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Program Details
The Administrative Fellowship at Penn State Health has been designed to provide qualified young professionals with healthcare administration training in all aspects of an academic medical center.
To achieve a successful fellowship experience, fellows must not only possess innovative management tools, but also work to develop interpersonal skills. These skills, such as the ability to manage personnel and navigate complexity and ambiguity, are developed as the fellow is encouraged to test the principles learned in the classroom through experiential learning. This unique opportunity allows fellows to begin building a solid platform of leadership and project management skills that will aid them throughout their professional careers.
The fellowship experience is a combination of both project work and rotational experiences that still allow the fellow the opportunity to participate in high-level discussions/committees regarding the myriad of strategic and operational issues affecting an academic medical system. With a flexible structure, fellows could tailor their experiences around specific areas of interest in addition to the needs of the organization.
Penn State Health is committed to the growth and development of healthcare’s future leaders and consistently engages the administrative fellow in even the most confidential meetings.
Areas of opportunity for project work include, but are not limited to:
- Operations
- Strategic Planning
- Business Development
- Finance
- Quality Improvement
- Marketing and Communications
- Physician Practice Management
- Process Improvements
- Integration
There are various ways the fellow is assigned work and educational experiences. In a collaborative effort with the preceptor, the fellow will review the rotational schedule after initial meet and greets and highlight areas/projects that may be of interest. Through this collaboration, the fellow will then decide on projects to focus on while starting their rotations through more than 30 departments, service lines and leadership members.
While much of the fellowship work takes place in Penn State Health’s flagship hospital, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, the fellow will still have the opportunity to rotate through a robust ambulatory service network and other network hospitals – Hampden Medical Center, Holy Spirit Medical Center, St. Joseph Medical Center and Lancaster Medical Center.
Learn More about the Fellowship
Projects completed by past administrative fellows have included:
Business Development
- Creation of a business plan for the Eyewear Center
- Creation of a business plan for the Department of Dermatology to build sunscreen stations on campus and in the community
- Development of a centralized scheduling process and implementation plan for outpatient clinics
Operations
- Acting as Interim Operations Director for Dermatology and Ophthalmology
- Serving as project manager for an Emergency Department operations assessment
- Serving as project consultant for the development of a mass-casualty incident action plan
- Serving as project manager for the development of an algorithm to detect sepsis and severe sepsis to help to reduce treatment time and overall observed/expected mortality ratio
- Serving as project manager for a dermatology clinical trials research group
Process Improvement
- Becoming certified as an Rapid Improvement Event Leader (Kaizen)
- Participating in Six Sigma Black Belt projects
Quality
- Serving as the co-lead for Penn State Children’s Hospital Solutions for Patient Safety Readmission group
- Creating an organizational quality and safety presentation
Policy Development
- Developing an administrator-on-call reference guide as a protocol for administrators to follow during emergencies
Finance and Data Analytics
- Supporting organizational scenario-planning by collecting and analyzing institution-wide data and supporting work groups to reduce cost and enhance revenue
- Trending monthly patient transfer data to enhance bed utilization and increase collaboration with referring hospitals
- Providing recommendations for streamlining the budgeting practices for new faculty positions across departments
IT
- Configuring, training, implementing and supporting the Avantas SmartSquare scheduling system
- Conducting an IT risk assessment to determine IT security and vulnerability
HR
- Serving as project assistant for faculty recruitment process
Marketing and Communications
- Assisting with the marketing campaign for the MD Network service
- Helping to create a video to market the Penn State Rite Aid Health Alliance program
Fellowship Exchange
- Medical University of South Carolina
- Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania
- PinnacleHealth
- Lancaster Regional
Teaching
- Organizing a one-week residency experience for Penn State’s iMBA program
- Serving as guest lecturer at Penn State’s Health Policy and Administration program at University Park and in the MHA program at Penn State Harrisburg
Penn State Health is excited to announce that the 2025-2026 fellowship application cycle will be open from Sept. 1, 2024, to Oct. 15, 2024.
The following documents should be submitted at the end of your application. Applications without the following documents will not be considered.
- Resume/CV (2-page limit)
- Cover letter
- Personal statement on your interest in the Penn State Health fellowship (1 page, single-spaced)
- 3 letters of recommendation (1 faculty, 1 employer, 1 other)
- Official graduate transcript
- Unofficial undergraduate transcript
Please address letters of recommendation to the Penn State Health Administrative Fellowship Selection Committee.
Welcome to Hershey
More About Hershey
Interested in learning more about living and working in Hershey, Pa.? See details here:
Program Leadership
Don McKenna
President, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
