Executive Q&A: Old baseball injuries line up health administration career

Jan. 08--With five offices throughout the metro area, the Oklahoma Allergy & Asthma Clinic every year logs up to 30,000 patient visits. Its nine physicians and two nurse practitioners diagnose and treat Oklahomans who are sensitive to everything from ragweed, pets and the atmosphere to peanuts, shellfish and other foods.

Chief Operating Officer Scott Dennis counts himself among the lucky ones. He has no allergies.

Still, his first week on the job in May, Dennis voluntarily underwent scores of skin prick tests for every allergy imaginable.

"I wanted them to put me through the wringer, so that I knew exactly what new patients experience," Dennis said.

Dennis especially wanted to focus on every step of the process to make it as efficient as possible for employee and patient satisfaction.

"Employees gave me feedback on what worked and what didn't," Dennis said. "The idea was to eliminate any unwanted, unneeded or duplicated movement."

Dennis, 45, who holds a master's in health administration, most recently worked as director of operations for Oklahoma Pain Management & Research. Before that, he worked six years for the Sisters of Mercy Health System in Oklahoma City, overseeing several back-office functions including working with electronic health records and health insurance companies.

From the third-floor offices of the allergy clinic's main office at 750 NE 13, he recently sat down with The Oklahoman to talk about his life and career. This is an edited transcript:

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: Newcastle, back when it was a small town. My parents both retired from the mortgage lending industry and now live in south Oklahoma City. I'm the youngest of their three children. I have a brother 10 years older who's retired and lives in Plano. My sister is nine years older, lives in Lindsay and works in administration for Newcastle Public Schools.

Q: Your sophomore year in high school, your parents moved with you to Atlanta, where they worked for a regional mortgage lending firm. How shocking was it for you to move from a small town to a big city?

A: Pretty shocking. I went from a class of 85 to a class of 1,000 -- from a comfortable situation to having a little maturity forced on me. But I'm grateful for the experience. I learned to be flexible and to be ready for whatever is thrown at me. As it turned out, we only lived in Atlanta one year; my father's company was acquired not long after we relocated. We talked about whether we wanted to stay there, move elsewhere or return to Newcastle, on which we ultimately decided. My grandparents still lived in the metro area then; my paternal grandmother still does. And it was fun for me to get back to Newcastle for my junior and senior years; to rekindle the friendships I'd had since I started school.

Q: Did you say an old baseball injury is what inspired you to pursue a career in health care?

A: That's right. Over my eighth- to 12th-grade years, I tore and reinjured cartilage in both knees. My surgeries were at what was then Presbyterian Hospital. I remember being awed by all the doctors, nurses and others who were in and out of my room. They all were there to do one thing: take care of me as the patient. In high school, I had a friend whose dad worked in health care administration, so he was a role model for me. Meanwhile, my folks encouraged me to follow my dreams. They never pushed me into mortgage lending, which was sort of the family business as both of my siblings also worked in it.

Q: And college?

A: My first year, I attended Rose community college (Rose State College) in Midwest City and then transferred to OU. My parents helped pay for my college, but to cover day-to-day expenses, I worked a variety of jobs including operating a forklift from 4 p.m. to midnight, stocking shelves in a drugstore and hauling hay in the summer. Following graduation, I went directly to the OU College of Public Health at the OU Health Sciences Center as a full-time graduate student.

Q: The Oklahoma Allergy & Asthma Clinic has made The Oklahoman's Top Workplaces List for several years. Why?

A: We were founded in 1925, and are fortunate to have an organization where people want to stay. We recently celebrated employees who marked 30-, 35-, 40- and 50-year service anniversaries. We strive to give our 95 employees feedback in real time, versus waiting for annual reviews. If we can consistently take care of small frustrations, we'll have happier people altogether. Since the anonymous employee engagement surveys conducted by Pennsylvania-based Workplace Dynamics for the Top Workplaces competition, we've initiated monthly departmental and nursing team meetings to further enhance internal communications, as well as cross-functional teams composed of nurses and employees from the business office and extract lab. Our nine physicians rotate through two-year terms as chief executive officer, and I meet regularly with the CEO to discuss how we're doing and where we're going.

Q: What are your thoughts on the fate of healthcare.gov, or what's more familiarly known as Obamacare?

A: Unfortunately, many people with insurance through healthcare.gov have plans with steep out-of-pocket deductibles, making it difficult for them to pay for care. But with all our patients, we strive to be transparent and talk everyone through their respective benefits. One positive outcome is health care is being viewed more and more as a service, which helps drive improvements. Industrywide, we're getting better at treating people as they expect to be treated. I believe we'll hold on to the ACA (Affordable Care Act) mandates allowing coverage for people with pre-existing health conditions and requiring group health plans cover children to age 26. We'll have to wait and see what new iterations of the law there will be, and how we can work within the new constructs.

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