University of Miami Herbert Business School

Virginia Tech

Manager, High Reliability Practice at Baptist Health South Florida

The High Reliability department at BHSF works alongside Inpatient, Outpatient, and Ambulatory teams in order to teach continuous improvement tools, develop leaders through the Lean Six Sigma certification "Belt" ladder, and improve patient safety and business optimization metrics.

Projected financial impact of our department and the 80+ projects undertaken since FY2020: $11 million in cost avoidance savings.

I am responsible as both a "Coach" of these multi-disciplinary teams as well as a Black Belt resource for our own team of HRO professionals and program development.

I developed the BHSF's system-wide education and improvement methodology grounded in lean six sigma thinking

Each fiscal year, I collaborate with key stakeholders to define project objectives, scope, and deliverables for process optimization initiatives in order to present the portfolio of continuous improvement initiatives to executives to align with strategic goals.

I executive chosen projects alongside multi-disciplinary teams, with a focus on data driven solutions, impact, and sustainability.

Improvement Project Subjects (20 projects since Nov 2020)
 -Hospital Acquired Conditions
 -Hospital Acquired Infections
 -Emergency Department Throughput
 -Observation Hours Reduction
 -Patient Experience Improvement (HCAHPS)
 -System-wide Electronic Monitoring Hand Hygiene Solution Development and Rollout (Ecolab)

Development:
 -White Belts (23 Certified)
 -Yellow Belts (40 Certified)
 -Green Belts (2 Certified)
 -Black Belts (1 Certified)

Baptist Health South Florida

Manager, High Reliability Practice

Directly manages a team of four (4) responsible for the portfolio management of Clinical Effectiveness Projects: yearly strategic selection, project management, sustainability, and report data visualization.

Clinical Effectiveness multidisciplinary project teams range in size from 25 to 150 collaborative team members.

Project Goals Include:
 - Risk-adjusted Outcome Improvement: Complications, Length of Stay, Mortality, Readmission rates
 - Innovation / Best Practice Adoption
 - Clinical Process Standardization
 - Enhanced Community Health Partnerships
 - Expanded Clinical Care Offering
 - Team Member Workload Optimization

Project Diagnosis / Topics:
 - Alcohol & Drug Abuse/Dependency
 - ED to IP Transfer Handoffs
 - Heart Transplant Surgery
 - Heparin Administration
 - Hypoglycemia Prevention
 - Maximum Surgical Blood Order Schedule (MSBOS)
 - Patient Code Status Identification
 - Penicillin Allergy De-labeling
 - Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Emergency Response
 - Pneumonia
 - Pre-surgical Testing
 - Primary Care Physician Communication
 - Vascular Surgery

Inova Health System

Manager Clinical Effectiveness Projects

Managed multiple, simultaneous Clinical Effectiveness Sprint projects – 90-day initiatives that bring together multi-disciplinary teams to analyze and improve clinical processes. Leveraged process improvement methodologies to: align Sprint deliverables with organizational priorities, focus stakeholder input into achievable solutions, and facilitate cross-departmental cooperation to complete work on deadline. 2018 projects improved clinical outcomes by 28% and contributed $25 million in cost avoidance savings.

Sr. Consultant, Outcomes

Promoted to lead VITAS’ department of Contract Services, I manage a team of eight (8) employees and oversee the evaluation, negotiation, and processing of all company contracts. Am also tasked with the calculation of all contractual rates and the maintenance of rates related company billing and financials.

•	Created internal fee schedule for newly established Medicare Advanced Care Planning product; yearly projected revenue of $500K for FY2017. Established CPT code and rate maintenance protocols for revenue collection and payment management across all 45 Programs and for over 500 VITAS Physicians.

VITAS Healthcare

Director of Contract Services

Promoted within VITAS’ Internal Consulting department, I was given more responsibility to introduce new projects and spearhead process improvement teams, while continuing to advise executive management on business critical decisions.

Projects:
- Working with the VITAS Department of Recruitment, I lead a Six Sigma DMAIC initiative to increase Sales Representative hire-velocity. Through each phase: Defining the project scope; Measuring current state workflows and KPIs; Analyzing voice of the customer surveys; I presented to VITAS’ CFO, COO, and Executive Vice President of Human Resources strategic recommendations and ground-levels changes to Improve the process and decrease average application-to-hire from 80 to 30 days; further ensuring accountability Control with an internal SLA document signed by each department leadership.

- Spearheaded the utilization of Six Sigma DMAIC processes to evaluate and solidify the efficacy and transparency of VITAS' payer contracting and spend approval processes.

- Provided forensic accounting assistance to VITAS' Corporate Marketing department in preparation of 2016 budgetary review.

Internal Management Consultant

Was promoted within VITAS Healthcare's Internal Consulting department to assume leadership role on multiple projects. Was responsible for guiding strategic initiatives, preparing high-level presentations to executive management, and brainstorming forward-thinking business directives.

Areas of Work:
- Accounts Payable automation
- Industry growth/strategic product development
- Healthcare predictive modeling
- Operational workflow efficiency

Projects:
- Accountable Care Organization (ACO): Created a toolkit and infographics for company-wide education regarding the economics of ACOs. Materials focused on the differences between each ACO permutation, how end-of-life care impacts the financial success of new healthcare models, and how VITAS sales/marketing should communicate with organizations across the United States.

- Led the research and development of VITAS’ first community center; a retail-facing healthcare resource center to service existing patients, reach new demographics, and strengthen key healthcare partnerships. During this two year project, I developed the underlying business plan, worked with stakeholders across multiple departments (Operations, Marketing, Facilities, Finance), scouted over 100 locations to identify pilot location suitable to intended customers, coordinated real estate and architectural partners, and managed executive management expectations through a deliberate project management roadmap.

- Identified an outsourced partner for all Telecommunications Expense Management. New partner better tracks cost, increases utilization transparency, right-sizes payments, and projects to decrease cost by $500K over three years.

Senior Business Analyst

Reporting to the office of the CFO, daily responsibilities focused on ensuring company profitability through process efficiency, vendor evaluation, new product development, and budgetary forecasting.

Areas of Work:
- Six Sigma process improvement methodology 
- Process mapping 
- Statistical regression analysis
- Comparative histograms/Pareto diagrams
- Project Management
- Financial modeling

Projects:
- Stratified existing vendor population and identified top-100 high work-volume accounts for a three month campaign to migrate check payments to electronic financial instruments. The use of electronic payments to these vendors now rebates to VITAS over $400K a year.

- Lead the technical evaluation of corporate predictive modeling partnerships regarding logistic regression, patient stratification, and care transition.

- Created four comparative financial models with corresponding assumptions to project the five-year impact of outsourced, insourced, and hybrid corporate mailroom services.

Business Analyst

The University of Miami Hospital is the only university-owned and –operated teaching hospital in Florida. The 560-bed facility is the flagship hospital of UHealth system that includes over 1,200 physicians.

Projects:
- Created new guidelines within the bio-hazardous waste disposal process to ensure compliance of regulatory requirements. New process projected to decrease total bio-hazardous poundage by 20% and save the hospital $200K+ year over year.

- Process mapping investigation: I recommended the utilization of Microsoft SharePoint by the hospital’s doctor credentialing department to decrease initial credentialing turnaround time and increase transparency of required re-credentialing timelines.

University of Miami Hospital

Process Improvement Six Sigma Black Belt

Assisted the Mortgage Services, Accounting, and Government Compliance divisions in their daily responsibilities as well as their preparations for the 2013 fiscal year.

Projects:
- Managed the data transfer of over 700+ mortgages from Habitat for Humanity Mortgage Services to Everhomes Bank Mortgage Services, ensuring a smooth transition for all 
homeowners under new mortgage handling procedures.

- Updated amortization schedules for Habitat controlled loans in preparation of 2013 fiscal year.

- Updated company checkbooks, allocating government grant funds to the appropriate home and the appropriate affiliation within those home’s construction costs.

Habitat For Humanity Greater Miami

Summer Operations Intern

The Residence Inn Fairfax-Merrifield is a 159 bed hotel catering to the extended-stay traveler.

Managed team of six customer-facing Front Desk Associates, hotel’s purchasing department, payroll, and hotel’s convenience market.

- Improved convenience market revenue by 50% through re-merchandising and a focus on price optimization.

- Devised a plan to re-pay $20,000 debt and re-establish sound budgeting and payables procedures within three months.

- Introduced hotel-wide events such as Movie Night, Float Day, Super Bowl bingo, and March Madness to enhance the hotel’s image as a home away from home, and reinforce the brand’s vision to be the leading extended stay hotel provider for travelers around the world.

Residence Inn

Front Desk Supervisor

Cor Concepts Marketing is a direct retail sales agency contracted by Verizon to sell their FiOS product bundles to residential customers.

Led a team responsible for selling cable television and high speed internet contracts to residential Verizon customers in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.

- Generated an average of $12,000 per week in face-to-face sales for Verizon. 

- Led instructional seminars for new salespeople to ease their introduction to the company and to better understand how residential customers respond to company sales techniques.

Cor Concepts Marketing

Team Leader

The Collegiate Times is a student owned and operated daily newspaper that serves the community of Blacksburg, Virginia and the students of Virginia Polytechnic and State University. 

I was hired in 2005 as a News Reporter, promoted to Day Editor in 2006, and promoted again in 2007 to Managing Editor.

Through all positions I was a reporter and writer covering local and state issues. 

As Day Editor I developed a strong network of reporters and photographers to coordinate story and photography assignments.

When promoted to Managing Editor, I was responsible for the strategic direction and layout of the newspaper.  During my tenure as Managing Editor, the Collegiate Times was awarded the 2007 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker award for overall news excellence.

Collegiate Times Website: 
 - http://www.collegiatetimes.com/

Sample Articles:
 - Why I'm still Proud (Washington Post): 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042001995.html

Michael Berger