Summer Internship: University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC)

By: Taylor Reber

Hello from… you guessed it, Iowa City!

What a summer! We started at the bottom, now we’re here. My internship has been spent as an avid learner working with Tim Kan, Chief Growth Officer of University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (UIHC). Tim has largely spent his career in the healthcare consulting world working as a director for Navigant Consulting. He has developed a depth of knowledge in enterprise & service line strategy, organizational integration, and performance improvement. He reports directly to and assists Suresh Gunasekaran, CEO of UIHC, in implementing the strategic vision for UIHC. Tim has pushed me and our team to discover ways where we can grow as an organization and individually. He really has become a fantastic mentor and is very invested in my future success.

From day one, I have been put to the grindstone conducting market research and developing scorecards to highlight potential growth strategies. I’ve built various financial projections to support each strategy supported by large amounts of data. Let’s just say I’ve broken Excel and other tools on multiple instances. The work hasn’t come without many barriers and challenges that remind me often that I’m continually learning. Some days I’m getting the hang of it while others feel like I’m accomplishing nothing. Looking back, I’ve come so far and done so much and it’s been rewarding to see that. I hope you all reflect at the end on all that you’ve accomplished. It feels good. Anyway, over the last couple of weeks I have left, I’m moving my projects into the Strategic Execution phase. I’m putting together the preliminary discussions on how the strategies will be delivered to the responsible parties. Of course, those projects won’t be finished when I leave, and I hope that I can participate further throughout this next year.

Even though the internship has been busy, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time exploring the Iowa City area with my wife and kids. Although things have been closed, we haven’t let that stop us from enjoying this awesome time to be alive. We’ve spent time at the lakes, going on adventures around the area (a lot of car rides with crying kids), and spending time with close friends. Thank you politicians for the stimulus check, because we have spent a lot more money on take-out from all sorts of places. We also bought a grill and power tools to complete projects and end that day with a nice BBQ. I did splurge a little with the first paycheck from the internship and I bought a nice pickleball paddle. I spend several nights a week playing with friends and I’ll brag just a little bit… my spins are devastating. Anyway, I hope you all make the time to enjoy the little moments that make life awesome! Stay safe, don’t be too serious, and love your friends and family.