Bandhavi Gollapudi (MHA '23): Unity Point Health - St. Luke's Hospital

Greetings from Cedar Rapids! As I write this post, I am glancing back upon my incredible summer internship at UnityPoint Health - St. Luke's Hospital. A little fun fact about St. Luke's Hospital is that nearly ten alumni from the Iowa MHA program work in this region. I wanted to be able to draw from their career experiences and be able to put them towards mine. My direct preceptor, Joe Linn (MHA' 85), the Vice President of Human Resources & Operations, offers insights into the complexity of the healthcare industry. 

UnityPoint Health as a system (UPH Hospitals, UPH Clinics, and UPH @ Home) provides care to metropolitan and rural areas across Iowa, western Illinois, and southern Wisconsin. St. Luke's Hospital prides itself on caring for the community for more than 139 years with the latest technology and innovation and best of the best providers for the patients served. Their guiding mission in everyday function is to give "the healthcare we'd like our loved ones to receive." This is noticeable from the frontline team members to the support staff all way up to the providers; they want to see their community prosper. 

During my time at St. Luke's Hospital, I had the fortunate opportunity to work in and shadow various departments across the hospital. I went into this internship wanting to try everything that was thrown at me, and I wanted to involve myself in all the major and minor projects happening in St. Luke's Hospital. My work has been a mixture of observation and distinct projects curated by the directors I had the chance to meet. Along with my bi-weekly 1:1 with Joe and CEO Michelle Niermann (MHA' 94), I attended weekly VP Operations meetings where critical decisions about the region were made. I was also part of the Patient Care Cabinet, which focused on bringing the patient experience to the center focus while developing ways for staff recruitment and retention. 

With the help of my preceptor, we were able to find multiple projects throughout the hospital for me to understand hospital administration better. Working with Lori Weih, Director of Community Engagement, we focused on the "Conversations of BELONGING at St. Luke's," which was an effort from the DEI department to voice Black & Hispanic team members' concerns and opinions about their experiences working at St. Luke's. Another major project which I got to lead was the "Welcome Back Program," where I collaborated with the HR and TA staff to send out a list of names of those who have left St. Luke's Hospital in the last three years in an effort to hire them back on as full time or PRN.

Historically, St. Luke's Hospital has been known as the "Heart Hospital of Cedar Rapids" I was fortunate to be able to work on a cross-functional benchmark project with Director of Cardiovascular Services, Justin McDonald (MHA' 11) & Andrea Watkinson, Director of Cancer Center & Services, which was presented in the Strategy Council bi-weekly meeting. We discussed the structure of current practices in place and ways to increase and generate revenue for the Radiation Oncology service line. Working on this project gave insight into the complexity of the hospital, which is not visible to the naked eye. 

St. Luke's Hospital is one of the few centers throughout the US and the only one in the Midwest where they have its own Generate lab. Generate is a medical maker space where clinicians, other hospital team members, and even patients can come to create devices, tools, or maybe a new process to help provide better care for the patients. I got the chance to learn how to use CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software to 3D print small trinkets for the nurses and assist in the silicone molding of a toe brace for a 10-year-old in Rehab. I also had the chance to shadow OR nurses and patient care technicians (PCTs) to gain a better understanding of how OR and ED are very different from working on the Med/Surg floor. 

Aside from working at St. Luke's Hospital, I obviously enjoyed the fruits the Iowa summer had to offer! That meant eating freshly picked sweet corn for a meal daily, followed by a sugar baby (the sweetest watermelon). This summer has been eventful, to say the least; my husband and I drove to Michigan to help celebrate our friends' new house, biked around Mackinac Island with friends I haven't seen in over a year, and enjoyed the first summer in our own home. I harvested from my garden and tried out new recipes. This summer has taught me to literally love life to the fullest because you never know what the next day holds. I am grateful to have met new people who I now call family and counting my blessings every day for the ones I have lost along the way. I eagerly look forward to listening to my cohort's summer internship experiences and valuable lessons! Till next time – see ya St. Luke's Hospital. 

*A Note From The Editor*

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