Pam Booth’s nursing career has touched the lives of more patients than she could ever have imagined.

She is a licensed practical nurse and informatics specialist at Hannibal Clinic, one of two people responsible for the support of the clinic’s electronic health record (EHR) system and training staff to use it.

“Hannibal Clinic experienced nearly 225,000 visits in fiscal year 2021,” said Alicia Shaffer, MSN, MBA, director, clinical operations, Hannibal Clinic. “Those visits don’t happen without the hard work of Pam and Laura.”

Laura Schwieter, LPN, is the clinic’s other informatics specialist responsible for its EHR.

Pam’s career began just where she hoped when she joined Hannibal Clinic 11 years ago, as a nurse in the surgery department. Six years into her job, the nurse who had been in charge of training clinical staff on the EHR left the organization. Clinic leadership asked Pam if she would take the position.

“It was a very tough decision,” Pam said. “You want to be a nurse to care for patients, so you’re thinking, ‘I don’t want to be with a computer all day.’”

But Pam loves Hannibal Clinic and its family atmosphere.

“You do what you have to do to help the clinic,” Pam said. “And, the more you learn, the better off you are.”

In addition to EHR system support and training new providers and clinical staff on use of the system, Pam and Laura play key roles in Hannibal Clinic’s quality program.

“We are graded against other health care facilities on data coming out of the EHR that feeds into the quality measures of the accountable care organization we are in,” Alicia said. “It’s really important we are able to do that accurately for Medicare reimbursement and to help us to know we are taking the best care of our patients.”

“Pam and Laura help make sure we have accurate quality data coming out of the EHR, and they are willing to dig and figure out if we’ve missed something,” she stated.

Pam did not come into her EHR role with any specialized knowledge. When it came to technical know-how, Pam had taken a few computer classes in high school and learned the rest on the job.

“Pam and Laura have really had to learn a lot in their role,” Alicia observed. “It’s phenomenal how much they have taught themselves.”

“Their nursing background helps,” she continued. “It allows them to talk to the doctors and nurses and keep the record as simplified as possible with not too many clicks. They understand what clinicians need to be efficient.”

Pam not only followed a different career path than she imaged, but she also almost did not get in to nursing at all. Pam began her LPN studies at the age of 36, after the automotive factory job she held was outsourced overseas.

“It’s weird how things work,” Pam said.

It’s also wonderful in this situation for the patients and staff of Hannibal Clinic.

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