Summer Internship: New Ulm Medical Center

By: Josh Viggers

It’s been said that all roads lead to Rome, but in healthcare, they all leads to New Ulm. Every aspect of healthcare can be found at NUMC. It’s the perfect mix of acute and primary care, public health initiatives, industry innovations, critical access challenges, systemic contact, and hope for the future.

NUMC is a 25 bed critical access hospital with an attached 115 room clinic which supports a city of 15,000, and a service area including 40,000+ people. As part of Allina Health, NUMC has the unique ability to fit a large system into a quaint German town, with all of the benefits of both worlds. Additionally, New Ulm is half way through a 10 year public health study called the Heart of New Ulm (HONU). Its foundational goal was to reduce the occurrence of heart attacks, but it has affected many areas of health which has brought the entire community into national focus and brilliant innovation.

Speaking of innovation, NUMC has taken to front lines of changes in healthcare. They are positioning themselves for future success by exploring ACO participation and new forms of reimbursement, healthcare provision, and integrated care models. As last year’s intern (Tessa Quintero) said, and I firmly agree, “I’ve loved my experience and have learned what feels like 3 years of information! My preceptor is phenomenal and the New Ulm Medical Center is truly a mission driven organization.”

While at NUMC, I’ve been privileged to participate on many large projects which have included:

• Creating a 500 page response to an RFP from a nearby Native American community by summarizing all of the services an Allina Clinic can offer (all in the first 2 weeks at New Ulm!)

• Working on a summer long project to propose a standard productivity model for all of Allina’s regional hospitals. I was able to help present this at the All President’s Meeting to gain system wide support for this project which could produce $10million dollars in savings

• Presenting Medicare data to the Board of Trustees as they prepare for entering into the Pioneer ACO model

• Working with the Heart of New Ulm to begin the transition from grant funded programs to self-sustaining, policy driven, models of care

• Diligently reviewing  3 past business plans and mapping their success for future projections

• Creating 3 new business plans for expanded services at NUMC including ophthalmology, full continuum eye care, and rehabilitation.

• Writing articles for the Health Edition of the New Ulm Journal

In my free time I have been privileged to work with Toby Freier, NUMC’s president and my preceptor, and Grace Community Church in New Ulm, on advertising for a Christian concert featuring Mikeschair. In fact, I have been honored to spend time with Toby almost every day this summer. Between administrative opportunities at the hospital, HONU community meetings, trips to the Allina headquarters, Saturday morning men’s bible studies, and Sunday morning worship services, I haven’t gone too many days without learning from and working with this exemplary man. It’s truly been a pleasure to work with Toby, NUMC, the Heart of New Ulm, and Grace Community Church this summer. Yes, it’s hard to believe this all took place in 10 short weeks… like Tessa said, it truly feels like 3 years!