There is a need for people who can help to professionalise both the public and private health care environment. If you want to lead positive change in this environment, the University of Stellenbosch Business School’s MBA with its concentration of modules in Health Care Leadership (MBA HCL) will serve you well.

Some momentous interventions and findings were made public in the health care sector in 2018. The Health Market Inquiry recently released by the Competitions Commissioner unearthed findings that are calling for a response from the private sector. The public sector was found wanting in many respects in terms of services. A new Medical Schemes Bill and the National Health Insurance Bill have been published. All these events have important implications for management in health care.

The MBA in Health Care Leadership (MBA HCL for short) was designed as a result of indications of a real need for better leadership, management and organisational skills in the health care sector while taking into account the major shifts brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Managers will have to improve service delivery while cutting costs, realising reasonable but sustainable profits where relevant and measuring outcomes, and implement the management cycle of outcomes, namely Plan, Organise and Implement, Lead and Control. Then they need to repeat the processes in the management cycle with rapid responses to findings in the control phase.

The immediate and future overlays of this will be rapid innovation, massive data volumes and a global wave of value-based care and outcomes for spending. Furthermore, we need to keep up with generational needs and behaviour, and be able to respond in a very agile manner.

New technologies like robotics, wearables, remote monitoring, genetics and 3D printing will be superimposed on this new system and values.

USB’s MBA in Health Care Leadership will address these trends. Students will get a solid foundation of leadership, financial management, strategic management and other bread-and-butter subjects taught in business schools. We will then immerse in Health Care by interrogating Health Care Finance, Health Systems and Policy, Health Care Innovation, Health Care Data Management and Value-Based Care, which are integrated with an International Study Module where students visit an overseas university as part of the course.

We hope that the individual and end product that we deliver will be a well-prepared health care leader who can influence the issues that we have identified in the first few paragraphs and offer solutions.

We look forward to interact with you as that individual and to have you or your employees in our class.

Prof Manie de Klerk

More about USB’s MBA HCL

• What will you learn? The MBA HCL covers all the functional areas of management while giving you a contextual understanding of the principles of clinical governance and current health care reform programmes such as National Health Insurance, the policy landscape and health systems for value-based care. The stream-specific modules and electives focus on the challenges of finance and funding in health care, taking into account a limited-resource context in South Africa and in Africa.
• Who should apply? This two-year MBA is aimed at clinicians and general practitioners who want to take on managerial and leadership roles in the health care industry, group practices or government. Managers, professionals, senior nurses and others with high-impact responsibilities in private-sector and public-sector health care delivery institutions will also benefit from this qualification.
• How this MBA format works: In Year 1, students who want to specialise in Health Care Leadership start off with either the modular MBA (attending on-campus study blocks spread over time) or blended learning MBA (joining the class via any internet-linked device from anywhere in the world). Both formats allow students to study while they work. During Year 2, MBA HCL students attend one on-campus block at the start of the year, followed by blended learning classes (on campus or online) on Wednesdays evenings, and one on-campus electives block towards the end of the year.

Find more information here.