Maggie So, MHA, has been steeped in the administrative side of health care for a long while, excelling at a variety of positions along the way. But, she was eager to learn more about the field and, importantly, improve her skills.
In the following Q&A, she explains how the Mount Sinai Master of Health Administration (MHA) program has helped her gain fresh perspectives about health care—knowledge that she is applying in her current job.
What is your background?
I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2006 with a BA in humanities as a first- generation, American-born Chinese. Early on, I taught conversational English to Japan Self-Defense Force members, businessmen, airline stewards, housewives, and children. My journey in health care did not start until I came back to New York City and worked in administration for a Chinese health care facility in Brooklyn. I wore many hats. Eventually, a provider there opened his own practice and I became a business liaison and later worked at the front desk as a medical assistant, then office manager. I left for a position at The Mount Sinai Hospital, where I worked as an administrative assistant for nearly two years for a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. I now work at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) as an office manager.
What first attracted you to this field?
I have always wanted to help people and felt at home whenever I was in a hospital setting. I want to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves. I believe in always treating people the way I would like me, my daughter, and my family to be treated, no matter one’s race, ethnicity, or gender.
Who were your mentors and what are some of your accomplishments in the program?
Through the Graduate School I was introduced to my mentor Zachary Almer, MPA, who, as a consultant, helped develop and launch the MHA Mentorship Program for first-year MHA students. His guidance helped me tremendously, starting with resume writing, but more significantly, with picturing what, exactly, I wanted from a career, and how I could apply my new skills. Matt Baney, MS, Senior Director of the Institute for Advanced Medicine and faculty in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Department of Public Health, had a class in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources that helped me to see management in a different perspective and to understand there are different work cultures. I learned my management style through the DiSC: Finding Your Teamwork Style class. It was eye-opening. I saw how true it is that no one has just one style, and I was taught how to be mindful of the style of others.
Why Mount Sinai—what, specifically, are the strong points of this program?
From the beginning, my tour of the school with program leadership made me feel so comfortable. First—and significantly—they understood the constraints I had and the flexibility I needed as a full-time employee, full-time single mom, and now as a student. However, what really drew me was the quality of the faculty and the program courses, such as Introduction to Health Care Policy with Ashley Fox, PhD, and Population Health and Managed Care (Arthur Gianelli MA, MBA, MPH), which taught me to create an innovation that can actually make a difference. I also liked the class on Quality Management for Health Care with Michael Pugh, MPH. And, through this course, I have already applied one lesson I learned after earning my Certificate of Quality and Safety from the Institute for Health Care. I no longer ask patients “What is the matter with you?” I now ask “What is it that matters to you?”
What else have you learned along the way?
As a trained and working administrative assistant, I believe I am able to introduce efficiency and optimize workflow while delivering accurate executions of daily duties. I think what I excel at most is the amount of care and positive attitude I have toward patients. Working in pediatric orthopedics, we manage nervous and scared parents who come to us for not only medical care for their child, but also to have us relieve a lot of their own anxiety and stress they may be feeling. I have firsthand experience with how scary things can be when something happens to your child. The program helped me to become more patient and be a better listener.
What’s Next?
I currently work at HSS and I plan to explore moving to the patience experience and service excellence department. I want every patient and family to have the best experience while receiving care.