Describe the responsibilities of you and your team.
My team consists of two facilities techs, one HVAC tech and one painter. Our hospital is not very big, but we serve our entire community. I manage this facility and I also help support some other Medxcel sites nearby if needed, especially when preparing for Joint Commission surveys. When any of our sites are in a survey window, we all come together and help each other out. It gives us multiple sets of eyes on things as any of us prepare for a survey. When I describe to people what we do, I tell them we manage everything within the building. I like to say that if you took the building, turned it upside down and shook it, everything that stays within the building is what we manage. Clinicians work on the patients in the building, and we take care of the building that houses the doctors and nurses that care for the patients; our support is what enables them to do their job. That’s our main goal, to ensure that our facility is safe to serve its purpose which is healing patients.
Describe the path you took to arrive in your current role.
I initially worked in construction for a few years while I figured out what I wanted to do. I eventually moved into volunteer fire and police work then got into corrections. I managed a prison for a little over eight years then I made the decision to leave that field and make a total career shift. I stepped down from a management position at the prison to take an entry level position as a technician with Medxcel. I wanted to get my foot in the door here in my community and it seemed like a great opportunity. I took a leap of faith and worked as a technician for several years, then I became a facilities supervisor at another facility. About a year later a miracle happened, and the manager here left to go to another facility. I had been in my supervisor role just long enough to have the opportunity to come back to this hospital in my community as the manager. In four years I progressed from supervisor to manager. I’ve been very blessed, and along the way I had the help and support of others at Medxcel assisting me on my career path.
What types of training and development has Medxcel provided you with along your career path?
Medxcel offers so many kinds of training and development. I’ve taken a lot of courses on myLearning and I have leaders and mentors who have taught me a lot about The Joint Commission and their requirements. I was not afraid of accreditation since working in the prison systems, we fell under federal accreditation guidelines that were pretty strenuous. Over two years I worked through the process of learning about TJC accreditation and ambulatory, state regulations and state health codes. There’s always someone at Medxcel to help me when needed. I’ve taken numerous online courses and achieved my life safety specialist certification through the NFPA. Through all of this, there were others at Medxcel who believed in me and kept encouraging me to press on and not give up. That’s how I got to where I am now. I’m trying to do the same thing for others and mentor members of my team. That way if I were to leave this facility, I know it will be in better shape than it was when I arrived.
What is the best part of your job?
Working with my team is the best part of my job. If it wasn’t for them, our hospital wouldn’t be as successful as it is. All of my team members have integrity and believe in what they’re doing and they’re highly skilled at their jobs. Another tech and I started working here when the facility was being built and we truly know it from the inside out. I love what I do. I love coming to work and I enjoy my team and the hospital staff. When you enjoy what you do it makes things a heck of a lot easier.
Which of Medxcel’s Core Values is more important to you?
To me integrity is the most important thing; if you don’t have that, I don’t know what you can base anything else on. That’s what I learned as a child growing up in a family with a lot of members who served in the military, they taught me the importance of honor and integrity. I want my word to mean something. If I tell someone we’re going to take care of something, we’re going to take care of it. I have no use for people in other departments who say, “that’s not my job”. Our mantra is that we will take care of whatever needs to be done because a patient or a staff member needs it. I had an experience this year where one piece of equipment on a cart was one department’s responsibility, another piece of equipment on the cart was a different department’s responsibility, but nobody would claim responsibility for the cart itself, which needed repair. I said we’ll take care of it; it won’t take us but a few minutes to fix it. That showed Medxcel in a position of leadership, willing to take responsibility for doing the right thing and doing whatever job needs to be done. To me that’s integrity, proving your worth, saying you’ll do something, then following through.
What would you say to someone considering joining Medxcel?
Medxcel is the best company I’ve ever worked for. Medxcel has opened up a lot of doors for me and changed my perspective on serving my community. That’s why I’m here. It’s great employment but more importantly it allows us a meaningful way to serve our community. Our friends and family are the staff and patients we’re serving and caring for here every day.
Is there anything you’ve learned in this job that surprised you?
What I’ve learned is that when you manage facilities in a hospital you are married to it, no matter what, and that’s a good thing. I’m the one people will call, no matter where I am, no matter what time it is, I’m going to get the call. You must be dedicated to your job, to the facility, and to the staff. This job is very rewarding; what we do is really important, and it’s been even more so during the pandemic. We’ve had to convert rooms over to COVID protocols quickly to possibly saves lives, what’s more important that that? Making everyone feel safe and helping the clinical staff to be effective in their jobs, that’s very important to me and my team, that’s why we work so hard. It’s rewarding to see how positively we impact patient care.