History of the Graduate Program in Hospital Administration

The success of the GPHA inspired the creation of similar programs across the country. Within 30 years of the program’s founding, 15 other universities had adopted this model for their own hospital administration programs. By the 1990s, there were more than 50 graduate programs in hospital administration operating nationwide.

Tom Barry, ’76, recalls, “The primary reason I joined Chicago’s MBA class of 1976, rather than consider other business schools, was its longstanding dominance among MBA programs in healthcare education. I moved to Manhattan during my second year to become the third member of the first healthcare group at an investment banking firm.”

The Evolution of the GPHA

One of the program’s most influential leaders was George Bugbee, who served as director from 1962 to 1970. Bugbee had been director of UChicago’s Health Information Foundation (HIF), which was originally founded by the pharmaceutical industry as an independent, nonprofit research center to study social and economic issues in healthcare. Under Bugbee’s leadership, HIF combined with the GPHA in 1962 as the Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS).

Bugbee had a distinguished career in healthcare, having led the American Hospital Association from 1943 to 1954, becoming the first non-physician to hold the position. He was also instrumental in the passage of the Hill-Burton Act in 1946, which provided federal funding for the construction of hospitals following World War II and the Great Depression. Bugbee’s leadership brought additional prestige to the GPHA, and during his tenure, the program continued to flourish.

In 1990, CHAS moved from Chicago Booth to what is now the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, where it hosts the interdisciplinary Michael M. Davis Lecture Series to explore the intersection of health policy and the broad needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations.

CHAS also served as the academic home for a number of business PhD alumni who went on to have distinguished careers. Several have been acknowledged for their outstanding contributions to healthcare as elected members of the National Academy of Medicine: Duncan Neuhauser, PhD ’71, former professor emeritus at Case Western Reserve University; Chuck Phelps, PhD ’73, former provost at the University of Rochester; William Richardson, MBA ’64, PhD ’71, former president of Johns Hopkins University and the WK Kellogg Foundation; and Stephen Shortell, MBA ’71, PhD ’72, professor emeritus of the Haas School of Business and dean emeritus of the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.