Online Master of Health Administration: Curriculum

This course introduces students to the structure and functions of the U.S. Health Care System – historical, current, and future: at local, regional, state, and national levels. Three recurring and foundational issues of access, cost, and quality will be studied. Students will analyze the interfacing roles between the various health care delivery structures: stakeholders, healthcare resources, types of health services, industries, health services financing, healthcare coverage, special populations needs, and critical issues in health services. Students will examine the interaction between government organizations and each stakeholder group. A framework for critical analysis of the healthcare system will be provided.

This course provides students with an opportunity to explore organizational theory and behavior within the context of the healthcare environment. This course provides an analysis of how a mission of care and service impact corporate culture, interaction, and behavior within a healthcare organization. Health care organizations will be viewed from the societal, organizational, group, professional, and individual levels. In this course, students will focus on practical applications of theories and concepts of behavior within health care organizations.

This course focuses on the accounting and financial management principles and concepts relevant to healthcare, health services, and public health organizations. This course gives a graduate-level introduction into budgeting, cost determination, and reimbursement in healthcare settings. This class is cumulative with Financial Management II. Students will write an organizational financial assessment and plan for an organization at the end of the Finance II.

This course builds on Financial Management I. This course provides an in-depth understanding of the financial management of health services for decision-making with emphasis on third-party payers, financial statements, capital investments, debt and equity financing, and capital budgeting. The organizational financial assessment and plan will be completed at the end of the course.

This course focuses on understanding human resource management and its impact on organizational decision-making. This course explains the theory, law, and practice of human resource management in both public and nonprofit agency sectors as they relate to healthcare and health services delivery personnel. Students will discuss and differentiate the theoretical and practical issues that leaders, managers, and human resources managers utilize in daily operations. Students will explain the interface between human capital, human capital management, and operational functions as they deal with individuals, work teams, and the goals of organizations, communities, and society. Students will describe the human resource trend of moving from a “custodial” function focused on compliance, to moving towards incorporating strategic functions and processes that contribute to achievement of an agency’s mission, goals, and objectives through employee selection, retentions, engagement, and leadership.
Pre-requisite: MHA 610. (Offered Fall, Spring, Summer)

This course provides fundamentals and tools for assessing, evaluating, and managing the operational processes of defining, assuring, and measuring quality and quality outcomes within an organization. Students will develop and enhance skills in leadership, communication, organizational design, continual quality improvement, outcomes manager, root cause analysis, data design, and analysis. The roles of The Joint Commission, Baldrige, and other quality monitoring agencies will be studied as well as current issues and evaluation tools with healthcare delivery.

This course provides a synthesis of epidemiology as it pertains to identifying, understanding, and managing health and factors that influence outcomes for patients and communities. Students will learn about evidence-based medicine, clinician roles, systems analysis, public health, and disease prevention.
Pre-requisite MHA 625. (Offered Fall, Spring, Summer)

This course allows students to gain clinical knowledge and competencies in areas important to stakeholders’ in healthcare organizations. Students will analyze the effects of environment, policies, insurance, and reimbursement on physicians, patients, healthcare workers, managers, administrators, and employers. Relationships, expectations, outcomes, social media, technologies, and health literacy are included as part of the environment.

This course enables students to interpret policy and decisions that can impact an organization’s performance from the economic and policy contexts. The course provides an application and understanding of how economic models, demand, supply, decision architecture, and policy affect the medical economy. Influences on demand, especially related to health status, insurance coverage, and income will be analyzed. The impact of market decisions on healthcare services pricing will be evaluated. This evaluation will include pharmaceuticals, genomics, medical devices, biotechnologies and the government as demander and payer of medical care services.

This course explores the legal, political, social, and ethical issues encountered by healthcare professionals and organization. Topics include government regulation of healthcare providers, patient consent, human reproduction, privacy, confidentiality, tax-exemption, antitrust, inurnment, fraud, abuse, abortion, terminal care, mental health, health information management, and individual vs. society benefit. Students will analyze legal and ethical healthcare resources by engaging in interactive discussions and informative research.

This course provides an overview of various types, uses, and trends of health information technology. This course will help students to develop an understanding of the systems and the use of health information that is used to assist with corporate strategy, project management, population health, and patient care. Emphasis will be placed on case studies of systems utilized in areas such as patient-care, clinical decision-support, disease and demographic surveillance, imaging, simulation, safety, and environmental assessments. Fundamentals of proposing, reporting, and refereeing evaluation studies are covered. Legal and ethical issues related to training, security, confidentiality, and the use of informed consent will also be addressed.

This course is designed to provide students with the capstone opportunity to apply the theories, models and techniques acquired in preceding courses. Students will write both strategic and marketing plans for an organization. The plans will include human resources, financial, information system, planning, and operational responses to mission, market, and community need.