Maite's POV
I was so glad when my sister said she would be staying over her friend's house because Kiki and I got sloppy and I would have hated to annoy my sister. Today is a new day and I want to see if I can hire some staff for what we need. I am meeting Hayden today and I am slowly remembering her and the really hot guy. This is one of the days I don't work at the university and I was able to slip in a check-up on my liver too and I am good to go. It was a stupid decision to drink but I was technically finished with my recovery and it doesn't take much to make me drunk.
"Ms. Rodriguez Haddad it's so nice to see you again." Hayden is so tiny it makes me laugh because I am so tall and us next to each other is comical.
"Hello Ms. Barnes, I would like to go over some things that I believe can reduce much of our costs."
"You really are ready to work… So, what did you have in mind?" She seems almost surprised. I don't wait when its business that's how you get left behind. She opens the door to her office and let's me in.
"Well I thought we should create new roles within the finance division to help generate revenue through other means not connected to patients and insurance."
"You do realize this is a hospital and we are trying to cut costs? How will this do that?" She raises her eyebrow and I laugh.
"We employ tons of people and their benefits are what is ballooning the costs correct?"
"Yes, we have had to make staff reductions quite a bit in recent years…"
"Well we need to stop doing that pronto… It is not conducive to have less competent staff at the expense of cutting immediate dollars. Overworking the remaining staff will only lead to the potential increase of mistakes in patient care which can lead to lawsuits and malpractice settlements."
"I understand that we don't want to run on bare bones but that may not be an option…"
"It cannot work, and Port Charles General Hospital needs to be a rival to hospitals in Manhattan, Los Angeles, Miami etc. It cannot be that way if you have no staff. You have some of the best specialists in the country. They cannot work in a hospital that's a ghost town. No one of notoriety will want to come here for operations."
"What do you propose?"
"I was looking at the fees and expenses that we pay to use third parties for benefits like 401ks and we can eliminate that by doing it in-house."
"That's a large undertaking and we are not equipped to do it."
"Not right now no but we can be. You trust my judgement, right?"
"Do I believe you are a genius yes, but we need to be saving money…" Hayden looks at me as if she is begging me.
"We can't keep doing this austere method of just firing people. Might as well close the hospital and call it a day. We need to innovate or die… We can cut a lot of overhead costs that do not come with doing away with staff…"
"So, tell me what your ideas are?"
"We can open a dedicated financial wing for the hospital. We can run the retirement accounts for employees in-house. Yes, we will have to hire on some more staff, but it will be minimal because we would only be handling the accounts of this hospital. We need to invest in things like solar energy. One of our biggest expenditures is keeping the lights on. We can dramatically cut our costs by providing much of our own energy with solar panels. Look at some of my diagrams of how much energy we consume on average daily. We can subsidize it immensely with the solar panels."
"What about the logistics of installing panels for the size of this hospital? Would we really be saving money with how expensive they can be?"
"Yes, because this would be an investment into the hospital being less reliant on the grid. If we tap into solar panels and inverters, we can dramatically reduce our cost by half if not more with buy backs."
"Say we were able to get this off the ground what about making a financial wing?"
"I have seen hospitals creating VCs and I thought we could do that and more like cutting out Fidelity and the astronomical costs we have with them to store our accounts and how much in fees they cost our employees. We can have a similar model with a lower fee and cut admin costs to save us money and help fund the salaries of our in-house money managers." Hayden looks at me and says nothing but its clear that her ears are turning, and she is giving this serious thought.
"How much would this cost us on the front-end?"
"It will be a quite a big investment on the front-end, but we really need to be utilizing our research department. They are not bringing in grant dollars like they used to when Dr. Scorpio was here. If and when we can make viable products the hospital can invest in it. We need to invest in start-ups and attach them into our health system. We should be encouraging our doctors, PAs, and nurses into telemedicine. It creates more revenue but will only be successful with real staff that we can rotate. It also is better for the consumer because this is prevention care."
"I want to see a breakdown in numbers and projections so we can present to the board. What do you need from me?"
"I need more staff. I want to conduct interviews for a small but dedicated team for this venture…"
"I am putting trust in you. I will be honest this will be my neck with how much money I am asking to be invested."
"We won't need to add anymore initial investments from the board. We will need to divert funds and cut a lot of useless admin. We have been cutting from the most vital part of a health system and not from tertiary and obsolete jobs. GH could be more efficient with less admin staff and more software and our own servers. Our existing IT department can run point on a lot of this. I have reviewed personnel files and quite a bit of our existing staff has degrees in IT for health system backgrounds. We have resources and wealth of knowledge that are going unnoticed because we aren't putting importance in the right areas and not cutting through a lot of red tape."
"When did you have time for all of this?"
"I like to win Hayden… I will not be able to sleep until I put myself in the best position to win. We can be just as good as Cleveland Clinic. We have had world-class doctors in this hospital on par with NYU Langone we shouldn't hold ourselves to be second to anyone."
"When will you be conducting interviews?"
"I did some this morning and I have some great candidates that we won't be able to hold onto long. I won't lie some of them have offers from other hospitals."
"If you can convince people to come on board, I am for it. I won't cramp your toes and micro-manage you. Create the team you want but be mindful each person will have to deliver."
"I won't let you down. I do have my next interview in fifteen minutes. I should prep for it."
"Is the candidate I know?"
"I'm not sure he is a Princeton undergrad and Wharton MBA and MHA from Georgetown. Feels like he might have been a lobbyist. I'll let you know how the interview goes."
"Good luck…" Hayden mutters something so low I don't know if she was expecting me to hear. "we'll all need it."
I walk to my office and the candidate is already waiting for me. He is early which means he came in earlier and had someone direct him here. He is tall which is great because it looks like we are the same height with my heels on. Focus Maite on the job and not the level of his attractiveness. He starts to turn around and I almost stop when he looks. Keyword is almost… I never allow anyone to get the slip on me.
"Hello, are you Ms. Rodriguez Haddad? I am Alfonso Contreras." He sticks out his hand before I could even confirm who I am.
"Hi Alfonso, Yes I am but you can call me Maite. I don't know if you have been waiting long." I step closer to my door and start to unlock.
"I don't believe in being early just on time and late." I turn slightly because I feel the same way and I look at him in the eye and it was a mistake because I get lost in them for a second before I realize how close we are because I stopped walking and he makes a face I can't decipher before his mask comes back.
"It's refreshing to hear that with how people are late to everything nowadays." I go behind my desk and create some space because being close to him makes me feel irrational and I don't like the feeling of being unprofessional.
"I aim to please." He smirks at me and I keep my face blank as if I don't recognize the double entendre. His smirk falls when he realizes his eyes won't have its effect on me. I gesture for him to take a seat and I love that he feels a little offkilter right now.
"I was able to look at your resume and it intrigued me that someone with an MBA would go back to get an MHA…" He looks at me for what seems like a minute, but it must have been three seconds before he answered.
"Well most people think I did it to become a lobbyist but no. I became interested in getting my MHA because health systems are at its core a business but one of the most horrid top heavy that threatens to destroy themselves. I grew up in a disenfranchised part of New York City and a local hospital closed when I was a kid. It fascinated me because the level of care was great, but it was poorly managed. I'm an analytical person by nature and the intersection between microeconomics, public health and analysis of information became a challenge I wanted to pursue."
"You haven't actually had a job in healthcare yet why is that?"
"When I graduated Wharton… I was being heavily recruited by Southwest Airlines to do analytics and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to help create a new image for Southwest. I did it for some time before deciding to go back and get my MHA and then look for a job working within a hospital's financial ring." When he says that he worked for Southwest I really look into his resume again.
"How significant do you believe your time with Southwest would be beneficial for this line of work?"
"I got to see how you work and I made it my mission to want to work with you…" I don't know whether to be creeped out or intrigued.
"… I was in the room for your pitch because Southwest wanted a numbers breakdown. I wondered how in the world did someone get my bosses to actually take a meeting to speak about beverage options on flights. When I found out it wasn't Pepsi or Coke it really made me want to know how someone could leverage a meeting. I know Southwest is not Delta but it sure isn't Spirit or Frontier. When I saw you doing the presentation I was wowed by the in-depth analysis and confidence you exhibited. I knew then I wanted to work with you."
"Well considering I failed to get the contract-"
"That was puzzling actually. I don't work there anymore so it doesn't hurt me to say this. I actually did the CB analysis for them and gave my recommendation on taking the contract and telling them it was a huge opportunity to really expand on the partnership and get a foothold in LATAM. They ate crow just weeks later when nearly all LATAM airline companies started using Jarritos on those segmented flights. Southwest did kick themselves later but at this point it was too late to make their splash it didn't help when AeroMexico started gaining even more flights within LATAM." I don't know if he does this to assuage my ego, but it does make me feel good they held regrets.
"It's nice to know they kicked themselves later…"
"I knew when I saw your pitch that I wanted to work with you if I got the chance. This job came up and it was recommended to me by one of my former professors and when I saw you were the interviewer I wanted to know more."
"Whom is interviewing whom?"
"A job interview should be just as much for you as it is for me…"
"Touché… Mr. Contreras. Tell me more of what skillset you would bring to this job?" This is the first time in the interview that he has to pause and search for an answer and it makes me smile.
"I believe my best asset isn't analysis. You can honestly find plenty of people who have the requisite degrees for this job. This is a passion project for me and everything I do I set myself with high goals to achieve. I helped Southwest expand itself despite some of their bad decisions. I also want to work with people that I admire." His last part puts tension in the air. I would be remiss if I dismissed his looks. I don't want to indulge him because a man like this definitely knows he is smooth.
"We may have to deal with scientists and healthcare professionals from different countries… do you speak any other languages?"
"I speak Spanish, French, and Italian."
"Well that gives me many things to consider. I will call you if I have anymore questions. I will let you know soon if we decide to move forward." I stick my hand out with a small and blank smile and I know that it bothers him that he cannot read me. It was in that second that I realized that I wanted to hire him. I need someone that can read body language and psychology. It was a minor of his and its useful for what I want to accomplish here.
"I look forward to hearing from you regardless of your choice." He accepts me handshake and he is still trying to size me up, but I have dealt with bigger sharks honey you can't fluster me.
"Have a nice day. The floor receptionist can help with validating your parking." I walk over to the door and don't bother to look at him. It's my job to not let anything I don't want to show, and it works even on those who try to get in deep with people.
"Uh… well thank you."
I open the door to let him outside my office and I smile where he can't see. I already know that I am going to go with him because for some reason my gut says he will be integral to my time with GH.