M.S. in Healthcare Management

GRADUATE STUDY

Overview

The Master of Science (MS) in Healthcare Management is a field of health administration--includes a number of duties, such as event management, travel planning, leadership services and overseeing the day-to-day operations of a hospital facility. A master's degree in healthcare management is available to those considering a career in hospital administration.

The Master of Healthcare Management (HCM) is designed for students pursuing careers in health care research, government health, hospital administration and a variety of other medical management positions. The HCM program may be offered through academic schools and colleges for health management and policy, public administration, business, public health sciences and environmental affairs. Some our HCM programs include a residency in a health care environment so that students can gain field experience.

Fall Semester

CODE TITLE HOURS

Spring Semester

HCM 734: Health Economics

HCM 736: Health Policy

HCM 741: Social Context of Medicine and Public Health

HCM 742: Health Services Administration

HCM 761: Health Care Administration Internship

Summer Classes

HCM 765: Health Care Regulation

HCM 771: Health Law and Ethics

HCM 775: Health Informatics and Technology

HCM 784: International Public Health Issues

HCM 798: Practicum

Fall Semester

HCM 799: Thesis

COURSE DESCRIPTION

HCM 701: Foundations of Health Care Informatics

This course is an overview of basic concepts in medical and health care informatics. These core concepts include an introduction to the foundational theory and practical application of clinical decision making; computerized decision support; health care systems and their organization; the special issues of administration, security, and operations of imaging informatics; tele-health technology; public health informatics; standards, terminologies, and the uniqueness of biomedical data; and a special focus on emerging technologies.

HCM 711: Foundations of Healthcare Administration

This course focuses on the knowledge and awareness of key contextual and environmental factors affecting the practice of healthcare administration, including the importance of culture, communication, diversity, and an introduction to stakeholders in the health field in a variety of settings. The student’s understanding of key health and medical terms is facilitated, including basic knowledge of health, wellness, and disease. The development of critical thinking as well as written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills is addressed. The required professional behaviors, attitude, goal-setting, and motivation for success as a healthcare manager are considered. In addition, this course assists the student in developing the competencies needed for success within an online environment. Students will begin developing a portfolio, including a journal of interactions/interviews with healthcare managers, an assessment of an organization’s culture, and the identification of key management challenges in the field.

HCM 714: Public Health Administration and Policy

Provides students with the opportunity to learn leadership competencies and identify opportunities in public health and private sector organizations. Gain an understanding of public health policy and its influence on organizations and populations from a federal to local level. Learn how the formation of public health policy by federal and state governments can impact private sector organizations and health care delivery systems.

HCM 716: Environment of Health Care I

First in a two-course sequence, this course includes an historical overview of the development of the hospital industry. It explores the different roles of distinct types of hospitals, including not-for-profit, academic medical centers, Veterans Administration, specialty, and rural hospitals in the health care environment. The interacting roles of hospital administrators and hospital boards of trustees are examined. Focus is on the overall fiscal and human resource management of hospitals and large medical clinics. Practicing health care administrators are included as visiting faculty.

HCM 717: Operations Management I

Operations management involves designing, operating, and improving the processes whereby any firm (such as a hospital) transforms raw materials (like sick patients) into finished goods (like cured patients). A key role of operations is to manage the flow of work through these process steps, with the goal of closely matching supply with demand, while enhancing quality and minimizing cost. Thus we develop a framework for analyzing process flows in within a form and across firms, applying the principles not only to service industries, but also to manufacturing.

HCM 718: Health Policy and Economics

This course examines the application of health policy and economic principles to healthcare managerial decision-making. Students will gain knowledge of the levels within which health policy is carried out, the process for policy development and implementation, key stakeholders and interest groups involved in the health policy process, and how health policy changes over time. Key policy initiatives related to cost, quality, and access are explored. Students will also advance their knowledge of economic principles, such as supply, demand, and the determination of market price. Special attention is devoted to how these concepts relate to the structure of the healthcare industry and the distribution of resources and services.

HCM 721: Operations Management II

This course builds on HCM 717 by looking more closely at how the management of supply chains, capacity, inventory, quality, and product design can have a positive impact on the match between supply and demand and on profitability. The course further examines how firms in both service industries and manufacturing have used operations function to help create a competitive advantage. It also examines how firms have achieved a strategic fit between the operations function and other business disciplines.

HCM 724: Services Operations

This course aims to develop a better understanding of best practices in the service sector through analysis of leading-edge firms and the strategies they have employed to create and maintain competitive advantage. The course emphasizes the close coordination of marketing and operations in the design and implementation of service delivery processes. Topics include the importance of developing both human and technical skills among employees who represent the most critical point of contact between the service organization and its customers, in particular information technology, in changing the nature of the service delivered and/or the way in which the service is delivered. The course relies heavily on the analysis of a number of case studies, and includes a group project where the principles developed in the course are applied to a real service organization.

HCM 719: Marketing for Health Professionals

This course is designed to acquaint health professionals with marketing theory and methods to demonstrate their application to health services, programs, and medical practice. The special needs and difficult challenges in health care marketing, as well as the policy context of health care are discussed. Theoretical issues relevant to effective program design, distribution, pricing, and promotion are studied with emphasis on marketing research and its role in improving these activities. The course considers emerging trends in health care and new service development within this rapidly changing environment. Case studies, videos, and guest speakers are used to help students develop competencies in strategic and analytical thinking. Written and oral communication skills are stressed.

Graduate students will be held to higher standards and/or additional work. Topics covered include economics of health care, health care delivery systems, public and private health insurance, location of health facilities, and health care inflation.

This course is an introduction to health policy issues in the Africa., needs and demands for public action, organization and nature of political support, process and problems of decision making in health policy areas.

This course considers disease and illness within socio-cultural contexts. Emphasis is placed on the ethical, behavioral, social, cultural, political, and economic factors that influence the prevention/treatment of medical and public health problems.

Opportunity for students to develop selected managerial competencies practices by entry level administrators and provider/professional managers in health services organizations.

HCM 751: Environment of Health Care II

Second in a two-course sequence, this course includes exposure to the unique environment of health care accounting and finance, issues that arise in the context of team delivery of health care and the roles of various professionals in care teams, the need to simultaneously balance clinical best practices and responsiveness to patents' needs and priorities, and the responsibility of health care organizations to increase and assure quality. Practicing health care administrators are included as visiting faculty.

HCM 753: Health Programs Planning and Evaluation

This course is devoted to understanding the rapidly evolving area of planning and evaluation. The goal of the course is to give the student a working knowledge of how to apply evidence-based public health in planning, implementing, and evaluation health programs.

Supervised independent field experience in which students spend approximately three months working for a health care organization. Together, with their preceptor, students gain exposure to management issues and decision making. Students and preceptors define a problem and plan for the internship focusing on a significant issue facing that organization. Students then propose a solution and provide a formal management report, within the content of the health care organization. The course provides an opportunity to review, apply, and integrate major components of the MHA program. Ideally, students will do their internship in their area of additional exposure.

Health care regulation is designed to provide an overview of the restrictions and obligations applied to medical practitioners. The course is a survey of a broad range of health law topics, and explores state and federal regulation of physicians, other health care professionals, hospitals, and medical insurers. The course addresses issues such as medical malpractice, confidentiality issues (such as the physician-patient privilege, HIPAA, and reporting obligations regarding infection diseases, child abuse, elder abuse, and trauma), informed consent (including the ability of adolescent minors to consent to treatment, consent to emergency care, and consent in the setting of clinical research), public health, family planning and reproductive health, and the regulation of pharmaceuticals.

HCM 767: Public Health Informatics

Public health informatics is an emerging interdisciplinary field focusing on the use of information technology in public health practice, research, and education. This course provides an introduction to the field through exposure to core concepts of public health and epidemiology and examination of national and local public health information initiatives. Students become familiar with informatics problems in the public health domain by evaluating existing surveillance systems and examining surveillance systems and examining the breadth of existing information management systems.

This course provides the student with an understanding of law, regulation, and court decisions that affect healthcare organizations as well as the ethical underpinnings and principles that healthcare organizations follow in the delivery of services. A review of key federal and state laws is provided, including regulatory oversight and licensing of facilities and practitioners; credentialing requirements and processes; scope of practice for practitioners; admission and discharge processes; privacy and confidentiality of patient information; patient protection including advanced directives, right to die, informed consent, malpractice, content of and access to patient records; organizational liability; apparent agency liability; fraud and abuse; safe harbor; conflict of interest legislation; anti-trust law; contract law governing relationships with employed physicians and other providers; risk management; and organizational governance issues. In addition, accreditation as a form of regulation will be addressed. Key ethical principles underpinning healthcare organizations will be considered as will recent court decisions that impact healthcare organizations and management roles.

This course addresses the importance of information systems and information technology in improving decision-making in healthcare organizations. The student will be exposed to the need for and uses of information technology in healthcare organizations, and how integrated, computer-based information systems can lead to decisions that improve and better coordinate care, allow for better management of medical records and orders, increase the timeliness of care, improve cost controls, enhance supply inventory and management, and improve vendor contracting and management. Such systems will enable the assessment of cost and quality of healthcare and assist healthcare organizations in documenting and demonstrating costs and quality. Specific aspects of health informatics to be addressed in this course include: electronic medical records and computerized physician order entry; linked information systems across episodes of care; integrated financial and clinical information systems, linkages among telephone, computer, and other electronic information access systems; Web-based systems for increasing consumer knowledge and relationship building within healthcare organizations; confidentiality and security of information systems; and organizational compliance with external reporting requirements related to cost and quality. Students will become familiar with administrative data sets and information technology used in decision support.

This course covers current issues in international health relevant to public health and primary care providers. Problems in economics, technology transfer, child survival, primary health care, maternal health, and ethics are presented in an international context.

HCM 785: Program Evaluation

Developing process and outcome evaluation models and plans, selecting measures and evaluations designs, implementing data collection, reduction and analysis, evaluating barriers, and success in implementation. This course also includes actual development and implementation of a program evaluation with a community agency.

HCM 713: Program Planning and Development

This course focuses on assessment, planning, program/project development, and evaluation appropriate for groups, communities, and organization. Strategic planning, decision making, and marketing analysis and strategies incorporated. This course is required for community health nursing majors.

The optional practicum provides students with an opportunity to apply and integrate the knowledge and skills they have acquired throughout the M.H.A. program and further develop key professional competencies. This experience is in alignment with the students’ academic and professional goals and proceeds under the supervision of faculty. Supervision by an on-site preceptor is a critical component of the practicum. Students begin their 120-hour practicum, participate in an accompanying online seminar course, and continue development of the e-Portfolio informed by the practicum. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation is provided by the on-site supervisor and the course instructor.

HCM 799: Dissertation