Editor's note: We asked patient access managers to share with us their success stories from 2008.

Catherine Pallozzi, patient access director, Albany (NY) Medical Center

Most of our year has been spent on internal institutional changes, such as staff realignment and training as well as our implementation of clinical systems. The following are some achievements by our team:

Implemented HDX - integrated eligibility system. We worked with our IT partners to ensure that the set up design was what would make us most successful. Our Quality and Development Unit assisted in the significant amount of training. Most importantly, we devised a very controlled manner in which to identify and resolve issues.

Developed a staff-driven Quality Improvement Team (QIT). Staff leads and managers meet once a month to review quality standards of the department. A problem area -- insurance, registration field -- is identified as the “training of the month.” The team creates the training document, and the QIT members are responsible for training all staff. In addition, the QIT is responsible for a monthly puzzle pertaining to Joint Commission, the hospital strategic plan, and department goals and objectives.

For more of Pallozzi's success, see next week's Patient Access Weekly Advisor.