First Year's Chicago Trip 2014

Touring one of the PT units at RIC

By: Luke Nelson 

This past week, the first year MHA students were given the opportunity to visit and tour various health care organizations in the Chicago area. Chicago has a very interesting health care market, and it was fascinating to see the various settings for health care delivery in the area. The trip began with a tour of the American Medical Association and the American Hospital presentation, along with presentations describing how those organizations are influencing the future of medicine.  

We began our next day with a tour of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. This innovative organization is taking care coordination to another level, and encourages clinicians, researchers, and therapists to work side by side for the betterment of the patient. They also gave a presentation on their new building construction, which will include 5 state of the art activity labs which focus on helping patients regain functions and abilities that may have been lost during the course of an illness. We also were treated to fascinating lectures on Rehabilitation ethics from a bioethicist at RIC and one of their research scientists who described some of the exciting new developments being pioneered at RIC.  

First Year students in front of a fire truck playplace
donated by the Chicago Fire Department at Lurie

After RIC, we toured Lurie Children’s Hospital. Our time at Lurie included a presentation that described how their organization is preparing for the many changes that are being brought about by the Affordable Care Act. We then toured the facility, which includes some fascinating environmental design elements. It was interesting to see how they utilized environmental design in many ways. Not only was this children’s hospital very aesthetically appealing, but it also worked to create environment that was conducive to the healing process and geared towards children.  

After Lurie Children’s Hospital, we made the short walk over to Northwestern Memorial, where listened to a panel on early career development. We also learned the ways that Northwestern Medicine is shifting towards a more system orientation, and tips on the fellowship and job search process from their VP of Human Resources. Later that night, we engaged in some networking with MHA alumni in the Chicago area at Timothy O’Toole’s, and were able to learn more about career opportunities in the area.  

Fascinating Environmental Design at Lurie's Childrens

We began our final day of the trip at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County. During our visit to Cook County, we spoke with different clinicians and tour the trauma ICU, emergency department, outpatient clinics, and neonatal ICU. This trip revealed the variety of care settings in the Chicagoland area. It was also interesting to see various innovations the hospital adopted to compensate for their limited resources. For example, the trauma surgeons have developed some revolutionary trauma protocols and techniques in response to increased gun violence, and have saved many lives in the process.  

 Our trip ended at Rush Medical Center. This beautiful facility was recently renovated, and we were lucky enough to tour the new facility with some Rush MHA students. This center incorporates some interesting technology to increase efficiency, the most notable being a robotic supply system. After seeing one of the robots drive by, I thought I had stepped into the future. We finished our time at Rush with a discussion from the Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Ansell. He has spent most of his career in the Chicagoland area, and helped us process what we had seen and put it into an administrative perspective. Overall, the trip to Chicago was a very valuable experience. We were able to spend time bonding as a class while also increasing our knowledge of the many roles that administrators can take in the health care industry.   

Check out some pictures of Alumni Reception below: