Since residency, Dr. Badrinath Konety knew he wanted to pursue a leadership role in a healthcare setting. He originally set his sights on becoming chair of a department, not thinking that he'd end up as a CEO.
“I got my MBA just after I finished my residency, but the motivation was different at that time,” Dr. Konety said. “I knew I wanted to be a department chair someday and thought that of all I’d learned, the only thing I had no knowledge of was finances and the business aspects of medicine.”
After holding a number of administrative roles, including chair of the Department of Urology, director of the Institute for Prostate and Urologic Cancers and associate director for clinical affairs of the Masonic Cancer Center, he became CEO of UMP on December 1, 2018.
Everybody is focused on providing excellent and efficient and rapid clinical care, but we can’t forget the importance of the other component,” Konety says. “That’s what we’re all about as a medical school.
“You can either be a spectator, or you can be part of the solution,” he told the Minnesota Medical Association of his new role. “I view being an administrator, if you do it well, as being part of the solution. I’m a surgeon and most surgeons have this idea—whether it’s based on ego or a high level of self-confidence—that you want to fix it. It’s hard for us to watch issues and not jump in and take action."
Now, Dr. Konety has the difficult task of managing relationships with other health providers, an ever-changing healthcare landscape and the academic components of the UMP mission.