In this newly established role, I function as a highly collaborative executive leader. I have streamlined new product development processes using existing technologies and established structured assessment forms to facilitate practical and comprehensive analysis for product discontinuation processes. I have increased our organizational presence on social media platforms, co-creating effective marketing content to boost brand recognition and promote our products. Contributing original articles and advertorials to major healthcare publications, while also being an advocate for patients and clinicians by engaging in multiple wound care advocacy groups are just some of the ways I have leveraged my expertise and this role to support the wound care industry and lead change. I have been an active participant in product revitalization projects, collaborated with external vendors to bring new products to market, and have been an avid developer of value-based care solutions for the markets we serve.As a member of the executive sales team, I work closely with local and national accounts, along with the support of our internal clinical team, to foster clinical excellence and end-user support. I'm proud to serve a company who not only manufactures high quality products, but who also keeps the patients who use them top of mind every single day.

Faced With Grace is an extracurricular passion project I'm pursing based on a calling I can no longer ignore. After encountering more toxic workplaces than not in my tenure as a healthcare professional, I've decided to take the negative experiences I've overcome and use them for good in my community and beyond. Through hosting free, supportive, positive, virtual, round table meetings, I'll connect with my online community of followers, as well as leading local after school programs, church ministry, and fundraising events, I aim to positively mentor and impact current female leaders facing workplace adversity and educate future female leaders on how to navigate and hopefully avoid toxic workplace cultures. THE MISSION:To collaboratively and collectively find a way to break toxicity in the workplace, meanwhile mentoring, supporting, and empowering exceptional women to lead with grace, poise, and professionalism.

At WoundKaRe +, Kaitlyn Rios PT, DPT, CWS provides expert level clinical wound care and business operations expertise for a variety of care settings. With her consultative guidance, clients will glean increased understanding of wound care specific workflow setups, case management, billing, and documentation requirements, treatment planning roadmaps, and clinical education tactics.Kaitlyn's dynamic health and wound care industry presence, mixed with her authentic approach to personal and professional storytelling on LinkedIn, provide a unique opportunity for clients to receive consultative services on social selling and personal branding using popular social media platforms; from a blog style approach to bite-sized branding, Kaitlyn's clients are sure to capture any audience and experience their own version of personal and professional growth!Consultative services are provided either hourly in a private or group virtual session, or as 30-minute 1:1 virtual session. Pricing is available by request at WoundKaReConsulting@gmail.com

This new role took on the form of spearheading the future of home health and hospice wound care for clinicians and patients through building a national-level, high-quality, clinical wound program including the creation of a gold-standard digital library of robust educational resources. I was successful in bringing together a once-fragmented team of wound care specialists to provide standardized and streamlined wound care consultative services and educational offerings nationwide, closing a 26% coverage deficit, without incurring additional hires, in less than 6 months. Continuous quality improvement was a key area of focus to effectively and collaboratively reduce risk for our patients and the organization.Successfully fostering a healthy work culture, no matter the role I am serving, is one of my strong suits. In 2023 I received 100% overall manager satisfaction scores on my employee engagement survey; this score was relative to my ability to foster employee development, equal opportunity for success, provision of training, feedback, and recognition, and creating a sense of belonging, transparency, mutual respect, and emotional security. This dedicated and intuitive focus on the teams I lead enables them to provide the type of clinical excellence any patient deserves.I developed a strong business acumen and effective collaboration skills which resulted in serving as a key stakeholder in multiple strategic operational projects. Most notable was my involvement in the discovery of sub-optimal supply billing practices. The ensuing organization-wide project led to a 70% medical supply formulary sku reduction, successful tansition to a new supply vendor, and the implementation of a partnership with a commercial insurance DME vendor. In the first month of business, 285k savings were achieved, exceeding projected savings by over 20k, and was on target to gross an estimated 4M+ annual savings.

Served as interimCenter Director at Lewisville Wound Care & Hyperbaric Center with CMO, Dr. Amandeep Kaur while serving the company as Area director of Operations. My focus centered on our patients and team members, while maintaining close work with the VP of Operations to facilitate future company growth with expanded educational platforms, improved process management and billing structure, evolving and creating new documentation platforms, and enhancing overall company culture.Successful in clinical and operational training for both on-site and remote teams. Established training manuals for all levels of business and served as a company EMR super user. Provided investigative clinical billing reconciliation which uncovered over 100k in unappreciated revenue. At all clinics, 99% or above patient satisfaction scores were maintained throughout my tenure with the company.

Initially serving as the inaugural Arlington Center Director, I eventually transitioned to the Clearfork, and later, Lewisville centers to open and lead those centers alongside the head physician at each location. I was involved in not only day to day clinical and operational responsibilities, but I was consulted to participate in exploratory real estate outings, blue print development and clinic design. I provided oversight and management of clinic licensure acquisitions, building code inspections, and followed state and local jurisdictions’ clinic opening protocols and processes to ensure target opening dates were effectively met. A key responsibility of this role was to provide supply management and oversight. During my time at Arlington, I worked alongside the director of operations to implement an inventory management system to most effectively control par levels and to ensure patients were always appropriately provided for during their time at our centers. This system was later implemented at all four clinics that existed under the US Wound Care &Hyperbaric Centers ecosystem. As the EMR super user, I was able to train incoming physicians and clinicians on the documentation system and establish an effective video training library and handbook to increase efficiency during the onboarding process for new hires.

Served as the inaugural Clinic Manager as the need arose for a clinical team lead amongst all staff clinicians during the early months of opening the wound and hyperbaric center. Leadership roles and responsibilities included improved management of biologics, optimized stockroom and treatment room organization for day to day operational efficiency, as well as standardized EMR workflow and access for all clinic and administrative users.

Staff wound care clinician providing case management and advanced wound treatments to all patients at the direction of the clinic physician.

Sole physical therapist at the D.O.C Southlake location. During my short tenure at the clinic, prior to being furloughed due to COVID-19, I was able to develop an insurance and therapy tracking spreadsheet that was eventually shared amongst the entire therapy team. I also became professionally trained in Level 1 Dry Needling from Evidence in Motion, dramatically improving my ability to provide advanced skills and treatment to my orthopedic clientele. This role also offered the opportunity for continued development of my manual therapy, interpersonal, schedule management, and therapeutic skills.

Led day to day clinical operations of the hospital outpatient wound care department in conjunction with our contracted physician and hyperbaric oxygen therapy partners. This role provided massive growth opportunities for me, learning how to manage supply procurement including detailed tracking of all biologics, ensure JCAHO quality control measures were maintained at all times, managing a large team’s productivity and associated payroll time cards, regularly navigating competing priorities, consistent reporting and oversight of clinical outcome measures and KPIs, and collaborating with physicians and hospital executives.

Clinical and operational supervisor of the startup wound clinic at Medical City North Hills. Initially starting as a half-day a week, paper documentation only, wound clinic operating out of the physical therapy gym’s private treatment rooms - I worked with multiple physicians with variable levels of experience and with varied medical specialties along with my team of therapists to scale this clinic to its eventual transition to a fully-fledged HOPD wound care and hyperbaric center with a large clinical team a fully integrated and Meditech-interfaced wound EMR (Wound Expert), and dedicated supply oversight and procurement. Throughout this clinic’s growth process, my HOPD wound care billing and coding skills were successfully self-taught while maintaining close collaboration with the hospital charge master. I became the NetHealth wound EMR super user for the therapy department and successfully implemented optimized workflows and standardizations for all users involved.

Evaluating therapist in the Medical City North Hills outpatient and acute care settings. Significant time spent honing my manual therapy skills and providing outpatient physical therapy wound care treatments including sharps debridement and collaborating with physicians to ensure adherence to excellent and advanced clinical care.

One of two lead physical therapists for this 124-bed skilled nursing facility, supervising a team of PTAs, and responsible for 50% of all patient evaluations and discharges.Close collaboration with occupational and speech therapists as well as the nursing, case management and administrative staff to ensure patients and families were provided with excellent care. Provided on campus patient care, caregiver training, and off-site home evaluations when necessary.