Kathryn Bartho, Director, Revenue and Financial Projects, received the ‘Above and Beyond’ award at the Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards.

Kathryn’s role is to optimise revenue across the organisation and ensure patients are provided with informed financial information.

She was nominated by Chief Financial Officer, Basil Ireland, who says, “Kath marries clinical understanding with commercial, finance, vendor management, communication and people skills.”

“She is the most versatile person I have ever worked with, and from a technical and communication perspective, has had an extremely positive impact on the RosterOn upgrade, Q-Flow implementation, automated bed fee and doctor consult billings, and Computer Assisted Radio Personnel System (CARPs) implementation,” Basil continues.

Kathryn’s journey at Northern Health began in 2006, and has since worked in a range of different roles across the organisation.

She started as a clerical staff member in the Emergency Department and Unit E, and was then inspired to go to university and complete a Bachelor of Nursing, which she graduated from in 2012. In 2013, she completed her grad year at Northern Health.

After completing her grad year, Kathryn was given an opportunity to work in a project management role in finance, combining both her administration skills and clinical experience.

Today, she particularly enjoys looking at projects and improvements across the organisation, combining her clinical and revenue skills for a holistic approach to benefit the organisation and staff.

“My team in revenue are my support and foundations – I cannot express how much I value and appreciate everything they do. Without them, I would not be able to do my role or be successful in my project implementations,” Kathryn says.

Her role does come with its challenges, but these challenges are also what drives her.

“Projects and change management is the most challenging part of my role, however, I also love a challenge and getting out into the business to share exciting new opportunities,” she says.

What some may not know about Kathryn, is that she still works as a nurse one shift per week to keep up with her clinical skills.

When asked what winning the award meant to her, she says “It was such an amazing feeling of acknowledgement. Northern has some amazing teams that I am privileged to be part of.”

“I appreciate all the opportunities that I have been given by the Executive team, particularly Basil, Jane, Siva and Michelle – their ongoing support has been amazing,” she adds.

In the future, Kathryn would like to work towards further efficiencies and continuous improvement within healthcare.

“The future for Northern means we will have to develop and implement improvements and efficiencies very quickly. However, we are Northern and we are up for the challenge!”

Sponsored by Maxxia and BankVic, our Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards have been designed to formally recognise outstanding contributions by our employees and celebrate staff excellence. Nominations for the next awards are now open. To nominate a staff member, click here.