Her Story
About Laurie
I've been in my field for 10 years, with 8 of those years in my current role as Front Office Manager for a busy, family-owned ophthalmology office with 5 doctors. I came out of the corporate world and took a step into a family practice, and I actually love it here. Before this, I was a team lead for Matrix Absence Management, part of Reliant Standard Life, for 12 years, where I managed claims for short-term disability, long-term disability, FMLA, and workman's comp as the HR liaison between employees and HR. My client was Dignity Health, and I managed a team of 28 with client counts of 400, consistently achieving 98% and above in compliance ratings. When I moved up north to Prescott from Phoenix, I decided to find a job locally rather than commuting. I was hired on the spot as a supervisor and eventually moved into the Front Office Manager position. In my current role, I wear many hats - I ensure my front office runs smoothly for patient efficiency, manage doctor templates and schedules, maintain full staffing, handle hiring and terminations, and even do property management for one of their offices. I've implemented training manuals for the entire practice, introduced multiple technology platforms including three different phone systems, and I'm currently implementing a new VoIP system that links into our EHR programming along with a new reminder service with chat options. My greatest strength is that I can see things and make them better - I create things from scratch, observe what's not running efficiently, and implement solutions that work.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Laurie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to believing in myself and others. I believe in the people that I work with, and the people that work under me, and the people that work over me. I am a very point-blank blunt person, so I tend to be very upfront with people, and I think because of that, I excel. I don't beat around the bush, and I also get things done. Believing in myself and believing in others is big for me. I see things in people that they sometimes don't even see in themselves, and when you help them understand that about themselves, they grow, and they excel, and they exceed your expectation, and that's what you want when you have employees.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I'm gonna say it again, believe in yourself. You can do it. Believe in yourself, and believe in others. Always put your best foot forward, and always go by your word. It's important to understand that there's more to just work than just work. Your life shouldn't be about living to work, it should be about working to live. If you believe in yourself enough, you're gonna get some stuff done, and you're gonna move forward, and you're gonna excel, and you're gonna do great, and then you won't overdo yourself. These days, people overdo themselves, and they become very stressed out and get health issues. But if we had a better environment for the workforce, as far as believing in yourself and also realizing you're working to live, not to live to work, you won't have all these health issues.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Right now, I can't really think of any major challenges. There was some lack of communication a while back, but that's improved. I usually nip things in the bud right away, so I requested a meeting with upper management and we talked out a bunch of stuff for like 3 hours, and ever since then, communication's been great. I would say that lack of communication is one of the biggest things in most industries, or someone not believing in you as well. That can put a stressor on somebody and make them fail because they feel like a failure already. As for opportunities, I'm excited about the growth in our technology. I'm so excited that we're moving to greater technological advances that will help run the company more efficiently and streamline a lot of areas of the business. We're about to implement a VoIP system that comes through the computer and links to the patient, so you know who you're talking to, you're able to monitor calls, pull reports, see what's going on, and handle escalated cases in a better, efficient manner. That's very important to me.
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