Patricia has worked as a Project Manager/QC Manager since 2012. She has worked on a variety of projects consisting of state report only and accredited cancer program projects. Patricia performs weekly quality control reviews on all her assigned projects. She provides guidance and support to the project CTRs in answering abstracting questions and is involved with project set up and defining the abstracting parameters. Patricia has been instrumental in our mentoring program this past year providing mentoring for onsite registrars. Patricia’s experience, consistent patience and follow through has allowed her to successfully apply her expertise and share her knowledge in mentoring.
Prior to her experience with RPI she worked for the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, GA as well as Coliseum Medical Center in Macon, GA as a cancer registrar. Tricia has an Associate’s Degree in Health Information Technology since 1999 and earned her CTR certification in September of 2000.
Tricia lives in Gray, Georgia which is south of Atlanta, with her husband of 33 years, Jeff. She has two children, Shannon and Stephen as well as three beautiful grandchildren, Kaitlyn 11, D.J. 9 and Aubrie 4. She also has a dog named Penny.
Tricia enjoys gardening, cooking, going to the beach and spending time with family.
Q&A with Tricia:
Q: Have you attended NCRA? Yes Were the meetings and networking what you expected?
A: That and more. Attending NCRA meetings allows you to gain further education and keep abreast of our ever changing cancer data field.
Q: As a mentor, what are the most common questions you receive? How long is it going to take me to get through the mentoring process? Do you have any tips for new registrars?
A: Read, read and read your manuals! It’s so important to read your manuals and the notes that are within them to understand the instructions on coding the fields we collect. So many CTR’s rely on the drop down boxes within their cancer registry software systems that they don’t refer to the instructions in their manuals. Also I can’t stress enough the importance of entering good text documentation within the abstract.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: Working with the CTR’s that I work with. They’re a great bunch. The team at RPI is always willing and ready to help one another. I also enjoy mentoring. It’s rewarding to see individuals growing in their careers as a cancer registrar and them being excited about becoming a CTR.