SPH Healthcare Management Program No. 1 in Region.

The School of Public Health’s Healthcare Management program is now the highest ranked program in New England and is in a tie for No. 23 nationally, according to the latest rankings released on March 12. The program is the only Master of Public Health degree program among the top 25 graduate schools in healthcare management.

“This is the first time our emerging Healthcare Management program has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report,” said Michael Stein, chair of the Department of Health Law, Policy & Management, where the Healthcare Management certificate is housed. “The ranking is an acknowledgement of the exceptional learning experience that we offer and the fantastic achievements of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

“We believe we have a very hands-on model of education that is unique in its presentation of material through the lens of communities and populations, rather than focusing only on the organizations that provide medical care.”

The new ranking reflects the program’s recent CAHME [Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education] re-accreditation and growth over the past seven years. It now encompasses more than 100 full- and part-time students

SPH’s practice-based certificate provides graduates crucial analytical and leadership competencies to tackle the challenges of improving the quality, value, and access in healthcare.  Graduates are able to analyze the organization, financing and delivery of healthcare, as well as the effects of healthcare policy, and lead individuals and teams to improve care delivery.

“It is clear that students are choosing us because they are getting high quality experiential learning opportunities, developing useful skills that can be used in the field, and are launching successful careers,” said Chris Louis, director of the Healthcare Management program and assistant professor of health law, policy & management. “Recent graduates are quickly finding jobs across the US in hospitals and health systems, consulting firms, health insurance companies, pharma, NGO’s and start-ups. We have a growing number of students who are selected each year for some of the most competitive and prestigious administrative fellowships in the country, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins, Geisinger Health System, University of North Carolina, Duke University, and Emory University.”

These latest rankings also placed SPH at No. 8 among all schools of public health, up from No. 10 in the last round of rankings in 2015. This advacement is the school’s fourth consecutive rise up the U.S. News rankings, which assess the quality of schools accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health. The new ranking also puts SPH in the top five private schools of public health and in the top 5 percent of the nation’s 183 schools and programs of public health.

—Jillian McKoy