Photo Credit: Gesrey
Physician MBA programs enable doctors to enact change in healthcare industry policies and improve their performance by making educated business decisions.
Many doctors aim to increase avenues down which healthcare can mutually benefit both patients and physicians. According to the OneAmerica Foundation Endowed Chair at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, Amrou Awaysheh, PhD, MBA, enrolling in physician-specific MBA programs can help achieve that goal. Physicians who do so are better equipped to make educated business decisions. Awaysheh emphasizes that while doctors learn how to care for patients via medical school training, physician-geared MBA programs like the Kelley Physician MBA program teach doctors the business of medicine. Providing them with various business and management tools, physician-focused MBA programs enable doctors to enact change in healthcare industry policies and improve their performance.
Nonetheless, enrolling in a physician-focused MBA program is not the right path for all doctors. According to Awaysheh, a physician-focused MBA program is best suited for those passionate about affecting major changes in the healthcare industry, both for patients and medical professionals. Modern healthcare is progressing in many ways, and physicians who are educated in the business of medicine can have a front-row seat at the table of change. Students learn more about non-clinical areas of healthcare, which keep the industry running, such as market dynamics and government regulations. MBA-trained physicians also gain new financial skills that play a huge role in tying decisions and organizational outcomes together.
As a result, doctors graduate from physician-geared MBA programs armed with the strategies needed to put training into practice. For example, Awaysheh’s students must examine a problem within their medical organization to find an end solution and how they can alter the present structure to meet that goal. One team of students identified a problem where a three-hospital system needed major changes in its operating rooms. Changing the current setup allowed doctors to save $90 million.
Typical executive MBA programs do not offer such learning experiences. According to Awaysheh, programs like his differ from executive MBA programs from the start, as they only accept MDs or DOs who are three years post-residency. While Awaysheh teaches essential business and leadership ideas, they are all delivered from a healthcare point of view. What’s more, students have the added benefit of learning from a peer group solely comprised of fellow physicians.
Given that all students at the Kelley School MBA program are practicing physicians, the program designers considered how to balance clinical work with MBA program requirements. Awaysheh notes that the Kelley School offers a hybrid program in which students can have a few weeks of online communication with professors, followed by a three-day intensive in-person residency period during which students apply what they had been learning in the weeks prior. This also provides students with the opportunity to network with peers in person. Awaysheh points out that it amounts to missing clinical practice only 3 days out of every 3 months. Awaysheh adds that online content is conveniently disseminated in the evening and, thus, does not interfere with physicians’ day jobs.
Alumni from the Kelley School MBA program have impacted their respective healthcare organizations. Awaysheh notes, for instance, that one graduate used information learned in leadership courses to reconfigure his urology clinic. By employing his newly acquired knowledge of operations process improvement, this physician implemented changes that significantly lessened the elapsed time for a popular procedure from 102 minutes to 29 minutes. In turn, his organization grew in efficiency and experienced greater revenue, increasing patient satisfaction.
