for your presentation. While not a doctor nor administrator, I could certainly appreciate the theories behind many of the strategies that you discussed in your presentation. The case studies you shared really added credence to the ideas you offered. Keep up the good work!

Mike Totsch
Tec Inc. Engineering & Design

Thank you for the excellent presentations you gave on October 12th & 13th. You connected with our staff on many levels concerning the importance of communication and collaboration between physicians and the hospital. I know that Dr. Joel Feldman, our Chief of Surgery, wants to engage your talents for a unique, dedicated surgeons’ retreat.

Physicians, from St. Vincent Indianapolis, St. Vincent Carmel, St. Vincent Heart Center, St. John’s Hospital, Anderson, Seton Specialty Hospital Indianapolis, and St. Joseph in Kokomo, benefited from your presentation as a surgeon and businessman. Administrators & board members appreciated your perspective on hospitals and health care in general.

James L. Nevin Jr. MD, FACEP
Medical Staff President
St. Vincent Health System

I really enjoyed the recent ACHE seminar Practical Strategies for Engaging Physicians, which has jump-started me in many ways, starting with rounding with each staff doctor. It has already paid dividends. Sometimes the simplest, most common-sense behaviors are the ones we forget!

Michelle Rumbaut, COO
Seguin Medical Center

Thanks very much for facilitating our retreat on improving physician engagement.
It meant a lot to our physicians to hear the stories that you told about physicians throughout the US who faced similar challenges and to know that there are bottom-up solutions that they can adopt.

You do great work. I look forward to our continuing work together.-

Jim Krauss, President
RMH Healthcare

Thanks very much for facilitating our medical staff-board-hospital leadership retreat on improving physician engagement. With the looming reimbursement changes effective medical staff engagement is a critical success factor. I was concerned that it would result in more heat than light. However, as a result of your work with us, we now have a working definition of engagement and clear next-steps list to move forward. I thought that the retreat went great and thank you for showing us that others face similar challenges and the practical steps that they have taken to improve care for their communities.

I have followed your work in this area for years and am truly happy that I made the phone call to you last year asking for advice. You lived up to your public persona!

Dale A. Carroll, MD, MPH
Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Clinical Effectiveness
RMH Healthcare