On June 25, NCMS’ Health Care Leadership and Management (HCLM) program produced their first official class of graduates. The day included final project presentations by members of the class.
The HCLM program is one track of the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) Foundation’s Kanof Institute for Physician Leadership’s professional development curriculum. Participants focus on how to be better health care leaders, while also learning about the financial and business side of the health care system. Participants apply online and, if selected, begin the program in the fall. [Applications for the upcoming 2018 session are being accepted now. Learn more and apply here.]
Over the course of nine months, participants meet a total of four times receiving business skill and leadership training and working on group projects that aim to stretch individuals’ thinking and generate new and innovative ideas to apply to real life situations in participants’ practices.
Before the program began, there was an increasing need to understand the economic side of health care to help physicians and physicians’ assistants adjust should they decide to take on a more administrative role, said Kristina Natt och Dag, executive director of the Kanof Institute for Physician Leadership.
HCLM strives to meet that demand. Upon completion, participants have a stronger understanding of finance and business, along with increased confidence in their leadership skills.
Deb Bhowmick, MD a neurosurgeon at UNC-Chapel Hill, was a member of this year’s graduating class. He said the program helped him understand health economics and showed him how to better deal with change in the new and rapidly evolving health care structure.
“It certainly doesn’t turn you into a business manager,” he said. “But it gives you some skills that you could use for administrative roles in medicine, where most of us have no training at all.”
