Increasingly, surgeons are leading healthcare delivery systems. To succeed as health system leaders, surgeons need expertise in change management, finance, clinical operations, human resources, and organizational strategy. These competencies are not part of the standard surgical residency academic development curriculum. The Surgery Administrative Fellowship offers trainees the opportunity to gain experience in healthcare administration processes during their Academic Development Time (ADT).
The fellowship will focus on the following aspects of healthcare administration:
- Basic healthcare finance and institutional funds flow
- Administrative reporting structure
- Change management
- Administrative communication
- Clinical operations
Curriculum
The program follows the apprenticeship model of education. Program leadership work with the fellow to identify interests and knowledge gaps related to healthcare administration, and a team of mentors with administrative leadership roles will be assigned to work with the fellow throughout the program. Fellows then establish goals and expectations within the first month of fellowship that guide the course of their learning experience as well as their capstone project.
Program Timeline
- Months 1 to 3: The fellow attends weekly meetings with organizational administrative leadership and works with their core administrative educational team. The mentorship team and the fellow will work together to identify a time-limited project for the fellow that has achievable goals and pre-specified endpoint. During this time, the mentored reading program will commence.
- Months 4 to 6: The fellow attends and contributes to assigned department and institutional administrative committees, while they continue to work on their capstone project and mentored reading program.
- Months 7 to 12: The fellow finalizes their mentored capstone project. Additionally, the fellow should have taken critical role leading at least one administrative effort to fix an institutional or departmental problem.
Capstone Project
The fellowship includes a final capstone project in which the trainee will present their administrative project for formative feedback to core mentorship team and relevant departmental leadership. The fellow will develop an administrative leadership longitudinal curriculum for the remainder of training.
