When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted hospital operations in 2020, Darius Hollings, then working as a thoracic surgeon, saw how the business side of healthcare affected facilities’ ability to provide care. Adjustments in response to the pandemic made in areas like supply chain and finance impacted doctors’ work in hospital practice.
“As physicians, we never had a seat at the table,” Hollings recalls. “It was always decided by leadership.”
That exclusion from the decision-making process, coupled with his interest in applying innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare, spurred Hollings to investigate the skills necessary to transitioning from a solely clinical role into a leadership role. He heard about the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business’ Physician Executive MBA (PEMBA) program and knew it would be a great fit.
“My former physician partner John Howington (PEMBA, ’19) completed the program several years before me, and he raved about his experience and the coaching,” Hollings says.
Prepared for a Different Kind of Interview
Haslam’s PEMBA program provided what Hollings was looking for. He gained leadership skills and learned the elements of healthcare finance, organizational improvement and other critical aspects of healthcare management. As Hollings neared graduation, a recruiter contacted him about a leadership opening. Thanks to his PEMBA training, he was primed for an interview process wholly different from what he had previously encountered.
“Those interviews were intensive,” Hollings explains. “They were focused on problem solving, difficult experiences and challenges, like ‘How would you work with a global team?’ ‘How would you manage problems?’ ‘How do you manage people?’ My experience in PEMBA prepared me for those questions.”
Applicable Learning Across Multiple Job Functions
A few months later, Hollings began his role as Johnson & Johnson’s director and medical safety officer for endomechanical and biosurgery. In this position, he oversees providing medical safety for certain surgery products. Among many other duties, his work requires collaboration with cross-functional teams to evaluate equipment risks and assess user, customer and patient safety. He quickly began applying his training from PEMBA in several areas — especially supply chain and problem-solving.
“I never imagined using the problem-solving and supply chain management skills I learned from PEMBA so quickly after finishing the program,” Hollings says. “For my role at Johnson & Johnson, we deal with supply chain all the time: getting devices where they need to be, serving different customers and resolving supply bottlenecks.”
Hollings is also applying his PEMBA training across areas like teamwork and entrepreneurship. Johnson & Johnson has units worldwide, requiring Hollings to interact with a vast personnel network. In PEMBA, Hollings worked with teams of professionals possessing disparate skills, which increased his comfort level in similar team situations.
“The PEMBA small groups were amazing in helping to learn how to work with different people,” he says. “We’re a global company, and I work with folks all over the world, so learning how to work with multifunctional, multidisciplinary teams was important.”
Innovation and new product design and testing are also frequent areas of focus in his current role, which makes entrepreneurial thinking critical. “I earned an additional certificate in physician entrepreneurship in the program,” Hollings says. “The entrepreneurship projects and training were invaluable.”
Kate Atchley, executive director of Haslam’s executive MBA programs, was impressed with Hollings’ dedication in the program. “Dr. Hollings fully embraced the PEMBA experience, approaching every class and project with focus and enthusiasm,” she says “We’re delighted to see his degree already making an impact in his new role.”
Coaching Contributed to Success
In Haslam’s PEMBA, each student is paired with a personal coach through the program and six months post-graduation. Over those 18 months, Hollings was thrilled to collaborate with Cachet Prescott, a lecturer and executive leadership coach with Haslam’s EMBA programs. He says her advice and support were indispensable as he began his new position.
“The advantage of having a coach available to me the first six months after graduation as I transitioned to my new role was invaluable,” Hollings says. “Sessions with Cachet helped me adjust, acclimate and problem-solve as I began with Johnson & Johnson.”
In turn, Prescott praises Hollings for taking full advantage of his opportunity to receive feedback.
“Darius came to every session with an openness to the process, ready to share and explore,” she says. “He also proactively put what we talked about into action and readily reported progress made along the way.”
A Degree That Promotes Physician Leader Advancement
For Hollings, Haslam’s PEMBA program was a cost-effective, convenient and impactful way to expand his career potential. He was so impressed with his experience in the program, he has already told fellow physicians about it, calling it an ideal program for M.D.s ready to advance their careers.
“I would recommend PEMBA to any physicians looking to broaden their horizons,” he says. “Whether it’s entrepreneurship, innovation or healthcare management, or if you’re in private practice and want to get better at managing and expanding your practice, PEMBA is a great way to do it.”
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CONTACT:
Scott McNutt, senior business writer/publicist, rmcnutt4@utk.edu
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