New England's #1 ranked-healthcare management program. Tackle the challenges associated with improving healthcare delivery systems with this CAHME-accredited, practice-based program that builds crucial analytical and leadership competencies.
Healthcare management aims to improve access, quality, equity, and value in health care through optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare systems. BUSPH’s CAHME-accredited practice-based certificate in healthcare management provides graduates crucial analytical and leadership competencies to tackle these challenges. Graduates can analyze the organization, financing, and delivery of healthcare; analyze effects of healthcare policy; apply project management and quality improvement tools; and lead individuals and teams to improve care delivery.
In this certificate program, you will develop conceptual, analytical, and practical knowledge that will facilitate your advancement in the healthcare management field.
Certificate Mission, Vision, Values
Mission
The mission of the Healthcare Management Certificate program is to advance both research and education that improves access, quality, equity, and value in healthcare, and to meet the educational and professional development needs of recent graduates and early to mid-career health system professionals who seek to become leaders in evidence-based healthcare management and policy and transform the health of populations.
Vision
To provide an education that cultivates students’ content-specific skills as well as their ability to develop their leadership, professionalism, and career advancement skills
To become a nationally-competitive program option for students who seek to transform healthcare delivery
To create leaders who prioritize solving issues of disparities and access that plague the current US healthcare system
To deliver a flexible program for both full-time and part-time students, at multiple career stages
Values
Excellent teaching, student advising, and career preparation
Effective implementation of evidence derived from rigorous research into practice
Leverage diverse stakeholder perspectives to reduce systematic inequities in healthcare delivery
Establish the foundation for making ethical decisions using sound business and financial practices
Interdisciplinary team work and analysis, both in research and in practice
Applied exercises among students, alumni, and prospective employers through the use of field-based projects
Upon completion of the MPH with a certificate in Healthcare Management, you will excel in five key areas: health care system analysis, health policy analysis, improvement and implementation, leadership, and professionalism. This certificate is a 28-credit program.
Example Course Titles and Past Practicum Examples
Example Course Titles
Health Care Delivery Systems: Issues and Innovations
Program Evaluation Intern, Fenway Community Health Center
Administrative & Elder Service Plan Intern, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center
Health Systems Administrative Intern, Veterans’ Affairs Boston Healthcare System
Population Health Intern, Atrius Health
Assistant Program Administrator, BUMC Center for Implementation & Improvement Sciences
Neurology Quality Improvement Intern, Boston Children’s Hospital
Performance Management & Quality Improvement Intern, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Process Improvement Consultant Intern, Massachusetts General Hospital Orthopedics Department
Integrative Learning Experience
The ILE for the Healthcare management certificate is designed to be completed during a student’s last semester in the program, and is focused on evidence-based management, requiring that students apply current research findings in the field of healthcare management to an applied healthcare delivery problem or question.
Competencies You Will Develop
Health Care System Analysis
Demonstrate an understanding of the factors that shape the US healthcare system.
Analyze the structures, processes, and outcomes observed in the organization, function, delivery, and financing of health services in the US.
Apply economic and financial analysis to understand the causes of high costs of healthcare services in the US.
Analyze strategic alternatives using policy, market, and organizational analyses to develop forward-looking recommendations.
Compare the organization, delivery, and financing of the US healthcare system to systems in other nations.
Health Policy Analysis
Analyze how competing stakeholder interests shape the development and implementation of health policies.
Assess how health policies influence the allocation, financing, and delivery of healthcare.
Improvement and Implementation
Translate visions and strategies into specific goals and implementation plans with deliverables, timelines, and budgets.
Apply planning/management tools and techniques to achieve successful project completion.
Apply operations/financial concepts and data to pursue evidence-based approaches to care delivery.
Critically appraise and synthesize healthcare quality data to use in pursuit of quality improvement.
Identify roles and applications of health information and digital systems to optimize healthcare delivery.
Leadership
Collaborate in teams to set clear goals and expectations, assess the contributions of others, and provide clear developmental feedback.
Improve one’s own performance based on feedback from others.
Communicate mission, vision, goals, and recommended courses of action.
Apply problem-solving and negotiation principles to understand conflicts in interpersonal, organizational, and political contexts, and develop viable solutions.
Analyze organizational dynamics and relationships in order to improve strategies.
Apply change management principles at the individual and organizational levels.
Improve one’s understanding of how issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and racial and social justice influence the management of healthcare organizations and the health of patients.
Professionalism
Persuasively and clearly communicate in formal and informal situations, using technology to support the presentation of ideas and data.
Prepare communications in a clear, logical, and effective manner in a variety of formats (emails, policy briefs, memos, research papers).
Develop strategies for exploring career options and accurately seeing one’s own strengths and development needs.
Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of establishing and sustaining professional networks.
Apply ethical guidelines for sound professional practice.
Christopher Louis received the 2024 Teaching Excellence Award for Healthcare Management and Leadership from the Association of University Programs in Health Administration for his longstanding commitment to healthcare management education.
Program Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
Teaching and Learning Methods
Individual and Group Presentations
Case-based learning and discussion
Field-based, live consulting-style projects performed with healthcare organizations and sponsors
MacKenzie Hilton (SPH'24) reflects on her practicum at Boston Children's Hospital, where she helped to outline guiding principles for the equitable development and application of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
Outcomes
Our graduates most commonly work for hospitals, health centers, health systems, quality-improvement organizations, health insurers, or consulting firms. Some directly support clinical care (e.g. as managers in clinical areas) while others are responsible for business functions that support care (e.g. as financial analysts).
Program retention rate
0%
Academic Year 2022-2023
0%
Academic Year 2023-2024
Program graduates employed within 90 days of graduation
“The CAHME-accredited Healthcare Management program at BUSPH offers a very hands-on model of education that provides students with skills they can use to launch successful careers in healthcare leadership positions. Our program is unique in its presentation of coursework and approaches to problem solving as it views the delivery of healthcare through the lens of communities and populations, rather than focusing only on the organizations that provide medical care. Our graduates are landing great jobs in some of the nation’s best health care organizations, consulting firms, and health insurance companies and are changing the lives of patients every day. It is no wonder that our program has recently been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as the highest ranked program in New England – a distinction we carry very proudly!”
