First Year Class Trip 2014

By: Katie Gaudian 
To Omaha and Back: the Tale of Two States.
Our morning started out with a very early drive to Des Moines. I’m not sure about the other vans, but some 90’s jams were at least able to keep our driver awake on the way there.

Upon arrival, Paige Wallace greeted us with an introduction of UnityPoint Health. After intriguing talks with Bill Leaver and Eric Crowell, we were able to ask alumni David Stark and Tom Mulrooney some of the questions that were weighing on our minds. We were given helpful advice for our upcoming futures. After a quick break, we were then able to tour the great things going on at Blank Children’s Hospital and test our luck on top of the building on the Life Flight Helipad.
            
We then made our way to Clive where we visited a joint venture between the YMCA and Mercy Health Network entitled the YMCA Healthy Living Center. There we were able to discuss topics such as Accountable Care Organizations, legislative positioning, and consulting work with Sarah Coddington, Joe LeValley, Jennifer Boeff, and Sara Eide before we toured the facility with Vernon Delpesce. The 5-year-old center gave us a glimpse into how beneficial coordinated care can be for patients.

After making the next leg of our trip to Nebraska and settling into our hotel, we took part in an exciting discussion with Bob Ravenscroft from Bryan Health. He had some great insight into market expansion and competition.

On our second day, we started the day with a large group from CHI Health including Chelsea Cooling, Kristen Blum, Todd DeFreece, Chris Evans, and Kevin Nokels. We were able to enjoy introductions and an alumni panel discussion before we showed the group what we had learned so far this year during a case study. It was a chance to interact and bounce ideas off one another. We were also able to work on our problem solving skills and learn a little about prioritizing initiatives.

Our final stop of the trip was at Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital, where Tom Macy gave us an overview of the specialty hospital and its cost saving measures. It was a new perspective for a lot of the group and gave us some ideas that could potentially be implemented in other organizations.


 I think we all learned a lot on this trip. Overall, a few lessons naturally floated to the top. 1) We have some amazing alumni that are doing very impressive things in their careers, and 2) We all have a challenging but exciting career ahead of us in an ever-changing industry. 


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