Sam D’Monte

To serve and connect

Ask Sam what he does for a living, and he won’t say “IT”. Instead, Sam will tell you he works for Mercy Health.

It might sound like semantics, but the distinction sums up Sam’s approach to his role. Because Sam doesn’t see IT service as sitting in a back room, answering tickets. Instead, it’s about connecting busy doctors, nurses and aged care workers with the digital tools they need to do their job, ensuring every patient, resident and client gets the care they need.

For Sam, that means encouraging his team of six to recognise that it’s the service part of their title that is key.

“We’ve had a real shift in ideology, out of that old-school thinking into being about customer service and business enablement. That’s because, at the end of the day, we are part of the business at large. Helping people interface with technology is why we are here. And to do that, we need to interact with and understand the people who are using the tech.”

This customer-centric approach is paying dividends across Mercy Health, and in 2023, it saw Sam and his team nominated for an organisation-wide values award for stewardship. Sam’s not the type to pat himself on the back, but he acknowledges it’s good to know his team’s work is being noticed.

“It was kind of nice to see that what we do is appreciated on a large scale and that we’re on the right track.”

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A whole lot of heart

As a child, Sam remembers driving through Melbourne’s suburbs with his dad and siblings. His dad had a keen eye for spotting someone in need of help whether they were struggling to mow the lawn in their front yard or weighed down with too many grocery bags.

“Straight away, my Dad would pull up, and say, ‘Alright, everyone out! We’ll go help that person before we go.’ My Mum is the same; both my parents are very generous. Sometimes to a fault,” Sam laughs.

This desire to help others is a quality instilled in Sam, and it’s one of the reasons he chose a career with Mercy Health. Before joining us, Sam worked for a large appliance retailer, providing IT support to sales staff.

 I wasn’t getting that connection to the organisation’s greater purpose. Whereas here at Mercy Health, you’re working with staff in emergency departments, you’re working with nurses – people at the coalface whose work has an impact on the community. Our day-to-day support actions have these knock-on effects, and I derive a lot of meaning from that.

It’s why Sam says compassion is an essential quality for his IT team to possess.

“Having technical skills is great, but you need to have compassion, too, especially when you’re communicating with people who don’t have those skills. It doesn’t matter how educated you are – you may not have a lot of IT knowledge. I’ll often get doctors going, ‘Oh, I can’t do what you do,’ which I find flabbergasting. I see it as being the opposite way round!” Sam laughs.

This focus on offering compassion alongside tech advice is something Sam’s proud to say his team delivers on, too.

“My staff are very much motivated to help people. We might get a call at 2 am for a critical issue in a hospital, and it’s, ‘Hey, we need you to look at this system.’ And my team, just go, ‘OK, cool. What’s happening? Let’s get it sorted.’ As a team, we recognise it’s not just IT that needs to operate out of hours at Mercy Health; it’s doctors, aged care homes … it’s the nature of the business we are part of.”

Opportunity to expand

When Sam joined us in 2016, striking up a conversation with people he didn’t know wasn’t something he did regularly. But since becoming IT Service Desk Manager in 2019, Sam has challenged himself to change that.

“Being in this role has definitely put me more in the spotlight. It has pushed me out of my comfort zone and I feel more confident in myself now. I’ve always had the technical skills, but Mercy’s provided me the opportunity to develop my people skills, too.”

At Mercy Health, Sam has also significantly expanded his IT knowledge and capabilities. He says anyone joining his team can do the same, especially given the size and scale of Mercy Health.

“There are always new projects and new customer-facing tools to roll out. The services desk is a place where you can gather your skills, and from there, it’s your launching pad into more senior roles. That’s something I took advantage of when I was at the service desk myself.”

As a manager who leads with heart, you can bet Sam is supporting his team to develop and grow in the ways they want to.

“I try to make sure my staff get exposure to a lot of different technologies and opportunities. And I think that’s a positive aspect of working in IT at Mercy Health. There’s definitely a lot of opportunity – you just need to be keen to jump on it.”