Her Story
About Quandra
I've dedicated 21 years to healthcare, starting as a pharmacy technician where I became both state and nationally certified. For 13 years, I worked in retail pharmacy at a grocery store, building my foundation in customer service and patient care. I then got recruited to long-term care pharmacy, and after the first pharmacy was bought out by a bigger company, I applied to another pharmacy where I worked for 8 years. I started in order entry and then moved to the skill building department, where I put patients in the system for the pharmacy and managed medication deliveries when admissions came in. Now, in my current role as admissions and marketing director at a skilled nursing facility, I do the opposite - I bring the admissions into the facility and send the information out to the pharmacy so they can deliver meds to us. I'm the first person to meet with families, handling an average of 30 pages of paperwork with each one. I have to be very personal and understanding with them because they're bringing their loved ones to a skilled nursing facility, and people have negative connotations about that. My typical day starts with a morning meeting where I break down our census by Medicare, managed care, Medicaid, PACE, and rest home beds. We have 106 skill beds and 17 rest home beds, with a budget target that just increased from 96 to 99. I coordinate with case managers and social workers from 4 different hospitals in the cone hub system, managing referrals all day. I use Point Click Care and a new AI program called Ed Secure to process admissions, pull insurance, and get residents in the system. I schedule meetings with responsible parties or POAs to complete paperwork before patients arrive, and I create admission packets for our medical director, therapy department, nursing secretary, clinical coordinator, DON, and hall nurses. Some days turn into 12-hour days depending on what's going on. I even had to shelter in place during two snowstorms this year, staying at the facility from Saturday to Monday on an air mattress in my office.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Quandra
01What do you attribute your success to?
First would be family. If it hadn't been for my family, I wouldn't have 4 degrees. I'm from Eastern North Carolina, and when I first came here, I used to come to Greensboro to do competitions in FHA and FBLA. I got interested in Greensboro, so I only applied to a couple of colleges, and I got into UNCG. My family supported me throughout the years. I never went back home and still live in this area. They've been my biggest supporter for the most part - they've been there for me, pushing me, encouraging me, that type of thing. And then myself, just been determined to be successful, attain a career, and stay in healthcare like I wanted to be.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would first tell them that they're more knowledgeable than they really think they are. Just because you're young or just have a degree, some people think that means you're not intelligent or don't have enough experience. But you still have enough experience to at least get an entry-level healthcare position. I would tell them to make sure to not let nobody dim their voice - you have a voice, use it. Don't be overbearing with it to make yourself look bad, but use it to keep yourself growing so you won't be stagnant. And don't play your whole hand. It's good to let people know that you're knowledgeable and that you know how to do a lot of things, but sometimes that can be a negative. Because if they know you know too much, then they're gonna keep asking you to do more and more and more. And burnout and stress is real. You just gotta be determined to want to be successful. You have to learn how to budget your life, budget your finances. You can't do certain things if this is what you want to do to get to your next step in life - you just got to do it. Might have a few sleepless nights, but you just gotta do what you gotta do.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I value trust and true teamwork in my work. In my personal life, I'm big on family. I come from a big family, but it's just me and my siblings now - my parents are both deceased. It's me, my siblings, and my brother has kids, so my nieces and nephews. I try to spend as much time with them as possible. The four youngest ones are all in competitive sports, and my two nieces are in dance and cheer, so I try to support them as much as possible, going to their games and stuff. That's what they want to do, so we try to support them.
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