MHA in Health Administration
About the MHA
The HMI Department's MHA degree is designed for students from a range of educational backgrounds and provides the knowledge and skills necessary to function effectively as a healthcare executive. The curriculum includes such competency areas as health systems operations, organization theory, information management, financial management, strategic planning and marketing, human resource management, health economics, managerial epidemiology, leadership, and ethics. By combining basic and advanced course work with an internship and executive management study (an applied management study that replaces a thesis), the student may develop expertise in a focused area. Professional elective course selection is a mutual decision between the student and advisor, and in all cases, the intent is to tailor the degree program to the student’s interests. The goal of the graduate program in health administration is to prepare professionals for leadership roles in health care. Students develop an excellent applied knowledge in such areas as clinical decision support systems, risk assessment and management, clinical outcomes assessment, managing interdisciplinary teams and integrated health systems.
Degree Requirements
The residential MHA degree requires a total of 54 credit hours, which includes 39 hours of core coursework, three credit hours earned for a required 12-week summer internship, a three-credit hour capstone group management project, and nine credit hours of professional electives. Students must maintain a minimum 3.0 cumulative MU graduate grade point average to earn the Master's degree.
The professional elective requirement, which comprises three courses, allows MHA students the opportunity to concentrate in a particular area of study if they choose. They may take courses in health informatics, health ethics, informatics for public health, and project management within the HMI Department, pursue graduate certificates, or complement their MHA coursework with classes in areas such as business administration, public administration, industrial engineering and public health.
MHA students must complete a 12-week administrative internship at an approved integrated managed care system, group practice, hospital or other healthcare organization under the guidance of a qualified preceptor (often a HMI alumnus/a). The internship is designed to incorporate the academic training students receive in their first year of the master’s degree with practical applications within the host site. The students receive hands-on exposure to health care management in a real-world environment and experience first-hand the dynamics of a career in health care. The intern should have the opportunity to observe their mentor and other professionals in the work environment, as well as opportunities to discuss their experiences.
Specific general skills to be developed include:
- Leadership
- Strategic decision making
- Project management
- Teamwork
HMI's executive-in-residence works individually with students to place them at internship sites. For a list of recent internship placements, please see https://medicine.missouri.edu/departments/health-management-and-informatics/graduate-degrees-programs/residential-mha-program, administrative internship section.
| Required Courses | ||
| HMI 7410 | Introduction to the US Health Care System | 3 |
| HMI 7430 | Introduction to Health Informatics | 3 |
| HMI 7471 | Introduction to Accounting and Finance in Health Care (HMI 7471 Introduction to Accounting and Finance in Health Care) | 3 |
| HMI 8453 | Executive Management Studies | 3 |
| HMI 8460 | Administration of Health Care Organizations | 3 |
| HMI 8461 | Managing Human Resources in Health Care Organizations | 3 |
| HMI 8470 | Strategic Planning and Marketing for Health Care Organizations | 3 |
| HMI 8472 | Financial Management for Health Care Organizations | 3 |
| HMI 8524 | Health Economics | 3 |
| HMI 8544 | Managerial Epidemiology (Population Health Management) | 3 |
| HMI 8571 | Decision Support in Health Care Systems | 3 |
| HMI 8573 | Decision Making for Health Care Organizations | 3 |
| HMI 8574 | Health Care Law | 3 |
| HMI 8575 | Health Policy and Politics | 3 |
| HMI 8689 | Field Experience in Health Management and Informatics | 3 |
| Students must complete nine credit hours of professional electives | ||
| Students must satisfy a pre-requisites in microeconomics | ||
Executive MHA Degree
In addition to the residential (on-campus) MHA, the degree is offered in an alternative format to professionals who have clinical or administrative experience in health care. HMI accepts an executive MHA cohort to begin in January of each year. The Executive MHA combines monthly on-campus weekend sessions, independent study, and online interaction in an innovative two-year course of study, and requires 42 credit hours of health services management coursework. Students are required to complete a substantial independent research project, which they present during their oral comprehensive examination in their final semester.
Sample Plan of Study
| First Year | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | Credits | Spring | Credits | Summer | Credits |
| HMI 7410 | 3 | HMI 8524 | 3 | HMI 8689 | 3 |
| HMI 7471 | 3 | HMI 8544 | 3 | ||
| HMI 8460 | 3 | HMI 8573 | 3 | ||
| HMI 8461 | 3 | ||||
| 12 | 9 | 3 | |||
| Second Year | |||||
| Fall | Credits | Spring | Credits | ||
| HMI 7430 | 3 | HMI 8571 | 3 | ||
| HMI 8470 | 3 | HMI 8574 | 3 | ||
| HMI 8472 | 3 | HMI 8575 | 3 | ||
| HMI 8453 | 3 | ||||
| 9 | 12 | ||||
| Total Credits: 45 | |||||
In addition to the basic plan of study outlined above, all MHA students must complete at least nine credit hours of professional electives during the course of their degree, bringing the total required credit hours to 54. Microeconomics is a prerequisite for the MHA degree, and may be fulfilled through prior coursework or by completion of an online microeconomics module, which is available free of charge to admitted MHA students.
Thesis/Non-Thesis Requirement
All MHA students must participate in and complete an Executive Management Study (EMS) project during the second year of the degree. The EMS is a capstone group project. Each group of students is assigned a client (often within the University of Missouri Health System), and asked to research and address a particular problem and provide recommendations. Recent EMS projects have included:
- improvement of patient experience of wait times in the Orthopaedic Clinic at the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute
- surgical site infection reduction informed by NSQIP resources for UMHC
- system-wide urinary catheter reduction for UMHC
- improving screening and follow-up for students with substance use and/or mood disorders at MU Student Health
Students have also completed projects for external organizations, such as Express Scripts and the Adair County Health Dept. All MHA students complete a presentation of their EMS project.
Financial Aid
Further information about costs, financial aid, and external scholarship opportunities is available on the HMI Department's website at: http://hmi.missouri.edu/prospective/financial_aid.html.
Admissions Requirements
Applicants are required to meet two sets of minimum qualifications for admission: the requirements of the MHA program and the minimum requirements of the Graduate School. Because requirements vary, you must refer to a degree program’s graduate admission page to learn about specific admission criteria, application deadlines, eligibility and application process. Before official admission to the University of Missouri, your application materials will be reviewed by both the degree program to which you’ve applied and the Graduate School.
HMI Admissions Information
Deadline for Fall entrance: Rolling; priority deadline is March 1
A minimum of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution
Undergraduate GPA: 3.0 during the last 60 hours of undergraduate course work and any subsequent graduate course work
Minimum TOEFL scores:
| Internet-based test (iBT) | Paper-based test (PBT) |
|---|---|
| 100 | 603 |
- Minimum Academics IELTS scores:
| Item | Score |
|---|---|
| OVERALL | 7.5 |
- Minimum GRE Scores:
| When did you take the GRE? | Verbal + Quantitative |
|---|---|
| Prior to August 1, 2011 | 50th percentile |
| On or After August 1, 2011 | 50th percentile |
- In lieu of GRE, minimum GMAT score: 50th percentile. HMI also accepts LSAT and MCAT scores.
Required Application Materials
Master's program applicants should apply online through the Graduate School application system. When completing the online application, you will have an opportunity to upload/attach additional documents. Please include the following documents:
- an updated résumé or curriculum vitae;
- a personal essay that:
- outlines your professional plans and career objectives;
- explains how you became interested in health services management/health informatics and how your prior training and experience would help your career;
- includes specific issues and problems in health care you consider challenging and why;
- indicates if you intend to apply to the traditional (residential) on-campus degree program or the distance education (executive) format
Other required documents:
- Official transcripts of all coursework from all colleges, technical schools and/or universities attended
- Three letters of recommendation (submitted through the Graduate School application system)
- Official GRE/GMAT score report (Residential Students only)
You may also be required to submit other documentation and in some cases complete prerequisite courses. Below is a checklist to help make sure your application is complete:
- Request to re-enroll form (for previously admitted students only)
- Application for Change of Degree form (for students already enrolled in a Master's degree or Graduate Certificate program)
- Letter of support from your employer (Executive Students only)
- Official TOEFL report (for international applicants only - have official results sent to us: institution code is 6875, our department code is 25 - minimum score of 100 on the Internet-based exam required)
- Prerequisites - links to information about prerequisites for each degree program are available at http://hmi.missouri.edu/prospective/rmha_description.html
For additional information about the Executive MHA, please visit http://hmi.missouri.edu/prospective/emha_description.html, or contact the HMI Dept. at (573) 884-0698.
Admissions Contact
Veronica Lemme, MPA
CE740 CS&E Building, DC006.00
One Hospital Drive
Columbia, MO 65212
http://hmi.missouri.edu
(573) 884-0698
lemmev@health.missouri.edu