Master of Health Administration Competencies
The Competency Model of the Master in Health Administration at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences consists of twenty-two competencies distributed across five domains. It is the result of an extensive consideration of the competency models used by highly-ranked CAHME-Accredited programs.
Students Beginning Program Spring 2018 to Present
Domain I – Leadership, Professionalism, and Ethics
- Demonstrate ethics, sound professional practices, social accountability, community stewardship, and a commitment to life-long learning.
- Assess individual strengths and weaknesses (including the impact that you have on others) and engage in continual professional development and self-reflection.
- Articulate how leaders energize stakeholders with a compelling vision that fosters and sustains shared commitment to organizational goals.
- Participate in and lead team activities that demonstrate collaborative group effort and effective group processes, including the ability to hold team members accountable individually and collectively.
Domain 2 – Communications and Relationships
- Speak and write in a clear, logical, and grammatically correct manner in formal and informal situations and to prepare cogent business presentations.
- Establish, build, and sustain professional contacts for the purpose of building networks of people with similar goals and that support similar interests.
- Work effectively and respect the differences in others’ culture, race, gender, age, and experience.
- Listen effectively and empathetically in order to understand and identify with others’ interests, concern, and needs.
Domain 3 – Management and Strategy
- Consider the business, demographic, cultural, political, and regulatory implications of decisions and develop strategies that continually improve the long-term success and viability of the organization.
- Articulate and evaluate best human resource practices.
- Understand and evaluate the formal and informal decision-making structures and power relationships in an organization; the ability to identify key decision-makers and the individuals who can influence them.
- Understand and value the potential in and understand the use of administrative and clinical information technology and decision-support tools in process and performance improvement.
- Understand the principles of transformational management, and to assess the organizational dynamics of healthcare organizations relative to their commitment to a transformational culture.
Domain 4 – Measurement and Analysis
- Understand and explain financial and accounting information, prepare and manage budgets, and make sound long-term investment decisions.
- Assess multiple dimensions of financial performance to measure and improve the long-term financial viability of provider organizations.
- Evaluate clinical and organization performance using statistical and operations management techniques and procedures.
- Apply general and health economic concepts to the analysis of pricing, service demand, and risk.
- Demonstrate analytical thinking and logical approached to problem solving.
- Understand the process by which the health and disease status of a community, including relevant determinants are gathered, analyzed and interpreted; appreciate the limitations of this process as well as issues of causation; demonstrate the process by which healthcare organizations use such data to shape their strategic vision.
Domain 5 – Knowledge of the Healthcare Environment
- Interpret and analyze laws and regulations that impact health practitioners, organizations, and the public.
- Assess the effect of health policy on providers, payers, and populations.
- Assess the different types of provider organization, the clinical professions, and their influence on the quality and cost of care.
Students Beginning Fall 2015 to Fall 2017
- Demonstrate ethics, sound professional practices, social accountability, community stewardship, and a commitment to life-long learning.
- Assess individual strengths and weaknesses (including the impact that you have on others) and engage in continual professional development and self-reflection.
- Articulate how leaders energize stakeholders with a compelling vision that fosters and sustains shared commitment to organizational goals.
- Participate in and lead team activities that demonstrate collaborative group effort and effective group processes, including the ability to hold team members accountable individually and collectively.
- Speak and write in a clear, logical, and grammatically correct manner in formal and informal situations and to prepare cogent business presentations.
- Establish, build, and sustain professional contacts for the purpose of building networks of people with similar goals and that support similar interests.
- Work effectively and respect the differences in others’ culture, race, gender, age, and experience.
- Listen effectively and empathetically in order to understand and identify with others’ interests, concern, and needs.
- Consider the business, demographic, cultural, political, and regulatory implications of decisions and develop strategies that continually improve the long-term success and viability of the organization.
- Articulate and evaluate best human resource practices.
- Understand and evaluate the formal and informal decision-making structures and power relationships in an organization; the ability to identify key decision-makers and the individuals who can influence them.
- Understand and value the potential in and understand the use of administrative and clinical information technology and decision-support tools in process and performance improvement.
- Understand the principles of transformational management, and to assess the organizational dynamics of healthcare organizations relative to their commitment to a transformational culture.
- Understand and explain financial and accounting information, prepare and manage budgets, and make sound long-term investment decisions.
- Assess multiple dimensions of financial performance to measure and improve the long-term financial viability of provider organizations.
- Evaluate clinical and organization performance using statistical and operations management techniques and procedures.
- Apply general and health economic concepts to the analysis of pricing, service demand, and risk.
- Demonstrate analytical thinking and logical approached to problem-solving.
- Interpret and analyze laws and regulations that impact health practitioners, organizations, and the public.
- Assess the effect of health policy on providers, payers, and populations.
- Assess the different types of provider organization, the clinical professions, and their influence on the quality and cost of care.
Students Beginning Spring 2012 to Summer 2015
- Create a health status profile of a population in a market area using available data sources.
- Create a profile of health disparities for a population in a market service area.
- Analyze interactions between the subsystems of a health system using a systems framework.
- Use epidemiological principles to assess the disease burden in a population.
- Describe the impact of health knowledge, risk behaviors and lifestyle on health status.
- Describe the formulation, implementation and evaluation components of the policy development process.
- Analyze the influence of major internal and external stakeholders of a healthcare organization.
- Evaluate strategies to achieve strategic collaborations with internal and external stakeholders.
- Assess the social, economic, political and ethical impact of a health policy.
- Discuss key organizational behavior theories, challenges and strategies in a healthcare organization.
- Formulate a motivation strategy for a healthcare organization.
- Describe the basic management functions and processes in a health care organization.
- Describe the various types of healthcare organizations involved in the delivery, financing and regulation of healthcare services.
- Discuss key management issues and approaches to designing and restructuring a healthcare organization.
- Assess the performance of a healthcare organization.
- Use qualitative and quantitative tools to define clinical and administrative operational problems.
- Apply decision tools to implement solutions to clinical and administrative operational problems.
- Discuss the major human resources legal, regulatory and ethical issues associated with hiring, employing and terminating employees.
- Create a human resource audit, including job analysis, recruitment, selection, compensation and benefits, labor relations, and training and development with recommendations for improving a healthcare organization.
- Describe the components of an information system for a healthcare organization.
- Describe the features and benefits of an electronic health records system.
- Discuss the security and confidentiality of a health information system.
- Plan the purchase and implementation of an IT system for a healthcare organization.
- Discuss the requirements and impact of regulations such as HIPAA, Stark and antitrust laws on the operation of a healthcare organization.
- Discuss the legal issues of negligence, liability, tort, malpractice and contracts applied to the management of a healthcare organization.
- Discuss the fiduciary and compliance responsibilities of a governing board.
- Describe the structure and roles of governing boards in health care organizations.
- Describe the roles of a CEO in a healthcare organization.
- Analyze the executive structure of a healthcare organization in the context of its mission, vision and strategies.
- Articulate a personal philosophy and approach to leadership.
- Assess the performance of a leader of a health care organization or system.
- Construct a mission, vision and set of goals for a healthcare organization.
- Assess methods to achieve effective organizational change in a healthcare organization.
- Explain the effective composition, development and performance of teams in a healthcare organization.
- Demonstrate the ability to construct a well written paper defining a management or policy approach.
- Demonstrate the ability to construct and present an electronic media supported oral presentation on a health related topic.
- Apply effective listening skills.
- Demonstrate cultural sensitivity in all communications.
- Describe a process to achieve a win-win negotiation.
- Use basic statistical methods to evaluate patterns and trends in a data set for a healthcare organization.
- Use computer based statistical packages to analyze a data set for a healthcare organization.
- Demonstrate the application of appropriate statistical tools and interpretation of results.
- Constructing and managing databases.
- Describe applications of economic concepts such as supply, demand, elasticity, efficiency, productivity and economies of scale to the management of healthcare organizations.
- Describe the economic interactions between cost, access and quality in a healthcare delivery system.
- Describe the impact of health insurance on demand for health services.
- Apply cost benefit analysis.
- Construct a market assessment of competitive market share and strategic positions using available data sources.
- Develop a marketing plan.
- Analyze the financial performance of a healthcare organization based on an assessment of their financial statements.
- Utilize strategic financial planning methodologies for a healthcare organization.
- Understand the time value of money, how it impacts the risk-return tradeoff, and its role in investment decisions and capital budgeting.
- Understand the budgeting process, develop an operating budget and evaluate variances.
- Understand ethical principles in the management of a healthcare organization.
- Apply ethical principles to an ethical dilemma in a healthcare organization.
- Analyze the relevant health and medical environment for a health care organization including competitor analysis and internal organizational analysis.
- Discuss business strategies and methods to select alternatives.
- Develop a business plan.
- Assess the clinical and service performance of a health care organization using a common set of publicly collected and reported indicators.
- Discuss a quality improvement strategy using available quality improvement tools.
- Understand the components of a career and skills development plan.
- Understand the ethical requirements of a healthcare professional association.
- Assess interactions and relationships creating a problem or opportunity.
- Ask targeted questions about the problem or opportunity.
- Create and evaluate alternative strategies to solve a problem or achieve an opportunity.
- Create a business plan for a new product or service for a healthcare organization.
- Participate in a summer residency or Healthcare Management experience.
- Assess the roles and functions of team members.
- Assess the performance of team members.
- Apply team improvement strategies.