WGU MBA-HM first impressions and ongoing comments

[dmjacobsen]

Service Line Development -- knocked out in 2 weeks. I didn't expect this course to go by so fast, but I was actually really interested in the material, as I'm working in a hospital that is struggling to find its niche in the local market. All of the tasks dealt with the pro's and con's of different service lines. As of this writing, the service lines were Cardiology, Orthopedics, and Oncology. Coming from an ER background where we sort of know a little bit about everything, but not a lot about any one area of medicine other than Emergency, I found it pretty easy to talk in general terms about the needs of all of these service lines. It might be a little more difficult if I came from a more specialized background.

It also helped to take Financial Analysis before this class. While there wasn't a lot of number-crunching involved in the Service Line course, there were some financials-driven decisions to be made -- buying versus leasing versus building onto existing property as well as profitability of different service lines. So, I would definitely recommend taking FA before this course.

Side note -- after a very brief stint in corporate (as I mentioned above in this thread), my job -- along with 119 others -- was downsized. Really sucks to have not had much of an opportunity to prove myself. But, I can take heart in the fact that I didn't lose my job because of poor performance. Just poor planning and execution by higher-up's. At least I still have a job with my organization, which most of the people that got downsized can't say. Lesson learned -- if you're going to move up in a healthcare organization, stay in the hospital side. I went to a division of the organization that handles physician offices and specialist clinics, and found that it was a much more unorganized and unstable environment. As an unexpected benefit of losing my corporate position, hospital administration has noticed my desire to move up in the organization and I've been given some additional leadership opportunities outside of my department, so I think things will work out well for me in the long run.

So now, I'm down to my last three courses for the program -- Organizational Management, Leadership, and the Capstone. Unfortunately, I can't start Leadership until January, because it's a cohort class. On the upside, because there are no Leadership cohorts in December, my mentor was able to get me into the Capstone starting 12/8. The cohort portion of the Capstone lasts 6 weeks, so I'll be done with that on 1/19/14. Leadership has to be done in 4 weeks, from what I understand, so I'll be done with that by the end of January. Assuming I can get my consultant hours in for the Capstone at work in good time, I'm looking at finishing the program by February at the latest. It's nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel and, if I stay on track, I'll have completed the MBA in 9-10 months. Not bad!