Courses

By the end of this course, you will have a strong foundational understanding of the American healthcare system, along with the basic financial and management skills to make better, well-informed decisions that improve the cost and quality of the healthcare you or your enterprise provides. Understanding the evolution of todayʼs system forms the foundation for subsequent learning and leadership. Landmark legislation will also be reviewed, including the Hill-Burton Act, Social Security Act, HMO Act, Balanced Budget Act of 1997, PPACA and ARRA. We will focus on a range of healthcare services, including acute care, post-acute care and senior health and housing, ambulatory surgery centers, behavioral health, and medical insurance companies.

Credits: 3

This course is designed to help you keep pace with the rapidly changing world of health and healthcare. We will explore the drivers of value creation, valuation approaches, and differences in capital structures between nonprofit and for-profit healthcare providers; examine horizontal consolidation and integrations among nonprofit and for-profit providers (mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, etc.), and vertical consolidation and integrations between providers and payers; and the ethos of healthcare, disruptive innovation and emotional intelligence. This course is also part of the healthcare leadership graduate certificate.

Credits: 3

This course focuses on the full spectrum of human capital management concepts, including talent acquisition and retention, employee motivation, change management and organizational culture. Emphasis will be placed on performance management, total rewards, learning and development, HR analytics, principal leadership, healthcare social responsibility, and anticipating the future of human resources. This course explores contemporary workforce issues and skills development in organizational design, performance measurement, teamwork, conflict resolution, leadership, matrix organization and change management. This course is also part of the healthcare leadership graduate certificate.

Credits: 3

This course builds on financial management with emphasis on healthcare organizations, healthcare payment systems, financing and investment decisions, financial planning, and analysis and control. You will use a variety of analytical procedures to assess the financial condition and performance of healthcare organizations. Topics include: third-party payer systems; time value of money; financial risk management and required return; debt, equity and lease financing; cost of capital and capital structure; capital budgeting and risk analysis; financial condition analysis and forecasting; working capital management; capitation; risk sharing; pay for performance; sources of financing; the important role played by real estate investment trusts and entities; and consumer-directed health plans. This course is also part of the healthcare operations graduate certificate.

Credits: 3

This course focuses on financial statements to evaluate the performance of an organization and assess its financial position. Budgets based on forecasts take the form of projected statements and serve as an important managerial tool for planning and control purposes. This course is an introduction to accounting, budgeting and financial-reporting techniques commonly used in the healthcare and not-for-profit environment. Emphasis is placed on enabling you to become comfortable with financial analysis, budgets and commonly used financial terminology so you can effectively address financial matters you will encounter in leadership roles in healthcare and not-for-profit organizations. This course is also part of the healthcare operations graduate certificate.

Credits: 3

This course focuses on the familiarization of production processes and service systems and the quantitative analysis of problems arising in the management of operations. We consider key performance measures of operations (productivity, flexibility, quality and response time) as well as important concepts in the planning, design, control and improvement of processes in healthcare contexts along these dimensions. For this course, you will also acquire the ability to learn ways to conduct operations management through data analytics. This course will also look at the “back-of-house” operations including logistics, precision medicine, telemedicine, genomics and the changing landscape. This course is also part of the healthcare operations graduate certificate.

Credits: 3

The primary goal of this course is to enhance each participant’s ability to conduct, supervise and review health-related programs, procedures and product research based on fundamental concepts and pragmatic applications of epidemiology, biostatistics, decision analysis and economics. There is an emphasis on the critical review of professional reading as a method to enhance the ability to process conflicting study results and correctly appraise published, printed and electronic information. Upon completion of the course, you will be prepared to supervise and collaboratively undertake various innovative types of economic evaluations of technology, case mix, service lines and loss leaders/community benefits when confronted with the real-world constraints of time, data and budget. This course is also part of the healthcare quality improvement graduate certificate.

Credits: 3

This course presents an overview of legal regulations and issues related to healthcare delivery and administration in multiple settings, including but not limited to rural-based, county-owned, Veterans Administration/Department of Defense and safety net healthcare providers. Topics include healthcare legislation and regulation; professional and institutional liability; medical staff and credentialing; patient consent requirements; termination of care; confidentiality of medical care; and the roles of federal, state and private stakeholders.

Credits: 3

This course focuses on the entire healthcare enterprise: the industry and competitive environment in which it operates, its long-term direction and strategy, its resources and competitive capabilities, and its prospects for success. This course will investigate the role of strategy in organizational success and explore how and why some organizations consistently outperform others. Topics include: assessing and understanding the needs of key customer groups, health consumer behavior, market segmentation and targeting, clinical staff needs and relations, forecasting service demand, new product development, product pricing and distribution, advertising and public relations, analysis of collaborative and competitive environments, community health needs assessments, and strategy formulation. Potential conflicts between an organization’s business objectives and its participation with competitors in collaborative community benefit programs are also explored. Emphasis is placed on experiential learning methodologies for developing health services strategic plans and the exploration of topics key to successful strategic positioning, business development and marketing in the management of healthcare services. This course is also part of the healthcare leadership graduate certificate.

Credits: 3

Participants identify and exploit the leverage available from information technology in improving patient care. Upon completion of this course, you will be able to recognize the issues that led to the current state of health information technology (HIT) and the barriers that need to be overcome for HIT to be a positive agent for change in healthcare. You will also be able to apply the knowledge you have gained to provide strategic vision and leadership regarding implementing HIT in a critical challenge. Concepts of Health Level Seven (HL7), SNOMED and nationally determined contributions (NDC) will also be covered. This course is part of the healthcare quality improvement graduate certificate.

Credits: 3

Effective healthcare leaders understand that quality-improvement tools and methods must be at the heart of every healthcare organization to support agile changes. Whether it is the quality of clinical care and patient safety, driving out waste and excessive cost, or striving to deliver the most cost-effective care possible, quality improvement must be part of the skill set of every healthcare leader. From the principles of W. Edwards Demingʼs statistical process control to the six sigma and Toyota-style production models, quality improvement is and will continue to be the yardstick by which outstanding healthcare organizations are measured. You will complete your Institution for Healthcare Improvement Open School Certificate. This course is also part of the healthcare quality improvement graduate certificate.

Credits: 3

Capstone projects, the crowning achievement of the Master of Health Administration degree program, aim to both complement and supplement classroom instruction. You are expected to put into practice the skills and knowledge you learned throughout the program in order to tackle a real-world, current issue that healthcare managers face. A successful capstone project depends on your ability to evaluate critical problems, effectively lead a team and execute appropriate solutions.

Credits: 4

This course presents an opportunity for you to look at current health administration, health policy and public health concerns facing the management of complex healthcare organizations. During this course, you will learn how to process complex information in the decision-making process. You will produce a portfolio over your time during the seminar courses leading to your capstone project. This course will be taken three times during progress toward the Master of Health Administration degree.

Credits: 1×3