Health service managers earn a high salary running hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and related facilities. To get the best jobs in this field, managers often need to earn an accredited master’s degree in health services management.
Universities offer a wide variety of degree programs designed to prepare individuals for a career in health administration. Because the content of these undergraduate and graduate programs differs by school, an accrediting body arose to try to select the best master’s degree programs for medical and health service managers. That body is the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME).
This organization looks at the actual curriculum of programs to determine which ones meet the organization’s standards for education in medical and health administration. As CAHME explains, it is not really the type of degree or name of the master’s degree program that counts. Rather, it is the curriculum that determines the applicability and quality of the education.
Using that standard, the Commission has chosen graduate schools that offer various types of programs. The first type of program is the MBA (Master’s in Business Administration). Some of the programs selected award an MBA and another graduate degree related more specifically to health services management. These are the dual-degree programs. Other graduate schools award an MBA and allow a student to get a concentration or at least offer quality classes that include health administration within the curriculum.
Examples of these MBA degree programs include popular schools like UCLA and the University of Michigan and lesser-known schools like the University of Houston at Clear Lake and Union Graduate College. Canada’s Dalhousie University also has an accredited MBA program for health services management.
The second type of program is the Master’s in Public Health. This type of graduate degree is also considered a good education for medical and health service managers. Accredited programs include those of Boston University, UCLA, Columbia, George Mason, the University of Michigan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, San Diego State, and Yale University.
The third type is the Master’s in Public Administration. As of September 2011, only New York University has an accredited graduate program in this category. It also awards a dual medical-school degree for those interested in becoming a physician and getting educated for health services management at the same time.
The Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education then lists various other programs into a large miscellaneous group. These programs are still accredited just the same as the others, but they do not fit into the MBA, Public Health, or Public Administration master’s degree categories. Many of these are Master’s in Health Administration programs. As of September 2011, there are 50 such U.S. programs in this category that prepare aspiring health service managers. Canada has three: Dalhousie University, the University of Toronto, and Unversite de Montreal.
To see the full list of accredited master’s programs suitable for training in health services management, click the link in the Resources below. All information cited here is valid as of September 2011. Accreditation is temporary and may change in the future, and new schools may be accredited, as well.
Resources:
CAHME: Accredited Master Degrees Related to Health Services Management