Online Master of Healthcare Administration

Impact the Future of Healthcare.

Be a Healthcare Leader with Boston College Credentials

Boston College invites you to strengthen your career trajectory in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, and other life science sectors with our online Master of Healthcare Administration degree.

  • Designed for working professionals
  • Become a member of vast BC alumni network
  • Online format in flexible 7-week terms
  • Meaningful online interaction with faculty and classmates
  • Finish in 24 months or less

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Online Master of Healthcare Administration Degree

Why Choose the Boston College MHA Program?

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Job Growth for Medical and Health Services Managers by 2029
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New Jobs in Life, Physical and Social Science Occupations by 2028
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Fellow Graduates in the Boston College Alumni Network
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Expected New Jobs in Healthcare Occupations by 2029

What Makes the Boston College Program Unique?

Designed to Address Evolving Industry Needs

Our curriculum delivers comprehensive competency-based instruction that prepares graduates to address needs across a broad spectrum of health-related industries.

Prioritizing Boston College Values

Boston College’s values of justice and intellectual inquiry are incorporated into the curriculum. Students engage in rigorous and sustained conversations about emerging issues. They also develop analytical and critical thinking skills that enable them to apply evidence-based management practices toward the goal of enacting social change and promoting the values at the heart of our discipline: equity, justice, and inclusion.

Created Just for You

The MHA offers individualized support and guidance from program leadership and faculty as students navigate the next steps in the program and their careers. The online graduate program offers asynchronous instruction in a seven-week course format, allowing students to finish in 1 to 2 years.

Master of Healthcare Administration Courses

Core Requirements

Provides students with an overview of healthcare services in the United States, including their historical development within a unique social, economic and political environment. Current institutional structures and delivery systems are described, as are the evolving health needs of Americans. Emphasis is placed upon the basic concepts and issues associated with the management and regulation of healthcare providers and the delivery of services.

This course explores the theoretical foundations and application of quality improvement methods, tools and strategies needed to increase organizational effectiveness. The course focuses on measurement and accountability in health care delivery systems through the examination and analysis of data, structures, processes and outcomes. Process improvement theories and models are explored with the goal of preparing students to lead and practice in organizations that advance high reliability principles, patient safety, inter-professional teamwork and continuous learning.

This course examines how health care organizations can innovate and adapt to the ever-evolving needs and demands of a dynamic competitive and regulatory health care environment. To do so, the course explores: 1. What types of innovation are possible, how individuals/organizations develop innovations, 2. Factors that affect the adoption and implementation of these innovations, and 3. Approaches to evaluating whether these innovations had their intended effect.

Federal and state-level healthcare policies affect a wide range of issues, including access to care, quality, cost, and modes of delivery. Effective healthcare managers must interpret and anticipate a changing policy landscape, and strategically apply that interpretation as part of the process of organizational planning and execution. In this course, the social and economic implications of contemporary healthcare policies are explored. Emphasis is placed on how public policy (e.g., Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act of 2010) influences human resources/capacity, values, needs, reimbursements and regulation of individuals, insurers, and medical and healthcare organizations.

This course includes the application of management and organizational behavior theory to explore factors affecting behavior, performance and job satisfaction of people working in organizations. The course focuses on theories and observations of team behaviors and techniques, with special emphasis on the individual as a team member, and on change management as a challenge and opportunity for healthcare organizations. Students will learn and apply best practices for managing individuals and teams within healthcare organizations.

The course introduces leadership models, theories, and skills needed to successfully manage and lead healthcare organizations through transformational versus transactional leadership-styles. Students use a variety of self-assessment tools (e.g., Myers-Briggs, SWOT analysis of self, leadership-style inventory) to develop self-awareness and to better understand the role of emotional intelligence in effective leadership. Students gain knowledge and skills for building and growing the interpersonal relationships and political skills required to develop and lead teams, and to successfully advance from organizational management roles to leadership roles.

Human resources issues face the healthcare managers, from benefits to grievances to labor relations management in health organizations with organized labor. This course covers personnel practices such as job analysis and description, recruitment, selection, and compensation in various health delivery system settings. The course focuses on skill development in dealing with personnel at all levels of education, licensure and skill sets.

This course explores the critical role of e-health and information systems in the planning, operation, and management of healthcare organizations. Students will learn how to assess and evaluate health information systems and business requirements in a variety of settings such as health systems, hospitals and medical practices. Students will develop skills in healthcare technology implementation design that addresses such industry-specific requirements as translating HIPAA and other regulations into specific technology decisions while implementing medical systems (EMR, lab, clinical services, medical database providers, etc.). In addition, students will learn how to manage multi-institutional relationships as they are expressed in technology implementations, including the many vendor configurations but also cross-provider organization relationships. Specific topics include data and systems integrations, communications protocols, security standards, procurement, and authentication and authorization.

In this course, legal issues related to the organization and delivery of healthcare are examined, along with the ethical and moral considerations associated with the management of healthcare facilities and the provision of health services. Topics include government regulation of healthcare facilities and occupations, civil rights regulations regarding diversity, fraud and abuse, institutional and personal liability for negligence and malpractice, patient consent requirements, termination of care, the confidentiality of medical information, medical staff credentialing, peer review of care, utilization review, and managed care regulations. Treatment of ethical and moral issues emphasizes the understanding of diverse viewpoints and methods for resolving conflicting moral obligations. Student apply course concepts through the development of a compliance plan to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse in billing.

In today’s highly competitive healthcare environment, data-driven decision making is key to assuring quality, increasing access, and minimizing cost. In an industry focused on evidence-based practices, healthcare managers must be able to use analytic tools and methods to critically evaluate care and practice to better inform decisions. Tomorrow’s leaders must be able to make decisions based on research, evidence, and data to inform continuous improvement and innovation. The course will review data analysis principles and statistical analysis (e.g., probability, regression modeling, decision science, predictive forecasting, and time series analysis. Students will conduct data analyses and use results to make decisions. Students will focus on how to analyze and interpret data to optimize the decision-making process and assure evidence-based management practice.

This course introduces basic theory and principles of finance as applied to the healthcare industry. Financial statements, cost measurement, budgeting, capital investment decisions and reimbursement models are explored. Students are given an overview of health economic concepts (e.g., sustainability), and are introduced to performance-based payments and value purchasing concepts.

Decisions involving strategy and marketing must be based on a manager’s overall understanding of the organization’s mission, goals and objectives. This applied research project provides methods to evaluate organizational performance and productivity, analyze internal and external resources, and perform needs assessment. The course presents various models and methods for planning, branding, and positioning of healthcare services. It also emphasizes the importance of creating a strategic planning process.

As the culmination and synthesis of the program experience, the applied research project requires each individual student to develop a business plan for the expansion of or development of a new healthcare facility. The business plan must address the major themes of each prior course, including relevant policies, quality initiatives, financial planning, human resource planning, technology planning, and planning for regulatory compliance.

Upcoming Start Dates

START TERM CLASS START DATE
Summer 2024 May 15, 2024
 Fall 2024 August 24, 2024
Spring 2025
January 13, 2025

The Boston College Commitment

Located just west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, Boston College is known for its highly regarded graduate programs and is consistently ranked as a top 40 school by U.S. News & World Report

• Best Colleges, #36, National Universities, U.S. News & World Report
• Best College Values Among Private Universities, #20, Kiplinger’s 2020
• America’s Top Colleges, #41, Forbes 2019