Patti Jones, a senior enterprise account executive and recent Medely hire, is not new to the intricacies and inefficiencies of healthcare staffing. Starting her career as a nurse, Patti has seen firsthand the domino effect of insufficient staffing and how it’s directly correlated to patient care. We sat down with her to hear her story of finding Medely, how she’s helping facilities support safe staffing in her role, and how her background as a nurse is at the forefront of everything she does.
Becoming a nurse
From an early age, Patti knew that she wanted to work with kids. Torn between education and healthcare, it was eventually her future father-in-law, a pediatrician, who encouraged her to enter the world of nursing. “My career began as a neonatal intensive care nurse, fresh out of Georgetown University, and my first job was at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. I was one of the first to jump into the NICU right out of school,” Patti shared. “I think that those years at the bedside really grounded me with my clinical experience and desire for patient advocacy.”
As she continued on as a NICU nurse, Patti realized that she wanted more flexibility than her traditional nursing shifts were offering her, so she decided to transition her career into healthcare staffing, starting her on a journey that would eventually lead her to join Medely. “I ended up working for a small healthcare staffing agency,” Patti shared. “Over the course of about 17 years, we grew that company into a nationwide firm. It really kind of developed and sparked my interest in business operations and workforce strategy.”
Patti sought to develop her career into something that worked for her and her interests, leading her to higher-up roles that continued to fuel her spark for solving the staffing crises that plague the healthcare industry at large. “I’ve held leadership roles in staffing, healthcare technology, and enterprise sales before I joined Medely. It’s really been a full circle journey,” said Patti. “I’m really excited to combine and continue to be able to use my clinical experience, as well as my commercial business experience, to help reimagine healthcare staffing with Medely.”
Updating outdated technology and resolving staffing inefficiencies
With both clinical and business operations experience, Patti has seen both sides of the truly devastating effects that a lack of staffing can have on healthcare teams and patients. “I have a particular shift that just stands out in my mind. I was a charge nurse in a high-acuity neonatal ICU. We were short-staffed, and I was managing two very critically ill patients while being the charge nurse. It was overwhelming and, frankly, dangerous. It was a challenging, challenging night,” Patti shared. “I’ve seen it from the business side with facilities calling me with those last-minute critical needs and trying to manage staffing with outdated systems, no system, limited visibility, and so often, a paper, pencil, and a telephone. Not even a cell phone, a telephone. Those inefficiencies come at a high cost, and it’s not sustainable. I think that’s why what we’re doing here at Medely matters so much.”
As a senior enterprise account executive, Patti’s role at Medely combines her expertise in patient care with her sharp leadership skills. Patti is a first-line partner for large enterprise accounts that want to use Medely. Thanks to her all-encompassing approach to staffing, she’s able to more accurately assist facilities in addressing their staffing shortages and establish herself as a go-to partner for busy enterprise accounts. “I partner with hospitals and health systems to understand their workforce challenges and help them develop strategic solutions by using Medely’s platform,” Patti shared. “This could include everything from building C-suite relationships to presenting custom solutions, negotiating contracts, and supporting their adoption of the Medely platform. My real focus is to drive value, both operationally and clinically, for those organizations that we serve.”
Patti’s clinical background provides a unique advantage for establishing strong connections and a mutual trust with her clients because she knows the crises that understaffed facilities are facing. “Because I’ve been at the bedside and understand the challenges that nurses and nurse leaders face daily, it gives me credibility with clients,” Patti shared. “It helps me to build trust and ensures that I’m always thinking through the lens of patient care and the lens of being on the front line. Even when discussing workforce metrics or technology, I’m always making sure that I’m looking through the lens of patient care.”
Integrating at Medely
Now, in her role at Medely, Patti is excited to assist facilities in finding on-demand, flexible staff coverage to ensure quality patient care. “I’m excited about partnering with healthcare systems to help them move from reactionary staffing to having more of a proactive workforce strategy,” Patti shared. “I want to support those leaders by improving their quality of care, retaining great talent, and reducing their cost. It’s really important in healthcare these days. I think we have the tools and the platform to drive some real transformation, and I’m energized to be part of that growth.”
Patti approaches staffing as a collaboration between her and the facilities. With a collaborative approach, she’s able to ensure that all their problems are accurately addressed and their staffing needs are met most effectively. “I’m consultative in my approach. There’s a lot of listening and discovery. We have to align on and understand their goals and the pain points that they’re seeing, and then tailor a solution that’s realistic, easy to implement, and results-driven. I stay close during onboarding and even beyond for about 90 days with the goal to ensure they’re adopting the platform, resolving their challenges, and optimizing their results. My goal is to be seen as a long-term partner in their journey because staffing never ends. Hopefully, we’ll be here for the long haul to help them with their staffing. Even as we make it better, there’s still going to be challenges, and we can always be there to help.”
Why Patti joined Medely
With Patti’s diverse experience, she shared that her role here at Medely is the perfect culmination of all of her skills, making her a strong asset to the team. “As I said to Nicole Brambila [Medely’s Chief Revenue Officer], when I first interviewed with her, it sort of felt like I was home,” Patti shared. “It pulls all of my own experiences together, especially having experienced the pain of short staffing from both the clinical side as well as the operational side. I like that Medely is trying to solve that problem in supporting clinicians and facilities with a technology solution.”
Even though Patti has been with Medely for only a few months, she’s integrated seamlessly into the Medely team and jumped right into learning what the enterprise customers are looking for. “It’s been energizing. The people here have been incredibly helpful. I can’t tell you the number of times people have said, just ask or reach out and I’ll help you from all the different segments of the organization,” Patti said. “I joined just before a major conference. The Association of Nurse Leaders, which was a great way to connect quickly with both members of Medely and our internal team, as well as to be able to see and speak and hear from nurse leaders directly so that I can understand their priorities and give me that moment to develop how am I going to talk about Medely when I’m looking at a nurse leader in the face. The culture is collaborative here, and from day one, I felt like I was part of something innovative and forward-thinking.”
Watch the full interview with Patti
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