American and Canadian graduate healthcare management programs, in compliance with regulations established by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, can only be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME).
What Is CAHME Accreditation?
Through CAHME accreditation, healthcare management education programs can be properly evaluated, promoted, and enhanced. CAHME was originally established in the year 1968, when it was known as the Accrediting Commission on Education for Health Services Administration (ACEHSA).
Following the results of several initiatives made to change the ultimate focus of the administration, ACEHSA had its name changed to CAHME in the year 2004. The change from its former name to the current one came after a joint meeting between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Kellogg Foundation. In the joint meeting, healthcare industry packages related to leadership and management were critically examined.
A number of important agents in the academic and practice-oriented areas of the health industry were designated to spearhead the enactment of several changes in the ways that graduate healthcare management programs are accredited, culminating in the ultimate changing of the administration's name from ACEHSA to CAHME.
Today, the commission operates in a manner that is comparable to the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, utilizing its corporate members in order to uphold the constant quality standards of graduate healthcare management curricula. The commission is continually updated to meet the constantly developing needs of the industry, and the most recent update occured in 2014.
Advantages Of Accreditation
Accreditation of a healthcare management program can ensure any prospective students with an interest in entering it can have the assurance that it hits every mark in terms of quality.
Though there may be a number of collegiate programs that have gone some distance to provide prospective students with a high caliber of management education, those that have been accredited are validated as having going the extra mile to provide nothing less then the highest standard of healthcare management training.
Continuous Improvement
The commission's philosophy on accreditation is based on the mantra of continuous quality improvement. Were it not for the accreditation, it would be difficult for prospective students to determine just what the exact quality of the program is in the first place.
Through accreditation, there is far less ambiguity in the decision-making progress for which program to choose. Not only are students given more security in knowing that the programs they're interested in meets the highest standards of quality, but employers are given more efficiency in their screening process as well. Prospective healthcare management employers can have the security of knowing that their new recruits has been trained in a program that has gone the full length to reach the highest quality of general healthcare management training standards in the industry.
CAHME accreditation does not automatically make all of its students high performers by default, but those who have the aptitude to seek out an accredited program and excel in it are able to give their employers a sign that they have the potential to be among highest caliber of healthcare management professionals in the field.
Innovation And Flexibility
The two most important qualities prioritized by the commission are innovative developments and flexibility. By remaining innovative and flexible, accredited programs are able to optimize the continued development of cutting-edge curricula and course designs that can accommodate the constantly growing need for diverse educational opportunities for students around the world.
Because there is a growing need for higher competitiveness in the healthcare field, a CAHME accredited program gives all prospective students full range of skills needed to access the multiplying career opportunities in health services administration.
Related resource: 35 Most Affordable Online Master's Degrees in Healthcare Administration 2017