By Kate Barney, healthcare marketing portfolio manager at Hyland
In 1957, a cartoonist named Allen Saunders wrote, “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.”
No, it was not John Lennon. But he did use it in a song two decades later.
I had a similar experience this year at CommunityLIVE. I had an opportunity to speak with Mitzie O’Rourke from Baptist Health Louisville about her career. It certainly wasn’t planned. And no one is more surprised than O’Rourke.
Use it anywhere, for anything
Back in 1999, O’Rourke was working at the University of Louisville. Because she had some technical experience, the university asked her to be on a team to evaluate and deploy a document management system. She knew nothing about it – but heck, she was game.
After meeting her, I suspect she is game for just about any experience. At the time, O’Rourke thought this was just another project. Little did she know this would take her down a career path that has been 16 years long and is still going strong.
O’Rourke has since worked with OnBase in three entirely different industries – higher education and financial services, as well as healthcare at three different healthcare facilities.
“You hear document management or enterprise content management and you think this is a just a small little something, a minor application,” said O’Rourke. “Yet OnBase is a huge application, with 300 different modules, and it fits into any industry, worldwide. You can use it anywhere, for anything.”
O’Rourke then tied this to job opportunities, noting that if you are willing to travel, you can start a career just about anywhere.
“I get calls almost every day with job opportunities for OnBase. At first, I never thought of it as a career track, but getting into deeper dives with the application can give you unlimited career opportunities,” said O’Rourke.
Connect with success
O’Rourke also had a lot to say about connections.
“Hyland is a tremendous company for connections. There is an online OnBase Community for every industry, so you can get information from other people who have already implemented solutions and done things,” said O’Rourke. “You get their gotchas, so you do not have to repeat their mistakes. The connections with other people using the application as invaluable.”
And O’Rourke has made a lot of connections. In fact, she’s helped so many other customers by providing advice at OnBase Community, at CommunityLIVE this year, she was like the prom queen with loyal subjects everywhere.
O’Rourke has done it all. Higher education, financial services, and healthcare.
And, to paraphrase another music great, Jerry Garcia, what a long strange road it has been.