>> My name is Bill Burmeister.
I'm an Operations Director for Geisinger Health System.
So I work both in the physician practice management side of things with surgery practices
as well as managing an ambulatory surgery center located right here in State College.
Working in both the physician practice side as well as the acute care side,
whether it be a hospital, community hospital, or an outpatient medical center or surgery center
like I manage, those two functions are becoming more and more integrated.
So I would say my time is split between managing both of those functions at the organization now.
I mean, you know, usually I'm in there around seven or eight in the morning and, you know,
it's really hard to say when that day ends depending on, you know,
what comes up in the course of the day.
A typical day, a busy day, I would say you're looking to solve problems.
Problems come up in healthcare on a daily basis, whether it's a patient complaint or issue,
a staff problem that you're managing, or a physician issue.
And you're really looking at all of those folks, in my opinion, as your customers,
some of which are your employees, some of which are your true customers in patients and looking
to solve their problems which can be quite gratifying.
Something that could come up during the day is I would say a conflict between two staff members.
So if those employees are in disagreement over time off or about their current workloads
when they're working in the same work unit together, a lot of what I do is serving
as a mediator or peacemaker, facilitator to make sure that employee's needs are met to make sure
that they're satisfied because if they're not happy then our patients aren't going
to be happy either.