Last month, Tyler Smith, a University of Cincinnati junior majoring in finance, completed an eight-week internship with Mercy Health – Lourdes Hospital.
Tyler, 21, found out about the internship through his dad. During his time at the hospital, he was involved with projects supporting our physicians, supply chain and the finance team while also taking part in events sponsored by the Paducah Chamber of Commerce’s Intern Initiative. These events work to raise awareness of the varied job opportunities and advantages of living and working in the area.
“Creating community involvement is one of the things that makes this program so great,” Lydia Gray (pictured left), recruitment director, shares. “The main goals are to give back to the community and create a pipeline for future connections.”
The internship also gave Tyler a new perspective on career opportunities in health care.
“I never thought of hospital administration as something I’d be attracted to,” Tyler says. “But it’s something I’ve come to appreciate and like.”
Good stewardship of resources is part of our ministry’s culture. Tyler’s supply chain project confirmed how well our physician team has taken that message to heart.
“Our medical practices order their supplies individually and I was tasked to see if they had inventory they didn’t need that we could consolidate for future use. It turns out they were managing their inventory very well,” Tyler shares. “There was no excess inventory.”
Next, Tyler helped the finance team analyze payment changes.
“I went through and determined where all of our payments are coming from and our payer mix. I noted percent changes from insurance companies vs. Medicare, where these changes happened and with which medical providers,” Tyler says. “Then I determined if there was some reason for the change and how impactful that would be for next year’s budget. The changes can be meaningful in this non-profit environment.”
Tyler also worked on a project analyzing the answering services across the medical practices with the goal of giving patients a more consistent, uniform experience and better response times.
“Young people tend to think that business is about trying to make money, but that’s not always the case here,” Tyler shares. “This is a less aggressive environment. It’s about making sure you are doing everything correctly and patient focus is the thing.”
And finally, Tyler has advice for other young adults considering an internship with Mercy Health.
“Definitely go for it,” he says. “The people at this hospital are super welcoming. They help you figure out what you want to do and put you in the experience. I gained more here than I would have at most run-of-the-mill university experiences.”
Lydia adds, “this program is a great hands-on learning experience for interns who also benefit from opportunities to network and develop professionally. We have plenty of opportunities in our programs, including in human resources, finance, IT and more.”
One friendly heads-up from Tyler: “There’s a heck of a lot of abbreviations,” he laughs. “It took me a couple of weeks trying to figure out what all of them meant.”
Visit our website if you are interested in learning more our about internship opportunities.
Also, learn about the health care services we offer at Mercy Health.
