Vice President Operations Support
Encompass Health
Birmingham, Alabama
Comments from nominator Eric Daluga, director national accounts, acute care sales, Medline Industries:
“Elaine has the incredibly difficult job of coordinating and supporting the supply chains of over 130 acute care rehab hospitals. Being on the supplier side and having worked with Elaine for 6+ years now, she takes the time to understand all facets of a project before making a decision. And she does all this while having the difficult job of balancing life with two young children – and never missing a beat.”
Encompass Health at a glance: 130 rehabilitation hospitals, 272 home health and hospice locations in 36 states and Puerto Rico. Encompass Health is the result of the union of HealthSouth Corp. and Encompass Home Health & Hospice.
- Year joined Encompass Health: 2009
- Born/raised: Born in St. Louis, Missouri; spent formative years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; relocated to Auburn, Alabama.
- Degree(s): Bachelor’s in industrial and systems engineering with a minor in business engineering technology, Auburn University. Masters in health systems, Georgia Tech.
- First “real” job: Implemented an electronic medical record system for a large home health and hospice non-profit in the Atlanta area.
Some prior work highlights:
- Developed our Beacon reporting tools to aggregate spend from our 125+ hospitals to be able to trend, benchmark and analyze supply, food, and drug data, which has led to improved contracts, increased adoption to standards and identification of opportunities.
- Implemented a food procurement application to better manage, report, and automate our food standards, purchasing, and invoicing.
- Rolled out programs to improve patient satisfaction and care, including video remote interpretation, mobile radiology service, local produce vendor, and remote temperature monitoring software.
A key mentor or event in your life: After graduating college with an engineering degree and interning with an oil company, I was seeking direction on how to best use my education. So instead of starting a good-paying job in a production facility, like many friends, I took one year “off” to volunteer with AmeriCorps. In the AmeriCorps NCCC [National Civilian Community Corps] program, 18-24-year-olds travel around the country to work with non-profits for four 6-to-8-week stints. I had the opportunity to help low-income people maximize their tax returns, work with Habitat for Humanity, deconstruct homes in New Orleans after Katrina, and teach at-risk middle schoolers. I also lived with 10 diverse peers in different environments (including a school, a warehouse, and an army tent on the beach of Biloxi, Mississippi) where we ate, played and worked together. That one year helped me realize I wanted to devote my work to directly improving the lives of others, which led me to pursue a masters and career in healthcare.