Not initially intending to pursue a career in health care, Shannon M. Minor, MBA, was surrounded by the field growing up, as her grandmother was a nurse with Kaiser Permanente for over 30 years and her mother was sick for a period when Ms. Minor was in high school. She began her career with the Fresno Housing Authority as an office assistant in 1998, rising to become the housing program coordinator from 2001 to 2006 and the community development coordinator from 2006 to 2008. Realizing that she wanted to switch career paths, Ms. Minor entered the field of health care as a staff assistant with Kaiser Permanente in 2008.
Concurrently, Ms. Minor enrolled with National American University, where she earned an Associate of Applied Science in business administration in 2010. She subsequently worked as a quality analyst for Kaiser while studying toward her Bachelor of Science, which she achieved in 2012. That same year, she became a senior quality specialist while also being appointed as interim medical staff supervisor with Kaiser, a position she held until 2015. During this time, she continued her studies at National American University, achieving a Master of Business Administration in 2013 and a Master of Management in health care administration in 2014. Ms. Minor has also received certification as a Six Sigma black belt from the International Six Sigma Institute and as a professional in health care quality from the National Association for Healthcare Quality.
Ms. Minor spent time as an outcome analyst with Valley Children’s Hospital from 2015 to 2016. She briefly served as the manager of medical staff services with Kaiser Permanente in 2016 before being appointed as a service director for Medicare operations from 2016 to 2018. In 2018, she became the director of medical staff services with Kaiser Permanente, a position that has her directly overseeing six employees and providing support to two of the largest hospitals in the Northern California region. She assists with hospital governance and regulatory requirements in Sacramento and Roseville, California, and ensures that her staff is properly trained on credentials and privileging.
Holding considerable expertise in medical staff services, Ms. Minor attributes much of her success to her resilience, determination, and the support of her husband, Richard. An innovative leader, she strives to find new ways to integrate technology into their work to promote efficacy. Notably, she was able to push for her department to go completely electronic, and they are now creating apps that allow practitioners to submit pertinent information through their phones. Noting that the work she and her employees do has zero room for error, Ms. Minor finds continued motivation in watching other people learn about their work. Part of her duties include bringing in new employees, and she finds it joyful to see them learn about the field of credentialing and privileging.
Ms. Minor stands out among her peers for her emphasis on treating her staff like they are family and promoting their work-life balance. While she was willing to sacrifice family time to further her career and professional growth, she knows that everyone has different needs and therefore it is important to remember that your employees have lives outside of work. To keep abreast of developments in her field, she maintains professional affiliations with the National Association for Healthcare Quality and the National Association for Medical Staff Services.
Having accomplished much over the years, Ms. Minor considers the most gratifying aspect of her career to be educating hospital leaders about the field of credentialing. Physicians are not trained in hospital governance, and therefore, it is important to support them and help train them in what hospital administration entails. She enjoys getting to see the physicians grow and settle into their leadership roles as they learn about the behind-the-scenes executive/administrative work. Recognized early on for her work with the Fresno Housing Authority, she was more recently honored with the Raise the Roof recognition by Kaiser Permanente in 2018. Looking toward the future, Ms. Minor intends to continue working on hospital operations and being involved in performance improvement, though she can see herself moving into an executive position or transitioning into a regional role.