Physician Leadership Academy prepares doctors to help lead future of health care
Physicians may be experts when it comes to diagnosing and treating patients, but what about skills in management and finance?
After spending years practicing medicine, many physicians find themselves in a role that positions them to be a leader—of a unit, department, division or hospital. However, these leadership roles often require specific skill sets that are not taught in medical school.
That’s where UTMB’s Physician Leadership Academy (PLA) comes in.
“There are so many opportunities to lead here at UTMB,” said Dr. Selwyn Rogers, vice president and chief medical officer. “We have nearly 12,000 employees all working toward a shared goal—to work wonders together, but the challenge is how do we do that effectively? The PLA is designed to give people the tools and practical work experience they need to accomplish that goal.”
Dr. Rex McCallum, vice president and chief physician executive, added that the program helps physician leaders who are facing new challenges in today’s health care environment. “The PLA prepares our leaders to deal with factors such as greater government oversight, increased emphasis on patient-centered care, decreased reimbursement from payers and more competition for health care delivery.”
Among the areas that draw the most interest from physicians is finance.
“Physicians are interested in providing quality care to their patients, but they also are interested in making sure they do it in a practical way,” said Faith Robin, senior talent and organizational development consultant. “When we brought in revenue-cycle experts, the physicians had tons of questions—it was their time to ask everything about ICD-10, how claims are paid, and what their impact is, based on how they diagnose and treat. By giving them a broader picture of health care, they felt more confident in their skills to be a leader of a care team.”
Dr. Manuela Murray, assistant professor of Pediatrics, graduated from the 13-month program in October.
“The experience I had and the connections I made were amazing,” said Murray. “I recently started a new position as medical director of Pediatric Urgent Care Centers for UTMB, so the PLA was a great opportunity to learn more about the administrative aspects and everything that happens behind the curtains of the clinic. When I was in medical school, I didn’t really get any training on that, so the program provided the resources I needed to help me do that part of the job better.”
Along with building knowledge about the business side of health care, the PLA offered an assessment portion that helped her build self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Each participant created a development plan and was assigned to an internal coach who provided feedback, advice and direction toward specific personal and professional goals.
“As the final requirement of the PLA, physicians work in teams on capstone projects that have been identified as operational improvement and strategic business priorities,” said Ian Barrett, PhD, associate vice president of Human Resources. “These projects have the potential to become reality, if approved by executive leadership and appropriated funding.”
Murray and a team of three others presented their project, “Optimal Clinic Care Team Membership and Function” to senior 
leaders at the program graduation. Her group focused on how to improve patient care surrounding pediatric obesity.
“We created the idea of having a multidisciplinary team—with a physician, nutritionist, psychologist, social worker and exercise specialist—working together to help young patients lose weight and change their lifestyles,” said Murray. “We spend so much money on treating diabetes, sleep apnea and hypertension caused by obesity. If we could prevent them at the front end, it would save a lot of money in the long run.”
The PLA recently launched its fourth year of the program, with 14 more doctors well on their way to joining the ranks as physician leaders. For more information on the PLA, including the nomination and selection process, visit https://hr.utmb.ed/tod/physicianleadership.aspx.