Nick Phillips (MHA '23): UIHC - Orthopedics & OHSC Lab

Hi all from Iowa City! This summer I have had a unique opportunity to intern with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Orthopedics as well as the OHSC lab within the university. It has been great to see both a clinical setting and a research side of administration. It has allowed me to gain insights in an area that is not typically common as well as learning the clinical side of administration. I am fortunate to have a couple different preceptors that I report to. Within Orthopedics I am working under Mark Mason who is the services manager and deals with a lot of the finances. I also work under Mary Greve who is a physician assistant as well as supervisor within Ortho. Both have obtained there MHA from the university of Iowa! At OHSC I work with Kelly Andringa who deals with the finances of research funding and obtaining grants.

I have been able to work on various projects throughout the summer. The main projects I am working on within Orthopedics include a room turn rate project. This has looked at each provider and understanding how many patients they can see each day, and the actual number of patients seen. This allows us to determine how efficient the space is being utilized and figure out any staffing issues that may be noticeable. In the long term it will help determine the number of staff needed to effectively staff the new North Liberty hospital coming. Along side this project I have also been working on the RVUs generated by Orthopedics APP’s and determining the efficiency of each APP. This has been an interesting project as there will be a change in the way reimbursement works for split shared visits. A split shared visit is when both an APP and Doctor see a patient and the change will have a financial impact on the clinic. The CMS will be rolling out a new payment system come 2023 and understanding how to effectively see patients and earn RVUs will be crucial.

The projects I have been working on within OHSC include dealing with budgets for grant funding. This has been interesting to see how money is distributed and used for each grant given to providers to develop research. I am also helping with creating the cost analysis for the work done within each research lab. This includes analyzing how much each task costs and how much should be charged for the work done. This is an important task as this directly relates to the profits and losses the lab will incur for certain research to be performed.

Overall, this summer has been a great experience! I have enjoyed being able to work at various locations and see a different perspective at each. Outside of work I have enjoyed golfing, spending time with friends, and just being outside. I look forward to everyone being back in Iowa City for one last year! 



*A Note From The Editor*

If you would like to keep up with Nick, you can find him here on LinkedIn!

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