The UCHealth Administrative Fellowship: Ben Akoa

<p>hello everyone this is Cole from the American Journal of healthc care strategy joined by a special guest this evening Ben akoa Ben please introduce yourself hey nice to meet all of you my name is Ben um I'm an administrator fellow at UC Health in Denver Colorado I grew up in uh Maine and also in uh Northeast Ohio and Cleveland and I've been out about a year [Music] kind of a great variety of uh of locations all over the place all over the place we're hitting States everywhere it's excellent I have not been to the Midwest and and so I one of the reason I like doing these interviews is because I get to learn so much about kind of the area I've I've never been you started in Maine you then went and got I believe a bachelor's in in public health before getting your mha what started off in into the healthcare realm yeah so I um was a uh Public Health student for undergrad I was able to work with my health department when I was in high school um so going into undergrad I really wanted to focus on supporting people in my community so I was a sociology and public health major and then uh before I graduated from undergrad I worked with my health department and uh we were the county that's just west of uh of Cleveland um so I had really a lot of great experiences working with um not just our health departments but leaders in the community as well as um Health Systems as well um so going on from that path um I found out a little bit more about the mha programs and the opportunities to not just uh work in the preventive side but also working in the treatment side so I think one of the great things about being in a health system is that you can do a lot of those Public Health initiatives as well um so for me that was one of the biggest things is being able to affect people in more than just one way so that was that was really important for me excellent very nice and then I noticed on the resume something that was interesting and is it's that construction work that you did during your undergrad how how did you come across that yeah so my family um they're uh contractors so um something that I was uh really interested in doing early on was going into construction so when I was a kid when I was in Middle School when I was in elementary school I always wanted to uh be the guy in Crane or be in some of the big lifts I always thought that was really cool so um for me it was a way for me to still connect with my family and still work um so I think a lot of my experiences in construction shaped me into who I am and I'm very fortunate for them I'm excited to talk about that too later on how uh some of the experiences have have shaped you and and so you went you ended up going to Cornell right which is an ivy league university people really like Cornell uh and so what was the reason for choosing that school how did that come up on your radar yeah so I think um one of the biggest things for me was when I was looking for schools I always wanted to reach out to current students and former um students as well so just through talking to a lot of people that went to the slom program um it was a great sense of camaraderie and just friendship and I think that for me that was really important because wherever I wanted to go uh I wanted to be a contributing member after I graduated and be an alumni that would reach out to students or they would be able to reach out to me and ask any questions so that's where it started for me and then one of the big themes I think when uh talking to people who go to SL is the opportunity to take classes in different colleges outside of what's required for us so I think that's a really big draw is being able to um take classes with the business students take classes with um our labor labor relations students um you can really take classes anywhere and they want you to do that they want you to um expand your Horizon and uh Healthcare is so intricate and you can learn a lot of things from um not just taking those mha classes so for me that was a really big draw as being able to um expand just the knowledge that I had so that was that was a big thing for me yeah so I guess I'm I'm really intrigued by that because I I was not aware of that at all about Cornell and so uh it was that program at Ithaca or was that in the New York City area yeah so it's in Ithaca um so all the residential students are in Ithaca and it's a two-year program um similar to most mha structures and then we also have the executive mha program as well so we had some over AP in some classes um I believe it was typically for the EMAs they had five years of work experience um but they were another great resource and another draw for me was being able to connect with some of them as well and so I guess I'm really interested in that that piece of the being able to take courses elsewhere because I I assume that that's not that common right in for mha programs and so how do you feel like that kind of benefited you further because it seems like a lot of what you've done has shaped you into being a well grounded individual you don't seem like an individual with one's you know Ultra specific Focus right how did that benefit you long term so I think one of the biggest things um especially when um just thinking of like the being a well-rounded individual when it comes to what you can bring to your fellowship your work Consulting wherever you're in um is you get to work with different people too I think a big part of grad school is a lot of group projects so that was a big thing for me too is knowing that I'll be in big group projects and um students that are outside my program I think if I had any advice for anyone going back to an mha program is um trying to work with students who are in other Majors if it's mphs if it's mpas I think um you could definitely learn a lot and I think we have a lot of overlap in our careers so I think um that was a big thing for me I wish I maybe took more of an advantage of that um but yeah I was it's a great opportunity I think appreciate you sharing that that's uh very good advice and and something that I've been trying to seek out as well so I do encourage it I I recently worked with somebody who's majoring in uh a cannabis business that's what our university offers and so being able to work with them and hear their ideas that I never would have been exposed to otherwise was very great so I appreciate you sharing that yeah of course and then during the program right you you had the internship opportunity and you went to kind of another large name institution Cleveland Clinic for that internship of course back in Ohio where you're familiar with so how did you end up going to Cleveland Clinic was that something that you targeted yeah it was something that I targeted being from Cleveland it was a really unique opportunity I was the patient of Cleveland Clinic so the chance to be able to go back and help uh support people in the community and learn more about uh just how they became such a great organization how they still are able to affect so many lives in not just Northeast Ohio but across um the country so for me it was a big thing to be able to come back again to uh my community that I lived in and um even during my previous internship for my health department we had some overlap with Cleveland Clinic um whether it was smaller counties that would meet um or cities that would meet they' bring leaders so they would bring a a leader from uh the president of Avon the Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital so I was able to meet her when I was uh oh maybe when I was a senior or a junior so that was a unique opportunity so I think um anytime I think you get the chance to go back and serve the people that are where you're from is really is a really great opportunity so that was that was important for me how did the applications for the internship compare with the applications for the fellowship was it equally as challenging less challenging uh I would say um challenging in their own ways I I would say that maybe fellowships are a little bit more challenging because of the it's it's more time intensive but I think um intensive but I think um one of the challenging things about the internship uh process is it's right as you start your program um you're really interviewing and looking at places your first two months so I think W trying to understand what part of healthcare you want to be in um whether it's a hospital whether it's for a tech company whether it's for a Pharma company I think that's one of the most challenging things so um I think whenever I just think about looking back about what the interview process was like an application process I think the biggest challenge is um trying to figure out where you want to be but then also remember it's only going to be 12 weeks but you've also only been at school for you know a month or two so I think um it's juggling the things outside of just that that make it challenging um compared to the fellowship where you've at least at a minimum had that first year you know the people that you go to school with you hopefully by then have a good uh friend base and people that can support you that understand what it's like to apply to a fellowship Etc um and then you get at least that uh 10 to 12 week internship that allows you to see a little bit more of your health a health system at least um or you know wherever you end up doing an internship so I think um differences in that aspect but then the fellowship applications are a little bit more you know it takes a little bit more time kind of flows into my next question in terms of knowing where you wanted to be in healthc care we've we've seen a trend where a lot of students from some of the top mha programs you know gwu John's Hopkins Cornell uh they go into industry they go into Consulting instead of doing a fellowship they find some great success there why did you not do that why were you on to kind of the community health working you know really trying to to bolster these communities and then end up doing the fellowship how did you discover them yeah so I think it all starts back with um I think we're we all are focused on our why and why we get into Healthcare and why we work with hospitals I think for me going back to working at a health department and I think it's really unique to understand the needs of a smaller Community or a bigger community and just the ways that you're able to affect them so for me um I wanted to work for a health system that had a smaller community hospital and multiple ones in different areas um and I think what's unique about Denver and Colorado in general is that we have a really large growing population of young people um so it's really interesting to see how and older people as well different ages really um so it's really unique to be in a community that's growing um especially in in this setting so that was the big thing for me is kind of going back to you know being in public health and being in uh a health department in a smaller setting and then taking what I learned maybe parts of that combining with my mha and then bringing that to Community Hospital how many fellowships did you you know apply for initially I want to say I applied for 10 it was somewhere around eight or 10 was like what I um applied for I think that was like a sweet spot I think um it can be a little challenging doing more than that I think when you're able to do 8 to 10 you're really able to dive in and learn more about organizations I think um I was just getting to learn more about um uh just the different fellows who finished or the ones that were currently going through the fellowship process so um yeah that that was that was really important for me I think how you know I guess it's it's interesting because you you had a good application right so you had a lot of choices that you were able to do you also had this kind of unique aspect where you'd been on the East Coast you'd been in the Midwest you had a lot of opportunities geographically how did you go about ranking these fellowships that's something that I know a lot of students struggle with yeah I think um one of the biggest things is just trying to understand um just where that health system is going maybe what their their needs are I think um a big thing for me was knowing that my apply for UC Health um UC Health is a young organization it's uh 12 years old but it's also um the largest health system in Colorado and I knew that um being somewhere there's a new health system that's really unique so for me I ranked that up very high just because it's Unique opportunity I think there's a lot of great health systems like for example um UC San Francisco has a children's hospital and they have an adult hospital so doing a fellowship there was really unique where you could have the opportunity to work at both so I think it's those opportunities like that that make fellowships different from others is something that I think is um really important when comes to ranking them and then above everything else is making sure that the people that you're meeting and that you're talking to those are people that you can see as your support system and people that you think will really support you and where you want to go throughout uh your career very good advice uh thank you for sharing that and you of course ended up going with UC Health you've been there for quite a while I think right you're nearing the end of your fellowship yeah yeah nearing the end I've been here for a little over a year so it's it's been it's been quite a bit of time now what is what is that Fellowship like is it you know is it rotational based Project based a mix of both yeah so it's a mix of both um so during my time as a fellow I was at one of our rotation based fellowships so that was important for me I think during my internship I I was only in imaging so um I really wanted to be able to learn more about the other aspects of the hospital and a pattern that was structured so knowing that I could go see Ortho I could go see work with nursing I could work with strategy work with these other areas I think that was um that was really important for me um so I have a rotation based structure that was something that I I wanted um and uh some of our other locations were project and rotation based going forward to next year uh we're doing a mix of both rotations and projects based on what your experience is and then the second year is comprised of an in room rle so we're really excited to roll out that new uh structure and we're we're uh pushing all of our fires out right now and talking to school so it's it's been it's been great that's awesome were you involved in in creating that new way of doing things yeah so me and my uh my co-fellows um and we have um some other folks that are interested people that really want to grow the fellowship and grow leaders so it was really unique being able to see those changes um we have a lot of great preceptors I would say there was a group of at least six seven or eight people that were able to work on this it's a lot of work but it's for a good cause I think when you have people that are passionate about you know that any change that happens is for um the growth of people and um because it won't benefit me but I know it's going to benefit someone else after me so um that was kind of the mentality that we have is that whatever change we do do it's for the betterment of our fellowship and then the leaders that we hope to produce uh moving forward absolutely and and how many co-fellows do you have in your year yes so I have four other co-fellows um we have uh we have uh there's three other fellows in Denver and then we have uh one in Fort Collins and then we also have a fellowship in the southern region which is in Colorado Springs um so we have a pretty big group and um I think something else that's really important I think is um for those that do want to have uh an automatic group of people that you can always just find some type of um uh friendship or whatever you really need I think going to a cohort model is a great opportunity for that yeah I know that I've seen that some individuals have enjoyed kind of the the solitary fellowships because it provides such huge amounts of work and opportunity but I do know that a lot of people have really enjoyed having four eight 10 fellows across some of these really large systems uh so I I appreciate you sharing that as well because that's something to to knowe right when you're applying did you did you factor that into your your applications and you're looking at different programs yeah I think most of the fellowships I apply to they had cohorts and I think you know one of the great things about a fellowship is you're able to grow your network and I think especially for the fellowships that you're able to get projects in different areas from your co-fellows um I think you can kind of have that mentality of there is an abundance of work there's no fighting for projects or anything so for us especially I think we're all in different hospitals different regions so it's never competition it's always the mindset of it's there's an abundance of things that we can do and I think for me that was also really important that's a good way to structure it you get to have that collaboration but also enough separation where you're not yeah and so I think on that note as well what what are some of these outcomes like because it's a new health system and so some of what people are concerned with with some of the new systems is that they don't know how to have a fellowship yeah right they treat them like an intern or whatnot so so how is it established there so I think one of the big things that we did going into our fellowship was even before I got there I would say in January we started having conversations of what I wanted my rotation structure to be like and I think that really helped me understand the layout of the organization where there's opportunities for me to grow and where there's growth even within the hospital um or surgery center Whatever May uh pop up so um starting in January we talked about you know this is a proposed schedule of what you could be doing how do you feel about this where are your interests and then where can we change things to make sure they're align with where you want to be in your career I think that was really big thing and then again I had a lot of great former fellows that were before me that I could really lean on for support and I still do to this day I work with a lot of them still so I think um being able to be in a place that's thoughtful about where you're going to be um and placing you in those positions where you're going to be forced to grow um but also be where the growth is at because a lot of times those things do overlap I think that was an important thing for us is that we're we try to be as intentional as possible but where we place people in the projects that we give them um we have uh we have a charter of projects that you get so if you were my director and you want to or a director and you want to propose a project you would have to fill out a form and then we take that form we take it to our preceptor we get approval and then we discuss the the plans for if a project goes x amount of time is there someone else that will take it on or will you be the one that still stays on it so I think doing those small things I think really just gives you that structure of um I know what to expect and I know what others will expect of me I know that you're proud of everything that you've done there of course but is there anything that you're especially proud of that you really like to talk about that you've done um if there's anything that I've really I would say um a really unique opportunity that I had was uh in the middle of my fellowship we brought on a new anesthesia group and that was a really unique um time frame for us there was a lot of legislations going on in Colorado with the attorney general they were um disbanding some anesthesia groups so there was a lot of change going on in the environment um so I think uh being able to help project manage the transition plans of um we're getting a new group these are the groups that we're reaching out to to see if they're interested we had local and National groups we got to interview them um actually starting July 1 that one of the new groups started at Surgery Center then our next group will start uh October 1st um so being one of the Liaisons um that supports the hospital the Physicians the nurses or CRNA supporting a lot of people I think is unique to learn the pain points of um each group because everyone's very different orthos needs are very different than the needs of our OB group the needs of um our spine surgeons the needs of so many different areas so I think that was a project that I was fortunate enough to get at a good point in my fellowship and um yeah I'm very grateful for that opportunity must be great to see it come to fruition with with them joining in in July yeah yeah it it it was pretty cool um it's been a week now um and then now we're transitioning over to our hospital and making that really our main focus so um we try to make sure that the new group can be as available as possible before we start um that uh October 1 start and uh making sure we have all the touch points all the questions that they may have are there um and we were able to bring them in um so we had a lot of town halls we had a lot of uh they would bring breakfast to the staff early on in the morning um before they would go off to the or and they would meet them that way um so it was it was a really unique opportunity so kind of one of the last questions here what do you think the future holds for you what what are the areas that you're you're really looking into yeah I'm really looking into um working with different service lines and I also really like support Services I think those are some of the um main things that you know of course they keep the hospital running but I think Support Services kind of behind the scenes at times um so that's something that I think I'd really like to just learn more about and um continue to maybe grow my learning of what it's like to work in support services so I think that's big for me and I'm really interested in the the changes that will be happening for asc's and the shift from inpatient to outpatient settings and uh those are the two things that I really think will um be in my in my site hopefully in the future oh nice very cool and can you just give us a brief rundown of what support services are yeah so uh yeah we like to think of Support Services as all those non-clinical aspects of the hospital so that could be your um that could be the EVS team that's food nutrition that's fending that's your contractors parking you know hospitals that are involved in sustainability typically that could be under under that umbrella um but really the nonclinical aspects that really keep the hospital running behind the scenes EXC I've heard that quite a few of those are quite complicated from what I've understood oh every yeah yeah they do a lot of um they do a lot of great work and um it's really important to have good people I think as those Frontline staff for Support Services because at the end of the day without cleaning the hospital providing food for for not just your um the patients but also the staff um uh I think it's a really key part of uh keeping a hospital running in good shape really appreciate you giving us that that great rundown of the fellowship and and kind of answering All Those Questions how does your previous experiences right especially thinking back the experiences of con you know working in construction how do you find that useful in your kind of day-to-day work yeah I think um you know something that's really important especially in healthcare is that when you're working with people from all kinds of different walks of life different ages from different places I think um knowing how toet people where they are I think that's something that's really important for me when I was um an underc I worked in construction I got to meet and work with a lot of different people and I think that's something that I always thought of is being thoughtful in how I communicate to them making sure I'm effective in how I communicate to them and um trying to meet them where you are I think something might make sense to me but maybe doesn't make sense to you so making sure that I can really get to where I need to be and making sure you understand why I would ask a question or why I would do something I think especially in healthcare we're making a lot of changes um making sure people understand why we do things It's always important and I think leading with your why is something that we always try to do at UC Health whenever we make decisions is um do things first for the patient and then make sure that people know why we make these changes very good thank you so much for for that uh advice Ben and sharing everything I hope that we can have you back on as you become you know an EVS leader or you know whatnot so thank you so much for coming on yeah absolutely and I appreciate you having me</p>