During the summer semester I took on accomplishing my capstone. I chose to do it with my current employer, the Froedtert Health HIM department. Froedtert Health comprises of many different locations with various HIM functions, for my capstone I worked with Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, Froedtert Menomonee Falls Hospital, Froedtert Hartford Health Center, as well as Froedtert remote locations.

When working with the Froedtert HIM site supervisors, we brainstormed together which areas of HIM caught my attention for a capstone project. I chose to have a comprehensive experience in which I worked with many areas and worked on multiple small projects and shadowing experiences. Being able to have a capstone experience in this way allowed me to gain a great understanding of what career paths I am interested in pursuing. This was very helpful for me because I was unsure about my post-graduation career path still.

The Froedtert HIM department has a vast amount of career opportunities. In my capstone experience I was able to work with the HIM Release of Information (ROI) employees, project coordinator and their manager; the HIM Record Completion team; the HIM Data Integrity team; the other HIM project coordinators; Cancer Registry; the HIM Coding team; and the Clinical Informatics Provider Education Team (Propel). This made for a truly comprehensive experience.

I have absolutely enjoyed the HIMT program. As a current HIM employee at a major healthcare organization I can happily say that completion of this degree is going to open so many more doors for me. I have learned so much valuable education and the capstone was the perfect way to start my new career path.