University of Iowa Health Management & Policy

Hello everyone! My name is April Arend, and this summer I completed my administrative internship at the University of Iowa Health Care at the Medical Center North Liberty (MCNL) campus. MCNL is an Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Specialty Hospital with 36 beds that opened in April 2025. This summer I was able to work with Bryan Garter, Director of Operations, and Amy O’Deen, Chief Administrative Officer. In addition to my preceptors, I worked with many department leaders on strategic initiatives and different operational projects. Throughout my summer at MCNL, I have been exposed to many facets of the hospital. I participated in senior leadership meetings and learned about how to be an effective healthcare leader directly from Bryan and Amy. I participated in weekly tracers, staff appreciation events, and community engagement events (ex: volunteering at the North Liberty food pantry). Outside of meetings, I spent time shadowing child life, supply chain, the night shift house operations ...

Hello all!  My name is Emma Bryer, and I am currently the administrative intern with the UI Patient Access Center (PAC) under Keri Semrau! The PAC is located in HSSB in Coralville, but they handle scheduling appointments for patients across UI Healthcare. There are essentially two parts to the department, PAC schedulers, and the ICC, which focuses primarily on nurse triage.  As the PAC is the centralized scheduling hub across UI Healthcare, we support patients by implementing efficient processes and improving access to care. Alongside Keri, who is the director, I also work with other managers, including operations, ancillary services, and training. This has allowed me to work on projects in various areas, with a focus on workflow and quality improvements.  One of the projects I worked on this summer was gathering benchmarking data from the Patient Access Collaborative. I grabbed notable data and built a 130-slide presentation comparing UI HealthCare’s performance to overa...

Hi folks! My name is Austin Synoground, and this summer I had the great pleasure of serving as a remote legal intern with the Office of Legal Services at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  St. Jude is a truly unique organization. Founded in 1962 by Danny Thomas, the mission of the hospital is to prevent and cure pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Whereas most hospitals fund operations through patient service revenue, government reimbursements, and private insurance payments, St. Jude relies primarily on public and private donations. These donations allow the hospital to provide life-saving medical care to 9,000 patients annually, and the families of those patients never have to pay for treatment, travel, housing or food.   Like the hospital, the Office of Legal Services is one-of-a-kind. Professional, clever, kind, the team is exactly what you would hope to see in a children’s hospital. With nearly twenty attorneys, the legal team’s deep ...

Summer 2026 has been filled with incredible opportunities, meaningful experiences, and lasting relationships. As I wrap up my summer, I have taken time to reflect on everything I have learned throughout this journey. I had the privilege of serving as the Administrative Intern at the Stead Family Children's Hospital under the leadership of Jim Leste and John Heinemann over the past 10 weeks. During my internship, I contributed to nearly 15 high-impact projects spanning multiple service lines and administrative functions across the children's hospital. While every project provided valuable experience, three of my primary initiatives included developing the first Stead Family Children's Hospital staff newsletter to strengthen leadership communication, creating provider and specialty scorecards to identify scheduling inefficiencies within the Pediatric Specialty Clinic, and designing an executive NICU dashboard that consolidates key performance indicators into a single reportin...

Hello Hello! My name is Emily Sutter, and I have spent the past 9 weeks living in Chicago, IL. I am the Administrative and Operations intern at Advocate Christ Medical Center (CMC), which is one of the Illinois Flagship hospitals, and my preceptor is Cameron Lewis (Chief Operating Officer). As I am writing this blog, I am just about to start my final week here. Time flies and I am having the best time! My first couple days of my internship were quite unique, I attended our Illinois Leadership Advance where I heard from some amazing leaders like Eugene Woods, CEO of Advocate Health and Kevin Warren, President and CEO of the Chicago Bears. This experience energized me, and I felt so grateful to be learning from a team committed to shaping the future of health care. On my second day I attended the groundbreaking event of the new Trinity Hospital on the south side of Chicago that is part of our 1-billion-dollar investment in Chicago’s south side.  I have been involved in multiple proje...

Greetings from Iowa City! My name is Brenton Shrock, and I am the administrative intern at Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa Health Care this summer. My preceptor is Rachel Kirchner, Executive Administrator for Oncology Service Line at UIHC. Holden Cancer Center is Iowa’s only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center and offers high-acuity oncology care. This includes infusion, chemotherapy, CAR T-cell therapy, surgical and radiation oncology, and much more! This summer has provided me with the opportunity to learn, observe, and put my skills to the test. During my time, I have been able to participate in leadership and clinical meetings, attend high-level director’s meetings across UIHC, and lead the implementation of new initiatives at Holden.  One of my first projects this summer included working with The Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy (IPHPRP) to curate written portions of the Combat Cancer Technical Assistance program as ...