Master of Healthcare Administration

Lead Faculty: Dr. Terry L. Schmidt

The Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) is a graduate professional degree designed to enhance the practice of healthcare administration/management by preparing students for entry level and middle management roles in healthcare organizations. Healthcare management involves the organization, financing and delivery of services to prevent and treat illness and disease, including programs that serve the public and private sectors at all levels -- local, state, and federal.  Faculty members have expertise in diverse fields such as management, economics, law, medicine, public health, planning, sociology, and statistics. They are united by a common commitment to solving problems and developing innovations related to the access, cost and quality of healthcare.

The MHA program emphasizes the conceptual and analytical skills required to understand and manage today's healthcare organization and prepare for tomorrow's challenges. Special attention is given to the social contributions of the profession and its unique people-dependent focus.  Also featured are experiential opportunities in project management, teamwork and leadership.  Ideal candidates for the MHA program are those students looking for career advancement from middle to upper middle management; those looking for career transition into healthcare administration from other professions; and those looking to advance from clinical/technical roles to management roles. Graduates will enhance their opportunities for professional growth and job placement through carefully planned internships and a multidisciplinary team-based capstone experience. The MHA program is an associate member institution of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA).

Program Learning Outcomes
In accordance with the competency guidelines established by the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL), the Master of Healthcare Administration program prepares graduates to:

• Adopt an achievement-oriented professional philosophy habitually creating and assessing measurable personal and organizational goals.
• Solve complex problems in a healthcare environment by employing rigorous analytical skills.
• Align strategic priorities of a healthcare organization with the needs and values of the community it serves.
• Conduct financial analysis and explain accounting information, prepare and manage budgets, and make sound long-term investment decisions in a healthcare organization.
• Maintain professional currency with health, organizational, industry, and professional trends and developments.
• Apply complex concepts and develop creative solutions to be an innovative healthcare manager.
• Formulate strategic plans based on business, economic, demographic, ethno-cultural, political, and regulatory trends and developments, and develop an evolving vision for the organization and the health industry that results in long-term success and viability.
• Establish metrics for individual and organizational accountability to standards of performance.
• Energize stakeholders and sustain their commitment to changes in approaches, processes, and strategies.
• Work cooperatively with others as part of a team or group, including demonstrating positive attitudes about the team, its members, and its ability to get its mission accomplished.
• Speak and write in a clear, logical, and grammatical manner in formal and informal situations, to prepare cogent business presentations, and to facilitate a group.
• Persuade and convince others to support a point of view, position, or recommendation.
• Employ administrative and clinical information technology and decision-support tools in process and performance improvement.
• Identify formal and informal decision-making structures and power relationships in a healthcare organization.
• Apply statistical and financial methods and metrics to set goals and measure clinical as well as organizational performance. Graduates will adopt a commitment to and employment of evidence-based techniques for decision making.
• Analyze and design or improve an organizational process, including incorporating the principles of quality management as well as customer satisfaction.
• Plan, execute, and oversee a multi-year, large-scale healthcare-related project involving significant resources, scope, and impact.
• Implement staff development and other management practices that represent contemporary best practices, comply with legal and regulatory requirements, and optimize the performance of the workforce.
• Demonstrate application of ethical and professional practices to healthcare management.
• Establish, build, and sustain professional contacts for the purpose of building networks of people with common goals and interests.
• Self-assess personal strengths and development needs, including one's impact on others.
• Build the breadth and depth of a healthcare organization's human capability.
• Be a leader, from assembling a senior management team that possesses balanced capabilities to setting the mission, values, and norms, as well as holding the team members accountable individually and as a group for results.

Requirements

Degree Requirements (16 courses; 72 quarter units)
To receive an MHA degree, students must complete at least 72 quarter units of graduate work. A total of 13.5 quarter units of graduate credit may be granted for equivalent graduate work completed at another institution, as it applies to this degree and provided the units were not used in earning another advanced degree. Refer to the section of graduate admission requirements for specific information regarding application and evaluation.

Core Requirements (16 courses; 72 quarter units)

Unit 1: Foundations of Healthcare
HCA 600 - U.S. Healthcare System
HCA 602 - Managerial Epidemiology
HCA 640 - Biostatistics and Research
HCA 610 - Health Policy

Unit 2: The Healthcare Organization
HCA 620 - Health Organization Management
HCA 626 - Healthcare Information Systems
HCA 622 - Quality Appraisal & Evaluation

Unit 3: The Healthcare Administrator
HCA 662 - Healthcare Accounting
HCA 660 - Health Economics
HCA 664 - Healthcare Finance
HCA 628 - Human Resources Management
HCA 630 - Healthcare Law & Ethics
HCA 624 - Healthcare Planning & Marketing

Unit 4: The Healthcare Leader
HCA 670 - Healthcare Leadership
HCA 691A - Healthcare Internship
  (Prerequisites: Completion of HCA 600, 602, 610, 620, 622, 624, 626, 628, 630, 640, 660, 662, 664, 670, or permission by instructor).
HCA 692 - Healthcare Capstone
  (Prerequisites: Completion of HCA 600, 602, 610, 620, 622, 624, 626, 628, 630, 640, 660, 662, 664, 670, 691A or permission by instructor).

Recommended Elective (1 course, 4.5 quarter units)
HCA 650 - Medical Practice Management

Program Information

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Program Locations

• La Mesa Campus
• South Bay Campus
• Spectrum Business Park Campus
• Technology and Health Sciences Center

Related Downloads

• Careers in Healthcare Administration