Summer Internship: Washington County Hospital and Clinics (WCHC)

By: Alex Burhop (MHA '21)

This week marks my sixth week in my administrative internship at Washington County Hospital and Clinics (WCHC). WCHC is a 25 bed Critical Access Hospital with adjacent long-term care home located in Washington, Iowa about 35 miles south of Iowa City. I have spent my time working under Todd Patterson, the hospital’s CEO, as well as working on projects for the CFO, the CMO, and the IT Director. These projects have provided me a better understanding of the importance that WCHC has in the community and how the hospital continues to work on itself to provide the best possible services for the community. WCHC seeks to be the central resource for improving health and promoting wellness of the communities it serves and put people first.

I have worked on a variety of projects including building a pro forma and market analysis for a potential new clinic, overhauling provider compensation against market data, constructing a contract for ambulance services, reviewing legislation and forms for the forgiveness of PPP and HHS funds provided as COVID-19 relief, and process mapping current payroll and IT infrastructure. All of the projects I have worked on have been very engaging and informative but a few stick out. Keeping track of legislation and interim rules for Paycheck Protection Program funds has been a very unique experience given the ever-changing nature of the legislation and the importance of getting as much as possible forgiven. I also enjoyed drawing up the ambulance contract because WCHC’s goal is to provide their services to as many people in the county and area as possible and I got to see some of those negotiations happen first hand and contribute to the final product.

Activities outside of work include golfing on behalf of WCHC in local events with fellow interns and staff members, running recreationally and hunting down Pokémon in the parks of Iowa City, and spending an hour each day in a car with my co-intern Matthew Carson as part of our commute (the math indicates that by the time the internship ends Matthew and I will have spent around 64 hours in a car together).

The weeks have flown by and I am excited to see what the second half of my internship brings!

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