November 11, 2024
Meet Marsha Holtz
System Integration Coordinator
Where are you from? 
Originally, I am from Cahokia, Illinois. I currently live in Mascoutah, Illinois. In 1799, Holy Family Catholic Church was built in Cahokia. The church still stands today (with a new one built next to it). Growing up, we referred to this church as the “log church.” In 2014, Holy Family was a recipient of one of the 250 “cakes” for Cakeway to the Midwest. This event celebrated 250 years for the City of St. Louis. The cakes were decorated by local artists.
What brought you to Washington University Orthopedics?
In 1999, I was an Heath Information Manager for a nursing home and was looking to get back into coding and found the position (in the newspaper 😊) here at WashU. I interviewed for a Surgery Coder position with Orthopedic Surgery, was offered the position, gladly accepted and have never looked back! I have spent all of my time with Orthopedics, minus one year that I spent with Internal Medicine. I will be celebrating 25 years with WashU on December 1, 2024. Healthcare as a whole is a very challenging, but rewarding workforce. I am thankful every day to be a part of an amazing organization.
How do you support the department?
I wear many hats with my position. Some of them are supporting providers and staff with clinical applications, onboarding new providers with clinical applications, and troubleshooting IT issues.
What aspect of your work do you find most interesting and rewarding?
The most interesting aspect of my work is watching how technology has evolved since I started. Providers used to dictate with handheld records and cassette tapes. These were sent to the our internal transcriptionists and they would type the notes. We moved to a “phone” system in which providers dictated into the phone and the transcriptionists would type the notes from a voice recording. We then went to a program that allowed providers to dictate directly into their notes using speech recognition. We are now piloting AI software that listens to the providers in the room via their mobile device, the provider comes out of the room, clicks a button in our EMR and the note populates. We are on our second AI software pilot and some providers love it. I am hopeful that we can integrate this across the department in the very near future. The most rewarding is going home at night knowing that I did my best and tomorrow is a new day.
What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
Being outdoors – in the summer time we are relaxing around the pool and during other seasons we are relaxing by our outside fireplace. My husband and I love camping, spending time with friends and family, particularly our grandsons Bennett and Hudson. We are building a small cabin on our friends farm, which we are looking forward to weekend getaways in Southern Missouri.
What's the best advice you ever received?
A quote that was sent to me when I was battling breast cancer in 2016: "You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have."
If you weren't in healthcare, what would you like to be doing?
A tour guide – I love to travel!
Anything else you'd like to share?
I have two bonus children and a son-in-law, Robbie, Jennifer and John. I have two Shih Tzus, Bella and Indie. I love reading – something that I have not had a lot of time to do. I would really love to learn to crochet. My husband and I are planning a 7 day cruise to Alaska in 2026 – I really want to see the Northern Lights!
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