David Eccles School of Business MHA students proved themselves to be the best in the region last week, taking home top honors at the 2017 American College of Healthcare Executives Regional Case Competition.
The contest — held in Los Angeles — pitted 12 schools from Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah against one another to analyze and critique a real-world case. This year’s case featured the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. The Eccles School was represented by first-year students Aaron Fanello, Amanda Snyder and Jeff Spear, as well as PMBA/MHA student Jordan Ballam.
The students received their case three weeks before the competition, and then had to analyze it and create a strategy to deal with the problem using only publicly available information. They then flew to Los Angeles to present their case in front of a panel of judges. After being named one of four finalists, the Eccles School team moved on to the final round before being declared the winner of the $1,500 prize.
The competition was originally a California statewide competition, which began in 2015 with sponsorship from Health Care Executives of Southern California, California Association of Healthcare Leaders and San Diego Organization of Healthcare Leaders. In 2016, the University of Arizona and University of Nevada Las Vegas were invited. This year, Utah schools were invited for the first time. All competitors are graduate students currently enrolled in healthcare programs that are part of the ACHE/HCE Higher Education Network.
Congratulations to Aaron, Amanda, Jeff and Jordan from all of us here at the Eccles School!