Health
program wins approval
Accreditation:
Long
Beach State's master's degree program in
health care administration is now one of
the only 80 programs in the nation to be
fully accredited.
By
Sean Emery
On-line Forty-Niner
The
master's degree program in health care administration
at Cal State Long Beach has received full
accreditation status from the Accreditation
Commission for Education in Health Services
Administration.
The
accreditation for the department comes after
a three year process of review by the Commission,
the only organization that is formally recognized
to accredit master's level health administration
programs. The CSULB master's degree program
in health care administration is one of
only 80 programs in the United States to
receive full accreditation status.
"It
is not easy to meet the criteria for accreditation,"
said Tony Sinay, the director of the health
care administration. "We are one of
the four or five accredited programs in
the Southern California region."
The
accreditation is the culmination of a three-year
process undertaken by the health care administration
department. The process began after
the department applied in the 2000-01 academic
year.
After
passing the initial screening, the next
step in the accreditation process was for
the department to submit a self study document.
The self study document is essentially a
program review of the department which reviews
its curriculum and staff. The self
study stage of the process takes an entire
academic year, and results in the department
submitting the self study document to the
Commission for review.
The
next step in the accreditation process was
the on campus program study. During
this stage, a team from the Commission visited
the department on campus in order to go
over the self study document, and to observe
the department on its own. At the
end of the on campus review, the accreditation
team prepared a site visit report, and the
Commission decides whether or not to accredit
the department. The official accreditation
for the master's degree program in health
care administration at Cal State Long Beach
came in the spring of 2002. The initial
accreditation lasts for three years.
"This
[accreditation] is the gold standard for
our field of education," said Janice
Frates, associate professor of the health
care administration. "Much to its credit,
this university believes that if there is
an important accreditation a program can
earn, you ought to go after it, even if
it is not mandatory."
Officials
in the health care administration program
see the accreditation as recognition of
quality within the department. "When
any of our programs can be recognized by
a national accreditation body, it speaks
very highly of the quality of our department,"
said Dixie Grimnit, associate dean in the
department of health care administration.
"It's
a measure of quality in higher education,"
Sinay said. "Programs that are accredited
all have the same standards in terms of
teaching, learning and research"
Many
also stressed the positive effect that the
Commission accreditation has on students.
It will allow Cal State Long Beach graduate
students in health care administration to
gain access to more scholarships, fellowships
and residency programs.
Officials
said that it will also help students in
the job market. "They will be able
to market themselves better in the community,"
Sinay said.
"Now
we have higher standards and we must improve
things on an ongoing basis," Sinay
said. "We have goals and targets now,
and we must always strive to do better."
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