University of Iowa Health Management & Policy

Kylor Sorensen (left) and other administrative interns during a rounding in UIHC's hazardous waste disposal room. By: Kylor Sorensen (MHA '18)  Greetings from Hawkeye nation! This summer I have the great pleasure of interning at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) in Iowa City, Iowa. With the addition of the new Stead Family Children’s Hospital (SFCH), UIHC is a 795 bed facility with roughly 35,000 acute admissions and 961,930 ambulatory patient visits in fiscal year 2016. UIHC is the only academic medical center in the state of Iowa. It employs roughly 900 staff physicians and dentists, 2,200 nurses, 800 residents and fellows, and there are 1,500 volunteers. UIHC provides services to all 99 counties in the state of Iowa, making it an essential access point for patients and their families. My preceptor this summer is Mr. Scott Turner, Chief Operating Officer of UIHC and Executive Director of the SFCH. I have had the privilege of working closely with Mr....

Nora Kopping (MHA '18), left, and Kim Ogden (MHA '18), right, scrubbing in to observe a CABG procedure at UIHC. By: Kim Ogden (MHA '18) This summer I’ve had the opportunity to intern at University of Iowa Physicians (UIP), which is the state’s largest medical and surgical group practice. UIP provides care in every medical specialty at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC), which makes it an exciting place to work. I am joined by fellow classmates Mitch Billimack (MHA ’18) and Colin Carroll (MHA ’18), and we all have our hands full keeping up with the opportunities this organization has to offer. UIP has a variety of exciting projects going on right now, and I have been lucky enough to help lead and support a few of them. My current projects revolve around managing external provider relationships, analyzing Advanced Practice Provider scheduling and billing, and standardizing the pre-authorization process. All of these projects have proven to be interest...

Spending the day in meetings at one of Allina's  beautiful facilities (St. Francis Regional Medical Center) By: Morgan Smith (MHA/MBA '17) I am spending my summer in lovely little New Ulm, MN, interning at the New Ulm Medical Center (NUMC). This internship has allowed me to experience first-hand the trials and victories of a rural medical center that is truly living the “triple aim” – through excellent patient care and experience, as well as consistent efforts to reduce costs and boost value to all stakeholders. NUMC is a thriving part of Allina Health – a large integrated healthcare system that operates throughout the state of Minnesota and even dips into Wisconsin. Being a part of a larger system affords NUMC cost-savings, efficiency, and protection in many areas. For example, payer relations (negotiations) operate at a system rather than hospital level. However, being a small medical center in a 12 hospital and 61 clinic system means that NUMC’s senior lea...

A facilities manager introduces UIP and UIHC interns to Tru D, a UV disinfection robot.  By: Mitch Billimack (MHA ’18) What hospital has the largest pneumatic tube system in the world, so complex that it requires the equivalent of an air traffic controller? What hospital has one of the most advanced ultraviolet disinfection machines to prevent hospital acquired infections (HAIs), equipped with 8 lasers and automatic time-of-day sensing and adjustment? What hospital must onboard and train 6,000 new employees every June and July? Greetings from University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) , the friendly tertiary care center right across the river! This summer, I am interning with Todd Patterson, Chief Operating Officer of University of Iowa Physicians (UIP). UIP is the entity that employs all 900+ physicians and providers working in UIHC. UIP also operates a network of more than 70 specialty community outreach clinics, several Quickcares, several primary care locatio...

Grinnell Regional Medical Center By: Taylor Buresh (MHA '18) Hello from Grinnell! I was given the opportunity to spend my summer as an administrative intern at Grinnell Regional Medical Center (GRMC) and am joined here by fellow classmate, Kate Quigley (MHA '18). I have no idea how I am going to pack the past seven weeks into this blog, but I am going to give it my best shot, so here we go! As you may have read about earlier this summer, Kate and I kicked off our internship with a fantastic trip to D.C. for the American Hospital Association (AHA)'s Annual Meeting. While I cherished my time in our Introduction to Health Organization and Policy course this past fall, I would not say that I left feeling "passionate" about the importance of health policy. Through the lens of this internship, however, my interest has been sparked. I now realize the absolutely integral role that policy plays in the fate of all hospitals, and particularly rural hospitals. T...

Winnie Uluocha (JD/MHA '19) scrubs in to observe a surgery. By: Winnie Uluocha (JD/MHA '19) As a student pursuing a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Health Administration degree, I was excited to see how I could use these two disciplines during my summer internship at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC). This summer, I have the privilege of working under Sabi Singh, Chief Operating Officer (COO) for UIHC. Mr. Singh is responsible for the most significant aspect of a health care delivery system, the day-to-day operations of a hospital. A few of the core areas of focus for Mr. Singh include lean and six sigma, operations excellence, data and analytics, supply chain, and process improvement. Mr. Singh’s extensive areas of responsibility have provided me the opportunity to work with several departments this summer, which has led to a comprehensive learning experience. A few of the projects I am working on this summer include analyzing data to stra...

University of Iowa Health Care interns (from left, Kim Ogden, Kylor Sorensen, Collin Carroll, Mitch Billimack, and Nora Kopping) viewing UIHC's tubes system while rounding with Engineering Services. By: Nora Kopping, MA (MHA ’18) Given my passion for academic medicine and curiosity about how administrators can collaborate more effectively with health care providers, I was thrilled to accept an internship this summer with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC). UIHC’s CMO is Dr. Theresa Brennan, and in my opinion, Dr. Brennan oversees some of the most exciting areas of UIHC including Clinical Quality, Safety, and Performance Improvement (CQSPI), Operations Excellence, the Office of the Patient Experience, and Clinical Documentation Improvement. Over the past few weeks of my internship, I have had the opportunity to be involved in impactful projects that touch all of these areas. As a Graduate Research Assistant this past...

By: Ryan Callahan (MHA ’18) Hey there everybody! This summer I am interning at Medical City Fort Worth. Med City is a part of the North Texas division of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), which consists of 10 facilities in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex as well as two in Oklahoma. My facility is a 320-bed, acute care facility that offers diagnostic and treatment services, including cardiac care, neurosciences, oncology, orthopedics, kidney and liver transplant and emergency services. It is also serves as a level one Primary Stroke Center. The hospital is located in the medical district of Fort Worth, where five hospitals exist within a few blocks of one another.  This creates a highly competitive market for patients and for staff recruitment. My preceptor is the COO, John Corbeil, who is an alumnus of the University of Iowa MHA program. Shortly after my arrival the CEO left, making John the interim CEO. John believes that a successful administrator must und...

By: David Gast (MHA ’18) Greetings from Kansas City! This summer I am interning with Saint Luke’s Health System in Kansas City, Missouri. Saint Luke’s Health System is comprised of 10 hospitals and numerous clinics, physician offices, and other non-acute facilities throughout the Kansas City metro and surrounding counties. The system has been serving the health needs of the region since the first Saint Luke’s hospital was founded in 1882. The campus where I am located serves as the flagship entity of the system, and is located on the edge of the Plaza district in Kansas City. Saint Luke’s campus also contains Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, the nation’s first heart hospital. My position is within the Project Management Office (PMO), located at Saint Luke’s corporate headquarters. The PMO consists of a mix of nine consultants and analysts, with each member having earned their MHA or MHSA. I have really enjoyed my time getting to know the team, and am currently work...