Terri Embry
Sep 6 2023
Reading Time: 6 minutes
We know what it takes to face the complexities of home infusion because we have been in your shoes. Literally. Meet Terri Embry, one of our many team members with provider experience. We sat down with Terri to understand her passion for her customers and their patients.
Q: Why is your vast past experience so beneficial to your customers today?
A: For more than 26 years I held positions at various home and specialty infusion pharmacies. I lived the day in the life of just about every role or managed the processes. When you combine that with my “why,” you can see how I became a passionate business partner dedicated to making a difference. My “why” is my mother and the healthcare experiences I witnessed growing up with her and my father struggling with the healthcare system to get the care she needed. She was a juvenile diabetic and kidney transplant recipient. I saw what great care could do to improve her health and experience and how not-so-great care could do her harm.
Those experiences really motivated me to want to change healthcare. Now that I’m at CitusHealth, I am able to influence features that support our customers’ initiatives so they can not only grow their business – they can also take better care of their patients.
And I am by no means alone. CitusHealth has approximately 250 years of post-acute provider experience on our team. We all think the best way for us to help solve your challenges is to have experienced them ourselves. Been there, done that you might say.
Q: Why did you decide to join CitusHealth?
A: I was on the technology committee while on the corporate clinical team at BioScrip Pharmacy when we were given a demonstration by CitusHealth. I had been exploring the use of augmented and mixed reality technology for many years prior to that demo and had extensive experience in workflow optimization. Combine those two and given the patient engagement features CitusHealth had at the time, and I was a fan from the start. I understood the vision and wanted in. My General Manager experience gave me a 360° view of workflow challenges throughout a pharmacy. I had a vision of how the staff experience could be enhanced, which in turn could have a profound impact on patients.
Q: What are some of the top industry challenges you see the industry facing right now?
A: Coordinating care with patients and/or their loved ones is a huge challenge right now. Healthcare providers struggle to get them on the phone, email gets buried in patient inboxes and snail mail goes unanswered. Texting is often one way which doesn’t allow the patient to answer. Unsecure texting is also a common problem. The patient is stuck in the center of fragmented communication, which ultimately can impact their care experience and even the treatment outcomes. It’s problematic on many levels. For home health and hospice, two big challenges relate to care plan and schedule communication. It seems regardless of the healthcare provider, better communication both internally and externally to the organization needs improving to deliver a modern day experience for the patient.
Q: How does CitusHealth help solve these challenges?
A: We provide methods of connecting with patients and their loved ones that adapt to the patient’s preferences but also make it easy for the staff. CitusHealth offers an in-app and an app-less (no sign-in required) experience. That’s why we offer e-signatures, logic driven forms, easy messaging and tailored education in a single platform that supports HIPAA compliance. Reducing the number of systems that staff work in also improves their experience. But we didn’t stop at the patient level. Physicians, their team and other third-party partners can also be part of the patient’s CitusHealth eco system. Integration back into many different EHRs keeps everyone informed. We also offer a patient plan of care calendar for app users. According to CAHPS, care planning deficits is the number one issue for both home health and hospice. Honestly, the cloud based platform and mobile app is awesome.
Q: How do you help your customers implement these changes?
A: Change management is hard. I’ve been there. It may have been with older technology, but I still feel their pain. What makes our customers unique in my mind is it feels more like a partnership, instead of a vendor relationship. They come to us ready for change.
For the most part, it is a big change that we do with them. Different levels within the organization have different views of, and tolerances to, that change. So we’re all unwavering in our dedication to help them achieve that change.
We’re really good at helping them take it one step at a time, one process at a time, to ultimately roll out prescriptive workflows that best help their business. And when that happens, it’s great to see the “aha” moments on their faces. They say, “Oh, so this is what the software is going to do for me.”
Q: What is the most satisfying thing about your job?
A: Having learned what it was like for my family, I take great comfort in helping improve the care of patients that need complex services that requires critical thinking while being cared for in their own space or in a clinic setting – without the need to go to the hospital. When I became a nurse, my goal was to literally try to make the whole process better – one step at a time. As my career evolved, my mom wanted to know why I “left” bedside nursing and went into management. I told her it was so I could support many staff members doing great things for many patients – instead of just one-on-one. I also told her, “Mom, you never leave nursing, I just apply my skills to many. The desire to help people do better in trying circumstances stays with you for always.”
Ready for change?
Find out how our provider experience can help you grow. Request a consultation.
