Ahead of the Patient Access: Foundation of the Revenue Cycle program taking place on Tuesday, July 18th, the healthXchange had the opportunity to sit down with Erin Squires, Regional Director of Patient Access at Trinity Health of New England. Over the course of nearly 25-years, Erin has led teams in organizations including the Baystate Medical Center and Baystate Wesson Women’s Group, with experience in Patient Registration and Patient Access Services, which she will share during a panel focused on Increasing Accuracy of Registration & Eligibility Verification.
Can you share with us a little about your professional background; how you got your start in healthcare, the roles you’ve enjoyed thus far, and your current priorities at Trinity Health?
I started my career in banking as a Teller Trainer. After the birth of my second child, I was looking for a part-time job so that I could balance time at home with my children, and I started working in the Emergency Department as a Registrar and Department Secretary. The intention was to return to banking when my children were in school full-time, but I’ve continued working in healthcare. Over time, I was promoted to the Team Lead in the Emergency Department, and I also returned to school to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Leadership and Organization.
Upon graduation, I accepted a position at Trinity Health as a Supervisor of Emergency Department Patient Access, and was promoted the following year to the Manager of Patient Access. Just 12-months later, I was promoted again to my current position as the Regional Director of Patient Access.
My current priorities at Trinity Health are to increase point-of-service collections, decrease denials, and stabilize staffing.
Could you share one aspect of this issue that you are working to improve on with your team, or one challenging aspect that you’d like to solve?
The most challenging aspect that I am facing is employee engagement. I have metrics that I report on every week to my Leadership team and Finance. I can always sense when something is not right with my teams just by looking at the metrics. I need my team to be engaged in the work they do to have a positive outcome. My plan to engage my team is to get them excited about the work they do and the contribution they make to the care of each and every patient, along with the impact they make on the financial stability of the hospital.
What made you decide to participate in the upcoming Patient Access event, and what are you looking forward to discussing or benchmarking with the panelists and participants?
I decided to participate in this event to learn from other leaders and to share what I have learned.