Capstone Internship

ProCare Network

Interning at ProCare Network

ProCare Network is a personal assistance service within the IU Health hospitals that helps employees and patients find solutions to everyday tasks that seem to get in the way. ProCare Network has partnered with 60 different service firms in the Indianapolis area to provide a wide variety of needed services such as lodging, filing taxes, legal services, dry cleaning, and so much more. As an intern at ProCare Network, I am onsite at Methodist Hospital, IU Health University Hospital, and Riley Children's Hospital. I have the privilege of getting to interact with clinical staff as well as patients and their families. At ProCare, I recommend hotels and book reservations for patients who need a place to stay while visiting the hospitals for appointments and surgery. I also provide dry cleaning services to the physicians and clinical staff. I pick up and deliver lab coats and scrubs to various departments within the hospitals, as well as do brochure distribution to the social workers and information desks. I also update and maintain billing information for dry cleaning services.

Through ProCare, I have a better understanding of the daily operations of different services within a hospital setting that are not clinical work.

Internship Learning Objectives:

At the beginning of this internship I set the following learning goals for myself: To learn more about and experience the everyday management operations behind hospital services, understand Indiana University Health (IUH) hospitals daily operations through interacting with patients and staff, understand cross functional support from internal stakeholders, understand how to help internal/external customers and stakeholders identify and meet their high priority needs while considering health and safety implications, and understand operations of third party health vendor within the hospital setting. These objectives relate to health services management competencies as they require me to use my knowledge of hospital systems and healthcare trends from my academics to best help patients. I am progressing toward meeting these objectives by actively working on daily operations such as dry cleaning, where I visit multiple departments within the IU Health hospitals, but mainly Methodist, to pick up and deliver dry cleaning for physicians and other clinical staff. I also update billing information and keep track of physician information for dry cleaning. On top of this, I am the Education Coordinator for ProCare. In this position, I distribute ProCare's hotel brochures throughout the hospital departments, so that patients have up to date lodging information. I get the opportunities to meet many people through these activities. I have delivered brochures to many hospital departments, as well as to social workers within the hospitals. I get a better understanding of ways in which different roles within hospital administration help patient lives. Within my internship, I have had to deal with changing policies and procedures surrounding the pandemic. As a former retail worker, I am use to dealing with conflicts that arise from unfavorable policies, and I have gotten much experience in explaining and enforcing these rules. Within the hospital setting, I have gotten experience in breaking inconvenient and unfavorable news to vulnerable people. For example, only one visitor is allowed per patient per day. Many family members get upset about this understandably. Parents are especially upset when they hear only one of them can attend their child's appointment. This is something that I did not expect to have so much practice in so early my healthcare career, but I think it is an important and valuable skill that I have developed. Within my internship, I have been able to address all of the learning objectives I set out to understand. My supervisors have been helpful in accommodating me and what I want to learn about through ProCare, and I'm grateful for that.

Personal Development:

Throughout my internship at ProCare Network, I have been able to gain more experience within a hospital setting. My customer service, problem solving, and communication skills have improved throughout my time as an intern at ProCare. I have also learned more about the city of Indianapolis and my way around Methodist Hospital, University Hospital, and Riley Children's Hospital. I was able to visit multiple clinics and departments throughout the hospitals and better understand the administrative roles involved. I have a better understanding of what I would like to do within my professional career, and I have gained more confidence moving forward into the professional world of healthcare administration post graduation.

Academic Connections:

Within the IU Health hospital systems, I have seen operational functions that relate to my academic courses. In my internship, I was given opportunities to walk around IU Health hospitals where I saw posters with lean strategies and other operational procedures that I learned throughout my courses at IUPUI. I also used my knowledge from course work to complete daily tasks such as updating the excel spreadsheet for brochure distribution, billing information for physician dry cleaning, and helping patients with their urgent needs such as getting them to their appointments, booking a hotel reservation, helping them get a ride, and helping them understand their insurance information. As a concierge, I am asked questions about IU Health all the time, and the research I have done for my classes has given me the knowledge I needed to do well in this position, as well as answer patients questions.

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