Profiles in Telehealth: David Sheets, Director of Clinical Operations
Get to know our Director of Clinical Operations, David Sheets!
What is your role at Wheel?
I am the Director of Clinical Operations. At a high level, I am responsible for making sure the right clinical operations team members are working with the right Wheel teams at the right time and have the appropriate resources. ClinOps is unique in that we work with every single team at Wheel nearly every day. Therefore my day-to-day can certainly vary, and the variety is nice in that it keeps me on my toes.
What's your personal and professional story?
I spent over 15 years in traditional healthcare. I started as a nurse, and my bedside days were in surgical and transplant intensive care; however, I fell into leadership early on in my career. I spent a couple of years as a hospital house supervisor, which is essentially a form of an in-person Wheel marketplace. I would monitor hospital census, open beds, staffing levels, emergency department volumes, surgery schedules, etc, and move resources around in real-time to make sure patients could receive the care they needed. After that, I worked in nearly every operational/clinical leadership role you can imagine in a hospital. However, my fondest times were the last half of my career, where I led an Improvement team comprised of clinicians, industrial/mechanical engineers, and analysts in all things improvement everywhere in our hospital system. I attended Purdue University for my BSN and University of Indianapolis for my MSN. Outside of work, my interests are all things fitness and golf when I have the time.
Why did you join Wheel?
I left traditional healthcare because, frankly, it was too slow and status quo. I consulted with a company that worked with the Federal Health and Human Services. What I loved was learning about professions that were new to me. I have a ton of knowledge on hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, housekeepers, etc. So product, engineering, marketing, sales, and data science was a fascinating new world. What I didn't love was working with the government (also slow and status quo) and the nature of consulting. I like to build relationships and see things through. And handing off things at the end of a contract ended up not fulfilling me professionally. I knew I wanted fast pace and healthcare and that is how I found myself at Wheel in May 2021.What’s your favorite Wheel moment?
As previously mentioned, I led a very diverse improvement team for many years. And we had a strong emphasis on personal development plans so that we could maintain a focused improvement on ourselves. Therefore my favorite moment at Wheel is related to something similar. It is the only time I can recall a lull at Wheel, January 2023 (not uncommon first of the year). I had the pleasure of leading the clinical operations teams on mini personal development plans focused on small experiments for improvement. The thoughtfulness, intentionality, applicability, outcomes, and shared learning were truly a joy to experience.
What do you think the future of healthcare holds?
Having spent a significant amount of time in traditional healthcare in a myriad of roles, I can confidently say I always had a primary responsibility (one way or another) of getting patients out of the hospital that didn't need to be there so I could get patients into the hospital that needed to be there. Whether they needed actual hospitalization or the hospital was their only option due to lack of primary care and/or insurance. Given that, I would say my healthcare passion is access to care, which I also believe is what the future of healthcare holds. Hence my tenure with Wheel. I get to be a part of making sure patients have convenient access to healthcare that is high quality but also ever-evolving at a transparent and low cost (comparatively speaking), which is highly satisfying from an excellent group of clinicians.
Fun fact?
I had bilateral cholesteatomas (noncancerous ear cysts) removed multiple times as an adolescent. Over the years, the skin graphs and scarring have left me moderately hearing impaired. With the assistance of hearing aids, it doesn't affect my quality of life, and in fact, I've found the ability to turn the volume down a bonus at times.
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