Adia Ross, MD, MHA, a third-year resident in internal medicine and an inaugural trainee in the Management and Leadership Pathway for Residents (MLPR), has been named a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Ross will be part of a select group of examiners who evaluate and judge managerial excellence in both the private and public sectors. The President of the United States honors recipients of the Baldrige Award each year in the country’s only formal recognition of business excellence.
“There are not a lot of physicians chosen to be examiners,” said Ross. “So, I’m very excited.”
Ross’ appointment, which lasts one year, will take her to Washington, D.C. for an intensive one-week training this summer. Though that training promises to be a grueling 60-hour affair, Ross has been training for this role since coming to Duke and being selected for the MLPR trainee program.
“I would not have had this opportunity without the MLPR program,” Ross said.
As a trainee, Ross does traditional clinical rotations for six months, then switches to a business and administrative curriculum for six months. The unique schedule allows her to bring a clinician’s perspective to health care administration, and see the bottom line in patient care.
“As a trainee I’ve learned to ask what something means for the patient, the service line, and the institution,” said Ross. “I can confidently straddle both the business and medical world.”
Devdutta Sangvai, MD, MDA, assistant professor of community and family medicine and associate program director of MLPR, said Ross’ accomplishment speaks volumes about the strengths of the MLPR program.
“People get into medicine with all kinds of skills, and those with business skills need to be developed,” said Sangvai. “Our idea with MLPR was to take the elective time during residency and not have these students do a rotation in Dermatology, but in marketing or finance. They don’t just shadow. It’s a full immersion experience”
Trainees with business skills need a vehicle by which their talents can be deployed and developed, said Sangvai.
“Our idea with MLPR was to take some clinical elective time during residency and repurpose that into management rotations, like in finance and operations. During these rotations, MLPR residents don’t simply shadow – it’s a full immersion experience.”
The MLPR program takes two trainees per years, and lasts for 18 months, with residents earning a certificate from the School of Medicine and the Fuqua School of Business after they complete their rotations.
Though Ross has a medical degree and a Masters in healthcare administration from UNC-Chapel Hill, and a finance degree from University of Florida, she said the MLPR rotations have taken her skills out of the classroom.
“This is an opportunity to practice what we’ve learned when we also have clinical skills,” said Ross. “I now have a real toolbox of administrative techniques I can use.”
That toolbox, said Sangvai, builds a special confidence in trainees.
“They feel able to contribute and speak up in meetings, more sure of their voice,” he said.
Eventually, Ross said she’d like to have a hybrid career, as both an administrator and clinician.