Online Master of Health Administration (MHA)

This course is designed to provide a comprehensive survey of the current status of the United States health services system. Course studies encompass a macroscopic analysis of the healthcare industry and the major factors influencing the United States healthcare system. Specific topics include an overview of organization, management, and economic support structures, the development and deployment of organization recourses and the delivery component of the United States health system as well as recent developments regarding the Affordable Care Act.

In this course, students learn about the population-wide health issues and develop evidence-based health programs enables healthcare professionals to promote population health programs to meet the health care needs of targeted community and population. In this course, students utilize clinical data sets and combine this knowledge with public health data sets concerning socioeconomic, global health, and behavioral influencers of health in local and global settings. Students analyze these influencers to determine effective, appropriate programs and solutions to benefit the population as a whole. Students assess health issues facing targeted populations and create programs or initiatives that engage the community to improve population health care outcomes. Prerequisite: HLT505

Policy, Legal, and Ethics Aspects of Healthcare Administration will provide an overview of the healthcare policy, ethics, laws, health law issues, and how healthcare is affected by the law. Through reading, writing, and relevant activities, students will learn about a variety of subjects, including history of healthcare policy, ethics, tort law, criminal aspects of healthcare, professional and institutional liability, legal reporting, and end of life issues. The course will require you to draw upon basic knowledge of health care management and systems obtained during your MHA studies.

This course provides an overview of the role of human resources in health care organizations, including the recruitment, retention, management, and development of these resources. Students gain an understanding of key roles that human resource professionals play in planning for workforce needs and how human resource management should be directly aligned with the strategic goals of the organization. Also, in this course, students examine organizational behavior and dynamics, as well as the roles and responsibilities of management within health care organizations. Students focus on understanding management and leadership principles to help navigate change. Students consider the theory and practice of managing individuals and groups through motivation, communication, teamwork, collaboration, leadership, organizational change, negotiation, and conflict management and resolution.

The purpose of this course is to familiarize the student with commonly used financial terminology, obtain a better understanding of the preparation and interpretation of financial statement data and provide a foundation which will better enable the student to utilize quantitative methods for financial decision making within the healthcare industry.

Students in this course apply principles, theories, and relevant contemporary concepts of health care marketing. They evaluate the effectiveness of health care marketing tools such as advertisement campaigns and social media, develop data collection tools for marketing research, and create a marketing plan for a health care organization. Students will apply best practices of marketing and promotion to engage healthcare consumers in managing their health affairs. Prerequisite: HLT505, HLT519, HLT527 & HLT555

Students in this course have the opportunity to learn about challenges and forces that affect organization business and operational performance and patient care outcomes. In this course, students examine the forces and trends that affect performance outcomes within health care organizations and analyze how high reliability health care organizations model and implement sustainable operations management practices. Students assess and apply how changes in health care organization structure, logistics, and supply chains can result in positive patient care outcomes and explore evidence-based management practice models to promote and implement performance excellence standards in various health care settings. Prerequisite: HLT505, HLT519, HLT527 and HLT555

Students in this course have the opportunity to learn how health information systems, technologies and applications assist healthcare professionals and leaders in the execution of organizational strategies and the transformation of the healthcare environment. Students also learn how these complex systems help decision makers in the organization to improve patient care outcomes and performance. Topics include evolving technologies such as data analytics, eHealth, personalized medicine, and social media; using technology applications to manage population health; risk assessment, including legal and ethical issues in health information technology; and change management, Students are challenged by scenario-based discussions that analyze the best information technology practices across multiple industries Prerequisite: HLT505

In this course, students will explore leadership and organizational change management as dynamic and often chaotic events within health organizations. Various means of promoting leadership and implementing change will be discussed such as strategic change management, adaptive leadership and organizational re-design. Students will apply course material to current challenges faced by health organizations.

Students in this course are introduced to the principles and concepts of quality healthcare management and patient safety. Topics include a diverse overview of healthcare quality models that incorporate methods of assessing quality and patient safety and applying techniques for quality improvement on a patient and population level. Students will explore and discuss the roles of data collection and statistical tools in quality improvement as they relate to reporting and promoting healthcare quality information. They will evaluate government agencies, private sector organizations, and international healthcare quality initiatives, and the relationship between health care consumerism and the demand for quality healthcare. Prerequisite: HLT505, HLT519, HLT527, HLT555 & HLT583

Throughout this course, students review and apply the phases of strategic planning, integrating the principles and practices presented throughout the Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) program. They examine the role of strategic planning in achieving organizational performance excellence, as well as the notion of planning as a cyclical process within the healthcare organization. Students submit a comprehensive strategic plan and recommend courses of action that help healthcare organizations address their strategic and tactical needs and the needs of their communities. Prerequisite: All MHA courses except HLT 598

This course represents the culmination of the MHA program. As such, students will be required to integrate the knowledge gained throughout their program of study. Students will prepare and present a critical paper based upon their analysis of a current health administration issue. Prerequisite: Completion of all core MHA courses.