Case competitions invite master of health administration (MHA) students to address the most pressing issues in health care management today.
Recognizing the value of case competitions for MHA students, the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health ran its own case competition for the first time this year. The winners were all MHA@GW students. Johanne Belizaire, Brooke Sumner, and Katelyn Lee took 1st place and a $2000 prize; and Amanda Meekins, Ashley Frost and Leigh LeGare earned 2nd place and $1000.
(left to right: Jane Hyatt Thorpe, Interim Department Chair;Leigh LeGare, Member of Team 1, Lorens Helmchen Chair, 2018 GWU Health Care Management Case Competition; Neal McKelvey, MHA, Judge; Deneen Richmond, MHA, RN, Judge; Newman C. Ainsley, MHA, Judge; Amanda Meekins, Member of Team 1; Ashley Frost, Member of Team 1; Leonard Friedman Director, MHA@GW. The members of team 2 participated via teleconference and can be seen on the screen behind the people in the photo: Johanne Belizaire, Brooke Sumner, and Katelyn Lee.)
The competition was open to students in the school’s residential and online MHA programs. Participants were asked to develop recommendations for Nashville General Hospital, which provides care for many indigent and uninsured residents in one of the nation’s most competitive health care markets.
“The judges were very happy with the solutions that both of our top teams produced,” says Lorens Helmchen, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, who directed the case competition. “We had a unique opportunity to partner with Meharry Medical College, the nation’s largest private historically black academic health sciences center. They connected us to Nashville General Hospital, which serves as the principal teaching hospital for Meharry and worked with us to launch this case competition. This competition adds an extraordinary educational component to GW’s online MHA program, which aims to be the leader in executive-format online programs in health care management. The competition will also generate a lot of ideas and actionable recommendations for Nashville General Hospital.”
The 38 students who participated in the competition were all enrolled in the Department of Health Policy and Management’s MHA@GW program. “The residential students already participate in a number of nationwide case competitions. The enthusiastic response by our MHA@GW students shows the value that this competition adds to their experience in the program,” Helmchen says.
The students participating in the competition formed 13 teams to develop recommendations for the senior leadership at Nashville General Hospital, which is also known as Metro General Hospital. The teams evaluated potential funding and revenue sources for the public hospital, prepared a three-year financial projection, and paired it with an implementation plan.
Both the first and second place teams presented their solutions to the hospital’s leadership and members of key stakeholder groups in Nashville on October 5.