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Final Project White Paper
“Journey Connections”
Katherine Helberg
HSA 4850
08/07/2015

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For the Summer 2015 term at UCF, I completed my Health Services Administration
Internship at Florida Hospital Orlando’s Cancer Institute. I interned in the Cancer Resource
Library as well as with the Breast Cancer Tumor Board. My internship project was to assist the
Social Workers in getting a web-based database to a point in which it could be used on a regular
basis to assist in patient care.
This database is called “Journey Connections.” When I came to the Cancer Institute, it
was already set up but was not at a point in which it could be used. Journey Connections is a
resource used by hospitals to gather and organize resources available to patients. Hospitals are
able to input resources in their local area as well as national resources and resources that are
available online. Only the resources that have been input by the hospital will be shown to that
particular organization. The resources are organized by type into categories such as accessories,
financial assistance, physical well-being, etc. The social workers are able to meet with a patient,
gauge what resources they may need or be interested in, and go into Journey Connections and
select the relevant resources. They can then print all of the resource information for the patient to
take with them. The process that was employed prior to the use of Journey Connections was to
search online for resources close to where the patient lives. This process could take a while and
took time away from assisting patients.
The Journey Connections project was brought to me by Social Workers who had a hope
of getting it to a point in which they could use it regularly and cut down on time when looking
for resources for patients. The social workers at Florida Hospital Orlando’s Cancer Institute
strive to assist their patients with whatever need they may have while facing their illness. They
came to the realization that the way in which they were searching for resources was simply
inefficient. The majority of the time, resources that may be useful to patients are provided by
outside organizations. Hospitals cannot render all services that a patient may need, such as
transportation to treatment, at-home assistance, or financial assistance. This means that social
workers are often looking to outside resources to assist their patients and without some form of
organization for all of the available resources, it is difficult to gather all of the relevant
information in a quick manner. Journey Connections allows social workers to input a zip code or
city and select categories of resources that a patient inquires about and then print out whatever
resources they deem relevant. This process is quick and easy and allows social workers to focus
more on their patients and also cuts down on time, allowing them to possibly see more patients in
the same amount of time.
My job for this project was to go through all of the resources that were given to me by the
social workers and vet them for correct contact information as well as to inquire about any
discounts each organization may offer cancer patients and their families. This project was
significant to me in that I was able to provide the hospital with a better way of assisting in patient
care. Journey Connections has the potential to assist numerous patients and to ease the burden or
stress they may be feeling as they face their illness.
As the Journey Connections project was time consuming and involved a great deal of
attention, it was not completed until the very end of my internship. Therefore, I was unable to
determine how it has impacted the hospital. However, I am able to predict that by the simple act
of implementing this source into the daily routine of patient care within the Cancer Institute,
patient care will be greatly impacted. As I was vetting all of the resources that were provided to
me by the social workers, I came across numerous resources that were now out of business or
had broken down into smaller organizations. Social workers may have been providing their
patients with these resources without realizing that they would be of no use to them. By vetting

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all of the resources and adding others that were not already on the list, social workers are now
able to provide their patients with an up-to-date list of resources that will be of use to them.
Journey Connections is an ongoing source as resources can be added as they are discovered or
deleted as they go out of business. This means that Journey Connections can continue to be
useful for years to come and will not become an outdated source that will become irrelevant. It is
also the hope of the social workers at Orlando’s Cancer Institute that it will become accessible to
all of the other Florida Hospital locations in the near future so that they too have access to local
and national resources to provide to their patients. By implementing Journey Connections at
Orlando, this makes it easier to showcase the efficiency and effectiveness of this source.
While working on this project throughout my internship, I was able to apply two
competencies: Information management as well as Quality improvement. Journey Connections
required the acquisition of a significant amount of information on local and national businesses.
In order to make Journey Connections useful, it was important to acquire current addresses,
phone numbers, websites, and hours of business. All of this information was organized into an
Excel spreadsheet and sorted by type. It was then vetted and input into Journey Connections by
type. As Journey Connections is a fluid and ever changing source, as more information is
gathered on new resources, they will be input into the system as well. When I arrived in the early
summer at Florida Hospital, Journey Connections was already set up for that site but it was not
being used as it was not up-to-date. By vetting and gathering resources, it is now available to be
used by social workers as it now contains all of the resources they were previously using as well
as some they may not have been aware of. By using Journey Connections instead of performing
a new search for each patient, time spent on gathering resources can be drastically diminished.
This allows social workers to spend more one-on-one time with their patients and focus on their
needs. This improves the quality of care provided to patients as they are being given the attention
they deserve and less time is being spent on a computer.
My internship consisted of two very distinct parts. My internship took part in the Cancer
Resource Library where patient education is the main priority. I assisted in maintaining stock of
patient education materials, assisted patients in finding resources relevant to them and their
illness, assisted in small office tasks, and worked on my Journey Connections project. This
aspect of my internship was significant in that I was able to assist patients in finding educational
materials that could potentially help them and their loved ones in their time of need. I was
fortunate enough to assist a number of patients and their families find resources that would ease
their minds and give them more information than could be provided in a short visit with their
physician. This experience was especially heart-warming as well as emotional as I was invited
into what could only be the most difficult time in a person’s life.
The other aspect of my internship was my participation in the weekly Breast Cancer
Conferences. I was able to assist in setting up and preparing for the Tumor Board meetings and
welcomed all clinical employees. My assistance allowed the Tumor Board Director to focus her
efforts on preparing for the teleconference between all of the other Florida Hospital campuses
that took part in the meetings. I was able to watch each meeting and this allowed me to get a
better idea of how cancer patients were treated. This experience was eye opening for me as I
have learned an extraordinary amount from observing and hearing about numerous and varied
cases. This internship solidified my interest in the health care field and allowed me contribute in
a very meaningful way to one of the most prestigious hospitals in Central Florida.