About CAHME: Historical Overview
The Accrediting Commission on Education created CAHME in 2004 following a forty-year tradition of accrediting graduate healthcare management education for Health Services Administration (ACEHSA).
The inaugural corporate meeting, May 2005: A new permanent Board of Directors and two major councils were elected and appointed. The board took the following actions at first meeting:
- Approved bylaws and revised policies and procedures
- Amended the articles of incorporation of the original Illinois entity
- Recognized Corporate Members who are Professional Societies, the Healthcare Market and the Academe
- Reiterated the commitment to the healthcare field to set the standard of excellence in healthcare management education.
- Approved charges to the Accreditation and Standards Council designed to address the changing needs of graduate programs and the market
- Accepted a strategic plan with clearly delineated “Metrics for Success.”
Below is a detailed overview CAHME’s history & involvement in improving education for the dynamic field of healthcare administration.
The creation of CAHME continues to strengthen an approval program that has occurred since the founding of Association of University Programs in Hospital Administration (AUPHA) in 1948. “Accreditation” was employed as criteria for membership in the association as a measure of academic quality. As the field of hospital administration gained professional stature, health care organizations sought administrators with master’s degrees from approved programs. The original corporate sponsors recognized the need for a broadly based structure encompassing the rapidly growing community of interests in the field of education in hospital administration.
Consequently, the National Commission on Accrediting (NCA) accepted a plan for a formalized accreditation program in 1970. Hospital administration became the thirty-third profession to gain recognition by the NCA Board. In 1976 NCA’s name changed to the Accrediting Commission on Education for Health Services Administration (ACEHSA) to reflect the broad spectrum of opportunities that exist within the health administration profession.
ACEHSA was incorporated in 1968 in Illinois as the accrediting agency for graduate education in hospital administration. The joint sponsors of the agency were the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA), the American College of Hospital Administrators (currently American College of Healthcare Executives [ACHE), the American Public Health Association (APHA), and the American Hospital Association (AHA).
ACEHSA Commissioners from the field of practice and academe developed and refined standards used to encourage improvement in the education of those entering the dynamic field of healthcare administration. A program of self-study, expert site visits and accreditation recognition developed. It was continuously refined to encourage improved content and education methodology in graduate healthcare management programs that were rapidly expanding in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Orlando Forum in 2001, funded by the Kellogg Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, began looking more closely at management and leadership preparation in the healthcare industry. The ACEHSA Blue Ribbon Task Group was created and one of their major recommendations was the need to examine and rework accreditation.
A Blue Ribbon Task Force in June 2002 made up of representatives of the field of practice and academic community was jointly appointed by ACEHSA and NCHL. The Task Force was formed in response to the need to ensure that health services education accreditation is relevant and responsive to the changing needs of the broad range of stakeholders in the healthcare industry. After the work of the Blue Ribbon Task Force was completed a Joint Task Group was appointed to formulate a strategic direction to reposition the Commission in response to the recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Task Force.
- With a new vision for the Commission the name of the agency was changed in 2004 to the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME).
CAHME has been granted formal recognition by the United States Department of Education (DOE) and Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) as the only organization to accredit master's level healthcare management programs in the United States and Canada. (CAHME’s recognition by the Secretary of the US Department of Education does not include candidate programs, or programs in Canada.)
As a summary of its focus, CAHME is organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes to:
- Assist in assuring the highest quality educational product across healthcare management through an accreditation program for "selected academic levels" of healthcare management. The term "selected academic levels" being refers to degree-granting programs/departments/schools at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels, as well as pre-masters and post-masters residency and fellowship programs in healthcare management.
- Establish leading edge standards and assessment mechanisms of quality at selected academic levels of healthcare management.
- Make the findings of CAHME available to the public.
- Advance continuously the quality of academic education in healthcare management.
- Assume and perform other responsibilities compatible with the operation of an educational accreditation program.
- Develop leaders in education and practice over lifelong careers through the CAHME Fellows Program.
