Making the Grade

Physician MBA Program Creates Medical Entrepreneurs and Physician Executives

Not every physician is cut out to be an executive, and rightly so, says Stahl. “There are many very fine physicians who all their lives have been training in medicine only and pride themselves on their clinical expertise. That’s fine, as we do not tell physicians to stop practicing medicine and pursue a leadership role. Instead, we are interested in recruiting physicians with experience in a clinical role who either are in a leadership role currently or who aspire to be in one.”

Being a self-starter is not only a vital characteristic for being a physician, it is critical as a business executive, and it is an attribute the UT is looking for when it evaluates applicants as prospective students. Stahl says, “We tend to attract physicians who are self-starters and people who can envision the future – they are the ones who excel in this program.”

To say that UT is selective about the physicians who are admitted to the program goes to the heart of the intention of the curriculum – to provide intensive training to individuals in healthcare leadership roles who are serious about meeting the needs of patients while balancing the needs of stockholders. For many physicians, tackling healthcare economics will be the toughest problem they face in their careers.

“Look at how surgical services are being challenged yet reimbursements are going down,” Stahl observes. “People talk about cutting costs but unless you are totally imbued with process improvement and lean thinking, sometimes the product can suffer. While I wouldn’t want to call a patient a “product,” a non-physician approaches budgets with the notion of how to save an extra dime and doesn’t think in terms of the quality of the care delivered to the patient. And if that person doesn’t think in terms of the concept of lean healthcare, which focuses on improving patient outcomes, the patient could suffer. In fact, the dimension of lean healthcare as a part of physician leadership and quality improvement has been so strong we recently started a non-degree, one-week course called the Lean Healthcare Institute. We are seeing a number of physicians who may not be ready to commit to a year of study to get an MBA, but they know that for today at least, they need to know more about lean concepts.”

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