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4 Signs You Need a Healthcare MBA Specialization

September 22, 2021

An Online Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a Healthcare Management specialization at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management delivers value to a broad cross-section of current and aspiring healthcare professionals. At any stage of your career, this master’s degree enhances your potential by strengthening and broadening your healthcare business and management skillset.

If you’re a healthcare provider—perhaps an MD, a dentist, a physical therapist, a nurse or a physician’s assistant—an MBA can supplement your clinical aptitude with the skills needed to build and grow your practice. If you work in a healthcare field such as biotech, medical devices or health insurance, this business degree can advance your career by augmenting your management, leadership and financial skills. If you work in healthcare administration, an MBA is just the credential to vault you to the next management level. And if you work outside the healthcare sector, this MBA can fast-track you through the healthcare business fundamentals required to enter this fast-growing sector.

Study part time so you can keep working full time

No matter which of these categories you fall into, CWRU’s Online MBA with a Healthcare Management specialization is designed to accommodate your lifestyle and meet your career needs. Here’s how:

  • The Healthcare Management specialization customizes the MBA to the healthcare industry’s unique business issues. The program’s emphasis on data-driven analysis dovetails with the prevailing trends in modern healthcare management.
  • The part-time format and evening classes allow you to continue working and progressing in your profession as you develop new skills and acquire new insights.
  • The online format accommodates your busy lifestyle. You save precious time not having to commute to and from campus, and you can engage with the asynchronous content at times and places that work best for you.
  • You want a program committed to providing online students personalized attention and experiential learning. The Online MBA offers 24/7 tech support and virtual open-office hours with faculty. A curricular emphasis on group work and collaboration means you will build lasting working and personal relationships with your fellow students.
  • Wherever your career takes you, you’ll need enhanced management and leadership skills. An MBA provides a solid foundation in accounting, finance, marketing, operations, communication and general management. Even if you later decide to pursue a career outside healthcare, your MBA will continue to serve you well.
  • You also want an MBA program that connects you to a powerful network. Weatherhead’s 20,000 alumni provide that, as do the business school’s 270 corporate partners in healthcare and other industries. The school’s proximity to the Cleveland Health-Tech Corridor fosters a natural alliance that facilitates in-person residencies with various area hospital systems. The school’s participation in the Cleveland Innovation District initiative plugs students into the latest and most forward-thinking business developments in the Forest City.

Signs a healthcare MBA is right for you

Perhaps you can see the benefits of a healthcare MBA but still aren’t entirely sure that it’s the right degree for you. How can you know?

Here are four reliable indicators that you could benefit from a healthcare MBA. Any one of them confirms that you’ll meet plenty of like-minded classmates in Weatherhead School of Management’s Online MBA with a Healthcare Management specialization.

Your career is stuck in a rut

Whether you’re a healthcare provider feeling burnt out and looking to pivot to management or a healthcare professional whose career has hit a wall because you’ve reached the top position available with your current skillset, you want to take your career to the next level and take control of your future. You’re looking for a school with an excellent reputation and an outstanding faculty; Case Western Reserve University has both.

CWRU’s Online MBA with a Healthcare Management specialization surveys business fundamentals with coursework in accounting, quantitative methods, leadership, management, financial management, economics, marketing, strategy and decision making. In addition, its healthcare core explores artificial intelligence, healthcare finance, digital innovation in healthcare, innovation and entrepreneurship, healthcare regulation, population health and healthcare economics. When you complete this MBA curriculum, you’ll be well-versed in general business principles and healthcare management. If you’re like most students in the program, you’ll complete your degree in about two years.

You want to understand healthcare business and administration better

You enjoy your work but feel you could contribute more if you had a broader skillset. You see opportunities to improve processes and practices, but you lack the skill and knowledge to formulate, implement and test your ideas. You may be a physician who wants to assume a greater leadership role in running your business or a mid-level insurance manager who wants to get a firmer grip on what top executives do and contribute more substantially to high-level planning.

You may work with others who seem to know more about business, management, leadership and decision-making. You see the value in those skills and would like to add them to your repertoire. You also wouldn’t mind earning more money by adding new, valued competencies that make you a little more indispensable. An MBA with a Healthcare Management specialization can make that happen by bolstering your knowledge and skills.

You’re frustrated in your current job

Perhaps you’re an MD or a nurse who is starting to burn out on long rotations, demanding calls and continual emergencies. You’re thinking that you may ultimately want to transition into an administrative or management role—something equally fulfilling, but with perhaps more predictable hours.

Whether you long for more predictable hours or fewer crises per day, the Online MBA with a Healthcare Management specialization from the Weatherhead School of Management positions you for executive and management roles to help you achieve your goal.

You want to be an innovator

You’re tired of the same old, same old. You want to effect change in your workplace and beyond. You are ready to innovate and lead to bring great ideas to life and improve healthcare and society. You just need the appropriate skills and knowledge.

With MBA core courses in leadership, decision modeling and strategy, alongside healthcare management core courses in artificial intelligence, digital innovation, lean operations, entrepreneurship and population health, you’ll graduate with a rich, broad knowledge base.

Is an MBA with a healthcare specialization right for you?

If you are looking to ascend to a leadership position in healthcare management, an MBA with a Healthcare Management specialization can help. This degree program is designed to equip you with the specialized skills and knowledge valued in management and healthcare. It covers leadership, decision-making, healthcare administrative process and regulations, as well as critical technical skills in data analytics, health informatics and bioinformatics.

The program helps healthcare providers better manage their practice or transition to an administrative role. If you’re in another healthcare profession, it can bolster your skills and credentials to help elevate you to the next management level. Case Western Reserve’s excellent relationships with Cleveland healthcare organizations such as Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, MetroHealth and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center deliver invaluable real-world opportunities and introduce students to a robust network.

The healthcare MBA is an online program, so you can complete the degree from anywhere in the world without having to forgo work, as you would in a full-time program. You can complete the 48-credit hour curriculum in just eight terms by taking two courses per trimester. Now is an optimal time to earn this degree; demand for healthcare MBAs is high, resulting in competitive salaries for healthcare administrators and managers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If you’re an early or mid-career business or healthcare professional with at least two years of work experience, you may qualify to enter this prestigious program (Case Western Reserve University is the top-ranked university in the state of Ohio). Review Weatherhead’s healthcare management degree admission requirements to learn more. Apply now to get started on a transformative educational experience.