Summer Internship: Kaiser Permanente


By: Ryan O'Malley (MHA '19)
Kaiser Permanente is an organization that consists of three branches. The Kaiser Health Plans (Which I am employed), Kaiser Family Hospitals and Permanente Medical Groups. Kaiser works very differently than other health care organizations because the payer and provider are all under the same umbrella. Kaiser Permanente spans 10 states mostly in the west, but also Georgia, Maryland, DC and Virginia. I work in a Kaiser Health Plan office in IT Process Consulting. 
My work consists of analyzing data from a recently gone live IT ticketing system called ServiceNow and helping with developing IT processes for service continuity. I also worked on a project to match warning incident signs with possible user restoration server failures. The internship program also consists of weekly meetings with other interns and a tour of the Kaiser innovation center this week. 
Working for the Kaiser Health Plan is interesting because it is the branch that binds the other two together. The work we do in process consulting helps develop the method for large scale tasks such as implementing new software at hospitals and medical offices. It seems to put me at a distance from the actual health care being performed, yet is important to keeping the entire organization running. 
Outside of work I have explored the bay area as well as Sacramento. Last weekend I visited some family friends in Sacramento and since one of them is a physician he gave me a tour of a brand-new Kaiser Clinic. Many of the design elements I noted were like the new Stead Family Children’s hospital. I really like how healthcare is transforming spaces into more welcoming, patient friendly and light filled spaces to help make the entire healthcare experience better for all.
Overall, I think this internship is really showing me the corporate and insurance side of health care. It is a valuable experience to learn about the things that go behind the scenes to make healthcare technology work for the providers and ultimately lead to better patient care.

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