The healthcare industry is undergoing rapid expansion and growth because of the aging US population and the wider availability of technology to treat more health conditions than ever before. This growth is fueling a need for more medical professionals to have advanced business management skills so they can operate their medical offices and facilities in a financially sound way.
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That is why there are more online universities today offering MBA programs that are tailored specifically for physicians. Below are some of the best online options to consider if you are a doctor who desires an MBA:
#1 Indiana University
Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business offers a Business of Medicine Physician MBA that has been crafted specifically for doctors. It was launched in 2013 and is a 21 month, mostly online program with weekend sessions in Indianapolis once per month. The majority of students fly in once per month from all over the United States and continue to work as full time doctors.
The Kelley Business of Medicine MBA offers the following advantages:
- Unique curriculum: Combines business knowledge and skills with many unusual classes such as healthcare revenue and delivery, which is so important for teaching doctors how to turn a profit in an industry that is so heavily regulated by Washington DC.
- Like minded students: This program is only for doctors who have at least three years of post-residency work experience. You will maximize your learning experience by working only with experienced doctors and business professionals.
- Completely flexible: The 21 month program is carefully tailored for the busy doctor professional. You only are required to attend campus one time per month.
The program material is taught by the same faculty who teach the Kelley Direct general MBA on campus. This online MBA was first launched in 1999 and is currently ranked the top online MBA according to US News and World Report.
The curriculum of this AACSB-accredited program provides practicing physicians with the most relevant business theories to pair with your advanced healthcare background. Courses included in this physician MBA program are:
- Accounting Information for Decision Makers
- Developing Strategy and Integrative Experience
- Managerial Economics and Statistics
- Healthcare Revenue and Delivery Models
- Current Issues in the Business of Medicine
- Strategic Marketing Management
- Financial Management
Students can expect to have 10 to 14 hours per week of online learning. This includes class discussion, videos, real time and recorded class sessions and group meetings. The content is well synchronized with the monthly residence sessions in Indianapolis. The monthly residence sessions provide you with intense professional development, excellent guest speakers, professional networking, team building and much more.
As they progress through the course, students are paired with an executive coach who helps them to leverage their new business management knowledge and skills to meet their professional goals. This highly personalized training will provide you with the business framework and skills to help you to become a change agent in your healthcare organization, whether you are working on a hospital, private practice, group practice or a healthcare delivery system.
#2 Auburn University
Whether you desire more control of your medical practice or want to assume a progressive leadership role in the healthcare industry, it is important to develop the business management in healthcare skills to properly navigate the modern business of medicine. Auburn University’s Raymond J. Harbert College of Business offers a Physician’s Executive MBA that can be completed in 21 months. Features include:
- Online lectures that are asynchronous and may be completed at any time.
- Five, 3.5 day on campus residences throughout the 21 month program.
- Two travel study experiences that include a healthcare trip overseas and a policy trip to Washington DC.
This MBA for doctors is accredited by the AACSB and currently is ranked #15 by Modern Healthcare for top business graduate schools.
Required courses for graduation include:
- Organizational Leadership, Ethics and Change
- Cost Analysis and Systems
- Marketing and Consumer Theory
- Financial Analysis
- Information Systems for Competitive Advantage
- Global Business Experience
- Healthcare Finance
- Healthcare Policy
- Quantitative Decision Making
- Advanced Business Law
This executive MBA for doctors program has built into it two study trips that will enrich your perspectives on healthcare delivery and practice in the future. For each trip, every doctor in the program will earn 20 hours of CMEs at no added cost.
The Comparative Healthcare Systems course is spent overseas for a week at locations such as Berlin, Sydney, Paris, Rome or London. By talking with healthcare providers from different parts of the world, students will be able to better understand and work within the US healthcare system. The trip has lectures, visits at hospitals, and cultural tours that allow you to talk to physicians in other countries, and also healthcare executives and government leaders.
#3 Brandeis University
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University offers an Executive MBA for Physicians who want to be more effective business management leaders. This 16 month, online hybrid program is AACSB-accredited and is designed for doctors who want to enhance clinical outcomes and financial results in their healthcare organization by training them in the new science of management and medicine.
This is a highly rigorous hybrid program that is designed to fit the busy schedules of practicing doctors and dentists. It is an accelerated 16 month program that features four, 10 days residencies. Online coursework is spent on taking educational webinars, individual study for classroom work and generally blended online learning. The format has been designed to make the most efficient use of a busy doctor’s time. There also is a focus on case studies, applied learning assignments, simulation exercises, and assessments that integrate your knowledge across many courses.
Your required coursework includes:
- Economic Analysis for Managers
- Financial Accounting
- Leadership and Organizational Behavior
- Leadership Coaching
- Operations Management
- Healthcare Entrepreneurship
- National Health Policy
- Managerial Accounting
- Management of Healthcare Organizations
- Corporate Finance
- Health Law and Ethics
- Marketing
- Clinical and Managerial Uncertainty Data and Judgment
#4 University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee and the Haslam College of Business offers a Physician Executive MBA that will hone your leadership, management and business skills in only a year. Students also develop a strategic initiative for their healthcare organization which will help to improve patient and organizational outcomes by the completion of an Organizational Action Project.
The OAP is intended and expected to make a major impact on your healthcare organization. Some of the past projects that have been submitted include:
- New Product Designs
- HR Initiatives
- New Outpatient Services
- New Service Line Designs
- Customer Value Analyses
- New International Market Proposals
- Analyses of Mergers and Acquisitions
- New Healthcare Distribution Channels
The program is AACSB accredited, as are all MBAs offered at the University of Tennessee.
The program consists of 40 online, distance learning sessions and four, intense, focused residence periods in the one year program. These are one week High Compression Learning residences where you take classes, meet with advisors and professors, as well as leadership development professionals. Of course, you also will work on projects with your student peers.
The program is made only for physicians and the holistic design of the curriculum means you only will focus on healthcare and issues related to a physician’s practice and work.
References
- Kelley Offers Physician MBA to Busy Doctors. (2017). Retrieved from http://poetsandquants.com/2017/04/19/kelley-offers-physician-mba-busy-doctors/
