Batten named medical director for Care Access

Lynn Batten, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist at USA Health and professor of pediatrics at the USA College of Medicine, has been named medical director for care access at USA Health.

In this role, Batten will play an integral role to help streamline patient access to faculty-physicians and advanced care providers at USA Health’s outpatient academic practices, which includes clinical locations across Mobile and Baldwin counties.

“We are working to ensure we get patients into the clinics quickly and manage the operations more efficiently,” Batten said. “This is a passion of mine.”

“When you look at the best-in-class academic institutions across the country, all of them have a committed physician champion representing the work associated with their system access strategies and goals,” said Shelby Smith, director of care access at USA Health. “I believe having Dr. Batten as part of the access team here at USA Health is a critical step for our health system as we continue our work around access strategies.”

As a physician with more than two decades of experience, most of those in private practice, Batten says she brings an understanding of the complexity of the healthcare system to the role. As someone who helped her own family members with cancer navigate multiple doctor visits and hospitalizations, she also understands the frustration caused by delays.

“In healthcare, we often put up too many hurdles for patients to get in to see the doctor,” she said. “You may not think about it unless you go through it with your family.”

Batten said she aims to contribute by facilitating communication with providers. “A lot of it is giving the team the physician’s point of view,” she said. “This is all about taking better care of patients.”

Alan Whaley, chief operating officer for USA Health, said that having Batten on the leadership team focused on access strategies is one way for the health system to deliver on being a physician-led organization. “Dr. Batten exemplifies leading by example,” he said. “There is no better person to have for this role.”

At USA Health, Batten cares for children with heart problems. She also teaches students and residents about pediatric cardiology. Earlier this year, Batten was chosen as the sole faculty member to be inducted into the USA Chapter of the Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society (GHHS), a national society that celebrates compassionate, patient-centered care.

Batten often recruits students and staff members to join her in dance videos that she shares on her YouTube channel, Dr. Fun’s Dance Party USA.