Member Profile – Amy Woodfin

Direction: Can you briefly describe your business background?

Amy: I received a Bachelor of Science in Health from Texas A&M University with an emphasis on Community Health Education and have been in healthcare for the past 20 years.

Before moving to Washington State ten years ago, I worked in various positions, including in the detox unit at a local psychiatric hospital and as a paramedic. After moving to NW Washington, I began my career with PeaceHealth as a pathology assistant at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham and worked my way up to supervisor. From the pathology department, I migrated to the world of healthcare compliance as the Compliance Coordinator for my region and was chosen as the System Policy Coordinator for PeaceHealth a little over a year ago.

I have always gravitated toward policies and procedures. In every job I have ever had I either rewrote the existing manual or wrote a new one. P&P are the reference manuals and guides that help people do their jobs. My natural inclination is to make those documents as clear as possible, easy to understand, and relevant to the job. Every job has its unique challenges-understanding policies and procedures should NOT be one of them.

I constantly seek to improve my skills and knowledge, and am looking forward to beginning work on a Master’s degree in Technical Communications this next year.

Direction: Tell us about your work – responsibilities, challenges.

Amy: I am the System Policy Coordinator for PeaceHealth, a Catholic healthcare system with hospital and laboratory facilities in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. As such, my main responsibilities are to oversee and facilitate the daily policy process throughout the company and anticipate future needs. That includes everything from writing policy documents (policies, procedures, plans, guidelines, standards of care, and protocols), assisting other writers, managing our centralized policy database, providing training to policy personnel throughout the company, and maintaining the System and Regional Policy Centers on our intranet. I travel around the regions a fair bit and thoroughly enjoy meeting new people and learning about their processes.

I am very fortunate to have a team of talented people in each of our six regions that manage their regional policy process and collaborate with me to continuously improve the overall process throughout the company.

Direction: Tell us about your audience.

Amy: My audience depends on the task. It could be an individual policy writer, a regional department getting ready for an upcoming accreditation survey, a cross-regional counterpart group that is putting their processes to paper for the first time, or any of the 10,000 plus employees of PeaceHealth, associated physicians and clinicians, volunteers, students, patients, visitors, contractors, and other business associates that may be included in the scope of a policy document. It is quite a diverse group.

Direction: What do you like most about your job?

Amy: I love the variety of tasks involved in creating policies and procedures. There is nothing better than taking a process, working with the content experts to determine what actually happens (or needs to happen) to successfully accomplish the process, determining the best approach (policy, procedure, protocol, etc.), putting that in language the end users will understand and find useful, and then making it easily accessible to the people that need it when and how they need it. An incredible diversity of processes keep a hospital running and I get to learn something new every day.

I also really enjoy teaching people how to successfully write policy documents. Most of the time I am working with staff who take on writing policies in addition to everything else they do. Let’s face it - not everyone enjoys working with policies and procedures, even when its part of their job. My goal is to demystify the concept of policies and policy writing, and break it down into manageable, practical chunks. I love the “Aha!” moments when a new writer gets it for the first time.

I take personal and professional satisfaction in making order out of chaos, successfully completing projects that were thought too daunting, and expressing my creativity through web page design. All of this is only possible with the unequivocal support of company leadership that makes the success of the policy process a priority.

Direction: What advice can you give to someone who wants to get into P&P documentation?

Amy: If you like writing or working with policies and procedures, speak up! Chances are others will be delighted that someone actually wants to work with policies and procedures. Don’t be afraid to let content experts know you don’t understand a process. By asking questions, you find the fundamental elements of a solid policy or procedure.

Another great thing to do is to contact the policy person in other organizations in your field. Ask them what they do and open a channel of communication. I have found that policy writers are more then willing to share their expertise, knowledge, and documents to help a fellow writer. All you have to do is ask.

Direction: What’s the biggest P&P challenge that you face in your industry or specialty?

Amy: There was a time that our regions thought of themselves much more independently than they do now. Each region had its own way of doing things and its own way of writing policies. This isn’t unique to healthcare. Due in part to the changing regulatory climate and our constant commitment to our mission and values, we shifted the emphasis from independently functioning parts to a whole with interconnected elements. As a result there have been many struggles in the policy process, particularly when we began standardizing the format and centralizing all policy documents into one database. We have made monumental strides toward a more cohesive and effective policy process. There are literally thousands of policy documents that guide us through how we provide healthcare on a daily basis. We continue to reduce duplication wherever possible and consolidate regional documents into system-wide policies when applicable. Everyone now understands the logic and benefits of a defined and well-run policy process. Now if I can just get the die-hards to let go of: “But, we’ve always done it this way.”

Direction: Tell us a bit of personal information about you – e.g., hobbies, where you live, your family, or other information to help us get to know you.

Amy: I grew up in Central Texas and moved out to Washington State, sight unseen, ten years ago. It might sound corny, but I always knew I belonged here and was just biding my time until I could make the journey. I live in the far northwest corner of the state, just 12 miles south of the Canadian border. The Pacific Northwest is an incredible place of mountains, forests, fields, rivers, and ocean. I fall in love with it all over again every day.

I am actively involved with the local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), teach emergency preparedness classes in the community, and am an advocate for emergency preparedness for animals. I have an art background (prior to healthcare) and occasionally find time to do a piece for friends. I love to read, work in my yard, and travel for fun when I can.

Amy Woodfin can be reached by email: Contact Amy Woodfin.