The Cupertino Courier

Community

Top manager cares about both the staff and patients

By Erin Hussey

When Lynne Page was looking for a career change five years ago, she never thought she would be working at one of America's leading heath care organizations.

Today, she is well known at the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center and was recently named The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) Manager of the Year.

"We had a number of applicants but Lynne was clearly the best," says Dr. David Newswanger, chief of the department of anesthesiology.

Newswanger, who knew of Page through the Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church, decided to hire her in October 2001, despite the fact that she had no experience in the health care field.

As the director of anesthesia, plastic surgery and general surgery, Page manages close to 130 Kaiser employees including doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, surgeons and administrative assistants.

She is responsible for a number of areas such as the hiring and firing of personnel, purchasing and handling patient concerns.

"Lynne is a person of high integrity who is committed to her job and that was clear when we interviewed her and it is still clear," says Newswanger.

"Lynne is a delightful person to work with because she cares about what she does, she does what she says she is going to do and she is committed to the highest quality of work at all times."

Page, a 21-year resident of Sunnyvale, credits her award to all the hard-working people in her three departments.

"I am more or less a symbol of what these departments have done," says Page.

Due to Page's focus on the patient care experience and the staff's working environment, the departments had significant improvement over the prior year in staff courtesy and care experience in the member-patient satisfaction survey.

"I really want to share this with the staff and people that have worked hard from all levels of the organization," Page says.

In addition to working with fellow employees, Page notes interacting with patients is one of her favorite things about her job.

"We have patients who we see quite often for recurrent issues or ongoing conditions and when they see me in the hall will come up and say, 'We always look for your smiling face' and we'll chat for a while," says Page. "That's the kind of thing that really gets me excited about this job."

Before Page was managing doctors and interacting with medical patients, she worked in both the computer and airline industries.

"There is no better service training than with an airline," says Page.

During her years in the airline industry, she worked in passenger service and remembers boarding celebrities and having to deal with angry passengers.

"We were put through an unlimited number of classes and training, like how to maintain your cool when you have a gate room of 150 upset people because their flight was just canceled."

When Page is not working, she enjoys biking, including the 3.5-mile commute to work, walking around Sunnyvale and traveling with her family.

"I am happiest when I'm spending time with my family," she says.

Page and her husband Larry have two sons, Carson and Brady. Both boys graduated from Homestead High School and have remained in the Bay Area; Carson works for Google and Brady is a student .

While Page admits that she still has more to learn about the health care world, she says she's learned a lot and has even been able to observe a number of surgeries.

But what impresses Page the most is the way all the medical employees tend to their patients.

"It's a really good place to work,'' says Page. "I would not stay here if I didn't think it was anything but top quality."