Esteem for the mission, vision, rules, and principles

Jill Schroder is SerenaGroup's SVP who oversees advanced wound care center operations, business communications, website construction, educational programs, human resource department, and new program implementations. Jill has worked for SerenaGroup for 7 years and believes in a provider-led model that focuses on best practices to ensure appropriate healing of chronic wounds for the patients. “Giving quality of life back to patients that are suffering is what drives us to do our best”, says Schroder. Dr. Thomas Serena, CEO and Founder of SerenaGroup, keeps the company true to the mission of developing the world’s leading comprehensive wound care and research centers.

As a Senior Vice President of Operations, Jill is responsible for operational strategy in the advanced wound care centers, corporate communications including social media and website development, development and monthly quality and performance metrics, and working closely with business development to ensure smooth transitions with implementations of new programs.

Jill has over 25 years in the health care field with a wide range of experience in different specialties; this experience helps her make tough, operational decisions for SerenaGroup. Jill’s leadership style is to push herself and those around her to be the best every day; find the opportunity. Jill focuses on strengths and encourages those around her to bring forth their strengths to build a growing team that is comfortable sharing new ideas, be involved, and push each other to hit the goals that were made. Jill strives to achieve a set goal daily, believing that every day starts at zero and by the end of the day you must achieve something tangible to make the day complete. This can be something large or small, either way, it provides purpose in your role and encourages you to continue to do your best.

The team around Jill expects structure and routine. Another strength for Jill is that she is disciplined in her role at SerenaGroup. “Being detailed orientated can be misinterpreted by some, but it is an instinctive method for maintaining progress and productivity through the daily distractions that occur”, Schroder stated. Jill is a trustworthy, adaptive role model who teaches SerenaGroup's mission, vision, policies, and values.

Jill stresses availability, support, and communication to her success at SerenaGroup. “I'm available 24/7 to our executive team and directors to ensure that they are supported at all times. If they fail, I fail and that is something that I won’t accept.”, Schroder stated. Jill’s director team averages over 5 years with the company; something that was missing prior to her stepping into this role. An open-door policy was created, and the directors were held accountable through organizational structure in a safe, friendly environment. Schroder adds, “We are all learning daily, the key to the successes at our SerenaGroup Centers is through relationship building, support and, again, communication. Those that I work with know they can count on me and through my leadership style I always acknowledge hard work and praise the team. There is no “I” in SerenaGroup; I have been part of creating a diverse culture of leaders and directors that continues to grow and inspire to be the best that we can be.”

The company culture was created from the top-down with SerenaGroup’s leader, Dr. Thomas Serena. Dr. Serena has created a family, friendly, hard-working culture and is actively involved in daily operations in the advanced wound care and research companies; he encourages his executive team to do the same.

Jill has taken his message to heart and is heavily involved with the daily operations at the centers, has built positive working relationships with the hospital partners, directors, and staff and stresses open communication as she strives on solving problems for issues that arise. “Through building a comfort level within our team, my team knows who approachable I am to them but also, I have built internal relationships where our directors can reach out to each other to work together on projects, teambuilding, networking and solving issues if necessary. I strive on the success of others and if I can help in their success in anyway, then I will be there for them”, Schroder says.

One of Jill’s many passions is implementing new programs. Through the COVID crisis, SerenaGroup looked internally and found programs that would make our centers better and become value-added to our hospital partners. Jill was instrumental in pulling teams together and building multiple internal programs during this time. Our new programs included a Quality Metric Dashboard and designed it around clinical metrics as well as operational and financial measures. This comprehensive dashboard is the first in the wound care industry and a value add to the centers where we can now measure what matters through best practices. Education is another area that SerenaGroup focused on through a SerenaGroup Education Committee and adding monthly educational webinars along with hyperbaric specific education for hyperbaric technicians and working directly with a hyperbaric liaison, on-site education with wound care, hyperbaric medicine and tri-certification along with a on-line marketing campaign. Jill leads the efforts in pulling together the team to deliver newsletters and ensures the new staff educational portal is up to date and the clinical staff have all the educational materials available to them through the web.

SerenaGroup’s WalkOn2 program is a program that supports our hospital partners to create a limb salvage program within the hospital setting. With our structure and full comprehensive program, this eliminates all the questions for setting up a successful program. The SerenaGroup Standards of Compliance + Accreditation is an internal mock AWC survey that we offer to our hospital partners. This program performs an on-site full survey to ensure our sites met regulatory standards. SerenaGroup’s Quality Seal of Approval emphasizes on best practices and evidence-based assessments. Our director strive to ensure that their centers achieve this Seal of Approval as their team is recognized for practicing best practices and the high performing work they accomplish.

“The value-add programs are programs that I am proud to be part of. These are great ideas that were brought to the table and with Dr. Serena’s support, we were able to work together, problem solve, and produce value-add programs to our hospital partners”, says Schroder. Hospital partners are encouraged by SerenaGroup’s expertise through our value-add programs. Jill’s goal is to push the limit for herself and for those that work with her. By adding more programs, this proves the company’s growth and investment internally. “Don’t waste a day that is given to you to be your best, it is not only unproductive, but it also hurts those around you who are being their best”, Schroder states.

What’s next? Jill says, “Keep improving.” In 2022, Jill created a wound care specific productivity tool that is on the SerenaGroup financial dashboard. Creating this took Jill time and research, but it was all worth it as we are now able to balance out our centers volume vs staffing model to adequately staff an advanced wound care center. Jill is looking forward in investing in the directors internally with an upcoming SerenaGroup Leadership Conference. “The leadership conference is a lot of work, but it is worth getting all our directors into one location and build those relationships. Our directors are an amazing group of people, and I would not be where I am today without each of them. To give them an educational conference is something that I am proud to do,” states Schroder.

For the past seven years, Jill has worked for SerenaGroup, and she is thrilled with the longevity of the company's directors. Our directors are appreciated and work hard to ensure the successes of the program. I am simply here to make sure they have all they need to be successful in their roles. They people around Jill inspire her including Dr. Serena, the executive team, directors, and all those that work within SerenaGroup and at the centers. “I am blessed to be part of a team that continues to improve with an end goal of making a difference in someone’s life,” says Schroder.