IIM-B to launch year-long program on hospital management course to strengthen healthcare leadership workforce

The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) has now driven its agenda to create the right healthcare leadership workforce with its year-long programme on hospital management. The Institute has devised the curriculum that is directed to benefit healthcare professionals to mould them into management cadre candidates. It would benefit mid-level managers, healthcare consultants, entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Thedigital learning initiative, IIMBx is a professional certificate in hospital management. It includes 10 courses comprising five to six modules. It provides an opportunity to early and mid-career individuals in the healthcare sector to upskill themselves areas of public health, operations, finance, economics, marketing, organisational behaviour and human resources management, strategy, legal and regulatory framework, statistics and innovation. The programme, with a combination of case studies, faculty expertise and industry insights will help learners enhance their core management skills, which in turn will help them design and deliver high impact hospital services. Currently, 160 candidates have registered for the course.

There will be a series of online courses, lectures, workshops, hands-on projects, talks by industry experts and webinars. At the end of the programme, learners need to present a capstone project which would combine studying s from all the individual courses.

Rishikesha T Krishnan, director, IIM Bangalore said, “The Professional Certificate Programme in Hospital Management is part of our strong involvement in public policy and systems.”

Noting the importance of the 12-month programme, Karnataka minister for health & medical education Dr K Sudhakar highlighted the importance of good management to ensure the delivery of healthcare services that could fulfil patient expectations in the treatment protocol.

The Minster said that the transformation of healthcare delivery in the country will start from IIM-B and that he would select government doctors to be part of the course going by the need for hospital management practises across primary health centres.

“There is a need to train our doctors in administration and management. This is because good or bad management will be the difference in saving patients’ lives. Hence, officials at the administrative level such as district health officers, medical college deans, district surgeons, state programme officers and joint directors need to be trained in hospital management for people to access better quality healthcare. Most of them are experts in their medical specialities but they don’t know the principles of management thereby reducing the efficiency of functioning and not optimally utilising the resources. This new course will not just be useful to Karnataka but also the entire country, the Minister said.

According to Dr Devi Shetty, chairperson, Board of Governors, IIM Bangalore, and founder-chairman, Narayana Group of Hospitals, “the course is especially relevant and important for a country like India where 80 per cent of healthcare is delivered not by corporate chains in metro cities but by 30-bed and 50-bed nursing homes in Tier II and Tier III cities. Doctors running such nursing homes need serious help in management and administration. They think they are successful because they have money to pay salaries at the end of every month but, in reality, such businesses are always on the brink. A couple of medico-legal cases and they can be pushed into bankruptcy. Those running such hospitals need to understand the nuances of management to be efficient.”

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