Competency: Understand the interdependence of the component parts of the healthcare system and the potential for unintended consequences within the system
Medicine and the healthcare system are, by far, some of the most complicated systems that I have had the chance to be involved with and study. Of course, I already knew this coming into medical school, but you get a whole new perspective on it when you become involved in the day-to-day operations in the hospitals. Understanding the logistics of inter-department relationships, navigating insurance for patients and optimizing the care for patients only scratches the surface of what takes place in a hospital like the Wexner Medical Center. As far as my understanding goes, I feel like I have a decent grasp on working with individuals outside of my team and what needs to be done to get things like procedures and appropriate living arrangements for patients outside of the hospital. But things like medical insurance, billing and the other financial aspects of healthcare I’ll will have to improve my knowledge on as a resident as I take the next step in my journey in medicine.
One of the operations in the healthcare system that I have really appreciated having the chance to be a part is quality improvement. Coming into medical school, I imagined the process to optimize hospital operations would be complicated and involved, but I didn’t think it would go the route of how the ‘DMAIC’ approach to quality improvement had us go through for our project. The obvious benefit of being involved in AHSS as a medical student is that I will have to contribute to quality improvement projects as a resident in the future and this will help me to be prepared. The bigger benefit of AHSS is now I have an outlet to improve something in the hospital if there is an area that could be looked at for the benefit of patients or my colleagues. My AHSS group’s project is gauging usage of an opioid-abuse screening tool in the ED at OSU East hospital. This project stuck out to me as someone who is originally from Dayton, Ohio and that being one of the cities in the Midwest hit the hardest by the opioid epidemic. I wanted to be involved in a project that could make any contribution to bringing that horrible epidemic to an end. I have been really impressed by the initiative of my groupmates and our physician sponsors to help bring about a chance that can be a benefit to people. And it hasn’t just been our group involved. We have worked closely with other ED physicians, triage nurses and social workers to help optimize education and usage of this screening tools. I know as a future physician that I can’t carry out change by myself. Just like everything else in the hospital it takes a team effort to accomplish these kinds of goals and our AHSS project has given me great appreciation for bringing many different people together can help accomplish something great.
My goal as a future resident is to better understand these aspects of the healthcare system that I am currently less familiar with. Billing and insurance are going to be two of the biggest things in my life moving forward, and those are certainly areas I need work in. I am hoping that the more I understand about the healthcare system, the better prepared I will be down-the-line to be involved in advocation for healthcare policy and help make changes to better the care for patients.
Artifact 1: 
This is the process map that I created for our group’s AHSS project during our M4 year and will present in the upcoming weeks.
Artifact 2: CHE Presentation Corrected Equitas.pptx
This is the final presentation from my group’s CHE project during our M1 and M2 years.