LSUS professor authors textbook with local healthcare legend

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LSUS professor authors textbook with local healthcare legend

SHREVEPORT - John Fortenberry Jr. met James Elrod when interviewing for the program director for LSUS's newly-formed Master of Health Administration program more than 20 years ago.

Elrod, who would become the nation's longest-tenured healthcare administrator of 57 years at Willis Knighton Health, was instrumental in the formation of LSUS's program.

What transpired was a deep professional and personal friendship between Fortenberry and Elrod, resulting in 26 peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles on a wide range of healthcare topics.

And now one textbook.

Elrod and Fortenberry authored "Organizational Behavior and Management in Health and Medicine," which was published by globally respected Springer Cham this July.

Although it's the pair's first co-authored textbook together, this textbook is Fortenberry's seventh and Elrod's second.

"We decided to write this text simply because the subject matter was of interest to us as healthcare executives and educators," Fortenberry said. "The content is perhaps the first to come to mind whenever one thinks about health administration, as the principles and practices of organizational behavior and management are central to the entirety of institutional operations in health and medicine.

"Coursework in health administration programs worldwide include offerings in organizational behavior and management, making for an excellent opportunity for us to share associated insights."

After assembling the appropriate theoretical framework, Elrod and Fortenberry dipped into their extensive experience as healthcare administrators to provide robust, real-world examples.

In addition to being the James K. Elrod Super Professorship in Health Administration at LSUS, Fortenberry also serves as Willis Knighton Health's vice president of marketing strategy and planning.

"The textbook's heavy emphasis on practical applications is its most distinguishing feature," Fortenberry explains. "These industry perspectives usefully aid readers in understanding how theoretical concepts are applied in practice.

"Inclusion of such also helpfully breaks up the monotony which often characterizes theoretical portrayals, creating a much more engaging reading experience."

The textbook project took more than three years of intensive research and writing for the pair, which began with a comprehensive proposal to the publisher.

The textbook touches on key foundational aspects of healthcare administration such as management, leadership, decision-making and organizational culture, structure and change among others.

"Once the textbook's theoretical portion was addressed and each of the 14 chapters were constructed, we identified logical points for inserting practical examples designed to help readers ground theoretical portrayals," Fortenberry said.

So what's made this pair such prolific purveyors of scholarly healthcare administration work?

"We found that we shared identical philosophies concerning facility operations, proper educational methods, and related matters regarding the healthcare industry and its advancement," Fortenberry said. "We also discovered that we shared the same general outlook on and approach to life, with this resulting in an enduring friendship.

"Jim and Willis Knighton Health were major contributors to the development of LSUS's MHA program, and I returned the favor by making contributions which assisted him at Willis Knighton Health. It was only natural that we would author works together."

While Elrod retired as the system's president and CEO in 2021, he remains on the Willis Knighton Health Board of Directors and serves as president emeritus.

In addition to his long-time writing partner Elrod, Fortenberry added that the project wouldn't have come to fruition without support from then-LSUS Chancellor Larry Clark and College of Business Dean Mary Lois White.

Because of the efforts of Noel Memorial Library staff (dean Brian Sherman and David Gaither), the textbook is available in an electronic version, permitting LSUS faculty and students easy access for use in the online program.