What does your morning routine look like?  

I usually wake up between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m., if I don't snooze too far. My family just moved a month ago, so we're still developing routines in our new home. One of the first things I do is take Lady, my six-year-old Husky to the dog park down the street. There are usually five or six other dog parents that are always there, so Lady gets to hang out with her new crew of friends. My kids leave for school around 7:30 a.m., so a lot of my morning is spent just making sure that they're prepared for their day and of course, getting myself ready for mine. I am usually at my desk and working between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. 

Can you walk me through what a day is like for you as a NextGen EHR Specialist?   

As an EHR SME, I am the go-to person for anything clinical. So, I may spend half my day training, I may spend the other half on content calls with Members, or I might be servicing support tickets that Members have submitted. I think one of my favorite things about my role at OSIS is just how varied it is. I enjoy writing up Change Request Forms to help Members with their custom NextGen Healthcare EHR development requests that can help improve their overall NextGen experience. I love being able to implement change on such a broad scale, knowing that it has a positive impact on the Members and on the care they can provide their patients. That gives me the biggest kind of reward emotionally. I also enjoy being creative, so it is doubly rewarding.  

How do you make the most of your time?   

I say this to people that are new to OSIS; OSIS will absolutely respect your boundaries, but it's up to you to communicate what those boundaries are. I've definitely learned how to block parts of my calendar. My workload is always changing, but I'm constantly looking at, analyzing, and trying to figure out ways to structure my calendar in a way that I'm the most efficient. Standards at OSIS are high and to be expected. We're trying to improve and maintain a higher standard of service. So as a result, I have to restructure my work day and my work week to meet that. If I need to communicate with our Members on their tickets more often, then I need to make sure that I have dedicated time to focus on those tickets multiple times a week.  

What are three high-impact tasks of your job?   

I think this is something unique to me but working on the Change Request Forms and the customization requests is probably one thing that has the most impact on the Members. It is the most rewarding for me because [of that]. That's definitely number one. I really love that part of my job. High impact. 

I would say number two would be any project where I'm working with a team on something that has a big impact on the practice. If it's an upgrade, we'll get to explore the newest features and hopefully, there will be some fixes to known issues. It's really rewarding when we at OSIS get to work with our teams in a greater way. There's a lot of time we spend where it's just us and the Member or us by ourselves. Anytime I get to have more engagement with my colleagues is great to help remind me that I am part of a team that cares, and I imagine it should have that same impact on my colleagues as well. 

I'll say number three is training. If we're building or implementing some kind of new workflow, we design who's going to do what and when. We write it up, train the staff on it, and two weeks later we follow up and see how it's going. The training itself is fun — it's interactive and it's more opportunity for me to engage with people. I like seeing the improvement and getting that kind of return on the investment. When I train folks on how to do something and later I see that they're following those new workflows I trained them on, it's very rewarding.

Do you ever travel or visit Members on-site?   

I sure do. I don't think I have any plans to travel for a couple of months now, but I traveled twice in January. It depends on the organization's needs right now. It is eye-opening and exhausting — being there all day is a lot of fun and it is the only way that I can really learn what's really going on with my Members. I can work with a Member virtually for a year and think I know what's going on within their health center, then I'll get on site, and I'll realize that I had a lot to learn. It’s a tremendously valuable way for me to understand the inner workings of my Members so I can provide them with the best service and solutions.  

What playlist do you listen to while you’re working?  

I have three playlists that play more than anything else. Probably 3/4 of the music I listen to while I'm working is 80s music. It's easy because I've listened to it my whole life and I know most of the words, so it's not sucking my attention away. Aside from that, I'll listen to some 90s music because that's the music I was listening to in high school. And then I have a Pandora radio station that's all built on Lin-Manuel Miranda and his songs. There's way more than just Lin-Manuel Miranda, but that's where it started. It's all modern Broadway, show tunes, musicals, and musical movies. 

How do you fill your evenings?   

Very often the first thing I do as soon as I'm done with work is take [Lucy] back to the dog park. Afterward, my youngest son and I watch the show Locke & Key on Netflix one or two nights a week. My family loves playing interesting, creative, unusual board games, and Settlers of Catan is probably the biggest one.

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.  

My pleasure. Have a wonderful rest of your day.

Thanks, you too.  

Working at OSIS is varied, challenging, and rewarding. Knowing that the work we do for our Members helps serve the underserved is a motivating factor for many of our employees. We hope this gave you a peek into the life of one of OSIS’ NextGen EHR Specialists.