From Boston: Helping Those Who Help
Wendy Gutterson supports life supporters
Wendy Gutterson has worked in the health care industry for over 20 years. Armed with a graduate degree in health care administration from Simmons College and a burning desire to support those who save lives and serve their communities every day, Gutterson worked for such major New England medical organizations as Tufts Medical Center, Lahey Clinic, Cambridge Health Alliance and Hebrew SeniorLife before launching her own venture, Physician Management Resources (www.pmrconsulting.net). As president of PMR, Gutterson helps doctors and medical facilities improve productivity and patient care by educating them about the latest best practices in strategy, operations, and financial management.
“We are a specialty consulting firm helping medical practices groups of all sizes set and achieve their personalized practice-related goals,” Gutterson explains, noting that her end goal is to allow and encourage medical professionals to “do what they like to do best - take care of patients.”
As she did with Hebrew SeniorLife and other organizations, Gutterson works with all levels of the medical and administrative team, as well as any outside organizations such as the Department of Public Health, to help establish new facilities and practices or to deal with the day-to-day issues that arise in the often over-complicated medical world.
“My clients are physicians and practice managers who know what a successful practice is, but just can’t get there without changing how they currently work,” she observes, noting that, though she is based outside of Boston, she works with professionals across the country. “I love coming into a practice that knows they can do better and spending time learning about their successes, their frustrations and where they would like their practice to be.”
In addition to being part of the health care community for decades, Gutterson is also married to one of the chief doctors involved in caring for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing; and so she knows better than most how much of a toll life-saving can take not only on those in need but on those who dedicate themselves to providing for those needs.
“While I have experience with and am happy to work with large groups,” Gutterson says, “I think it is the smaller private practices that are my specialty niche.
As many of these groups lack the resources to staff their own in-house finance, human resources, and information technology professionals, they often need outside support. On the other hand, Gurtterson notes, these smaller teams are often more nimble and so can implement the changes se suggests quickly.
“In any case,” she says, “they are almost always fun to work with!”
By Matt Robinson
Matt Robinson is a professional journalist, writer, communications director, educator, coach, and parent. His food writing can be read at matts-meals.com and he can be reached at matthewsrobinson@mac.com