Curriculum

Skills-based curriculum to make a difference in healthcare management

In just one year, you’ll learn how to make sound, data-driven decisions and develop the exact skills the healthcare industry seeks in its leaders. Developed through a unique partnership with the Kelley School of Business, we worked with more than 50 healthcare leaders from across the industry to create a curriculum that delivers real-life competencies through real-life experiences.

You’ll be prepared for a leadership role across the healthcare spectrum, including hospitals, healthcare consulting firms, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, insurance, and long-term care providers.

Intense, holistic preparation to make a difference in healthcare management

Mission

Our mission is to develop transformational healthcare leaders.

Vision

The Indiana University Master of Science in Healthcare Management is an experience that respects the holistic needs of the student and potential employers, thus gaining the loyalty of our alumni and the trust of the community.

  • Co-creating a curriculum with healthcare employers, identifying the competencies employers value and creating strong employer networks and employment opportunities for our students
  • Co-creating a student experience based off past, present, and future student feedback. To incorporate an intentional approach to the student’s needs with respect to their mental, emotional, physical, cultural and social needs as they seek their degree and as alumni.
  • Cultivate a culture that encourages experimentation, mentorship, coaching and real life application of complex theoretical concepts.

Values

  • Respect for All People: Including students, community partners, potential employers, staff, and faculty.
  • Continuous Improvement: We are always looking for a better way. We create a safe and trust filled environment in which we can try out new ideas, methods and activities.
  • Inclusion: Recognizing that our differences make us stronger. We respect and seek out inclusion of differences, realizing we can learn from one another.
  • Authenticity: Conducting ourselves with transparency and vulnerability.
  • Empathy: Considering others’ feelings from their point of view, rather from our own.
  • Mutual Trust and Shared Accountability: We trust the intentions of our team and accept responsibility for our own actions. We believe the sum is greater than its individual parts.

The MSHM requires 36 credit hours of coursework. You’ll complete 18 credit hours through the Kelley School of Business and 18 credit hours through the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

As an MSHM student, you may apply for carefully designed, holistic immersion experiences. Previous practicum sites include IU Health; Medtronic; Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.; Miller’s Health System; Humana; The Michigan Department of Health; ReFed; Trilogy Health Systems and more.

Download the MSHM Practicum Experience flyer

Our curriculum is constantly being updated to reflect the changing needs of the healthcare industry. Below is a sample of what your class schedule might look like: 

Summer Semester 1

  • Orientation (CORE)
  • Kelley Graduate Career Services (1.5 Credits in 2021)
  • Bus-X 545 Business Foundations (CORE: 6 credits)

Summer Semester 2

  • SPEA-V 550 Building Your Personal Leadership Practice (CORE: 3 credits)

Fall Semester 

  • SPEA-H 525 Health Economics for Policy and Management (CORE:3 credits)
  • BUS-C 520 Data Analytics (CORE: 3 Credits)
  • BUS-C 580 Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management (CORE: 3 credits)

Spring Semester

  • SPEA-V 549 Health Policy (CORE: 3 credits)
  • SPEA-V 600 Capstone (CORE: 3 credits)
  • BUS-Z 540 Organizational Behavior (CORE: 1.5 credits)
  • SPEA-H 524 Healthcare Industry Regulation (CORE: 3 credits)

Electives: Students will need a total of 4.5 credits of Kelley electives and 3 credits of O’Neill electives over the Fall and Spring Semesters

  • Students begin the program with an online onboarding class that will set them up for success by ensuring they have access to required technology and the skills to effectively navigate this technology.
  • Students will then transition into a required, intensive 50-hour orientation that will prepare them with the skills to succeed in a prestigious, rigorous, and intense one-year master's program.
  • Students will attend a 10-hour training hosted by the Kelley Graduate Career Services Office. In the current competitive job market, this training sets MSHM students apart.
  • Students must complete 36 credit hours of coursework through the Kelley School of Business (18 credit hours) and the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs (18 credit hours) with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0.
  • Students will successfully create and defend a portfolio. This ensures that every student has demonstrated a mastery of ALL 18 program learning objectives designed to develop transformational healthcare leaders.
  • Students must also successfully demonstrate and document self-care behaviors on a semester basis through effective utilization of the eight Dimensions of Wellness.

Healthcare Literacy
Reimbursement structures, multiple payer groups and regulatory bodies create a complex system in which healthcare leaders must operate. Knowledge of these systems is necessary to inform business strategy, formalize organizational relationships, and ensure regulatory compliance.

Business Acumen
A foundation in core business areas of finance, marketing, accounting, operations/supply chain, organization behavior and strategy are necessary to ensure that healthcare leaders are able to be responsible stewards of resources.

Problem Solving
Healthcare leaders deal with a host of complex issues including service delivery problems, management and people problems, logistics, maintenance and resource allocation problems. Healthcare leaders rely on a methodical problem-solving approach.

Leadership Skills/Emotional Intelligence
This is the demonstrated ability to inspire individual and organizational excellence, create a shared vision and successfully manage change to attain an organization’s strategic ends and successful performance. Students will demonstrate interpersonal and leadership skills necessary for lifelong career success. These skills reflect effective self-assessment, communication, and collaboration within an organization.

Data and Analytics Competency
Close to 70 percent of healthcare leaders say that health IT tools are “essential” for organizational growth and improving the consumer experience, as revealed by a survey from SAP and Oxford Economics. Data is at the heart of decision making at all levels of healthcare organizations. This skill enables leaders to make decisions based upon collection, appraisal, and analysis of data.

Career Foresight
Define a personal career vision and exhibit behavior to achieve it. To quote Stephen Covey, we will “Start with the end in mind.”

Learn how to ethically and effectively influence the public policy process through our intensive educational and professional development course in Washington, D.C. You’ll study with policy experts, political and government leaders, and key players from business, associations, media, think tanks, and NGOs.

This elective course varies depending on COVID-19 restrictions. 

Enhance your learning experience with this three-week global immersion course focused on challenges and successes of healthcare in Vietnam. Travel across four cities in Vietnam while learning from Vietnamese faculty, government officials from the Ministry of Health, leaders of NGOs and international development agencies, and cultural speakers. 

As a healthcare leader, you’ll need to know how to coach yourself and your team to ensure maximum performance. You’ll learn how to model a variety of self-care strategies for your staff and your peers.

Download the MSHM Curriculum

See the official Indiana University Graduate Bulletin and work with your advisor as you make your schedule.