Dr. Kathryn Jervis, a professor in the College of Business, is developing and directing URI’s Healthcare Management Graduate Program. To help support this interprofessional initiative, Dr. Jervis and six interdisciplinary faculty members received funding from the State of Rhode Island Employment Opportunity Health and Human Services (RI EOHHS) grant program. Dr. Jervis hopes to launch this degree program for Fall 2019. In the meantime, current students enrolled in the evening MBA program at URI may take some MBA classes with a healthcare focus, which include Healthcare Operations and Supply Chain Management, Financial/Managerial Accounting for Healthcare Professionals, and Financial Management for Healthcare Professionals. Future courses will cover a variety of topics such as healthcare systems, data analytics and information systems in healthcare, marketing, and law in healthcare administration. The team anticipates the development of three-stackable certificates, which will include “Quality Improvement, Process Management,” “Health Leadership and Administration,” and “Information Systems Management.” Each certificate will likely contain four required courses. Future students may complete one or more certificates. Completing all three certificates results in earning a healthcare management degree.
Dr. Jervis currently teaches two evening MBA courses with a healthcare focus, “Managerial Accounting for Healthcare Professionals (MBA 537)” and “Financial Accounting for Healthcare Professionals (MBA 533).” Both courses are interactive, filled with case studies and discussion. Both classes incorporate core elements of interprofessional education, including teamwork, communication, and roles and responsibilities. In Dr. Jervis’ managerial accounting course, students complete case studies that help students understand how to apply different principles of revenue/cost analysis and budgeting for healthcare services and products. Through these managerial case studies, students understand the roles of different employees and the flow of information throughout the hospital organization. For Dr. Jervis’ financial accounting course, students work in teams on a group case project that includes completing a financial statement analysis for a healthcare institution. Each group shares its written paper findings during a formal presentation. Students gain the ability to analyze accounting information for health care organizations and become familiar with healthcare reimbursement models and insurance plans. She notes that a variety of students may be enrolled in her class, ranging from physicians and pharmacists to grant officers, and hospital and insurance company employees. For Dr. Jervis, students from a variety of backgrounds truly adds an extra dimension to the class and promotes rich classroom dialogue.
Dr. Jervis values interdisciplinary work in the classroom, as a researcher and as a program director. She considers herself a social-political thinker and grounds her research in practice and application. She frequently collaborates with faculty in the Academic Health Collaborative, and the departments of sociology and computer science. Her network extends beyond URI and includes relations with those working in healthcare management and local universities. Dr. Jervis was selected as a Fellow through the American Council on Education for the 2018-2019 academic year, where she shadows the president at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. This unique training opportunity will help inform the development of the Healthcare Graduate Management Program at URI.