From the age of five, Dr. Jessica Mendelsohn knew her calling was medicine. Her childhood declaration to her parents wasn’t just a passing fancy, but a profound insight into her future path. “I always knew it’s what I wanted to do,” she reflects. “I think it’s in my blood.”
An Unexpected Pathway to Medicine
No one in her immediate family worked in traditional medical roles. With only a younger cousin who is a nurse, her inspiration came from a less conventional exposure to healthcare. This unconventional background didn’t deter her; instead, it fueled her determination to carve her own path in the medical field.
The Heart of Healthcare: Human Connection
At the core of Dr. Mendelsohn’s practice is a profound belief in human connection. “The people,” she emphasizes, are the most rewarding aspect of her work. Her approach goes beyond traditional medical care, focusing on partnership rather than simply “fixing” health issues. “We’re able to talk to the public, learn their stories, understand what’s going on with their health, and be able to work with them as partners towards better health,” she explains.
Reimagining Primary Care
Dr. Mendelsohn’s direct primary care practice, New South Family Medicine and MedSpa, represents a radical departure from traditional healthcare models. By eliminating insurance companies from the equation, she’s created a patient-centered approach that prioritizes individual care over bureaucratic constraints. “Patients pay us directly, and we are not involved with an insurance company or third-party paying us,” she explains.
This model allows for deeper patient relationships, longer visits, and a more personalized approach to healthcare. Her ultimate goal is ambitious: to demonstrate a better way of practicing medicine and receiving healthcare in the primary care space.
Navigating Professional Challenges
Dr. Mendelsohn is candid about the additional challenges women face in the medical profession. “As a woman in healthcare, as a woman physician, our thought process is different,” she observes. “We have to perhaps work a little bit harder than our male colleagues to get to the same place.”
Her strategy for overcoming these challenges is rooted in a growth mindset. She views obstacles not as insurmountable barriers, but as opportunities for learning and growth. “Either you succeed, or you learn,” she says.
Blending Personal and Professional Life
Contrary to traditional notions of work-life balance, Dr. Mendelsohn sees her professional and personal lives as deeply interconnected. “There is no balance,” she candidly shares. Instead, she focuses on being present in the most important moment at hand, whether that’s responding to her children’s needs or addressing a patient’s health concerns.
She even involves her family in her professional journey, making her practice “part of our family” and using it as an opportunity to teach her children about community impact and professional dedication.
A Lifelong Learning Journey
Dr. Mendelsohn credits her current success to the cumulative experiences throughout her career. Opening her practice without prior business experience was daunting, but her previous work in large healthcare systems provided crucial insights. “I don’t know that I would have had the understanding on a more global aspect of what influence I can have in healthcare if I hadn’t gone through all of that prior,” she reflects.
Message to the Next Generation
Her advice to young professionals, especially women in healthcare, is profound: “Don’t lose sight of all the incredible things that you are.” She encourages embracing multiple facets of identity, recognizing that a career in healthcare is important, but not the sole definition of one’s self.
Wisdom for Her Younger Self
If she could send a message to her younger self, it would be: “Don’t change a thing, and don’t think so far into the future that you miss the present.” She emphasizes the importance of pausing, breathing, and acknowledging one’s accomplishments along the way.
The Power of Perseverance
Dr. Jessica Mendelsohn’s journey is a testament to the power of perseverance, passion, and purpose. Her story demonstrates that success is not about avoiding challenges, but about learning, adapting, and remaining committed to your passion.
“In the words of Robyn Arzon, ‘You’ve made it through 100% of your bad days.’” To Jessica, this resonates as a powerful reminder of human resilience and the potential for growth, even in the face of significant obstacles.
By sharing her story, Dr. Mendelsohn isn’t just inspiring the next generation of healthcare professionals – she’s actively reshaping the landscape of patient care, one patient and one practice at a time.
When personal experience meets professional expertise, transformative healthcare solutions are born. This is exactly what happened with Supriya Laknidhi, CEO and co-founder of Cerula Care, a pioneering virtual behavioral health platform supporting cancer patients through their treatment journey.
Building Bridges in Healthcare
With two decades of experience in healthcare, including leadership roles at United and Aetna/CVS Health, Supriya identified a critical gap in cancer care. Her company, Cerula Care, provides comprehensive virtual behavioral health support as an extension of oncology teams, addressing a need that affects over 85% of cancer patients.
“We provide a care team with virtual visits, inclusive of counseling, holistic health coaching, and psychiatry, very specific to people who are going through the cancer journey,” Supriya explains. The team receives referrals directly from oncologists and spends approximately an hour and a half with each patient monthly, focusing on understanding their emotional state and building trust.
“We’re really getting a sense of what their barriers are for optimal care,” she says, “and then we’ll work with them partly on the counseling and psychiatry as needed, but spend a lot of our time giving them the tools and skills to help alleviate the barriers.” The impact of their work resonates deeply with patients, as one member shared: “We helped her feel like a real person at a time in her life where she didn’t even have a sense of self.”
Personal Journey Shapes Professional Mission
Supriya’s path to healthcare innovation was influenced by both professional experience and deeply personal circumstances. As the mother of a child with autism and a daughter to aging parents, she witnessed firsthand how physical health challenges often intersect with mental health needs.
Early Foundations of Leadership
Supriya’s leadership journey began in a supportive household that fostered confidence and ambition. “I grew up in a house where my parents gave me all of the confidence that I ever needed in order to just go pursue whatever I wanted to pursue,” she reflects. As an only child, she was raised in an environment where excellence was expected and success was the only option. This foundation, combined with a strong emphasis on education, helped shape her future approach to leadership and innovation.
Navigating Career Challenges with Resilience
Like many leaders, Supriya’s career hasn’t been a straight upward trajectory. She describes careers as “jungle gyms” rather than ladders, acknowledging that not every situation will be the perfect fit. She recalls a particularly challenging time when a supportive executive left, leaving her innovative project without crucial backing.
The experience taught her valuable lessons about resilience and perspective. “When you’re facing a challenging part of your career, think about it as a point in time, and don’t make it a very personal thing,” she advises.
Balance and Well-being: A Leader’s Perspective
As a mother of two children, ages 10 and 8, Supriya emphasizes the importance of self-care in leadership. “If I’m not there for myself in the way that I need, it’s really hard for me to be amazing for others,” she shares. She maintains balance through running, which serves as her form of meditation, and setting boundaries between work and family time.
“Dinner time and bedtime, I still have young kids. I’m not checking email (but of course my team can reach me if absolutely needed). My team knows that. Weekends for the most part, same thing,” she explains. “Some of this is just being pretty strict about taking the time that you need for yourself and for your family.”
Breaking Stigmas and Creating Change
At Cerula Care, Supriya’s team is tackling the stigma around mental health through an innovative approach. By integrating behavioral health support into cancer treatment, they’re making mental health care more accessible and acceptable. “When someone is diagnosed with cancer… all of a sudden the stigma of having a mental health person in your team by your side decreases,” she explains.
This approach often serves as an entry point for broader mental health support: “What we’re finding is a lot of people do come in and then we know and they know that they probably should have had mental health services before. There’s probably underlying anxiety or depression that’s been there for a while and it’s almost like sometimes we’re their first door in and that’s okay.”
The Power of Mentorship
Early in her career, Supriya found inspiration in a female mentor who significantly shaped her professional journey. Working in banking in New York City, she encountered a remarkable woman leader who stood out in a male-dominated environment. “She was instrumental for me in my career going forward,” Supriya recalls.
“There were many times where she was able to be pretty honest with me if maybe a promotion didn’t happen because there’s inherent bias and how we can work through that and what we should do.”
This mentor not only provided professional guidance but also demonstrated how to balance a successful career with family life, serving as a powerful role model for Supriya’s own journey.
Inspiring the Next Generation
Drawing inspiration from her early career mentor, Supriya is passionate about supporting the next generation of women in healthcare. “Inspiring the next generation of women is one of the reasons I wake up every single day and come to work,” she shares. She emphasizes the importance of personal connections and leading by example, demonstrating that it’s possible to balance a successful career with family life.
Wisdom for the Journey
When asked what message she’d send to her younger self, Supriya offers wisdom that resonates with all healthcare leaders: “The career is long. Not every part of it is going to be amazing, but lots of it is going to be fantastic.”
She emphasizes that she’s still learning and growing, noting that as a first-time founder, “I am my younger self all over again, doing something for the first time and learning every single day.”
Her final piece of advice encapsulates her leadership philosophy: “Handle everyone that you work for with grace and respect and be true to who you are and connected with them. That makes a career wonderful even through the jungle gyms of a career.”
Through her leadership at Cerula Care and her commitment to breaking down barriers in healthcare, Supriya Laknidhi exemplifies the perseverance and innovation that drive positive change in the healthcare industry.
In the dynamic world of healthcare technology, Christine Emery stands as a testament to the power of perseverance and adaptability. As a nurse turned healthcare technology leader, her journey exemplifies the spirit of innovation and resilience that defines the Women Who Lead Healthcare initiative.
From Bedside to Business
Christine’s path in healthcare began in 2010 when she graduated nursing school and dove straight into critical care. “I really enjoyed caring for those high acuity patients,” she reflects. “The more drips and infusions, the more fun and challenging the work.” Her natural aptitude for mathematics and science, coupled with her father’s encouragement, led her to pursue nursing – a decision that would shape her future in unexpected ways.
During her time in the ICU, Christine quickly distinguished herself as a leader. “After being a nurse in the unit for about a year, I became a preceptor helping new unit nurses onboard to our high acuity patient population,” she explains. She found particular fulfillment in mentoring new nurses, teaching them critical thinking skills, and helping them navigate complex patient care scenarios.
Transitioning to Healthcare Technology
After seven years of intensive care experience, Christine made a pivotal career shift when an opportunity in the healthcare technology industry presented itself. Now at Monarch Medical Technologies for over four years, she has carved out a unique role that combines clinical expertise with business acumen.
“My role is a blend of clinical, business, and sales, which is fun and challenging,” she shares.
As a Customer Success Manager and Team Lead, Christine’s responsibilities are multifaceted.
“My primary objective in my role is to partner with my client base by helping them understand the functionality of our solutions, evaluating their glycemic metrics, and being able to focus on opportunities for learning and growth while still fostering continued success,” she explains. In July 2023, she took on additional leadership responsibilities as the team lead for her department.
Overcoming Career Setbacks with Grace
Christine’s journey hasn’t been without its challenges. Early in her transition to the medical device industry, she faced a significant setback when company restructuring led to widespread layoffs.
“That was very hard to absorb because I’ve always been an overachiever and a hard worker,” she shares. Rather than letting this derail her ambitions, she used the experience as a catalyst for growth.
During this period, she dedicated herself to applying for other medical device positions, using each interview as a learning opportunity. “I actually learned a lot from several of those clinicians I interviewed with, even though I did not get the job. I learned a lot about developing client rapport and portraying confidence,” she reflects. These skills would prove invaluable in her future roles.
Breaking Through Personal Barriers
Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of Christine’s journey is her transformation from a reserved student to a confident healthcare leader. “If you had told me in high school that I would be presenting on a regular basis in front of important hospital system stakeholders, I would not have believed it,” she admits. “I was the timid student who would gladly have done all the work if someone else would present the content.”
Today, she has worked hard to develop her professional presentation skills, regularly conducting presentations and handling complex clinical questions in real time. This growth mindset extends to all aspects of her work: “You can always learn new skills and work hard to become an expert.”
The Impact of Education and Mentorship
Christine’s educational background at Bob Jones University provided her with more than just clinical knowledge. “Having that liberal arts education really did allow me to have a wide variety of vast knowledge of different topics,” she notes. One particularly impactful lesson from her education continues to guide her work:
“You never want to put yourself in a position where people will question if you did something right or wrong. Always put yourself in a position where you showed that you did right and you did it to the best of your ability.”
Cultural Heritage and Professional Identity
Beyond her professional achievements, Christine maintains a deep connection to her heritage, speaking Spanish daily with her 90-year-old grandmother, who immigrated from Cuba in the 1970s. “She’s my hero and I am in awe of her sacrifice that allowed me to pursue a career where I can help others,” Christine shares.
This bilingual ability has enhanced her capacity to serve diverse patient populations throughout her career, particularly during her bedside nursing days when she was often assigned Spanish-speaking patients.
Contributing to Healthcare’s Future
In her current role, Christine continues to drive positive change in healthcare by leveraging her bedside nursing experience to improve clinician workflows and reduce nursing workload burdens. “When you think about how nursing staffs the majority of the hospital, the experience that I have working at the bedside, bringing that into healthcare will help shed some light for a lot of other departments,” she explains.
Words of Wisdom
Christine’s commitment to transparency and integrity remains unwavering: “In a world where deception is pervasive, honesty and integrity will always stand the test of time as desirable qualities.”
She encourages others facing career challenges to remember that “experience is a hard but good teacher and every situation is a learning one. You don’t know until you try.”
Christine Emery’s journey demonstrates the transformative power of perseverance in healthcare leadership. Her story inspires the next generation of healthcare leaders to embrace challenges, pursue growth, and maintain authenticity in their professional journey.
The way healthcare keeps financial score is being transformed by technology and by data-driven approaches to decision-making. Financial dashboards are increasingly important to healthcare organizations as they look to improve efficiency, optimize the allocation of resources, and enhance patient care. These tools help healthcare professionals make informed decisions based on real-time data, which transforms the managing and monitoring of financial performance/
Understanding Financial Dashboards in Healthcare
Financial dashboards are visual tools that consolidate and display key financial data to give a comprehensive overview of an organization’s financial health. The main purpose of these dashboards is to aid informed decision-making by presenting complex data in an easily digestible format.
Key Components of Effective Healthcare Financial Dashboards
Revenue Metrics: This includes revenue per bed, clinician, and treatment.
Operational Metrics: Metrics like patients served, encounters, and clinician count.
Profitability Metrics: Profit and loss by location and budget comparisons.
Industry-Specific Metrics: These can include claim denial rates and average length of stay.
The Shift from Historical Reporting to Real-Time Insights
Healthcare accounting and financial management has traditionally relied on historical data to make decisions. But with real-time insights, organizations can now monitor financial performance as it happens, allowing for more proactive and agile management. You no longer need to wait until the end of a reporting period to make strategic planning decisions—every day, you have at your fingertips all the information you need to see trends and start pivoting.
Essential KPIs for Healthcare Financial Dashboards
Healthcare financial KPIs are the bread and butter of dashboards. Tracking different revenue, operational, and profitability metrics can allow you to see a three-dimensional view of your organization at any time.
Revenue Metrics
Revenue per Bed: This tracks the income each bed generates, helping optimize bed utilization.
Revenue per Clinician: This measures the financial contribution of each healthcare provider.
Revenue per Treatment: This assesses the profitability of different treatments and services.
Operational Metrics
Patients Served: This monitors the number of patients treated, highlighting trends and capacity.
Encounters: This tracks patient interactions to gauge workload and resource allocation.
Clinician Count: This measures staffing levels to ensure adequate patient care and operational efficiency.
Profitability Metrics
P&L by Location: This analyzes profit and loss across different locations to identify performance variations.
Budget Comparisons: This compares actual spending against budgeted amounts to control costs and improve financial planning.
Industry-Specific Metrics
Claim Denial Rates: This tracks the percentage of denied insurance claims, helping to identify billing issues and improve reimbursement processes.
Average Length of Stay: This monitors patient stay duration to optimize bed turnover and improve patient flow.
The Impact of Real-Time Data on Decision Making
Enhancing Forecasting and Budgeting Accuracy
Real-time data has revolutionized the way healthcare organizations approach forecasting and budgeting. These processes traditionally relied on historical data, which often failed to reflect current trends or sudden changes in the healthcare environment.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a prime example of these suddenly-changing conditions. Nearly overnight, healthcare providers had to instantly react and adapt to shifting federal and state regulations and new guidelines on caring for COVID patients. Data dashboards give up-to-the-minute information that can enhance accuracy in several ways:
Immediate Access to Current Financial Information: Healthcare organizations can access the latest financial metrics. This ensures their forecasting models and budgets are based on the most current available information.
Improved Resource Allocation: Understanding the current financial status and anticipated future needs lets organizations allocate resources more effectively.
Dynamic Budget Adjustments: Real-time data allows continuous budget monitoring. This lets healthcare managers make necessary adjustments to stay on track financially.
Identifying Trends and Patterns for Proactive Management
Being able to analyze real-time data helps healthcare organizations identify trends and patterns that may not be apparent with delayed or historical data. When historical data is aggregated and seen in a snapshot view, you can easily lose sight of day-to-day trends.
Up-to-the-minute data analysis can highlight emerging financial issues before they become significant problems. This allows for early intervention that might not otherwise be possible.
Meanwhile, continuous monitoring lets healthcare organizations identify long-term trends that inform strategic decision-making. This can often include changes in patient volume, service demand, and revenue cycles.
And finally, data lets organizations benchmark their performance against internal goals and industry standards on a rolling basis. Again, periodic snapshots in time aren’t the most helpful when it comes to strategic planning. By constantly evaluating an organization’s performance, managers help it remain competitive and efficient.
Facilitating Quick Responses to Financial Challenges
Real-time insights are crucial for healthcare managers who must quickly respond to financial challenges. Whether it’s a sudden drop in revenue, unexpected expenses, or changes in regulatory requirements, real-time data gives the information needed to act quickly.
But real-time data doesn’t just help with challenges; it also highlights opportunities. For instance, recognizing a surge in demand for specific services can help you immediately capitalize on this trend by reallocating resources or adjusting service offerings. And if or when you see this trend start to reverse, you can retool your approach.
Customization and Accessibility of Financial Dashboards
Financial dashboards can be customized to give different stakeholders targeted insights. This helps ensure that everyone—from executives to managers to clinicians—can access the information they need. The most effective financial dashboards integrate seamlessly with other healthcare systems and data sources to give a holistic view of an organization’s financial health.
With mobile accessibility, financial dashboards enable on-the-go decision-making, letting healthcare professionals stay informed and responsive no matter where they are.
Case Studies: Success Stories of Healthcare Organizations
Improving Operational Efficiency
Sage Intacct helped one healthcare organization reduce its monthly close from 15 days to 4 days. This organization, which provides on-site primary care and health coaching, used a reporting dashboard to analyze its operating costs by number of eligible lives per clinic, as well as how many medical supplies were being used per visit. This helped the organization get a better handle on how much to charge patients. It also allows it to determine which clinics are operating most efficiently. Learn more at Sage’s blog.
Enhancing Financial Performance
A California orthopedic clinic grew by 25%—without adding to its finance headcount—by incorporating operational data into its reporting process. Sage Intacct also helped it streamline its finance workflows to free 50 hours per month.
Like any tool, a financial dashboard is at its most effective when it’s designed with the user in mind. If the dashboard doesn’t track the measures you want to see or is confusing or difficult to navigate, it’s not the best tool for you. Platforms like Sage Intacct offer robust features tailored to healthcare financial management and can be nearly endlessly customized to the user experience.
It’s also crucial to train your healthcare teams on the most effective use of these dashboards. Comprehensive training programs and ongoing support can make for a smoother transition. At Lavoie CPA, not only can we optimize Sage Intacct to suit your individual needs and goals, but we can also provide direct support throughout the process.
The Future of Financial Dashboards in Healthcare
As the healthcare industry shifts towards value-based care, financial dashboards will play a key role in tracking performance metrics and ensuring sustainable, patient-centered care. What’s more, technologies like AI, blockchain, and predictive analytics will continue to offer deeper insights and enhanced security.
You need to stay ahead of regulatory changes to consistently comply with them. Fortunately, financial dashboards can help healthcare organizations monitor and adapt to new regulations in the most efficient way possible. Instead of relying on manual research and employee memory to ensure you’re complying with relevant federal and state guidelines, you’ll be able to program these guidelines into your dashboard and see how you’re performing.
Conclusion
Financial dashboards have become an indispensable tool in modern healthcare financial management. Organizations that leverage the power of these dashboards can enhance their existing operations, optimize cost structures, and improve their financial performance. But it’s more than moving ahead—it’s about not being left behind. Healthcare providers must embrace and invest in advanced financial dashboard technology to stay competitive and provide the best outcomes for their patients and stakeholders.
Ready to take your healthcare financial management to the next level? Learn more about how Lavoie CPA can empower your organization’s decision-making with Sage Intacct—contact us today to start the conversation.
As your software company grows, the financial tools that once served you well may instead start to hinder you. From clunky manual billing processes to delayed reporting, tools that work well for small businesses can quickly lose their luster.
At Lavoie CPA, we’ve guided many software companies through this critical transition. We’ve helped companies move from basic accounting software like QuickBooks to more robust solutions like Sage Intacct. Below, we discuss five clear signs that it might be time for your company to make this switch.
Manual Billing Processes
Are you spending hours manually creating invoices or re-entering data from Salesforce into QuickBooks? Not only does this time-consuming process slow down your cash flow, but it can also increase the risk of making errors.
As your customer base grows, manual billing becomes increasingly unsustainable. It’s not just about the time spent, but about the opportunity cost of what your finance team could be doing instead of manual data entry.
Inflexible Billing Options
In today’s dynamic software market, your company’s growth hinges on its ability to offer varied pricing models. If QuickBooks won’t let you implement subscription-based, usage-based, or other innovative pricing structures, you’re missing significant growth opportunities. Modern customers expect flexible options—your billing system should support this, not hinder it.
Spreadsheet-Based Revenue Recognition
With the complexities of ASC 606, it’s no longer feasible for growing software company accounting teams to manage revenue recognition in spreadsheets. Not only is this manual entry time-consuming, but it’s also prone to errors and makes audit preparations a nightmare. If your best team members spend a disproportionate amount of their time on manual calculations, it’s a clear sign you need a stronger solution. Automated revenue recognition isn’t just a luxury—it’s a necessity for scaling software companies.
Delayed Reporting
Are you pulling all-nighters to prepare reports for investors or your board? Delayed financial closes and manual report preparation drain your resources and obstruct timely decision-making. In the fast-paced software industry, having real-time insights into your financial performance can be the difference between seizing an opportunity or missing out. If you only have access to outdated financial information, you’re ill-equipped to make the best decisions for your company’s future.
Challenging Forecasts
For software companies, being able to accurately predict cash flow, revenue, and growth is vital for strategic planning and investor relations. If you’re struggling to create reliable forecasts, it’s time to consider an upgrade. Accurate forecasting isn’t just about predicting the future; it’s also about understanding the levers that drive your business and being able to quickly and accurately model different scenarios.
How Lavoie CPA and Sage Intacct Address These Challenges
At Lavoie CPA, we specialize in implementing Sage Intacct to address the pain points discussed above.
We integrate your quote-to-cash processes, eliminating manual data entry and reducing errors. This integration can speed up your billing cycles by 30-60%.
We enable flexible, contract-based billing to support innovative pricing models, letting you experiment with pricing strategies that can drive growth.
We automate revenue recognition, ensuring you’re ASC 606 compliant without the spreadsheet headaches. This not only saves time but also provides peace of mind during audits.
We set up real-time GAAP reporting and SaaS metrics, providing instant insights into your business performance. This allows for more agile decision-making and more productive board meetings.
We improve your forecasting capabilities, enabling you to make data-driven strategic decisions. With Sage Intacct, you can easily model different scenarios and understand the potential impact of each.
Benefits of Upgrading from QuickBooks
Companies that make the switch typically see:
30-60% faster quote-to-cash cycles, reducing DSO.
20% improvement in cash flow, freeing up resources for strategic investments.
30-75% shorter financial close periods, allowing finance teams to focus on analysis instead of data gathering.
More accurate forecasting, leading to better strategic decision-making and improved investor relations.
Scalability that supports business growth without the need to grow your finance team.
Position Your Company for Success
If your software company has begun to outgrow its spreadsheet-based billing and reporting tools, it’s time to consider a more robust financial management solution. The transition from QuickBooks to a system like Sage Intacct isn’t just about handling current challenges; it’s also about positioning your company for future growth and success.
At Lavoie CPA, we have the expertise to guide you through this transition. We understand the unique challenges of the software industry and can help tailor our implementation of Sage Intacct to your company’s specific needs.
Don’t let outdated financial systems delay your growth. Start the conversation with Lavoie CPA today to learn how we can help you implement Sage Intacct to overcome these challenges and position your company for future success. Let’s work together to transform your financial operations from a bottleneck to a strategic asset.
