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New Program Teaches Management from a Public Health Perspective
Nationwide, more and more physicians are assuming management responsibilities, be they within HMOs, hospitals, or medical practices. These physicians, highly trained in medicine, often wish they could receive equally rigorous training in management skills. Unfortunately, few are willing or able to excuse themselves from their careers for a year or more to earn an MBA. For these professionals, HSPH offers a solution.
A new program in the Department of Health Policy and Management provides physicians with opportunities to learn management skills and earn a degree. Program director Nancy Kane explains: "On the surface, the curriculum resembles classic MBA programs--we offer courses in leadership skills, finance and accounting, corporate strategy, operations management, and information systems. What makes our program special is that these courses are taught by a public health faculty who know the health care environment and who understand the broader social issues of health care. We give these students exactly the information they need."
Professors Arnold Epstein (left) and Robert Blendon answering a student's question in a
health policy class this week.
The program is the brainchild of Arnold Epstein, John H. Foster professor of health policy and management and chair of the department. Thirteen years ago, Epstein participated in the founding of the Summer Program in Clinical Effectiveness, through which physicians receive training in clinical research methods by taking courses during one or more seven-week summer sessions. The program has proved to be an unqualified success, with 181 students enrolled this summer. Epstein believed that a similar program offering training in management skills would be equally popular.
More than two years ago, Epstein, Kane, and Sharon O'Brien, program coordinator, began crafting the program. One of the first things they learned was that they couldn't mimic exactly the clinical effectiveness program model: "The professionals we hope to train are midcareer physicians who already hold management positions," said Kane. "These people wouldn't be able to attend our program if it meant taking a seven-week leave of absence from their jobs. One of our first challenges was to come up with an alternative schedule for offering the training."
The solution was to break up the coursework over two years, alternating intensive classroom sessions with projects for the students to work on while they're back at their jobs. The students attend classes at HSPH for three weeks during each of two summers. Over the course of the fall, winter, and spring, the students will return to the school for five four-day weekends of classes.
"It's a brutal schedule for the students while they're here," said Kane. "They're in classes morning to night each day, and then they have about five hours of homework every night." And it doesn't stop when they leave the school on July 23--between now and the first long weekend of classes in October, the students are expected to complete two at-work projects and to begin a third.
One of the projects is an assignment from a course in negotiation and communication skills. The assignment requires the students to help negotiate a conflict at their worksite using the skills they've learned this summer.
It isn't just the schedule of courses that differentiates this program, which leads to a Master of Science degree in health care management, from existing academic-year programs in health policy and management; it's also the curriculum. "The Master of Public Health program with a concentration in health care management is a 40-credit program," explained Kane. "Of those credits, students must spend 15 or 20 fulfilling school requirements in nonmanagement public health courses such as epidemiology, biostatistics, health and social behavior, and environmental health. In this new program, we've taken these vital disciplines and integrated them into management courses. Our students are exposed to these disciplines and, we hope, develop a life-long interest in them."
The inaugural class comprises 21 students from the US and Canada. Kane credits them with being an enthusiastic group: "With midcareer students who have committed to working with the intensity that this program demands, we know that they're here to learn. In the classroom, they're excited by topics in leadership, motivation, and organizational behavior."
Kane also applauds others throughout the school for their assistance in creating this new program. "There are a lot of things that needed to be done in order to found a program with a schedule that's unlike any other program at the school," she said. "A lot of people, from Maria Anthony [registrar and assistant dean for admissions and financial aid] and her staff, to the folks in the Operations Office, have bent over backwards, working with Sharon O'Brien, to make this happen. To have students here now represents a major success for the school."
The benefits of this success, Kane believes, will not only be received by students in this program, but also by students in regular, academic-year programs: "In preparation for this program, we updated and revitalized our management courses. The integration of other public health disciplines into our management courses will be a boon to all of our students."
Complete information on the Master of Science Program in Health Care Management may be found at: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/mhcm/
