Hospital adds MBA program

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Glendale Adventist Medical Center, in partnership with Riverside-based La Sierra University, will offer a new integrated master’s program at the hospital campus starting in January for professional adults who never finished college.

The Masters of Business Administration offering is part of the hospital’s effort to expand its community services, said Jeff Eller, the medical center’s vice president of human resources.

“Hospital as community service — that’s the way I look at it,” Eller said. “If you think of hospitals in our community being a resource — like libraries and schools, fire and emergency services — we are an important resource to this community, and we just added one more thing for the residents of Glendale to view us as more of just a place where you go and get your healthcare but a place where you can go and learn.”

The new integrated program is not the hospital’s first experiment with business education. In 2003, also in partnership with La Sierra University, the hospital initiated a two-year professional master’s program for adults who had finished college but never went to graduate school.

The integrated program is geared toward adults who have the equivalent of two years of undergraduate study, or an associate’s degree.

The 4 1/2 -year program is particularly tailored for professional adults in the Glendale area who may have already been successful in the business world but met a roadblock on their way up the corporate ladder for lack of a degree, said Kim Milstien, Glendale Adventist’s associate vice president of business development. Milstien also is a graduate of the inaugural class of La Sierra’s professional program at the hospital in 2005.

“To be in the business world, across all industries, not just healthcare, an MBA is the cost of entry,” said Milstien, who got a promotion during her two-year master’s program and another promotion after graduating. “That’s just the fact of the matter. The MBA opens doors to you.”

The program, which is open to the public, offers a convenient way for full-time professionals to get their degree without taking a break from their career, said Milstien, who struggled to find another program close enough for her to the Glendale area.