Ivo Caldera

Nurse Interview
The subject of my interview is Margarita Ollet. An RN who has worked in community health
centers helping the indigent and underserved population. Currently she is the interim CEO of
Health Choice Network of Florida, an organization that provides key business services, strategic
initiatives and the latest in health information technology to federally qualified community health
centers participants in an effort to improve patient outcomes through increased efficiencies and
more accessible care.
1. How long did you practice as a nursing doing direct patient care?
o I was able to work with patients for 4 years before I started doing more of the
administrative jobs
2. How long has it been since you stopped doing direct patient care?
o It has been a long 24 years since I worked directly with patients.
3. Has your nursing experience helped you in future jobs?
o Nursing taught me compassion. You are not treating the illness, you are treating
the person. If you forget that and only treat the illness you lose the human touch
and then you are just working as a machine going through the motions. You need
to have the personal touch to be able to really make a difference and leave a
lasting impression on your patients.
4. Which skills learned during nursing school or doing direct patient care do you still use in
your current job as VP and now as CEO?
o The main thing I took from nursing, especially in the beginning was the emphasis
in assessment. You are always assessing, and even when you are done assessing
and implementing your interventions, you are still assessing as you go to make
sure the changes you expected are taking place and you are not experiencing any

unwanted side effects. This holds true in the nursing world as well as the business
world.
5. With the changes to healthcare occurring, where do you see nursing as a profession
heading into the next 5 to 10 years?
o Looking at the healthcare trends, nurses will be vital in helping to control costs
while improving patient outcomes. With the emphasis on hospitals having to do
more with less funding, nurses are at the front line in preventing hospital acquired
infections and other complications. Hospitals do not get reimbursed for these
types of complications and nurses are positioned to have a direct effect on these
negative outcomes and help the hospital they work for at the same time they
provide care for their patients.
6. With Medicaid HMO plans such as United and Amerigroup changing from group share to
risk share, what will be the key for hospitals and clinics that accept these forms of
payment maintain an acceptable level of revenue?
o The plans are changing their pay structure, before our member centers would get a
percentage of the gross revenue regardless of how much the plans gained or lost
during the month. Now the percentage that the centers are getting is derived after
they take into account their medical loss ratio (the amount of insurance premiums
they collect less the amount they had to pay for medical services). If hospitals
and health centers are unable to control these costs, the fees they received from
the insurers will suffer. In addition, if their MLR numbers are not in line with the
percentages the insurer is looking for; the insurers will divert patients to other
facilities that do have their MLR numbers under control. The effects will be felt
in two ways, the hospitals will receive less funding and they will receive no new
patients, limiting their growth.

7. How do you see electronic health record software changing from what they currently are
now?
o Electronic health records are going to be a key in managing patient care
effectively. I believe a big focus is going to be into the data aggregation software
where they can look at multiple EHRs and combine the data into one single allencompassing patient record. If a patient goes to his primary care doctor, the
urgent care clinic, or a hospital, this software will be able to access all the
information and combine it into one record, therefore you will have the complete
patient history together, instead of being separated based on where he received the
care. This will give us a better picture and understanding of each patient and will
give us the ability to be more effective in managing patient care proactively,
instead of reactively.
8. What advice would you give someone such as me, with a non-medical background and
now getting into nursing?
o For someone who has a financial background there are many opportunities in the
nursing field beyond direct patient care. I would first recommend getting
experience with direct patient care, perhaps a year or two. Then you can
transition into the manage care field where you can analyze patient population
data to identify where to best utilize resources to have better patient outcomes.
You can also go into the nursing informatics field, where you can similarly use
your analytical skills to promote health practices. The key is having the nursing
experience, so when you do jump into the administrative aspect, you have
experience on both sides. You will be able to drive the changes and rely on your
experience to be able to predict how it will impact the nurses actually working
with the patients.

The main theme I take away from this interview is how diverse the nursing field can be and how
useful a nursing degree can be in helping people. Not only in taking care of patients on a one on
one basis, but also helping to mold the nursing community by looking at patient encounters and
analyzing the data to drive change based on evidenced-based practice.