# Hospital Executive Retrains as EMT to Improve Staff Communication A chief administrative officer discovers why frontline clinical staff ignored her corporate emails. - **Source:** [Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com) - **Published:** 2026-11-09 - **Topic:** [careers](https://brifing.si/c/careers) - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/ea2cddd1-4334-442c-a6a3-8c1f09a9c1fc ## Executive Seeks Frontline Perspective Linda Matzigkeit, the chief administrative officer at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, felt helpless during the pandemic as clinical staff turnover increased. To better understand the challenges faced by her team, she decided to train as an EMT. This personal initiative allowed her to experience the hospital environment from the ground level. ## Rigorous Certification Process Matzigkeit spent six months balancing her executive duties with intensive EMT training. She attended classes two nights a week and completed ambulance shifts on weekends to earn her national certification. Despite her high-ranking position, she insisted on being treated like any other student to ensure her training remained authentic and rigorous. ## Clinical Orientation Challenges After certification, Matzigkeit underwent 100 hours of emergency department orientation at her own hospital. Working unpaid 8-to-12-hour shifts, she performed tasks like starting IVs and assisting scared parents. This hands-on experience provided direct insight into the extreme physical and mental demands placed on clinical staff during their busy daily rotations. ## The Email Communication Gap The most significant realization from her time in the emergency department was why staff ignored her administrative emails. She observed that clinicians are rarely stationary enough to check digital inboxes during their fast-paced shifts. This disconnect highlighted that traditional corporate communication methods were entirely ineffective for the hospital’s frontline medical personnel. ## Implementing New Communication Tools Following her experience, Matzigkeit overhauled internal communication strategies. The hospital introduced a social media-style mobile tool for quick updates and notifications. Additionally, she began providing concise talking points for mandatory start-of-shift huddles. These changes ensured that vital information reached staff members efficiently without requiring them to sit at a computer. ## Prioritizing Face-to-Face Interaction Matzigkeit concluded that face-to-face communication is far superior to digital messaging in high-pressure medical environments. By participating in shift huddles, leadership can convey essential updates directly to the team. This shift in approach acknowledges the reality of clinical workflows, where immediate, verbal information sharing is safer and more practical than email. ## Personal Growth and Humility Training as an EMT humbled the executive, as she recognized she would never match the speed and skill of full-time clinical staff. Despite the difficulty, she maintains a goal of working one shift per month to stay connected. This ongoing commitment serves as a constant reminder of the hospital's operational realities. ## Leadership Through Direct Experience Matzigkeit’s journey demonstrates that executive leadership is most effective when informed by frontline reality. By stepping out of the office and into the emergency department, she bridged a critical communication divide. Her story illustrates how leaders can improve organizational culture by actively experiencing the daily challenges faced by their employees. ## Sources covering this story - https://www.businessinsider.com/hospital-executive-emt-frontline-staff-communication-2026-11 — --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._