Megan Berst (MHA '22): UAB Medicine - Inpatient Operations

Hello from Birmingham, Alabama!

This summer, I have worked alongside the Inpatient Leadership team at UAB Medicine, directly under the mentorship of the Vice President of Clinical Operations and Chief Facilities Officer. As a large academic medical center, UAB Medicine houses 1,207-licensed-beds and is a Level 1 trauma center that provides healthcare services for more than 1.6 million patients annually.       

UAB’s executive leadership team has been incredibly welcoming. I was privileged to have one-on-one meetings with over twenty executives, including the CEO, Associate VP for Transplant Services, VP of Clinical Operations, Associate VP of Emergency Services, CNO, VP of Supply Chain and Support Services, Chief Clinical Transformation Officer, and CFO.

I am also very grateful for the shadowing opportunities we were able to have in the clinical and support services units, which included observing managers in guest services, pharmacy rounding, EVS, radiology, the main campus ED (which is the size of a football field!), Mortuary Services, the Bone Marrow Transplant unit, shadowing in the OR, Materials Management, and the Central Sterile Department.

I was able to interact with many different administrative areas, and after learning about each department’s focus, I was able to reach out to those executives whose projects I was interested in joining or learning more about. As I am writing this blog at the end of June, all below projects are ongoing (and some are just beginning!); however, I will highlight a couple of my current focus areas:

• Leading the data collection efforts with the Clinical Practice Transformation team focused on enhancing rounds and handoff optimization from day to night shift in the Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Continuing Care Nursery Unit. This project has included attending meetings with the CPT team and shadowing rounds on both units to collect data on information covered during morning rounds, analyzing the data to find areas for growth, and engaging with clinical staff members to hear their thoughts and opinions.

• Conducted research on 17 different units using a survey to be filled out by the Assistant Nurse Managers regarding the status of hospital beds plugged into the wall and nurse call systems, as well as tracking broken bed cords. After analyzing this data, I presented my findings in a meeting where multiple departments attended. Currently, I am focused on creating a solution to ensure consistent functionality of bed communication technology to meet the needs of the patient and ensure patient safety via real-time connectivity by recommending solutions to the team for cord safety, as well as standardizing the process for addressing malfunctioning cables.

• Leading the research efforts of analyzing over 7,000 prospective donor records from 2008-2021 and deducing reasons why living donors were documented as ineligible to donate to locate any trends. This project is currently ongoing, and these findings will be reported to the Manager of Transplant Services and the Transplant Administrator by the end of the summer. I am also creating a process map from the time a living kidney donor is approved to the time the donor goes to the OR.

• Communicating with department directors, managers, and nurses to identify the status of assets that will be fully depreciated in two years from a list of over 1,500. This list will be reported back to the CNO and CFO.

• Designing a nurse rounding audit data collection system to track whether a new rounding process is effective in combating hospital-acquired illnesses, injuries, and infection.

Aside from working, Birmingham has been a great place to explore with my fellow interns. On the weekends, we like to visit local restaurants, have a drink at one of the many breweries, go hiking, as well as sit by the pool because the heat in Alabama is no joke!

Overall, my experience here at UAB Medicine has been unforgettable, and I look forward to enjoying the next seven weeks!

Megan Berst

*A Note From The Editor*

If you would like to keep up with Megan, you can find her here on LinkedIn!