The First Post

As an introduction, my name is Scott (Morty) Mortensen. I am married to an amazing, beautiful, caring woman named Kara. We currently have one little 3 year old boy named William. I enjoy healthcare and during my free time love ALL sports, reading, and all sorts of movies.

I have been intrigued with healthcare and leadership my whole life. I have chosen to follow my passions in life as a hospital administrator. Currently I am employed at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH as an Administrative Fellow. My career started in 2004 at Intermountain Healthcare (an amazing organization) where I learned the importance of reimbursement by acting as the Business Office Liason and Patient Financial Advocate for the Emergency Department at Logan Regional Hospital. From 2006-2009 I completed a Masters of Healthcare Administration (MHA) and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health and Carlson School of Management respectively. While completing my graudate education I worked at Mayo Clinic (2007) in Rochester, MN in the Department of Medicine and SPARC Innovation Lab...an amazing experience. While there I offered recommendations on improving resource utilization costs specifically in the area of CHF and Pneumonia and the diagnostic tests (lab, radiology, etc) that are related to such diseases.

I was also fortunate enough to work for UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest insurance/health plan companies in the nation. UHG, at the time, had 6 core business areas and I worked in the company they owned called OptumHealth. I was able to experience the importance of a clinical network, recruiting physicians, the credentialing process and all the major concerns that are linked to offering health plans and products to members of a network. While at OptumHealth I was able to provide a solution to move the over 70,000 network provider files to an electronic format. This was another wonderful learning experience!

During my final year as an MBA/MHA student I worked as a Healthcare Consultant for Carlson Ventures Enterprise (more-or-less a subsidiary of Carlson School of Management). The major project that I led, with 4 other consultant students, was a collaboration between HealthEast Care System, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN, Ecumen, and Ucare. These players were interested in a new, innovative model for the care of baby-boomer patients with chronic diseases such as heart failure, diabetes, and Alzheimers. After researching, ideating, seeking patient input, and developing a plan we formed a model of care for the future. We were able to present our recommendations to a load of different stakeholders including Sg2, and the Minnesota Department of Health, not to mention the sponsors of the project. A magnificent opportunity!

This blog will act as a journal of my insights, thoughts, expressions, learnings, and frustrations as they relate to healthcare and business in general. I keep this blog in order to organize my own life BUT also invite others that may be interested to follow along and provide their "two cents" on any given topic. So, here we go (Kara will be so proud of me)....