Healthcare is more than medicine and patient care. Physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and hospital administrators are realizing that healthcare is also a business. As a result, healthcare professionals are looking for ways to improve quality of care while lowering costs. College and universities are answering the call with business management courses geared toward medical professionals.
“Healthcare has traditionally set itself apart from other industries. It’s extremely important to take best practices from across all industries and disciplines and learn everything we can to deliver the highest quality of care more efficiently,” says Judy Smith, MD, FACS, medical director for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.
The cost of cancer care and how to best treat the disease are concerns for clinical professionals treating cancer patients. “The high cost of cancer care in general is an issue. Our pa - tients and providers have high expectations, and we have to learn how to manage the business of cancer better,” explains Smith.
She notes how cancer is treated by providers has changed. “It’s not just managing acute cancer but also longterm care.” Furthermore, the demand for cancer care is increasing because “of the aging population and the high number of cancer survivors,” adds Smith.
In an effort to improve Roswell Park’s operations and optimize patient care, Smith is one of 68 students enrolled in Harvard Business School’s Managing Healthcare Delivery executive education program. Launched in October 2009, the $22,000 nondegree program consists of three 1-week sessions over 9 months.
“More and more clinicians, particularly clinical leaders, are recognizing that a significant portion of their job is not only to deliver excellent care, but also to manage and allocate resources appropriately,” says Cara M. Sterling, director of the healthcare initiative at Harvard Business School.
“Clinicians tend to be fact-based learners who appreciate the body of knowledge related to managing people, applying information technologies, and understanding and designing management metrics, to name just a few, that business schools have to offer. The majority, however, don’t have 2 years to invest in an MBA program. This program was developed specifically for healthcare delivery professionals who want an immersive management education experience, but want to do it in the context of their current job,” explains Sterling.
Sessions cover developing effective operational models, teams, and delivery strategies; managing performance of daily operations and processes; and fostering an environment of learning and leadership. Between the modules, participants work on projects that are relevant to their organization and relate to the curriculum.
In the first session, students complete a series of exercises that are meant to encourage self-reflection and help identify areas of organizational opportunity. Participants also complete online tutorials in finance and ac - counting. In the second session, participants write a business plan for a new service line or rewrite the plan for an existing one. Faculty keep in touch with the students by sending periodic “healthcare in the news” articles, recommended readings, and surveys about specific management issues, according to Sterling.
“Managing healthcare delivery has become increasingly complex,” says Harvard Business School professor Richard Bohmer, MBChB, MPH, faculty chair of the Managing Healthcare Delivery program. “Individuals who attend this program are looking for the right balance between clinical management and science.
“If you want to run an organization more effectively, you have to design an organization that runs well,” explains Bohmer. He points out that individuals in a nonmanagerial role, such as in a practice with oncologists, also can benefit from the Harvard program. In an oncology practice, for example, staff needs to have an appreciation for baseline managerial principles to bring people together to work effectively and to get the highest quality outcomes for the practice and patients.
Managing Healthcare Delivery is not the only program available for the medical community. Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business has just started a 1-year Master of Management in Clinical Informatics degree program in partnership with the Duke Center for Health Informatics. The cost of the program is around $48,000.
The program will allow students to develop business knowledge in tandem with advanced health information technology (IT) skills. Curriculum requirements include seven management courses and five informatics courses, including a new practicum experience to be completed in a realworld setting at Duke.
Duke has a long history in business management and healthcare management programs. This new graduate program is the “intersection of those two,” according to Randy Sears, assistant director of Masters of Management in Clinical Informatics.
“IT alone is not a panacea to improve the patient experience or to impact the cost of healthcare. IT needs to be married to process improvement and organization innovation to change paradigms. Bringing this all together is our focus at Fuqua,” comments Kevin A. Schulman, MD, director of Duke’s Health Sector Management program.
At the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, students complete nine programs over 24 months to receive a certificate in Advanced Health Care Management. The university, in partnership with the Minnesota Medical Group Management As sociation, developed this educational program to help organizations prepare for the future of healthcare. The cost is $375 per program.
Program topics meet seven core competencies determined by the University of St. Thomas and the Minnesota Medical Group Management As - sociation. Core competencies include leadership, finance, operations, marketing, IT, human resources, and care delivery and policy. Participants will be educated on new ideas, strategies, and tools to improve their organization; learn theory and participate in experiential instruction that will provide the tools to integrate knowledge learned into organizations’ operations; gain education and exposure to ideas and concepts beyond what healthcare professionals experience in their daily role; and network with other healthcare professionals.
Vanderbilt University’s Owen Grad - uate School of Management graduated its first Master of Management in Health Care class in September 2009. The 1-year, part-time, 30-credit-hour degree program targets physicians, nurses, and other clinical professionals. The program cost for the 2008-2009 academic year was $43,000, according to the university’s website.
The program is organized into three main components: core general business classes, healthcare-focused business classes, and a yearlong team strategy project. Specific courses include managerial economics, services marketing, managerial accounting, finance, operations, and healthcare leadership.