University of Iowa Health Management & Policy

  By Chelsea Cooling Greetings from Fridley, MN! This summer I am completing my internship at Unity Hospital, a 220-bed hospital in the northwestern Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. Unity is a part of Allina Health, a system that operates 11 hospitals and more than 90 clinics throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin.  My preceptor is Lori Wightman, RN, President of Unity. Lori has been taking Iowa interns for the past 8 years. This summer I have been tasked with completing some very exciting projects: Creating a business plan and pro forma for a possible da Vinci robot Working with the VPMA on a length of stay reduction project A statistical analysis of the effect of increased rehab services provided throughout the hospital on patient outcomes Creating a proposal for use of Blue Ocean Strategy concepts at Unity Completing an analysis of Unity’s ACE unit and creating a plan for how to spread practices on this unit throughout the hospital ...

Sara and Hannah during Joint Commission Visit By Hannah Kinrade and Sara Whetstine We are the Administrative Interns for Alegent Creighton Health this summer.  Alegent Creighton Health is a faith-based, mission-driven health care system with 11 hospitals throughout southwest Iowa and eastern Nebraska.  Although we are both working for Alegent Creighton Health, we are at two different hospitals gaining different experiences. This summer is an exciting time to be part of the Alegent Creighton Health System.  Last year Alegent Health and Creighton University formed a strategic affiliation which included the acquisition of Creighton University Medical Center and resulted in the Alegent Creighton Health System.  Additionally Catholic Health Initiatives has become the sole sponsor of the Alegent Creighton Health System.  These new partnerships have resulted in many big changes throughout the Alegent Creighton Health System.  It has been exciting to b...

By Paige Wallace My summer internship is at UnityPoint Health – Des Moines, although many of you might know it better as “Iowa Health Des Moines”. The complete brand change came in April along with a dedication to improving health care delivery through patient-centered, coordinated care. UnityPoint Health – Des Moines is a senior affiliate of UnityPoint Health, the nation’s 15 th largest nonprofit health system and 5 th largest nondenominational health system. The entire system encompasses 15 system hospitals, 14 community network hospitals, 280 physician clinics, 7 home care locations and over 25,000 employees.  UPH – Des Moines includes 4 hospitals: Methodist, Lutheran, Blank Children’s and Methodist West, 50 UnityPoint Clinics and the John Stoddard Cancer Center. UPH Des Moines, like each affiliate, has their own senior team and a high level of autonomy.  I like to think of us as a system within a system. We also support many residents for Internal Medicine, Surge...

By Katie Westfall I am spending my summer as 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 working with Network Operations interacting with many of the rural hospitals and clinics!  I have also had exposure to long-term care, hospice, and home medical equipment, learning about many of the problems that face those segments of healthcare in this ever changing environment. This season is that of growth for Avera, and capital projects are taking up much of my time.  One of many projects I am working on is the collecting and assembling the many CMS requirements for relocation of a critical access hospital.  My main project is analyzing the change in...

By Erin Moen Hi, all! This summer I am in Iowa City working at the UI Children’s Hospital under the direction of Scott Turner, Director of UI Children’s and Co-COO of UIHC. UI Children’s Hospital is Iowa’s only comprehensive children’s hospital, offers over 40 pediatric specialties, and employs over 640 pediatric physicians, surgeons, and nurses. This summer is a very exciting time to be here at UI Children’s as the construction of the new children’s hospital facility is currently underway and expected to be completed in 2016. As the single largest capital project on the University of Iowa Campus in the history of the University, the $292 Million UI Children’s Hospital project will definitely keep me busy this summer!       My internship scope incorporates three large projects that encompass both pediatrics and overall academic hospital operations.  Currently I am working on a campus-wide operations and capital project. With the help of a small team, I will...

By Eddie Myers and Dominica Rehbein Dominica and Ed examine returned survey responses and enter them into the database As interns in the Office of Statewide Clinical Education Programs (OSCEP) in the Carver College of Medicine, we have hit the ground running on our primary task for the summer: surveying every physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, hospital administrator and recruiter in Iowa who may be offering employment opportunities for primary care practitioners in their health organizations. In the last two weeks, we have sent out over 2,500 surveys to hundreds of communities, and will publish information about these opportunities to assist primary care providers who are looking to practice in the lovely state of Iowa. Some additional projects we have been involved with include physician contract reviews, practice liability insurance coordination and working with the Iowa family medicine residents. These projects represent a few of the many responsibilities...