| Faculty Publications
The Health Administration Program at the University of Pittsburgh Goes `Back To Its Future'
by Wesley M. Rohrer, MBA, PhD
Under the leadership of Judith R. Lave, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Health Services Administration, and Program Director, the faculty of the Health Administration Program in the Graduate School of Public Health has completed a significant revision of its Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree curriculum.
The MHA degree program within the GSPH has been training managers and executives for positions in the health care sector since 1950. The Program has over 1,000 graduates and approximately one-third of those graduates currently hold senior management positions within their organizations. The Program is fully accredited by the Accrediting Commission on Education for Health Services Administration (ACEHSA) while the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) accredits the Graduate School of Public Health.
As the health care sector continues to evolve in response to the accelerating rate of change in the environment, (including technological development, consumer expectations, public policy initiatives and regulator), constraints, the HA faculty is committed to keeping the curriculum relevant and responsive to the needs of the health care system and the corresponding educational requirements for emerging health care professionals, managers, and leaders.
When the faculty faced this challenge in the mid-1980s, the decision was made to fashion an MHA curriculum that emphasized the development and utilization of business management skills and tools, reflecting the "corporatization" of health care delivery and the growth of managed care approaches. This led to the development of an intensive joint degree program in which the Katz Graduate School of Business and the GSPH collaboratively offered the MHA degree.
Although this approach was appropriate for its time and the demands of the health care system throughout the 1980s and 90s, subsequent changes in leadership and priorities within both the Katz GSB and the GSPH, as well as developments within health care, market demand for our graduates and evolving models of graduate education in health administration and policy led to a reconsideration of the rationale for this curriculum.
The faculty agreed that a new direction was necessary to address these changes. A consensus emerged that the program should be redirected, to clearly anchor the curriculum in the foundation concepts, values, traditions and priorities of public health research and practice.
This approach does not ignore nor reject the usefulness of corporate managerial models and techniques to the health care manager. Rather, the curriculum acknowledges the importance of these tools derived from business and public administration as one component within a broader, interdisciplinary education for a health care manager facing an array of challenges and career opportunities relevant to the public's health.
Accordingly, the faculty has revised the curriculum upon a foundation of the disciplines and principles inherent to an accredited school of public health. The ultimate goal of this curriculum is to maximize the likelihood that our graduates will be broadly educated to:
| 1. | | understand the array of biological, psycho-social, environmental and institutional forces that affect the public health, | | | 2. | | apply quantitative and qualitative methods and tools to analyzing organizational and policy problems relevant to public health, and
| | utilize effectively the interpersonal and leadership skills necessary to manage and direct organizational efforts to address these problems.
In summary, the curriculum as well as the teaching, research, and service activities of our faculty should reflect the mission of the Health Administration Program at the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health: to prepare students fully to improve the health of populations and communities by managing health organizations and systems and by providing leadership in developing informed policy and effective organizational responses to public health challenges.
Specifically, the curriculum integrates the traditional public health disciplines of health services administration, epidemiology, biostatistics, and health, disease and the environment together with applied concepts in health ethics, health management information systems, human resource management, and managing the health of populations and health systems. Theoretical models and applied methods and tools in economics, finance and accounting, information science and health policy are core building blocks for this foundation.
The didactic portion of the curriculum enables students to focus on skills, values, and conceptual abilities that are both enduring and transferable. Relevant to management and important to decision-making are sensitivities and behavior conducive to ethical conduct and professional commitment. Effective managers must have a thorough understanding of the tools of measurement and quantitative analysis, strategic positioning, policy formulation and implementation, duality management, and the management of human and financial resources.
Critical to success are problem-solving abilities, knowledge of how to build organizations and systems, as well as strong interpersonal skills and team building.
An important complement to the didactic portion of the curriculum is an array of opportunities for the student to gain both direct and vicarious experience with problems and issues associated with health policy implementation and real-time organizational and system management.
A key component of this more-experiential learning is a required Field Placement, in which students identify and negotiate a structured, mentored experience in a health care or health-related organization. This opportunity permits students to translate the knowledge gained from their classroom studies to "real world" settings and to network with health care professionals, managers and executives.
Another component built into the revised curriculum which bridges classroom and practice is the Lecture Series in Health Policy & Management coordinated by Beaufort B. Longest, Jr., Ph.D., the M. Allen Pond Professor of Health Policy & Management and Director of the Health Policy Institute.
The lecture series sponsored by the Health Policy Institute provides a regional forum for informed discussion of problems and issues of relevance to health policy, leadership and organizational management, presented by nationally prominent authorities and leaders in the local health care arena.
M.H.A. students are required to attend the lecture series and an associated seminar in which students, faculty and prominent health care leaders and scholars discuss the issues addressed in the presentation. [Note that the HPI Lecture Series is free and open to the public on a space-available basis.]
An Executive-in-Residence program, in which a regionally or nationally prominent health care executive will be invited to participate as a resident guest faculty member and mentor, is being planned as a important supplement to the experiential learning component of the program.
It is anticipated that the selected executive will participate actively in the program by sharing her/his wisdom and knowledge base though lectures, seminar discussions, informal mentoring, and career-relevant, off-campus activities.
Finally, students are required to demonstrate their mastery of the curriculum by completing a study culminating in a written report, i.e., the Master's Essay, of publishable quality in which students integrate their didactic and applied knowledge under faculty direction.
In summary, the program has been designed to prepare mature and well-credentialed students for managerial and leadership roles in managing the health of populations, communities, and health care organizations and systems for the challenges facing the public's health and wellbeing in the 21st century.
Wesley M. Rohrer, MBA, Ph.D., is Associate Director, Health Administration Programs, Department of Health Services Administration, University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health.
Rohrer WM. "The Health Administration Program at the University of Pittsburgh Goes `Back To Its Future'." Hospital News September 2001: 30-31.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To receive on application or related materials for the Health Administration Program contact: Donna Schultz at 412-624-3123.
For more information and a brochure about the Lecture Series in Health Policy and Management contact: Linda Kalcevic or Denise Thrower at 412-624-6104 or visit the website at http://www.healthpolicyinstitute.pitt.edu/
Master of Health Administration Program Curriculum
Master of Health Administration Program Statement of Program Mission and Objectives
Master of Health Administration Program Frequently Asked Questions |
