Healthcare IS Blog

That's a question that can be answered many ways. Find out one Pharmacists answer to this question and many more in our latest interview with Dave Wolfe, Vice President of Professional Services. With over ten years of experience of focus in pharmacy IT he offers a well rounded opinion on the subject. This is the first installment of the Healthcare IS podcast where we will be interviewing a new pharmacist in the IT or informatics field each month. Listen in to hear what these experts have to say and subscribe so you don’t miss out on any episodes.

This is our second podcast in a series about working as a consultant in the healthcare IT industry and talking about the differences between working for a consulting firm and being an independent consultant. Our guest today is Jerry Queen. Jerry comes from the health insurance payer side of healthcare; many of our guests in the past have been on the hospital provider side. He has 25 total years of experience working in the payer IT space with three different health plans, 11 of those years in consulting. He primarily provides his expertise in operational management, configuration management, system integration and operational leadership for payers in the IT area.

If you fail to do the three things listed below prior to an interview, chances are you’ll not be offered the job. 

David Stansbury gives his insight in this month’s Healthcare IS podcast. Listen in and hear David’s experience in working as a pharmacist in IT, making transitions and what he’s observed in the last 30 years of his experience.

Every time I see an article on what not to do during an interview, it’s directed toward the candidate. Well, in the recruiting world I’ve seen an equal number of interviews go badly due to something the hiring manager did or didn’t do as because of something the candidate did or didn’t do. A few of the major don’ts come to mind. 

Take a moment to hear Jerry Fahrni tell his story of experience in Pharmacy IT. He tells us how he came to be in the field of Health IT, what challenges he worked through and observed and what advice he would share with someone looking to break into Pharmacy IT. You can also follow Jerry’s Blog at www.JerryFahrni.com.

You can probably find more books, articles, and blogs on the subject of job interviews than on virtually any other topic. There are the basics of the process that should be well known — what to wear, when to show up, how to follow up, etc. — and which I will not cover in this post. I would like to focus, instead, on the 20% of the interview that is going to create 80% of your value. I simply want to talk about how to respond to questions.

Before each interview, a good recruiter will prepare their candidates with relevant information regarding the interview that's about to take place. The candidate is told who they're speaking/meeting with, how long they should expect the interview to last, what types of questions they will be asked, and, ideally, some information regarding the personality/interview style of the hiring manager(s). 

There are a handful of factors that motivate people to make a job change. In my experience, it's not just one of these factors that prompts someone to start looking, but a few combined. In the end, though, the focus tends to come down to just one thing: money.

Over the years, I've personally found active listening to be a very difficult skill to develop. Why? Partly because I'm a "type A" personality who likes to engage assertively, sometimes even aggressively, in conversation. I find myself occasionally interrupting people so that I can get my point across or "win" the conversation/debate. Many words have been written and training programs developed around active listening. Below is a summary of my thoughts on the topic.

While a start date is the last agenda item of the hiring process, it's among the first things that should be considered.

Today we are continuing our series with talking to consultants who have worked both as an independent contractor and for consulting firms so that they can share their opinions and experiences to educate our listeners on future decisions as it relates to consulting. I’m really excited about our guest today, James Hill. He’s someone with a great reputation within his niche market. James has been in health IT for fourteen years and has spent twelve of those years as a consultant, eight of which have been as an independent consultant. He has diverse experience having worked for a firm, vendor as well as an independent consultant. James works primarily with Cerner clients across the country specializing in medication processes and meds integration.

If you ask tenured recruiters what's the myth they've most frequently encountered in the business, most would tell you it's the feedback they receive when debriefing candidates following interviews. So often, according to those candidates, they "nailed it" or they "hit a home run" or they’re certain to get a job offer. The reality: More than 75% of the time the employer has no interest in them. In fact, they had a very forgettable interview. Why the disconnect? What happened?

That’s just one of many questions we addressed with Ron Burnett in our latest Healthcare IS Podcast. Ron has been a practicing pharmacist for the last 29 years. Primarily working in hospital pharmacy practice, he has also done work in home infusion and the retail space. With 14 of those 29 years spent in the informatics space, Ron comes with immense insights from all angles of practicing pharmacy and our country’s implementation of informatics in hospitals.

When leaving a professional voicemail — or any other voicemail, for that matter — you should take a few things into consideration if you want the call to be returned:

There are hiring managers who will not interview a candidate unless his or her resume looks good. Some of them would say, "I won't consider anyone who's not taken the time to put together a good resume." Others would say, "People know that, if they're going to apply for a job, they'll need a resume. So what does it say about a person who's not taken the time to learn how to put together a resume?"

If you experience high levels of anxiety when facing a job interview you are among 92% of the U.S. adult population.

Only 7% of the adult population surveyed claimed to have nothing to fear when it comes to interviewing. 

A "telephone screen" can be conducted by anyone within an organization, from Human Resources up to the CEO. Does it really matter who actually conducts that first telephone interview? In my experience, yes, it absolutely does.

For the most part, a resume, LinkedIn profile, or email from a candidate is not enough to determine if that person is qualified for a position. A follow-up conversation needs to take place to further discuss skills and experience, as well as to evaluate the person’s communication skills.  However, there are a few mistakes people make in those initial written communications that may cause a hiring manager to eliminate them as a candidate before that first discussion ever takes place. 

Welcome to our second series of the Healthcare IS Podcast. The next set of podcast episodes will be geared towards individuals who are interested to hear how others have transitioned from full time employment to contract consulting. In this episode we are visited again by our popular guest Dave Wolfe as he shares his career path in consulting and the choices he made that lead him to a successful profession as an independent consultant.

I really liked him, but I'd like to talk to a few more people before I make my decision . . .

Such is the feedback commonly heard in the recruiting world after the first interview takes place. There's something about human nature that makes us want to "shop around" and compare our options. The problem with this, when dealing with people, is that the more time that passes between each contact with a candidate (time we’re spending shopping around), the more doubts will tend to arise within that candidate’s mind.

In today's post we offer you an interview with Steve Sisko, author of ICD-10 Impact to Health Care Payers & Providers. We approached Steve for our company blog, intrigued by his quick climb to the top in featured lists such as Top Ten Bloggers to Follow on Twitter and his number five position on the #HIT100 list. We get to see a lot of Steve's work from the technical side published on his blog and through his guest contributions. This time we wanted know the man behind the technology and how he has gained success in the Health IT industry and become an opinion leader in Health IT social media. Below Steve answers a variety of questions about his experience blogging, his recent recognition and how all of this has affected him as a professional, blogger and family man. At the bottom of the post, feel free to leave any further questions you might have. Steve has generously agreed to personally answer questions by readers.