Jeff Karns spent years dealing with a high turnover rate in the patient access department at the Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, MD. Access staff members have one of the most important functions in the hospital, Karns says. He spends a large part of his time thinking of ways to improve their jobs.

"They realize they're managing the patients, their whole experience in the hospital," says Karns, who as patient financial services director manages the facility's patient access manager. "Most of our patient access staff, what they really enjoy is getting out from behind that desk and enjoying that freedom of helping patients. These are patient-first type of people. Having that authority to decide that 'it's okay for me to walk out from behind that desk and take this person where they need to go'-they like that."