Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

Date of Award

Fall 8-2021

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Master of Science in Allied Health, Health Care Administration (MSAH)

Advisor

Dr. Paul Longenecker

Keywords

Leadership, Patient Care, Patient Experience, Colleague Retention, EPIC, 5-Star Journey

Subject Categories

Health and Medical Administration | Higher Education | Leadership Studies

Abstract

My journey to pursue career in healthcare leadership helped me realize how crucial it is to understand the role of a leader in delivering a better care for the patients. To gain that experience, I reached out to the president of Mount Carmel East (MCE) hospital for a practicum opportunity under her staff. I worked with the executive team and other senior leadership team at MCE during my practicum. I participated in Senior Leadership Team strategic meetings, Gemba walks and various colleague engagement activities.

During my time at MCE, I had many valuable learning opportunities from understanding policies and procedures, working on colleague survey data, reviewing daily discharge rates to learning different leadership styles. Working with leaders from different departments helped me gain insight into their roles and challenges. The current major challenge for any healthcare organization is employee turnover. Working closely with the HR department and the leadership team to increase the employee engagement and to reduce the turnover was a great learning experience.

The key project I worked on, while at MCE, was the Pre-Admission Testing (PAT) redesign project. The goal of this project was to utilize all the resources of the PAT department in an efficient way to better educate the patients and prepare them for their upcoming surgery. This would reduce potential delays on the day of surgery and post-surgery readmissions for the hospital. The key stakeholders - director of surgical services, chief surgeon, registered nurses, departmental physician assistant and the process manager - would meet every week to discuss the progress.

The other major learning experience was to be part of the organization’s transition to EPIC (a software solution) in managing their electronic medical records (EMR). I have been part of EPIC training meetings. The whole experience helped to learn how to communicate effectively with associates and senior leadership. It helped me understand effective OCM (Organizational Change Management) strategies for successful adoption of the newly implemented software by employees.

Overall, it was great learning experience working at MCE.

Licensing Permission

Copyright, all rights reserved. Fair Use

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