Summer Internship: UnityPoint Health- St. Luke's Hospital


By: Brayden Longnecker (MHA '19)

Interstate-380 and I have become very good friends this summer as I’ve traveled many miles back and forth from Iowa City to UnityPoint Health – St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. UnityPoint Health (UPH), St. Luke’s is part of a system that employs more than 34,000 and operates 37 hospitals of varying sizes. About a dozen Iowa MHA graduates work for UPH in Cedar Rapids and I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many of them. Joe Kim (MHA ’17) has an office just two doors down from mine and he’s been a great resource. The team here at St. Luke’s has been incredibly welcoming and supportive of having an intern around for which I am very grateful. 
My time at work has been a combination of observation and project work. My preceptor, Joe Linn, VP of Operations, expressed to me the value of watching leaders in action as well as working on projects. He oversees seven functional areas including Behavioral Health and Human Resources which are both strong interests of mine. I attend the weekly Vice Presidents meeting which is an excellent opportunity to listen to the high-level, strategic thinking that goes on. I also get to attend a regional strategy meeting where leaders from St. Luke’s, UnityPoint Clinic, Jones Regional Medical Center, and AbbeHealth get together to discuss issues facing the Cedar Rapids region.
In terms of project work, a lot of my time has been spent in the human resources realm. We have a team dedicated to early careerist retention and I have had the opportunity to  analyze some data for them and present on the findings. There is a system-wide movement towards standardization of position descriptions which allowed me the opportunity to create several new job descriptions. I’m currently assisting in the implementation of Clockwise for some of our pediatric clinics.
My time spent away from work has been split between the golf courses around Iowa City, a couple of weddings, and a couple of concerts. I’ve been able to meet up with classmates, Ben and Matthew, for a couple of rounds of golf. Additionally, I’ve gotten to meet with Dan Carpintero for lunch and a work meeting because he is an intern at PCI which is about a block away from St. Luke’s.
This has been a great opportunity and I’m looking forward to my last few weeks here.

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