Perhaps the best leaders are those who can step out of their comfort zones.
Katrina Thompson-Burnett describes herself as a “socially awkward” laboratorian. With an education in clinical laboratory science, Thompson-Burnett spent more than a decade working in labs at St. Joseph Health Center, Fatima Hospital; Rhode Island Hospital; Dorchester House Multi-Service Center; and Caritas Norwood Hospital. But in 2003, when she joined Coastal Medical, a primary care practice with 20 locations throughout Rhode Island, Thompson-Burnett took on an entirely different role – director of the organization’s ancillary services.
“It was a challenge to transition from a field and background of a laboratorian to being out there and engaging with people,” she said.
Still, Thompson-Burnett has been a huge success by all accounts.
“She has a quiet confidence that is really amazing,” said Meryl Moss, Coastal’s chief operating officer and Thompson-Burnett’s supervisor. “She’s somebody who is a very high achiever, and she executes everything extremely well.”
Thompson-Burnett has focused on innovation, working to ensure that Coastal Medical is a pace-setter in the rapidly changing health care industry.
“Coastal’s in a place where we are experimenting with new ways to provide care to patients,” Moss said. “Katrina has really been the operational lead in many of those programs.”
One such program is Coastal365, which Thompson-Burnett helped establish in 2011 as a Saturday sick clinic. The program offers medical care to patients when their primary care physicians’ offices are not open.
“What we started as a Saturday sick clinic quickly grew to Sundays and holidays,” Thompson-Burnett said. “And then we expanded into evenings, and then we expanded into a couple of other locations in the state.”
Coastal365 is now available every day, including weekends and holidays, with locations in East Providence, East Greenwich, South Kingstown and Smithfield.
“The providers are happy, the patients are happy, and I think it’s changing the culture,” Thompson-Burnett said.
After Coastal365’s success, Thompson-Burnett turned her sights to another new initiative in 2014. Coastal Medical’s Annual Wellness Program caters to Medicare patients. Doctors work with senior citizens to develop personalized care plans, and help them prepare for annual visits with their primary care physicians by checking bone density, conducting mammograms and more.
Thompson-Burnett worked to design the program so that it focused primarily on patients’ needs. “We center on what’s most important to them – whether it’s walking down the aisle at their granddaughter’s wedding or staying in their home and being independent,” she said.
Moss said that patient response rates to wellness programs are generally low throughout the United States, but due to Thompson-Burnett’s approach, Coastal Medical’s Annual Wellness Program has seen success. The program grew from one location at its inception to 13 today, servicing 6,100 patients.
Thompson-Burnett built on the wellness program’s popularity by creating Coastal@Home in 2015. The program caters to Coastal’s sickest patients, who may struggle to get to their doctors’ offices, by providing at-home primary care services, follow-up visits, sick visits and more.
Thompson-Burnett also oversees Coastal’s lab and imaging center, which are open nights, weekends and holidays.
In creating all of these programs, Thompson-Burnett has always stayed focused on patients’ needs. Coastal Medical conducts regular patient-satisfaction surveys by mail and phone, and Thompson-Burnett even sits in on some visits, just to see how they’re going and how patients are responding.
“Not everything is singing our praises, but we listen to even the things that aren’t positive because we really want to know,” she said.
Listening and incorporating feedback from patients and others is one attribute that’s led to Thompson-Burnett’s success.
“She’s completely committed to the idea of continuous quality improvement,” Moss said.
The other factor behind her achievements comes back to her background as a laboratorian.
“In the lab, things are always changing, and things in health care are always changing,” Thompson-Burnett said. “[My background] helps me to bob and weave through this whole transition.”