You might say that opening the door to a new career with the Saint Joseph Medical Group in London was easy for Jennifer Jones, since she had a lot of experience with doorknobs.
Jennifer, now practice manager over several teams and the group’s Leader of the Year (2024), had been working as an architectural hardware consultant for a small business owner with building projects all over the state. As someone who has always loved the architectural details of buildings, she would look at blueprints and calculate numbers and costs for hardware like doorknobs, hinges and kickplates.
The seed for a new calling was planted after Jennifer left that job to help care for her maternal grandmother, who died in 1996. She then helped care for her paternal grandmother, who had cancer.
The caregiving and the experiences dealing with health insurance systems fueled her desire to make a difference in people’s lives. “That really brought on the patient advocate side of me,” she said.
Jennifer applied for a position with the Medical Group at Saint Joseph London in 2010 and was hired as a front desk receptionist. She had her Clinical Medical Assistant certification but she gradually added so many other roles and responsibilities that she didn’t renew it. From reception, she progressed to office supervisor, then practice manager for the Medical Group referral team, then added managing the neurology team, and later the credentialing team.
Her own progression there, she said, “has helped me to see how you can grow yourself and your team to become more effective communicators, listeners. Working hard, trying to find better ways to do things, making life easier for our patients and caregivers, I think is what helped open up doors of opportunity for me.”
While Jennifer views her job as supporting the caregivers who take care of patients, that doesn’t mean she has no interaction with those they serve. She builds relationships when she helps patients fill out FMLA and similar paperwork, and walks through the waiting room several times a day, she said, “to make sure everybody is being taken care of. Just saying, ‘Have you been waited on? Are you having a good day?’ helps people feel a little more comfortable.”
Jennifer’s nomination for Leader of the Year noted, “she can be candid in a professional manner.” She laughed heartily at that description, and translated it this way: “When I find an issue or uncover an issue, I don’t want to have 77 different meetings to resolve the issue. I want it resolved. There’s times you just have to step up and say ‘This is what we need to do and how can we get there.’ I’m not afraid to do that.”
Jennifer calls Saint Joseph London the best place she’s ever worked, adding she’s proud of the Medical Group’s high scores in internal satisfaction surveys. “I don’t ask my staff to do anything I wouldn’t do,” she said. “I tell them all the time a leader can only be as good as the people around them and I have the best people. I don’t want to be anybody’s boss. I just want to be part of the team and help where I can.”
Outside her work, she delights in her three grandchildren — with another on the way — and is involved in her church, Liberty Baptist in Manchester, where she lives. Her grandfather and father are pastors and she plays the piano and sings with her family in church.
At the hospital, Jennifer’s team has prayer during their morning meeting and a motivational thought. She said she tries to live by Saint Joseph’s values, citing respect in particular: “Two of my providers are of the Islam faith; they know I am of the Christian faith. We have an amazing relationship.”
“I’m just thankful there are still organizations where you can keep your values and do your job,” she said.
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