| About CAHME : Historical Overview |
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The Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management
Education (CAHME) was formed in 2004 following a forty year tradition
of accrediting graduate healthcare management education by ACEHSA
(Accrediting Commission on Education for Health Services Administration).
At the inaugural corporate meeting in May 2005 a new permanent
Board of Directors and two major councils were elected and appointed.
The board took the following actions at first meeting:
- Approved bylaws and revised policies and procedures
- Amended the articles of incorporation of the original Illinois
entity
- Recognized Corporate Members who are Professional Societies,
the Healthcare Market and the Academe
- Reiterated the commitment to the healthcare field to set the
standard of excellence in healthcare management education.
- Approved charges to the Accreditation and Standards Council
designed to address the changing needs of graduate programs and
the market
- Accepted a strategic plan with clearly delineated “Metrics
for Success.”
The creation of CAHME continues to strengthen an
approval program that has occurred since the founding of Association
of University Programs in Hospital Administration (AUPHA) in 1948. “Accreditation” was
employed as a criteria for membership in the association as a measure
of academic quality. As the field of hospital administration gained
professional stature, health care organizations sought administrators
with masters degrees from approved programs. The original corporate
sponsors recognized the need for a more broadly based structure
encompassing the rapidly growing community of interests in the
field of education in hospital administration.
Consequently, a plan for a formalized accreditation
program was submitted and accepted in 1970 by what was then the
National Commission on Accrediting (NCA). Hospital administration
became the thirty-third profession to gain recognition by the NCA
Board. The name of the agency was changed in 1976 to the Accrediting
Commission on Education for Health Services Administration (ACEHSA).
This name change occurred to reflect the broad spectrum of opportunities
that exists within the profession of health administration.
In 1968, the ACEHSA was incorporated in the State
of Illinois as the accrediting agency in the field of graduate
education in hospital administration. The joint sponsors of the
agency were the Association of University Programs in Health Administration
(AUPHA), the American College of Hospital Administrators (currently
American College of Healthcare Executives [ACHE), the American
Public Health Association (APHA), and the American Hospital Association
(AHA).
ACEHSA Commissioners from the field of practice
and academe developed and refined standards which were used to
encourage improvement in the education of individuals entering
the dynamic field of healthcare administration. A program of self-study,
expert site visits and accreditation recognition developed and
was continuously refined to encourage improved content and education
methodology in graduate healthcare management programs that were
rapidly expanding in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
In 2001 the Orlando Forum, funded by the Kellogg
Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, began the process
of looking more closely at management and leadership preparation
in the healthcare industry. One recommendation was the creation
of the ACEHSA Blue Ribbon Task Group. One of the task group’s
major recommendations was the need to examine and rework accreditation.
In June 2002, a Blue Ribbon Task Force made up
of representatives of the practice and academic community was jointly
appointed by ACEHSA and NCHL. The Task Force was formed in response
to the need to ensure that health services education accreditation
is relevant and responsive to the changing needs of the broad range
of stakeholders in the healthcare industry. After the work of the
Blue Ribbon Task Force was completed a Joint Task Group was appointed
to formulate a strategic direction to reposition the Commission
in response to the recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Task Force.
With a new vision for the Commission the name of the agency was
changed to the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management
Education (CAHME) in 2004.
CAHME has been granted formal recognition by the
United States Department of Education (DOE) and Council on Higher
Education Accreditation (CHEA) as the only organization to accredit
master's level healthcare management programs in the United States
and Canada.
CAHME is organized exclusively for educational
and scientific purposes:
- To assist in assuring the highest quality educational
product across healthcare management through providing an accreditation
program for "selected academic levels" of healthcare
management, with the term "selected academic levels" being
intended to refer to degree-granting programs/departments/schools
at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels, as well as
pre-masters and post-masters residency and fellowship programs
in healthcare management.
- To establish leading edge standards and assessment
mechanisms of quality at selected academic levels of healthcare
management.
- To make the findings of CAHME available to the
public.
- To advance continuously the quality of academic
education in healthcare management.
- To assume such other responsibilities and to
conduct such other activities as are compatible with the operation
of an educational accreditation program.
- Through the CAHME Fellows Program, to develop
leaders in education and practice over lifelong careers.
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