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


By: Carly Beastrom (MHA ‘20)

Greetings from the City of Five Seasons and my hometown, Cedar Rapids!

This summer I’ve had the opportunity to serve as the Administrative Intern and experience the delivery of healthcare in Cedar Rapids through first-hand experience at St. Luke’s Hospital. St. Luke’s Hospital is part of the UnityPoint Health system which is a network of hospitals and clinics in Iowa, western Illinois and southern Wisconsin. St. Luke’s is a 532 licensed bed hospital and employs roughly 3,500 team members and is located within the MedQuarter Regional Medical District. Among other Iowa MHA alums, I have been fortunate to work with Justin McDonald (MHA ‘11) and Luke Hicks (MHA/MBA ‘09).

Thus far, my work has been a combination of observation and special projects. Joe Linn, VP of Operations, has been my direct preceptor and offers insights into the complexity of the healthcare industry. To supplement Joe’s knowledge, I attend weekly Vice President meetings where crucial decisions about the region are made and went to the Leadership Symposium in Des Moines. At this event, leaders from all nine regions participated in a design thinking workshop and listened to keynote speakers. I deeply appreciate these events and opportunities to discuss topics ranging from strategic development to legal affairs.

My project work is focused on the Community Health Needs Assessment and Improvement Plan with Lori Weih, VP Network & Business Relations. Lori and I are collaborating with multiple community organizations such as Linn County Public Health and the Eastern Iowa Health Center. In addition, I am assisting with a system-wide common job description project, revising standard operating procedures, and the administrator on call manual. These are all outstanding learning experience for me and representative of my focus for the next eight weeks.

Outside of work I enjoy biking to eastern Iowa breweries, running with the Thursday night Running Club, and golfing. When I’m not feeling active, I spend my free time watching Mad Men and volunteering at the Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmers Market. I’m looking forward to visiting my brother in Salt Lake City in August and reconnecting with my classmates this fall in Iowa City!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Devante Davis (MHA '24): UCHealth - Southern Region

Image
Hello my name is Devante Davis I am going into my 2 nd year as an MHA student at the University of Iowa!    I am currently interning at UCHEALTH southern region in Colorado Springs, and UCHEALTH mission statement is to Improve lives through providing quality care. My preceptor is Andrew Ritchie the Chief Operation Officer of the UCHEALTH southern region. He great a developing talent while unlocking hiding potential within his interns, and fellow! My favorite project was evaluating what the rest of the world is doing to recover from this global nursing shortage. Summarizing the data and be a part of creating a valuable plan to implement into the UCHEALTH southern region. A few other fun events I attended were the pikes peak annual racing event, viper’s baseball game, the incline!  
Read more

Alexa Colella (MHA '24): revology

Image
Hello! My name is Alexa Colella and I am an incoming 2nd year Master of Health Administration student at the University of Iowa. My professional interests include entrepreneurship, workplace culture and health, holistic health, health innovation, and health technology. My personal interests include weightlifting, hiking, traveling, thrill-seeking, theatre, reading, animal documentaries, and photography. This summer, I am completing an administrative internship with revology , in the heart of downtown Iowa City. r evology is a technology-enabled revenue cycle management startup firm that helps providers get more from their revenue cycle . Our good humans and smart technology enable health systems across the U.S. to transform their revenue cycle management process , adding more to their bottom line. My preceptor this summer is Chris Klitgaard , the CEO of revology . Chris is an alumnus of our MHA program and has been working in revenue cycle for most of his career. He has started
Read more

Adriana Kotchkoski (MHA '24): Nihon Keiei Consulting Group

Image
Konnichiwa from Japan!   As I sit down to write this blog post, I am filled with a sense of gratitude and accomplishment as I reflect on my time as an intern at Nihon Keiei Consulting Group in Osaka, Japan. This summer has been nothing short of remarkable, offering me a unique blend of professional development and cultural immersion that I will cherish forever.   During my time at Nihon Keiei, I had the opportunity to engage in in-depth research and analysis, creating comprehensive market profiles for the healthcare sectors in the Philippines and India. These profiles laid the foundation for strategic expansion plans, and it was an honor to present my findings and recommendations to a senior consultant during insightful one-on-one meetings. These interactions were not only professionally enriching but also allowed me to witness firsthand how strategic decisions shape the course of an organization's growth.   One of the most rewarding experiences during my internship was the develop
Read more