Memorial Heroes: Jo Ann Ketcherside, MIS System Analyst III

What is your official title?
My official title is MIS System Analyst III, but I like to say I am a System Analyst, Physician IT Support. That makes more sense to people.

How long have you worked here at Memorial Medical Center?
34 years

How did you come into this position?
I was a teamleader of (at that time) our Surg/Onc unit and they were asking for volunteers who wanted to be part of a team to evaluate and restructure nursing documentation. I thought it was a great way to see how we could make all nursing documentation easier and more streamlined. So, I signed up and went to the “meeting”. Well this meeting ended up being my first training class on how to build in Meditech. There were 10 of us nurses who became the build team and build all nursing documentation into Meditech and thus began electronic charting for nursing. Once we completed our build, we all rolled it out to nursing, and I went back to be a full-time teamleader. This happened back in 2005. Afterwards I would assist our CI (clinical informatics) at that time by helping to maintain and build new screens and train new nurses on how to document electronically. Over the years we expanded the nursing module to include order entry, eMar, allergy and med rec routines, etc., which I helped test, train, and implement. In 2012, LifePoint was looking for someone to implement our provider module in Meditech where providers would review patient records, enter orders, and documentation directly into Meditech. I thought this would be a great challenge so I applied and here I am.

What was your motivation for a career in Healthcare?
I have always had a passion for helping people. My mother use to tell me that I was talking about being a nurse back when I was in elementary school. I believe people should feel good inside and out, not feel alone or afraid to ask for help. I love seeing people smile, glow with confidence, and be healthy.

What is a typical day like for you?
Support, educate, and be available to everyone, even if I do not know the answer. I make it a point that our providers, nurses, my co-workers, and anyone in other departments know they can contact me for assistance for anything. If I do not know the answer or cannot help, I will try to find the answer or steer them in the right direction to get their answer and help. This way I could learn what I do not know for future reference, and it is always nice to learn.

How would you describe your role’s responsibilities?
My primary role is to listen, assist, look for an easier solution, and not make assumptions. Just because something makes sense to me does not mean it makes sense to the end user. As I mentioned earlier, we implemented Meditech back in 2005 and it is now 2020. There is a lot of changes in the electronic world and thinking that nothing can be changed to make things easier is ridiculous. There is always room for change and even though change requires extra work, it will always be worth it in the long run.

In what ways do you help patients?
Though I am not providing direct patient care, I believe that all our electronic system will make things easier for those who are on the front line provide care. The final goal is for our patients to be safe and happy. Anything to help our nurses and providers spend an extra 10-15 uninterrupted minutes with their patients, allowing them to do something extra for them or maybe be able to have that short personal conversation.

What are some of your interests outside of work?
Camping is my thing. Me and my husband try to go camping a minimum of once a month starting in May with our last hurrah being the week of Thanksgiving in the mountains. Spending Thanksgiving week in the mountains is one of our family traditions and my grandchildren look forward and love going.

I also do a lot of projects with my grandchildren. I love doing and showing them things that I enjoyed when I was young; camping in the back yard, building forts in living room, having water balloon and nerf gun fights with our neighbors in our cul-de-sac. Back to basics is always fun to me.

What is your favorite part about working for Memorial Medical Center?
Memorial to me is like home. I always joke and say that work is my home and I go home to work. Of course, my husband thinks I am full of it ????. I have been here at MMC for many years and have enjoyed all of them. MMC has always worked with me with all my life events (pregnancy, parents passing, family illnesses, etc.) and the opportunities that have been available to me to have great experiences. I would not want to change any of my history here