Informational Interview with Anne coleman
- 1. Interview with Anne Coleman How did you get started in this field? Graduated with a Bachelor’s of science in Nursing, November, 1985 Graduated with a Master’s in Business Administration, October, 2015 Professional background: Variety of nursing and leadership positions at St. Vincent Hospital, Indianapolis, Indiana from 1985 to present. What work experience brought you to the current position that you are in? Bedside staff nurse 1985-‐1987 Charge nurse 1987-‐1991 Assistant manager of a nursing unit-‐ 1991-‐1993 Internal consultant for St. Vincent-‐ 1993 to 1997 (The hospital asked if I would work with other departments of the hospital (like dietary, supply chain, environmental services) to help them focus on improving their processes so that everything they did, benefitted the patient) Nursing director of a 62 bed inpatient cardiovascular unit-‐1997 to 2001, 120 nurses and support staff reported to me Executive director of all of cardiovascular services at St. Vincent-‐ 2001 to 2005, 18 departments and 400 staff reported to me CEO of a Women’s Hospital, St. Vincent-‐ 2005-‐ 2008 CEO of St. Vincent Women’s Hospital and Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital-‐ 2008-‐ 2015 Service line leader for all Women’s, Children’s, and Oncology services for the entire state of Indiana (this encompasses 17 St. Vincent Hospitals throughout Indiana) How did you get this job? I have been internally promoted throughout the last 30 years at St. Vincent. I did not apply for any of these jobs, but the organization came to me and asked me if I would serve in these roles.
- 2. What organization do you work for? St. Vincent Health, which is a catholic health care system in the state of Indiana. Our parent company is Ascension Health which is the largest catholic healthcare system in the United States. What is the organizational structure and the department that you work at? As mentioned above, our 17 different hospitals are located throughout Indiana. Each of the hospitals has a local CEO and other key leaders-‐ such as Chief financial officers, chief nursing officers etc. All of these hospitals report to the system leadership. The system leadership consists of a CEO, Chief operating officer, chief nursing officer, chief financial officer and service line leaders. The department I work out of is the service line department. What are some of the important relationships that were critical to your success as a manager? The first are mentors-‐ those individuals that are your confidant, they will critically assess your skills and encourage you to be better than you are. The second is my bosses-‐ it was imperative for me to respect and believe in my bosses. Before I accepted any promotion, I made sure I could have a good working relationship with my boss to be. The third is leaders in other areas besides nursing. They pushed me to think about health care as more than just nursing or physician driven, but to understand and get to know all the departments and specialties it takes to run a hospital. The last (but not the least) are the relationships that you have with those who you lead. There is no reason to have a leader unless you have followers. So the relationship between leader and front line employee is very important. They must trust you to do the right thing, to have their back, to hold them accountable and to be fair and honest in all things. What is your job title? Service Line leader, Women’s, Children’s and Oncology services, St. Vincent Health How do you spend you time at work? I would say I spend 50% of my time in meetings. These meetings are where we brainstorm ideas about the next program we want to develop, or it might be how we solve a current issue that we are facing in Women’s, Children’s or Oncology services. An additional 25% of my time is spent on getting things implemented-‐ so I might have to work on a legal contract, or manage projects and where they are in reaching their goals. The last 25% of my time is spent on brainstorming the future. I have to spend time thinking about where are we going next and what do we need to do to get there.
- 3. What are your primary and secondary job functions? Primary-‐ grow the business in the areas of women’s, children’s and oncology services for all 17 hospitals. Standardize the way care is delivered throughout Indiana so that if a patient gets pediatric care in southern Indiana, the experience will be the same as if they were receiving care in central Indiana. Secondary-‐ in charge of marketing and financial decisions for women’s, children’s and oncology services throughout Indiana What are some challenges that are specific to your current position? The first challenge is to have all the local CEO’s of the 17 hospitals keep me informed of activities that are occurring in their markets related to Women’s, Children’s and Oncology services. The second challenge is leading through influencing-‐ example-‐ if there is a program that needs to be implemented, I must influence the local hospital to put resources into the program, That can sometimes be a challenge because they may not have additional resources to help on this program. What is the most difficult thing about your job? This one is tough to answer, but if anything is difficult, it is keeping everything straight. Because I have so many duties, I have to switch my thinking hour to hour-‐ example-‐ I could be working on something related to cancer care-‐ and an hour later I am working on something related to obstetrics and gynecology. What is the most important thing you do? I mentor and coach people to do things they never thought possible. I remove barriers that people have in accomplishing the work they need to do. I am also the advocate for the patient; all the things we put in place must benefit the patient’s we have the privilege to serve. Are there any changes in healthcare that may impact your job functions? With patients and payers (insurance companies, the government), the focus is on decreasing the amount of health care spending. Therefore, when I think of programs, I have to keep costs under control while providing a valued service to the patient. Much of my thinking has transitioned now to preventing illness versus providing care after the illness has occurred.
- 4. What are some important skills for healthcare managers to have in the future? 1) Integrity 2) Team player 3) Multi-‐ tasker 4) Good communicator 5) Being a good influencer How do you see your job/career changing in the next few years? My job will change into utilizing more technology to reach our patients and to work with new employees. Breakthrough in medical research will always have us on our toes to implement the newest treatment options for patients. I will also be working more with outpatient facilities, versus big inpatient hospitals.