University of Iowa Health Management & Policy

By Jeremy Murdock Hello everyone!  This summer I am working in Burlington, Iowa at Great River Medical Center as the Administrative Intern to CEO Mark Richardson. Great River Medical Center is a 378-bed hospital and is part of Great River Health Systems, an integrated health-care system that provides care for area residents that spans the entire care continuum including retail pharmacies, a new long-term care center, a hospice house, an outpatient renal dialysis center, a cancer care center, and a network of primary and specialty care clinics located throughout the region. They also contract manage a critical access hospital in nearby Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.  My preceptor, Mark Richardson, is an Iowa MHA alum and a strong supporter of the program. He has been a CEO for over 25 years, 16 of those years at Great River Health Systems. His leadership and experiences in building a successful culture of engagement amongst employees and of focusing on the quality of patient ...

By Alisa Strohbehn Greetings from Iowa City! My summer internship stems from my Graduate Administrative Assistant position in the Department of Ophthalmology here at the University of Iowa. I am working with the Administrator, Larry McGranahan, and the Administrative Assistant, Pat Smith. Larry is a graduate of the Master of Health Administration program at the University of Iowa and is a great mentor. Pat Smith graduated from Luther and has been working in the department for over thirty years, and she has taught me so many things about HR. My job and internship has allowed me to work with all members of the administration team, including the DEO, Marketing Director, Grants Administrator, Nurse Manager, and Senior Accountant. This job and internship has been a wonderful experience with a variety of projects. One of my big projects for the year was credentialing the incoming Fellow Associates. This included daily correspondence with the new fellows as well as the credential...

By Connie Lee Hello All! This summer I am holding the fort down in Iowa City. My internship is at MediRevv, located in Coralville. MediRevv is a revenue cycle management firm specializing in Account Receivables.  Specifically, they work A/Rs from both the self-pay/patient perspective as well as the insurance side. They also do business office outsourcing, consulting, A/R liquidation for system switches, and much more! The organization is young, going on year 7, but growing at a remarkable rate. It was founded by Chris Klitgaard, an Iowa alumnus of both the MHA and MBA programs. My internship is primarily in Business Intelligence with the Vice President of Technology & Analytics. My main project for the summer is a redesign of the monthly client reporting. Needless to say, I now have a love and appreciation for pivot tables and everything Excel. Some of my other projects include: Office “scrimmage” – Coordinating the physical space and technology move of half ...

By T.K. Everett, Meredith Funke, and Alyssa Pennington Celebrating Independence Day at the Georgia Aquarium Hi y’all! Greetings from Atlanta, Georgia, where the three of us have been working at Emory Healthcare this summer. Emory Healthcare is the largest, most comprehensive health system in Georgia and includes The Emory Clinic, eight hospitals throughout the Atlanta metro area, and a physician group practice organization. All in all, Emory Healthcare has 1,918 licensed patient beds, 16,000 employees, 200 care delivery sites, and more than 60 physician group practices throughout Metro Atlanta and the state of Georgia. Breaking news: Emory University Hospital was ranked the top hospital in the state of Georgia for the second year in a row and Emory University Hospital Midtown came in at number four in the state, according the 2013-2014 U.S. News and World Report rankings! While all of our internships are technically through The Emory Clinic, we each have different precepto...

By Nick Lenard Konichiwa from the land of the rising sun! This summer, I have had the honor and privilege of being Kameda Medical Center’s Administrative Intern. This opportunity has proven to be both challenging and rewarding as I have had to navigate cultural and language barriers to gain a better understanding of Japan’s healthcare system and Kameda’s “unorthodox” approach to healthcare within Japan.   Kameda Medical Center, Japan’s premier medical corporation, is located in the sunny beach town of Kamogawa City. Kameda provides nationals and medical tourists with a full spectrum of medical services ranging from Level 1 Trauma care to primary care. On it’s main campus in Kamogawa City, Kameda has over 925 beds, and provides inpatient, outpatient, and diagnostic services as well having a nursing school. In addition, Kameda has clinics and de ntal offices across Japan. In fact while here, they had the grand opening of their Kyobashi Clinic in Tokyo and announced thei...

By Tim Goody During the summer I worked as a Human Resources Intern at the Iowa City VA Hospital. My two major projects for the summer are to conduct a 100% audit of all employee Competency folders (approximately 1400) in preparation for a Joint Commission survey and a Customer satisfaction report. For the first project, the employee competency folders are required by the Joint Commission to validate all employees are competent in their duties. By Joint Commission standards all competency must be validated every three years but the VA guidelines dictate they are validated on an annual basis. Because the VA has this standard Joint Commission holds all VA facilities to this standard. Outside of validating the completion of these folders I was also tasked with standardizing the process enterprise wide as there is a large variation on how each department completes this task. In the standardization of this process I created a training outlined that I used at a supervisors forum to ed...

By Scott J. Hurtgen                    Greetings, from the Old Dominion! Thomas Jefferson has a resume much more impressive than mine to say the least – he is, among many other things, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the 3 rd President of the United States of America.  In 1819 Thomas Jefferson became another type of founding father, when he founded the University of Virginia in his hometown of Charlottesville. Shortly after founding the University, in 1825 Jefferson also founded the UVA Medical Education and Patient Care Program, which has grown into what is now the UVA Health System - The UVA Medical Center (which includes a 604-bed hospital, trauma center and numerous primary and specialty care clinics throughout the region), the School of Medicine, School of Nursing and the UVA Physicians Group.  I have found my home this summer in the UVA Medical Center as...

Myself and Tom Ozburn, CEO Southern Hills Medical Center By AJ Nice A summer in Nashville, Tennessee is unlike anything I've ever experienced – working on my southern drawl and becoming acquainted with the music scene, Nashville has a taste of a big city with a small city feel.  I’m currently working for TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center, HCA in Nashville, TN.  Southern Hills is a 132-bed hospital and now serves three counties, including Davidson, Williamson and Rutherford.  However, the scope of Southern Hills encompasses much more than a standard 132-bed class C size hospital with its recent joint venture with CareSpot, a local immediate care clinic, its ownership of three imaging centers and partnerships with primary care offices.  A majority of my time and perhaps the most invaluable aspect of my summer is the opportunity spent with my preceptor, Tom Ozburn, CEO.  Unique to many internships, Tom has taken me on every meeting...

By Janet Kang Hi Everyone! I am spending my summer working as an administrative intern at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, under the direction of Sabi Singh, Co-Chief Operating Officer. UIHC is a 729-bed hospital and is Iowa's only comprehensive academic medical center and a regional referral center. In the past fiscal year, UIHC recorded more than 977,000 clinic visits, including more than 159,000 visits outside Iowa City at outreach and UI Family Care sites. We provide first-rate primary care and offer services in more than 200 specialties and receive referrals around the country. Today, UIHC is a part of University of Iowa Health Care, a fully-integrated academic medical center that also includes the Carver College of Medicine and UI Physicians. Each play a unique role in fulfilling shared missions of patient care, research and education. Simply stated, our mission is: Changing Medicine. Changing Lives.® My biggest project this summer is working alongside a mult...

By Claire Simpson Howdy everyone! This summer I am in Fort Worth, Texas working for JPS Health Network. My main preceptor is Dianna Prachyl, VP of Community Health. JPS is a 537-bed hospital with 43 associated ambulatory care and primary care outreach sites in Fort Worth serving all of Tarrant County. It is one of Texas’ major urban public hospitals therefore it serves as the primary safety net provider of acute care for Tarrant County’s Medicaid and uninsured populations. JPS is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in the county and also contains Fort Worth’s only acute psychiatric care facility. It is currently a very exciting time to be involved in healthcare in Texas. The 1115 Medicaid Waiver has brought together 27 healthcare providers in our region alone. These include public, private, not-for-profit, academic health science centers, public agencies, physician groups, and MHMR’s. JPS serves as the anchor hospital for this innovative demonstration project, which has opened up m...

By Phil Wirtjes Greetings to all of you faithful followers of the HMP student blog! This is my first official foray into the blogosphere and I am happy to have you all along for the ride. This summer I am doing my internship at Blue Cross Blue Shield Wellmark in Des Moines. Wellmark is the largest insurer in the state of Iowa and South Dakota and has almost 2,000 employees at their corporate headquarters in downtown Des Moines. Although I am getting experience in a variety of departments within the company, my main preceptor resides within the large-group marketing department and is in charge of developing the insurance plan product for large group employers. I have been kept extremely busy this summer working with a variety of different projects which include some of the following: Creating a business plan for the development of a telemedicine product Working with the Network Innovation department to fine-tune the ACO arrangements that Wellmark is currently engaged in T...