In the first episode of High Reliability Season 3, we were pleased to welcome Brittany Remec. Brittany is a Construction Project Lead at Advocate Aurora Health. The Advocate Aurora System has hospitals and offsites throughout Illinois and Wisconsin.
Brittany, a millennial, offers an exciting perspective on healthcare facilities management and discusses her unique career path, from college to her most recent construction role with Advocate Aurora. She has accumulated a great deal of experience in a relatively short period, and we discuss some of the lessons she has learned as she has advanced. Brittany has had facility management and construction accountability, and it is interesting to hear her discuss her career choices.
Brittany fell into her hospital career by mistake while interning in college. Some of her comments relative to career development are excerpted below:
I signed to intern at Rush Oak Park hospital, not knowing what it (facilities management) would be in the slightest. Welcome to facilities management? I don’t understand, what do you do? But I fell into it hard and fast, and it was something that after the first couple of weeks interning, I said this is what I am going to do.
I got to learn about The Joint Commission; they came the week after I left, so I didn’t get to see my first survey process. But my biggest assignment that summer was the regulatory books. My mentor at that time sat me down in front of all the books and said, here is the code, here is what is supposed to be in here, here is what you need to look for on each page. Just sit and read the books and make sure everything is there.
And that taught me a lot. To the point that even at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, when we had an intern, we just sat him down in front of the books. That is how you learn.
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