160: She Became a Data Analyst AFTER a 20-Year Career in Physical Therapy (Melody Santos)

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[00:00:05] Avery Smith: If you currently work in healthcare and you're dreaming of a career in data, here are three main things you can do to expedite your journey. Number one, figure out how your healthcare job relates to data. Number two, build projects and put them on a portfolio to showcase your data skills and build your own confidence.

[00:00:22] Avery Smith: And number three, find roles that don't have hundreds of applications that you actually have a chance at landing. These three things are exactly what my student Melody Santos did to go from a physical therapist with no formal background in data, no degree in data, to a revenue analyst in just a few months.

[00:00:40] Avery Smith: And today you're going to hear exactly how she did it. Let's go ahead and listen in. Alright, melody, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. You are a physical therapist and now you're a charge integrity analyst. And we'll get through like how the heck you made the jump from physical therapy to data.

[00:00:57] Avery Smith: But, uh, what made you want to leave physical [00:01:00] therapy in the first place? So I've been a physical therapist in New Jersey since 1997, and over the years I've worked in just about every setting, hospitals, outpatient clinics. Rehab centers, nursing homes, even home care. But in 2018 to 2022, I worked part-time at this outpatient clinic and I started my own private practice.

[00:01:24] Melody Santos: So I saw patients in their homes, and then eventually I saw them in my little clinic, but then Covid happened, so my part-time job, the clinic closed and my patients dwindled. So I found myself unemployed. So then that's when I realized that I needed a plan B. And if you ask me, I, I didn't really wanna leave physical therapy, but I then I thought most of my friends who worked in it kept their jobs and I lost mine, so I needed to change.

[00:01:56] Avery Smith: Yeah, I'm sorry to hear about that. Covid was, was really tough, [00:02:00] especially on like healthcare workers. So yeah, that made sense. If you're like, oh, everyone you know in it kinda kept their jobs. So is that how you discovered data analytics? You're like, oh, it seems kind of cool. Or how did you learn about data analytics?

[00:02:12] Melody Santos: Well, I started asking myself, you know, what am I really good at? I am good at problem solving, creating plans or care plans for patients. I like to help patients to recover their function and to live pretty much pain free. But when I really broke it down, I realized that at the core of being a physical therapist was really critical thinking.

[00:02:36] Melody Santos: So in order to help my patients, I had to listen to them. Gather their data, assess them, then analyze the data that I gathered all to create a personalized plan to get the right results or to get them to function again or rehabilitate them. So that's data analysis in a nutshell, I thought, but just in a clinical setting.

[00:02:57] Melody Santos: So once I made that connection, [00:03:00] I thought, wait. I've been doing this for a long time, but I was looking at it in a completely different way. So now I had this thought that I could be a data analyst because that's what I've been doing with my career. Um, regardless, uh, if I am a, in the clinical or not, I guess.

[00:03:20] Melody Santos: So it's sort of that made me think I can be a data analyst 'cause I like to analyze. I guess that's what it is. Yeah, I mean, essentially as a physical therapist, you're taking in data. It might not be in tabular form right? But like via questionnaires in interviews with your, with your patients, and you're kind of like, you're taking in what they're saying and maybe some of their, their movements that they're able to do or not able to do.

[00:03:45] Avery Smith: And then based off of that, you have to make a recommendation. And so, uh, yeah, basically with, with data you're doing something similar, except for the data might be more tabular and your recommendations might come in the form of charts, but either way you are analyzing and problem solving. [00:04:00] So, so that makes sense.

[00:04:00] Avery Smith: So you're like, okay, you know, it is a safer, maybe a safer place or a place that I kind of want to go into. And a data analyst role could be really interesting because, you know, uh, you're basically a data detective and I've been a health detective for, you know, 20 plus years. So you're interested in it.

[00:04:16] Avery Smith: And the first thing you did was check out, or maybe not the first thing, but one of the, one of the first things you did was check out the Google Data Analytics certificate program course. Tell me about your, uh, experience through, through that. Uh, let's. Just say that it was, it was actually fun. Um, I realized for the first time that I like to be in front of the computer and I can actually sit and learn about data.

[00:04:40] Melody Santos: So I look at it as an introduction to data. I like that it was self-paced and it sparked my interest in data, but when I got to. Toward the end of the course, I realized that I didn't have enough skills to actually complete the Capstone project that they [00:05:00] had. I felt like there was not enough guidance for me to approach the project the way that they wanted me to, and I.

[00:05:08] Melody Santos: I didn't feel fully prepared for the project that they had, and then I learned that it's optional, so I opted out and I asked them for my certificate, and then I was a graduate and I thought, Hey, I can call myself a data analyst now. And that's how I thought it was gonna be. I thought that's it. I'm a data analyst.

[00:05:28] Melody Santos: I'm. Ready to go. That's awesome. Uh, it's actually funny because I think by the time that this episode comes out, I will have already released another video called Why the Google Data Analytics Certificate is Not Enough. I'll have my editor pop it up, uh, on the screen on YouTube and we'll have a link to it in the show notes down below.

[00:05:44] Avery Smith: But yeah, having the capstone be optional is one of the funny things that the Google Cert does for, for some reason. 'cause for me it feels like the pivotal moment and they're just like, nah, you don't really need to do this. It's. It's only for funsies if, if you wanna do it. So, and I don't think it really does a good job of preparing you for the Capstone [00:06:00] project regardless.

[00:06:00] Avery Smith: So, okay, so you do the Google data analytics certificate and it's good on one hand because it's an introduction to being in front of a computer, which you've been in front of humans and patients your whole life. So that's probably a good thing to be like, okay, I like this, I enjoy being at a computer, but mm-hmm um, you don't really feel confident doing any of the projects of like actually analyzing data.

[00:06:20] Avery Smith: And you actually shared a story with me, um, previously. Where like you went to try to apply for roles. 'cause you're like, look, boom, I'm a certified data analyst. And you went to apply to a job, they asked for a project and you were like, oh yeah, I don't have one of those. Uh, can you talk about like, just like how that, how that felt and what you decided to do.

[00:06:40] Avery Smith: Like, what was the next step for you after that? After my Google data analytics certificate, I started to apply for jobs in the first. Role that I applied to was actually a decision support analyst at my husband's company. And I thought, Hey, I could do this. So I applied and they did give me an interview because I [00:07:00] also worked for the same company prior, and as a courtesy, I guess they gave me the interview, but it was going well or so I thought until they asked me for my pro and I was stumped.

[00:07:12] Melody Santos: I had no answer for that. I froze and I said, well, you know. I have the Google data certificate and I have these little projects, but I can show them to you if you want. And I knew then that I lost my shot because I, I knew they expected something more and I couldn't give them like a link or. Or a website where I have my projects.

[00:07:35] Melody Santos: And at this time I haven't even been introduced to, to anything else other than the Google data, uh, analytics certificate. So, uh, that was a bummer, but it made me realize that the course was not enough and I didn't have enough skills to actually. Do projects and I didn't have a portfolio, I think that was the word I was looking for.

[00:07:56] Melody Santos: I didn't have a portfolio to show that I can do or [00:08:00] I can deal with data. That was a big lesson for me. So I started to think, you know, what's next? And that's when my husband actually said, you know. You need to get to a bootcamp. I mean, a, a portfolio is, is really, I think it helps with hiring managers, like gauging what you can do, but also I feel like it helps you feel more confident in, in what you've already done.

[00:08:21] Avery Smith: 'cause it's like, oh look, I have, I can prove to myself that I've done all this stuff before. So okay. Husband's like, Hey, let's look for a bootcamp. And uh, how did you guys find me and the data analytics accelerator? Well, my husband actually is also a. Physical therapist who pivoted into data analytics. But he went the long way.

[00:08:41] Melody Santos: He went back to school and it actually took him a long time. He took him five years 'cause he's doing it part-time. But, uh, he's the one who told me that had he known about the bootcamp, he would've done it. So. He said, you need a portfolio. You need to, um, enroll in a [00:09:00] bootcamp. And he was already following you at that time.

[00:09:02] Melody Santos: So I think he emailed you and asked you if you had like a promo going on. And he signed me up. That's awesome. That's, uh, a good husband. Uh, I, yeah, I remember getting, uh, an email from your husband and I think he was like, yeah, I used to be a physical therapist. Now I'm in data and my wife's a physical therapist and she wants to get in data.

[00:09:20] Avery Smith: Mm-hmm. And she's gonna join your bootcamp. And I'm like, yeah. O okay. I was like, um, believe it when I see it. Let me know how I can help. I'm happy to help, but I get a lot of strange emails a lot of the time and sometimes nothing really comes of them. But soon enough I think he messaged me and was like, you know, my wife joined you, joined the bootcamp, and you went through the modules, went through the projects, and you created portfolio that you could show to hiring managers.

[00:09:43] Avery Smith: And recruiters. How did you feel like once you had that built? Well, much more confident. In fact, I started to, well, I followed the program and I believed in the program and um, it really helped that I knew I was able to do, um, or complete [00:10:00] projects and actually be able to show something for it. And I not just saying, Hey, I know Excel, or I know.

[00:10:07] Melody Santos: Tableau or I know a little bit of sql, but they actually, I actually had a portfolio to show and that really helped boost my confidence, so I was able to go back to LinkedIn and apply for more jobs. That's it. I'm glad to hear that and I, I feel like that's. When I was applying to jobs, projects in a portfolio helped me be more confident as well.

[00:10:28] Avery Smith: But it's still easy to feel imposter syndrome. Did you still feel imposter syndrome even with the portfolio? Oh yes, absolutely. Actually felt like an imposter the whole time because, um, I wasn't really a data analyst yet and I haven't finished the bootcamp. So my thoughts were really, why am I calling myself a data analyst when I'm not done yet?

[00:10:51] Melody Santos: Why am I going against these? Oh. 'cause when you go to LinkedIn and apply, it used to show like who's applying and they have master's in [00:11:00] this and they have bachelor's in that. And I don't have anything to show for it except that I am, I'm currently in a bootcamp. Um, but I'm learning and I'm willing to learn.

[00:11:09] Melody Santos: I thought, hey. I'll try anyway, but something that you said in your video with the data career mantra really shifted my mindset when you said that we don't have to finish the bootcamp to start doing data analysis or to call ourselves data analysts. Um. That stuck with me and it just kind of pushed me forward and encouraged me to apply to more positions, even though like, you know, I was nervous that they might not even call me, but just following the program and believing that it works.

[00:11:43] Melody Santos: Um, when you taught us to just, you know, go ahead, network, I think that really helped. I think we all still feel like imposters. Heck, I still feel like a, a data imposter a lot of the time because, uh, there's so much to learn. Um, there's so many different technologies and different techniques and stuff like that, and, uh, [00:12:00] it keeps iterating and evolving.

[00:12:01] Avery Smith: So it's like by the time you've learned it all 500 million new things have popped up. So, uh, as soon as you can become comfortable. With not knowing everything, that's when can really relax and be like, okay, I, I don't know everything, but I know how to learn and that's good enough. Another thing that you told me, uh, previously was, you know, you were like, okay, I, I'm applying to these data analyst jobs, but I've never been a data analyst.

[00:12:22] Avery Smith: I don't have any experience. And that mindset was kind of making your confidence leak. That imposter syndrome. Um, one of the things you told me was that, like you, you looked back and you're like, like for instance, like, uh, data analysts, they're, they work in financial data, they work with revenue data, and you realize, you know, well, I've worked with revenue data before because you, like you said, you, you had a, a part-time practice and you're like, I've dealt with insurance, I've dealt with marketing and getting people into my business' doors.

[00:12:48] Avery Smith: I've dealt with, you know, communication with different, uh, stakeholders and stuff, and you're like, wait. Even though I was called a physical therapist, there was a lot of things that data analysts do that it turns out I was doing [00:13:00] as a physical therapist and a business owner. And so that kind of enabled you to be like, okay, well maybe there is a place for me in the data world and, and you actually chose to focus, you know, okay, I wanna be like more of like a revenue analyst or, or an analyst that's focused more on finances.

[00:13:14] Avery Smith: Can you walk us through some of that decision and, and trying to like niche down your CER course so. At first, I thought, I'm a physical therapist, so I work in healthcare, so I'm gonna be a healthcare data analyst. So my resume, every time I sent it out, I was looking for, and I was a health data analyst or a healthcare data analyst, and I found out that that's such a broad description because he.

[00:13:38] Melody Santos: Care is so huge that I was actually not niched down enough. I remembered one of my husband's cousin, she actually kept saying Revenue cycle. Revenue cycle, and I didn't know what it was. And then I started to research about it and realized that it's about the revenue, uh, you know, of the whatever it is, like hospital, [00:14:00] a clinic, a business is starting from.

[00:14:02] Melody Santos: In the hospital setting, it's starting from like, you know, registering the patient and then giving the service and then later on, um, putting in the charges and then billing the insurance and submitting the claims and all that stuff. And, and finding out like if you are able to generate, um, reimbursement from the claims and what are denied or what's your, what else is missing or.

[00:14:27] Melody Santos: What, what is the patient's, uh, responsibility from all this? And I thought, Hey, wait a minute. I know that I understand that I should call myself a revenue analyst. I did a little more research and I found out that there's a lot in LinkedIn, the positions that are out there for revenue cycle analysts or revenue analysts.

[00:14:49] Melody Santos: And so I thought, wait, I felt like an imposter again, because I don't really know much about it. I know a little about it. So I started to, um, research and my husband again found [00:15:00] another school. It's an online academy for revenue cycle management. I took that and I flew through it and I finished it in two weeks.

[00:15:08] Melody Santos: But there was no, like, it's not a certificate program. It's just like a learning program to kind of jumpstart your career in revenue cycle. I liked it and I thought, you know what? This is for me. So that's when I totally went for the revenue cycle analyst positions, and then this position that I have right now, it wasn't really a revenue cycle analyst, it was Revenue Integrity Analyst, but it was very close, and I thought, wait, I'm gonna go for it.

[00:15:37] Melody Santos: And, and so, so that's it. Do you remember how you found that job on LinkedIn? So you, or not, maybe, maybe not on LinkedIn. How did you find this job? So right now, just, just so we're clear, you're a charge integrity analyst? Um, yes. And do you remember, like, applying for this job, where did you find the job descriptions?

[00:15:51] Melody Santos: So I, I looked at. LinkedIn and I searched for revenue cycle, analyst revenue cycle. I [00:16:00] found this revenue integrity analyst that was advertised, um, by the university hospital, and all the time that I was looking at LinkedIn, there would always be like from the first day maybe like a hundred applicants. For some, some are like over a hundred.

[00:16:16] Melody Santos: Maybe if I would see like a not so. Common de job description, maybe 50, but then I would kind of be intimidated because the applicants are are shown as having more experience that I have. But this one particular job. Or position in LinkedIn. There were only three applicants. So I thought, wait, oh my God, three applicants.

[00:16:41] Melody Santos: I could go for it. So I looked in and, and I read the job description and it's actually a very close description to what I was looking for. And I thought, Hey, I, I think I can do this. Uh, I'm gonna try. And um, and, and yeah, they called me for an interview. They hired me. [00:17:00] That's awesome. How, how was the interview?

[00:17:02] Avery Smith: Was it difficult? It was set up for, uh, five, an interview of 30 minutes each, um, with five different people. It was four directors and, um, the CFO of the hospital. I had interviewed with four people for my first interview. Because the fifth interview with the CFO was canceled because he had another meeting that had to go to, so I had to go back for that interview.

[00:17:27] Melody Santos: But I would say that I was really nervous about it until they started talking about healthcare, you know, Medicare stuff, billing, and, and the codes that I'm familiar with. And none of them asked me about do I know Excel or do I know sql or have I done, um, data analysis at all? Nothing. But, um, they all told me that if I'm willing to learn, they can teach me the rest.

[00:17:53] Melody Santos: The rest is history. That's very reassuring to, to hear from a company. Um, and I, I guess I, I should [00:18:00] ask, you are in person, correct? I am in person four days and I work, uh, one day from home. Oh, so you are hybrid or in other words, you are 20% remote. I think if people phrased it like that, they'd be more interested in it.

[00:18:13] Avery Smith: Yes. Um, hybrid's such a good play right now because, uh, there's, there's just less applicants, um, remote jobs. There's just not a bajillion of them. So if you can do hybrid or in person, I think that makes the hunt. A little bit easier. Okay. Let's talk about your, your day to day. So like you go into work, what do, what are you doing?

[00:18:32] Avery Smith: What tools are you using? What does a day in the life look like of Melody? So at my new job, I work closely with a mentor who has done this over 25 years. Together. We make sure that all this services that's provided by the hospital and its clinics are properly charged. So I guess, um, we make sure that the procedures and the services are captured.

[00:18:57] Melody Santos: Correctly so that we can [00:19:00] bill correctly and we can get reimbursed for it. And of course part of this is making sure that the documentation supports these charges, so thus the integrity of the charge since that's what, essentially what I do. So my day starts at eight to eight 30. Um, I take the train to work so.

[00:19:21] Melody Santos: Sometimes when the train's late, I get there a little later, but basically I get to work between eight and eight 30. It's an eight hour job. But essentially what I do is I, we look for opportunities to capture charges for procedures and services. Or supplies and, um, we plug in or we prevent revenue leakage.

[00:19:44] Melody Santos: Guess that's, that's it in a nutshell. And let me just, uh, give you like a example. Let's say for example, somebody had surgery. We make sure that the surgery matches the documentation in the patient's chart. We make sure that what we're [00:20:00] charging is the right surgery, the correct one, and that we are following health laws and guidelines, and that's a procedure.

[00:20:09] Melody Santos: So I guess there's a lot of procedures, but there's one more. The thing that we do is we also kind of make sure that we're charging for chargeable supplies. And let's say for example, with the same, um, example, somebody had a hip replacement, say for example. They have or a pinning or the hip and they have screws and pins and and bolts and whatever that they, they use for the surgery is chargeable.

[00:20:37] Melody Santos: So I have to look for that screw in the hospital's item master list and find. The exact screw that matches what was recorded in the documentation. Find the name of it and the item number and plug in the correct price because we don't wanna charge, like, say, $60 for a little [00:21:00] screw when we only are supposed to charge a dollar.

[00:21:02] Melody Santos: So when I explain what I do to my family, I, I tell them that it's, I treat it like a. Almost like a game so that I don't get stressed about it because I'm looking for a tiny thing, like I'm looking for Waldo in in a Excel spreadsheet, so I'm either filtering or doing V lookups or whatever, what have you.

[00:21:24] Melody Santos: But it's almost usually Excel spreadsheets. When I find what I'm looking for, I've done my job and we do this over and over and over for every account that's missing charges. So that's what I do. Awesome. I was gonna ask like what, what type of tech stack, if like, there's a proprietary software that you guys use, but it sounds like a lot of it's in Excel.

[00:21:46] Melody Santos: It's a lot of Excel. Just that there's just that, it's a lot of Excel. So, um, I think I'm learning more about Excel every day. It's learning on the job, and I love it because I'm getting paid to learn. Just like [00:22:00] you said earlier, that's one of my goals is to help students figure out ways to get paid to learn.

[00:22:05] Avery Smith: Okay. Very cool. Thanks for that, uh, detailed book into what your day might, might look like. Um, what, what do you feel like the future might hold? Like, you know, you mentioned your learning more about Excel at the job. What else do you feel like the future might, uh, hold and like, how else are you learning?

[00:22:20] Melody Santos: It just has so many. Facets, I guess, uh, if I might say that. And, um, I need to learn more about charges and charge master revenue integrity, um, which I do right now. So, um, next I'll be attending a bootcamp focused on charge master in revenue integrity. And, um, I'm really excited because the, my goal is to grow more and learn more, um, and to become the best that I can be at this job that I have right now.

[00:22:53] Avery Smith: That's, that's awesome. And that's something that you're doing during work hours that works, paying for, for you to become even better at your [00:23:00] job than you are right now. Yep. Very cool. That's awesome. Well, this has been awesome. I feel like I've learned a lot about charge integrity analysts and revenue cycle analysts today, so that's, that's been really useful.

[00:23:09] Avery Smith: And it's awesome to see the transformation that you've made from physical therapist to this role. It sounds like you're already crushing it at the job. If someone listening to this right now is a physical therapist or any, just like. Any other person that might be considering like, Hey, I lost my job during Covid and I wanna break into tech, uh, as well.

[00:23:26] Avery Smith: Someone's sitting on that fence, you know? What advice would you give them? Well, first I would say it's never too late to start a new career. I was a physical therapist and I was able to switch into data analytics. And like me, you already have skills from your past career that are valuable and you just need to reframe them or look at them in a new lens, in a data analyst lens.

[00:23:49] Melody Santos: Think of it this way, if you worked in retail, you could become a data analyst, let's say for a clothing company or whatever retail company that you worked for. If you worked in the food service, you could be a data [00:24:00] analyst for a food company. And if you worked in a clinic or a hospital or a health, you could be a healthcare analyst, um, just like me.

[00:24:06] Melody Santos: So. Don't be afraid to learn new things. And if you're thinking about making a change, start today. And uh, I guess one last thing would be you don't have to take big steps. You just need to take the first step. I love that. I think that's, uh, very, uh, helpful and inviting to, to those, uh, who are listening.

[00:24:27] Avery Smith: Melody, thank you so much for being on the podcast and thanks for being an example of someone that, you know, that can pivot from, you know, a physical therapist job after 20 years into a data job. You are a shining light. And, uh, we'll make sure to have your LinkedIn down below so people can, can check you out and connect with you.

[00:24:44] Avery Smith: And thanks so much for being on here. You're welcome. Thank you, Avery. Appreciate your help and I appreciate you having me here.