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Kelsi Ostenson

Why did you decide to get this MAS degree?

“My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and six months after graduation I was working in a telemetry department and already filling in as charge nurse. I found myself acting as a leader in all of my subsequent positions, and wanted to learn more about being the best leader possible. There is a point in healthcare leadership that it becomes difficult to obtain the roles you would like without a master’s degree. The appeal to me with this program is that I could obtain my masters while also gaining knowledge about finance, management, and conflict resolution.

As a Registered Nurse I did not have the desire to complete my Nurse Practitioner or continue clinical education. I wanted to get into healthcare administration and looked into multiple MPH and MBA programs, but UCSD’s LHCO program had exactly the classes I was interested in such as project management, finance, and leadership.”

What did you like best about the program?

“This program focuses on learning the leadership skills that will make you successful and stand out in any role. The curriculum is designed around the current trends of healthcare, and it changes on a regular basis to keep up with the evolving healthcare environment. Many of the classes encourage you to think outside the box and develop the skills to problem solve in any situation.

The interactions and group projects with the others in the classroom. I learned a lot from the professors, and even more from my classmates. I love that there are students with all types of healthcare backgrounds to give opinions on topics and make others think outside of their own scope of knowledge.”

What skills are you applying in your job that you learned in the program?

“At my job I run the day to day operations, and am responsible for improving and updating all processes within the department. I was able to change a labor intensive printing and reporting data collection system to an automated system, and in the process save an administrative employee about two weeks’ worth of work which allowed us to take on new projects.”

What would you like to tell someone who is considering the program?

“This MAS program is useful regardless of where you are on the management scale. The knowledge that you take away from the program is very practical and can be utilized on a regular basis to improve your work processes and help you stand out from the pack. The opportunities for networking with professors and colleagues are incredibly useful. It is hard work, but worth it.”

Capstone: “Retrospective Study on Impact of Disease Management Program with Option of Telehealth Scale for Congestive Heart Failure Patients.”

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Todd Gilmer, PhD

Program Director, Professor, Chief, Division of Health Policy, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, UC San Diego School of Medicine

Todd Gilmer, PhD is Professor of Health Economics and Chief of the Division of Health Policy in the department of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego. His research has focused on health insurance and risk adjustment with an emphasis on Medicaid, the implementation of recovery-oriented models of mental health services, and the cost-effectiveness of interventions to improve the quality of diabetes care. Todd is also the Director of The Leadership of Healthcare Organizations MAS degree program.

Robert Kaplan, PhD

Program Associate Director, Professor of Practice, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, UC San Diego School of Medicine Partner, The Torrey Pines Health Group

Robert H. Kaplan, PhD is the Associate Program Director of the MAS in The Leadership of Healthcare Organizations and Professor of Practice in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at the School of Medicine, UC San Diego. Dr. Kaplan is a founder and partner with The Torrey Pines Health Group, Inc. that provides consulting to health care organizations, including strategic planning, network development and post-acute care analysis and management services. He is also founder of SeniorMetrix, Inc., based in Nashville, Tennessee which is a decision support modeling system for management of post-acute care patients.

Prior to his current duties, Dr. Kaplan served as Senior VP for TriWest Healthcare Alliance leading their internal consulting firm, the Health Plan Design and Management (HPDM) division. In this role, he was responsible for producing quarterly reports for military treatment facilities based on the purchased care and MHS data that highlighted the efficiency opportunities with the total MHS Healthcare System. His work directly resulted in stronger relationships with various elements of the Military Health System. Dr. Kaplan earned his Ph.D. and Master of Public Affairs at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, and his Bachelor of Science in Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder.