This post was first featured on BioPsychoSocial.net, read the full article there.
In this, my first contribution to the BioPsychoSocial field journal, I will introduce myself and my journey as a business administrator in the oft-confusing and frequently not-so-business-like field of outpatient psychiatry. The introduction will take the form of a list of seven facts.Pondworks Psychiatry & Psychotherapy provides office-based mental health care to the greater Austin, TX community. Pondworks’ psychologist and practitioners are committed to an evidence-based approach, integrating psychotherapy and medication treatments, to achieve optimal outcomes–so our patients can do and be more. We are committed to improving the delivery of outpatient mental health care through our own work excellence, relationships with local teaching institutions, and patient advocacy.
1. I have an MBA. I’ll write more about that later. You may think you already know what having an MBA means, but you may be surprised about how I’m using mine. True fact: most outpatient psychiatry practices don't have an MBA on staff. I'd like to change that!
2. I have professional experience in the field of health care quality improvement: I like to measure things and work to make them better. When I was the manager of a quality improvement research program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, for example, I worked with health care providers and staff, from a myriad of departments and specialties. All shared a goal of improving patient care and/or reducing costs. Under the guidance of a committee of published researchers and a statistician, I provided support for 18-month long trials designed to observe, measure and report on the impact of new health care ideas. That experience, "putting legs on" clinical ideas and finding ways to track processes and outcomes, informed the culture we created at Pondworks.
3. I’m married to Bernard Kim, the psychiatrist who founded Pondworks. In the beginning of his practice, straight out of residency, I was “just helping out." I created forms, met with a CPA, and set up billing and bookkeeping systems. I imagined hypothetical patients—since that was all he had back in those days—and mapped out the office systems we would need as they flowed through the process. Since then, my role has grown significantly. I now oversee office operations and business development, which means I am very busy and get to work on many different aspects of running and growing Pondworks. It's a challenge!
4. I genuinely care about people. I feel like that is important to say, since it's not hard to find folks who blame administrators in general, and MBAs in particular, for everything that's wrong with health care. All of my work comes back to the patients, whether it's supporting Pondworks' providers, managing staff, choosing software, arguing with insurance companies, working on our website, or writing letters to elected officials. I stand up for the best care—based on what's possible, not just "the way we've always done it." I never want to forget that investing in one's mental health is a big deal. Whatever the circumstance that led them to Pondworks, I want patients to feel comfortable, gain trust, and feel supported. Above all, I want them to grow through and beyond their past and current challenges. I want our patients to have great lives and to help make high quality Psychiatry available for greater numbers of people I am curious, driven to create, and very determined...As far as I know, I have had the opportunity to do things no other business administrator has done.
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