January 12, 1998
Contact: Lew Harris
(615) 322-2706
| |
January 12, 1998 Contact: Lew Harris (615) 322-2706 |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management will add a new health care management option to its Executive MBA program starting in August 1998 that should help health care professionals from the Mid-South region keep pace with major changes in the industry.
"The new health care management option is designed to give health care professionals and managers the knowledge and skills to analyze problems, create new strategies and successfully lead health care organizations," said Martin S. Geisel, dean of the Owen School. "In addition, Nashville's position as a national center for health care ensures a wide range of resources to enrich the program.
"Though clinical and service quality remain key components of health care management, these factors alone do not insure an organization's survival," Geisel added. "More than ever, changing market factors require that health care organizations develop managers who can both understand and manage health care issues in a dynamic business environment."
Students who choose the new option will take a unique set of four courses in the
second year of the program. These new courses, designed to expand the students' knowledge of health care management issues, include: Health Care Organizations and Managed Care; Health Care Policy; Creating New Businesses in Health Care; and the Health Care Strategy Project.
The Executive MBA program is designed to meet the special needs of mid-career managers and executives to earn a top-quality MBA degree while they continue to hold
full-time jobs. Meeting on alternate weekends (Friday and Saturday) on the Vanderbilt campus over 21 months, the program provides both the knowledge and the credentials for managers to succeed in today's business environment. A typical entering class will include executives from four or five states in addition to Nashville and the Middle Tennessee area.
In October 1997, Business Week magazine listed the Owen School's Executive MBA program among 20 leading Executive MBA programs in the nation, the second time that it had ranked among the top 20 such programs in recent years. The health care management option should add strength to the nationally recognized program.
Unlike other executive programs aimed at health care professionals where students interact only with others in their own industry, the Owen School's Executive MBA program gives health care managers the opportunity to learn and interact with business managers from a wide range of industries. The program attracts managers from many of the Southeast's leading companies, and students' exposure to this broad business context will help them manage health care organizations.
In past years, the health care industry has been well represented in the Owen School's Executive MBA program, accounting for 15 to 20 percent of the students in a class. Representatives of the health care industry in the program have included physicians, health care administrators, nurse managers, health care venture capitalists and health care entrepreneurs.
In developing the health care management option, the Owen School held extensive discussions on the form and content of the proposed option with Executive MBA graduates and health care industry executives.
Based on their suggestions, the Owen School designed the option to include the essential elements required of health care managers: a solid grounding in business management linked to courses specific to the management of health care organizations.
"Health care professionals and managers know better than anyone that their industry is undergoing fundamental change," said Tom Hambury, director of Owen's Executive MBA program. "Major issues like increasing competition and complexity, consolidation, managed care, capitation and government involvement are at the forefront of this change."
-VU-
Vanderbilt University is a private research university of approximately
5,900 undergraduates and 4,300 graduate and professional students. Founded
in 1873, the University comprises 10 schools, a public policy institute,
a distinguished medical center and The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center.
Vanderbilt offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences,
education and human development, engineering and music, and a full range
of graduate and professional degrees.
For more news about Vanderbilt, visit the News and Public Affairs home page
on the Internet at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News.