Associate Blog | Intern Group Projects

By Kendra Beard and Naima Willis

A few weeks ago, we shared a blog post highlighting The Resource Group's Summer 2022 intern class! As mentioned, The Resource Group's interns all participate in a group project throughout the course of the Summer. This year, there were five intern group projects including: Administration Fee Analysis, Accelerate U Resource Enhancements, Participant Crosswalk Development, Purchased Services Introspection, and Now, Next, Later | 3 Priority Alignment. These group project not only provide an opportunity for collaboration but also support The Resource Group's overall business objective. Learn more about these group project and their lasting impacts below!

Accelerate U Resource Enhancements

Project Lead: Kayla Hughes
Project Team: Caden Elwell, Jacob Schmidt, Sarah Crumley, Victoria Blankenship

Accelerate U is the internal education platform for Resource Group associates. During this project interns reviewed Accelerate U course offerings to create informational materials so associates can better self-select learning opportunities that best fit their individual growth needs.

Project Milestones
  • Review all Accelerate U course offerings and benefits
  • Develop creative and well-branded deliverables for each course offering
  • Create a maintenance plan for said deliverables to ensure their effectiveness
Project Goals
  • Develop creative one-pagers summarizing each Accelerate U course offering
Skills Developed
  • Communication: Through interviews with course leads and former course attendees
  • Creative Design: Through the development of deliverables

Administration Fee Analysis

Project Lead: Traci Harper and Collin Fenton
Project Team: Caleb Watson, Jake Barkovitch, Jean-Paul Nunez, Scott Cook, Jackson Weedmark

The Administration Fee Analysis project was created to identify underreported or underpaid contract admin fees. Admin fees collected by The Resource Group are funneled right back into Participant sites for facility improvements and to drive down the cost of healthcare. The interns assigned to this project worked to identify reporting gaps and provide an analysis on improvement opportunities.

Project Milestones
  • Identify organizations with underreported admin fees
  • Conduct an analysis to determine the total missed value from underreported admin fees
  • Contact organizations with underreported admin fees for a resolution
  • Develop a process document to improve reporting accuracy for the future
Project Goals
  • Recoup missed value from underreported admin fees to support The Resource Group's purpose of sustaining the financial performance of our Participants
  • Improve the admin fees process to reduce the rate of underreported admin fees in the future
Skills Developed
  • Leadership: Through interaction with external stakeholders
  • Analytics: Through the use of Tableau and Microsoft Excel

Now, Next, Later | 3 Priorities Alignment Review

Project Leads: Abby, Lanza, Jenny Moats, Anna Miller, Poonam Sheevam, & Sydney Tracy
Project Team: Anushka Kanoongo, Bailey McElyea, Grace Floyd, Grace Mosby, Lauren Kirchberg, Louma Kaakarli, Mackenzie Ortlieb, MK Parrott, Molly McElroy, Ngozi, Ndekwu, Pooja Sigdel, Selma Mekias, Shraddha Gupta, Vikram Parmar
Assessing internal workflows and project prioritization are important activities to ensure organizations are running effectively and utilizing resources appropriately. Those working on the Now, Next, Later project evaluated current workflows and projects across the organization to assess alignment with The Resource Group's 3 Priorities and overarching business objectives. The intern's provided an objective perspective which was key in the alignment and capacity prioritization efforts.
Project Milestones
  • Lead discovery sessions with assigned Community Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to map Community-specific responsibilities and workstreams
  • Assess all responsibilities and workstreams to determine alignment with The Resource Group's 3 Priorities and business objectives
  • Develop a recommendations report based on assessment findings
Project Goals
  • Assist Communities in documenting current activities
  • Outline areas of opportunity to prioritize projects and determine where modification of workloads through project retirement or transition is appropriate consolidate and/or modify workloads
  • Improve overall business operations and resource utilization
Skills Developed
  • Project Management: Through project coordination and oversight to manage timelines
  • Critical Thinking: Through the assessment of 3 Priority alignment and other themes within Community workloads 
  • Communication/Writing: Through development of reports and presentation materials 

Participant Crosswalk

Project Leads: Ryan Nelson
Project Team: Jamar Strother, Johnny Andrade, Jose Pecina, Krutika Parvatikar, Madisyn Robinson
The healthcare industry is complicated in many ways. One of the complications is the class of trade healthcare organizations can be assigned to. Currently, there is no standardized way to define and assign a class of trade which limits the ability to analyze performance and other data points across Participant sites. In this project, interns were asked to develop a 'crosswalk' to standardize classes of trade for The Resource Group's Participant roster to improve future data needs. 
Project Milestones
  • Review current Participant roster to create initial class of trade definitions
  • Assign all Participants to a class of trade designation
  • Develop Participant map showcasing location and class of trade designations
  • Develop process for long-term maintenance and proper designation of new Participants
Project Goals
  • Standardize class of trade designations
  • Ensure current and future Participants remain in alignment with said designation
Skills Developed
  • Healthcare Structure: Through the review of all Participants and development of class of trade designations
  • Analytics: Through the use of Tableau during deliverable development

Purchased Services Introspection

Project Lead: Haylee Luedtke
Project Team: Andrew Osburn, Danielle Flieg, Dustin Meier, Jack Hummel, Kaz Hoffman, Kevin O'Donnell
Purchased Services Introspection was a project developed to share best practices for identifying savings across markets for the Purchased Services contract category. Traditionally markets identify and pursue Purchased Services savings independently, this project assessed if there are opportunities for national contracting efforts as well as create recommendations related to current Purchased Services contracting processes across markets to streamline and more effectively share knowledge and resources. 
Project Milestones
  • Map all current Purchased Service contracting processes across markets
  • Review processes and outline best practices, barriers, and areas of opportunity
  • Determine if national opportunities, both present and future state, exist
  • Develop process document to guide future state Purchased Service contracting decisions for both market flexibility and national opportunities
Project Goals
  • Standardize Purchased Services savings/contracting processes in a way that allows for local flexibility while capturing national opportunities
  • Identify common barriers/opportunities for improvement across markets
Skills Developed
  • Executive Presence: Through the facilitation of leadership level meetings across markets
  • Critical Thinking: Through the assessment of themes and key findings
  • Business Writing: Through the development of a process document inclusive of best practices