Summer Internships: Geisinger Health System
By Larissa Luckel
It’s hard to believe there are only two weeks of summer left
until school starts! Unfortunately, this
means there is even less time left at my internship. This summer, I have been interning at
Geisinger Health System in northeast Pennsylvania. Founded in 1915, Geisinger Health System is
the nation’s largest rural health care system and has recently gained national
recognition for its ability to provide high-quality care at costs below
average.
Myself and John Heineman, fellow Iowa MHA/MPH student |
Geisinger has
recently merged with several community hospitals in the northeast PA region and
a lot of my work has focused around projects in these hospitals. On July 1st, Bloomsburg Health
System (now officially named Geisinger-Bloomsburg Health System, or G-BH) was
welcomed into the Geisinger family. During
June and July, I spent quite a bit of time in transition team meetings and
steering committee meetings, as we prepared for G-BH to come onboard. Being involved in the merger process has been
a great experience, as I have been exposed to various elements of strategic
planning, business development and programming, legal restrictions and
considerations, human resource needs, information technology implementation,
etc. Recently, I have also begun work to
develop an operating plan with metrics for Geisinger Northeast, and have been
assisting in the planning and implementation of an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at
another newly-acquired hospital, Geisinger-Community Medical Center in
Scranton, PA.
From a personal standpoint, I have been exploring
Wilkes-Barre and the northeast PA region with the second-year fellow, Alexis Kolpakas
(an Iowa MHA/MPH grad) and the first-year fellow, Andrea Fenner-Koepp. I have found some really great wineries around
this area and a large farmers’ market that takes place in the town square on
Thursdays. A couple of weekends ago, I
went to Philadelphia for a Phillies/Braves game and stopped by Pat’s King of
Steaks afterward for a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. There are also some really nice hiking trails
not far from where I live and it has been nice to get out and explore those on
the weekends as well.
Andrea Fenner-Koepp, the first-year fellow; myself; Alexis Kolpakas, '10 Iowa MHA/MPH graduate and second-year fellow; and the previous fellow, Jessica Havern. |
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