Leadership Message

Thanks for Everything By Adam Low, CEO

While many call this a year of challenges, I also see it as a year of opportunity. And you helped us make the most of those. You showed your dedication to our patients. You showed your dedication to the business as we went through some inevitable growing pains. We stuck together, and that makes SENTA practices great places to work.

We implemented new programs and services to serve our patients and our team members better. Looking back over the year, these improvements will continue to reap rewards in terms of patient access, ease of scheduling and faster response times.

We can do more for our patients now than we could at the beginning of the year. We added technology to help patient retention and re-engagement. We have added talented staff to help support all aspects of the business. We have streamlined operations, especially back-office services that allow staff in offices to attend to the patients who are there.

We have grown. Patients in our region can now choose from 36 locations that are part of the SENTA Partners network. That means easier access and exchange of records, better continuing of care and more. We have attracted top-notch physicians to join the team—and our teams are stronger now than ever. We came through this year together—and I cannot wait to see what we are able to do in 2022.

Holiday Greetings

‘Tis the Season

Departments and offices in the SENTA Partners family are enjoying this time of festivity and joy. Here’s a greeting from the Mixing Department.

(l-r): Cheryl Lawrence, Ellena Fowles, Marie McFalls, Lawanda Day and Kimberly Norwood

HR SENTer

OSHA Temporary Standards Reinstated

In an indication of how rapidly the COVID-19 guidance changes, on Dec. 17, 2021, a panel from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay of OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard, meaning that employers with 100 or more employees can ensure safety of the workforce by requiring that employees be vaccinated or tested weekly.

We will continue to do everything we can at SENTA Partners locations to ensure the safety of our workforce and patients. Stay tuned for more on this topic. Thank you for your patience, understanding and cooperation in this fluid environment. If you have questions, you can send them to Human Resources here.

Help Decorate the Walls of the Northridge Support Center

The Northridge Support Center office has been open for more than a year-and-a-half, yet its walls are bare of art. Nothing brightens one’s day like the smile of a familiar face and the feeling of being surrounded by friends and family. As such, we are asking all of you to share your family photos and let us decorate the walls with your smiling faces.

Would you like to share pictures of your important life events, time spent with the family on vacation, having fun with kids, friends and co-workers? Here are a few rules to follow:

• Pictures must be of a good quality and high resolution.
• Remember your audience and share office-appropriate photos.
• Make sure you include the names of those in the picture and their relationship to you.
• Most importantly: keep them coming!

Email your photos for consideration here.

Meet the Recruiters

Get to know Jonathan “Jon” Hopkins, staff recruiter for all clinic-level positions, and Shireen Brown, talent acquisition manager for clinician and support center positions recruitment. Current team members will be alerted as there are position openings, so please share names from your network if you think a candidate is a good fit.

Jon Hopkins and Shireen Brown

Jon joined SENTA Partners in November, bringing more than 12 years of sales and recruiting experience in the manufacturing, insurance and health care fields. For much of the past five years, he has been recruiting and placing primary care physicians, hospitalists, anesthesiologists, and radiologists into contract and permanent positions.

Shireen also joined the organization in November; she has served in health care management for more than 10 years. She previously worked in dialysis, occupational medicine and urgent care. In addition to her experience recruiting and hiring health care professionals, she brings a wealth of knowledge in process improvement in health care leadership and recruiting.

Opportunities for Advancement

Hard Work Does Not Go Unnoticed

(l-r): Kris Cali and Tarajean Ansel

“What excites me the most about being a part of SENTA Partners is that there are opportunities for growth that never existed before,” says Kris Cali, who recently was promoted to director of revenue cycle management. Kris has been working at Atlanta Allergy & Asthma (AA&A) for the past 34 years. She started as a college student, working part time at the front desk. She made her way into supervisory roles there before moving into a position as a patient accounts manager.

There she began to see some issues with claims denials bubbling up. “Some of the payors were becoming aggressive with their denials, and I couldn’t close my eyes to it,” she says.

Even before AA&A joined SENTA Partners, Kris was adamant about tackling the issue, and she created a presentation for the AA&A partners to show there was a need for more oversight in revenue management. She took on a lead role as revenue cycle manager, but that role was expanded after Tarajean Ansel joined SENTA in November as vice president of revenue cycle management.

Tarajean recognized Kris’ specialized knowledge in allergy coding and revenue management and promoted her. “With the expansion and growth of SENTA, this is a great opportunity to promote Kris so she can continue to grow with the company. She’s always eager to learn and willing to help take on new projects. She deserves that promotion,” Tarajean says.

Kris is also excited that this promotion will inspire others to recognize growth opportunities in this larger organization.

Welcome Aboard

Center for Allergy & Asthma of Georgia Staff Brings Decades of Experience

(l-r): Joni White, Angie Thater, Dianne Robinson and Rita Bowman

In the November issue of SENTA Communique, we introduced the doctors of Center for Allergy & Asthma of Georgia (CAAG). This month, meet the key staff who have been working together for nearly the past 12 years: Joni White, LPN; Angela (Angie) Thater, clinical manager; Dianne Robinson, front office manager; and Rita Bowman, revenue cycle manager.

Operations SENTer

How Northwest ENT Is Improving Patient Satisfaction and Booking More Appointments By Len Schiavone, SENTA Partners COO

To patients, there’s almost nothing as frustrating as calling an office and listening to on-hold music or being transferred to someone’s voicemail box. At Northwest ENT (NW ENT), that is happening much less often since implementing call center technology improvements, adding staffing and having our office team work in conjunction with our call center team. Calls are answered by call center employees who can handle many patient information requests or book appointments. If the patient urgently needs to speak to someone in the office, the call center employee can facilitate that.

The result is that about twice as many calls are now being answered promptly versus having the patient hang up or leave a message. There are multiple advantages: patients get through to a human more quickly, which results in higher percentages of appointments booked, and—just as importantly—there are higher levels of patient satisfaction. It also means fewer disruptions to the workflow in the clinic itself.

If the call center agents are busy helping patients on the phone, then the caller goes directly into the practice location front office, where medical assistants or other clinical staff can assist the patient quickly. The success of the call center at NW ENT is possible because of the great teamwork and coordination between the call center and practice—and the commitment to see that patients’ needs and questions are addressed more quickly.

Calendar

Friday, Dec. 31
• Closed in observance of New Year’s
• Deadline to complete 2021 Annual training

Friday, Jan. 14
• Complete COVID-19 vaccination questionnaire

Your SENTA Communiqué Archives

November 2021  •  October 2021  •  September 2021
August 2021  •  July 2021  •  June 2021  •  May 2021

Archived issues can also be found in Kronos → Company Hub Tab

Getty Images photo credits—calendar: dikobraziy