Elizabeth Wanielista–change is a constant!

The John and Florence MacLeod Chair in Business this year was awarded to Elizabeth Wanielista.

On October 19, 2015, she attended the 27th Annual Professional Association of Health Care Office Management (PAHCOM) Conference in Clearwater Beach, FL.

The benefits derived from this endowed chair were information on the skills needed by medical office employees to obtain employment in medical offices. Students need to be able to apply knowledge of computers but also have soft skills as: proper telephone techniques, compassion, helping attitude, and discretion regarding patient information. Also, noted was the fact that transcription is no longer used in medical offices. The use of Electronic Health Records is becoming mandatory in medical offices, so employees will need to have knowledge of how to input these records.

This information was shared with the other Office & Medical Office Administration faculty. Her attending the PAHCOM Conference and meeting with office managers regarding skills needed for medical office employees were obtained as a result of this endowed chair. Students will benefit from the information received from the conference by the information obtained from medical office managers. The information on the skills needed for medical office employees will be used to update the Medical Office Administration Program.

The ability to have contact with employees working in the field gave her first-hand knowledge. Office Managers are very busy and hard to reach when in their regular work environment. Having been with them for three days gave her the opportunity to ask questions of many different managers regarding the skills needed for medical office employees.

“I have attempted to make contact with local medical office managers which resulted in three face-to-face meetings. I have sent out many emails and made many calls to local office managers with not many results. My attending the Medical Office Manager Conference in October gave me more contacts.

“The medical office is changing as a result of technology and HIPAA laws, so it is important to keep in contact with local managers in order to update our program.”

Check out our earlier piece: http://bit.ly/2lUUoXu