University of Iowa Health Management & Policy

  Greetings from beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah!  This summer, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to complete my internship with the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics—the sole academic medical center in the state of Utah and one of the largest in the mountain west. The University of Utah Health system is made up of five (soon to be six) hospitals, 12 community health centers, 22 affiliate hospitals, and 54 telehealth sites. The system serves patients across roughly 10% of the continental U.S., with primary service areas including Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and much of Nevada. There are nine interns in our cohort, and each week we’ve had the opportunity to meet with executive leaders and tour various facilities across the health system. I have worked with the System Planning team at the main hospital, which includes three key groups: Strategic Integration, Space Planning, and Operational Project Management. Throughout my internship, I’ve had the privilege of contrib...

This summer, I had the opportunity to be a part of the Finance and Accounting Services team (FAS) at the University of Iowa. My internship allowed me to better understand what it is like to work in finance and accounting, especially within the healthcare industry. From managing a vaccination clinic project to tackling financial models, I got to contribute to some and be a part of some fun projects. One of the highlights of my internship was being the go-to person for all things related to the HPV vaccination clinic with the Population Health team. This project provides Shoes for patients under 13 years old who obtain their 2 nd  dose of the HPV vaccine. I found myself at the center of communication between four different teams, which meant I got to lead meetings, and make sure we were all on the same page. Our big event is coming up in the second week of August, and I am proud of how smoothly everything has been running so far.  Another big part of my summer was getting my han...

Bună ziua and salutări from beautiful Cluj-Napoca, Romania!  I am delighted to share my experience with my Global Health Program summer internship abroad offered by Babes-Bolyai University and the Cluj School of Public Health. The Global Health Internship Program provides personalized summer educational experiences for international students with various healthcare career paths and interests, including medical shadowing, public health research, community health practice, rural health, pharmacy, health management, and so much more! I chose to apply for the community health practice track of the program because I aspire to work with non-profits in my career after graduate school and pursue health policy that makes a difference in population health and systemic improvement for healthcare access and equity. Based on my interests, experience, and personal identity, I created a plan with my program advisor to work with a local LGBTQ+ NGO (non-governmental organization) called Queer Siste...

This summer I had the pleasure of doing my administrative internship with the Strategy team at University of Iowa Health Care. The Strategy team works to explore internal and external opportunities to improve health access and quality through University of Iowa Health Care. I worked closely with Bailey Badker, a Strategy Consultant on the team, to expand my knowledge of current projects and explore where I can gain varying exposures and enhance my skills. This internship has given me a greater understanding of the work stream undertaken as new ventures and opportunities are considered for the organization. I was able to learn a great deal about upcoming initiatives, provider relations efforts, and proforma creations and reviews with the Finance team. My main project this summer revolved around cleanup efforts for our referring provider database and exploring where we can improve the entry process. Through this project I was able to see the impact data inconsistencies can have on a syst...

  Hello from Iowa City!   This summer I have had the privilege of interning at the Patient Access Center (PAC) with University of Iowa Healthcare. The PAC is the contact center for scheduling at the university making it a gateway to access for patients. During FY24, the PAC scheduled  nearly 900,000  appointments for patients within Iowa Healthcare amongst many specialties. The acquisition of Mercy has caused an increased workload for the PAC as the patient access specialists will now be taking on some of their call volume as well moving into FY25. My preceptor Keri Semrau, who is the director of the PAC and Integrated Call Center (ICC) oversees the integration of these services and ensures smooth transition. I am also working closely with Michael Hesseltine (ancillary services) and Neil Christiansen (operations) who are directors within the PAC on various projects throughout the summer.  One of the projects I was assigned for the summer was Patient Access Colla...

  Hello from beautiful Logan, Utah!    I had an exceptional summer completing my internship at Logan Regional Hospital, a 148-bed hospital part of the Intermountain Health System. Intermountain is a nonprofit health system with 33 hospitals and 1 virtual hospital in Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Montana, and Kansas. Logan Regional Hospital (LRH) is a community hospital and trauma III medical center. It is also consistently recognized as one of the top 100 hospitals in the U.S.! Logan, Utah, has a population of about 40,000 and is located in northern Utah, about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City. Brandon McBride is the CEO/President of LRH and has been my preceptor throughout the summer. He is a Utah native but ventured to the Midwest to earn his MHA degree from the University of Minnesota!   Throughout the summer, I was involved in a wide array of projects, which provided me with invaluable experience and a proficient understanding of hospital operations. I ...