What 3,000 Patient Calls Taught Me About Healthcare
Providence, RI, much like Philadelphia, is home to an Ivy League institution that oversees its primary healthcare provider: Brown University. Through Brown University Health, the system serves 1.5 million people across Providence, greater Rhode Island, and Southeastern Massachusetts. While this region is small enough for one major system to handle much of the market, its population is remarkably diverse.
Brown University Health serves a large portion of the area’s low-income and multilingual patients. Its largest facilities are located in Providence, where 20.7% of residents live in poverty, 38.5% speak Spanish, and 13% of households are linguistically isolated. Outside of Providence, it serves the varied geographical and socioeconomic levels that span other urban, suburban, and rural communities. In a region this diverse, a one-size-fits-all healthcare model can fall short. Recognizing this gap, Brown University Health operates the Community Health Institute in collaboration with its six hospitals. Its mission is to reduce health disparities and expand access to high-quality, equitable care.
This past summer, I returned home to support that mission through the Wharton Summer Internship Award. As a student in the Huntsman Program, I am particularly interested in people-centered business models; and, the Institute sits at the intersection of business strategy and public health. I worked on four projects, contacting over 3,000 patients over the course of ten weeks. Of the projects I worked on, one stood out the most: prevention calling.
I spent a third of my internship calling patients for one of three reasons: to remind them to complete colorectal cancer screening kits; to follow up from in-person screenings; or, to refer them to free clinics around Rhode Island. While it started feeling repetitive by week three, the human interaction behind it was invaluable. I was speaking directly to my community. Occasionally, a person I grew up with would appear on my call list.
Every call represented a real life on the other end of the line. Multiple people shared their struggle with a recent family loss. One person told me they recently became homeless and were struggling to meet their basic needs. A mother, around my age, shared that she had not gotten in contact with a free clinic because she only spoke Spanish and was worried she would be turned away.
These interactions consistently reinforced a core lesson: in healthcare, you must meet people where they are.
While I conducted data analysis on projects and drafted an executive proposal for a new collaboration, the patient interactions taught me the most. Behind every organizational decision is a patient with a unique set of circumstances, experiences, and understanding of their own health. It is important to recognize a patient’s real life, culture, and current health status, to acknowledge their pain, and to take steps to support them.
Beyond the lessons I learned, I was grateful to work alongside a deeply supportive and forward-thinking team. The Vice President of the Institute, a recent Yale MBA graduate, spoke with me about the growing necessity for leaders who possess a dual business and health background. As an aspiring healthcare executive, this summer fundamentally reshaped my perspective on the sector. I realized that building better systems requires understanding the people they are designed to serve.