The
leaves are beginning to change, and the temperatures are starting to drop. The
summer is over, and my internship experience at Piedmont Atlanta has finished. I
know I promised to post weekly, but my school work, outside of the internship, utilized
more and more of my time.
As I write this blog, I have a lot to reflect
on. I spent nearly 16 weeks, a total of 5 months at Piedmont Healthcare. I was
one of the first to start, and the last to leave. Piedmont will forever have a
special place in my heart, and I look forward to applying after graduation this
December. I would like to thank the following people for making a very large
impact in my internship experience: Matt, Angie, Dr. Cohen, Dr. Battey, Kathie,
Tracy, Angela, Sid, and many others.
Since
the last post, I got to experience various components that make up the inner-workings
of the hospital and the system. Some people characterize hospitals as an airliner.
Some people characterize hospitals as a factory. There are many
characterizations of hospitals and healthcare systems. In my opinion, I see more
resemblance between hospitals and cruise liners, however, almost any major
travel or transit mode could work. For the average cruise, a person will be on
board for 7 days. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OCED), the average length of stay in the United
State during 2017 was around 6 days, which is average (outlier is Japan with 16
days). The average crew for a cruise liner can be well into the thousands, same
as a hospital. While these may not seem too surprising, hospital and cruise
leadership are similar too. A captain or a CEO leads the unit, however
delegating tasks or dividing responsibilities create for seamless service
across the unit. There are plenty of scenarios to compare and
contrast, but with both, safety is the biggest priority in delivery.
During my
internship experience, I participated in several projects and activities. There are a lot of highlights from the internship
experience, and I could talk for hours on it. For one of my projects, I had the
opportunity to organize a collection drive for City of Refuge, a social
development mission in Atlanta. City of Refuge aims to help individuals with a
variety of needs. For this project, they were setting up a Nurse Aide
Certification lab, and needed a variety of medical equipment (stretchers,
wheelchairs, exam tables, etc.) as well as some supplies (gloves, masks, gauze,
bandages, surgical tape, etc). City of Refuge provided us a list of items they
needed. Through the collective work of Supply Chain, Dining, Biomedical
Engineering, and several other departments, we were able to provide City of
Refuge all their requested items and more! As an Eagle Scout and an aspiring
healthcare administrator, it felt good to serve the community through more than
providing medical treatment.
During
another project, I worked for the Piedmont Healthcare Foundation. Piedmont
Healthcare, in collaboration with Susan G. Komen, had the ability, through a
grant program, to provide indigent women free or low-cost breast cancer screenings
and treatment in the Piedmont Fayette Hospital service area. My job was to outreach
to leadership in community clinics. This was a grassroots opportunity to remind
clinics of the community partnership that Piedmont provides to further research
and treat breast cancer. I enjoyed meeting these community leaders who provide
a great deal of support to the Coweta and Fayette communities.
During
my time at Piedmont, I spent a considerable amount of time in the operating room,
and no, I did not perform surgery on anyone. The OR takes safety very
seriously, and so one of my projects included auditing the surgical process to
ensure patient safety. While I enjoyed getting to watch surgery, I had to
listen carefully to the surgeon’s ability to lead to room, but more importantly
when the surgeon was closing the patient’s wound. Some of the most interesting
surgeries I saw included brain surgery to remove a lymphatic node, vascular
surgery to remove a blockage in the carotid artery (performed by the hospital’s
CEO), and robotic gastrointestinal resection. These may seem gross, but they
were one of the most interesting things to watch. You really get a sense of how
important your health is when you see a surgery being performed in front of
you. Also, I did really enjoy putting scrubs on.
Another highlight, I
got to take part in filming a show that will air on TLC. “Family by the Ton” is
filmed at Piedmont. I got to help the camera crew and the patients during the
days it was filmed. Some of my jobs included running errands, serving as a
dolly (I pushed a camera operator around), and assisting Piedmont’s PR team
with privacy for all our patients, providers, and staff that did not need to be
on camera.
My
final highlight, I got to help Piedmont PR team in making a patient’s day. I am
a big Atlanta United fan, and Atlanta United captain, Michael Parkhurst, and
Midfielder, Oliver Shannon, surprised a patient who had undergone
cardiothoracic surgery. It was great to see some of my favorites make the
difference in a patient’s day.
I
completed a transport time study. During my study, I paired up with a
transporter to time how long it took for the transporter to start the process to
the point they end the process. The department standard for transports is to
complete one transport process with 15-18 minutes, from the moment summoned to
the moment the job is marked complete. Throughout the study, I watched the transporter
complete over 24 jobs within two 8-hour shifts, paying close attention to each
process. At the end of the study, I gathered my findings, which showed the
transporter exceeded expectations (within 12-15 minutes per job), however, I
made recommendations that could help out the department altogether. From my recommendations,
I can only hope that Piedmont looks carefully at the processes and take the
needed/required ones from the unnecessary ones.
During
the final weeks, Piedmont allowed me to stay for an extra month. I worked in
the Medical Staff Office. While a majority of my job was administrative work, I
learned about credentialing, providing, and hospital staffing. I saw hospital policy
in action. Through filing, reading, and studying, I realized this is something
I would be most interested in. While I love operations, hospital policy made a
lot of sense to me, given my governmental/political interests. Also, I was recently turned onto a new podcast entitled "Dr. Death," about a neorosurgeon with an actual kill streak. I highly recommend this podcast (6 episodes, each are about 45 minutes).
Piedmont
is a leader in healthcare. I am honored to have the opportunity to work for
them during this eventful summer. I will miss the people I worked with, the hands-on experiences, and the operations
I witnessed. I am forever grateful to Piedmont for giving me such insight into
my place in the industry. I plan to go to graduate school to pursue a Master’s
in Health Administration. I plan to work my way up in a hospital or system. While
I would love the opportunity to lead a hospital or system as soon as possible,
it will take some time, but for now, I think I will look for opportunities
until I graduate in December. For Piedmont, this isn’t a “good bye,” but a “see
you later.”
-
Joel
