Summer Internships: Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center

Behind me is the Prairie Center- home of  Avera Cancer Institute and Avera
Surgery Center. Avera McKennan is one of 69 hospitals nationally to receive the CEO Cancer Gold Standard organization from the American Cancer Society.

By Brittany Fett

I am currently a Graduate Intern at Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Avera McKennan is a mission driven, 545-bed tertiary care hospital under the Avera Health umbrella. McKennan has 13 rural affiliates and numerous clinics, primarily in eastern South Dakota, southwest Minnesota, and northwest Iowa. I spend most of my time with Network Operations and interact extensively with McKennan’s rural network- which I absolutely love! I have also had exposure to long-term care and home medical equipment, giving my experience another dimension.

I am already working on a number of projects, and the list keeps growing! My main project is to develop a staffing efficiency model to serve as a means to benchmark the affiliated Critical Access Hospitals with one another and identify opportunities for improvement. I am also spending some of my time in the Women’s Clinic where I am coordinating the logistics for two new physicians who will start their practices later this summer. Additionally, I will be writing a business plan for a new $18 million CAH and will be part of strategic planning sessions, among a number of other smaller projects.

Amidst my projects, I have had an opportunity to interact with senior leadership at McKennan and throughout the network. I have attended numerous board meetings in the rural communities and have sat in on McKennan’s Administrative Council meetings. I have also shadowed a nurse in the Emergency Department overnight and am looking forward to observing a surgery and interacting with McKennan in other ways to experience the organization as whole.

McKennan truly is a mission driven organization and it has been very apparent in the first month of my internship. Everyone has been extremely welcoming and I have enjoyed every minute of my experience; I am looking forward to what the rest of the summer will bring!

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