MCNY Becomes One of the First Schools in New York to Combine General Business with Specialized Industry Expertise
NEW YORK, NY- March 1, 2011 — Always at the forefront of preparing its students to be future leaders, in May Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY) will begin offering a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree in Healthcare Systems Management. MCNY is one of the first schools in the New York City metropolitan area to offer an undergraduate degree in this emerging field of study. Graduates will be qualified to apply for specialized industry certifications.
Demand for specialists in healthcare information management is at an all-time high and is projected to grow further. In 2009, President Obama’s Administration, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Act, mandated the healthcare industry to implement electronic health records (EHR) by January 2014. This transition will be complicated by the aging and longer life expectancies of the baby boomers.
“Healthcare systems management is quickly emerging as an essential medical tool. At MCNY we prepare our students to not only succeed but to excel. With the introduction of this program, we will equip our students for challenging careers in health information technology. Effective management will truly revolutionize the industry, ultimately providing patients the opportunity to supervise their own health records. Overall, errors will be reduced as physicians will be able to instantly access crucial information such as current medications and allergies. Ideally, hospitals, emergency rooms, and patients will have instant access to incoming patient’s medical history and records,” stated Dr. Vinton Thompson, president, Metropolitan College of New York.
Healthcare is currently the largest industry in the United States and is growing at a rapid pace. U.S. healthcare costs have topped more than $1.8 trillion in recent years and the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that the industry will continue to grow by 25% over the next three years, thus creating a great demand for professionals who can efficiently manage healthcare facilities. The healthcare industry is expected to generate over three million jobs between 2008 and 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook 2010-2011 Edition. The expected growth in jobs by 2018 for medical and health services managers is 16% and for the medical records and health information technology sector is 20%.
Practitioners who understand both the technical and the managerial side of the healthcare industry will be in especially high demand at a range of facilities such as medical offices, hospitals, long-term care facilities, managed care facilities, diagnostic and imaging centers, medical insurance carriers and pharmaceutical firms. MCNY will pave the way by providing students with both administrative and strategic experience.
The BBA in Healthcare Systems Management program combines an understanding of business operations with a strong emphasis on the management of technology and services particularly relevant to the healthcare industry. The curriculum will include business coursework in accounting, economics, marketing, finance and human resources with a focus on both health information technology and health services management. Specialized classes will cover medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, healthcare ethics, legal matters, healthcare management and billing, insurance, and financial issues in the healthcare field.
Students will complement classroom theory with hands-on experience. Each semester, students will work directly in a healthcare services organization and engage in a collaborative project that will tie classroom learning to the real world as they prepare for jobs as Healthcare Administrators, Health Information Managers, Healthcare Security and Health Data Resources Administrators, to name a few.
Graduates of MCNY’s program will be fully prepared for the Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS) exam. Additionally, graduates will be able to sit for several other equivalent Healthcare Information Management (HIM) and Health Information Technology (HIT) certification exams such as Certified Coding Specialist (CCS), Certified Medical Administrative Specialist (CMAS), Certified Professional in Health Information Technology (CPHIT), Certified Professional in Health Information Exchange (CPHIE), Electronic Health Record Specialist (EHRS), etc.
The BBA degree in Healthcare Systems Management is available with a convenient schedule. MCNY’s accelerated structure allows students to complete this bachelor’s degree two years and eight months. Students holding an associate degree may be able to complete the degree in 4 semesters. Classes will be held two days per week during daytime hours or after 6:00 pm, three evenings per week.
For more information on Metropolitan College of New York, visit www.MCNY.edu.
