July 2007
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A day in the life of Rachel Marrano
Three years into her undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Rachel Marrano decided that, contrary to her original plan, she really didn't want to be a pharmacist after all. Upon graduating in 2002, she switched gears and thought that working in sales for a pharmaceutical company might be a better route. However, it was difficult for Marrano to get a sales job without experience, and she eventually landed a job as a sales trainee at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, recognizing its potential for giving her experience in sales and customer service. "I started working with Enterprise thinking, 'I know nothing about business and I know nothing about cars, so I don't know how well I'll do here,'" Marrano says. "But I loved it."
It was because of this kind of positive attitude that Marrano came to join Children's Hospital Boston three years later. One day at Enterprise, she encountered a customer who was having a frustrating experience and worked to fix the problem involving the customer's car rental. The customer, it turned out, was Bridget Stewart, administrative director of Cardiology at Children's, who happened to be looking to fill a practice administrator role in her department. Stewart was so impressed with Marrano's demeanor that she invited her to interview for the position. "Rachel was focused on improving a situation that was originally headed in the wrong direction," Stewart remembers. "She was apologetic for the inconvenience and continued to work to rectify the situation."
Even though Marrano enjoyed working at Enterprise, she recognized Stewart's offer as a great opportunity, took the interview and was hired. "This job is the perfect place for me," she says. As Practice Administrator, Marrano does everything she can to keep Cardiology running smoothly, from managing the outpatient clinic and maintaining the department schedule to doing payroll and answering families' questions. "Anything you can think of, I try to do," she says. So it comes as no surprise that Marrano is active in many Children's customer service initiatives, including Exceptional Care, Exceptional Service, for which she chairs the Customer Service Champions Team.
Despite choosing not to pursue a career in pharmaceuticals, Marrano has ended up working with patients after all. "I feel like even though I'm not a clinician in any way, I'm still making a difference in people's everyday lives," Marrano says. "I interact with patients and families a lot and my employees interact with them even more. I feel like through that we're doing a lot of good."
