MEDITECH
Spotlight: John Youngblood
Director, Home Health, Hospice, Telehealth, inSync
Coming from a long line of teachers—namely, a mother who was an English professor; a father, sister, and cousin who teach students with special needs; and grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who are also teachers—it's no surprise John Youngblood grasped the importance of education from an early age and has been an ambitious trailblazer ever since.
For college, John decided to apply to Northeast Louisiana University (Monroe, LA), now called the University of Louisiana at Monroe. "I originally didn't want to go to Northeast Louisiana because almost everyone in my family went there for college," he admits. "But I was accepted, and received two scholarships. Needless to say, my family was pleased and it was very convenient given my circumstances!"
It was during John's junior year of college at Northeast Louisiana University when he started to come into his own, career-wise. "At that time, one of my math professors told me about a construction company at a paper mill that needed a software system to track their billing," he says. "I took a stab at writing the billing application in Foxpro Software (a Microsoft database language)." John created such a solid billing application, that virtually all the mills in Louisiana and Arkansas decided to use his software to meet their billing needs.
John worked part-time at Utility Data Systems (UDS) in Louisiana and received a full-time job offer during his senior year of college. "Even though it would have been a phenomenal opportunity to keep working at UDS, I knew I eventually wanted to move back to Georgia," he says. "So, I did some research and contacted a recruiter, who got me an interview at a company called Patient Care Technologies, Inc. (PtCT)."
After two interviews, John was offered the job, and two weeks later he moved back to Georgia. John started his PtCT career as a service programmer in the Client Services division. About a year later, he was promoted to supervisor, and in a span of just four years, John's tremendous drive and ambition allowed him to quickly advance his career to assistant manager of client services, then director of client services. John later made the move to development as the director of inSync production, then assistant director of Maestro development, then director of Maestro development.
In November of 2009, John came back to service, where today, the thirteen-year veteran is the director of our Home Health, Hospice, Telehealth, and inSync products.
Now that John is a MEDITECH employee, he's been able to take advantage of Boston's unique offerings during his work-related visits. "I love attending Red Sox games in the summer and I've learned to enjoy clam chowder. On a recent trip, I walked the Freedom Trail," he says. "But, even though I always have a wonderful time up in Boston, I'm still a true southern boy at heart. It's going to take some time to get used to the cold!"