Meet Allison Placido: COO of TempDev

Allison Placido, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Privacy and Security Officer at TempDev, is an ace with numbers and growth-oriented business strategies. Her tenacity and experience play a major role in making TempDev an innovative hub for NextGen EHR & PM consulting.   

Allison went to South College in Knoxville, TN, and received a Computer Information Systems degree. She is now currently enrolled in management courses at the City University of Seattle and has also studied Project Management at the prestigious University of California at Berkley. She spent the first 10-years of her career working for various accounting firms understanding bookkeeping, tax rules, and employment laws. This provided her with the financial know-how to oversee complicated business operations. Many of her clients at her accounting firm were physician groups so she learned the intricacies of their business and financial operations which drew her to want to work in healthcare.

Allison and Laura Miller, the CEO of TempDev, met as teenagers in the 1990s over Internet Relay Chat (IRC). The two found a connection and met in person soon after at a computer convention in Las Vegas. Little did they know, this would be just the beginning of their convention circuit together. When Allison came to work for TempDev, one of her many jobs was to help organize TempDev's participation at NextGen UGM, an annual computer convention that often happens very close to where they originally met. As TempDev began to grow, Laura needed help keeping up with running the operations of the company. There was no one she trusted more than her lifelong friend who happened to be knowledgeable in the areas that TempDev needed. Over Allison's tenure at TempDev she has grown from someone who initially helped with invoicing, to someone who oversees all the operations of the company and makes it run smoothly.

Allison's role has expanded to include management of client resources, which included managing master service agreements and ensuring compliance with HIPAA and other privacy and security requirements. After a few years with TempDev, she was promoted to COO and Privacy and Security Officer. She continues to work closely with Laura, who has charged her with policymaking, handling finances, overseeing operations management, and human resources. The security side of her job involves ensuring that TempDev is up-to-date and compliant with security protocols and policies. She’s especially skilled at building repeatable processes and optimizing the company's operations. She meets with TempDev project managers weekly to decide which resources are available for projects and assigns them accordingly.  

About her time with TempDev, Allison Placido stated: 

“It’s been almost eleven years since I joined TempDev. I enjoy the work immensely; it is challenging and always dynamic – things don’t stay the same for too long. But, hey, the challenges make things interesting; I've never had a boring day in the last decade or so.” 

It certainly wasn’t boring after the pandemic hit. Allison had her hands full helping to prepare clients for remote work. TempDev has always embraced remote work, but most clients lacked the systems needed to support working remotely when COVID-19 restrictions prevented them from business as usual. Allison deployed TemDev’s experts to assist several medical groups in facilitating telehealth for their clients. This included everything from video conferencing to setting up appropriate medical billing practices from remote and home offices.  

Allison resources TempDev employees to assist in training for clients, as well as the creation of packages and templates. She is especially proud of the work TempDev has done to help alleviate the burden the pandemic has caused to their clients. The COVID-19 Testing NextGen EHR Template allows for rapid testing documentation and is simple, effective, and quick to fill out. When the vaccine became available, TempDev developed a COVID-19 Vaccine NextGen EHR Template that allowed clients to log in and track a high volume of vaccinations easily and accurately.  

“There was nothing out there,” said Allison. “So, we reused a product that we had previously used for flu shots and customized it for COVID-19 vaccines. We got it to our clients as soon as possible.” 

Working with TempDev clients has always been a pleasure for Allison. However, she has a soft spot for small groups that serve rural communities and community health centers. They are closest to her heart. Both small- and large-scale clients benefited from the work that TempDev does.

Allison’s quick thinking and diligent research during the pandemic helped TempDev maneuver through many difficult months. Allison's efforts and creativity through the worst part of the pandemic, meant TempDev never laid off an employee, cut benefits, or reduced salaries. It will surely go down as a large part of her legacy, but Allison recognizes she didn’t do it alone.   

“It is a great company to work for,” she said. “My colleagues are fantastic, helpful, and smart; they are a very proactive and productive group of people. They are also gracious with all our clients.” 

Apart from the staff, Allison also loves the structure, culture, and environment at TempDev. TempDev has some of the most progressive policies for a company of its small scale.   

Everyone at TempDev embraces an open-door policy, all the way to top management. There is room for ideas to be heard, and even room for making mistakes. If you make a mistake at work, there are clear procedures to be followed, and everyone is willing to pitch in to help correct it. TempDev has very progressive welfare policies—including for maternity—especially for an organization of its size. 

Her favorite project at TempDev was transitioning TempDev from a California LLC that mostly subcontracted employees to a Florida Corporation at a time when they were growing rapidly. 

“It felt like a very big deal,” Allison Placido said. “We started as a group of consultants; there was just a handful of us. After a few years of upward trajectory and immense growth, we realized that we needed to incorporate and employ our consultants full time. Moving from an LLC to a Corporation, getting into the corporate world, building a human resources department, and getting our consultants on board as employees with benefits packages was amazing.” 

Allison loves her job, her colleagues, and her family. She has hobbies and goals unrelated to her work, including that during her downtime, the zealous COO is an amateur potter who "makes bad pottery in my spare time."

Allison has a sense of humor which is necessary for her work and home-life balance. She runs a full house. Allison has four kids: four boys, to be precise, including a set of 6-year-old twins and one son who has autism. Because of this, Allison advocates for autism awareness. Away from their Seattle home, Allison and her outdoorsy family love to go camping, hiking, and other such activities. Rialto Beach on the Olympic Peninsula is their favorite spot. 

However, the most beautiful place Allison Placido has ever been to is Hawaii, “Waikiki Bay in Honolulu is glorious.” she said. 

While traveling, Allison likes to try new cuisines just like her favorite foodie, Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern. Some of the most bizarre foods she’s eaten include alligators in Florida and snakes in Louisiana. “They were delicious,” she said. 

To engage with competent, experienced, and capable experts like Allison Placido's team on your next project, contact us here or by calling 888.TEMP.DEV.