Luisa Tsang - Connecticut
Internship location: Derby, Conn.
Career goal: To work in hospital administration and go to medical school. I want to incorporate health care management training with a career in clinical medicine.
Internship summary:
I worked at Griffin Hospital as a Quality Improvement Management Intern. The scope of my internship projects addressed health policy issues (cost control, quality improvement and improving access to care); health management aspects (running meetings, team-based care, conflict resolution and the best use of staffing); and individual clinical preventive medicine and social/behavioral factors (patient engagement and behavior modification). Specifically, my projects included: 1) designing and writing policies for Griffin outpatient clinics to transition to a Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH), 2) coordinating and executing medication refill procedures to increase efficient physician work flow, and 3) analyzing bottlenecks in patient access to the clinics.
Value of experience:
My internship at the Griffin Faculty Practice Plan within Griffin Hospital was invaluable for my professional development both in terms of gaining experience in health care administration and, even more importantly, in how to be an effective manager. This internship allowed me directly experience what strategic planning looks like for a health care organization and how to implement the plans in practice. Combined with opportunities to attend board meetings, share management insights with my preceptor and shadow different executives, this internship allowed me to try different leadership styles, initiate quality improvement ideas and realize the importance of rapid cycle improvement.
Best moment:
The opportunities to delve into quality improvement projects and be a part of the observing, planning and implementing process. It was a great feeling to see our work being utilized by the staff and that we were making progress toward becoming more patient-centered.
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At my desk and writing policy papers to help transition the Griffin Faculty Practice Plan to a Patient Centered Medical Home.
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At my desk and writing policy papers to help transition the Griffin Faculty Practice Plan to a Patient Centered Medical Home.
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Examining a map of outpatient clinics in the area to strategize maximum market share during an administrative meeting.
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Collaborating with a primary care physician to determine medication refill standards for staff to follow.
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Inside a reception area at a primary care clinics where all the action begins. I worked extensively with the medical staff to develop best practice standards.
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The Griffin Faculty Practice Plan manages the outpatient clinics of Griffin Hospital and it has a separate administrative structure and office.
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Griffin Faculty Practice’s outpatient clinic in Oxford. I frequently visited the outpatient clinics to observe patient flow and interactions and to make recommendations.
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Griffin Hospital’s emergency room entrance is usually very busy and I walked through the ER daily to see the fast-paced environment.
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My cluttered desk is full of articles and journals outlining best practices for primary care and Patient Centered Medical Homes.
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Griffin Hospital’s hall of fame and values acknowledge its excellence in patient- centered care and Planetree model. Griffin Hospital was also named by Fortune magazine as one of the top 100 best places to work.
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The Childbirth Center has a separate entrance from the main entrance because the hospital believes that mothers-to-be should have a sanctuary away from the rest of the hospital.
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The Griffin Faculty Practice Plan (GFPP) administrative office building. Throughout the internship, I worked in the GFPP administrative office, GFPP outpatient clinics and the hospital to better understand the overall structure and administrative projects that take place.
In front of the hospital’s direction sign near the entrance to the emergency room.
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