Synergy - November/December 2012 - 16

industry feature

Member Profile: Darlene Graham, CPMSM, CPCS
By Alexa Schlosser

little more than 40 years ago, a fresh-out-of-high-school Darlene Graham answered an ad in the newspaper for someone who could type, use shorthand and transcribe using a Dictaphone. She got the job and promptly started at what was then Mount Clemens General Hospital (now known as McLaren Medical Center – Macomb located in Mount Clements, Mich.) — where she has been ever since.

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An Evolving Field
Although Graham has been a constant in the office, much has changed in the past 40 years at McLaren — and in the field in general. She began as a secretary supporting residency program directors and department chairs in an office that combined medical staff affairs and medical education. She also performed credentialing, but “back then … I don’t think we had a name for it,” she said. At the time, “credentialing” consisted of a two-page application, a copy of a state license, DEA registration and a school diploma, Graham recalled. “[There was no] regard for references, verifications, documentation of experience, etc.,” she said. “What a difference time has made!” Graham learned of NAMSS in the early 1980s after attending a seminar put on by a group that would eventually make up the Michigan Association of Medical Staff Services (MAMSS). She attended her first conference in Washington, D.C., shortly thereafter, and immediately understood the benefits of such an organization, which, according to Graham are “education, networking and friends.”
Darlene Graham, CPMSM, CPCS, medical staff coordinator at McLaren Medical Center – Macomb, received the gift of a life-size wooden model of herself holding staff bylaws to celebrate her 40 years of working at McLaren.

The Bylaws Queen
Graham is a self-described “stickler” for structure and organization, which is why every year during membership registration, she indicated an interest in volunteering on the Bylaws Committee. “I learned early in my career that bylaws serve as the
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framework for everything else to follow,” she said. “When my hospital became part of a system, the first thing I did was obtain the medical staff bylaws of all the other hospitals and review and compare … and I would search the surrounding hospitals to see how their structure was outlined in the bylaws.” NAMSS asked Graham to serve on the Bylaws Committee in 2008 and she became the vice chair in 2010. In April 2011, Graham celebrated 40 years at McLaren — almost all of which she served in the medical staff office. In December during the annual general staff

meeting, Graham’s co-workers — including 15 out of 28 past chiefs of staff — surprised her by recognizing her career. “As the meeting got started, the chief went off agenda and asked the past chief to give the Nominating Committee report,” Graham said. “I wasn’t really listening to his report, because I knew it — I wrote it — but then all of a sudden I heard him say something about ‘40 years’ and ‘mother,’ and that stopped me in my tracks. The audiovisual person had put up a picture of me (behind my back) so that the entire audience knew he was talking about me.”
Synergy - November/December 2012

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