The North Shore-Long Island Jewish (NSLIJ) Health System offers a remarkable opportunity to anyone fortunate enough to participate in its well established and highly respected Administrative Fellowship program.

When assessing my desire to participate in a fellowship program, NSLIJ became the clear front-runner. Not only does it provide fellows with the flexibility to explore different interests via a large selection of rotations, but it also has a well supported program with many stakeholders who are actively engaged in helping the fellows to succeed and exceed their goals. These stakeholders include the Chief Learning Officer, Program Coordinator, preceptors, a senior leader mentor, and former fellows who are involved throughout the year. Fellows are also consistently interacting with senior Health System leaders and hospital executive directors through scheduled meet-and-greets that provide insight and advice for future career advancement.

At each rotation, fellows are directly involved in high level projects and meetings, which are focused on the development of a strategic and successful trajectory for the Health System. As a fellow I learned how to apply many of the skills I gained in graduate school and utilized them to solve challenges that a large health system like NSLIJ faces. For example, during one of my rotations I benchmarked and appraised outpatient dialysis services across our tertiary campuses to improve profitability and mitigate the impact of potential rate reductions as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) migrates to bundled rates. This project required me to understand the operations from the inside-out, as well as having a solid grasp of how finance, managed care, and quality were involved in order to ensure that the units provided an adequate standard of care for the maintenance and improvement of the health of the communities served.

This experience has undoubtedly prepared me for the challenges that the healthcare industry faces in the future and has availed me to a large network of highly talented, respected and knowledgeable healthcare leaders who I will be able to count on for support and advice as I now launch my health care career in the Office of Strategic Planning and Program Development for NSLIJ.