Summer Internships: Alegent Creighton Health

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 be part of those changes and see how hospitals and systems are adapting in the face of health reform.

Hannah is spending her summer as the Administrative Intern at Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs under the direction of Chris Evans, Campus Operations Leader.  Chris is a 2008 graduate of the University of Iowa MHA program and is a great mentor.  Mercy Hospital is a 284-bed acute care hospital with an additional 40-bed mental health facility.  In the short time that she has been at Mercy Hospital she has had the privilege of experiencing a Joint Commission survey, sitting in on an Iowa Hospital Association district meeting, visiting Community Memorial Hospital in Missouri Valley, one of the system’s critical access hospitals, and observing a hip replacement surgery as well as an angioplasty.  Additionally, she has had extensive interaction with senior leadership throughout the system and will be spending time shadowing most of them before the summer ends.  A few of her independent projects include:

  • The redesign and implementation of the MECO (Medical Community Education Orientation) program,
  • The process improvement action plan for surgical instrument sterilization,
  • The planning and development of medical staff action plans,
  •  The planning and development of HCAHPS staff education.

View from our roof-top deck
Sara is the Administrative Intern at Bergan Mercy Medical Center in Omaha under Nicole Dollison, Campus Operations Leader.   Bergan Mercy Medical Center is a 400 bed acute care hospital with 905 physicians on active staff, 380 full time registered nurses, and over 1300 full time employees.  During Sara’s second week at Bergan she was able to take part in a Joint Commission survey.  It is such an interesting process and a truly valuable experience to have gone through.  Sara has been able to attend many system wide and campus meetings and has had great exposure to many key leaders in this organization.  In the short time she has been here she has gotten to know every operations director on the Bergan Campus and will also be shadowing in all areas of the hospital while at Bergan. Other projects include:

  • Help to develop action plans for Joint Commissions direct and indirect findings,
  • Research and development on a system wide centralized call system, including a daylong Decision Accelerator meeting with all key stakeholders,
  • Research and business plan development on a new medical waste disposal service.

When we are not working, we have been spending our time exploring Omaha; enjoying the Old Market and Midtown Crossing areas of downtown Omaha.  Catching some rays on our roof-top deck. Visiting the Saturday morning farmers market, the Taste of Omaha, the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, the Summer Arts Festival, the Omaha Zoo and, of course, the College World Series!

College World Series Game 2

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