The meeting gathered senior scholars, administrators and leaders working in the southeast at institutions of higher education and the social sectors to: (1) share best practices for developing URM professionals; (2) discuss action-oriented solutions for establishing the necessary infrastructures to support URM professionals; and (3) identify institutional and organizational champions building partnerships to foster those supportive infrastructures.

HPM students Oluyemisi Amoda, Sneha Grover, Taher Hamid, Natasha Kurji, Neha Shah, Cauchavius Watts and Sabrina Wise volunteered as registrants and note-takers for the event. This role gave them direct access to the people and ideas being shared and discussed that day. The experience impacted them all:

“This event opened my eyes to the multitude of issues related to diversity in the work place,” Natasha Kurji said. ”I was able to not only better understand the barriers underrepresented groups face, but also how to combat those barriers.”

“I really enjoyed listening to the amazing speakers—who are leaders in their respective fields—how they prevailed over their many challenges to be the person they are today. They were a wealth of knowledge, offering positive messages on how to overcome setbacks as a minority, which I hope to carry with me as I develop my career," Neha Shah said. 

“For me, the take away message from the event was the importance of providing underrepresented minorities with the proper opportunities to become successful so that they are able to take part in professional leaderships in order to create a more diverse culture within organizations," Sneha Grover said. 

“Networking and mentorship are vital towards building the kinds of alliances that actively seek diverse perspectives and create a culture of respect for all of those involved,” Cauchavius Watts said.

Read more here.

The model was estimated for four groups of inpatients, successively increased based on injury severity. In the first two groups, indicating the two lowest levels of severity, FP status was the most important factor associated with hospitalization after transport to the ED. With the two moderate levels of severity, injury type played a more important role, but FP status continued to significantly explain the probability of hospitalization. The decline in the relative explanatory power of for-profit status in the severity equations is likely explained by the level of discretion in treatment options associated with any particular injury episode when a patient is categorized as a trauma alert. 

In conclusion, considerable differences exist between for-profit and not-for-profit trauma centers concerning hospitalization among the study population, which may be explained by supplier induced demand. Policy implications of the increased probability of hospitalization at FP hospitals relate to both the cost and efficiency of the trauma system.

Read the complete publication here.

Over the last few months, students prepared for the event with a series of professional development seminars. Presented by HMSA, topics included resume creation, elevator speech development and other networking skills. 

Representatives from many premier Tampa Bay organizations were in attendance, such as USF Physicians Group, Tampa General Hospital, James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, Parallon, Suncoast Community Health Centers, Inc., Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, HCA West Florida/Brandon Regional Hospital, and Florida Hospital - Tampa. HPM alumni from these organizations included Trevor Price (TGH), David Phillips (VA), Cara Horton (Parallon), Kate Houck (Parallon), and Jan Rodriguez (Suncoast).

Read more about the career fair here.

Radhika Mehrotra, a second-year MHA student, was selected as the inaugural fellow of the West Florida Division, Inc. Administrative Fellowship Program in Healthcare Management. As the first fellow in this newly established program, we asked her to share her journey; in her own words. 

As an aspiring health care executive, I quickly learned that securing a fellowship is one of the best ways to advance your career. Generally, programs span a year and are a fast-paced internship. Their value comes from exposing early careerists to all aspects of a hospital- from the inner workings of different departments to how executives make tough board-room decisions. I applied to several programs, each application required a resume, transcript, personal statement, at least three letters of recommendation from faculty/employers, and a cover letter. In October began my inevitable and endless string of fellowship rejections, dotted with occasional offers for primary, and sometimes even secondary interviews. I survived this wave of rejection by adopting the following quote by Dorie Clark as my personal mantra: “If it doesn’t work, it’s not a failure, it’s data.” After sending out 47 applications, I had a lot of data. During this time I was introduced to an opportunity which seemed too good to be true—a brand-new administrative fellowship, created in partnership with Brandon Regional Hospital, which is an affiliate of HCA, the largest hospital chain in the country. My excitement for this opportunity grew when I learned more from BRH’s CEO, Mr. Bland Eng through his presentation at HMSA. He discussed what makes HCA, and specifically BRH so successful in today’s competitive market.

Due to the relatively quick turnaround time of the BRH fellowship, the interview process was expedited. After the initial review of my application I was invited to a series of four interviews. My first was with Mr. Bland Eng, the CEO of BRH. We had an interesting conversation about a health clinic I had previously worked at as a medical assistant, which is also currently partnered with BRH. He was interested to know how my experiences there related to concepts I learned as a MHA student. He asked about my interests and wanted to know why this opportunity would be exciting for me. The panel interview was the most technical, this was where I was asked about the environment of today’s health care system and how it relates to trends I noticed about the health care industry. Information presented by HMSA speaker’s helped me form meaningful responses for the panel’s questions. At the conclusion of the panel, I was given tips to prepare for my interview with Mr. Marmerstein.

The following two days were my interviews at Rocky Point, which is the HCA regional corporate office. I met with the director of HR, Ms. Nancy Price, who not only reviewed my academic history, previous employment, but also asked about how I showed my passion for health care outside of school and work. Then time came for seemingly the most intimidating interview—Mr. Marmerstein, regional CEO. I made sure to review my notes from the panel and arrive early. What happened instead was a conversation that flew by and left me feeling excited for the future and empowered in knowing that I could impact meaningful change in how patients receive their health care, regardless of this particular interview’s outcome.

This semester I have the unique opportunity to help develop the BRH Fellowship Curriculum in partnership with BRH leadership and Dr. Pruitt as part of my special project. Our goal is to learn about the best practices at top fellowship programs throughout the country and ultimately be able to implement these practices for BRH’s administrative fellowship. I hope my contribution to the curriculum and fellowship can help cultivate a long-term relationship between USF’s MHA program and BRH. This is a very exciting opportunity and I look forward to further sharing my experience through it. 

To read more about USF Health Research Day 2017 click here.