Posted on February 20, 2007 at 2:10 p.m.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A unique contest to improve future health administrators’ ability to tackle real-world issues was held in Birmingham last week. The first national Health Administration Case Competition was hosted by UAB’s (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Department of Health Services Administration and sponsored by the UAB Health System.
The event, held February 8, drew teams from 15 universities. The teams prepared analyses of a case study related to the construction of a replacement facility for a major pediatric hospital in a southwestern city. Competitors developed a set of practical recommendations in the areas of strategic planning, operations, finance and marketing.
“The case competition provided graduate students from accredited programs an opportunity to put what they have learned into practice with a real-life, real-time case study,” said Gerald Glandon, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UAB Department of Health Services Administration. “It was designed to be a capstone experience for their graduate school training.”
First place in the competition was awarded to a team from Virginia Commonwealth University while a team from Northwestern University took second place. Third place went to the UAB team. Presentations were judged by a panel of seven nationally recognized health administration professionals.
UAB Health System CEO David Hoidal served as master of ceremonies for the Awards Dinner. “We are extremely proud to support the only case competition open to all health administration graduate students,” Hoidal said. “This competition will be a valuable tool in preparing future generations of health care administrators.”
Following the awards ceremony, UAB presented the L.R. Jordan Distinguished Lecture Series. This year’s presenter was Thomas Royer, M.D., president and CEO of Dallas-based CHRISTUS Health. His presentation was entitled “Keepers of the Healthcare Profession through the Clouds and the Sunshine”. The lecture series, in its third year, honors L.R. “Rush” Jordan, a long-time health care executive and professor of health administration at UAB. The series was established to sustain Jordan’s legacy of integrating health care practitioners into the classroom.