By Jenna Hughes
Jamie Rucker began his journey in healthcare operations in May 2005, accepting a position at Seneca Medical as a receiving clerk. During the early years of his career, he took every opportunity he could to learn about each of the positions in the warehouse.
“When I started, I helped with everything from inventory doing counts and adjustments to researching discrepancies,” said Rucker. “I also traveled to other facilities to help train individuals on protocol and procedures and help set up new warehouses. These skills gave me the opportunity to relocate and advance at the Company.”
Rucker now works as Operations Manager for Concordance Healthcare Solutions in their Mocksville, North Carolina warehouse. As a leader, he believes in never asking his employees to do something that he himself would not do.
“When employees see the Operations Manager cleaning bathrooms, it not only shows my commitment but also gets employees engaged to also step up to these tasks,” said Rucker. “We are all a team, and we need to function as one, which means stepping up to tasks like these daily.”
For Rucker and his team, a focus on responsibility within the warehouse translates to exceptional customer interactions and commitment outside of it.
“About two years ago, we had an issue with products being delivered to the wrong locations, so I changed my schedule to work with second shift to fully understand it, spending three days with the customer to address their concerns,” said Rucker. “I found that the issue was caused by labels being put on the wrong totes. Within two hours, I had found a solution and then I stayed with the customer to ensure the issue was fixed.”
Rucker says that transparency with coworkers and customers is always best practice – admitting failures and improving them.
“None of us are perfect, and mistakes happen. Learning from them only makes us better and stronger,” said Rucker. “Failure happens, but if you clearly communicate with the customer and your staff there is more understanding; communication is a key part of doing everything possible to service our customers.”
For Rucker, the true impact of his role at Concordance Healthcare became deeply personal for him during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During the pandemic, I was helping deliver medical supplies to the hospital floors and saw the patients that were on ventilators, and due to quarantine procedures, were all alone and dying,” said Rucker. “This was the moment I realized what our service commitments meant not only to the patients but their families.”