Master of Health Administration

Welcome from the Graduate Program Director

The curriculum of the MHA is designed to prepare a variation of professionals from both health and non-health related areas to lead health service organizations. All students enrolled in the MHA will be required to take Foundation, Advanced and Elective courses, along with a Thesis and potential residency depending on length of healthcare experience. The total number of credits is 45.

Vision

To be a premier high value provider of health administration education at the regional, state and national level to all types of clinical and non-clinical individuals.

Mission

The MHA program will provide students with tools for successful careers and personal growth through:

• The use of both on-campus and off-campus media to enhance their skills, knowledge and abilities in health administration at a reasonable expense
• Instruction of theoretical and conceptual frameworks for programmatic solutions in actual practice settings,
• Instruction in the domains and competencies required by the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME)
• Preparation for leadership in private, public, profit or non-profit health service organizations
• Community based residencies that add value to patients’ care (required or optional depending on individual experience), and
• A unique professional based thesis that is focused on improving care or resource use in healthcare

Goals

Programmatic goals include obtaining a selection of both diverse student and faculty educational and experiential backgrounds to foster increased interdisciplinary understanding of health care. Because a health administrator supports those who provide care, it is incumbent to include both clinicians and non-clinicians in the student body to refine their analytical, verbal and quantitative skills for resolving complex health care issues. Individuals learn both cognitive and affective educational domains at the highest levels.

Objectives

The MHA has four primary objectives. They are to prepare students:

1. For positions of increased responsibility within healthcare,
2. For further career choices beyond the entry level,
3. With clinical, business or other backgrounds, who want to expand their careers into health administration, and
4. To improve the quality of care and resource use in health organizations

Additional MHA educational objectives include, but are not limited to:

1. Development of independent thinking in a complex world,
2. Benchmark skills in health ethics for a global environment
3. Development of superior health administration skills,
4. Development of strong health economics/financial skills,
5. Promotion of managed health care demonstration sites,
6. Promotion of pragmatic application from residency (or thesis) experiences,
7. Exposure to current health care systems analysis and forecasting

On behalf of the entire health administration faculty and staff, we look forward to your application for the MHA and encourage you to visit all of our MHA websites for more information on the MHA. You will see by visiting our MHA websites a significant amount of information on our MHA and what it can do for your future.

Sincerely,

Tom McIlwain, MPH, PhD
Professor and Director - MHA Program