MS in Health Care Administration Course Offerings

This course examines the wide range of legal and regulatory issues encountered by health care administrators in diverse settings. Students apply these principles to a variety of compliance situations related to cost, quality, and access to health care. Topics include the right to treatment, health care contracts and claims, provider licensure, credentialing, peer review, and privileges, scope of practice, research compliance, institutional liability, informed consent, and advance directives.

This course explores the core microeconomic theories and their relationship to the structure and function of the United States health care system. Topics such as measurement and determinants of health, health disparities, unhealthy behaviors and health insurance are covered in detail.  Furthermore, students examine the effect of the market on the provision of health services and how public policy can influence these markets.

This course examines the nature of the scientific method and basic techniques in social science research as applied to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of social and public data. It explores the use of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods as different approaches to research design, and covers the ethical issues in research involving human subjects. Students develop critical thinking skills through analysis of assigned readings and classroom discussions.

This course provides the student with the principles of information and technology management that are used to implement the strategic plan of the health care institution, improve the quality of services, and the one clinical care provided to the consumer.  Emphasis is placed on data access, interpretation, and evaluation for making these decisions.

This course focuses on the strategic planning and marketing processes of health care institutions.  Students learn to apply a market-oriented perspective to the analysis of environmental factors and organizational resources, to formulate collective business goals, and design customer driven marketing that achieves a sustainable competitive advantage.  The course emphasizes critical thinking skills by concentrating on the use of marketing case studies.  Topics include health consumer behavior, clinical staff needs, environmental analysis, product pricing, advertising, and new product development.

This course provides students with the tools they need to improve the quality of health care across the spectrum of institutions, by applying systematic measures to identify opportunities for improvement, implement change, and assess outcomes. This course provides the theoretical framework and the practical skills to understand the processes under the auspices of quality improvement and real-world examples.

This course, taken in the final semester, integrates and synthesizes the information acquired from the prior courses, to design, execute, and present a scholarly project that presents a solution to an actual health care delivery issue.  The course incorporates and enhances student learning in several different areas:  content, key process skills including project management and teamwork, and methods of gathering, analyzing, and reporting data.