Experience
Meets Compassion

President

W. D. (Doug) Frank has dedicated over 40 years to performance improvement in multiple industries, including financial services, manufacturing and healthcare. The majority of his career has been concentrated on healthcare advisory,conducting large-scale projects for nationally prominent health care providers ranging from community hospitals to clinic-based systems and academic medical centers.

Institutions including Duke University Medical Center, M. D. Anderson (University of Texas) and Parkland Memorial Hospital (Dallas) achieved significant cost and organizational improvements as a result of comprehensive projects conducted by West Hudson and Co., Inc., a firm that Frank co-founded and managed as President. After a rapidly growing 10-year run, West Hudson was acquired by Allegiance Healthcare (AEH-NYSE) where Doug served as a Vice President and a member of Allegiance’s senior management team. Two years later, Allegiance was acquired by Cardinal Health (CAH-NYSE), when he chose to retire from Allegiance/Cardinal to focus on entrepreneurial pursuits remaining active in the realm of healthcare. He served as a Managing Director for both Huron Consulting and Price Waterhouse Coopers after leaving AEH/CAH. Frank owned and operated two AA Professional Hockey Teams in the Central Hockey League (now the ECHL) and served on the Board of Governors and the Franchise Advisory Committee. He also builta marine and sporting goods business on the Texas Gulf Coast while running a purebred cattle operation in Texas. Returning closer to his family home in the Sandhills of Western Nebraska, he served as Mayor of the town of Glenrock, Wyoming, and was appointed by two Governors to Wyoming’s Public Service Communications Commission.

Healthcare remains his career passion, and he joins his colleagues of many years believing that PERFECTSHIFT further accelerates the capability of healthcare providers to achieve improving cost-effective delivery of high-quality care and access.

Chief Operating Officer & Chief Innovation Officer

Kevin Spellman is the original creator of the PERFECTSHIFT Platform. Kevin has directed the ongoing development of our technology products since 2016. The creation of the PERFECTSHIFT Platform of Tools transcends conventional spreadsheet tools, and is based on a proven methodology of management providing “real-time” operating detail and insight for front-line managers to ensure the cost-effective delivery of high-quality healthcare. PERFECTSHIFT automates key business processes, and pairs these with meaningful information that is delivered by the latest technology and analytic tools specifically designed for healthcare providers, ensuring that high-quality care and access can be delivered at the most reasonable cost.

Kevin was a Director at Huron Healthcare and an Associate Director in the Healthcare Practice of Navigant. He also served as the Vice President of Business Development and a Senior Project Leader for Cardinal Health, Inc., and co-founded the HealthJobsOregon.com web application, a healthcare-only job portal in the state of Oregon. Kevin’s healthcare experience includes work within the provider and life science healthcare industry segments. He has worked extensively with large academic medical centers, mid-size and small community hospitals, physician practices, HMO’s, outpatient centers and biotech companies to help these organizations navigate change and improve performance.

Senior Advisor

Susan Costello, PhD, RN, is a respected nurse leader and seasoned healthcare executive with more than 30 years’ experience. Her career has been focused on sustainable financial, operational and quality improvement and cultural transformation. She has served in a variety of roles in community, public and academic medical centers as a nursing administrator and a work process and productivity improvement consultant. An accomplished, results-oriented nurse leader, Susan is skilled at coaching and mentoring both C-Suite leaders and frontline caregivers, building teams and assessing operational needs to enhance maximum productivity. Her excellent interpersonal skills make her a strong team leader, providing advisory, assessment and implementation services in process optimization, benchmarking and target setting, labor productivity improvement, resource planning and scheduling, corporate services rationalization, organization structure and span of control design, and service line strategy.

Prior to joining PERFECTSHIFT as a Senior Advisor, she was the Vice President for Patient Care Services at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. There she led service expansion, business development, financial, quality and service performance improvement and oversaw service reorganization. As a Senior Director at Huron Healthcare, Susan worked with acute care hospitals and ambulatory practices providing executive mentoring and change management and performance improvement coaching for frontline leaders and staff.

In her free time, Susan enjoys tennis, gardening and cooking. She has recently mastered sourdough bread and crispy duck.

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

Cyrus Benjamin is a team-oriented Senior Software Developer with a passion for technical leadership. With a degree in Computer Science and ten years of experience in coding, database, and front-end development, Cyrus excels at exceeding goals and driving results. With experience in the cloud and various technologies and programming languages, Cyrus has a proven track record of success in delivering innovative solutions at scale. With exceptional communication skills and a commitment to training and mentoring, Cyrus brings a valuable blend of technical expertise and leadership to deliver outstanding results.

During his free time, Cyrus enjoys spending time with his wife and three kids. Passionate about being a father and head of his household, Cyrus knows that quality is greater than quantity when spending time instructing and playing with his children. Always willing to learn and to grow, he hopes to pass on these traits to his kids.

Senior Analyst

David Gerhards oversees Analytics Development and Reporting for PERFECTSHIFT. David has worked with hospitals across the country as a Performance Improvement Analyst for the past 8 years. He loves the challenge of bringing to life the story which data tells, while combining beauty and function to the visual display of quantitative and qualitative information.

David is a classically trained vocalist and classical pianist. He graduated from the University of Denver, Lamont School of Music with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and with minors in French Literature and Business Foundations. David also holds a Master of Science degree in Business Analytics from Daniels College of Business at The University of Denver.

Senior Advisor

Wafa El Musselmani, MBA, RN, is an exceptional healthcare leader with 30 years of experience in achieving financial and organizational success. With a nursing degree from the prestigious University of Arizona and a Master’s in Business Administration (Global Management) from the University of Phoenix, El Musselmani began her career at St. Mary’s Carondelet Hospital and the University Medical Center Intensive Cardiac Unit in Tucson, Arizona. She has since held various key positions in several leading healthcare organizations, including Medcath Corporation and Surgery Partners Hospitals, where she served as clinical service director, VP Clinical Services, consultant, COO, and CNO.

Throughout her career, El Musselmani has overseen expansions of Emergency Departments and the establishment of the new California Heart and Surgical Hospitals, resulting in remarkable improvements in operational efficiency, budget goals, and cost savings. She has also consistently upheld quality and clinical outcomes, patient safety, and complied with state law and federal regulations. Her exceptional leadership and management skills have earned her hospitals numerous quality awards, including the Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence award and the prestigious Commitment to Quality Award by Mountain-Pacific Quality Health. El Musselmani has been a valuable asset to every institution she has served under, and her achievements have left an indelible mark in healthcare

Senior Advisor

Ron Hughes has invested more than three decades working directly with frontline managers, directors, ambulatory clinic leadership, physicians, finance and C-Suite level leaders. Through his work developing and implementing analytic tools, metrics and reporting systems, along with significant teaching and coaching, Ron has improved operational effectiveness, the workplace environment and financial performance for a number of healthcare organizations across the country. As PERFECTSHIFT Senior Advisor and Management System Coordinator, Ron works with hospitals and health systems to introduce and implement PERFECTSHIFT’s cloud-based platform of tools. Ron connects with existing departmental content experts and works to create sustainable improvements in management processes and procedures.

Ron’s extensive expertise in education, coaching and training to support departmental frontline managers and directors as they learn and use the PERFECTSHIFT Management System enables new rapid improvement objectives to be achieved. The results – frontline managers and directors who are skilled in a higher level of communication, positively affecting change in the quality of service, creating a safe/stable/consistent workplace environment and supporting the financial bottom line of their organization.

Senior Advisor

John Kalb has more than 20 years of healthcare experience from consulting to hospital quality oversight. He started his career as an in-house attorney for an academic medical center. After practicing law, he held consulting positions, working with clients to improve their quality and performance improvement programs. While with GE Healthcare, he was certified as a Master Black Belt and Master Change Agent, and implemented quality programs and projects utilizing Lean Six Sigma and Change Management. In John’s roles as VP of Quality for a community hospital, and for a hospital service organization, he helped hospitals navigate the transition from Fee for Service to value-based care, while also establishing and overseeing Lean Six Sigma and Change Management programs. In addition, he also oversaw accreditation and helped start up a hospitalist program.

Most recently, John has worked with a private health foundation and its partners to accelerate telehealth solution adoption on a national scale and was certified as a lead auditor to conduct national accreditation surveys to ensure hospitals and health systems are in compliance with the Center for Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoPs) and International Standards for Organizations (ISO-9001:2015).

PRODUCT MANAGER

Chase Cushman has built the foundation of his career on the resolution of complex problems through data-driven solutions. He brings a strong project management approach paired with a technical background in data management, analytics, and the software development lifecycle.

Prior to joining the PERFECTSHIFT team, Chase was a Consultant with Propeller, a Pacific NW based consultancy, where he partnered with client organizations to define organizational strategy and manage large-scale technology implementations. Chase also previously worked as an Associate within Huron Consulting Group’s Healthcare Revenue Cycle practice, where he partnered with hospitals around the country to design, implement, and train users on revenue cycle software.

Advisor/Analyst

Erik Elisson has worked with a variety of hospitals as a Revenue Analyst for the past 3 years, focusing on providing innovative technology solutions to automate and improve revenue cycles. Currently, Erik is developing concise and informative workforce management educational resources with a focus on enhancing user experience.

Erik thrives on cultivating meaningful connections and fostering strong relationships in a business environment. He is altruistic by nature and driven by a genuine desire to make a positive impact on others. Erik holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Wyoming.