final evaluation

1. Jack Amory
Health 4200
18 July 2015
Internship Final Evaluation
1) Review your goals and objectives for your internship and assess your
internship site as it provided a setting for achieving those goals and
objectives.
 At the beginning of my internship I set out to achieve a number of
goals. I sought to better understand how practices like Upstate
Cardiology obtain business and to look for ways to improve patient
satisfaction. Additionally, I wanted to analyze health disparities within
the clinic and procure knowledge on what path I should take towards
my future. My preceptor, Mr. Ron Eskew, and the rest of the staff at
Upstate Cardiology took a vested interest in my success by providing
me with the tools I needed to achieve. Mr. Eskew provided me with
aid and guidance by helping me build upon my set of strengths and
identifying areas of improvement. Furthermore, he opened up
opportunities for networking and shadowing within the St. Francis
Health System. The insight that I have gained during this experience
will undoubtedly prove to be invaluable as I look toward my future
career as an administrator.
2) Explain and show how you achieved the goals you set.
 Having arrived at the conclusion of my internship, I can confidently
say I was able to realize my goals. I have listed each of the four below
and described how I achieved the objectives that I set for myself.
Health Assessment Goal
By the end of my internship experience, I will be able to understand and tabulate how
the practice procures business through its referral system. I will also learn the different
primary, secondary, and tertiary treatments offered through the clinic.
Objectives: I will accomplish this by…
 Building a physician referral report for 2014 and 2015
 Updating existing documents used for evaluative purposes at the clinic and
reviewing these documents with my preceptor to gain a deeper
understanding of their significance
 Collecting knowledge from my preceptor, nurses, and other staff members by
involving myself in their line of work
 Before I began my internship at Upstate Cardiology I was not familiar
with how a practice develops its business. Over the course of my
internship I developed and maintained a physician referral report on
a monthly basis. This report allowed me to become well versed on the

2. importance of physicians referring their patients to the practice. They
provide the foundation of patients from which the practice can grow.
Additionally, I learned about the multitude of services offered by
Upstate Cardiology through working on the RVU and triage report, as
well as by immersing myself in the many different departments of the
clinic. Whether a patient needs an echocardiogram, a nuclear study, a
Coumadin check, or any other heart related matter, Upstate
Cardiology has the tools and knowledge to serve them.
Health Planning Goal
By the end of my internship experience, I will be able to improve provider-to-patient
communication so that appointments, the resulting revenues, and patient satisfaction
are not compromised or lost.
Objectives: I will accomplish this by…
 Interviewing nurses, staff, and leaders on what the main reasons are for
patients showing up unprepared for their appointment
 Collecting and organizing a list of these issues
 Developing innovative solutions for patient non-compliance
 Distributing information to the appropriate staff members so that patients
can be better informed of how to be prepared for their visit
 Patient satisfaction delivered through quality care is an extremely
important factor in any healthcare setting. As new Medicare and
Medicaid standards come into the foray that base a significant portion
of reimbursement on quality, it was decided that a new quality survey
needed to be developed that allowed Upstate Cardiology have a
tangible understanding of how they were performing on the quality
front. I created a survey that followed the guidelines of the Agency for
Healthcare Quality and Research and presented my work to
management during the monthly business meeting in July. The
implementation of the new survey was approved, and once the results
start coming back the office can better understand its level of quality
deliverance in order to make changes where needed.
Development Goal
By the end of my internship experience, I will be able to categorize the major and
underlying health ailments that lead to visits at the clinic.
Objectives: I will accomplish this by…
 Analyzing patient records for the chief complaint for the visit and related
medical issues such as diabetes or smoking
 Engaging in dialogue with the nuclear nursing staff about common health
disparities in patients seen at the clinic
 Organizing and developing a summary of the findings
 Being a successful healthcare administrator means having knowledge
on more than just the operations side. Since it is vital that managers
also have a concept of what health ailments lead to a visit to their

3. clinic, it was important that I also gain this comprehension. The first
way that I familiarized myself was through the transcription office. As
we fax out documents, we are required to make sure that all of the
information on the physician’s report was correct. Thus, I was
exposed to a range of medical terminology. I continued to develop my
knowledge on this matter by spending time with various departments
within the clinic and asking the staff which behavioral, environmental,
or socioeconomic factors were associated with heart issues.
Commonly, patients who were having heart trouble were elderly
and/or were struggling with obesity. Furthermore, lack of exercise
and smoking typically accompanied a patient who was having heart
trouble. By and large, however, a low socioeconomic position
appeared to play a role as this factor tends to precede the behavioral
and environmental actions.
Affective Goal
By the end of my internship experience, I will be able to articulate how I feel about
pursuing a career or further graduate studies in healthcare administration.
Objectives: I will accomplish this by…
 Meeting with and interviewing my preceptor to discuss how business is
conducted on a daily basis
 Speaking with other medical staff about their duties and responsibilities at
the clinic and how the managerial staff impacts their daily operations
 Immersing myself in the culture, mission, and organizational framework of
the practice
 My overarching foal for the end of my internship experience was to
gain as much knowledge as possible during my time at Upstate
Cardiology. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work in
multiple departments and also at multiple sites. Prior to this summer,
I felt as though it was required to attend graduate school right out of
the gate in order to be successful. Having spoken diligently with Mr.
Eskew and with Mr. Dustin Cox, whom I shadowed, I now know that
there are a plethora of routes that one can take. There are benefits to
working with a healthcare organization right out of college for a few
years to gain experience just as well as there are benefits to attending
graduate school from the get go. There is no formula to success. It
comes from one’s ability leverage their strengths and to make
decisions that take the entire picture into account. Most importantly, I
not only grew professionally, but also personally. This experience has
solidified my determination to become an administrator.
3) Choose one project/assignment and describe it as follows:
 One of the most important projects that I worked on was the provider
quality and patient satisfaction survey. Due to the continually
increasing importance of delivering quality care for reimbursement

4. form Medicare and Medicaid, I created a new survey that looks to
allow Upstate Cardiology to deliver the highest quality of care in the
area.
a) How well do you think you accomplished this project or dealt with the
experiences?
 I feel as though I created this survey in a thorough manner, displaying
diligence and pervasive work ethic. The survey had to be specially
balanced between breadth of the question, depth of the response
options, and brevity of the survey. If it was too long, it is unlikely that
patients would be willing to participate in the survey. If the questions
did not accurately represent what the practice was seeking to learn
then there would have been no purpose of creating the new survey. I
am confident that I accurately represented what Upstate Cardiology
sought to discover while following the guidelines of the Agency for
Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ).
b) What skills did you use?
 Conducting a survey of this manner requires strong research, writing,
and organizational skills. I used resources from the AHRQ to develop
the study questions so that they provided Upstate Cardiology with
useable responses. Following this information collection, I wrote the
questions in a way that could be understood by the average patient
that is not well versed in medical terminology. Following this, I
organized the survey by grouping related questions together to allow
for topical congruency. Finally, I gave a presentation on my survey to
the administrative team, which required strong speaking skills.
c) Point out your strengths and weaknesses. What would you do differently?
 My biggest strength with this project was my presentation on the
survey. Even though it was nerve-racking to be speaking in front of
the administrative team as an intern, I spoke with confidence, clarity,
and authority. After I finished my presentation, we walked through
the survey to identify areas that needed improvement. During this
time it was noted that a small number questions were arguably too
similar to others. Looking back, I believe that I could have taken more
care to trim down the number of questions. I was eager to cast a wide
net of questions in order to collect enough information, but ended up
being repetitive. I have since updated the survey and am excited to
see it being circulated out to patients. I am extremely proud of my
work.
4) Assess your contribution to the internship site.
 I am confident that I contributed to Upstate Cardiology in a positive
manner. The projects that Mr. Eskew asked me to complete all served
a vital purpose to the operations of the practice. Furthermore, due to
the time commitment that these projects take, it is likely that Mr.
Eskew would have to divert other important projects if I were not

5. there to help. Outside of my projects, I also contributed to the
organization by helping out in the medical records office, filing forms,
faxing documents, and by performing other clerical tasks. Finally, I
believe that I contributed on a personal level too. I made friends with
many of the staff members and built positive relationships that I will
continue to develop.
5) Has your experience changed or reinforced your career goals? Changedor
reinforced your educational goals? Could you see yourself as a professional in
this field?
 My internship experience undoubtedly reinforced my career goals. I
still wanted to be a healthcare administrator prior to working at
Upstate Cardiology but I was not yet able to envision myself in the
field. The work experience and knowledge that I gained during my
internship allowed me to conceptualize how I can best fit into a
healthcare organization. Now, I see myself being a highly successful
administrator. Furthermore, working with Mr. Eskew allowed me to
see that there are a plethora of career paths to take after I graduate
from school. While I initially felt as though I needed to attend
graduate school right away, I now have a more open mind on the
matter. I believe that it is important to weigh the benefits and
drawbacks of working right out of school versus going to graduate
school.
6) Relate your internship experience to your academic work on campus. List at
least 5 specific courses either in your major or outside your major that were
useful to this site.
Health Science Internship Preparation Seminar: This class provided me with
the knowledge and skills that a professional must have in order to excel in
the work environment. The interview assignments, resume workshops, and
portfolio work proved to be very helpful.
Managing Healthcare Organizations: Without this class, I would not have had
the foundations to understand the importance and complexity of the various
projects that I attended to and completed during the course of my internship.
It was refreshing to see the management models and theories learned in the
classroom applied to the work I did every day.
Health Policy Law and Ethics: Medicare and Medicaid laws are highly
relevant to Upstate Cardiology due to the fact that a large part of their patient
population is on one of these programs. This policy class gave me a strong
understanding of both programs and what their impact has on the practice.
Additionally, the numerous ethical frameworks that were studied in the
classroom carried forward into the work environment.

6. Financial Management and Budgeting for Health Service Organizations:
Without this class I would not have had the strong excel foundation that was
needed to be successful in this internship. Additionally, the knowledge and
understanding of working out finances, RVUs, and many other financial
concepts that I acquired in this class was used daily. Without it, I would not
have had to tools or topical comprehension to complete the projects that
were assigned to me.
Research and Evaluation Strategies for Public Health: This class also played a
significant role in the development of my excel skills. I would have certainly
struggled to complete my RVU and physician referral reports in a timely and
correct manner had I not been educated on the complexities of the program
in this class.
7) Were there instances at your site where the health literacy training were
utilized? Explain.
 For my internship experience, the health literacy training that I
received did not apply. The reason for this is because I was not
interacting with patients on a level that required me to employ the
health literacy concepts. I do, however, believe that health literacy is
of utmost importance for a healthcare manager to have.
Administrators interact with patients, physicians, nurses, and other
medical staff on a daily basis. Thus, looking to the future, I know that
this training has prepared me for proper communication skills in the
healthcare environment.