Graduate health programs evolving with industry needs

The University of Alabama at Birmingham is introducing a new master's of science in healthcare quality and safety program this fall. It's one of many graduate programs in health administration that are evolving to meet the changing needs of the industry.

The program, which has enrolled 10 students and is expected to grow to 25 students by 2020, will prepare individuals to provide leadership in the design and implementation of clinical and non-clinical process-improvement and patient-safety activities in complex healthcare environments, said Christy Harris Lemak, professor and chair of the UAB Health Services Administration Department.

Graduate degree holders increasingly must meld data-analytics skills with high-level communication abilities, said Kathy Noland, vice president of senior executive search at B.E. Smith, a Lenexa, Kan.-based executive search firm. “Today's successful healthcare leaders have technical expertise and contemporary soft skills,” she said.

The University of California at Los Angeles' master's in public health program teaches not only quantitative data and information technology skills but also provides public speaking and interviewing skills. The program has 130 full-time students, making it the second-largest program on this year's By the Numbers list.

“There is a huge period of flux, which is causing everyone some concern,” said Laura Erskine, director of MPH programs at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health.

Graduate programs also are focusing on training students to manage hospital consolidation following mergers and to establish care-coordination programs, said Kurt Mosley, vice president of strategic alliances at Merritt Hawkins, an Irving, Texas-based recruiting firm. In addition, they are teaching students to find efficiencies to maximize the use of declining payments from Medicaid and other insurers.

“Healthcare has been doing more with less,” Mosley said. “Now it has to do better with less.”

Noland said executive search firms are seeking master's in health administration graduates who also have hotel industry experience. One reason is that plastic surgery patients prefer to convalesce in hotel-like settings rather than hospitals.

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