The Baptist Health Administrative fellowship: Sahana Sundaram

<p>hello everyone this is Cole from the American Journal of healthc care strategy I'm joined by a special guest today sahana please introduce yourself hi I'm sahana ceram currently a fellow at Baptist Health South Florida located in Miami Florida um also an mha candidate from the George Washington University [Music] we're so happy to have you here we were just talking that the week of this recording of course is the graduation week there so you're in DC that's very exciting for everyone and I think you were the second or third fellow from the Miami area that we're interviewing it's an area that a lot of people want to go to of course so we're excited to share about that for all the potential fellows who are excited to maybe move to Miami I want to go back to the very beginning of your career here looking at your resume starting at Ohio State University with that Bachelor's in public health of course you graduated you were Dean list there you did very well in the program I want to ask a few questions the first is how did you end up at Ohio State and then why Public Health yeah so my undergrad Journey was very interesting I'm originally from Columbus Ohio I ended up out of high school going to a small liberal arts school maybe about an hour out of Cleveland when I was there I wanted to be Premed I was a neuroscience major I was really excited about it and I think by my sophomore year I realized that that wasn't really the path for me but I had never really explored other options outside of that so I was very lost it's what I call my like quarter life crisis I was very lost not sure what to do and so I transferred to Ohio State to kind of figure out if there were may maybe other options or other like Avenues I'd want to take so I started kind of doing what I should have done my freshman year which is taking different types of classes in different fields kind of getting an idea of what might I be interested in and I took some business classes I was like maybe I could go into marketing or operations or something like that and I don't think I felt very like motivated to pursue business alone I think I needed something else that felt more a little bit was more purpose and a little bit more fulfilling for me in my career and so I had a friend say oh maybe you should explore Public Health I didn't have that at my other school and I was like okay like I'll try it out so I took one class and I fell in love with it the professor was amazing she really made all the students really just fall in love with public health and I realized there was so much you could do with it and that's actually when I learned about healthcare administration that you could kind of marry the two and you could have Healthcare but you could do it on more of the administrative business side so I finished out my degree in public health really enjoyed my experience at Ohio State and then out of undergrad I was you know applying Ling for jobs and I stumbled across an opportunity to go to Fort Meers Florida um wasn't really like Florida was never really on the radar for me but it was a good learning opportunity so I applied for the position and I got the opportunity to go there I was doing mergers and Acquisitions work for the last four years that was really interesting I learned so much from that because I never really had experience within the administrative field it was always more Public Health work that I was focusing on but my my supervisor at the time really wanted to Mentor like young professionals and so he you know took me on as his employee um he taught me a lot and I got to a really experience like working with different departments which I think one really good thing I learned is how to work with people and um different personalities and then the other part is also learning about what each of these departments do because I'm not an expert in any of these departments I don't know tons about it so I think getting the opportunity to learn from each of these departments ments and what they do and how they play a part in healthcare I think is really important but I was in mergers and Acquisitions basically what we did was acquire oncology clinics that were interested in joining our Network because we offered centralized services that would kind of take the burden and the workload off of those um smaller clinics so I did that for the last four years that is just so I'm really impressed because it's a different path because you kind of have individuals who have a few years between but it's almost from the looks of it you were working while getting your M at first I was just in Fort Meers I was just working I needed a break from school I just wanted to take a little break and so I was just doing my job and then we hit the pandemic I think nine months into me moving there I always knew I was going to go to grad school it was just a matter of when and what program I wanted to pursue and so at that point I felt pretty confident in wanting to do healthcare administration and that would just seemed like the perfect time to apply for programs because you know we're in the pandemic I'm like I can sit down after work and focus my time on applying so I um applied to a couple programs I want to say like five or six programs across the country and yes I did eventually get into George Washington University and I did work while um going to school which was I'm very grateful and lucky that I was able to do that how were you able to do that because you know the mergers and Acquisitions field is pretty challenging you have to prepare quite a bit some of these meetings can be pretty intense I know Partnerships as well is very challenging how were you able to maintain you know kind of a more senior role while also going to school and gwu is a pretty rigorous program right yeah I'm not gonna lie it was difficult at times I really didn't want to feel like I was splitting myself and my energy amongst too many commitments so I was nervous going into the program because I also did the full-time residential program program so I was going in person to my GW classes but I was very lucky that I again my my supervisor and he was a mentor to me at the time or even now but my supervisor at the time he was very willing to work with us because he did care about our professional growth and so he encouraged me to to go for the program we were fully remote at this time because of the pandemic we knew we could be remote so at this point my co-workers were living all across the country so I knew living somewhere else wouldn't be an issue it was just more of like how do I balance my time luckily because we had so many people in different places you know that affects the time zone and when we'd have certain meetings and so I was able to like Flex my time a little bit and schedule meetings during certain hours when I wasn't in class and a lot of the GW classes were in the late afternoon evening anyways so it kind of worked out where I was you know I get up in the morning work as long as I can and then after work like I would try to have my meetings like during the business day after school I would come back and try to you know catch up on any other items if there was anything else pending that I need to complete that day along with my schoolwork it wasn't easy but I will say I think I was motivated to get I was very productive because there was not a lot of time free time that I had so I had to utilize the time I did have to get things done that is great though because you have this experience now in a very important area and then also that probably helped with any loans or expenses having a you know not just an entry-level job but a senior kind of managerial position so that's wonderful why did you choose to go to a program that has that required Fellowship when you already had uh you know pretty well-paying job what was the reason for wanting to do that that's a great question I want to through the fellowship program regardless of which school I went to I think being in the role I was in it was very sted into oncology and mures and Acquisitions is a very like I like Niche U role or skill to have and so I wanted to see if there was something else out there that I would be interested in um do you get to touch a little bit of everything and I also was interested in Hospital systems and so I wanted to work in a hospital see if that's something that I would be interested in in the future and get that experience so um it definitely was a lot to consider with you know like salary and also like you know what opportunities are out there especially because now I'm learning that I'm not I I don't have a clinical background so I think that's also a challenge in itself and so I think it's really opened my eyes to a lot of aspects of healthcare and just the different things you can do but that's kind of why I wanted to pursue the three-year program because I was interested in the fellowship ngw does have a great program in general so what fellowships and what was that application process like how many did you apply to and you know why did you apply where you appli um I'm trying to think back to when you know I was applying I think that was in 2020 I applied to six programs I want to say I think three within the DMV area and then I applied to Ohio State again and a couple other programs I can't remember at the top of my head but more on the East Coast I wanted to stay on the East Coast I was considering areas that I thought I would live in I didn't realize with the fellowship you could move anywhere I thought wherever I go to grad school is probably where I'm going to end up for the next couple years afterwards so DC had always been a big I love DC and I really wanted to move out there it also is a public health Hub so I thought there'd be a lot of opportunities out there so that's why I was very intrigued by it I did consider Ohio State as well but I think considering that I grew up in Columbus and that I did my undergrad there I wanted to kind of switch it up a little bit and do something different if I was able to would you recommend doing something different do you think it's it's helped to broaden your horizons for me yes I I recommend everyone even if it's not for school just moving out of the state or out of your city once in your life when I moved to Fort Meyers that was a big like personal growth period for me because I didn't know anybody there so kind of having to start over I grew up in Columbus I went to school in Columbus so like I had childhood friends high school friends undergrad friend my family still lives up there so leaving that and going somewhere where you know zero people it's very eye openening and I think you you won't really understand it until you experience it but it's been good I definitely think people if they wish to do that I think I would definitely recommend at least one time in your life moving somewhere else I absolutely agree I absolutely agree so when it came to the fellowships that third year of the program you're nearing of course the completion of your fellowship the graduation of the program but what was the applying for fellowships like how many fellowships did you apply to I think I app Ed for like 15 fellowships the thing about the year that I entered grad school is it was right around the time Co was sort of settling down and so our cohort was double the size of a typical GW cohort and I'm sure many other programs took on many like more students um than they have in the past and so then when everyone's applying for fellowships it becomes a little bit more competitive not even with your own class but then you have to think about other students that are interested in fellowships as well so I was trying to keep my mind open I will say at first I was very um set on staying in DC I wanted to stay in the DMV a little bit more long term I wasn't quite ready to move yet but then I kind of thought about it a little bit more realistically and I said okay like if DC doesn't work out there's only I think two or three programs within DC so realistically it might not work out and it didn't and that's okay but where can I see myself going so I focused a lot of I did apply in other states as well but I focused a lot of my applications in like the Boston Chicago and Miami area and then I got paired with Baptist which was um it worked out for the best I'm really happy that I'm there so but yes I probably applied to I I want to say like 15 programs um not that everyone did that but that was just my choice why Boston Chicago and Miami I've heard Chicago New York and La that I've heard a few times but what was the reason for your three focuses I've been to all three cities and I enjoy all of them I'm from the Midwest I like the East and the Midwest areas I mean I lived in Florida and I was open to moving back there but I wanted to try more of the East Coast I think I like the city life and I like the energy of a city and so I think that's why I was focusing my energy in those places because I'm like I can see myself maybe you know for at least the next 5 years living somewhere you never know where you're going to end up I did not know I was going to end up in Miami realistically but then here we are congratulations on getting that that Fellowship in Miami and so it's at Baptist Health can you tell us a bit about what Baptist Health is like what it's like working there and then just your overall experience in the fellowship yeah so I didn't actually know about Baptist Health South Florida before you know looking into the application process so I did a lot of research and I had a few friends that also were applying different uh programs in Miami as well so we would talk about all these things and the more I looked into it I was like this could be something I'm interested in and so you know they talk about really caring about their not only their patients but their employees which I think is really big for me and I I really appreciate that kind of culture and so I was very intrigued by it and when I interviewed it was a panel interview so there were maybe five or six individuals on the interview everyone was very kind and welcoming and I really appreciated that and I think I felt more at ease and I could be more myself because of that I also really like they we do a leadership certificate program so that includes getting your yellow and green belt for lean6 Sigma which I think is extremely important I'm learning a lot from experiencing that and being part of that so that's really great you get to meet a lot of leaders and do a lot of networking within the system so I've gotten to tour all the hospitals in our system we have about 11 or 12 hospitals um from all the way from the keys up to like Boon Beach which is north of boka ratton and Fort Lauderdale area so that's been really great networking with people and everyone's very open and welcoming and willing to teach you I think that's really big because you know nobody knows everything and as a fellow we're learning so much that it's just really um it's just really nice to see people that are willing to teach I think it was just more of the the fit and the energy that I was like okay this is something I could see myself maybe doing but I didn't know a lot about Baptist Health so I still was very nervous going into it I've never even been to well I've been to Miami but I do live in Fort Lauderdale because I kind of go between the North Region and South Region so I didn't really know a lot about Fort Lauderdale or even really north of there so again it's like a new like a lot of personal growth professional growth as well and um I don't know that I want to keep moving but I think those experiences for me have been extremely beneficial for my own growth oh yeah absolutely wow that is really great and you know moving is a big pain of course for social you know emotional and of course physical reasons I just moved about four blocks and it was a tremendous challenge so it's I can understand that but it is a real you know area of growth and and I appreciate you highlighting that what are some of the you know your favorite projects that you've worked on or the favorite rotations that you had if you had to you know just say a few of your favorite experiences from the fellowship yeah it's been really interesting actually because so just to give you a little background um there's Miami Dade County Broward County and then we have Palm Beach I live in Broward County we don't have any well we have outpatient uh centers in Broward County but we don't have any hospitals and then PL uh Palm Beach County we have three hospitals in that area and then Miami of course like there's eight or nine in the keys it's very interesting to see the cultural differences between the North and South Region because the like population is very different I would say the north region is not as diverse it's a little more of an older population the culture is a little different versus you go to Miami it's a lot more like Latin heavy I mean people of all ages but it's just like very interesting to see the different Dynamics so that's been very um eye openening as well for me um um I really enjoyed I I've been spending more time in the North Region that's where they've like placed some of my rotations so I really enjoyed working in um the hospital that I'm in which is a 70 bed like smaller hospital but it's a beautiful Hospital the people that um work there have worked there for like 15 years um since that hospital had started so it speaks a lot to the leadership there and I got to really observe and witness a lot of great leadership while I spent my first rotation there so that was really great I'm currently doing a rotation with patient experience which has been really great I do a little bit of data analytics work which has been fun but then I also get to do more people facing work I do think in the future I want to do more people facing work but I I enjoy the data analytics as well so I think having projects where I get to kind of dip my toes into different types of projects and different types of work has been really good to figure out what I want and don't want one of my interesting projects I'm currently working on on a system level project looking at sitter usage and evaluating how each hospital if they you know utilize sitters or if they have a telesitter program and then kind of determining does your process work for your hospital is there a better alternative because what we want to do is reduce the risk of patient falls and injuries so right now I'm currently working with the chief nursing officer of the system which has been also amazing she's wonderful very kind and it's been a great experience learning from her as well so that's been great I've been meeting with a lot of leadership and I think it really exposes to a lot of things that I don't think I would have you know had the opportunity to to be exposed to otherwise nice very good and then and what are your finding so far on the on the sitter program anything interesting that you found yeah it's been interesting because I think it's difficult when you have they do hire from agencies which is expensive when you're using a third party and then also for the sitters it they're not allowed to use their phones or really do much I think they're not as engaged which gets really difficult because they might fall asleep or they might not be paying attention for a split second and a patient might try to get up and then they fall and they injur themselves so we're working on potentially getting a telesitter service however then you have to think about like if you have to get a camera on each room that's a cost that you incur maybe there's another alternative maybe we hire in-house sitters that are you know employees of Baptist and so that way I don't know we're still doing a little bit of research on that so I don't have any definite answers but it has been interesting to see like every CNO of the H each hospital has a different opinion so it's been interesting to get their opinions and then I kind of formulate my own thoughts on that as well so hopefully in the next month or so I'll have something more concrete but as of now still kind of in the research phase of exploring different options and best practices it helps us to see how kind of in depth you know with things that you get as a fellow you you're in this project and you get all these different opinions um that's really cool I think you should use uh Premed students and put them in there no but really that's very uh very interesting that's awesome um so that's great and so let's talk about that that Fort Lauderdale area you're living in the Miami area as you know you know we have the rail construction you have all kinds of Apartments coming in and a lot of people from the north are now it looks like moving into Miami especially some of the wealthier population looks like what is the area like do you enjoy living in the area what's it what's it been like for you so like I mentioned before I had never been to the Fort Lauderdale area um previously before moving there I I showed up on moving day and so that was you know I didn't really have much of an introduction but over I think I've been there almost I want to say 10 months now so I definitely feel more settled in the space I think initially being from up North I was you know you have this idea of what Miami is like and you're like I want to live in Miami and have all the fun there's like so much to do in a lot of culture and I think there's a lot that you can appreciate about it but there's I think there's also one little sliver that we see and then there's just like Miami is huge so you just have so many different people of different income levels and cultures and all kinds of stuff so it's definitely I like going into Miami but now being in Fort Lauderdale I definitely think it's a little bit quieter although there are things to do Miami is a little bit congested so I don't know that longterm I personally want to although I would move closer to be there but rent is also extremely expensive and I talk to people all the time about how they're you know people want to buy a house but it's just the Market's not really great right now because of it's just so expensive and so it's forcing a lot of locals to to try to move more up North but then like you mentioned there's a lot of people that are like very wealthy coming from up North who are moving to Miami and you know um doing their thing there but I think I I really do enjoy Fort Lauderdale because it's close enough to Miami if I ever want to go it sometimes a little inconvenient to get there because it's about like 40ish minutes give or take and depending on traffic but I would say it's slightly cheaper I wouldn't say it's you know even that much cheaper just south Florida is it's becoming very expensive to live out there is this a place where with the fellowship salary that you have to have roommates or is it an area where you have your in apartment if you know just give what that that life kind of feels like for some of the potential fellows sure so for me I do have a roommate I think that was the best decision for my like situation financially I did take a like slight pay cut to um to do the fellowship and I was willing to do that and that was something I you know knew going in so I was like prepared for that um I have a roommate now so I was totally fine doing that one of my fellows both of my other fellows are from Miami so they're more local and they understand how you know the housing works there and one of them lives in a house with a few roommates and one has their own apartment every winner is going to have a bit you know I know that in New York City as well some people can sleuth out these great apartments and then others you have to have their roommates but it's it's good to kind of give that honest take because of the hype going on in Miami right now people like the weather and everything so it's good to to show different sides of it I really appreciate that I want to ask as well for these potential fellows or even potential Maj candidates are there any pieces of advice that you feel like has been pretty transformative uh for you that you like to share yes so I think with the fellowship in general I don't know if I realize that there's a it's it's not very like structured in terms of you don't go in there and they say these are your assignments and you're going to be doing XYZ on these days and you're going to spend your time doing this it's a lot of exploring and learning what's out there and hopefully find like you do get assigned to projects but sometimes you might stumble on a project that you're interested in working on and you know you you kind of ask if you can help assist with the project or maybe some of your work is a little bit more observational it's a great opportunity to get your hands in different types of work and meet with a lot of people I think that's been amazing for me I think what was difficult at the beginning was just a lot of the unknown of like how do I spend my time very efficiently like I want to you know be very productive but sometimes I'm not sure like what I can do to be you know to contribute and uh benefit the system so there were times where I'm trying to seek out projects and I know a lot of my fellows not only only within my system but other of my classmates that are doing fellowships as well have had that inner Battle of how do you balance your time how do you feel like you can make the most of your fellowship because sometimes there isn't you know a set concrete list of things for you to do you kind of have to search for it a little bit I knew that going in but I don't think I was as mentally prepared for until you're experiencing it our system also went through a reorganization right when we started the fellowship so that was different ult too because you know people are so scared not really knowing are we going to keep our jobs how are things going to look in the future and a lot of that has settled now and every Everything has you know worked out I guess how it's supposed to work out but it was tough like a lot of these people Baptist what is really amazing about baptist is a lot of these people have worked together for 15 20 30 40 years and have stayed within a great organization and so then when you have to say goodbye to some of your co-workers and even friends it's extremely difficult and then there's three of who are new to the system kind of hopping in and not really sure like how we can be of assistance and what we can do to help during that time so there were some challenges for sure I think any Fellowship though it's like I mentioned before not having the structure is really difficult and you just have to experience it and kind of go with the flow and do the best you can but one thing they really reiterate in our fellowship is being comfortable with being uncomfortable you're going to be uncomfortable a lot of the time and that's definitely happened to me many times and you just have to kind of again go with the flow and just kind of ride the wave and everything will work out how it's supposed to and I think now I mean I don't want to speak for my co-fellows but I feel that all three of us are a little bit more settled into the role and we have a little bit more ease when it comes to navigating the fellowships just as you're nearing the end well I will say this my fellowship started at the end of July so and it ends in August and what do you do you know what you're doing after yet do you have anything lined up no not yet I'm looking into jobs this is like the time to start the job search having those conversations with other leaders seeing what opportunities are out there looking at the job boards networking I personally do want to stay within my organization I really en enjoying the people and the work they do and um I think there's a lot of great opportunities there I'm also staying open-minded you know I'm not from South Florida so I'm not tied to staying down there if I need to move I'll do that but I would like to stay at Baptist so we'll see how things work out I think you know everything will work out for how it's supposed to it's really nice to hear when fellow want to stay with their organization that that's excellent and really good advice on how you've overcome those challenges I I really appreciate that and I appreciate you coming on today as well and giving me a bit extra of your time um I hopefully we can have you on again once you get this new role in in a year or so now and you're settled into that role we'll have you back on to talk about the challenges you've overcome there I appreciate it and thank you so much for you know having me on here this has been really um great so thank you</p>