AdventHealth University’s (AHU) Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) program received initial accreditation status from the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME). The CAHME board of directors granted the program the maximum initial accreditation of three years at its May 2020 meeting.
CAHME’s mission is to serve the public interest by advancing the quality of health management. This is accomplished by setting criteria for education standards, providing support for programs, and granting accreditation to programs that meet or exceed the criteria.
The MHA program at AHU was designed to be deeply integrated with the leadership at its sponsoring organization, AdventHealth. Lars Houmann, FACHE and CEO Emeritus of the Florida Division of AdventHealth, was instrumental in establishing the program and a driving force in its continued success. After hearing of the accreditation status, he said, “AHU will be vital to providing the leadership talent essential to the future of Adventist health care in North American and globally, wherever our mission is active.”
Many leaders within the AdventHealth organization celebrated with the university and the program reaching this milestone, including AdventHealth President and CEO, Terry Shaw, as well as Senior Executive VP and President/CEO of AdventHealth’s multi-state division, Randy Haffner.
AHU Healthcare Administration chair, Benita David, DBA, said, “Receiving the maximum initial accreditation from CAHME has been the culmination of years of hard work from the program faculty and leadership at the university. It provides hospital leaders around the country the comfort and knowledge that a graduate from AHU’s MHA program has developed the skills, ability, and mind set to be an impactful leader in their organization.”
The MHA program was founded in 2012 and enrolled its first students in 2013. For the program to be considered for accreditation by CAHME, it needed to graduate two cohorts of students. The accreditation status is granted for the on-campus program. The faculty of the program will submit a progress report to the board on September 1, 2020.
