Department of Health Administration and Policy
Our Objective
Our objective is to prepare highly skilled professionals who will become exemplary leaders in hospitals, health care systems, public health organizations and throughout the health industry.
Programs and Alumni
The department offers two administrative degrees, the Master of Public Health (MPH) and the Master of Health Administration (MHA).
The MPH Program
The MPH is a 44 credit hour program of study that prepares graduates for careers in the development, implementation and evaluation of programmatic activity in health services organizations. The College of Public Health and the MPH program offered by the DHAP are accredited by the Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH). The MPH program may be completed by full or part-time students and is offered in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Graduates of the program are placed in fellowships or appointed to administrative positions in health organizations and state or county health departments. Graduates also occupy positions such as program directors, administrators, consultants, quality officers, department heads, systems and policy analysts, compliance officers and project directors.
The MPH Curriculum
The MPH has six Core Courses:
- Biostatistics Methods I
- Principles of Epidemiology
- Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health
- Environmental Health
- U.S. Health Care System
- Integrated Public Health Practice
The Department also requires the following courses for all MPH students:
- Organizational Theory and Behavior
- Health Economics
- Public Health Law and Regulations
- Health Forecasting and Budgeting
- Health Policy and Politics
- Health care Quality Management
- Public Health Practicum
In addition, there are 6 credit hours reserved for electives, and 2 credit hours are awarded for the Public Health Practicum which requires a minimum of 160 contact hours by the student.
The MHA Program
The MHA is a 60 credit hour program that prepares the graduate for a career as a senior administrator of a health service organization. All students are required to complete an internship and a defense of the internship report. The MHA Program is accredited by CEPH and the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME). Following graduation, most of our students are placed in a fellowship, a post graduate activity that enables the individual to gain administrative experience.
The MHA Curriculum
The MHA curriculum comprises 60 credit hours divided into three sections.
Students build a foundation for health administration with courses in:
- Statistics
- Forecasting Methods
- Epidemiology
- Managerial Epidemiology
- Organizational Theory
- Environmental Health Science
- U.S. Health System
Students are taught to perform the core functions of a health administrator with courses in:
- Human Resource Management
- Managerial Accounting
- Financial Management
- Information Technology
- Health care Law and Ethics
- Health Economics
- Marketing
- Operations Research
- Managed Care Organizations
- Health Policy
- Strategic Management
Students focus on developing an area of expertise and select elective courses in the following areas of study:
- Financial Management
- Human Resource Management
- Information Technology
- Policy Analysis
- Marketing
The MHA Internships
All students are required to successfully complete an internship with an approved health services organization. Students have recently arranged internships in hospitals, multi-specialty physician practices, long-term care facilities, University medical centers and with the Veteran’s Administration. The internship will provide an opportunity to integrate the student’s understanding of the practical day-to-day functions of management, planning or policy analysis with the traditional basic skills learned during the didactic portion of the program.
At the conclusion of the internship the student is required to prepare a written report and make a presentation to a committee of faculty members. Our students have recently arranged internships at the following sponsoring organizations:
- Duke University Medical Center
- Duncan Regional Hospital, Oklahoma
- Mercy Health Center, Oklahoma City
- Norman Regional Health Center, Oklahoma
- Norman Oklahoma Specialty Hospital
- Oklahoma Hospital Association, Oklahoma City
- St. John’s Health System, Tulsa, Oklahoma
- The University of Oklahoma Department of Pediatrics
- University of South Carolina
- Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, Orlando, Florida
Post Graduate Fellowships
All students are eligible to apply for a post-graduate fellowship after completing the program. The fellowships are usually one-year positions that provide a student with an extensive administrative experience with a prominent health care organization. During the fellowship the student will receive a stipend from the sponsoring organization. The fellowships are highly competitive on a national basis and require formal written applications, telephone interviews and site visits. In recent years many of our graduates have been selected for several fellowships in Oklahoma and throughout the United States.
Our students have recently been awarded fellowships by the following sponsoring organizations:
- ACHE Corporate Offices, Chicago, Illinois
- Alegent Health System, Omaha, Nebraska
- Cleveland Clinic
- Duncan Regional Hospital, Oklahoma
- Montgomery VAMC Muskogee, Oklahoma
- Moses Cone Health System, Greensboro, North Carolina
- Saint Anthony’s Hospital, Oklahoma City
- Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston
- DeBakey VAMC Houston, Texas
- Washington Hospital Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
Our Alumni
Alumni of the program occupy a variety of leadership positions in the health care industry. Depending on the number of years since graduation, they are in various middle management, senior management, and ultimate leadership positions with hospitals, physician practices and prominent health systems. For example, our graduates occupy the following positions.
| Executive Director | Integris Health-Metro |
| President & CEO | Aegis Group |
| CEO | Solara Healthcare |
| CEO | Carnegie Tri County Hospital |
| President & CEO | Rosewood Retirement Center |
| Corporate Controller | Corporate HQ,HCA |
| CEO | SSMHC |
| CEO | Lake Granbury Medical Center |
| CEO | Greenview Regional Hospital |
| CEO | Flandreau Medical Center |
| CEO & President | Cloic, Inc |
| President & CEO | Page Memorial Hospital & Health Systems |
| CEO | Tyler Health Care Center |
| CEO | Solara Hospital |
| Corporate Director | HCA |
| COO | HMA |
| COO | University Health System |
| COO | St. Joseph's Hospital |
| COO | Baylor Health Care System |
| COO | Sebastian River Medical Center |
| COO | HCA |
| COO | Watsonville Community Hospital |
| CFO | Sutter Coast Hospital |
| CFO | Kaiser Permanete |
|
Vice President
|
Oklahoma Health Network |
|
Vice President
|
St. Anthony's Hospital |
| Administrator | Page Memorial Hospital |
| Administrator | Shawnee Care Center |
| Administrator | Parkland Health & Hospital |
| Administrator | Arbor House Assisted Living |
| Administrator | Kaiser Permanente |
Accreditation Information
The Masters of Health Administration degree offered by the University of Oklahoma is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME). The College of Public Health and the Master of Health Administration program are also accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).
The Faculty
The faculty members assigned to the DHAP hold terminal degrees awarded from internationally prominent universities. Cumulatively faculty members also have in excess of 50 years of experience as senior executives or leaders in the health industry.
How to get started
Successful applicants for admission must hold a bachelor’s degree awarded by an accredited institution with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 on a four point scale for the last 60 hours of undergraduate credit.
Applicants with a grade point average of less than 3.5 may be required to complete the GRE or GMAT. All applicants must submit three letters of recommendation and official transcripts from all schools they have attended. Applicants with a graduate degree may waive the GRE or GMAT requirement.
To apply for a graduate program at the College of Public Health, click on the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center web page at ouhsc.edu. For more information about the Master of Health Administration program, please contact:
Robert W. Broyles, Ph. D.
Program Director, M.H.A. Program, and
Chair, Department of Health Administration and Policy
Email: Bob-Broyles@ouhsc.edu
You may reach us by phone at:
(405) 271-2114
For information regarding application to the program call the College of Public Health Office of Student Services at 405-271-2308.
By Mail:
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
College of Public Health
Department of Health Administration & Policy
P.O. Box 26901
Oklahoma City, OK 73190
The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution.
