{"id":583,"date":"2009-04-21T13:10:12","date_gmt":"2009-04-21T18:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/magazines\/vanderbilt-business\/?p=583"},"modified":"2015-07-07T20:19:10","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T20:19:10","slug":"the-picture-of-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/the-picture-of-health\/","title":{"rendered":"The Picture of Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, roughly 60 percent of Americans think that health care reform is a top priority for the country. While it may not rank as high as the economy in most people\u2019s minds, one could argue that the two are inextricably linked. In fact, spending on health care represents 17 percent of the nation\u2019s gross domestic product and is expected to climb to 20 percent within the next decade.<\/p>\n

Bringing meaningful change to the health care industry poses an array of challenges, but there are opportunities as well. Surrounded by Nashville\u2019s thriving health care community, the Owen School has developed world-class academic programs that address the business needs of the industry, and its faculty, students and alumni are leading the way in shaping how health care will be managed for generations to come.<\/p>\n

\"fristbill\"Bill Frist, M.D.<\/h2>\n

Bill Frist\u2019s spring health policy course is the first of its kind\u2014an even mix of medical and business students in a small seminar that melds the cultures of business and management with the cultures of medicine and quality in patient centeredness. With a dozen years of policy experience as a U.S. Senator and 20 years of medical profession experience, as well as his current business and private equity background, Frist is uniquely qualified to teach the course and notes that Owen is uniquely positioned to offer it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are three generations of health care managers and entrepreneurs in Nashville, and that marriage of ongoing real-life interaction and experience gained by the students with the robust academic discipline through Owen is unprecedented,\u201d he says. \u201cIt provides a foundation for continued growth in producing leaders who will address, and ultimately solve, the huge challenges of health care gaps and access in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

By covering topics like health care reform and global health care, a cause Frist is passionate about as evidenced by his new Hope Through Healing Hands nonprofit, he believes his students will leave with a new knowledge of finance policy and health service delivery. Since Owen is geographically situated in what he calls the \u201cSilicon Valley of health care,\u201d Frist is confident that graduates of the school will be the best equipped to play a critical role in addressing \u201cthe single greatest domestic challenge in terms of our economy and the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"cashia\"Joe Cashia, EMBA\u201995<\/h2>\n

Geographic location and real-world learning attracted Joe Cashia, CEO of dialysis provider National Renal Alliance, to Vanderbilt\u2019s Executive MBA program. \u201cI was entrenched in middle and senior management, and there was a lot of consolidation in my industry. I wanted some day to run my own show but realized that my clinical background would limit my ability to do that, both from a practical and an objective standpoint,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Cashia credits his success in large part to his Owen experience. \u201cIt really gave me an overall view of business, and not so much the myopic day-to-day view that you get in on-the-job training,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe EMBA experience helped me germinate the idea of how to start a company and what it would take to go through the funding and so forth. It really had a huge impact on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having access to real-world health care expertise through Owen\u2019s faculty has proven invaluable for Cashia. \u201cYou can make the most of your Owen experience, and it can be the best thing in your life. No one can sit here and say, \u2018Well, I never had the opportunity.\u2019 Not in Nashville, not in health care, not at Owen\u2014not with everything that is available to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"grant\"Frank Grant, EMBA\u201991<\/h2>\n

A phone call in 2005 from Cisco Systems\u2019 senior vice president for North America and Japan could have intimidated Frank Grant, but his Vanderbilt Executive MBA experience gave him the skill sets and confidence he needed. Grant was charged with building the first North American vertical for Cisco Systems and today serves as the company\u2019s Senior Director of North American Healthcare.<\/p>\n

It was not a difficult decision for Grant, who jumped at the opportunity to work in such a dynamic and varied sector. \u201cI\u2019ve worked in lots of other verticals, but it\u2019s by far the most complicated, and also the most interesting as a result,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Although the current health care environment is undoubtedly challenging, Cisco is fairing remarkably well: The company has almost tripled its sales over the past three years. Grant also sees opportunity ahead. \u201cHealth care is under tremendous financial stress with the number of uninsured increasing as people lose their jobs, but people are starting to realize they must manage more effectively and efficiently,\u201d he explains. It\u2019s important, he argues, to strike a balance between the patient\u2019s standpoint\u2014improving care, convenience and affordability\u2014and the provider\u2019s standpoint of doing things that show immediate financial benefit.<\/p>\n

Grant believes that technology is the key to finding that balance. \u201cHealth care institutions, from the payers to the providers to the life sciences companies, are seeing that technology is helping improve efficiency and improve patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"vanhorn\"<\/p>\n

Larry Van Horn<\/h2>\n

These are challenging but opportunistic times in health care, says Professor Larry Van Horn, Faculty Director of Owen\u2019s Health Care Programs. \u201cHealth care is a dominant sector of the U.S. economy that is facing a tremendous challenge, tremendous change and tremendous governmental intervention, so the value of good management and good decision making is critical,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Those studying toward a Health Care MBA degree account for close to 20 percent of Owen\u2019s MBA students, and the new Master of Management in Health Care is only further expanding the school\u2019s footprint in this area. \u201cThere are synergies and similarities between the Health Care MBA and the MM Health Care, which means we can share some of the common experience and some of the common educational content across those programs,\u201d Van Horn says. \u201cThis opens doors between the Owen School and the delivery organizations in health care and establishes relationships which could be fruitful for the careers of our Health Care MBA students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Horn is excited about Owen\u2019s future and the unique position it has to capitalize on its relationship with a top-ranked medical school and medical center. \u201cBy being located in Nashville with access to keen minds who are solving and addressing the problems of health care delivery, we are able to shape the minds of future health care management.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"clevenger\"Ernie Clevenger, EMBA\u201981<\/h2>\n

Ernie Clevenger, President of CareHere LLC, credits his Owen experience with giving him the necessary tool sets and personal relationships\u2014with both student colleagues and professors, such as business entrepreneur mentor Germain B\u00f6er\u2014to succeed in the health care industry for the past 20 years. \u201cMy Owen experience was fabulous,\u201d he says, noting that CareHere\u2019s Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer is fellow alum Ben Baker, EMBA\u201996, and its Director of Sales is Owen graduate Joc Collignon, MBA\u201907.<\/p>\n

CareHere celebrated its fifth year of operation in January. With 85 clinics in 13 states, its unique business model brings the three Ps\u2014the payer, the patient and the provider\u2014under one roof, thereby lowering employer costs while improving patients\u2019 health. \u201cOur clients see their health care cost trend decline,\u201d Clevenger says, adding that many also see an increase in productivity since most patients are in and out of CareHere\u2019s on-site clinics in less than half an hour.<\/p>\n

But despite all the innovative technology in health care, Clevenger notes that the doctor\/patient relationship is the true measure of success. \u201cAt the end of the day it really comes down to the chemistry between doctors and patients. \u2026 For those patients to keep coming back\u2014to trust their doctors, to give them their complicated conditions such as hypertension and diabetes to manage\u2014comes down to their relationship with the physicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ekdall\"Phyllis Ekdall, MMHC\u201909<\/h2>\n

Phyllis Ekdall, a CPA at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is one of 25 students in Owen\u2019s new Master of Management in Health Care program, which is designed to give working health care professionals the business fundamentals to succeed in their industry. The students in the program come from both clinical and non-clinical backgrounds. Among Ekdall\u2019s classmates are doctors, nurses, and even a marketing professional and an architect.<\/p>\n

While practitioners stand to benefit from learning critical business skills that may not have been a part of their formal training, professionals like Ekdall gain a broader perspective through the program. \u201cFor us non-clinical personnel it fills the gap of how to integrate those business skills with the clinical personnel and really stand in their shoes and understand their perceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

What drew Ekdall initially to the MM Health Care was Owen\u2019s reputation as a top-tier business school and its convenient schedule: one night a week, one weekend a month, for one year. But more than anything else, she considers it a rewarding experience because of the people she\u2019s met along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been more enriching than I ever imagined in terms of actually being able to work and talk real-time with my colleagues about how that translates into what we do every day,\u201d says Ekdall, noting the camaraderie among her classmates.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you have access to so many individuals with different backgrounds, a lot of times you\u2019ll find yourself solving problems in hallway meetings. We\u2019re really learning a lot from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"cooperjim\"<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper<\/h2>\n

Jim Cooper, Congressman for Tennessee\u2019s Fifth District, has taught health care regulation for a dozen years at Owen and says one thing keeps him coming back: the students. \u201cThe students are great and are the reason I teach. They are lively, curious, questioning, pertinent, fun, and engaging,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Cooper says it\u2019s exciting to teach in such a fast-moving field as health care regulation, where a textbook can\u2019t begin to keep up with the monumental changes that will impact Nashville more than any other region of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cNashville is ground zero for health care and health care reform. The changes will shape Nashville more than anywhere else and that\u2019s before, during and after the legislation gets through Congress.\u201d The wealth of practical knowledge in Nashville available to Owen faculty and students catapults it above and beyond other health care programs at other institutions of learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cOwen has one of the best, if not the best, health care programs in the country because it is so practical. We are surrounded by major CEOs who are nationally and internationally famous for creating new business models to serve patients,\u201d says Cooper. \u201cNo other town in the country has that. \u2026 They\u2019re neighbors, they\u2019re friends, they\u2019re frequent visitors to the program, they\u2019re guest lecturers, they teach every once in a while. It\u2019s like you\u2019re growing up with these folks who are at the cutting edge of American health care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, roughly 60 percent of Americans think that health care reform is a top priority for the country. While it may not rank as high as the economy in most people\u2019s minds, one could argue that the two are inextricably […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-departments","tag-spring2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8954,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions\/8954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}