Annually, Medical Advantage honors two individuals who epitomize our eight core values. Medical Advantage’s Core Values serve as a compass to navigate daily actions and steer the decisions of every member of our organization. The Core Value Awards acknowledge those who excel in fostering an open, supportive, collaborative, and accountable workplace environment, contributing to our collective efforts in building a great organization. In 2023, Linda Imirzian, MBA, Informatics Business Consultant and Nancy Nelson, RRT, BA, M.Ed, Practice Solutions Managing Consultant were our winners!
Linda’s career transitioned from the tech space to healthcare in 2018. Purpose driven work that makes a difference is what attracted her to the medical world. She dexterously transferred her solid data and analytics background to modern healthcare solutions. Linda will be celebrating her third-year anniversary with Medical Advantage this year.
Nancy’s career in healthcare spans three decades. Nancy shares that she chose, “the medical industry due to my desire to help others. It makes me happy to help make a positive impact on other people’s lives.” Nancy will celebrate her five-year mark with Medical Advantage this year.
Core Values Emerge from Our Meaningful Work
Medical Advantage’s Core Values are:
- Assume positive intent: My colleagues have the best intent behind their actions.
- Act now: Act with urgency every day.
- Make others great: Help coworkers and customers succeed.
- Let’s talk: Listen, share, and embrace open, respectful debate.
- Take risks: Initiate, innovate, and experiment.
- Results matter: Execute with excellence.
- It’s all about the customer: Our customers’ success is our only success.
- Extreme ownership: I own every success, every failure, every outcome.
As our teams work on projects to improve healthcare operations nationwide, we take the time to reflect on the core values that shine through our efforts. Alongside the annual recognition of two outstanding team members, our quarterly nomination process allows team members to acknowledge each other’s contributions, resulting in a flood of nominations.
Linda Imirzian Demonstrated Extreme Ownership, It’s All About the Customer, Make Others Great, Take Risks and Act Now
While providing support for a long-term healthcare accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation project, Linda demonstrated many core values. She took the risks necessary to move the project forward, made others great through leadership, and provided timely actions to support the clients.
Nancy Nelson Demonstrated It’s All About the Customer
While managing a client support team, Nancy has shown a real dedication to exceptional services. Through her conscientious care of clients, she builds strong relationships, invaluable trust, and fortifies our reputation in the healthcare community. Because Nancy fosters an environment where her team is assured that they have her support, they are empowered to deliver the very best for clients.
Core Values Align with Our Professional Philosophy
When core values align with personal philosophy, team members feel they are in a workplace where they truly belong. Nancy and Linda share which core values resonate with their personal philosophy and work ethics.
My top three would be Assume Positive Intent, Extreme Ownership, and It’s All About the Customer. For Assume Positive Intent, I always want to assume the best intentions from others and seek to understand rather than to judge. This cultivates a culture of positivity and mutual support within the team. Extreme Ownership is another core value that I would put at the top of my list. The concept underscores the importance of accountability, decisiveness, and leadership in all aspects. It empowers one to lead with integrity and achieve greater success both personally and professionally. The last core value is It’s All About the Customer. Without our clients we would not be where we are today. The best intrinsic reward is seeing the success with clients we work with. It is that success that fulfills Medical Advantage’s mission.
– Nancy Nelson, RRT, BA, M.Ed
Making others great goes along with that recurring theme of support and teamwork. I think it’s really important to be looking out for each other, making sure teammates are feeling supported and able to lead with their strengths. I am always looking to help clear “blockers” for others and thinking about fostering a sense of inclusion. I also always like to make sure good work that I see around me is highlighted, recognized, or at least appreciated.
– Linda Imirzian, MBA
Why We Love Working for Medical Advantage
There seems to be a growing consensus among Medical Advantage team members that what is different in the workplace is an “open door” culture. Teams can “reach across the aisle” to tap special skills and expertise from other departments. What is also remarkable is that hierarchy doesn’t hinder communication; individuals feel empowered to reach out to colleagues regardless of their position within the organization.
A positive company culture is the cornerstone of a thriving organization. Medical Advantage fosters an environment where employees feel valued, motivated, and empowered to contribute their best work. Our culture promotes transparency, open communication, and a willingness to listen to employee feedback which enables continuous improvement and innovation. This investment in a positive culture isn’t just good for employees, but it drives overall success and growth of the company.
– Nancy Nelson, RRT, BA, M.Ed
Our day-to-day team collaboration is strong, but when we need to reach out to resources outside our team, the larger Medical Advantage umbrella always has a strong willingness to help! We are all here to support our overall mission of simplifying the delivery of efficient, high-quality healthcare.
What I enjoy the most at Medical Advantage is the variety of my work here, and the people. Truly, every week is not the same, and it’s been really fun to work on so many different types of projects with so many different types of clients. In the few years that I’ve been here, I’ve also had the opportunity to work with and learn from a lot of different teams and people internally at MA as well. We have a lot of deep subject matter expertise here, and everybody’s really willing to help out. The leadership style at Medical Advantage is positive and transparent. We’re very nimble. We’re not afraid to try new things and take on new challenges as a company. I’m also proud of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work. Collectively, we are aligned in the belief at this company that our DEI efforts make us better able to support our clients and foster a stronger sense of inclusion and belonging amongst our teams.
– Linda Imirzian, MBA
On the Horizon for 2024
With the hard work of 2023 behind us, we are well into our 2024 projects. Linda is looking forward to taking on new clients and challenges, while continuing to learn from her teammates. She is particularly excited to see Medical Advantage continue to excel in Value-Based Care.
Nancy expects to see further advancement in artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms that will continue to revolutionize healthcare delivery. She believes these advancements will help healthcare professionals do their job more efficiently to positively increase patient care outcomes.
Careers in Healthcare Consulting
In 2023, the migration of remote workers back to the in-person workplace was a persistent topic of conversation. Medical Advantage continues to offer work-from-home accommodation to employees. This helps our organization acquire talent from anywhere in the country.
If you are considering a career move in healthcare, Linda and Nancy have shared some advice.
It’s okay to be the least knowledgeable person in the room. Pivoting from video games advertising into healthcare with such a big industry shift for me and the healthcare space is so complex with so much nuance that there was a lot for me to learn early on. Asking questions, doing research, taking advantages of the resources that are available, and trying new things is how to learn and grow. Don’t be afraid to take risks!
–Linda Imirzian, MBA
Gain a deep understanding of the healthcare industry. Learn and understand the challenges, regulations, and trends. Stay updated on all of these elements. Communicate effectively and learn to tailor your communication style to your audience. Prioritize client relationships, maintain high ethical standards, and invest in professional development. Healthcare consulting is a rewarding career because you have the ability to make a meaningful impact in improving healthcare delivery and outcomes.
–Nancy Nelson, RRT, BA, M.Ed
For more information about career opportunities with Medical Advantage, please visit our careers page and look over our current job listings.
