Career Change From Business Executive To Patient-Facing Care

Bringing Compassion To Care: Anthony's Journey from Business To Patient Support

Anthony D’Antonio, then a telemonitoring technician at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, was on the cusp of an unexpected a career transition. His department was being restructured and his job — and his future in telemonitoring — was in doubt.

As he mulled over his future, he knew one thing for certain: He wanted to stay at Lahey.

“There’s a lot of integrity and respect for the individual at Lahey,” D’Antonio said. “They also provide a lot of guidance, training and development.” More than anything else, though, it was the quality of the people on staff that drove his desire to stay. “The people I work with take compassion, empathy and the patient experience to a different degree.”

Having worked on the business side of healthcare for 30 years, he knew those qualities were rare in an employer; instead of starting over from scratch, he was eager to explore new ways to touch the lives of Lahey’s patients — including those that put him in direct contact with them.

A Shift To Patient-Facing Care

Prior to joining Lahey in 2022, D’Antonio had worked across marketing, sales and management for some of the largest healthcare organizations in the world. His career was capstoned by a tenure as chief executive officer at an antiviral homeopathic nasal spray company.

In short, D’Antonio had a lot of experience in healthcare as a business, but not much working directly with patients.

It was his manager who suggested he transition into a patient-facing role. Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) Primary Care’s Clinical Assistant Program, which provides formal training to those interested in support roles at the hospital, was a good fit for someone who didn’t have a clinical degree but wanted to work in patient care.

“She saw a guy with 30 years of experience and said, ‘OK, how about a clinical role?’” he remembered. “They really bent over backwards to try to find me other positions within the organization.”

A Rigorous Yet Rewarding Journey

At his manager’s behest, D’Antonio took a leap of faith and enrolled in the Clinical Assistant Program. As he describes it, the program was rigorous; there was homework, weekly exams and practical demonstrations. But it was his interactions with the patients themselves that really taught him how to provide high-quality, compassionate care.

“During our practical sessions, we saw people who were very sick and in pain, and sometimes they would take it out on us,” he said. “How do you best support someone in that state? To me, it was fairly obvious: I would tell myself not to personalize the interaction and to focus on the patient, not me. They just don’t feel well.”

D’Antonio’s background in business turned out to be invaluable in preparing him for the emotional side of clinical care. The skills he acquired while managing the daily ups and downs of running an organization taught him how to weather a storm while maintaining his composure.

“In business, you’ve got to constantly grind it out, work hard and get up and face a lot of obstacles every day,” he said. “I think that’s helped me deal with difficult situations here.”

Reflecting on a Career Change

In the end, BILH Primary Care’s Clinical Assistant Program opened new opportunities that have been the perfect cap to D’Antonio’s long career in healthcare.

Having been on the business side of things, he knew the thinking that went into making strategic decisions. Now, on the clinical side, he sees how those decisions impact real people in real ways.

“I think it made me a better and more valuable employee,” he said. “And it made me a more well-rounded human being.”