Master of Healthcare Administration

Core Curriculum (Sample Courses):

• MHA500 – Professional Development Workshop
• MHA501 – Fundamentals of Healthcare Administration
• MHA502 – Healthcare Communication
• MHA503 – Healthcare Economics and Policy
• MHA504 – Healthcare Operations Management
• MHA506 – Healthcare Law
• MHA512 – Healthcare Strategic Planning and Marketing
• MHA514 – Healthcare Quality Assurance
• MHA515 – Healthcare Information Systems and Technology
• MHA516 – Human Resources Management
• MHA525 – Financial Management of Healthcare Organizations
• MHA571 – Leadership I
• MHA573 – Vocation and Ethics in Healthcare Management
• MHA601 – Capstone Practicum in Health Service Management

View the Concordia University Irvine Online Catalog for a full list of courses.

Upon completion of your master’s in healthcare administration, you’ll be able to:

• Communicate clearly and concisely, establish and maintain relationships, and facilitate constructive interactions with individuals and groups in the healthcare setting.
• Inspire individual and organizational excellence, create a shared vision, and successfully manage change to attain the organization’s strategic ends and successful performance.
• Demonstrate an alignment of personal and organizational conduct with ethical and professional standards that include a responsibility to the patient and community, a service orientation, and a commitment to lifelong learning and improvement.
• Show an understanding of the healthcare system and the environment in which healthcare managers and providers function.
• Integrate scholarly research, critical thinking, analysis, problem-solving, and business principles to proactively address opportunities and issues in the healthcare environment.

Twice a year, MHA students gather on Concordia’s campus for professional development workshops. These sessions give you the chance to connect with peers, alumni, and faculty while building career-ready skills. Workshops include:

• Presentations from healthcare executives
• Coaching and mentorship opportunities
• Resume writing and job search seminars

Students may attend the keynote presentation in person or via livestream, making the experience flexible and accessible.

At Concordia, we understand that investing in your education is a significant decision. That’s why we offer a variety of scholarships and financial aid options to help make your academic journey more affordable. View tuition costs and fees.

Visit Graduate Application page for full details on application and admission requirements.

The Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) program at Concordia University Irvine aspires to educate and prepare students for productive leadership in the health services industry on a local and national scale. Focused on the early careerist, the program provides a solid foundation of knowledge and practical skills combined with innovative and experiential learning opportunities. The MHA program teaches new professionals to apply ethics-based leadership principles and project management skills as Christian-valued leaders. Graduates can take their first steps into leadership roles or advance in their current positions in the healthcare industry.

Concordia University Irvine’s Master of Healthcare Administration program seeks to be progressive, relevant, and flexible while being recognized as a leader in healthcare administration education. As a leader, we set the standard for excellence by equipping future healthcare professionals with the knowledge, skills, and ethical foundation needed to navigate and improve complex healthcare systems. Through innovative teaching, industry collaboration, and a commitment to student success, our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and university partners will shape the future of healthcare across diverse sectors.

The following core values of the Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) program at Concordia University Irvine are integrated throughout our curriculum and program activities.

• Service
• Commitment
• Collaboration
• Innovation
• Excellence
• Professionalism

To demonstrate the Program Learning Outcomes and Competencies, the MHA program provides the following completion rates for the past academic years, as well as the percentage of students employed within 90 days of graduation. Additional outcomes data, collected annually by CAHME, can be found on the CAHME Accredited Program page.

View Student Outcomes Report (PDF)

Competency Model Overview

The MHA program competency model focuses on 12 critical competencies for effective healthcare management. These competencies are designed to foster personal and professional growth, enabling our students to become well-rounded leaders capable of addressing complex healthcare challenges.

12 Core Competencies

1. Communication and Presentation Skills
   The ability to influence and work with others by conveying clear, cogent, and persuasive information to targeted audiences. This competency reflects the communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills required to work effectively with and through others in healthcare organizations.
2. Organizational Climate and Culture
   Understanding and shaping organizational climate and culture is essential for fostering collaboration, engagement, quality improvement, and workforce effectiveness in healthcare organizations. This competency ensures students can analyze cultural dynamics and exercise leadership behaviors that promote inclusive, adaptive, and high-performing organizational environments.
3. Healthcare Systems and Organizations
   Leaders must understand how healthcare systems function to effectively manage institutions, resources, and patient care services. 
4. Strategic Planning
   Effective healthcare leaders assess industry trends, align organizational goals, and develop long-term strategies to ensure institutional success. This competency ensures students can apply strategic thinking, data-informed analysis, and risk management to guide sustainable organizational performance.
5. Personal and Professional Accountability
   Healthcare leaders must take responsibility for their actions by demonstrating integrity, ethical judgment, and accountability within legal and regulatory frameworks. This competency ensures students understand and comply with healthcare laws, regulations, and professional standards while modeling transparency, responsibility, and continuous professional growth.
6. Health Law and Health Policy
   A firm grasp of healthcare regulations, patient rights, and public health policies ensures compliance and informed decision-making. 
7. Ethics in Healthcare
   Ethical challenges are common in healthcare administration. This competency ensures students can recognize, analyze, and respond to complex ethical dilemmas while upholding professional standards, organizational values, regulatory requirements, and patient rights.
8. Healthcare Personnel and Resource Management
   Effective workforce and resource management is critical to healthcare organizational performance. This competency ensures students can plan, manage, and lead human and organizational resources while balancing operational efficiency, financial stewardship, regulatory compliance, and team effectiveness.
9. Quality Improvement, Patient Safety, and High-Reliability Organizations
   Ensuring patient safety and continuous quality improvement (QI) is a fundamental responsibility of healthcare leaders. This competency ensures students can apply quality improvement methodologies, patient safety principles, data-driven performance assessment, and high-reliability practices to enhance healthcare outcomes and organizational performance.
10. Financial Management
    Financial stewardship is essential to sustaining healthcare organizations. This competency ensures students can interpret and analyze financial information, manage resources responsibly, and apply financial principles to support operational effectiveness, regulatory compliance, and strategic decision-making.
11. Research and Investigation
    Evidence-based decision-making is essential for improving healthcare outcomes and organizational performance. This competency ensures students can apply appropriate research methods, critically evaluate evidence, and communicate findings to inform strategic, operational, and population health initiatives.
12. Data-Driven Decision Making 
    Utilizing data analytics to assess performance and guide decision-making is essential in modern healthcare administration. This competency ensures that students can effectively collect, analyze, interpret, and apply data to enhance healthcare operations and patient outcomes.

If you’re looking to pursue a leadership role in healthcare, they often require an advanced degree, and an MHA can open the door to those opportunities. At Concordia, you’ll prepare for positions across diverse healthcare organizations and build the leadership skills and healthcare expertise you need to thrive in your callings.

Both an MBA and an MHA are respected in the healthcare field. Which degree you pursue depends on your goals.

An MBA provides a broad business education applicable to many industries. An MHA degree, on the other hand, focuses specifically on the business of healthcare. You’ll study topics like communication, finance, and law through a healthcare lens, giving you targeted preparation for leadership in this industry.

Online programs make graduate study accessible for busy professionals. Concordia’s online MHA program offers flexibility without sacrificing quality. With the same rigorous curriculum, supportive faculty, and professional development opportunities as an in-person program, you’ll gain the skills you need in a format that fits your life.