MEDICAL
CENTER
DUKE
UNIVERSITY
VOL. 11, NO. 3
JUNE, 1964
DURHAM, N. C.
The Degree Program in Hospital Administration
by Ray E. Brown*
The story of Duke University’s pio
neering move in the establishment of
the first organized program for the
training of hospital administrators is
well-known throughout the health and
hospital fields. From that program
has flowed some of the nation’s out
standing hospital administrators. The
Southeast, in particular, is sprinkled
with Duke-trained hospital adminis
trators and they have contributed
sizeably to the dramatic advances in
hospital development in this region.
Since the first regular students
entered the Duke j)rogram in 1932,
some two score other universities have
established formal j)rograms for the
training of hospital administrators.
Like Duke’s, these have been at the
j)ost-baccahiureate level. Not all have
survived, but today there are 15 na
tionally recognized graduate ])rograms
in the United States and two in Can
ada. Two additional programs are
scheduled to open in the fall of 1964.
Approximately 300 graduates will be
))roduced by these programs this year,
and the total number of graduates
over the yeai's is nearing 3,;’)00.
The Duke story added new dinu'^n-
sions with the June convocation. At
that time nine gradutes received the
Master of Hospital Administration
degree. This class, admitted in 1!)62,
were the first Duke graduates in
hospital administration to receive a
formal degree. All prior graduates
were awarded a certificate.
The growing complexity of hosj)ital
* Mr. Brown was appointed director of
the graduate degree Program iii Hospital
Administration at Duke University on March
], 1964.
A milestone was reached when the nine students, pictured here with their faculty, received
the Master of Hospital Administration degree during the Commencement exercises.
Heretofore, training in this field at Duke had been limited to a certificate program. It was
expanded to a degree program in 1962. First row, left to right, the faculty of the program:
Donald Smith, Kalph Jennings, Charles Frenzel, Charles Boone, Louis Swanson; graduates:
second row, left to right, Francis F. Manning, Carl V. Strayhorn, Jr., Kenneth J. Schoon-
hagen, Ralph H. Holthouser, Jr., Richard A. Byrnes; third row, left to right, William L.
Yates, Christopher Johnston, VI, Boi Jon Jaejer, David R. Page.
nuiiuigement that Dean Davison fore
saw in the late twenties has beconie
more than full-grown, and the ])attern
of education for hospital adminis
trators is now recognized as an inter
disciplinary arrangement involving
formal courses at the graduate level.
Effective with the decision of Duke
University to offer a degree i)rograin,
all nationally recognized programs
now confer a master’s degree upon
their gradiuites. The several programs
arc similar in that tlu'y all re'iuire
two years of combined study and ad
ministrative residency. But, there are
sharp dissimilarities. Some are lo
cated in Schools of I’tiblic Health,
others in Schools of Business; some
in schools of Medicine and some in
Graduate Schools. Thos(‘ in the ])ro-
fessional schools have a heavy orien
tation of their courses in the subj(>ct
matter related to the particular j)ro-
fessioiml school. The ]>rogi’am at Duke