Work Perfect

The day we strive for  

Laura Behr

Practice operations improvement manager
Sacred Heart Health System
Pensacola, Fla.

I am the practice operations improvement manager for Sacred Heart Medical Group, an entity of Sacred Heart Health System. This was a new position created when I started. It has grown to a department of five. My primary role is to manage projects that are intended to improve operations throughout our 200-provider group. I am often asked what an IE does in healthcare, and I enjoy telling others about the work that I do.

We have been undergoing a practice management system implementation for our 55 locations. The new system, which replaced one that was 15 years old, is a patient registration, scheduling and billing system for our doctors’ offices. This system is more userfriendly and is integrated with an electronic health record, which is the next phase of the project. Now that we have a more up-to-date business system, our management has access to data and reports that can be used to manage operations more effectively.

One of the biggest things I enjoy about my job is being able to work with so many different people. That is something that sets being in healthcare apart from a more traditional IE industry like manufacturing. It is important that I am making a difference, whether it be working with our staff or knowing that what our staff is doing is making a difference in the lives of our patients. It is also vital to share process improvement tools and techniques. I have designed and taught process improvement courses to our leaders both in the medical group and the hospital to give them tools to use in their daily operations.

A perfect day is when a project I have been working on has reached its completion. I get a sense of satisfaction when I look at the effort of the whole team, what we were able to accomplish, and knowing I had a role in that overall success.

– Interview by David Brandt

David Brandt is the Web managing editor for IIE.