Scroll down to see the different courses that the Department of Health Policy and Management offers in the MHSAprogram or, if you know the course you are interested in, click the appropriate course number: 810, 819, 822, 825, 827, 831, 833, 837, 840, 842, 844, 846, 848, 850, 852, 854, 858, 860, 861, 862, 863, 874, 875, 876, 877, 878, 879, 881, 883, 884

 

 

HP&M 810 The Healthcare System (3)
The structure and function of the components of the U.S. healthcare system are introduced in the context of the history, values and social forces that influenced its development and evolution. Students gain exposure to the concepts and vocabulary associated with aspects of the system, including delivery (providers, institutions, services), resources (finance, payment, insurance), population and public health, and outcomes (cost, access, quality). Healthcare outcomes from consumer, clinical and societal perspectives are explored.

HP&M 819 Research Inquiry to Support Evidence-Based Practice (3)
Inquiry and evidence-based management practice are hallmarks of administrative science, requiring systematic data collection and analysis. The research process is introduced from a health services research perspective, with emphasis on epidemiologic, survey, and program evaluation and outcomes methods to support decision-making. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are presented as tools to measure and analyze health care services quality and the impact of program planning and change strategies.

HP&M 822 Healthcare Economics (3)
This course introduces the core concepts from economics to healthcare with a focus on helping health care managers use economic tools in making sound decisions. The demand for health care products, the structure of insurance, and the supply of health care products are examined. Students will apply a variety of economic analyses to health policy and health system issues.

HP&M 825 Financial Concepts in Healthcare Management (3)
Financial accountability is a critical responsibility of health services administrators. This course presents basic concepts and techniques for effective decision-making and stewardship, including financial statement analysis; strategic financial planning; capital formation; responsibility and cost accounting; operational, capital and cash budgeting; capital project analysis; and working capital management.

HP&M 827 Financial Applications in Healthcare Management (3)
Administrative applications of economic and financial concepts are applied to support strategic and financial goals. The concept of integrating operational and strategic planning into a strategic financial plan is developed. This course will foster integration and confidence in performing and applying financial analytical procedures such as financial statement ratio analysis; revenue and expense forecasting (budgeting); credit worthiness determination; break-even analysis and working capital management in a variety of health care settings including long-term care and public health. Prerequisite: HP&M 825, Financial Concepts in Healthcare Management.

HP&M 831 Reimbursement and Fiscal Policy (2)
Reimbursement and fiscal policy practices impact the success and the economic well-being of health care institutions, payers and patients. This course develops the student’s understanding of complex reimbursement methodologies from the perspective of providers and payers. Students will explore the strengths and weaknesses of the major methods of third party reimbursement, the types of managed care organizations and the payment methodologies employed. Students are also prepared to approach reimbursement policy issues both from the payer and the provider viewpoint.

HP&M 833 Governance, Ethics and Health Law Economics (3)
The functions of health services governance will be examined, including the leadership role of health services administrators in their interactions with the board. While the board sets the tone for legal and ethical functions, the effective administrator builds on and co-creates with the board mechanisms that ensure public accountability. Governance models, ethical frameworks and issues, and principles of health law are interpreted for administrative practice, including methods for conducting board evaluation and providing feedback.

HP&M 837 Health Policy (3)
This course examines the development, implementation, and evaluation of federal, state, and local health policy in the United States. Particular attention will be given to (1) the development of public institutions and policy goals; and (2) current policy problems such as cost controls, reimbursement, health services utilization, program assessment and evaluation, public health, and public/private investment and resource planning. Students will be expected to synthesize and integrate knowledge to apply theory and principles in ways consistent with professional practice as a health policy analyst.

HP&M 840 Organizational Foundations for Leading Change (3)
Self-discovery as a foundation for professional development while exploring the concepts of leader, manager, and follow is emphasized. Analysis and prediction of an organization’s stages of development and its capacity for linear and social change are introduced through the lens of complexity science. Political, legal, ethical and other issues that constrain and destabilize organizations and strategies to restore equilibrium are explored. (Same as NRSG 880.)

HP&M 842 Roles, Functions and Care Models (2)
This course examines the nature and characteristics of the healthcare workforce needed to deliver direct, indirect, and support services. Healthcare worker roles are analyzed through the lens of key organizational functions and care delivery modalities. Common care delivery models, such as primary, team, and patient-centered care approaches to organizing care deliver are explored in various clinical settings, including acute and long-term care and community and public health entities. Administrative challenges and opportunities for managing a diverse workforce are presented.

HP&M 844 Communication for the Healthcare Executive (2)
This course focuses on attaining proficient communication skills to deliver high impact messages to stakeholders ranging from board members, to diverse communities of interest, to policymakers and regulators. Verbal and written skill development addresses executive presence to perform communication functions such as conducting an ‘ask’ from a policymaker or potential benefactor, using storytelling and data to shape critical messages to the media, communicating value-driven memoranda to internal audiences. The use of emerging technologies to aid in communication effectiveness will also be presented.

HP&M 846 Managing Information Systems and Technology (3)
The course covers fundamental concepts of management information systems; current and developing health and business information systems of interest to managers in health services organizations; healthcare information system architecture; security and privacy issues; uses of healthcare information for clinical and strategic analysis and decision support; techniques required to develop and evaluate a technological request for proposal; and thoughts on the future of healthcare information systems including bio-informatics, community health systems and web-based access to health information. The course will also cover current information and issues regarding the latest technology applications.

HP&M 848 Desinging Healthcare Organizations (3)
This course examines the interplay between institutional practices and policy development aimed at evidence-based design, plant technology, safety science, and risk management. Students gain exposure to regulatory policies and learn concepts of organization and structural design and its influence on satisfaction, safety, and work dynamics useful in the operations and maintenance of effective health services organizations. Design is approached as a comprehensive and multidimensional decision-making process that requires communication, budgeting, and facilities system analysis and evaluation in all health services settings.

HP&M 850 Achieving Quality, Safety and Efficiency (3)
This course explores ways to improve health care efficiency, quality, and safety with a focus on micro-systems. The class will examine the current performance of select health care institutions, sources of performance variability (variation theory), methods for measuring performance (measurement theory), and methods for improving performance (change theory). Topics include continuous quality improvement, lean, rapid cycle change, six sigma strategies, and public reporting and accountability. Students will apply performance improvement and risk management techniques to a course project.

HP&M 852 Strategy Development and Marketing (3)
Leaders must be both strategically and operationally oriented to meet the changing healthcare needs of populations-of-interest within a service area. Methods to assess, interpret, and plan for shifting markets will be explored, using a variety of data-capture tools. Strategic planning approaches are presented, which emphasize nimbleness and resiliency in destabilizing or shifting healthcare markets. Strategic issues and trends that support service line development, program expansion, and foster cultural and social programming are studies with emphasis on patient and family-centric care and personalized health care as part of communicating and marketing strategic options. Program evaluation and other evaluation strategies are reinforced to measure strategic impact.

HP&M 854 Human Resources and Workforce Development (3)
The focus of this course is to understand the leadership functions of human resource management in organizations to create a competitive edge through employee empowerment. Core human resource concepts are introduced and applied to optimize human capital within a variety of healthcare settings, including compensation and benefits, employee recognition, and employee/labor relations. National, regional and local strategies and workforce trends are discussed related to best practices for the selection, retention, and management as a healthcare employer of choice.

HP&M 858 Health and Social Behavior (2)
Health care as a cultural and socio-behavioral system is presented. Using research and theory, students explore alternative perspectives on the nature of medicine and healing within comparative health systems, both U.S. and abroad. Students examine at an advanced level how healthcare organizational structures contribute to patient health outcomes and influence employee behaviors. The course reinforces the nature and characteristics of the health professions, particularly medicine and nursing perceptions, and the complex behavioral dynamics of health professionals with organizational leaders.

HP&M 860 Graduate Internship in Health Services Administration (1-3)
Novice and experienced health services administrators function in applied settings. The internship is designed to meet the needs of individual students to advance their career functioning and set in motion a professional development plan. The inexperienced administrator will use the internship as a mid-curriculum opportunity to apply and synthesize in the practice setting knowledge, skills, and abilities. Students who come to the program with mid-level to advanced experience use the practicum to advance their career through exposure to additional experiences that extends their knowledge, skills, and abilities and demonstrates synthesis of program competencies.

HP&M 861 Capstone Seminar (1)
The knowledge, skills, and abilities learned throughout the program are validated in capstone experience. A case study approach will be used to synthesize and apply principles including, but not limited to, change theory and quality improvement, research and information technologies, strategy and communication tools, human resource management, financial and economic analysis, and advanced decision-making and management of organizational behavior. Students will present their cases to peers, faculty, and external reviewers for dialogue, critique, and a plan for professional skills development.

HP&M 862 Research Practicum in Health Services Administration (3)
A course to explore applied research topics associated with specific health services delivery of management problems. Prerequisite: HP&M 819 and HP&M 840.

HP&M 863 Independent Study (1-3)
This course is designed to meet the needs of students who have a special interest that cannot be met by existing courses.

HP&M 874 Healthcare Statistics (3)
Elementary statistical techniques to include descriptive statistics, probability, sampling, and statistical inference of means and proportions; advanced statistical techniques include multivariate analysis of qualitative and quantitative variables using multiple linear and logistic regression.

HP&M 875 Healthcare and Social Policies in Sweden and Finland (3)
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to learn how the Swedish welfare state is organized and to see first-hand how it works on all levels and in various locations around the Stockholm-Uppsala area. Students will learn about Swedish history and culture, and will be challenged to re-examine many commonly held assumptions about both Scandinavia and the United States. A special feature of the class is a four day visit to Helsinki, Finland, Sweden's Nordic neighbor. Finland offers an interesting variant on the “nordic model” of health and social care, which demonstrates how a highly competitive business economy can be successfully combined with a strong program of public benefits and services.

HP&M 876 Medicare and Medicaid (3)
Provides students with an in-depth understanding of the three publicly financed health programs that impact virtually all aspects of the America healthcare system - Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). Explores history and evolution of each program, plus specific operational issues such as eligibility, financing, management reporting, state/federal coordination, quality of care and outcomes management and influence of recent legislation. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

HP&M 877 Women and Health Care (3)
A gender analysis of the organization of healthccare in the United States, using sociohistorical and sociological perspectives. Considers the health status and healthcare problems of women in relation to cultural aspects of medicine and healthcare; the roles of both informal and professional healthcare providers; the political economy of healthcare systems; and the relationship between gender and state. Prerequisite: HP&M 810 or permission of instructor.

HP&M 878 Grant Writing (3)
The course is designed to take the principles and mechanics learned in introductory epidemiology and biostatistics and apply them in the design of epidemiologic studies. The strategy and data collection for studies will be emphasized rather than the methods of statistical analysis. The student will learn how to develop a proposal/grant that addresses the entire array of concerns regarding stuch studies and propose a realistic, scientifically justified study. (Same as ANAT 869 and NRSG 889.)

HP&M 879 Comparative Health Systems (3)
Critical examination of the structure and function of health care systems in major, advanced, capitalist countries (e.g., Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Sweden) in comparison to each other and to the health care system of the United States. Patterns in control and financing will be studied in relation to issues of cost, quality access, and in relation to cultural values. Special attention will be placed on comparative analysis of reform efforts. Prerequisite: HP&M 810 or permission of instructor.

HP&M 881 Public Health Administration (3)
This course provides an in-depth understanding of the core functions of public health: assessment, policy development, and assurance. It uses both theoretical and practical material to develop basic administrative competencies necessary for the practice of public health. Particular emphasis is placed on case studies which examine how public agencies use public and private resources most efficiently, effectively, and equitably in order to maintain or improve the health of populations. (Same as PRVM 827.) Prerequisite: HP&M 810 or permission of instructor.

HP&M 883 Cost-Effectiveness and Decision Analysis (3)
This course examines techniques that are used in making clinical and management decisions when outcomes are uncertain. The course begins with a review of probabilistic decision making, then explores methods of analyzing choices with uncertain outcomes, stressing the use of decision trees and sensitivity analysis. The course examines cost minimization analysis, cost effectiveness analysis, and cost benefit analysis. (Same as PRVM 878.)

HP&M 884 Clinical and Administrative Data Analysis (3)
This course presents advanced techniques in statistical analysis and information management to help understand, process and use health services data. The three broad areas of health services data will be used: clinical, program and population-based. Ways in which these data can be used as both management and research tools will be discussed. Implicaitons for improving patient care and delivery of health services will be emphasized. Labs will stress the use of both manipulative techniques such as merging, matching, sorting and file construction, as well as focus on analysis, using univariate, bivariate and multivariate techniques. Recent methodology related to outcomes, case-mix and performance assessment will be presented, and their application to health services administration demonstrated.