Public Health Internship (Summer Stipend Eligible)

Public Health Internship (Summer Stipend Eligible)

Houston Methodist is one of the nation's leading health systems and academic medical centers. Houston Methodist consists of nine hospitals: Houston Methodist Hospital, its flagship academic hospital in the heart of the Texas Medical Center, and eight community hospitals throughout the greater Houston area. Houston Methodist also includes an academic institute, a comprehensive residency program, a global business division, numerous physician practices and several free-standing emergency rooms and outpatient facilities. 

As a non-profit hospital system, Houston Methodist’s service extends beyond the hospital walls. This community commitment is demonstrated through the Community Benefits Department. Established in 1993, the Community Benefits Department focuses on providing access to high quality, affordable health care services to indigent populations across Greater Houston while ensuring health equity for racial, ethnic and social minorities. In recent years, Houston Methodist contributed more than $1.5 billion annually in charity care and community benefits support. The department partners with over 80 local non-profits, charity clinics, and Federally Qualified Health Centers via the department’s grants programs, in-kind services, specialty care partnerships, volunteer programs, and community engagement events. The department is also responsible for community health needs assessments across the hospital system, as well as determining the system’s health care priorities and creating plans for addressing these priorities. The current heath care priorities for the hospitals include: access to primary care services to prevent chronic disease, access to specialty care services, reducing barriers to accessing mental health care including treatment for substance abuse disorders, and promoting healthy living behaviors to reduce the likelihood of chronic disease development. 

The Community Benefits Department seeks a public health graduate intern to support the department’s programs and assist with community health needs assessments across the hospital system during Summer 2025. Graduate interns will receive stipends while they complete the internship. Stipends are paid monthly and are based on the number of hours per week the graduate intern is working. We ask that interns commit to a minimum of 25 hours per week, and graduate interns can work up to 40 hours per week.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Contributes to the department’s governmental reporting requirements including state hospital reports and the annual community health needs assessments and implementation plans.
• Helps track and consolidate community benefits data across the hospital system
• Updates and contributes to the department’s community health needs assessments including research, surveys with community members/patients, and focus conversations with regional experts. Provides current information to the department and leadership on emerging community health needs throughout the year.
• Assists with program evaluation of the department’s key program areas: community grants, ICARE In Action (volunteer program), closed-loop referral system for community resource referrals, breast cancer screening initiative, and in-kind specialty care programs.
• Supports the tracking and analysis of incoming data from community surveys, research studies, and public data sources.
• Provides day to day assistance to programs as needed.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Current student or recent graduate (1-2 years) of a Masters in Public Health or Masters in Hospital Administration program
• Strong research skills
• Expertise in Excel; experience utilizing survey software and Tableau
• Strong interest in working on projects that serve the underinsured and uninsured populations.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to write, edit and proofread written materials.
• Ability to coordinate and prioritize multiple projects simultaneously

WORK REQUIREMENTS

The Houston Methodist Community Benefits Department works a hybrid schedule which requires some days in office at the Houston Methodist Hospital in the medical center. Summer interns will be required to also have a hybrid schedule. We are asking for interns to commit to a minimum of 25 hours per week in the Summer, with a proposed start date of May 27th.