Brandi Wasson: 'When I'm here, it feels like home'

As we get ready for the 2016 Employee Recognition Banquet on April 21, we asked our colleagues about what drives their passion for health care. Here is one story of Passion and Purpose at CoxHealth:

Brandi Wasson
Si3

Brandi Wasson has been a regular face at CoxHealth for decades: It’s a particularly interesting feat since she’s only 30 years old. Now the systems manager for Si3, Brandi grew up visiting the hospital with her parents, who both worked for the health system in various capacities.

“Ever since I was young, I’ve always been a part of CoxHealth,” says Brandi.

So when it came time for her to look for a job after high school, CoxHealth seemed like a natural choice. “It just felt like an easy decision,” says Brandi. “When I’m here, it just feels like home because I’ve always been around Cox. And I still know people who ‘see’ me still as a little girl.”

She began as a switchboard operator – and did actually quit her job a few years in. But she wasn’t gone for long: After only a month or so, she missed CoxHealth so much that “I came back and filled my own requisition,” she says. And she’s been working in Communications ever since, gradually filling more administrative roles until landing at her current position in 2015.

Her parents are ecstatic, she says, about her career with CoxHealth – and her 5-year-old daughter is already a fan, too. “My daughter loves coming to the office,” says Brandi. “Anytime we see a commercial, she’s like, ‘Mom, there’s your work!’”

It’s clear that both tradition and family are things that impact Brandi’s life and career. But for her, the job is more than simply being a part of CoxHealth. “We don’t maybe have ‘direct’ patient care in our department, but in a way we do,” she says. “We provide a way for patients to communicate with their families and with the outside world. A phone sitting on a desk that we’ve put in does affect a patient.”