Rasika Mukkamala (MHA '24): UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital

Hello from my hometown of Highlands Ranch, Colorado! 

Highlands Ranch, Colorado is a planned community in the Denver Metro area with a population of just over 100,000 people. This summer, I have the pleasure of working at UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital (HRH), which just celebrated its 4^th birthday earlier this summer! I am so lucky to be working with my formal preceptor Chris Bianca, VP of Operations! I am grateful to the entire senior management group and leadership team for letting me learn from them and be immersed in the amazing culture.

UCHealth is comprised of multiple regions, hospitals, clinics, and a medical group. This summer, UCHealth is hosting 4 Iowa students across the state! By the end of the summer, I will have had the opportunity to travel to all the regions and tour many of the different hospitals. The mission of improving lives is seen across the system and I can wholeheartedly say that I see it every day at HRH. 

My internship has been a mix of rotations and projects. I have spent time with executive leadership, business intelligence, facilities, process improvement, cardiovascular service line, UCHealth Medical Group, finance, nursing administration, clinical engineering, shadowing at a local clinic, working with the house supervisors, and quality - just to name a few! There are many more rotations to come as I round out the second half of my internship! I also had the amazing opportunity to attend HRH’s Strategic Planning Session where I was able to hear the strategic initiatives, goals, and tactics they plan to focus on for FY24. I also attend lunch and learn events with my co-intern and the fellow at Highlands Ranch Hospital. This has been a great way to meet leaders across the system and get to know them more! 

Outside of my rotations, I have been busy working on projects that improve lives. Since I am from the local community, I helped create a community call roster for the hospital. I also have been working on a project that involves creating an inventory of medical multipurpose trays. This project has helped me find my way around the hospital and get to know the charge nurses and staff across different departments as well as work with multi-disciplinary teams to make sure each floor has the equipment they need to be successful. I have assisted with many additional projects like the system-wide badge roll-out, pulling data for the cardiovascular service line meetings, and more! However, my main projects have been revamping the onboarding at HRH, working with a vendor to have lobby music, and writing a grant for additional EV chargers. I have also assisted on incident command twice and have learned so much through working with the leaders. 

Also, for those of you who don't know - I have a younger brother who volunteers at UCHealth. HRH recently went live with a system-wide visitor management system and my brother and I both worked at the front desk to streamline the process. It has been fun seeing him at work and grabbing an occasional lunch in the cafeteria after his shifts! 

When I am not at the hospital, I have been enjoying attending Corepower yoga classes and reading books outside. I have loved spending time with my family – who I am very lucky to call my roommates for the summer. I am also very grateful to spend time with my best friend Maya who is my next door neighbor! 

I have also had the opportunity to volunteer for Highlands Ranch Metro District (where I worked last summer) to help them at their various events. I am so lucky to be home for the summer and it is hard to believe that my summer is halfway over!