Randi redmond oster, mba

When Randi Oster worked at General Electric leading teams to design new parts for aircraft engines, she was obsessed with safety – and for good reason. “I used to lose sleep over a millimeter change in a part redesign of an aircraft engine, because I felt I had the weight of peoples’ lives on my shoulders”. Through rigorous training in management and leadership, Oster became confident in her ability to work with teams to build new products and businesses by thinking of the customer first. Having spent two decades in the corporate world, she assumed that all organizations designed their processes with the customer in mind and provided training for employees just like as GE did.

When Oster took on the role of patient advocate for her teenage son in 2009, she received a rude awakening. The transfer of knowledge and teamwork Randi was used to at GE was missing in the ER. Wasn’t her son a critical part of the team? Randi and her son were being left out of conversations about his care and by default – they felt neglected, confused, and worried.

“Those of us who work in the aerospace industry know that it takes well-designed processes to build a safe product,” said Oster. In that hospital, she didn’t see the processes in place needed to manage such a complex system. Doctors were focused on their expertise requiring many to manage his care, yet she seemed to be the main point of contact for communication. They'd ask the same questions repeatedly. Who was the system engineer looking at him as a whole person? “There would be planes falling out of the sky if we did things like this!” said Oster.

And she wasn’t quiet about it. As a person who loves improving processes, Oster took notes throughout her time with her son in the hospital, which later became a multi-award winning book, Questioning Protocol. Recording her experience was not only therapeutic for Oster, but became a stepping stone for the next phase in her career.

As president of Help Me Health, Oster’s mission is to ignite a culture change that makes patient experience part of the hospital’s DNA. By putting the patient perspective at the forefront of every healthcare employees mind, employees will be able to consistently know what they can do to meet patient’s expectations. Provider engagement improves, patient satisfaction improves, outcomes improve and so does the bottom line. With burnout prevalent in healthcare, just like flying a plane, we need our front line at peak performance. Oster is grateful for her years of executive leadership training in GE. Her team is transferring industry best practices to health care.  Help Me Health’s proven methodology will improve healthcare’s bottom line. But to Oster, even more important, it will improve the healthcare system for all.