New MHA Grad: 'My Internship Experience Has Helped Me Develop Important Professional Skills'

I had the opportunity to intern at Yale New Haven Health as a project manager for the Home Hospital Department. The goal of the Home Hospital program is to provide patients with high-quality hospital-level care in the comfort of their homes, using a range of devices including a computer tablet for video visits with nurses and physicians, a telephone for direct contact with the care team, a personal emergency-response bracelet, vital signs monitoring devices, and a backup power supply. This innovative program allows patients to receive hospital-level care at home.

During my internship, I worked closely with Rachel Hotkowski ’19 MHA, who mentored me throughout the entire period. Rachel's experience at YNHH and as a University alum guided me and let me absorb the most from the internship experience.

Together, we focused on reducing the "Missed Opportunity Admission" rate, which occurs when a patient qualifies for transfer from the emergency department to their home, but the transfer does not happen for operational reasons.

To tackle this issue, we identified the bottlenecks that were causing the missed opportunities, tracked and analyzed data, and proposed solutions to improve the process. We discovered that part of the problem was related to the third party's capacity to provide some services, such as no capability to cover all necessary visits and logistic issues with the transportation of patients and medical equipment.

After analyzing the initial numbers, we worked with our partners to find solutions for the bottlenecks, which included increasing the number of available ambulances, adjusting nurses' schedules, and making them available for more visits, and re-adjusting the medical equipment workflow.

As a result of these changes, the Home Hospital program was able to significantly reduce the missed-admission opportunities, dropping from 62 percent in February to 42 percent in March, and currently operating at under 10 percent.

Overall, my internship experience has helped me to develop important professional skills, including communication, teamwork, leadership, and critical thinking, which are all essential for success in healthcare management.

Gabriel Caldato Barsotti ’23 MHA is a new graduate of the University’s Master of Healthcare Administration program.