What’s the best career in health care?
If you ask Nancy Metzler, she will insist the greatest job in the field is transplant administration. “Every day is different – we have the opportunity to work on finances, regulatory requirements, people management, problem solving, marketing, crisis management, quality and process improvement, planning and logistics – it’s incredibly rewarding.”
Successful transplant administration relies on the ability to wear many hats – and as chair of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network’s Transplant Administrators Committee, Metzler is keenly focused on helping her peers in the field collaborate and pool the knowledge that helps them do their work.
Learning from each other
This emphasis on collaboration will be a central theme of her welcoming remarks at the opening session of this year’s Transplant Management Forum in Las Vegas. “Our role as administrators is to support our clinical and administrative teams in their quest to get a patient from evaluation to transplant and beyond,” she says. “Collaborating and learning from each another – that’s how we grow. Building that network of administrators that you can go to when you have a question or want to confirm you’re doing the right thing is so important.”
The importance of connecting with peers
At TMF, Metzler will address a broad community of transplant leaders that includes physicians and surgeons, quality and clinical managers, and organ procurement organization leadership. Calling it a must-attend meeting, she considers it the only annual gathering where transplant administrators can connect with other transplant administrators and thought leaders and hear experts discuss the topics that are critical to the success of their programs. “Beyond the sessions – which provide practical tools you can add to your arsenal of transplant management skills – the opportunity to meet other people who are facing similar challenges is invaluable.”
When asked which presenter SHE looks forward to hearing speak, Metzler says this year’s keynote speaker Jason Schechterle will have her full attention. “He has an incredible perspective on how to handle the challenges life brings our way – as transplant administrators, that’s something we can learn from and bring to our work.”
Out of an abundance of caution and in response to widespread concerns regarding COVID-19, we have canceled the 2020 Transplant Management Forum, scheduled for April 6-8 in Las Vegas. Find details on the TMF page.
Nancy Metzler is transplant administrator at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York – a role she has held since 2004. Before joining Strong Memorial, she negotiated transplant contracts as a consultant for an insurance company. She also worked with transplant contracts at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where she served as Director of Managed Care. She is the current chair and the former vice chair of the OPTN Transplant Administrators Committee. She previously served as an at large member of both the OPTN Policy Oversight Committee and the former Kidney Paired Donation Program Work Group.
