At Northwell Health, we have the perfect career for everyone. Just ask Susan Marelli, executive program director in System Administration.
Starting her career more than 20 years ago, Susan had never imagined herself pursuing a healthcare career. That is until her mother, who was receiving treatment at the time, had noted what a nice place it seemed to work as they sat in North Shore University together. At the time, Susan believed healthcare careers were limited to just nurses and doctors and never thought her background in administration would create opportunities for her. However, with her mother’s encouragement Susan applied and it was that exact skillset that made her a perfect fit for her first role of executive associate to Michael Dowling, Northwell’s President and CEO.
Working as an executive associate, Susan began to find herself becoming an unofficial patient ambassador. She would receive phone calls from trustees, executives from other businesses, team members, and patients looking for assistance. They would call her not knowing who else to reach out to and Susan would listen to their challenges. With no guidebook for this role, she took it upon herself to make calls and figure out the best person in the system might be able to help them.
“Whenever I wasn’t busy with my responsibilities, I was on the phone helping people. Mr. Dowling would hear this from inside his office and one day he asked me, ‘would you like to do this for me full time?’” says Susan. “There’s such an emphasis in our organization to put patients first, and Mr. Dowling wanted me to have the opportunity to work exclusively on helping those who needed it.”
Now as executive program director, Susan uses Northwell’s network of team members to help support her patient advocacy work. In addition to speaking with patients and their family members on the phone, Susan visits them at the hospitals and helps them feel connected to the health system. She loves being able to meet new people on these visits, and that includes not just our patients but her colleagues as well.
“The only way I’m able to do my job is because of the wonderful teams that are in every office and every hospital,” says Susan. “Because of them, I’ve never had to tell someone ‘I’m sorry, I can’t help you.’ They are always willing to go the extra mile and together we are able to find a solution.”
Along with the assistance of clinical teams, Susan has worked closely with the patient and family relations teams across our system to make a difference in so many lives. It’s an emotionally rewarding role, and she cherishes the letters and thank you cards she’s received from patients and families. “It’s always so unexpected because the doctors, nurses, and everyone else in our facilities are the ones who deserve that. Without them no care is being delivered. I’m just the one making the connections.”
But it’s that connection to patients, families, and team members alike that has helped Susan’s work as a patient ambassador truly shine. Every day she helps to reinvent the patient experience, and it’s her compassion that brought her recognition with an award in patient excellence from the health system.
Discover a career well cared for at Northwell Health. Apply today!

Meet Bridget Hanley, sourcing specialist in Talent Acquisition (TA) at Northwell Health. Focusing on perioperative, labor and delivery, and emergency nursing, among other specialties, Bridget identifies top talent for much needed roles across the organization using a variety of sourcing strategies and recruitment tools. As one of many roles in Human Resources, sourcing specialists are focused on finding the best talent to join our organization to deliver the best level of care to our patients.

Bridget, like many of our non-clinical team members, had to adapt to a new way of working remotely due to COVID-19 to ensure the well-being of our team members and their families. As one of Northwell’s department wellness liaisons, Bridget played a particularly important role since the beginning of the pandemic to ensure wellness was top of mind for all of our talent acquisition team members during this challenging time by providing tips, strategies and opportunities to stay healthy both physically and mentally while working from home in this new environment.

Work day over, Bridget embraces Northwell’s commitment to wellness by engaging in physical activity. Running has the added benefit of helping her prepare for Northwell’s next Walk To.. step challenge where Northwell teams compete to reach a step goal to win prizes.

Find a job that’s a perfect fit for your lifestyle at Northwell Health. Get moving and apply today!

Over the course of his career at Northwell Health, Ryon Andersen has worked in a variety of positions, from his start as a physical therapy aide to his current role as associate executive director at North Shore University Hospital (NSUH). His unique path from clinical to non-clinical professional equipped Ryon with the skills he needed to help him positively impact the financial and clinical operations of the hospital as an AED. Ryon’s career is also proof that there is not one straight career path to working in finance and operations within the healthcare industry.

Learn more about Ryon’s career path and how Northwell’s helping other professionals pursue non-clinical careers at Northwell in this month’s Appointment With.

I’ve always had an interest in community and public service which was reinforced when I joined my local fire department. While volunteering as a firefighter and EMT, I had the opportunity to assist Glen Cove Hospital with a disaster drill that was being run by their emergency department. This provided me with a small observation window into how a hospital operates. At the time my only knowledge was based on prehospital ambulance care. Further intrigued by the dynamics of providing care in a hospital setting, I decided to pursue a job as a physical therapy aide in the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Glen Cove. I truly enjoyed working alongside the clinical teams and helping patients learn to ambulate after injury or surgery. As time progressed and college commitments increased, I transferred to work as a unit support associate for the critical care and telemetry units. This opportunity gave me good insight into hospital flow, nursing unit dynamics, and the admission/registration process. This transition was especially important because it was a clear indication of how NorthShoreLIJ (at the time) supported development. My managers worked with my schedule so I could attend classes while maintaining employment. Upon finishing my degree, I decided to apply the skills I learned from my science classes to a new role at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. Working in the department of experimental immunology as a research assistant, I was responsible for laboratory benchwork and quantitative data analysis.

These three experiences allowed me to gain unique skills and insights while learning about the culture of the organization, they strengthened my desire to continue to grow within the system. Over the course of this circuitous pathway, I met many mentors who pushed me explore all facets of the system and to not solely focus on clinical opportunities. Because we are a healthcare organization, I believe early careerists generally assume the only career pathways are clinical, but that’s not true. Being exposed to the broader landscape of opportunities led me to pursue a role as a project coordinator in hospital administration at NSUH. This allowed me to combine my clinical operations experience and my analytical skills within a hospital. Settled into my new position over the last 9 nine years at NSUH, I’ve grown into the role I am currently in as Associate Executive Director.

Working in financial operations in any facility is quite dynamic and different every day. Hospitals are a 24/7 operation, and the NSUH campus is a bustling city. Whether it’s developing strategic business plans and investment opportunities, revamping processes to increase efficiency, creating a culture of teamwork, or constructing a new building, the push and pull of competing priorities makes the day go quickly. Specifically, a business operations administrator should create strong partnerships with clinical leaders and help support them and enhance decision making. They should utilize their business/analytical skills to help set and inform strategy. That said, the number one job of all hospital administrators should always be patient safety, to provide as safe an environment for patients and providers as possible.

The Healthcare Management Program (HMP) and the Management Associate Program (MAP) were created to expand the talent onramps into healthcare business operations. These programs give us the opportunity to amplify the boarder healthcare career opportunities message and further compete for top talent. Central to every organization, regardless of size or industry, is its dependence on attracting and training a capable workforce. People are at the heart of every company and the quality and engagement of these individuals dramatically impact the overall success of an organization. The programs are structured to give associates a holistic understanding of the business as well as the overall mission of Northwell Health.

Through project work, they have a chance to explore finance, operations, clinical partnerships, quality management, human resources, and patient experience. Additionally, the programs naturally foster great mentorship opportunities. Mentorship is a core component of MAP. It is one of the most important attributes of a successful leader, cultivating talent and growing others is essential for both the mentor and mentee.

There is no one point of entry into the field, healthcare finance and operations takes on many forms. Whether you are working in revenue cycle and corporate finance or procurement and facilities management, you’re on the playing field. Every career experience you have and opportunity you gain will shape who you become as a leader. Continue to value the skills developed and lessons learned until you ultimately attain your career goals.

Since David Gill, PHD joined Northwell Health in 2012, he’s been committed to making Northwell a great place to work by listening to our team members and ensuring they feel supported both professionally and personally.

Roles he has held during his tenure at Northwell include manager of Workforce and Patient Engagement, director of Talent Management and Engagement, and most recently, AVP of Experience Strategy, which he became in 2017. In this role, he is responsible for informing, designing and shaping a holistic experience for everyone in our organization.

David and his team’s efforts have helped elevate Northwell’s employee engagement, and today the organization is a Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®.

We sat down with David to discuss the vital work of our Experience Strategy team.

The Experience Strategy team is focused on creating the best team member experience from hire to retire. Our team’s goal is to deliver a world-renowned team member experience by driving a culture of innovation, inclusivity, and well-being to empower our team members to redefine the future of healthcare.

There are three interconnected groups within the Experience Strategy team that bring the vision to life.

In 2013 Northwell established a goal of becoming a best place to work on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list as well as being at the 90th percentile for team member and physician engagement and patient experience based on third party measurement from Press Ganey. For us to achieve those goals, employee experience had to become a strategic imperative. We had to look at how we were understanding our team members’ needs and how we were providing them with the resources for them to be most successful in their career and then importantly, how we were recognizing them for all of the great work that they did on a day-to-day basis. It is essential to create an environment for employees/team members to feel that they contribute to something greater than themselves, have an opportunity to grow within their career, and feel like a valued member of the organization.

For Northwell, it is critically important to create an exceptional experience for our team members, because we want them to create exceptional experiences for our patients and customers.

Amid COVID-19 at Northwell, we were hyper-focused on ensuring that our team members had what they needed. Specifically, we were focused on ensuring that our team members were aware of the bountiful resources available to them to support their holistic well-being. For example, the Emotional Resource Call Center, which was recently implemented by Total Rewards, provides one telephone number for team members to call to meet their well-being needs. If a team member would like to speak with a chaplain, a member of the wellness team, an employee and family assistance program counselor, or other behavioral health practitioners from the Stress Trauma centers, they can reach them through that call center. In partnership with many groups across the organization such as the Office for Patient and Customer Experience, Total Rewards, and Behavioral Health, we stood up Tranquility spaces at many of our facilities. These spaces were designed to build awareness, provide team members with an opportunity to receive a light refreshment, as well as a place of respite activities which are critical during this period.

Lastly, we cannot forget recognizing our team members for their bravery, for their compassion, and for the focus on making our communities well. The recognition efforts were done in strong partnership with the marketing and communications team, the Office and Patient and Customer Experience, the Employee Experience team and HR to provide collateral and support in the form of what we call clap in and clap outs—which are a show of appreciation for team members during shift changes.

When I look to the future of employee experience and even specifically the work our team is doing, I look toward four focus areas, listening, growth and empowerment, well-being, and life-long affinity. By focusing on always listening to our team members and partnering to build a simple, transparent work environment, this creates trust in leaders and the organization. The employee experience team will capture feedback more frequently from team members, through other methods of listening, not just an annual survey. Genuine engagement can not occur without a focus on growth and empowering team members to be their best selves. The employee experience team will focus on education and hands-on experiences that provide leaders with the necessary skills to foster an environment where team members feel empowered to own their careers and feel psychologically safe to share their innovative ideas. Team members should feel that working at Northwell Health helps them be well. Well-being is the responsibility of all teams. The employee experience team will work on training leaders on how to engage their teams through recognition and appreciation. Lastly, the focus on lifelong affinity is building pride for Northwell, and the work that we do even after a team member’s career journey has ended. Specifically, the employee experience team will develop an alumni program that will keep former team members engaged and lifelong promoters of Northwell’s team member experience.

While Patti Drolet’s career in healthcare may have started in an entry-level clerical role, today she is the vice president of Revenue Cycle Operations at Northwell Health. Her experience at every level allowed her to gain well-rounded knowledge in all areas of revenue cycle. She accepted a leadership position at Northwell Health in 2004, where she has been using her strengths and history to help elevate the department’s performance and outcomes.

“As a leader, I take great pride in the role I have at Northwell,” says Patti. “To strategize and lead in the transformation of a business at this level requires commitment, passion, and authenticity in order to drive high-performing initiatives and teams.”

We sat down with Patti to discuss Revenue Cycle and why it’s an exciting career to join at Northwell in this month’s Appointment With.

Revenue cycle represents the business side of a health system and is responsible for billing and collecting all hospital receivables – a monumental task in today’s ever-changing healthcare environment.

Our role is to secure financial strength, enabling the health system to provide extraordinary quality of care in modern facilities by our clinicians. We have an impact on patient care and the patient experience, and we take pride in knowing that our efforts help Northwell succeed in its mission.

In revenue cycle, roles and skill sets range from entry-level clerical to leadership positions. Someone can begin in patient-facing areas, such as patient registration in our hospitals, patient financial counseling and customer service. Revenue cycle is also in non-patient-facing areas, such as insurance verification/scheduling, accounts receivable billing and follow-up, and in Health Information Management (HIM) documentation management. Additionally, there are clinicians on our team who specialize in medical billing appeal writing, the Clinical Documentation Initiative (CDI) that validates the quality of our patients’ medical records, and in the Denial Prevention Unit (DPU) which helps us secure authorizations from our patients’ insurers for emergent admissions.

There is a very broad assortment of fulfilling careers available within the department. And we are always looking for talented people!

1. We have a unique opportunity to touch upon many different areas within the health system, such as patient experience, clinical departments and hospital executive leadership, among others.
2. Most of our leadership team began their careers in entry-level clerical positions.
3. We have a fun committee! We provide interactive activities for our team members throughout the year to engage in the community and the areas we serve.
4. We have a mentoring program for team members in addition to Northwell’s development opportunities at the Center for Learning and Innovation

If you have the passion and desire to work in a fast-paced, challenging and dynamic business environment, with a mission to improve the health system’s financial viability, this department is for you. Understanding all aspects of revenue cycle and learning the intricacies of this business makes for an exciting career. Having experienced this firsthand, the opportunities available within revenue cycle and meeting the challenges of our ever-evolving health care system can be very rewarding.