HLTH - Health

Course Descriptions

HLTH 5000 Organization and Management in Health Administration (3)

This course explores the many different methods of health care delivery, their respective financing and the implications for managing in different types of health service organizations. Emphasis is placed on the role of the manager in directing and guiding these different types of health service organizations. Program Fee: $42.

HLTH 5020 Organizational Planning and Change in Health Administration (3)

This course identifies the various ways of introducing change in organizations and larger organizational systems as adaptive responses to the external environment. Change efforts at the macro, meso and micro levels of organization are considered. Particular attention is given to the leadership role in health organizations and health systems. Organizational responses to the issues of market changes, managed care, system consolidation and system integration are analyzed.

HLTH 5040 Human Resource Management in Health Administration (3)

This course examines the traditional concerns of human resources management within the health administration field. Particular attention is paid to compensation management, employee recruitment, employee retention, employment policies and the legal environment of human resource management. The various employment arrangements and contracts of physicians, nurses and allied health professionals are discussed.

HLTH 5050 Financial Management in Health Administration (3)

This course emphasizes the managerial aspects of health administration finance that managers need in order to interact with the financial and budgeting systems. The course offers a brief review of different types of accounting systems in health administration. The impact of third-party reimbursement policies are described, including managed care and prospective payment systems. Cost behavior and cost analysis are examined as part of these payment systems. Budget and internal control, including auditing concepts and techniques are introduced as management control techniques.

HLTH 5070 Financial Analysis in Health Administration (3)

This course introduces students to managerial skills that underpin decision making for managers. The following financial methods are presented as decision models: forecasting, capital budgeting and capital access. In addition, the managerial implications of long-term financial planning are considered, including capital investment decisions, equity and debt financing, and lease/purchase decisions. Prerequisite: HLTH 5050.

HLTH 5100 Statistics for Health Administration (3)

This course introduces the use of statistical analysis in health administration. The course emphasizes development of the basic methods and underlying concepts of statistics that are used in management decision making and health services research, which include: descriptive statistics, probability, sampling, hypothesis testing, forecasting methods and nonparametric statistics. Statistical applications in epidemiology and health services research are presented.

HLTH 5120 Issues in Health Policy (3)

The student examines significant health care policy issues. Special emphasis is given to public policies with broad implications, such as Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance reform and health systems costs. The process of policy decision making is explored, and methods and approaches for the study issues are considered. American health policy issues are placed in the international context by comparison with selected other health care systems.

HLTH 5130 Healthcare Strategy and Marketing (3)

Healthcare administrators are challenged by healthcare marketing for a variety of reasons due in part to the differences between marketing services versus tangible goods or products. Healthcare clinical services needs to be marketed to numerous internal and external stakeholders including patients, physicians, the community and the government. Therefore, issues of patient satisfaction, patient's retention and physician and other medical staff satisfaction are critical to any healthcare organization's marketing program. Prerequisite: HLTH 5000.

HLTH 5140 Health Administration Law (3)

The course introduces the law and legal processes that affect health administration. The course presents an overview of legal principles concerned with torts, contracts, and liability in health administration, including the legal standing of individuals covered by various types of health administration. Legal elements of labor relations in the health care field and the legal obligations and malpractice law are discussed as they apply to health professionals.

HLTH 5150 Process Improvement in Health Administration (3)

This course is designed to provide graduate students studying health administration with a working knowledge of performance tools, current quality measure and patient safety issues. Healthcare organization fully recognized that incorporating quality improvement in an organization's vision, mission and operations can enhance processes, prevent failure, improve quality and enhance patient experiences. Prerequisite: HLTH 5100.

HLTH 5160 Health Informatics (3)

In today's increasingly complex healthcare market, managing patient information and data focuses on organization objectives such as improving patients care, delivery of services, sharing of lessons learned and integrating continuous quality improvement. This graduate course offers an overview of the field of health informatics. The students will gain a fundamental knowledge of the concepts of health informatics and how information technology can be used to improve the delivery of healthcare services. 

HLTH 6000 Integrated Studies in Health Administration (3)

This course requires that the student synthesize and integrate the knowledge gained through the health administration management curriculum. This may be accomplished by means of an overarching management construct, such as health administration strategy, health administration cases, or through analyzing the health administration literature and delivering oral presentations or writing critical papers on this review. Program Fee: $42.