The Methodist Health System Residency: Rebecca Reynolds' Journey in Healthcare Administration

<p>hello everyone this is Cole from the American Journal of healthc care strategy joined by a very special guest from the Texas area Rebecca Rebecca please introduce yourself hi everyone my name is Rebecca Reynolds I'm the administrative resident at Methodist Healthcare System in San Antonio Texas this system is half owned by HCA Healthcare and half owned by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries [Music] thank you so much for coming on Rebecca it's a really unique and interesting system that you work at and of course you have a really great uh career in history in healthcare starting of course at BYU with your bachelor in public health what caused you to get that Bachelor's in public health what was the kind of initial thing that started that Journey yeah my the advice I received going into college was to study something that you're passionate about and that'll make your bachelor's degree fly by so I I took that advice to heart and I chose Public Health um specifically I got a minor in gerentology I love serving this extra vulnerable population and understanding their needs and how to best serve them so I I had a great experience at BYU getting to do some research and then to understand the larger part of Health across the United States and on an international level as well well what do you like about gerontology what's interesting about that for you the I mean I would say probably some of their risk factors that they have um the geriatric population because of the many gray elderly people that have influenced my life in my career and so it's kind of just more of a personal level for me rather than a academic or research driven level I think those can be the most impactful right when it's a real personal passion that you have so I think that's excellent excellent thing to mention there and then so just to you know kind of chronologically speaking what were some of your first roles and then what led up to you doing your uh mha MBA how did how did that kind of transpire there yeah I'm I'm happy to share more about that so one of my first roles was a healthcare law clerk for neov Law Firm I started that truthfully because I thought I might want to be a lawyer that actually just helped me steer clear of that route and dive more straight into Healthcare now keep in mind that when I was studying um Public Health it was during the pandemic and that's also when I had the opportunity to work in mortgages during the refinance boom so I got to see what the strain on two different types of levels looked like both Healthcare and in the housing market and I transitioned from that towards working in um United Healthcare um in their company called optim if you're unfamiliar with it it's a value-based Care Organization and I was in the Utah and Idaho markets and I ran the misalignment pro um process which looked at a again a more vulnerable population people over 65 once again for the most part and people who don't want to see their doctor I'm sure many of you have someone in your life that does not enjoy seeing their doctor so um my my husband would be one of those people but I wanted to work in value based care and also for an insurance company so I can understand the payer side of things prior to working in healthcare administration I had the chance to do an internship um for HCA a patient experience internship and that's when I for one discovered HCA what it meant to be part of a company that treats you like family and what I also love about working in hospitals is while I was there every nurse anyone you talk to in a hospital they always say my my hospital I haven't seen that in any other industry I've worked in no one ever says my Law Firm or my bank hospitals it's just a very personal environment um and it's kind of a sacred calling in that way because of the chance you have to serve people and to improve their lives so after I did that internship that's when I knew for one that I was willing to spend a lot of money on my next few degrees um where we're just going to call it like it is but then also it gave me the passion that was needed for me to wake up every single day before school ready to work towards getting this residency for HCA and the Methodist healthc care system so that for me that's unique I don't know if my other classmates woke up with that same passion every day for school and that's fine if any of you out there haven't found your passion yet but it that that's really what let me led me to wanting the mha at least and then the MBA um I just really wanted to increase my understanding of accounting and finance and even economics so that's how all of that tied in it was all just for the benefit of my personal learning I felt that I had a lot to do to learn and grow and to be ready for a challenging role such as being a resident for HCA and Methodist Healthcare System yeah that that's a a wonderful Journey um and and very beautiful too what you said about that that you know how hospitals are so personal that's so important looking at of course the NBA image are you completed with that program yet I have completed it um thank you for asking Cole I'm still I'm still on the high of celebrating my graduation um back in May but that that was a great experience I I had so many professors that were there ready to Mentor me um and they they still honestly Mentor me they give me advice on how to handle this residency and also just how to understand Hospital operations better I I have to ask here how many credits is that that program right because it's it's two master's degrees and you've done a bachelor's right and you know not to reveal your age but you know it's impressive what you've accomplished in a short period of time I actually off the top of my head I couldn't tell you how many credits it was um Cole it it was a long journey um I I I've always been one of those people that's taking um way more classes than anyone else is in a semester um that's just that's just kind of who I am I that and that's kind of just how I operate as well not gonna lie you're not you know you're not just you know single living on campus doing this full-time right you're you're married you have of course those responsibilities of being married you're working full-time right for or doing these internship things and you're also doing this program do you have any tips on how you manage all of these things right because to a lot of those who are just starting undergrad especially I know you know I was taking 12 credit and I was overwhelmed um you know of course towards the end of it probably like yourself taking the the maximum 21 you know it wasn't as hard but any tips at all yeah I mean you this is where there's a there's an opportunity for some self-reflection for everyone listening to this out there um if I'm telling you that you know I took 18 credits a semester and then I worked full-time and sometimes did an internship or another job on top of that I'm not saying that's what everyone's route should be or even has to be um part of how that happened I mean I I paid for all of my schooling myself and so I didn't necessarily have the luxury to not work but then also um it's it's much easier for me to work and go to school because I can directly apply some of the things that I'm learning in another environment compared to in school but um when we now I love talking about work life balance because that's the hottest topic I think of the last five years is how do you achieve work life balance and how this was possible for me most of my roles were remote remote jobs um that I think the pandemic and when I worked at the for prime lending that that department had actually been remote for like the last 15 years I'm very impressive that they've been doing that but I I don't know if there's any other way that I could have handled um work in school if there weren't some of these remote opportunities when I did my mha and MBA I did as much remote work as I possibly could my my professors were pretty understanding my situation for one I actually still lived in Utah while I was trying to do this program in Texas now schools are shifting away from remote classes which I I kind of think that's a shame we we could probably talk about that for the next 10 minutes Cole but just because of the opportunities it takes away from you and your personal life and at work and I I eventually I actually had to fly down to Houston a few times to wrap up some projects for school um and so then at some point you just have to choose your heart that's that's a quote that I kind of live by is you know at some point like one day you're going to look back and think okay why why didn't when I why didn't I get a master's degree right I had a school counselor who said you know if you're thinking about getting a master's degree at all Rebecca do it now don't don't wait um because one day you're going to wake up the like three years have passed and you'll kind of regret that maybe you didn't do some of these night classes I I I've received a lot of advice and I've had um a lot of people who have been very understanding of some of my situations what I'm trying to accomplish when you when you just tell people what your goals are they're more than likely just going to support you and do what they can to remove barriers I think that's true as school at work and even in my personal life I've have an extremely supportive husband I tell him all my crazy dreams and he's never saying why do you want to do that he's saying how can we make it happen so that's that's a beautiful beautiful thing that I have going for me in my life and I just always let people know what your dreams are well please let us know what what are your your dreams I'm excited to hear them if you don't mind sharing this episode of the strategy of Health was sponsored by modality Global advisers modality Global advisors optimizes Hospital Revenue enhances patient experience and delivers proven results visit modality Global advisors.com to learn more yeah of course so the the biggest dream that I've recently accomplished is getting to be in this Residency program for HCA and making it to the Methodist healthc care system market and this program lasts for a year I have the opportunity to learn as much as I can so for my short-term goals I spend every single day trying to learn everything I can about Hospital operations specifically and then since I also have an MBA I'm still trying to learn more about um Hospital even just like the financial operation side of things and some of the strategy and so after I finished this program I want to continue looking at hospital strategy and operations those are my two big passions and there's there's lots of different roles that you can do to accomplish that and this is where I on a very very personal know I don't know if this will resonate with anyone else listening but I truly believe that's what's supposed to happen in in your life will happen for you um sometimes you know you can call it manifesting that's another Hot Topic people say just manifest it um and you know that's if that's what you believe in of course and I I think I believe in manifesting if that's what we want to call it but the things that are supposed to happen in your life and the things that you're supposed to learn they will come to you and so I I believe that looking forward as I try to you know Master Hospital operations becoming you know coo maybe even CEO one day or maybe VP a strategy I'm not actually entirely certain exactly which those roles I can make the most impact in but I know that the correct role will show up for me um in the correct position and in the correct timing but for now I'm focused on The Daily learning that's required and my new role yeah that's a really important thing to have is to have you know that setting the the bar high in the future of course for your future goals that you're always working as hard as you can but then focusing on the day-to-day trying to soak up that information right especially in you know a learning program like a residency but looking back as well here's what you know is really interesting you have experience more experience than most people when they exit their um graduate programs right uh you know two years at at prime lending um if you add up the three other experiences there's you know another probably year or two and then of course opum which was about a year so you you know you're coming out four or five years of experience um why do the residency right because uh in terms of you know you probably could have gotone into industry right you know working at optim and you know sometimes look at that and they might pay you more so you know you might be sacrificing 20 $30,000 a year uh but why is that residency knowledge valuable and so important it it is honestly a sacrifice um you you did identify something that that's a question my husband actually asked me it's kind of why why are you going to school again why do you want to do this residency when you could just have your career already um and like I I have no doubt that there's probably like a strategy some operations job out there for me already that I could dive into but what's really unique about the residency and if if you haven't heard or ever met a resident um from HCA the um H HCA has multiple leadership programs the program that I'm in is called officially the executive Residency program and if you've never met one of us um that's fine you're meeting one right now so it's it might be a sacrifice in the short term one year in your career to sacrifice isn't isn't that much I don't even know if I view it as a sacrifice because of the level of access that HCA grants you so they they just barely sent all of us out to Nashville to meet each other and to do what they called the leadership accelerator they give you lots of opportunities to learn as as much as you can about Healthcare in the broad scope and then I also have lots of access to things in a hospital that I normally wouldn't have access to so most residents they'll they'll get to see every single Department in a hospital they'll get to meet every single type of person that works in a hospital and you don't get to do that in other jobs when I was at United Healthcare I didn't get to meet every person that worked in the company um that and United Healthcare is also massive but at HCA they really prioritize your learning and they call it exposure getting exposure to every Department um I'm at some point I'm going to do an EMS right along to understand that part of the healthc Care picture but then I'm I'm also in a unique situation right now in my residency program where I'm actually at a hospital that's being built right now um the hospital I'm at is West over Hills hospital we will be opening this November I am thrilled to have us open so I've um received kind of unlimited projects is how I would describe it it takes a lot to open a hospital and that's again why I don't necessarily even view this as a sacrifice because of how many um projects I've been given how many people I've been able to meet and how much learning um I've I've learned much more in these last four months than maybe I've even learned from compared to the year at United Healthcare just because of how much HCA does for me for me to just learn I I have AIP question about this so I think a lot of people hearing this are going to be very amped right uh including myself right this is very exciting but uh what when you were looking right what is the difference between this and a fellowship or or I mean I'm sure you probably came across administrative fellowships right while you were looking at different things...