For as long as Timmothy Randell can remember, medicine was the plan.
A toy doctor kit from his grandmother at age 4 set his course. Years later, a broken wrist and a broken ankle helped him choose his specialty.
“I spent a considerable amount of time in his office,” he says. “At that point, I realized I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon.”
Today, Randell is a hip and knee surgeon in Alexandria, Louisiana. While years of medical training prepared him to care for patients, it didn’t prepare him for professional growth away from the bedside.
Very rapidly, Randell joined and became a partner with MidState Orthopedics, bought into a physician-owned hospital, invested in real estate tied to his work, and stepped into hospital leadership.
Before long, he was reviewing financial statements, weighing long-term strategy, and helping guide major decisions for both the orthopedic practice and the hospital.
The clinical part was familiar. The business part was not.
“All of a sudden, I became this businessperson. I was looking at financials and helping make long-term decisions for the hospital,” says Randell. “I didn’t really know what in the world I was doing. I felt like I needed to learn more about the business side.”
So, he researched highly ranked MBA online programs that could fit around his surgical schedule.
“I saw the University of Louisiana at Lafayette was ranked in the top five or 10. It was an easy choice.”
That reputation sealed his decision. Enrolling in the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s MBA with a concentration in Health Care Administration online let him keep working while gaining the business and leadership skills his growing role demanded.
Balancing Surgery, Family, and School
Online learning felt familiar to Randell. Like many physicians, he had already spent years completing continuing medical education online.
Nonetheless, he had to stay disciplined to meet the challenge of his online MBA courses.
“You have to set aside time each day to deal with what you need to,” he says.
“It is 100% doable. It was difficult enough to challenge me and make me work hard, but it didn’t break my life.”
Most nights were reserved for coursework, with weekends set aside for heavier reading or projects. That routine was only possible with support at home.
“My family was there to afford me the time to do what I needed to do,” says Randell. “It was my wife tending to the children while I dealt with work, which was a blessing.”
Faculty support and online resources kept the program manageable. Instructors were responsive, group projects were easy to coordinate through tools like Google Meet, and the online library became a key resource for research.
And the program met his reason for enrollment: improving his financial literacy.
“I was absolutely able to achieve that,” he says. “What I didn’t expect to get out of the program was the emphasis on leadership skills.”
As his role expands beyond the operating room, those skills are as critical as his clinical training.
“It’s not just taking care of the patient from day to day,” he says. “That’s the easy stuff, because that’s what I’ve trained my whole life to do. But dealing with employees who might be having conflict or supporting a physician who needs guidance — the MBA really helped me navigate a lot of those situations.”
Applying the MBA to Medicine
Looking ahead, Randell sees the MBA as an investment in his professional longevity.
“This business foundation is going to really help me if I ever decide to not be on the front lines of medicine,” he says.
Looking back, the experience exceeded his expectations.
“My time in the MBA program was better than I ever thought it could be,” he says. “I got everything I ever could have wanted, and more, out of it.”
Prepare for the next phase of your medical career with UL Lafayette’s online MBA with a concentration in Health Care Administration.
