University of Iowa Health Management & Policy

“All rise! The matter before the Court …” Reverberating across the courtroom, this introductory cry of the court greeted me as I took my seat on the dais next to the presiding judge. This summer I had the great pleasure and honor of working for a federal judge, drafting orders on dispositive motions before the Court, conducting legal research, and offering legal analysis during the judicial decision-making process. That is all a fancy way of saying that I had the opportunity to step behind the curtain and put myself in the judge’s shoes as the Court decided cases. As a summer law clerk in federal court, I worked on matters that came before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Iowa has two federal district courts: the Northern District and the Southern District. The Northern District has courthouses in Cedar Rapids and Sioux City. The Southern District has courthouses in Des Moines, Davenp...

Hello from Iowa City! This summer, I commuted to Washington, Iowa, to intern at Washington County Hospital and Clinics. WCHC is a 22-bed, critical access hospital located about 45 minutes southwest of Iowa City. Growing up in the Des Moines area, I was excited to be in a small town and gain more experience in a rural hospital and community. Since it is such a smaller organization, I was able to have access to so many departments and leaders, which made my internship experience that much more valuable. Most of my time in Washington was spent working on operations projects. I have always had an interest in this area, and my experiences over the summer cemented this passion. My biggest project was researching and strategizing how the hospital could increase its CMS Star Ratings. I was completely unfamiliar with this, so I really had to put a lot of work into this project. I was tasked with finding out how the scores are calculated, what measures they use, how the measures are collected an...

Hello from Chicago!  This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to complete my internship with Rush Copley Medical Center. My preceptor this summer was the oh-so-great Dave Petasnick! Dave has been with Rush Copley for over ten years and has contributed to the organization in numerous and unique ways. Fun fact, Dave is an alumnus of Iowa’s MHA program, along with the CEO, John Diedrich. I highly encourage you to take some time to schedule a meeting with John to hear about his incredible journey with Rush Copley. Trust me; you won’t be disappointed. Although Rush Copley is located in Aurora, Illinois, Chicago is about a 45-50 minute drive … well, that’s not including traffic;).  Rush Copley’s internship is a 10-12 week program that provides students with a plethora of opportunities such as observing surgeries, shadowing EMS and riding in the ambulance, observing live births and C-sections, and more. Before starting this amazing internship, Dave asked me for a list of project...

Hello everyone! I’ve been spending my summer in Iowa City with the Office of Statewide Clinical Education Programs (OSCEP). OSCEP, part of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, serves to develop and coordinate collegiate outreach programs for medical education and community service. My internship is specifically in the community service division. I’ve really enjoyed spending most of my time with my preceptor Lynette Lancial and co-intern, Annie Schaefer. Lynette is an alum of the MHA program, and Annie is an incoming first-year MHA student. The rest of the team at OSCEP has been great to work with and learn from as well. My main project has been working on publishing the 2021-2022  Iowa Medical Practice Opportunities Directories . The directories are distributed to physicians and advanced practice providers looking to practice in the state of Iowa. It has been an awesome experience connecting with executives and providers from all over the state to determine their work...

Hello from Des Moines! This summer, I had the honor of working as a fellow at the Attorney General’s Office of Iowa in the Human Services Division.  I spend half my time doing health law-related work (Social Security, FMLA, Medicaid, Medicare, etc.) and the other half working on juvenile law. I originally came into this summer as a legal intern and was awarded an honorary fellowship with the Iowa Children’s Justice Department.  The work I do for the Iowa Children’s Justice Department entails redrafting Iowa Code Chapter 232 (juvenile justice), writing the annual Juvenile Case Law Update, child abuse registry appeals, and termination of parental rights appeals. I also had the opportunity to observe hearings, trials, and appellate arguments.  One of my favorite aspects of this fellowship has been the incredible team I have had to learn from. Although I will not be staying in Iowa post-graduation, I would strongly encourage any law student to work as an intern or apply for a...

Hello from Coralville! It’s hard to believe we are already nine weeks into our internships! This summer, I have had the pleasure of interning at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, working in support service operations.  Coming into this experience, I had very little knowledge of what goes into support services. Support services oversee non-clinical components that keep a hospital running; this includes engineering, food and nutrition, environmental services, supply chain, central sterilization services, accreditations, and more. Within this experience, I have been able to gain experience and knowledge in each of these areas while specifically focusing on three projects.  This summer, my primary project has been working with our central sterilization services (CSS) at the Integrated Services Center (ISC) to evaluate the current ordering and inventory processes for blue sterilization wrap and propose ideas to optimize and improve these processes. Sterilization wrap is...

Hello from Chicago!...Errr….Iowa City! This summer, I have had the wonderful opportunity to intern at Deloitte in the Chicago office. I intended to spend the summer living in Chicago but ended up staying in Iowa City instead (Pro Tip: if you plan to live in another city for the summer, make sure you start looking for places to live more than a month in advance of when you need to move in). My summer has been an incredible experience, full of personal growth, professional development, and exciting opportunities! This summer, I was staffed on a project working with a large, regional health plan based in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. This health plan engaged Deloitte early last year to assist with the design and implementation of a vendor-supplied care management platform. This platform was selected to improve a service they were providing using their multi-system, homegrown platform that wasn’t meeting their needs, primarily in the areas of data interconnectivity, reporting, and ad...

Greetings from UIHC, Iowa City, Iowa! This summer, I was fortunate to spend my time at UIHC with Jennifer Miller, Director, Support Services. Her office handles various departments under support services, including Engineering Services, Security, Environmental Services, Food and Nutrition Services, Integrated Services Center, Project Art, Employee health, and Compliance. During my ten weeks internship, I was given some excellent learning opportunities in hospital operations, policy. My main project involved the development of a strategic process improvement initiative within Perioperative Services and the Operating Room to detect misplaced surgical instruments. For this, I collaborated with different departments, including environmental services, nursing, and anesthesia in perioperative services, sterilization services, and supply chain. The objective of this initiative was perioperative process improvement, prevention of financial loss and surgical instrument supply shortage, and incr...

Hello from Iowa City! This summer, I have been fortunate enough to work at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (UIHC) under the direct mentorship of Melissa Whisler, Chief of Staff. She and her team have been incredibly welcoming and have helped show me what a Chief of Staff does, which I have come to learn, is a lot! I have been able to work on projects that meet both the departmental and institutional needs and range from identifying strategic capital investments to analyzing department metrics and reporting out trends. Overall, my internship experience has helped me learn about the department and institutional perspectives and how to navigate each side to meet our goals. With the range of operational and strategic work that Whisler and her team are a part of, I have been able to interact with different sides of healthcare; however, due to the nature of the work, many of the things I worked on this summer are confidential. Therefore, I can only provide the larger themes of...