My Journey to Northwell Health’s Healthcare Management Program

Written by: By Hannah Friedman, 2018 HMP Intern

Northwell Health has been a part of my life since the day I was born…literally. I was born at North Shore University Hospital in December of 1996. Growing up on Long Island, I always felt the presence of the system around me. I grew up inspired by its tremendous reputation throughout my community, but I was unaware of all of the different career paths that could lead me to be a part of it.

As a Biometry & Statistics major at Cornell University, I have taken many math and statistics classes that have applications to both medicine and business. I was always interested in the healthcare industry, but I was also searching for a field that would allow me to apply both my analytical and leadership skills. During my sophomore year, I spent a day shadowing an associate executive director at Lenox Hill Hospital. My fate was sealed as we walked through the halls of the hospital, and he exchanged warm greetings with every employee we passed. That day, I saw firsthand how strong business and interpersonal skills, as well as a desire for helping others, uniquely combine in the field of healthcare management. The following summer, I decided to pursue my interest in this type of work as an administrative intern for Patient Care Services at Lenox Hill. My experience demonstrated how analytics can be translated into meaningful and tangible results that serve to improve patient care. I finally felt like I had found my calling.

There are no words to describe how excited I was when I was offered a position as a summer associate for the Healthcare Management Program at Northwell Health. When I found out that my placement was with the Emergency Medicine Service Line, I wasn’t sure what to expect. To be completely honest, I didn’t even completely understand what it meant. From the very first day, nonetheless, I was immersed as a member of the very strong team that worked in this quick-paced environment. It was so interesting to learn about the service line, which consists of 18 different Emergency Departments. The Emergency Medicine Service Line also partners with Northwell’s Center for Emergency Management and Northwell’s joint venture, GoHealth Urgent Care (GoHealth runs over 44 urgent care centers!). Together, all of these teams are dedicated to providing the highest quality of care to the surrounding communities. I participated in many site visits and worked on a variety of projects with the Service Line Development and Clinical Operations teams. We collaborated with IT to help create an app to standardize the flow of the Emergency Departments throughout all of Northwell’s hospitals, performed an operations review for Nassau University Medical Center’s Emergency Department, helped develop a plan to encourage philanthropy, and more.

My favorite project as a summer associate involved helping to prepare the service line for American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation. I did research on the factors that most significantly impact the quality of a geriatric patient’s Emergency Department visit. I then learned how to use Tableau to perform an analysis on the top diagnoses and admission rates for each particular Northwell site, so that they could develop specific policies and protocols that focus on the geriatric population. The team and I also used these analyses to explain the importance of geriatric care to each site’s leadership team and helped them to complete the application. Northwell Health could be the first system in the country to have Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation at all of its sites.

Throughout this summer, I learned so much about hospital finance, operations, and management through the hands-on projects, many networking events, and Lunch and Learn sessions. Leaders inspired us through their stories, taught us valuable lessons, and reminded us that they were once in our shoes. Furthermore, I was able to see the skills and qualities that make people successful in the field. Through Northwell Health’s Healthcare Management Program, I know that I truly learned from the best. I am so grateful for the opportunity and can’t wait to apply all I’ve learned as I continue to develop my career in healthcare management.

Submit your resume to become a Summer Associate in the 2019 Healthcare Management Program Internship.