PBN C-SUITE 2021 AWARDS
Siobhain Sullivan
Rhode Island Medical Imaging Inc. Chief operating officer of clinical operations
In her 11 years of work at Rhode Island Medical Imaging Inc., including the past two as chief operating officer of clinical operations, Siobhain Sullivan has built a long and hefty list of completed projects.
She attributes the mountain of accomplishments to a single factor: “I was extremely eager.”
Other contributors to Sullivan’s work ethic include the discipline of five years in the U.S. Air Force, where she started her career as a radiographer, and the effort it took to earn three degrees. Among them were a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Rhode Island and an MBA from Salve Regina University.
One of Sullivan’s more recent challenges was to prepare employees at RIMI’s clinical offices to keep themselves and their patients safe from COVID-19, while keeping operations uninterrupted.
Sullivan said when COVID-19 guidelines were issued by the government in early 2020, the company quickly found and allocated personal protective equipment and developed techniques to reduce harm, such as online patient screening before appointments and limits on face time in the clinics.
When the pandemic started, “keeping morale up was very important,” Sullivan said.
RIMI has a network of 12 private state-of-the-art medical diagnostic imaging facilities, a number that has more than doubled, from five, since Sullivan came onboard in 2010. The clinics are staffed by more than 80 board-certified radiologists. The number of RIMI employees has risen from 490 people in 2018 to 539 in 2020.
Sullivan began working with RIMI as lead CT technologist, managing a dozen people across RIMI’s then five facilities. A series of promotions moved her up the management chain through 2019, when she became chief operating officer of clinical operations, overseeing the work of 300 employees.
Dr. John A. Pezzullo, president of RIMI, confirmed Sullivan’s driving work ethic and said her demeanor toward the staff is always supportive and respectful. “I have never seen Siobhain lose her cool or talk down to anyone,” Pezzullo said. “She’s a class act.”
Noting that Sullivan oversees all aspects of the clinical operations, Pezzullo said, “Without her personal contribution, the growth at RIMI of the last six or seven years would not be where it is.”
Among the major projects Sullivan led was accreditation by the American College of Radiology as a Center of Excellence, the gold standard in medical imaging and the first outpatient facility in the country to achieve this distinction. Qualifying as a Center of Excellence also required Sullivan to initiate the company’s first-ever quality assurance program. She says this exercise improved services across the organization, ultimately conveying benefits on patients.
In other projects, Sullivan created an advanced mammography program, now offered at 10 RIMI locations, using advanced 3D screening, which is extra effective in finding abnormalities. She instituted 3T MRIs, which are helpful for claustrophobic people and which return high-quality images in shorter scan times. She also introduced the i-STAT blood analysis system, which quickens the turnaround of blood test results.
Sullivan moved the company into the MedInformatix system, which improved scheduling, registration, workflow and tracking functionality. She helped the company move into a new headquarters in Warwick, with a full gym for employees. Sullivan also spearheaded various types of training, including customer service, basic life support CPR training and venipuncture training.
Sullivan acknowledged that she has worked through a lot of projects, but she said her greatest day-to-day satisfaction on the job is to guide and encourage other people on the staff as they develop their own skills and impact on the company.
“Someone saw something in me and that made me able to move up and do more,” she said. “It makes me happy to see growth by someone when they have a chance at a new position. I try to remember to keep an eye on new people and to think, ‘How can I help them succeed in this business if that is what they want?’ ”
