Degrees and Certificates
Healthcare Management – BS
Your Future. LIMITLESS.
College of Business
Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management Degree (BSHM Program)
Healthcare Needs Leaders Who Understand People, Processes, and Performance
Healthcare is one of the most complex and economically significant sectors in the United States, accounting for 18% of the nation’s gross domestic product in 2024 (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS, 2026; Institute of Medicine IOM, 2015) Hospitals, clinics, physician practices, long-term care organizations, public health agencies, insurance companies, and community-based organizations, among others, need leaders who understand how healthcare works and how to improve it.
AUM’s Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management prepares students for administrative, supervisory, and management roles across the healthcare sector. The program is designed for students who want to enter healthcare management, working professionals seeking advancement, and transfer students who have completed an associate degree or substantial college credit.
Students will develop practical knowledge in healthcare systems, management, leadership, quality improvement, finance, healthcare technology and informatics, data-informed decision-making, healthcare law and ethics, human resources, and organizational performance.
What You’ll Learn
The Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management prepares students to:
Why Choose AUM’s Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management and Healthcare Administration?
Built for Healthcare Careers
This degree focuses on the business, leadership, and operational aspects of healthcare. Students learn how healthcare organizations function and how healthcare administrators or healthcare managers oversee medical and health services across healthcare facilities, whether leading entire operations or specific departments. A typical career path includes roles such as medical services manager, health informatics manager, healthcare consultant, and health services managers working in health informatics. Through small class sizes and access to experienced faculty, students receive personalized guidance and opportunities to work closely with faculty members, helping them build in-demand skills for the healthcare field.
Offered Through an AACSB-Accredited College of Business
AUM’s College of Business holds AACSB accreditation, a distinction that reflects high standards for business education, faculty qualifications, curriculum quality, student learning, and continuous improvement. Students in the Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management receive a business-based education grounded in business principles and designed to prepare them for the administrative and leadership demands of the healthcare industry, with coursework that commonly includes financial management and marketing relevant to healthcare leadership. The curriculum also supports strategic management skills for decision-making across complex healthcare organizations.
Connected to a CAHME-Accredited Healthcare Management Program Area
AUM’s health care management program area includes the CAHME-accredited Master of Healthcare Administration program. This connection strengthens the undergraduate healthcare management environment by aligning coursework with healthcare leadership, applied learning, quality improvement, project management, strategic planning, professional competencies, and the needs of today’s healthcare organizations. Healthcare management programs often include hands-on learning through internships or capstone projects.
Transfer-Friendly Pathway
Students who enter with an approved associate degree or approximately 60 transferable credit hours may complete the remaining 60 credit hours in about 2 years, depending on course load and advising plan.
Designed for Working Adults
The online format provides flexibility for students who must balance work, family, and school responsibilities, making it a practical online bachelor’s option for those seeking a flexible degree program in health administration or healthcare administration.
Practical and Applied
Coursework emphasizes real healthcare problems, including staffing through human resource management, budgeting, compliance, quality improvement, patient experience, data use, organizational performance, and patient safety through risk management, with operations often touching on supply chain management.
Pathway to Graduate Study
Students interested in future advancement may use the degree as a foundation within higher education, as a healthcare administration degree is available at the bachelor’s degree, master’s, and doctoral levels, including progression to the Master of Healthcare Administration.
A Quality Academic Foundation
The Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management is offered through AUM’s AACSB-accredited College of Business. AACSB accreditation is widely recognized as a mark of quality in business education and reflects the College’s commitment to academic rigor, continuous improvement, faculty excellence, and student success.
Students also benefit from a healthcare management academic environment that includes AUM’s CAHME-accredited Master of Healthcare Administration program. While CAHME accreditation applies to graduate healthcare management programs, this connection reflects AUM’s broader commitment to preparing healthcare leaders for health care delivery and health services leadership through relevant coursework, applied learning, and competency-based education.
The program is supported by dedicated faculty who bring strong academic preparation and extensive healthcare industry experience to the classroom. Their professional backgrounds help connect course concepts to real-world healthcare leadership, operations, quality improvement, finance, policy, and organizational performance, with added perspective on health information systems. They also help students build skills in developing strategies, organizational development, and how to coordinate medical and health services effectively, including oversight of medical and health services across complex organizations.
Program Completion Options
Full 120-Credit-Hour Degree Pathway
Students beginning the degree without prior college credit will complete the full 120 credit hours required for the Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management. A full-time student may complete the degree in approximately four years.
Transfer / Associate Degree Pathway
Students transferring with an approved associate degree or approximately 60 transferable credit hours may be able to complete the Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management in approximately two years. Completion time depends on transfer evaluation, course sequencing, prerequisites, and the number of credit hours taken each term.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management requires 120 total credit hours.
Students completing the full 120-credit-hour degree may complete the program in approximately four years with full-time enrollment. Students transferring approximately 60 approved credit hours, such as from an associate degree, may complete the remaining coursework in approximately two years.
Yes. The program is designed as an online healthcare administration degree and is offered 100% online to support students who need flexibility while completing their degree.
No. The program is appropriate for students who are new to healthcare as well as those who already work in clinical, administrative, or support roles and want to move into management or leadership positions.
Clinical programs prepare students to provide direct patient care. Healthcare management focuses on the leadership, operational, financial, quality, and administrative functions that support health care administration within health care delivery.
AUM’s Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management is offered through the AACSB-accredited College of Business. The BSHM includes two graduate-level courses from the CAHME-accredited MHA curriculum, giving the student a head start on the AUM MHA curriculum.
Yes. The Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management can provide a strong foundation for graduate study in healthcare administration, business, public health, or related fields. In fact, upon completion of the BSHM curriculum, you have satisfied the course requirements (6 credit hours) for the AUM MHA program.
Curriculum Details
120 total credit hours required
The Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management combines general education, business knowledge, and healthcare-specific management coursework. Students gain a broad foundation in how healthcare organizations operate and how leaders use communication, data, ethics, finance, policy, quality improvement, and strategy to improve organizational performance.
Students should work closely with an academic advisor to review transfer credit, course sequencing, and the most efficient path to degree completion.
Students in the Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management will complete general education requirements, business foundation courses, healthcare management major courses, and electives.
The curriculum is designed to help students understand both the healthcare environment and the management skills needed to lead within healthcare organizations and other healthcare organization settings involved in health care services. Managers may also support medical and health services across healthcare facilities and related care environments. / Graduates may work in hospitals, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and rehabilitation centers.
This is a sampling of the courses you will take during your degree pathway:
This course provides an introductory-level exploration of health economics, applying basic economic theories to the health care sector and individual health behaviors. Students will identify core economic principles, explain why health care markets differ from traditional markets, and apply economic tools to analyze current U.S. and global healthcare systems. Topics include health care reform, supply and demand of health care services, population health, and techniques for economic evaluation. The course also introduces students to issues such as market failure, adverse selection, and moral hazard, fostering the ability to recognize and describe critical economic challenges in healthcare industries.
This course provides an orientation to the foundational characteristics of the U.S. healthcare system, including a review of how the system is organized, regulation, health status, health disparities, delivery systems, insurance, quality, health policy, and technology.
This course explores the financial and revenue operations of healthcare organizations, including financial management. Topics include the purpose and objectives of financial administration of healthcare organizations, financial analysis and reporting in healthcare, third-party payments, cost classification and allocation for healthcare organizations, and reimbursement.
Introduces healthcare data analytics for undergraduates. Learn to acquire, clean, and visualize clinical, claims, and operational data; apply descriptive stats, dashboards, and basic predictive methods, including applications in health informatics and health information systems, to support quality, cost, and population health decisions.
Introduces principles and tools of healthcare quality improvement to create process reliability, advance quality healthcare, and improve patient outcomes. Students learn measurement, assessment, and continuous improvement methods; team and patient roles; risk management through assessment, event learning, and strategies to reduce medical errors. The course also examines current and emerging challenges shaping quality and safety practice.
Students will learn how well-run healthcare organizations operate and improve. This course covers interrelationships between governance, strategic planning, teams, measurement, quality/safety, continuous improvement, and management of risk and compliance, finance, and patient experience. Students will also focus on developing strategies and apply quality and process improvement tools.
This course provides an overview of laws that most affect healthcare practices. The legal basis for government involvement in healthcare is examined with an analysis of the laws controlling the provision of the healthcare industry and professional regulations. This course provides an in-depth overview of healthcare law, allowing students to acquire skills to confirm their actions to legal requirements and ethically analyze daily healthcare situations.
Contacts
Michael McEachern
Department Chair | College of Business
334-244-3493
[email protected]
Clement Hall, 322C
Business Administration, COB Deans Office, Healthcare Administration
Dr. Michael L. McEachern is a distinguished healthcare leader with over 35 years of executive experience and a strong academic background. Dr. McEachern has held numerous high-level leadership positions, including Chief Executive Officer roles at several hospitals across Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, and Ohio. He brings a wealth of experience in healthcare administration, operational leadership, and transformative healthcare practices.
Dr. McEachern earned his EdD in Transformative Leadership from Concordia University in 2019, with a dissertation focusing on the role of Leadership in the Adoption of Innovation by Critical Care Nurses. He also holds an MS in Healthcare Administration from the University of Houston-Clear Lake and a BBA in Human Resources from Lamar University.
In addition to his leadership roles, Dr. McEachern is an accomplished educator. At Auburn University at Montgomery, he teaches courses in Leadership and Innovation in Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, and Quality Improvement. He is actively involved in academic service, chairing the Graduate Curriculum Committee, and contributing to the Dean’s Leadership Committee, CAHME Accreditation, and Assessment of Learning for AACSB.
As a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and a Life Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (LFACHE), Dr. McEachern is deeply committed to advancing healthcare leadership. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Alabama Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives and actively participates in national healthcare discussions.
Dr. McEachern’s professional memberships include the National Association of Health Services Executives, and his career is marked by his dedication to improving healthcare quality, innovative leadership, and mentoring future healthcare leaders
College of Business
At AUM’s College of Business, you will have powerful learning experiences, working side by side with professors who have real-world experience.
Our academic departments include the School of Accountancy, Department of Business Administration, Department of Healthcare Administration and the Department of Information Systems.
