Summer Internship: University of Iowa Health Alliance

By: Katherine Read

Hello Everyone! Once again I am spending my summer working for the University of Iowa Health Alliance. I have now been working with this group for nearly 1 ½ years. It has been an amazing opportunity to begin with an organization just getting started and to see the development through the months. The University of Iowa Health Alliance (UIHA) is a group of hospitals in Iowa that are working together to address population health at a state level and to venture into new opportunities that will benefit Iowa. The organization is comprised of Mercy Health Network out of Des Moines, the University of Iowa out of Iowa City, Mercy Clinics out of Cedar Rapids, Genesis from the Quad Cities, and the most recent addition of Wheaton Franciscan out of Waterloo. UIHA includes more than 50 hospitals and 160 physician clinics across the state.

 

This summer I have ventured into some new opportunities with UIHA. I am currently working on a process improvement project that will serve as a pilot study to better understand the referral process to different hospitals within UIHA. I am currently mapping out the referral process at different clinics and will be working with the clinics to make recommendations and changes to their referral process. The hope is to create a process that is easy for the practitioners and allows for a seamless transition for patients. I have also been working on health policy related initiatives with Stacey Cyphert from the University of Iowa. This summer I have also had the opportunity to do some work for a consulting firm working for UIHA.

Along with these new activities, I have continued to be part of many meetings. I attend the Clinical Integration meetings with the medical directors of each network. I have also had the opportunity to sit in on board meetings and board presentations with the heads of the organizations. There is a lot happening with UIHA and it has been really great to make the connections that I hope will benefit me in the future. 

This summer has been fairly relaxing but with some excitement. A week after school ended I finally got married – it only took 5 years! We also were recently hit with bad storms in Cedar Rapids. Sunday night around 11pm it rained so hard that the streets became whitewater rapids with cars floating around. Our basement took on about 8 inches of water. By Monday morning the water had receded and I was able to clean up the basement. By 3pm that day, another storm went through taking down trees in both the front and back yard. We didn’t have any power for 30 hours and it took 6 days to get cable and internet. Needless to say the whole neighborhood looked really messed up. The ragging water destroyed streets and there were trees everywhere! Let’s hope for calmer weather!