We recently spoke with Healthcare Management graduate Rachael Akshar about her new position at University of Maryland Medical Center and her experiences at Stevenson University Online.
Through the Bachelor’s to Master’s Option, I completed my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, and the following year I graduated with my master’s degree in Healthcare Management with a concentration in Quality and Patient Safety. Undoubtedly, earning both my bachelors and master’s degrees in under five years was difficult, however the hard work and dedication has set me up for tremendous success early on in my career.
Over the past year, I have been working for the University of Maryland Medical System. I currently work in their corporate offices, where I serve as a Reimbursement Data Analyst. In my position, I support system wide projects in reports, as well as individual hospital case mix, quality and total cost of care reporting and research. Within my role, my primary focus is in the support of Upper Chesapeake Health System and the University of Maryland Rehabilitation and Orthopedics Institute. While my experience has been invaluable the past year, I quickly realized that I wanted work directly within the hospital setting. By getting my foot into the door of Maryland’s largest health system, I was able to explore internal opportunities within the organization.
This past week, I have ecstatically accepted a position at the University of Maryland Medical Center downtown campus where I will serve as a Health Information Analyst in the hospital’s quality and patient safety department. In my new role, I will be working primarily with cardiovascular surgery. I will be utilizing nationwide data to help improve cardiovascular outcomes, in addition to helping physicians improve their practices.
My passion for healthcare quality has come from my graduate studies at Stevenson. The program itself is heavily based upon case studies, which help students learn based on real-life scenarios. In addition to reviewing numerous case studies, Healthcare Management faculty provide students the opportunity to write their own case studies, based upon situations that they have experienced within the work place. The opportunity to reflect on a work-place circumstance provides graduate students with the skills necessary to succeed as healthcare professionals.
The most rewarding aspect of the healthcare management profession is the ability to make an impact. While I may not be the individual who is performing the procedure or caring for the patient after surgery, my day-to-day responsibilities can impact the quality of care being provided to patients. Having the ability to help a hospital or physician improve patient outcomes and the quality of care being provided is a reward in itself.
The Healthcare Management program at Stevenson provides you with every tool needed to be successful. Each and every single professor that I had during the graduate program was approachable and went out of their way to help me succeed. The program is built for those who are willing to put in the work and if you utilize all the resources provided to you, it is impossible to fail. Dr. Buchbinder is someone that I have been able to maintain a relationship with and continue to learn from to this day.