HPM students take first prize in NAHSE case competition

October 27, 2014

A three-person team of health policy and management graduate students at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health were first-prize winners in the 19th annual Everett V. Fox Student Case Competition, hosted by the National Association of Healthcare Services Executives (NAHSE) at its annual educational conference, held Oct. 14-17 in Detroit.

Left to right are clinical assistant professor and adviser Jeffrey Simms and team members Emilia Ndely, Camille Grant and Daniel Douthit. The student team won the 2014 NAHSE case competition.

Winning team members are Emilia Ndely and Daniel Douthit, Master of Health Administration/Master of Business Administration students at the Gillings School and Kenan-Flagler Business School, and Camille Grant, Master of Health Administration student.

“Our department is excited each year to support students who volunteer to participate in the NAHSE Case Competition,”  said Sandra Greene, DrPH, Professor of the Practice of health policy and management and interim department chair.  “The benefits from this experience are tremendous. Students apply textbook skills and theories to a real business case while competing with colleagues from top health policy and management programs across the country. Camille, Daniel and Emilia developed a very solid business proposal and presentation for this case, and we are so pleased with the ways they represented our department, the School, and the university at this national competition.”

NAHSE established the competition in 1996 as a scholarship program. The competition employs the case-study methodology of teaching to provide graduate students with an educational experience that enhances their problem-analysis and presentation skills while exposing them to real-life health services administration issues.

Student teams from graduate programs in health administration, business administration and public health are asked to analyze a unique case study that includes diverse and real situations facing the health-care organization featured in the case. The teams are provided with specific facts and raw data and are expected to reach decisions called for in the case assignment.

Made possible through generous sponsorship by health-care organizations across the country, the competition has awarded more than $400,000 in scholarships to minority graduate students.

“Participating in the competition was both enriching and exciting,” said team member Camille Grant. “I learned a lot about myself and was able to build genuine relationships with my teammates, my colleagues across the country and former graduates of our program.”

“The event was an opportunity to represent UNC and demonstrate the various skills our team members have developed and strengthened here at the Gillings School,” Emilia Ndely said. “Preparation for the competition is rigorous and time-consuming, but the satisfaction of our win was well worth all the energy.”

Grant agreed. “I am both humbled and strengthened as the result of participating in a case that allowed me to apply knowledge I’ve gained at the Gillings School to a real-world issue. The critical preparation we were given here resulted in our being able to bring home the first-place title.”

Twenty-three teams from U.S. colleges and universities competed. Other finalists were University of California at Los Angeles (second place), Georgia State University (third), Trinity University (fourth) and University of Memphis (fifth).

The Gillings School has a long history of success at the competition. Its teams won the events in 2004 and 2012 and placed in the top three in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010.