Dive Brief:
- On Monday, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and online education platform Emeritus announced a new program aimed at providing training in healthcare leadership.
- The four-month program will provide training to healthcare professionals in team management and decision-making, operations and supply chain management, and budgeting. It will also cover artificial intelligence and automation to allow healthcare leaders to address health equity in patient populations.
- The program announcement comes as hospitals emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with thin margins, persistently high expenses and negative balance sheets. A report from consultancy firm Kaufman Hall found that U.S. hospitals had a median 0% operating margin in April following a year of negative margins.
Dive Insight:
The Johns Hopkins program seeks to address workforce challenges in healthcare and other industries including pharmaceuticals, medical devices and insurance. Economic uncertainty is a key challenge the program will address as it aims to provide learning and development to healthcare leaders.
“There is a growing sense of urgency for healthcare leadership teams to assess and adapt to new economic circumstances quickly – all while continuing to improve access, quality and health outcomes,” Ranil Herath, president of Emeritus Healthcare, said in a statement.
Emeritus will draw on its partnerships with the HHS, home health services company Aveanna Healthcare and nonprofit health system SCL Health to provide training to healthcare executives.
Although industry analysts have focused on clinician and nursing staffing shortages following the coronavirus pandemic, the partnership between Johns Hopkins and Emeritus aims to address a gap in business skills for healthcare executives, including self-development and resilience building.
“As expectations rise and workplace challenges evolve – leadership training is no longer considered a nice-to-have, but is an essential need to best meet the demands of today’s global health system,” Herath said.
To address health equity, the program will provide training on building and managing diverse healthcare teams, as well as provide tips on motivation. The curriculum will also offer techniques on how to make healthcare equitable and accessible.
