Health Care UST MBA

Meet Bill Yanke

"The Health Care UST MBA program is relatively small and extremely personal in nature"

When I started the Health Care UST MBA program, I was the chair of Internal Medicine and a practicing primary care physician at Marshfield Clinic.  I was looking for business skills in accounting, finance, human resources, marketing, law and strategy to provide a business foundation for management that I did not yet have.  The Health Care MBA program at St. Thomas was particularly attractive because of the tremendous respect I have always had for Fritz Wenzel, one of the program’s founders and a former executive director at Marshfield Clinic.  My colleague, Dr. Lisa Benson, had also gone through the program and encouraged me to consider it for my continuing leadership development. 

The Health Care UST MBA program is relatively small and extremely personal in nature. It allowed me to develop strong relationships with my cohort colleagues, program faculty and staff.  These relationships continue to be an important component of my professional network.  Working with individuals from throughout the region gave me a much-needed reality check about how things are done outside my own organization and my cohort colleagues continue to provide a great sounding board when I’m working through proposed organizational changes. 

Program curriculum sparked new interests.  The health policy course with Sen. David Durenberger inspired me to be much more interested and engaged in policy issues well beyond health policy. It helped me realize the importance and impact of policy in all aspects of our lives and I continue to learn. 

As an alumnus, I have also come to appreciate courses that did not seem as relevant to me at the time.  Once I became a division medical director, I realized how important concepts in organizational behavior are when leading organizational change. I have since re-read course materials and have engaged, as an alumnus, with leadership and quality courses as well. The program gave me skills to be more effective in using organizational resources and to know when these resources should be used to maximize their impact.

The final paper of the program provided an excellent opportunity to bring my coursework to bear on a project I was working on at Marshfield.  While a student in the program, I was on Marshfield’s committee to develop a CMS PGP demo, which has since been adopted by the organization and now serves as a model nationwide.  St. Thomas’ relevant and thought-provoking program provided the business foundation and professional network I needed to confidently accept new challenges.

Stats