Stephanie Ostroff is a speech-language pathologist and journalist. She enjoys blending knowledge from both fields to shine a light on innovators and changemakers in health care.
Laura Feicht, MA, CCC-SLP, MHCI '23 broadens her impact on pediatric health care by molding challenges into opportunities
Laura Feicht faced burnout after working as a pediatric speech-language pathologist across three different hospital systems.
“As a clinician, I felt disconnected from how and why decisions were made,” says Feicht. She decided to apply to Penn’s Master of Health Care Innovation (MHCI) in 2020. “I wanted to get a better foundation in health care operations terminology, so that one day I could have a seat at the table and implement change.”
The MHCI program empowered me to look at the same challenges I experienced as a clinician in new ways and it gave me the tools to turn my ideas and solutions into something real and meaningful.
That’s exactly where Feicht has landed. She helped translate a broad research portfolio into clinical care for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). As of fall 2025, she is building her own pediatric therapy partnership that will offer teletherapy to address obstacles such as access to care and clinician burnout.
Where she once saw barriers, Feicht sees opportunities to innovate.
“The MHCI program empowered me to look at the same challenges I experienced as a clinician in new ways,” says Feicht, “and it gave me the tools to turn my ideas and solutions into something real and meaningful.”
A deeper understanding leads to new opportunities
Feicht was working as a speech-language pathologist at CHOP when she began the MHCI. One year into the program, she was offered an Outpatient Therapy Supervisor position at Nemours.
“They said that although I didn't have any previous supervisory or management experience, the MHCI program was really the distinguishing factor in hiring me,” Feicht says.
That clinical leadership role paved the way for an opportunity to effect broader change across health care. Shortly after Feicht graduated with her MHCI, she landed a role as Senior Operations Partner with CHOP’s Frontier Programs. Encompassing a portfolio of research that develops treatments for conditions such as pediatric cancer, advanced heart failure, and metabolic disorders, the Frontier Programs touch a wide range of critical children’s health issues.
Feicht worked to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice. Partnering with departments across the hospital, she gathered data on project roadblocks and advocated for stakeholder-driven solutions. When obstacles arose—such as a need for additional operating room space, staff, or resources—Feicht used root cause analysis to investigate and generate a plan.
“That was one of the key pieces of the MHCI. You have to go deep to understand the problem,” she says. “And once you understand it, you need to think about the solution from a number of different angles.”
Feicht spoke with department leaders to make the case for additional support, such as social workers or clinicians, to move research forward. When doing so, she accounted for perspectives across clinical and business operations, the Office of Technology Transfer, and marketing. By understanding their challenges, she could see the bigger picture and offer actionable steps forward.
“You may get turned down or encounter some barriers,” says Feicht, “But it’s about being resilient and being okay to change your path to get to the next possible step.”
Addressing root cause as an entrepreneur
In July 2025, Feicht decided she was ready to apply those same principles to build a business that delivers better work/life balance for clinicians and reaches underserved clients through teletherapy, particularly in rural parts of the US.
Therally, as she named the pediatric therapy partnership, brings Feicht back to her roots in speech-language pathology—but with new perspective.
A lot of times when we think about innovation and health care, our focus is appropriately on the patient. But we need to think about the people who are caring for the patients, because that does impact the quality of care and the patient experience.
“I’ve lived it. I understand the pain points,” she says. “There’s a lot of opportunity to preserve our clinicians and create a sustainable career path by innovating in new employment models, technology, and care delivery.”
Feicht is using root cause analysis to dig deeper into the why behind clinician burnout. Her research has uncovered barriers such as high caseloads, low compensation, administrative burdens, and limited flexibility. Behavioral economics principles—learned during the MHCI—inform her development of solutions to these persistent challenges.
At Therally, Feicht plans to offer employee-focused incentives to recruit and retain therapists and decrease burnout. Her business model also prioritizes flexible hours and location to prioritize providers’ wellbeing. Clinicians can create a schedule that aligns with their lifestyle and opt to provide virtual services from home.
“There's a trickle-down effect,” says Feicht. “A lot of times when we think about innovation and health care, our focus is appropriately on the patient. But we need to think about the people who are caring for the patients, because that does impact the quality of care and the patient experience.”
While Feicht plans to keep her initial focus on speech-language therapy within the Mid-Atlantic region, her goal is to bring on physical and occupational therapists, too, and scale nationwide. Through teletherapy, she aims to offer services to remote locations with limited access to trained clinicians.
“We have a critical shortage of therapists and the field is projected to grow,” she says. “It comes down to root cause: What’s causing people to leave the field? And really trying to strategically target those pain points and innovate around them so that we can make things better.”