We examine attributes associated with salary for women and men using a pooled cross-sectional triennial survey from 2009 to 2021. Overall, women earned $25,684 less. An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach explained 66% of the overall salary gap with several key variables. Specifically, females had fewer years since obtaining a terminal degree (22.4% of the explained gap) and fewer total published articles (18.2% of gap); and were less likely to work in a business school (9% of gap), hold an administrative position (4.5% of gap), and be in a tenured/tenured track position (3.5% of gap). After controlling for other characteristics, 34% of the overall salary gap ($8,706) remained unexplained. From 2009 to 2018, models explained an increasingly higher proportion of the salary gap. However, the unexplained proportion of the gap increased substantially in 2021, possibly due to changes that occurred during the pandemic. Institutional leaders could restructure rewards systems to address amenable factors contributing to salary gaps by assuring that women have the mentorship and opportunities to publish and secure tenure-track and administrative/leadership positions. Such changes may contribute to closing the pay gap and may require release time from responsibilities that do not contribute to salary rewards.
In this study, we provide updated information on salaries of academic health administration (HA) faculty members based on data collected in 2015, 2018, and 2021 and examine characteristics associated with earnings. We present mean inflation-adjusted salaries by demographic characteristics, education, experience, productivity, and job activities. We find that salaries of assistant, associate, and full professors have kept up with inflation and there have not been significant changes in salary by any characteristics over time. As in previous iterations of similar survey data, there remain differences in salary by both gender and race. Higher salaries were associated with having a 12-month contract, being tenured or tenure-track, having an administrative position, and being in a department whose focus is not primarily teaching. Findings from our study will be of interest to individuals on the HA job market, hiring committees, and doctoral students preparing for a position after graduation.
This current study examines measures of work-life balance among health administration faculty prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A repeated cross-sectional design is used to analyze data collected from a national survey in 2018 and 2021. Changes in six different outcome measures of work-life balance were examined using multivariable logistic regression, controlling for health administration faculty characteristics. Compared to 2018 respondents, faculty respondents in 2021 were more likely to report that family and personal matters were interfering with their ability to do their job (OR = 1.93, p=0.001). Females more frequently reported that their career had suffered because of personal issues/obligations (OR = 1.82, p=0.003) but were less likely to report having enough time to get their teaching (OR = 0.68, p=0.026). Respondents with children 18 years or younger reported higher rates of regularly having to miss a meeting or event at home (OR = 1.88, p<0.001) and an event at work (OR = 3.74, p<0.001). These faculty also more frequently reported that family or personal matters were interfering with their ability to do their job (OR = 3.04, p<0.001) and that their career suffered because of personal issues/obligations (OR = 2.09, p=0.001). Given the implications of work-life conflicts to organizational outcomes, academic leaders and university decision-makers should consider adopting strategies to mitigate the effects of these disruptions to the work-life equilibrium of academics.
Given the ubiquity of electronic health records (EHR), health administrators should be formally trained on the use and evaluation of EHR data for common operational tasks and managerial decision-making. A teaching electronic medical record (tEMR) is a fully operational electronic medical record that uses de-identified electronic patient data and provides a framework for students to familiarize themselves with the data, features, and functionality of an EHR. Although purported to be of value in health administration programs, specific benefits of using a tEMR in health administration education is unknown. We sought to examine Master of Health Administration (MHA) students' perceptions of the use, challenges, and benefits of a tEMR. We analyzed qualitative data collected from a focus group session with students who were exposed to the tEMR during a semester MHA course. We also administered pre- and post-survey questions on students' self-efficacy and perceptions of the ease of use, usefulness, and intention to use health care data analysis in their future jobs. We found several MHA students valued their exposure to the tEMR, as this provided them a realistic environment to explore de-identified patient data. Scores for students' perceived ease of using healthcare data analysis in their future job significantly increased following use of the tEMR (pre-test score M=3.31, SD=0.21; post-test score M=3.71, SD=0.18; p=0.01). Student exposure and use of a tEMR may positively affect perceptions of using EHR data for strategic and managerial tasks typical of health administrators.
Graduate programs in health administration invest time, money, and energy to prepare for the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME) accreditation. The three-day CAHME site visit serves as one of the last major steps in the accreditation process for programs. So, what happens when a program spends months planning for a site visit that is drastically disrupted? The program at California State University, Northridge, found itself in the middle of its CAHME site visit during the COVID-19 pandemic and strategically navigated the situation. The site visitors conducted a part-virtual site visit utilizing videoconferencing capabilities to connect the remote site team member and to gather feedback from students and stakeholders. In this case study, the program's leadership and CAHME site visitors provide practical strategies and insights on how to manage and conduct a successful site visit through disruption, discuss lessons learned from the virtual site visit, and provide recommendations on how to ensure a thorough review of evidence.
The COVID-19 pandemic is uniquely challenging due to pace and scale, calling for swift responses across a multitude of societal and organizational levels and a vast network of stakeholders to address its effects. Thus, COVID-19 provides an impactful case from which students can understand the relevance and importance of multiple and multilevel stakeholder engagement, within and outside the healthcare arena, in sustaining public health. We embrace this teachable opportunity to leverage the Social Ecological Model (SEM) as a valuable framework for identifying the stakeholders, the roles they fulfill, and the information and communication technologies that connect them in working toward positive outcomes for the numerous issues faced in pandemic situations. COVID-19 also illuminated how a stakeholder's inability to fulfill an important role can affect stakeholders at various levels, whether by intent or due to barriers beyond their control. We illustrate a progressive and interconnected approach that educators may use in varying educational formats (e.g., face-to-face, hybrid, or online) to apply this multilevel framework in engaging students to recognize the players, roles, and connecting technologies to map the courses of action needed to manage viral outbreaks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under pressures to support health system transformation, many health professional accreditation organizations have incorporated standards requiring interprofessional education. However, the inclusion of population health topics and public health or health administration students into IPE experiences is limited. With the belief that understanding and cooperation among the health professions will be important to support health system transformation, The Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans has created several IPE experiences focused on population health, programs that are examined in this article along with insights that could prove useful for other programs seeking to build IPE into their regular curricula.
Workplace incivility is low-intensity, nonspecific, discourteous behavior towards others and may negatively affect employee and organizational outcomes. This exploratory study sought to examine the prevalence of and factors related to experiencing several different types of workplace incivility using a national sample of Health Administration full-time faculty members in the United States. We found that 27-36% of respondents have experienced at least one type of uncivil behavior from students, coworkers, or supervisors. Further, 4-9% of faculty respondents experience such incidents frequently. Faculty respondents who experienced workplace incivility were significantly more likely to report lower job satisfaction and indicated an intention to leave their position within the next three years. Academic leaders should work to foster an environment where incivility towards others is actively discouraged, as it may contribute to dissatisfaction and turnover.
