InSight Health - Michelle Underwood

Company: InSight Health Services Corp.
Company Description: InSight Health Services is the nation’s largest integrated provider of diagnostic imaging services, including CTs and MRIs, with 209 locations (92 fixed/117 mobile) across 33 states. InSight employs 2,100 and contracts with 1,400+ hospitals/managed care customers. Recently, the company has received a dozen awards recognizing its growth, management and business practices.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Plant, Facility, or Satellite Office Manager

Nomination Title: Michelle Underwood, Operations/Branch Manager, InSight Health Services Corp., St. John's Imaging Center - "A Welcome Challenge"

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in 2003 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Over an 18-month period, Michelle Underwood read the same advertisement for the job she currently holds three times in local newspapers and on the Internet. 
Coincidentally, a few days after reading the third ad, Michelle received a call from
a former boss working for the very same company that was running the ads,
wanting to recruit her for the same position. 

Michelle, an expert in field management in the imaging business, was no stranger
to operations and possessed the business acumen necessary to run an imaging
office.  Michelle was hired by InSight in January 2000 to serve as
operations/branch manager of its St. John's Imaging Center in Oxnard, Calif.

Prior to her start date, the interim manager sent her a copy of the center’s current
financials.  She wondered if he was trying to be helpful or wave a red flag.  What
was glaringly obvious was the fact that the center was in the red.  Michelle
reconsidered but finds a challenge appealing.  She viewed this job as an
opportunity to make changes and affect results.  She was confident she could get
the center on track, never considering anything but a positive outcome.  And that’s
just what she achieved.

Michelle rolled up her sleeves and got to work.  With pressure mounting to get the
poorly performing branch into fiscally sound shape, Michelle knew just what to do. 
Within nine months, everything changed.  She turned the branch’s performance
around and won the respect and trust of the employees by:

*Educating the workforce so that their thinking was in line with the company’s
goals.
*Demonstrating the company’s need to earn a profit or they could not survive.
*Teaching the staff about outpatient imaging operations, priorities and commitment
to customer service.
*Reducing the workforce.
*Controlling expenses and the scheduling of employee and patient appointments. 
Previously, employees would not schedule patients if there were conflicts in their
personal schedules.
*Enhancing customer service and accommodating every patient, payer and
physician.

The revelation set in when employees realized Michelle was a friend not a foe as
the staff began to earn team bonuses and has received a bonus every quarter for
the past two fiscal years.  In 2003, Michelle won the company’s corporate wide
sales contest and earned an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii.

In the four years since Michelle’s joining, the branch has:
*Doubled revenue from $3 million to $6 million, which equates to more than a 16
percent overall compounded growth rate.
*Increased profitably five-fold from $442,000 to $2.1 million
*Experienced the greatest growth in its history in 2003 with a 27 percent increase
in revenue.
*Became the best performing center across the company’s 209 locations in 33
states.

While the center continues to grow, Michelle constantly reflects upon her first and
toughest days on the job.  But today, she drives home the point that by providing
the best care and customer service possible no one will be more successful than
her team.  With rewards to reap from their hard work, no one could agree more
than the 39 employees that now service this location.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: List each link on a separate line, begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.website.com]:

http://www.insighthealth.com/aba
user name: aba
password: 2004

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about this nominee:

Michelle Underwood, CRA, serves as operations manager for InSight’s St. John’s
location.  She is responsible for overseeing day-to-day sales and operations of the
branch.  Michelle has 28 years of experience in the diagnostic imaging sector. 
She joined InSight in 2000 and since that time, led the St. John’s location into the
top-performing position in InSight’s network.  Previously, Michelle held a variety of
management positions in the imaging industry.  She is a graduate of the Henry
Ford Hospital School of Radiologic Technology in Detroit and attended Los
Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Calif.  She has published several
articles in peer-reviewed publications within the imaging sector.  She has also
been certified in radiology administration (earning a CRA) from the American
Healthcare Radiology Administrators.