News Article

The Gonzaga University Graduate School of Business Administration will launch a new MBA program with a specialized curriculum in health care. Gonzaga’s new MBA in Healthcare Management, a 33-credit part-time program, will begin in fall 2007.

Bud Barnes, dean of the Gonzaga School of Business, said he believes the program will benefit the Inland Northwest in multiple ways.

“The Inland Northwest has a tradition of excellent health care services. The graduate programs we offer complement very well this high quality industry we serve,” Barnes said.

The program is designed to serve an unmet need in the Inland Northwest for managers trained in the skills needed to manage the businesses that produce and deliver various health care services. A task force of local health care professionals has met with representatives of Gonzaga’s Graduate School of Business Administration for the past six months refining the program that they feel will meet the needs of the health care community.

“There have been other health care management programs in the past, but they either were more theoretical or targeted hospital administration. The new program at Gonzaga will address the more practical business aspects of running a medium to large medical practice in 2007 and beyond. I look forward to hiring graduates of this program in the future,” said Steven Duvoisin, MBA in Healthcare Advisory Board member.

Those accepted into the program will meet the standard entrance requirements for the MBA, including a minimum score of 500 on the GMAT examination unless they hold a professional doctoral degree, such as M.D., D.D.S., or Ph.D.

The program will require the same 33 credits as the current MBA program. A unique requirement to the MBA-HCM will be an internship to be served in a Spokane medical facility.

Courses unique to the Healthcare Management degree will be taught on a three-year cycle until demand warrants that they be taught more frequently. Combined with the 12 credits of MBA core offered each semester, the plan envisions that a typical part-time student will take six credits each semester. The courses will be taught once a week in the evenings from 5:30-8 p.m. Students can enter the program during any semester.

Members of the task force that developed the proposal include: Steven Duvoisin, CEO, Duvoisin & Associates Healthcare Business Services and CEO of Inland Imaging ; Dan Hiebert, chief reimbursement officer, Inland Imaging Business Associates; Dr. Charles Hough, physician, Rockwood Clinic; Tom Carli, clinic administrator, Spokane Internal Medicine; Mike Burns, vice president of sales and marketing for Physicians Hospital Community Organization; Dr. Kevin Sweeney, CEO, Rockwood Clinic; James Webster, chief financial officer, Northwest Orthopedic Specialists; Rod Emerson, administrator, Spokane Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic; Greg Jones, medical director of Deaconess Regional Hyperbaric Center & Comprehensive Wound Healing Center; and Tom Legel, vice president for finance/information systems, Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

There will be an information meeting June 6 from 5:30-7 p.m. at Gonzaga’s Jepson Center. For more information or to RSVP for the information session, contact Jinny Piskel, assistant director of graduate business programs, at (509) 323-3414 or via e-mail; or Professor Kay Carnes, director of Graduate Business Programs at (509) 323-3420 or via e-mail. 

The program’s new Web site can be found at www.gonzaga.edu/MBA/healthcare.