Physicians have a lot on their plates on any given workday. They’re examining and counseling patients; prescribing medications; ordering, performing and interpreting diagnostic tests; and updating electronic health records in the process. Independent private practice doctors may have to squeeze in time for management, marketing, billing and bookkeeping tasks as well. And almost all practitioners have to complete dozens to hundreds of CME hours every two years, depending on the state they are licensed in, to maintain their accreditations. Given all of these pressures, why are so many doctors heading back to the classroom to prepare to take on even more? We talked to several experts –from physician coaches to program directors and graduates—about the growing trend of physicians earning a Master of Business Administration. From Leadership to Entrepreneurship, the Reasons to Earn an MBA Vary “There are many reasons a physician might decide to go for an MBA,” says Jacqueline Huntly, M.D., MPH and certified physician development coach. “Maybe they’ve always had an interest in business and want to get more proficient at it so that they can manage their practice more effectively. Others might want to bring a business perspective to some of the problems that we currently have in medicine. Having an M.D. and an MBA can also open up opportunities in consulting and accounting organizations that are involved in healthcare. And for physicians with an entrepreneurial spirit, or who want to be involved in innovation, getting an MBA can help them develop the right mindset to go into a startup or something like that.” Michael Broscio, career resource center director at the American College of Healthcare Executives, sees the trend as an extension of more physicians moving into management. “There has been a gradual increase in physicians running hospitals and healthcare organizations,” he explains. “Clearly that’s a direction the industry is headed, but what’s missing from most physicians’ training is an understanding of that business side of healthcare. Pursuing an MBA or an MHA, which is a Master of Healthcare Administration, is the quickest way to gain that business knowledge in an efficient manner.” William Brady, physician, health economist and coach, agrees that leadership and entrepreneurial desires are often the driving force behind a physician’s decision to pursue an MBA. “Most of the physicians I have worked with over the years with MBA degrees have entered management-level positions, from lead physician to CEO,” he says. “Others have started businesses as entrepreneurs, some have entered government leadership positions, and others have used the information for their personal financial planning as well as serving others as a financial advisor.” Physician-Only MBA Programs Offer Practicing Doctors a Convenient Education Option One prominent healthcare MBA program is found at Indiana University Kelley School of Business. The Business of Medicine Physician MBA was specifically designed for and exclusively admits physicians. Launched in 2013, the program is a 21-month hybrid combining online coursework with monthly weekend sessions in Indianapolis that allow participants from all over the country to continue working full-time as physicians while enrolled. “We’ve had a long history of being at the intersection of business and medicine,” says Susannah Gawor, program director. “In fact, we’ve been doing programs for the Indiana University School of Medicine and their faculty for more than 20 years. As we saw the changes that were happening in healthcare since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the acquisition of physician groups by healthcare systems, we recognized a need for more physician leadership. That’s really our mission: to create change agents of physician–leaders so that they can create the industry of tomorrow. An industry that’s focused on patient experience and outcomes but also recognizes cost and need for efficiency.” Other schools offering physician-only MBA programs include Auburn University, Brandeis University and the University of Tennessee. However, Gawor says Indiana University’s physician MBA program is noticeably different from the others. “We interviewed over 150 different executives, practitioners, leaders and others in the sphere of healthcare to determine what should be in our curriculum, and we offer courses that you won’t find elsewhere,” she explains. “For example, we teach physicians to understand consumer healthcare behavior. We offer a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt so that every one of our physicians has the basics to understand how you drive a more efficient process. We take our physicians to Washington, D.C. and do an immersion in healthcare policy. We also look at healthcare systems outside the U.S. and what we can learn from them. It’s a very distinctive curriculum taught by faculty who are true experts in the business of medicine.” Gawor says most of the physicians who choose the program want to have an impact beyond the one-on-one relationships they have with their patients. “They recognize the inherent conflict between physicians and administrators because they don’t speak the same language,” she adds. “With physicians making up less than five percent of hospital CEOs today, they are motivated to move into administrative roles such as service line leader, chief medical officer, chief medical information officer and others. The possibility of a larger impact really drives them.” Sometimes, Earning an MBA Changes More than Your Career After completing her residency in 2009, Dr. Funke Agbasi began practicing family medicine in urgent care at Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas. “As I continued to grow and prove myself as a physician, I wanted to be more efficient and a good steward of limited resources,” she recalls. “I had always been fascinated with the idea of business, though I used to think that business people and medicine people were from mutually exclusive worlds.” She decided to take a look at MBA programs that were empowering physicians to become healthcare leaders. “The way healthcare is today, it’s not sustainable,” she explains. “The answer to the crisis that is going on must come from physicians within the healthcare industry.” She chose Indiana University Kelly School of Business’s physician MBA program and says that it didn’t just lead to her current position as Associate Director of Medical Operations at Memorial Hermann but impacted her life in a number of other ways as well. “I tragically lost my husband three years ago,” she says. “It was then that I realized that life is short, and you have to do what is in your heart because nothing is guaranteed. I wanted to do an MBA. I also wanted to show my special-needs son, who is five years old, that while life may not hand you what you think is fair or what you think you deserve, it is going to give you what you demand from it. “While the MBA is helping me get to the area of medicine I want to go to, it’s much more than that,” she continues. “A lot of doctors see administrators as someone making their life miserable and giving them more stuff to do. But the truth is that we’re all trying to accomplish the same goal. I want to break down that angst between clinicians and operations. I have a huge passion to be that bridge. Yes, we’re coming at it from different directions, but we don’t have to battle to get there. We can work at it together.” So, Should You Join the Ranks of M.D. MBAs? Our experts agree that the healthcare industry will continue to need physicians with business acumen. “As healthcare becomes more complex and challenging, aligning physicians and management will be critical to the success of organizations going forward,” says Broscio. “Someone who has knowledge of both sides of the business can do that.” Brady notes that physicians who are interested in healthcare management may be able to reach their goals without committing to a formal MBA program. “In the late 1980s through the early 2000s, the MBA degree was your ticket into management,” Brady says. “However, with improvement in the economy and job opportunities, there are now more physician management opportunities than there are physicians with MBA degrees seeking these opportunities. Some healthcare organizations are focusing on training physicians with short mini-courses that focus on specific areas of healthcare management, such as finance and physician performance, instead.” While Huntly says an MBA can indeed be useful, she encourages physicians to think about their reasons before making the investment. “Think critically about why you want to do it,” she continues. “What are you going to use if for? You don’t want to spend that kind of time and money just to earn another credential or find out that it’s not really going to further your career aspirations.” If you do decide to go ahead with your MBA training, Brady adds that it’s wise to keep at least one foot in clinical practice as well. “I encourage most physicians to continue to see patients at least one or two days a week,” he says. “You don’t want to lose that skill if you decide to leave management and go back into full-time practice. Maintain some presence seeing patients within the clinic. It will add to your credibility as a leader.” Source
