Millermaier’s division employs 600, engages 100 providers and generates more than $65 million in revenue. Recognizing that executive-level work requires commensurate education, Millermaier knew he needed PEMBA to help prepare him for the rigors of his executive capacity. “My career objectives were to understand the business of medicine and apply that understanding to my work because I had just been hired to lead the ambulatory care division for Borgess Health,” Millermaier explains. “While I was comfortable and familiar with the quality side and had managed that for several years, the business side was always someone else’s ultimate responsibility. That changed with my new position. Now, everything in scope for Borgess Ambulatory Care rolls up to me. PEMBA gave me the foundation needed to meet the challenge and responsibility associated with the position.”
Millermaier adds, “I think we physicians are comfortable with numbers so finance is likely easier for us to grasp, but we also need to understand the legal and statistical issues associated with medical management. These are survival tactics and are part of the PEMBA experience. What I needed was leadership development and insights into management of people. The University of Tennessee PEMBA program devotes a significant amount of time in these areas. They are not emphasized in medical education, yet they are expectations placed upon physicians in leadership positions.”
Millermaier adds that although effective communication is a hallmark of a satisfying physician/patient encounter, medical school doesn’t prepare physicians for more formal encounters. “An additional skill I continue to work on is in presentation to large and important groups. As physicians we are not trained to do business-level presentations to boards of directors or members of the business community, but I am expected to do this in my job and PEMBA emphasized this skill to us. I am far better than I used to be and I am sure I will need to do more of it.”
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