The McCombs School of Business understands the health care field and the study of business management can gain a lot from each other. 

To address this, McCombs launched the Business of Healthcare Certificate, a new program aimed at helping business students broaden their understanding of the health care field, starting this semester.

McCombs senior lecturer Kristie Loescher has worked in health care quality assurance, utilization management and clinical research. 

“Health care in the U.S. accounts for 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, (which is) more than manufacturing,” Loescher said in an email. “It is also one of the fastest growing sources of employment; over 12 million Americans work in the industry.”

Management lecturer Dennis Passovoy is working on another project that is integrating business and health care. Students follow patients through the Brackenridge Hospital system to identify barriers to patient discharge. Passovoy said this program does come with its set of frustrations, such as numerous background checks, vaccinations, HIPAA and other online tests, which Passovoy said he and his students have to address.

“I understand the need to keep the hospital’s patients safe and secure,” Passovoy said. “(But) there has to be a better, less bureaucratic way. This reality is frustrating to my students when they come face to face with it, usually a few weeks into their projects. It is also a constant and vocal frustration uttered by the staff my students are working with.”

Noah Minor, a graduate student at the Dell Medical School, was a teaching assistant for Loescher and said he plans to return to McCombs to finish his MBA. Minor said he believes students still get a lot of great benefits from connecting their business education with health care. 

“By going to the hospital, meeting with real decision-makers and actually interacting with the problem you’re tasked with, I think people become more engaged,” Minor said. 

In Austin’s rapidly growing health care economy, the connection to business is even more valuable. If he had to do it all over again, Noah said, he would choose McCombs even more enthusiastically.

Loescher said she sees many benefits for students who complete the certificate program. 

“They are more informed consumers of health care and will have a well-defined understanding of how health care reform proposals will impact the system,” Loescher said. “Students who become physicians and other health care professionals will be able to advocate for system change in a thoughtful, informed way.”