Diane Arseneault

Background

About Diane Arseneault

You might think that executive assistants are just schedule managers. Many people assume that. But when they hear my story, they find it hard to believe I once struggled with reading, writing, and comprehension as a child. I've got their attention. Do I have yours? During the fourth quarter of 2022, I was entrusted with leading our facilities department in deploying company-wide lean healthcare improvements. This role included spearheading a weekly meeting to teach and motivate leads, managers, and directors. Despite my limited experience in project management and change management at the time, I was thrilled and eager to embrace the challenge. Leveraging the skills I had acquired in training seminars, I successfully implemented standardized lean concepts and policies across the organization, exceeding our initial goals. This achievement caught the attention of senior leaders, leading to my current role in spearheading our patient experience initiatives. This career pivot has not only broadened my expertise but also reinforced my commitment to driving continuous improvement and excellence in patient care. Over the past year, my colleagues and I have applied lessons learned from Gemba Academy to improve clinic operations and patient outcomes. Additionally, while completing my Lean Healthcare Practitioner studies, I dedicated time and effort to my personal health goals, successfully losing over 60 pounds in just over a year. Now, I take pleasure in encouraging others on their health journeys. I had excelled in executive assistant work, but stepping into the role of a project manager was entirely new territory for me. No longer responsible for just my own duties, I had to manage a facilities team and make crucial decisions for the company. Learning to communicate with authority, clarity, and charisma throughout the lean healthcare implementation process was a significant challenge, and I am proud to say I have successfully overcome it. Over the next one to five years, my career goal is to lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive patient experience improvement program that integrates Lean Healthcare principles across multiple departments and clinics. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and patient-centered care, I aim to enhance patient satisfaction scores by 20%, streamline processes to reduce wait times by 30% and improve overall operational efficiency. Additionally, I plan to achieve certification as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt to deepen my expertise further and drive impactful change within the organization.