Mentorship, Retention, and Growth: Insights from Physician Practice Management with Allen Alongi
Download MP3Well, hi, everyone. I'm Daniel Williams, senior editor at MGMA and host of the MGMA Podcast Network. We are back with another interview and recording with one of our MGMA members. And today we're joined by Alan Alonji. Alan is an MGMA member.
Daniel Williams:He also is newly appointed to our Human Resources and Compliance Advisory Board. We are really excited about that. You're probably going to hear me talk about that advisory board a lot over the next year because it's new and it's something that we want to do so we can take an even deeper dive in creating content, products, training, and development for the MGMA members. So with all that said, Alan, welcome to the show.
Allen Alongi:Thank you. It's, it is a pleasure to be on, a big fan of your podcast as well. So to be on it is actually kind of full circle. So thank you.
Daniel Williams:That is so cool. Those are the best kind of guests. Get people who are listening to the show and enjoying it and know what we're talking about. We were talking off line and I heard you talking to our producer James, talking about where you are and where you've been. So remind me, you and I just talked a week or two ago and I want to make sure I got it right.
Daniel Williams:Where are you stationed? Where do you live right now?
Allen Alongi:Yeah, I'm actually in Marietta, Georgia. Working with Northside Hospital as a physician practice manager for the physician enterprise. So really within that role, overseeing a portfolio of clinics within the Atlanta market. Know, wear a lot of different hats, but day to day in the clinics acting as a mentor for our coordinators who are our managers of the clinics, overseeing operations, oversight of P and L as well. So really a lot of everything, just like you will you typically experience within operations.
Allen Alongi:One of the good things that I really enjoy about this job recently is just more of the the autonomy to complete projects as needed. A lot of those are driven by our strategic initiatives and those are mainly right now retention and patient experience. So working on those and just plugging away and just doing what I can to create a better opportunity for our patients to get in and to develop some of our coordinators at the clinics.
Daniel Williams:Okay. I'm going to take some of maybe you and some of our listeners back. But when I was growing up in the 80s, used to watch pro wrestling that was beamed out Atlanta. And big one of draws there was Bob Armstrong, who was from Marietta. That's how I know Marietta.
Daniel Williams:He was also a fireman. They used to talk about that, that he was an active fireman and a professional wrestler.
Allen Alongi:I didn't know that.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. But, you know, some of the big stars there. I know Nature Boy, Ric Flair, he was huge back then when I was watching as a kid. He still I think he wrestled a couple of years ago or recently. Was.
Allen Alongi:No. No. Definitely. I remember the WWE Monday nights, and those used to be a thing back back growing up.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. That's fantastic. So are you you're pretty new to Marietta in Georgia. Is that correct?
Allen Alongi:Yeah. Actually, a year and a month. Been here with Northside. Was in Houston for about a year and a month as well before that, and then New Orleans all times before that.
Daniel Williams:Okay. And you grew up in New Orleans. Is that correct?
Allen Alongi:Yes, sir. Yeah.
Daniel Williams:Okay. Yeah, I've got a lot of family. My aunt and uncle, they both have passed away, they would be close to 100 now. But they were in New Orleans, so we used to visit there. I've still got their kids.
Daniel Williams:They were my cousins. They're in, I think, Metairie there in New Orleans. And I've got a brother there as well. What part of New Orleans did you grow up in?
Allen Alongi:Yes, right outside. My dad lived uptown. He was Orleans police officer for thirty My mother as well lived uptown, but they moved to the Metairie Harahan area. Not too far from Metairie at all, but yeah, I also miss it as well. I mean I love the opportunity here and I would never trade Marriott in.
Allen Alongi:It's this amazing place. But I do miss the food. That's a tough one.
Daniel Williams:The food's the best. The food's the best there. It's so good. Well we're so glad you're here. So what I'm doing is we're just having deeper conversations with our MGMA members to really understand their story.
Daniel Williams:So talk a little bit about that healthcare journey. How'd you get interested in it in the first place?
Allen Alongi:Sure. A couple of different things happened, but the main thing for me was when I was 14, I was actually diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. And kind of a really kind of a critical event that got me there where unfortunately I went into a coma for a few days, woke up, was in the children's hospital, and didn't know what was going on. But from that point on, was a lot of interactions with neurologists, with endocrinologists, physical therapists for a whole journey until I got out of the hospital. Then of course, subsequently following up with those things more regularly where I was forced into health care if you really think about it.
Allen Alongi:But from that standpoint, I've always kind of been a leader in what I do. I play rugby as well as you know in my current professional career. I've always felt that desire to do as much as possible with that ability. And at first I started in hospitality in New Orleans. Right?
Allen Alongi:It's the lifeblood there. Then I made a decision after I really just started thinking critically about not only job security but then about what I could do and what I could offer. So then I jumped into a little bit on the I worked with American Diabetes Association as a project manager ironically throwing on the tour de cures as well as the big events that they had within the South Louisiana market. From there I actually transitioned over into the academic medicine side with LSU Health in New Orleans where I was working as a department coordinator for the Cardiovascular Center of Excellence and then from there went over to a residency coordinator with general surgery and critical care fellowship. So that was the experience that got my mind thinking even further about where I wanted to go with health care and having a lot of surgeons on our residency team, going to the actual hospital and seeing them in action, I was like, this is where I need to be.
Allen Alongi:I don't need to be behind this desk. And that is what kind of drove me to get some more certifications to drive myself to be more marketable for those types of roles. Unfortunately, ended up in a role with HCA at Tulane. I was there for about two and a half years overseeing the Tulane Institute of Sports Medicine, which was an absolute animal. Exposure, if you're asking what did you get in that first I learned it all.
Allen Alongi:I think in that experience, learning to deal with providers, learning to deal with the ins and outs of how things work, learning how to deal with staffing. And obviously staffing is the crux of a lot of our challenges. So that experience was probably one of the best of my careers and reinforced that I am where I wanted to be. From there I actually kind of branched out a bit, left the home, wanted to find more opportunities that may have not been available there. So I ended up as a director of operations for an allergy and ENT organization out in Houston.
Allen Alongi:Another great experience was there about a year and a month. I had some real high level experience as far as opening de novo clinics, bringing on new providers as well, and just really expanding the bandwidth of access for that group. And then from there, you know, our dream, I think I had mentioned it last week, was we always wanted to live near the mountains. So you know we started looking out and we're not quite there but we're close enough. So we looked to Northside and actually a headhunter group had reached out to me because I was showing some interest, the rest is history.
Allen Alongi:So now Northside's just been a great organization, the best I've ever been a part of. You know, they're really focused on retention, and I think that's a big thing, not only for our frontline staff, but for managers as well who who want to actually grow. That's that's all I want to do is grow. So I'm in a good spot now.
Daniel Williams:That is incredible. What a great story, and it sounds like you've gotten a real variety of opportunities. It's just not exactly a replication of the same thing. You've really branched out. One of the things you did years ago, I guess, or you'd have to tell me how long ago, but you connected with MGMA.
Daniel Williams:I'm always curious about that. When we do talk to an MGMA member, what was the gateway? How'd you hear about MGMA? When was that introduction made?
Allen Alongi:Yeah. So ironically, in the last role I was in, the group was thinking like, how can we get our managers and directors to a level where every single facet of the industry is something that they're familiar with? So as a director of operations, you know, I've had a lot of lived experiences in the roles, right, that kind of taught me what to do and when to do it. But then once they introduced me to NGMA and I started taking a look, I was like, wait a second. I do a lot of this stuff already.
Allen Alongi:And and actually, this is the stuff that I want to learn more of.
Daniel Williams:Yeah.
Allen Alongi:So they purchased the, you know, the initial ACMP package for me. Okay. So from there, I just started reading the book, and I was like, these are a lot of parallels here. And then ironically, right, you know, how it aligns with what I want to do and where I want to grow, I think that, you know, looking not just at the certification but what MGMA has otherwise. Now that's one of my main sources when I'm looking for insight articles, when I'm looking for data to to, you know, support decision making or just primarily looking for any kind of trends or evolving technologies that we might not be using that we could be.
Allen Alongi:And that is just it's a breadth of knowledge. It's great to know that something like MGMA exists, especially when you didn't at first because it opens a lot of opportunities. And, furthermore, you I promote MGMA all the time to my manager team. So every we had our manager meeting this morning, and I always leave them with an article to take away just so we can learn a little more. So we're growing.
Allen Alongi:So we're not just growing stagnant with what we're doing day to day. And MGA has been a terrific resource for that.
Daniel Williams:That's fantastic. And the way you and I met, we put out a volunteer opportunity for the Human Resources and Compliance Advisory Board, And we connected that way because there are those volunteer opportunities where you can go and give back, that sort of thing. Now remind me, because you and I did talk, but then I talked to 10 other advisory board members and some of the conversations are mixing together. Had you written some articles for MGMA as well? Tell us about that if you did.
Allen Alongi:Yeah. This past year actually I wrote three different articles. They were inside articles. You know, I started looking ahead and thinking about what I can do more to contribute to the space and with what knowledge I had. So I did release a couple different articles.
Allen Alongi:My most recent one was one more focused on the mentee journey and kind of guiding with that how you interact with your mentor, what you're going to get out of that mentorship and how you can apply it to your future growth. Some others have been more about feedback loops, how we really value the voice of the patient, but we might undervalue the voice of the employee. So using those two together to kind of come to an agreement on a decision what should be done, that has been something that I've really kind of been thinking about. I was happy to get that on paper. And then some others are more practical.
Allen Alongi:My other article is about practical solutions more or less in the clinics that we experience day to day. So like what is it where staffing is completely overburdened by one task and they can't do something else, and just focusing on tools and tips on how to fix that in a realistic environment. So whether it's centralized refill prescription pools or whether it's cross training or things like that that are really going to make your job easier. I just wanted to, you know, write that up and kind of see if anyone got any value out of it. It looks like MGMA has and I really appreciate it.
Allen Alongi:You know, I still gotta wait to get that magazine in the box in my office, but I'll let my wife handle that. But it's been great. Yeah. And you you both have all been very, very welcoming on that and very appreciative. And, Since then, it seems like something I'm going to make a regular thing.
Daniel Williams:That's cool. Talk about the writing, because not everybody wants to write articles. Is that something you've always enjoyed doing, being a writer as well, or where did that come about?
Allen Alongi:Yeah. If I could choose my dream job, I would be an author. You know, I started reading when I was way younger, you know, five, six, and then really started getting into really just more classical literature. And, you know, something that I really, really admire is the old classics. You know, my favorite, and I quoted it in the last article I wrote, of course, is the "Count of Monte Cristo."
Allen Alongi:For me, I've always thought to myself, like, I feel like I have something inside of me that I can put on paper. Like I feel it, but I don't maybe have it contained yet. So I really read a lot and absorbed a lot at a young age. Then for me, it just I just started finding myself writing more. And, you know, I really kind of just try and pivot off of experiences I have in life.
Allen Alongi:I haven't read anything more than what you've seen now with the articles, but in my previous roles, I was writing press releases for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. I was also releasing some articles for LSU Health as well. So that being in that professional setting got my wheels spinning a little bit more. And, you know, this has been more of an open, more just like feature pieces, which I really enjoy too. There's not really many guardrails on it.
Allen Alongi:It's just give us what you got. But, yeah, I think I think my in my youth, just reading a lot and just reading really religiously was was something that I always enjoyed. And I think that's what carried over to me wanting to to write as much.
Daniel Williams:I'm trying to remember. Is there was there a connection then? Because I haven't been privy to reading your article yet. Is there something in there about mentors or mentees or something that you pulled from that where you thought it really made a connection?
Allen Alongi:Absolutely. The main connection was Edmond Dantes and Abbé . So when he goes to prison, he of course meets his his what was the word? Unserendipitous or serendipitous cellmate who essentially was in there. They're all political prisoners.
Allen Alongi:They were innocent but they were all together. And from there, he the aide took him under his wing. He taught him philosophy. He taught him languages. He taught him mathematics, science, everything that he didn't have.
Allen Alongi:That in that journey, of course being in prison, that's the irony of it, right? He's learning all this stuff in a place where, you know, dreams go to die essentially. So from there, and Abbé introduced him, he grew to trust him. Then he said, you know, I do have this treasure map, right? That was like one of the last few things.
Allen Alongi:And so with all that experience and Edmond being a receptive mentee, being the key there, actually absorbing and wanting to learn, he wrote his own destiny. And I think that's such a really strong parallel, and I love that it has it happens to be in the kind of Monte Cristo because I love the book. But, you know, bringing that bringing that, you know, example over into the article, I think, really helps it tie it together. And anybody can take a read or a look at the movie and see exactly what I'm talking about. But I think it's just that, you know, that forced companionship they had ended up changing the course of his life.
Allen Alongi:So that was really strong for me.
Daniel Williams:Yeah, I'm going into my memory banks because I've read that, and I've also read The Man and the Iron Mask. And so I'm getting the two I'm going to have to pull up both books and read about them just to clarify them in my mind. So I'm so glad that you've opened that door for me. I've been going back this year and reading a lot of the classics, and so it's been really cool. So I did want to follow-up and ask you, is there a favorite author or two that you just love or want to recommend to anybody here?
Allen Alongi:Yeah. I mean, Alexander Dumas, who wrote that, is great. He also did "Three Musketeers," which I like as well. Not a more classical one, but one series I really loved growing up was Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events." Kinda had a little parallels.
Allen Alongi:I had two brothers. They were three kids together, and they went through a lot of, like, troubles in their youth, which we did have in my in my life. So I really clung on to that. I was like, look at this journey. Like, where are they going?
Allen Alongi:So I really enjoyed them. You know, besides that, I mean, just putting me on the spot. Classics that I can think of Stephen King. I've always been a fan. I'm not too horror not not too associated with the horror genre, but it really has a way of storytelling that just really that really just gets you captivated.
Allen Alongi:And another big one would be Thomas Wolfe, "A Homeward Angel." A very strong American stream of conscious thought and writing. That's kind of the stuff that you know, before you write, you're thinking about what to write. And then this guy put it down in such a genius way. I was like, I need to read more of this.
Allen Alongi:So those are some off the top of my head. There's definitely a few more but those are some of my favorites.
Daniel Williams:Oh that's wonderful. That is wonderful. Yeah, I have this quote from the short story writer, Raymond Carver. He was asked about who his influences were and he said, Well, I really like a lot of writers. Two people, you think about Thomas Wolfe, he would add to the story, put his original story down, and then he would keep adding words and adding words and adding words.
Daniel Williams:But then he also compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald, who would just take out till every single word counted that was left in there, like in "The Great Gatsby," you know that every word is in there for a reason. And Thomas Wolfe, yes, it is very Very expansive is the exact word I was going to use. There's so much. And then Carver, for anybody who read him, he clearly was known for being a minimalist.
Daniel Williams:He wrote short stories in the 70s and 80s. And so there's all kinds of writing. And so it's so cool to be able to do that. I did want to ask you, you may not know, but we do have an MGMA book club. So these aren't classics.
Daniel Williams:These are leadership books, but we have really cool discussions about the book. You and I can connect offline, but honestly, you could go to mgma.com and you could just type "book club" in there and it would show up. But for everybody listening, because we've had a book discussion now, and this is what we like to do, we like to go kind of off the tangent of the guest and really connect with them in a certain way. And we meet the third Wednesday of each month, unless there's a holiday or something comes up. But we just had a book club meeting yesterday, and the book was Shatterproof by Tasha Urich.
Daniel Williams:It's a leadership book about resilience and how to really build resilience, but also even go beyond that. She even challenges the idea of maybe our resilience for some people gets up to the level where we can't be any more resilient and we need other types of tools to really combat the chaos she talks about there. So that's really cool. Then I'll put in a plug for our December 17 book club for you, Alan, or any other MGMA member that wants to join us. We're going to be talking about "Align the Mind," and that's written by Britt Frank, who was a keynote speaker at one of our MGMA conferences last spring.
Daniel Williams:It's one that really helps people deal with burnout, stress, and all of that, how we can really align things and be able to develop some armor so we can work through it. I could talk about books all day, that's my passion, so that is just so cool. Just to share, I've been working through a lot of Southern writers. Maybe one of the most famous Louisiana writers, Walker Percy, he won the National Book Award for "The Moviegoer." It's set in New Orleans and in that area.
Daniel Williams:And wrote six novels, and I just finished the sixth one, "The Thanatos Syndrome," about a month ago. So yeah, he is sort of an existential philosophical novelist, Walker Percy. He wrote in the 60s, 70s, and 80s before he passed away. And so he's a terrific novelist, really challenges morality and how we view spirituality and lots of things of that nature. So really wonderful, wonderful writer.
Allen Alongi:I definitely want to and I'm glad you said that because I'm almost done the East of Eden by Steinbeck, which is an absolute massive novel.
Daniel Williams:It is.
Allen Alongi:It's taken me a while. Similar to what you were saying, being able to put in normal human interactions in a very digestible way that makes you think that you were in that position, that's the beauty of writing. I imagine that I'm in the 20s, that I'm in California in Salinas Valley. The kind of stuff that I enjoy. And so now I gotta finish this one so I can get to the book club in time.
Daniel Williams:There you go. Yeah. It's funny. I love Steinbeck. I love the novellas as well, like The Red Pony and The Pearl, because like you said, East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath are massive novels.
Daniel Williams:And I had agreed. I used to appear on a radio show back in the 2000s, right around 2000, 2001. And I think it was the seventy fifth. There was a special anniversary of The Grapes of Wrath. Maybe it was the fiftieth or sixtieth anniversary.
Daniel Williams:I'm trying to do the math in my head. And I wasn't sure I was going to finish it before we went live with the radio show. So I had to do some late night reading, but I loved the book, and he's a wonderful writer. So everybody's wondering, why are we talking about books so much? But I think it's really one of those things about finding passion in life.
Daniel Williams:You and I connected on that. We connected on some things about my daughter and your son and the things that they're either working with or dealing with in life and really being able to be, it's so important in life because when we identify only perhaps with a job and the job can maybe be really, really, really tough, What are those things we can take outside of it? You talked about the mountains up there in Georgia. I love that area. White water rafting up there and hiking up there, and the Ocoee and all that.
Daniel Williams:And so you got to really find those things that you're so passionate about. And so to be able to connect on books and people who listen to the podcast, we know we'll go down a rabbit hole there and really find what people are passionate about. So thank you for sharing so much about your book passion with us. We're going to get you, if we can, to join the book club as well.
Allen Alongi:I think I signed up. I think I've just signed up.
Daniel Williams:Oh my gosh. So you're a multitasker while we do that. So that is so cool. So before we sign off, I want to be careful and look at the time here. Before we sign off today, what else would you like to share?
Daniel Williams:I want to hone in on the mentor mentee aspect of it. That's something you're familiar with. It's something you've written an article about. If someone wants to get involved in a program, MGMA has theirs. But if someone finds it in their own organization, how do you get the most out of that mentor or mentee program?
Daniel Williams:What advice would you give us?
Allen Alongi:Yeah, great question. So I think the most important thing is that a lot of people look at the mentor mentee relationship as one way communication. So the mentor giving advice to the mentee. So hey do this this way. I think that that's a little not flawed, I think that's traditional and I think that nowadays we have to look at what you want to get out of that yourself.
Allen Alongi:So the way I phrase it in the article is more or less that you're being mentored, but you're also going to teach yourself how to become that mentor. And we're not always mentees forever. So you have keeping that in the forefront of your mind. Those are the kind of questions you want to ask. It's not just about what you do to get to this level.
Allen Alongi:It's like, what do you think I should do more of? Or how can I engage more? How can I actually be more present? Those are the kind of things that if you really want to grow and you really want to engage and get the most out of that mentorship, it's that you're preparing for it. You have proper preparation.
Allen Alongi:You're right. You're not wasting your mentor's time. And I know it's not a waste of time in any matter of that fact, but if you're going in there with just the same old questions or maybe just running in to just say, Hey, I was here for the meeting. Great. You get a checkbox, but you're not getting the most out of that.
Allen Alongi:For me personally, I've been a frontline worker. I've been in through all the different levels going up. So for me, I had to latch on to those mentors that I found value in. So one of my previous roles, was actually a doctor. And I'm not saying that I would learn a lot management from them, but what I did learn a lot of was prioritization, the way to speak to people the correct way, and mainly just keeping focused, calm, and understanding that, you know, you're a representation of your work, whether you're saying something or you're looking a certain way.
Allen Alongi:So just learning those little ins and outs really kind of helped drive me to the next level there. But as far as like the minty approach, so in my article, did give some good tools as far as like questions you can ask. There is like a measure up assessment to say how much am I getting out of it? What am I doing? So you can kind of put yourself in a level to say, maybe I'm not doing as much as I should or maybe I'm doing so much that I should.
Allen Alongi:So I found that a little helpful as well too. But getting on to your point about the programs, not with MGMA currently but with ACHE. I am in the mentorship program. I actually signed up as a mentee this year because for me I said, what more can I learn even though I've done these levels, I want to be a mentee? So I do have a mentee COO, his name is Bobby Ryan of Apollo MD.
Allen Alongi:We met up for lunch for Halloween day, is pretty funny when you see your server dressed as Sabrina the Teenage Witch. But it was good. And he was the same way. He was just very, very open and honest and saying, what do you want to get out of it? And from there, it was just an instant click.
Allen Alongi:So just engaging them, being involved in those programs, they will make you well rounded, not too hyper focused in one area, being more well rounded so you can reach those next levels. But I think it is a little bit more what you said earlier is just growing comfortable. Growing comfortable and trying to understand that if you really want to grow to that next level, you got to put in the effort.
Daniel Williams:Yeah, I love that. Well, Alan, Alonji, thank you so much for joining us on the MGMA podcast. Thanks, I
Allen Alongi:appreciate it so much. Thanks for having me.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. And everybody listening, I mean, Alan and I went into a deep dive about books. We went into mentoring. We went into a lot of different topics, and this is something that we want to do with the podcast and we want to do with other training and tools and development for our MGMA members in 2026, we really want to provide a conduit, a platform where people can connect. That is what I keep hearing over and over again from MGMA members.
Daniel Williams:They'll say, Well, I got the fellowship, or I got this other certification, this other program, but what really meant a lot to me was the connections I made, because now I've got people on speed dial that I see every year at the leaders conference or at a spring show. And we're going through those same challenges, but maybe we live across the country from each other. But some of those challenges in healthcare can be universal. So we really want to be able to bring a place where y'all can connect and you can learn from each other. So I'm going to put a lot of links in the episode show notes about books and mentoring and Alan's three articles and a lot of other good stuff.
Daniel Williams:You can be on the lookout for that. Until then, thank you all for being MGMA podcast listeners.
