Podcast: Managing the business of health care

Peter Drucker, sometimes called the father of modern management, once commented that health care organizations are the most difficult to manage of all organizations. For example, American health care is defined by legislative mandate yet implemented in the private sector. Further complicating the system is the fact that the majority of physicians who deliver hospital care are independent contractors and not employees of the hospitals. Indeed, clinicians at all levels need management skills, not only to navigate Medicaid and Medicare regulations, but also to build and operate new programs. The W. P. Carey School's David Patton, professor of practice in the School of Health Management and Policy, is teaching a series of courses designed to introduce these skills to physicians, nursing executives and others who run this complex system.

Peter Drucker, sometimes called the father of modern management, once commented that health care organizations are the most difficult to manage of all organizations. For example, American health care is defined by legislative mandate yet implemented in the private sector. Further complicating the system is the fact that the majority of physicians who deliver hospital care are independent contractors and not employees of the hospitals.

Indeed, clinicians at all levels need management skills, not only to navigate Medicaid and Medicare regulations, but also to build and operate new programs. The W. P. Carey School's David Patton, professor of practice in the School of Health Management and Policy, is teaching a series of courses designed to introduce these skills to physicians, nursing executives and others who run this complex system.