Healthcare Administration

This course focuses on the understanding and development of management skills for continued effectiveness in healthcare leadership. Students learn to distinguish the differences between management and leadership and to understand the implications of each. Theories and strategies are studied as they relate to best practices in healthcare management, including areas of conflict management, implementing change, and effective collaboration and communication.

This course provides an understanding of the organization and delivery of health services, drawing on theory from the social science and business disciplines. Topics include organization of healthcare delivery, accreditation and regulation, organizational theory, integration/continuum of care perspectives, organizational models, adoption of innovations, provider relationships and network structures, and impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on healthcare management.

This course covers an introduction to the business enterprise and current business practices applied to the current healthcare economic market. It will provide a critical balance between review, criticism and prescription of important topics in healthcare economics that are affecting the nation today. Economic theory will be critically reviewed as applied to the health sector through economic evaluation tools. The course critically examines economic theory as applied to the health sector and reviews the government role in making the healthcare sector not only more equitable but also more efficient.

This course is designed to provide students with knowledge about the concepts and practices of regulation and healthcare policy. Students will learn how policymaking relates to decisions that affect and regulate healthcare providers and patients. They will also gain insight into how they can influence the policymaking process including using healthcare data to formulate plans to improve healthcare service delivery. Students have an opportunity to assess and apply risk management information in situations relative to effective health facility operations in accordance with established laws

This course offers a review of recent developments in healthcare liability, negligence theory, formulation of contracts, law of agency, labor law, documentation procedures, evaluation of evidence in litigation, theory of the case, settlement of claims, values clarification, and current ethical issues in the practice of healthcare administration.

This course focuses on multi-range strategies in the integrated healthcare industry. Topics covered include historical perspectives of planning, market demographic analysis, strategic decision making, and comparative analysis of planning models. These principles are applied to the specialized theories and methods of marketing and promoting in the healthcare industry. Topics covered include strategic planning and marketing, market research, market performance, marketing health programs, competitor analysis, promotional strategies, provider referrals, and consumer behaviors.

This course focuses on elements and qualities of proactive leadership needed in the healthcare industry today. Patterns of behavior that drive success as well as failure will be reviewed to determine the role of both personal and team values in improving behavior, performance, and morale. This course will offer strategies for strengthening leadership competencies and creating a self-development plan for a career in healthcare leadership.

This course is a broad overview of Health Care Management Information Systems. Topics include information system design, management and maintenance applied to various healthcare settings. The many components regarding system architecture analysis and design, software evaluation and testing, system life cycle, replacement planning and electronic data interchange and current software applications are reviewed and analyzed. Additional special topics related to IS regulations, standards, and securities are discussed.

This course is designed to bring together knowledge gained from the previous program courses. The focus of the course is on the application of knowledge in the management of a healthcare organization broadly emphasizing complex healthcare administration concepts covered throughout the program of study. This course is designed to demonstrate the skills needed to perform the management role by making day-to-day and strategic decisions involving human resources, financial, information system, planning, and operational issues.

This course examines the way health care organizations are structured, organized, and governed to achieve optimum performance. Explores the various sub-systems of healthcare delivery and the way in which these interrelate in the marketplace.

This course examines the assessment and understanding of the health status of populations, determinates of health and illness, and health risks and behaviors in diverse populations. It also reviews federal and state emergency management procedures and services with lessons learned from recent national and foreign disasters.

This course examines the quality assessment of both business practices and health care delivery focusing on outcome measurements, process/outcome relationships, and methods for process improvement. Quality management tools and techniques are reviewed with a focus on patient safety, clinical quality, care outcomes, and cost benefit analysis in patient care.

This course examines budgeting, reimbursement, financial planning, capital planning, financial statement analysis, and financial decision making in health care organizations

Presentation of human resource management principles as applied in healthcare organizations. Examines the unique aspects of managing healthcare professionals including recruitment and retention, staff privileges, legal issues, job design and analysis, compensation, and labor relations.

Through the application of cases in health care administration, students are provided an opportunity to draw upon and apply material covered throughout the program of study and to demonstrate skills in continuous learning through information access, synthesis and use in critical thinking.