On Sunday, June 26, at the Artus Court in Gdańsk, 175 students graduated from “Prometriq MBA – Management in Healthcare” organized by Collegium Prometricum.
The event was honored by the presence of academics and healthcare experts from all over the country, incl. Deputy Minister of Health of Republic of Poland Wacława Wojtala and Krzysztof Łanda, as well as foreign guests, including Nick Guldemond, Expert Member WHO Working Group Digital Health. There was also present the representative of the institution validating the Prometriq MBA Programme, prof. Ramon O’Callaghan, Dean of Porto Business School – the renowned business school of the University of Porto.
Collegium Prometricum offers healthcare administration professionals the opportunity to grow professionally and personally by studying remotely and networking in the real world. We prepare healthcare managers for the challenges of the future by providing them with up-to-date knowledge, developing managerial skills and shaping attitudes of openness to change. Among Prometriq MBA graduates, 52% are directors or presidents of medical entities, 33% are medical staff, all with extensive experience (on average more than 11 years of work experience) and perfectly prepared theoretically (17% are people who have already completed MBA studies or have a PhD or post-doctoral degree or full professor title – 2 people).
Piotr Karniej, Doctor of the Medical University in Wrocław, emphasized that: “For a healthcare manager, constant improvement of competences is a key task in everyday work. For us, people managing in healthcare sector, it is very important to be able to obtain good-quality knowledge from experts and specialists who deal with these issues every day. The Prometriq MBA studies were very interesting for me personally, very important and, above all, very comfortable, thanks to the formula – 95% online. They allowed to combine everyday work with improving competences. Thank you very much for the opportunity to obtain new qualifications.”
Tomasz Walasek, the director of the County Hospital in Sławno, and Zuzanna Donath-Kasiura, the deputy marshal of the Opolskie Voivodeship, spoke on behalf of the graduates, emphasizing that these studies allowed them to look at many matters from a new perspective, and establish a network of contacts. The students took part not only in on-line classes, but also in a 3-day stationary session in Sopot. They unanimously emphasize that the knowledge they obtained allows for better management of entities from the healthcare sector.
Due to the specificity of healthcare, many management methods and tools proven in other industries do not bring the expected results. Induced demand, moral hazard, a high degree of autonomy of key employees – these are just some of the reasons why managing a medical entity or institution requires specific knowledge and experience. In healthcare, not always more clients means better results. More profit does not always mean a better service. Leadership, marketing, finance, HR, innovations in healthcare often mean something different than described in standard management manuals and require separate understanding. Collegium Prometricum lecturers are experts who have been for years participating in the search for effective management solutions for the healthcare sector, understanding its specificity and complexity. Professor Ramon O’Callaghan also referred to this:
“Sometimes people wonder why professionals in the medical field, in healthcare management, should have an MBA (Master of Business Administration). You may think that an MBA is only for business, and hospitals are not really a business. Well, that’s wrong because, in fact, it is about management in organisations. We all have the same problem – whether it is a business, a hospital or any large organisation. It’s about people, it’s about managing budgets, it’s about adopting new technologies and implementing new systems. The complexities in the healthcare sector are even greater than they are in some other business. So, the type of skills that you learn in an MBA are certainly very appropriate for current and future managers in this sector.”
The agreement with Porto Business School opens the possibility for MBA students to participate in international sessions carried out also by PBS partners, including, for example, London Business School (the most valued business school next to Harvard, Wharton and INSEAD). In July this year, PBS students and partners were invited to participate in the “Tides of Change” management skills development course. Another trip is planned in October, to PBS partner universities in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Collegium Prometricum students (www.prometricum.eu) will have the opportunity to participate in classes at the best European and global universities.
