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Dr. David Spalding of Mishawaka (M.D.-IUSM '63) is a non-traditional IU South Bend student of a non-traditional sort.
Call him Doctor Joe College.
Spalding is one area physician who is adjusting to shifts in the medical service field by enrolling in IUSB's Physician Leadership Education Program. The program educates physicians on the financial and administrative aspects of today's health-care industry. Spalding and his colleagues who attend the two-year program will earn a certificate in health service management, pending approval of IU, and are offered the option to continue for a master's degree in public affairs.
For Spalding, the program is introducing him to the ins and outs of health care cost management and insurance regulations. He believes the administrative knowledge allows him to get closer to his patients on all levels.
"I'd like to have some input on what's happening on the economic side," he said.
Tom Ross, IUSB assistant professor of public and environmental affairs, coordinates the program and teaches many of its courses. But the idea grew from another physician, Dr. Alan Snell, who was himself trying to negotiate the ins and outs of health-care administration and economics.
As director of physician services at Memorial Hospital, Snell saw the need to familiarize physicians with administrative and financial processes so they could assume a larger role in the management of health-care organizations. Doctors must understand a patient's financial situation with their insurance providers as well as their medical history, he said.
"IU is the kind of educational institution that cares about the community," Snell added. "We're proud to be working with IUSB on this project."
The goal of the program is to bridge the gap between administrative personnel and health-care personnel. The medical profession has a distinct problem-solving orientation and language understood by physicians, as do administrative and financial professions. The Physician Leadership Education Program enables doctors to communicate on the same level as administrators, said Ross.