Master of Healthcare Administration

In this course, students work toward increasing their knowledge of key contextual and environmental factors affecting the practice of healthcare administration, including the importance of culture, communication, and diversity. This course is an introduction of students to stakeholders in a variety of settings within the field of healthcare as well as key health and medical terms, including basic health, wellness, and disease information. They consider professional behaviors, such as setting goals and managing time, as well as the attitudes and motivation required for success as a healthcare manager. In addition, students begin building their portfolios, and they work toward developing the competencies needed for success within an online environment as well as critical-thinking, written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.

Healthcare delivery is one of the largest industries in the United States. Students in this course are provided with the opportunity to gain thorough insight into the current structure and components of health services and delivery; they are also presented with an abbreviated history addressing the nature of population illness and disease. Students identify and describe components of the system, including patients, healthcare professionals, public and private third-party payers, regulators, reimbursement methods, and technology. They engage in activities and discussions focused on the continuum of services related to healthcare, such as hospitals and hospital systems, ambulatory care, and long-term care. Students also explore issues related to these services, such as wellness, prevention, and community and public health, for a comprehensive understanding of the system. Students contextualize their study through the examination of current factors and challenges as well as the impact these challenges have on delivery and management.

Healthcare professionals often rely on research to make informed decisions on critical issues affecting programs, policy, and practice. In this course, students examine the logic underlying scientific research; study design; sampling; identification of variables; methods of data collection and analysis; concepts in measurement, including reliability and validity; program evaluation; and research ethics. They explore numeric methods for data description; the Donabedian model of program evaluation; data modeling and research; data mining; and information system assessment. Through statistics software exercises, students learn basic research methods, strategies, and skills for presentation of research results; they also become familiar with statistical software used to support research.

The structure of healthcare organizations is complex and unique, and the behaviors within these organizations often have a direct impact on their success. Students in this course examine organizational behavior as well as the roles and responsibilities of management within healthcare organizations through the macro (organization-wide) perspective and micro (individual and team performance) perspective. Students also focus on understanding organizational values, mission, and vision; management and leadership principles to help navigate change; and effective delivery of services in an increasingly global environment. Students also learn and apply theories of organizational design, governance, and alternative organizational structures, and they consider the theory and practice of managing individuals and groups through motivation, communication, teamwork, leadership, organizational change, coalition building, negotiation, and conflict management and resolution. Through group assignments and personal assessments, students work toward developing self-awareness and effective management styles and strategies.

Managers in healthcare must possess the skills needed to assess economic principles and polices to make important decisions regarding healthcare and services. In this course, students examine the application of health policy and economic principles in regard to managerial decision making. They learn about 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 within the United States. Students assess and discuss key policy initiatives related to cost, quality, and access. They also engage in assignments designed to advance their understanding of and ability to apply economic principles, such as supply, demand, and the determination of market price.

Students in this course are introduced to the terminology, theory, concepts, and techniques used in the accounting and finance functions in healthcare organizations. They explore the important role of finance in healthcare organizations, in addition to the various techniques to develop, manage, and control finances. Using an applied approach to healthcare finance, students learn how to develop, apply, and interpret various financial tools, including budgets, sources of revenue/reimbursement by payer, income statements, balance sheets, dashboards, statements of cash flow, pro formas, return on investment analysis, financial ratios, capital budgeting, debt service and borrowing, depreciation, and cost allocation and cost accounting techniques. Students develop portions of a business/financial plan using these techniques and analyze the viability of their plan using accepted financial management tools.

This course provides students with an overview of law, regulation, and court decisions that affect healthcare organizations, as well as ethical underpinnings and principles that healthcare organizations follow in the delivery of services. Students explore and discuss a variety of topics, including key federal and state laws; 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; organizational liability; conflict of interest legislation; antitrust law; contract law governing relationships with employed physicians and other providers; risk management; and organizational governance issues, among others. Using case studies and hypothetical situations, students assess management roles and key ethical principles and challenges underpinning healthcare organizations.

The strength and success of healthcare organizations lie within their workforce. In this course, students address the role of human resources in healthcare organizations as well as the recruitment, retention, management, and development of these resources. Students gain an understanding of the key roles of human resource personnel in establishing goals and expectations regarding organizational performance as well as how individuals contribute to effective performance in terms of controlling costs, improving quality, and providing excellent customer service. They explore major federal and state legislation that influences human resources, key management functions within workforce planning and recruitment, and functions within workforce retention. Students devote specific attention to the administrative and strategic aspects of managing human resources, focusing on managing clinical and direct-care practitioners whose perspectives and expectations differ from those of management. Other topics that students explore and discuss include employment and contract labor law;  job pricing and compensation strategies, including benefits and pay for performance; staffing models; labor relations; performance appraisals; turnover management; and strategies for ensuring employee engagement, motivation, and satisfaction.

To improve performance outcomes, healthcare organizations often rely on operations management to identify sources of inefficiency, inefficacy, and problems in coordination and delivery of care. In this course, students examine the factors that affect performance outcomes within healthcare organizations; methods to monitor, adjust, and improve performance; and techniques and tools of quantitative analysis of operations and decision support that assist in management of capacity issues, reengineering, staffing, scheduling, productivity, and supply chain. Other important concepts that students examine include understanding operational assessment; understanding patient care and related support-care processes through flowcharting of steps in the process; taking a systems perspective on the organization and delivery of services; identifying problems and improvement opportunities using analytical techniques; and monitoring performance data to identify trends and variation based on current operations and those resulting from changes and improvements.

Healthcare organizations increasingly are concerned about providing high quality and safe services. Students in this course are introduced to the basis for quality and patient safety and provides an overview of healthcare quality, methods of assessing quality, and techniques for improving quality. They can learn key terminology and concepts, including defining quality care; measuring quality in terms of the structure-process-outcomes model; distinguishing between clinical and customer service quality; identifying techniques to avoid adverse clinical events; and exploring customer service quality in terms of defining, measuring, and improving patient satisfaction. Students also explore and discuss the roles of governmental agencies in promoting and reporting quality information regarding hospitals and other health organizations, accrediting bodies, and recent performance initiatives of government and private payers. They apply course concepts to current issues of improving clinical and service quality in healthcare organizations, with special consideration of the 5 Million Lives Campaign—a national effort initiated by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement designed to improve medical care in the United States.

There is an increasing need for improvement in the quality of patient care and healthcare management practices, which organizations can now address through the use of information systems and information technology. Through the review of traditional and topical resources, students in this course learn how integrated, computer-based information systems can enable the assessment and documentation of costs and quality. They also learn how these systems can inform decisions that improve care, allow for better management of medical records, enhance supply inventory and management, and improve vendor contracting and management. Students engage in weekly discussions and assignments designed to provide practical applications of content, focusing on electronic medical records and computerized physician order entry, linked information systems across episodes of care, integrated financial and clinical information systems, linkages among electronic information access systems, Web-based systems for increasing consumer knowledge, confidentiality of information systems, organizational compliance, and data sets.

Strategic planning, including aligning key activities with an organization’s mission and vision, often leads to a strong competitive position. Through this course, students gain an understanding of the importance and process of formulating, implementing, and evaluating a strategic plan. They examine the role of strategic planning in achieving organizational performance as well as the notion of planning as a cyclical process within the healthcare organization. Students also explore key concepts in strategic planning, including identifying the relationship of the plan to the organization’s mission, values, and vision; assessing the competition; identifying external influences and resources; forecasting trends in organizational performance; setting goals; selecting strategies; implementing marketing actions; identifying implications of the strategic plan on organizational finances and human resources; and evaluating the plan’s progress. Students apply course concepts, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, as they research and develop components of a strategic plan for a specific healthcare organization.

The practicum provides students with the opportunity to apply and integrate the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the M.H.A. program and to further develop key professional competencies. Students engage in a field experience in a select public health setting, which they align to their academic and professional goals. Supervision by an on-site preceptor is a critical component of the practicum. The on-site supervisor and the course instructor monitor and evaluate students’ performance throughout the entire practicum experience. This course requires students to complete 120 hours of practicum work. They must also participate in an accompanying online course and begin to develop an ePortfolio based on assigned professional development activities.