Abstract
Among the critical skills to be developed in a physician leadership program are teamwork and collaboration. The team approach to the design, execution, and implementation of healthcare programs should be stressed. To encourage this approach in our physician leadership program, the authors use team structure as an essential component of classroom structure to encourage completion of real-world projects and assignments relevant outside of the classroom environment. This chapter demonstrates how teams were formed and evaluated in courses involving the marketing of healthcare systems services and healthcare system mergers and acquisitions. This chapter also describes components in the development and implementation of a clinical leadership MBA curriculum designed to provide physician-leaders with a strategic perspective on healthcare decision making that encompasses a broad range of structural, technological, financial, cultural, and ethical considerations.
TopCourse Deliverables And Challenges
Common to the courses taught by the authors in the LG Health-SJU cohort program were components of team deliverables requiring a very focused, cooperative, and collaborative approach. Although the content may have varied based on differing course objectives the process was similar across the course structures.
Generally, the teams had three major deliverables: First, they needed to develop a preliminary team presentation related to the components of their plan. Second, they were to develop final team presentations of their completed plans. Finally, the teams were required to submit a 10- page paper of their strategic plan based on what might be presented to a senior management team of a company or institution where they were engaged.
To perform these tasks, teams had to integrate their understanding of the course materials, threaded discussions and class readings into actual strategic plans.
Here are examples of courses in which the team process was used in our graduate program:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Performing: The team is effective in meeting their objective.
De novo: From the beginning, new, from scratch.
Likert Scale: A survey-measuring tool used to determine opinions or attitudes.
Cohort: Refers to a group of students who start and finish their degree program (in this case MBA) at the same time.
New Drug Application (NDA): Is the application or request for permission from the FDA to market a new drug.
Phase IV Studies: Clinical research trials that are conducted after the approval of a pharmaceutical product.
Multinational Corporation: A legal entity that operates or has assets in more than one nation and that is distinct from its owners.
Team Stages: Typically teams will go through four stages during their existence: forming, storming, norming, and performing.
Deliverables: The work product provided by the individual or the team to whom it was promised. (In the examples here, the deliverable is provided to the course instructor).
Multinational Federation: A collection of organizations formed to represent their common interests.
Forming: A group coming together with a shared goal or objective.
Norming: The team makes progress on achieving their objective.
Launch: The first step in the final delivery of a product or service that has been in development.
Storming: A team struggles and may disagree on both the objective and the means of getting there. Sometime in this stage, the team is still trying to get to know one another and to discover roles, responsibilities, and how to communicate.
Mergers: Transaction in which the ownership of a company, organization, or institution are combined together to form a new entity.
Acquisition: Transaction in which one organization takes control of another organization’s assets.
Investigational New Drug (IND) Application: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires a sponsor to submit an IND before they can conduct a clinical investigation with and new product. This requirement is based on the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 21.