Tawny Czilok 

MHI ’17 (Healthcare Quality Improvement) 

Assistant Program Manager at Michigan Hospital Medicine Safety (HMS) Consortium 

As the Assistant Program Manager for the Michigan Hospital Medicine Safety (HMS) Consortium, I am responsible for supporting and managing our team of Quality Assurance Coordinators as well as supporting our Program Manager. HMS is a Collaborative Quality Initiative (CQI) with a goal of improving the quality of care for hospitalized medicine patients who are at risk for adverse events. We partner with over 60 hospitals in the State of Michigan to increase collaboration and provide the infrastructure needed to facilitate information sharing to support these hospitals in improving patient safety and quality of care.

Advice for getting into the information field 

Go into it with an open mind! There are so many different things that you can do in this field that what you think you might want to do at the outset might totally change after a bit of exposure to the UMSI/MHI program and their courses.

Most valuable UMSI experience 

I think that my internship was a very valuable experience in helping me switch gears from a more clinical career that I had prior to my master’s program into one that was more office-based. I also really enjoyed the real world application assignments that we did (i.e. Contextual Inquiry) because they allowed us to test ourselves in a real world environment with the "safety" of it being a learning experience in a classroom.

Best UMSI memory 

The diversity and the amount of exposure that I had to people with different backgrounds and experiences. It definitely helped to broaden my horizons and think outside the box.

Parting thoughts 

Don't be afraid to try new things! Get as much exposure as you can to different courses/class types early on so that you can tailor the rest of your program to best suit your interests.

Learn more about Tawny in her Faces of UMSI profile.