Frances A LaPrad, Director of Health Information Systems, AdCare Hospital, Worcester
La Prad
Frances A. LaPrad recently moved into a position at AdCare Hospital created especially for her, where she will help implement electronic medical records. In this Q&A with the WBJ, LaPrad says she ended up in her technology-heavy career only after being pushed away from an art degree on the grounds that it wasn't an "acceptable" choice for a woman.
Vital Stats:
Age: 61
Residence: Worcester
Family: Married with one son, one daughter and five grandchildren
Education: Stephens College, Columbia, Mo., B.S. in information management
Previous job: Clinton Hospital, supervising registration and health information management
Start date at new job: July 28, 2008
Q. How are you settling in at your new office?
A. The office is the product of a departmental rearrangement, which was built for me, and I love it.
Q. What's the biggest surprise you've had in starting the job?
A. I think the biggest surprise was the positive attitude of my staff. You never know how you will be accepted, especially when you are changing the entire system they were used to using.
Q. What challenges do you see in your new position?
A. I think the big challenge will be taking AdCare from relying on a paper medical record to an electronic medical record (EMR) and getting staff to accept the change happily.
Q. How different is this job from your previous position?
A. In medical records the basic principals stay the same, it's the staff and administration and their attitudes towards change that are different.
Q. How close is this to what you imagined in high school you'd end up doing?
A. In high school I wanted to pursue an art degree but my father wouldn't hear of it. It was a different time where women were expected to only do "acceptable" things and art was not acceptable.
Q. Where's the best place to get lunch near your new location?
A. I think the best place is right in the AdCare Cafeteria.
Q. What do you hope to be doing 10 years from now?
A. Hopefully in 10 years we'd be fully electronic and I would be able to cut back my hours with my title being EMR Administrator.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments