Physician Executive Career Moves
By Bonnie Darves
Editor’s Note: “While the transition from clinical practice to management and administration can be educationally and professionally rewarding, mourning the loss of practicing medicine can be an unexpected consequence. Small transitional steps from clinician to administrator can help make the move easier.”
— John A. Fromson, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at MetroWest Medical Center
A growing number of physicians are finding satisfaction, reaping rewards by becoming physician executives
As the health care industry continues to evolve, a growing number of physicians are choosing to expand their horizons and add a new dimension to their medical careers by moving into management positions. It is not known exactly how many physicians are opting for the management track because there is no central repository for such data, but membership in the American College of Physician Executives now exceeds 14,000, compared with 5,700 in 1990, a clear indication of the career option’s growing popularity.
Physicians who move into the management realm do so for a variety of reasons. Some are looking for a new challenge, while others are impelled by a burning, and commendable, desire to improve the processes involved in the delivery of care. Still others decide, in early or mid-career, that they are better suited for management than for clinical practice.
That was the case for Stan Bernard, MD, MBA, a Neshanic Station, New Jersey, physician executive who decided, soon after graduating from Baylor College of Medicine in 1986, to explore career options in the business arena. “I realized I wasn’t as excited about surgery as I anticipated I would be. I also realized there was opportunity for someone with a clinical background to leverage that on the business side of health care” says Dr. Bernard, president of the e-health consulting firm Bernard Associates, LLC, and a former pharmaceutical company executive who frequently speaks on and writes about health care management issues. “I was fortunate to have a number of extremely knowledgeable and helpful mentors, and they advised me to get an MBA.”
While he was enrolled in the Wharton School of Business, Dr. Bernard began consulting for health care companies, hospitals, and physician practices. He discovered that the business side of the industry was indeed a good fit, and decided that gaining exposure to several sectors of the industry was the best way to launch his new career. “I very much looked at my professional career as if it was a business residency, and I sought out opportunities to build my portfolio of business skills,” he says. After spending several years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, eventually serving as U.S. Director of Pharmacoeconomics, he moved into consulting. He launched his own firm in 1999, and now consults with a wide range of companies, from e-health startups to Fortune 500 companies, “so that I can see both the real and the virtual elephant. Its been a long but very rewarding path,” Dr. Bernard says. Today, his consulting work encompasses such areas as strategic planning, business development, and marketing, among others.
Maguid “Mike” Megalli, MD, MBA, made his move in mid-career. Dr. Megalli, who serves as Chief Medical Officer of Catholic Healthcare System Resources in New York, New York, left a well-established, successful urology practice in 1987 to seek new challenges. “I had always been business oriented, and when I decided to make the transition, I did it 100 percent, overnight,” Dr. Megalli recalls, adding that he had, throughout his clinical career, assumed a number of management roles in hospitals and physician organizations. “There hasn’t been one day that I have regretted making the switch,” Dr. Megalli says.
The life of the physician executive can be rewarding, but making the transition may prove challenging because the management arena and the skills needed to operate successfully within it often represent new turf for physicians. “One thing about the MBA [program] that was enlightening for me, was that the business terms I use every day … were completely foreign to most of the physicians. Just learning the semantics was a challenge for many of them,” says Francois Nader, MD, MBA, Senior Vice President of Medical and Regulatory Affairs for Aventis Pharmaceuticals, North America. Unlike Dr. Bernard, this French-trained physician was working in health care management for several years before he decided to pursue a master’s degree through the University of Tennessee’s Physician Executive MBA program.
Despite the challenges it entails, Dr. Nader says that physicians who pursue business education to make the transition to executive roles can expect a rewarding experience in terms of their professional growth and development. “Those who are willing to ‘play’ really learn a lot because they don’t lose what they learned as practitioners, but they add many new skills; management, interpersonal relationships, teamwork, decision making, finance,” he says. “Also, for many physicians, it opens up a global perspective.”
Physicians willing to make the grade as management executives can expect good career prospects too, says Dorothy Billingsly, Managing Director of Health Care Services for Korn Ferry International in Chicago and a specialist in physician-executive recruitment. “There is a strong need for physician executives because there is still an oversupply of positions and the demand is high,” Billingsly says, in all sectors of the health care industry.
An MBA isn’t an absolute prerequisite for the physician who wants to move into management, but it is becoming an important credential for those eyeing senior executive positions, Billingsly says. “Getting an MBA can only help because there is a lot of competition for executive roles. Plus, it shows initiative,” she adds, and makes it clear to prospective employers that the physician is certain about his or her career path. In addition, graduate business education gives physicians a “big-picture” perspective and helps them to think strategically, Billingsly says, a skill that is on the must-have list. “Still, I believe that a strong physician executive makes the very best health care executive, if they can combine their clinical research-based training with a business-focused orientation,” she says.
Physicians who want to move into a management position without formal business training might first seek a position within their own organization as a medical director or medical affairs manager, Billingsly advises. “Often, there is a good entrée into the field in those positions,” she says, because many health care systems opt for hiring an internal person who knows the other physicians.
“When all is said and done, it isn’t the degree that matters; it’s the experience and the application of business skills and that takes practice, mentoring, and on-the-job experience,” says Michael Guthrie, MD, MBA, Senior Vice President of Premier, Inc., a large national health care alliance. “Physicians must be able to demonstrate that they can deliver results.” Dr. Guthrie, who moved into management in 1979 after three and a half years as a practicing psychiatrist and neurologist, urges physicians considering making the transition to management to explore the realm in “half steps” before leaving clinical practice. The short, introductory courses given by the American College of Business Executives (see
Resources) and many of the major universities are a good starting point, he says.
Both Dr. Nader and Dr. Bernard urge prospective physician executives to seek out physicians who have already made the move and ask them about both their own career paths and the management sector as a whole. Dr. Bernard encourages physicians to request informational interviews; meetings that aren’t intended to produce a job offer but rather to provide general career information and guidance. “The objective, really, is to gather information and to network,” Dr. Bernard says. Dr. Nader adds that every physician, even those who don’t believe themselves to be “well connected,” have such potential contacts and should use them. “I suggest just picking up the phone and talking with people who are health care executives. Just interacting with those executives is valuable,” he says, and may prove as fruitful as reading up on the subject.
One of the best ways to try out the physician executive role is to obtain as much management experience as possible while still in practice, advises Barbara Linney, MA, Vice President of Career Development for the American College of Physician Executives and author of the book Hope for the Future: A Career Development Guide for Physician Executives. She recommends that physicians serve on and lead committees such as utilization review, quality assurance, or credentialing in their groups or at the hospital. “If physicians do that, they’ll have a sense of whether they like management and want to do more of it,” Linney says. Her final advice is this: “Volunteer for everything, and anytime anyone says, ‘can you do it?’ say yes. That’s the best way to find out if you will like management.”
Resources
For physicians eyeing a career move to the management side of health care, the following resources provide good information about the transition process, education opportunities, and a look at life “on the other side:”
American College of Physician Executives. This long-established organization, founded in 1975 and based in Tampa, Florida, offers a number of educational resources, from publications and comprehensive CD-ROM products to one-day courses and master’s degree programs, in conjunction with several leading business schools in medical management. Helpful options for physicians who want to explore a career move into management include the following:
- ACPE’s one-day “Career Choice” course, offered live about four times a year in various locations throughout the country; also available on CD-ROM.
- Two weeklong courses, “Physician in Management I” and “Physician in Management II,” provide in-depth education on making the transition from clinical practice to management, as well as an up-to-date overview of career opportunities.
- The books Hope for the Future: A Career Development Guide for Physician Executives, by Barbara Linney, MA, and Physician Executives: What, Why, How, co-authored by Linney and her husband George E. Linney, Jr., MD.
- Career counseling by ACPE faculty members (includes a complimentary first session). For more information on ACPE offerings, call (800) 562-8088 or visit their Web site, www.acpe.org.
American College of Healthcare Executives. This Chicago-based organization, while not geared specifically toward physicians, offers a wide range of educational programs and online courses in health care management. Its periodicals Healthcare Executive and Journal of Healthcare Management are highly regarded in the industry. For information, call (312) 424-2800 or visit their Web site, www.ache.org.
Recommended reading. The following books and article are considered “must-reads” for physicians considering management careers:
Leaving the Bedside: The Search for a Non-clinical Medical Career, published by the American Medical Association and available through AMA Press, (800) 621-8335 or www.ama-assn.org.
In Search of Physician Leadership, edited by Barbara LeTourneau, MD, and Wesley Curry; co-published by the American College of Healthcare Executives and the American College of Physician Executives.
Fundamentals of Medical Management: A Guide for the New Physician Executive, edited by Jerry L. Hammon, MD, and published by the American College of Physician Executives in 1993.
“Developing Physician Leadership,” an article by Michael Guthrie, MD, MBA, in the Summer 1999 (Vol. 15, No. 4) edition of Frontiers of Health Services Management, published by Health Administration Press.
NOTE: The author, Bonnie Darves, is an independent health care writer based in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
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