If you work in healthcare and you’re considering a doctor, you’ve probably run into three overlapping options: a Doctor of Health Administration (DHA), a PhD in Healthcare Administration, and a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) with a healthcare specialization. All three are legitimate, terminal-level credentials, but they’re built for different goals.
This guide compares the three paths, then looks closely at one of them in depth: the Doctor of Business Administration in Healthcare Management and Leadership at Crestmont University, designed for experienced healthcare professionals who want to apply doctoral-level research skills directly to real organizational problems.
The confusion between these three degrees is understandable. All three are at the same academic level, require original research, and open doors to senior roles in healthcare. The real differences show up in what the research is for, who the coursework is built around, and how much of the curriculum stays focused on healthcare specifically versus broader business strategy. Understanding those differences before you apply matters more than the letters after your name.
Three doctoral paths in healthcare administration
Healthcare administration offers several doctoral paths, each designed for different career goals. Explore the DHA, DBA, and PhD to understand how each degree can help you advance your expertise, leadership skills, and career in healthcare.
Doctor of Health Administration (DHA)
A Doctor of Health Administration is a professional doctoral degree designed specifically for healthcare operations, policy, and systems leadership. Every course stays anchored in healthcare, from hospital operations to health policy to population health management. It suits healthcare administrators and executives who want doctoral-level training focused entirely on healthcare, rather than on business administration more broadly. Some DHA programs pursue field-specific accreditation from bodies such as the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME), which accredits graduate healthcare management programs in the U.S. and Canada. Because a DHA is a professional rather than academic doctor, its capstone research typically addresses a real operational or policy problem, similar in spirit to an applied business capstone, but scoped entirely to a healthcare setting.
PhD in Healthcare Administration
A PhD in Healthcare Administration is an academic, research-focused degree. It’s built for people aiming at a career in research or higher education, generating new theoretical knowledge about healthcare systems, policy, or management, rather than applying it directly inside one organization. Coursework typically emphasizes research design, statistics, and theory-building more heavily than practice-oriented management topics. It typically demands the longest research timeline of the three paths, since a PhD dissertation is expected to make an original, publishable contribution to the academic literature rather than solve one organization’s immediate problem.
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) with a Healthcare Specialization
A Doctor of Business Administration is a business doctorate at the same academic level as a PhD, but focused on applied research: solving real organizational problems rather than only contributing to academic literature. A DBA with a Healthcare Management and Leadership specialization combines core doctoral business training — finance, economics, leadership, research methodology — with healthcare-specific coursework in strategy, marketing, and health economics. That combination is the key distinction from a DHA: a DBA retains the healthcare specialization but builds on a full business doctoral core, so graduates leave with strategic and financial expertise that applies well beyond a single healthcare organization.
Which path fits which professional?
A DHA is for professionals who want to stay focused entirely on healthcare administration, with every course anchored in the field. A PhD suits professionals aiming for academic or research careers, where the goal is to contribute new knowledge rather than solve a single organization’s problem. A DBA with a healthcare specialization fits working healthcare executives and managers who want broader business doctoral training — finance, strategy, leadership — applied specifically to healthcare problems, without narrowing the degree to healthcare content alone.
That last distinction is worth sitting with if you’re choosing between a DHA and a DBA specifically, since they can look similar from the outside. A DHA keeps you in healthcare administration throughout the curriculum. A DBA gives you a full business doctoral core first, then layers the healthcare specialization on top, useful if your ambitions extend beyond one healthcare organization, into consulting, cross-industry leadership, or a broader business role later in your career.
The DBA in Healthcare Management and Leadership at Crestmont University
Crestmont University’s Doctor of Business Administration in Healthcare Management and Leadership is designed for experienced professionals seeking to conduct applied research and step into higher-level leadership roles across academic, clinical, and business environments.
Program structure and curricular requirements
The degree requires 60 semester credits, broken into four parts:
- 30 credits (10 courses) of Business Core coursework.
- 15 credits (5 courses) of Healthcare Management and Leadership specialization electives.
- A Comprehensive Competency Assessment.
- 15 credits (5 courses) of research, either a Doctoral Research Project (DPR) or a dissertation.
Business core courses
- ECO 615 – Global Economy
- FIN 605 – Global Business Finance
- GRC 600 – Doctoral Academic Study and Writing
- GRC 605 – Business Research Methodology and Quantitative Statistics
- MGT 616 – Organizational Change and Development in Management Systems
- MGT 610 – Mastering Leadership: Theories and Concepts
- MGT 618 – International Business
- MGT 662 – Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management
- MKT 640 – E-Commerce Models and Applications
- MKT 645 – Marketing Research in Consumer Behavior
Healthcare Management and Leadership specialization courses
- HCM 603 – Strategies for Healthcare Leadership
- HCM 612 – Economic Evaluation and Healthcare: Merging Theory with Practice
- HCM 620 – Managing Disaster: Perspective for Healthcare Leaders
- HCM 625 – Healthcare Marketing: Tools and Techniques
- HCM 630 – Quality Management in Healthcare: A Systems Approach
Research pathway: Doctoral Research Project or dissertation
Students choose one of two 15-credit research tracks to complete the degree.
A Doctoral Research Project (DRP) is the applied track: students study a real healthcare organization’s problem — often within their own workplace — and implement a working solution over five courses, from introduction through the final oral presentation.
A dissertation is the traditional academic track: a theoretical study organized into five chapters, from literature review through methodology, findings, and a final oral defense, suited to students aiming toward academic or research careers in healthcare.
A student on the Doctoral Research Project track might, for example, study a staffing shortage or a rising-cost problem inside their own hospital system, then design and measure a proposed fix as the research itself. The specialization coursework — healthcare strategy, marketing, quality management, and disaster and risk management — provides the project with context, while the Business Core supplies the financial and analytical tools to evaluate whether the fix actually works.
Program competencies: What you’ll de able to do
Graduates of the Healthcare Management and Leadership specialization can demonstrate mastery of specialized healthcare content, in both written and oral form, for high-level decision-making in complex organizations. They can apply critical thinking to healthcare business planning and decisions at both local and global scale. They can identify and evaluate ethical questions in healthcare to build plans that improve processes and return on investment. They can lead with an entrepreneurial mindset, building new ventures and collaborative economic development inside the healthcare field. And they can apply research methods — data collection, analysis, and synthesis — to drive organizational effectiveness and continuous improvement in a healthcare setting.
Format and schedule
Crestmont University’s doctor of Business Administration in Healthcare Management and Leadership is built for working healthcare professionals, not a traditional academic calendar. Students take one course at a time, each running six weeks, so coursework fits around a full-time job rather than competing with it. The degree is completed 100% online, with no campus residency requirement, from anywhere a student is working.
With 20 total courses across the Business Core, specialization, and research pathway, each running six weeks and taken one at a time, the degree works out to roughly two to two and a half years of continuous study — in line with the timeline for Crestmont University’s general doctor of Business Administration.
Support runs through the program in two forms. Student Success Advocates check in regularly, help students navigate deadlines, and keep progress on track from enrollment through the final research defense. Faculty chairs guide each student’s research directly — a relationship that matters even more in a healthcare specialization, where a chair familiar with health economics or healthcare quality systems can shape a Doctoral Research Project or Dissertation around problems that are genuinely specific to the field.
Accreditation
Crestmont University holds institutional accreditation from the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Crestmont University’s business programs — including the doctor of Business Administration in Healthcare Management and Leadership — hold programmatic accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), which evaluates teaching quality and measurable learning outcomes in business education specifically.
Is the DBA in Healthcare Management and Leadership right for you?
If you’re an experienced healthcare manager or executive who wants doctoral-level research skills you can apply directly to a real problem in your own organization — rather than a narrower healthcare-only credential or a fully academic research track — the Doctor of Business Administration in Healthcare Management and Leadership gives you a structured, flexible path to get there without stepping away from your career.
None of the three paths in this guide is a generic upgrade on the others — a DHA, a PhD, and a DBA are built for genuinely different goals, and choosing based on the letters alone tends to lead to the wrong fit. The clearer question is which kind of research you actually want to spend two-plus years doing: healthcare-only administration, original academic theory, or a business-wide doctoral foundation applied to a real healthcare problem.
Explore the DBA program at Crestmont University or talk to an Executive Enrollment Advisor about the Healthcare Management and Leadership specialization.
Frequently asked questions about Doctor of Health Administration
Explore answers to common questions about the Doctor of Health Administration, including degree options, career opportunities, admission requirements, program format, and what to expect from doctoral-level study in healthcare administration.
Do you need a master’s degree to apply for the DBA in Healthcare Management and Leadership?
Doctoral programs generally expect applicants to hold a master’s degree or equivalent graduate-level experience before starting doctoral coursework. Talk with an Executive Enrollment Advisor to confirm how your specific academic and professional background applies.
Is a DBA in Healthcare Management and Leadership the same as a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)?
No. A DNP is a clinical practice doctor built for advanced nursing practice. A DBA in Healthcare Management and Leadership is a business doctor built for management, strategy, and administration — suited to healthcare executives and administrators rather than clinicians seeking advanced clinical practice authority.
Can this DBA lead to a faculty or academic teaching role, or is it only for industry leadership?
Both are possible. The Dissertation research track is built for students aiming toward academic or research careers, while the Doctoral Research Project track suits students who plan to stay in industry leadership. The core coursework and specialization are the same either way.
Do I need a healthcare background to enroll in the Healthcare Management and Leadership specialization?
The specialization is built around healthcare strategy, marketing, and economics, so professional experience in or adjacent to healthcare administration is the strongest foundation. Contact an Executive Enrollment Advisor to discuss how your specific background fits.
What is the Comprehensive Competency Assessment, and when do students complete it?
It’s a required, zero-credit milestone in the 60-credit curriculum, completed alongside the core and specialization coursework, that confirms doctoral-level mastery before a student moves into the research phase.
How is a DBA in Healthcare Management and Leadership different from an MHA (Master of Healthcare Administration)?
An MHA is a master’s-level credential, typically built for professionals earlier in a healthcare management career. A DBA in Healthcare Management and Leadership is a terminal doctoral degree, built for experienced professionals who already have significant management experience and want to apply doctoral-level research to real healthcare problems.
