Felix Monterrosa is applying the skills he has learned at Georgia Highlands College (GHC) to his career, recently taking on the role of Director of Environmental Services at Advent Health Redmond Hospital in Rome.
In his role, Monterrosa oversees more than 60 employees who are tasked with sanitizing and disinfecting all patient and procedure rooms at the hospital.
After graduating with an Associate Degree in Business Administration, Monterrosa decided to continue his education at GHC and is now pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration in Healthcare Management.
Like many students at GHC, Monterrosa is a returning student after he initially stopped taking classes back in 2011.
“At the time education was not a priority for me and I needed to do some maturing,” Monterrosa said. “In 2020, with the support of my wife, I made the decision to jump back into school and complete a lifelong goal of mine in obtaining a college degree.”
Monterrosa had also made a career change and began working in healthcare around the same time.
“It was a huge decision to go into something that I had no experience in, but I felt like it was something that I wanted to do,” Monterrosa said. “I started my journey with an Assistant Director role through HHS LLC, which is an outside vendor for environmental services at Redmond. Jumping into a management role in the healthcare field made it very easy in deciding what degree I needed to pursue. Thankfully, GHC offers a degree in just that.”
Monterrosa soon realized that his decision to return to college would have immediate benefits.
“A lot of the terminology and concepts that I have learned in class I have been able to apply to real-life situations, and with my role in the company, I have been presented with several tasks touched on in class – everything from recruiting, training, conflict resolution to budgeting, logistics and sales,” Monterrosa said. “Also, being a part of the leadership team at the hospital has granted me the ability to be a part of the solution regarding situations that arise in the running of a 230-bed facility like Advent Health Redmond.”
In his role as Director of Environmental Services, Monterrosa meets with his employees, leadership, vendors and others each day to determine goals and opportunities, then will verify his employees’ cleaning tasks meet the institution’s standard of cleaning and conduct patient awareness rounds to gather feedback on patient experience.
His hard work and attention to detail has paid off. Recently, his department was recognized by Advent Health Redmond administration as having the most improved patient satisfaction experience scores of every department at the hospital.
At GHC, the student organization Brother 2 Brother (B2B) has given Monterrosa opportunities for personal growth that he can apply throughout his life.
“Being in Brother 2 Brother has had a massive impact on me regarding accountability. We have all faced adversity in the past in many shapes and forms outside of our control,” Monterrosa said. “What we can control, however, is how we react. Do we let things get to us or do we use it as fuel and motivation to rise above?”
He said it is important for anyone starting college for the first time or returning to college later in life to take advantage of the support systems in place at GHC.
“It is never too late. When I returned to school I was met with open arms and positivity,” Monterrosa said. “GHC has been great to me, and it has been great to many more.”
Watch a recent episode of Community Watch featuring Felix Monterrosa here.
Start classes this summer or fall. Enroll today at highlands.edu
