About Us

HCR was founded in April 2003 to develop programs and services to promote and enhance conflict management, claims prevention, quality and patient safety improvement and alternative dispute resolution in the health care industry.

JANE RUDDELL, ESQ.
Founder and President of HCR

Jane Ruddell is an attorney with over 27 years of combined litigation, health care and ADR experience. From her many years counseling physicians and hospitals through a wide variety of problems and conflicts, she identified a need for ways to resolve issues without the adversity of traditional litigation.

Ms. Ruddell is certified by the American Health Lawyers Association Mediation Training Program and is a member of the CPR Center for Dispute Resolution in New York, the Association for Conflict Resolution, the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Committees , among others focusing on ADR. She served as a special consultant to the Medical Mediation Demonstration Project of the Pew Project on Medical Liability in Pennsylvania and was a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court 2003 Med-Mal Mediation Task Force.

Aftere spending several years in private litigation practice Ms. Ruddell began her health law career in 1984 as the first General Counsel for the Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. She capped her 20 year in-house counsel career with 8 years of service as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the Jefferson Health System, the largest system of health care providers in the greater Philadelphia region.

She is the author and course designer of Patient-Physician Communication: Strengthening Relationships, Improving Patient Safety, and Limiting Medical Liability, a nationally-accredited continuing medical education course (Wescott Professional Publications, July 2004) for physicians. She speaks and writes frequently on health law and ADR topics. Ms. Ruddell received her J.D. from Rutgers-Camden Law School, where she was Articles Editor of the Law Review, and also holds her B.A. in psychology from Earlham College.

JULIA E. GABIS
Senior Conflict Management Consultant

PRACTICE AREAS

• Represent health care facilities in medical staff, regulatory and guardianship/patient care matters
• Serve as a hearing officer, expert consultant in medical staff matters
• Represent health professionals experiencing difficulties in practice and/or employment
• Represent health professionals and medical practices in contract development and negotiation, sale/acquisition, employment and billing matters
• Selected litigation in collaboration with co-counsel

SAMPLE REPRESENTATIONS

• Served as University Counsel to Hahnemann University and as Associate Counsel to the Pennsylvania Department of Health
• On-going representation of a regional health care system and a women’s reproductive health center
• Expert for out-of-state hospital involved in litigation concerning termination of medical staff appointment
• Representation of a cardiology practice in acquisition by health care system

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• Admitted to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1978
• Member of the U.S. District Court for the Middle and Eastern Districts of Pennsylvania
• Member of the Institutional Review Board for Philadelphia Health Management Corp.
• Frequent lecturer for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute

EDUCATION

• B.S. Pennsylvania State University
  • Law Enforcement and Corrections
• J.D. Temple University School of Law
  • Barrister’s Society Award for Excellence in Trial Advocacy
  • Federal Judicial Clerkship Clinical Program

ELLEN S. WOLF, M.S.
Senior Conflict Management Consultant

Ellen Wolf is a nationally recognized expert in design, delivery and implementation of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) systems. She has designed, implemented and measured the effectiveness of several in-house alternative dispute resolution and conflict management programs. Her particular area of expertise is early intervention where her programs have resulted in significant claims and cost reductions and prevented issues from becoming “cases”. The success of Ellen’s program designs is due in significant part to her philosophy. She believes that conflict management and ADR programs are most effective when they are designed, with the client as design partner, to become an integral part of the organization’s risk and claims management programs, are sensitive to the corporate culture and have the goal of providing practical, effective tools to use in everyday practice.

She is regularly consulted by Fortune 500 Companies to assist them in implementing new ADR systems and/or improving their current systems, including Eastman Kodak Company (process design and developing metrics to evaluate their system.) The Boeing Company (advice about methods for increasing acceptance of their process) and Sunoco (design and implementation of an in-house ADR program).

While at Exelon’s PECO Energy Company, Ellen pioneered an in-house position, serving as a confidential Ombuds and mediator to help identify and address trouble spots, trends and potential claims in the organization at a very early stage. At PECO Ellen compiled an impressive track record of reducing external claims and lawsuits while improving communications, performance and employment relationships.

Ellen’s accomplishments have been featured in publications and she is a frequent speaker at Human Resources and Legal seminars on ADR. She is adjunct faculty at Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Chair of the Board of Directors of Montgomery County Mediation Center and has completed numerous Mediation training programs including, Harvard Law School’s Mediation Program of Instruction for Lawyers.

Her educational background includes a Master of Science degree in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Labor and Industrial Relations from the Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA.