Mount Marty College is giving its students yet another degree option from which to choose.

In response to statistics from the United States Department of Labor that show health care administration being a career that is expected to go at an above average rate over the next decade, officials at Mount Marty College are adding health care administration as a new business administration degree emphasis.

The degree emphasis will begin for the fall 2013 semester, and students who are juniors and lower will be eligible for the program.

“We’ve been working to develop this program for about a year,” said Joe Sejnoha, associate professor of business. “The health care field is going to continue to grow because baby boomers will be getting older, so there will be more of a demand for health care facilities for those individuals.”

Bob Tereshinski, vice president and dean of academic affairs at MMC, said the program has potential to work well with Avera Sacred Heart Hospital (ASHH) across the street from campus.

“(Joe) Sejnoha brought up the comment that it would be nice to be able to have a hands-on process for the health care administration emphasis with the facilities Avera has in the community and in the region,” he said. “We would use the facilities for a six-hour internship with our students who are involved in the emphasis we’ve created.”

Sejnoha said there is also the potential to use some of the executives at Avera Sacred Heart as faculty members for the program.

“We’ve had several meetings with Pam Rezac (president/CEO of Avera Sacred Heart Hospital) and a pivotal point of those meetings was to be able to have the capabilities of utilizing the staff members at Avera as guest speakers and possibly adjunct faculty members,” Tereshinski said. “We also found out that there are a number of other retired individuals in the community that can help us by serving as guest lecturers, as well.”

Rezac said the partnership between Mount Marty and Avera with the new emphasis will not only help out students but will also help Avera, too.

“Health care systems such as Avera need to recruit talented, dedicated people to join the health care management and administrative teams to assist us in providing high-quality, accessible health care services to our communities,” she said. “In addition, health care delivery is rapidly changing, and the expectations of patients demands a higher level of expertise in managing health care’s valuable and limited resources.”

Rezac added that the health care administrative team views the partnership with Mount Marty as a great opportunity to contribute its knowledge and expertise to the health care administrative profession.

“The partnership will also help to enhance the retention of current Avera Sacred Heart employees who may view the new health care administrative course offerings as a way to advance their own career options,” she said. “Together, ASHH and MMC can maximize resources and combine our talents and expertise towards this mutual goal.

“Also, it should not be overlooked that both entities foster strong faith-based settings for learning, teaching and developing well-rounded and educated health care professionals.”

Career options for students who choose to add the health care administration emphasis to their degree program include working in management at a health care facility, clinic or hospital.

Tereshinski said the addition of the health care administration option adds yet another option to the choices students at MMC have.

“This gives us another avenue for our business administration majors,” he said. “This gives us a different track for our business administration students to take for when they graduate. The emphasis makes things more specific for the job market and employers, and also makes our graduates more marketable for the workforce.”

Rezac said the evidence she’s seen points to their being serious shortages of health care professionals sometime in the near future.

“The partnership is a natural fit for both ASHH and MMC, and will benefit the people of our region through the promotion of high quality health care services,” she said.

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