Health Administration, MHA
Dr. Thomas McIlwain, Director
Mission
The mission of the Health Care Management program is to prepare ethical and socially responsible students from a variety of backgrounds for entry and mid-level management and leadership positions in a variety of health service organizations in the changing health service system, and to strive for excellence in professional education, scholarly research and community service in health care management.
Vision
To be a premier, high value provider of health administration education at the regional, state and national level to all types of clinical and non-clinical individuals.
Goals
Programmatic goals include obtaining a selection of both diverse student and faculty educational and experiential backgrounds to foster increased interdisciplinary understanding of health care. Because a health administrator supports those who provide care, it is incumbent to include both clinicians and non-clinicians in the student body to refine their analytical, verbal and quantitative skills for resolving complex health care issues. Individuals learn both cognitive and affective educational domains at the highest levels.
The MHA program will provide students with tools for successful careers and personal growth through:
- Preparation for leadership in private, public, profit or non-profit health service organizations;
- Instruction of theoretical and conceptual frameworks for programmatic solutions in actual practice settings;
- Instruction in the domains and competencies required by the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME);
- Internships that add value to patients’ care (required);
- A unique professional based project focused on improving care or resource use in healthcare; and,
- The use of both on-campus and off-campus media to enhance their skills, knowledge and abilities in health administration at a reasonable expense;
Objectives
The MHA has four primary objectives. They are to prepare students:
- For positions of increased responsibility within healthcare,
- For further career choices beyond the entry level,
- With clinical, business or other backgrounds, who want to expand their careers into health administration, and
- To improve the quality of care and resource use in health organizations
Additional MHA educational objectives include, but are not limited to:
Graduates of this program will be able to:
- Development of independent thinking in a complex world,
- Development of superior health administration skills,
- Promotion of pragmatic application from internship (or project) experiences,
Academic Policies
Students admitted to the MHA program will follow the academic policies contained in this catalog.
Advising
In order to keep students on track for completing the degree, the Graduate Program Director will be the initial student advisor. The student will be required to communicate with his or her advisor before registering for courses each semester.
Prerequisite Courses and Degree Progression
The MHA program accepts students from a variety of backgrounds, but not all are ready to enter several advanced health care management courses without prerequisite preparation or coursework. Students with business and health care management backgrounds are usually prepared for advanced work; however, individuals with clinical and science backgrounds may not be. For applicants to be successful, they should have a previous course or preparation in basic accounting, economics and statistics (i.e., MATH 1401-Elementary Statistics or equivalent, HCMG 5020 - Health Econometrics or equivalent, and/or HCMG 5030 Healthcare Accounting or equivalent). If these prerequisite courses are taken after admission, they do not count toward the required 45 semester hours for the degree and may not be eligible for financial aid. For further information regarding the prerequisite requirement, please contact the MHA Program Director.
Program Requirements
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation Core Required Courses | 12 | |
| HCMG 5100 | Health Systems Administration | 3 |
| HCMG 5200 | Healthcare Law and Ethics | 3 |
| HCMG 5300 | Human Resource Mgmt-Hlth. Care | 3 |
| HCMG 5400 | Organ. Behavior in Health Care | 3 |
| Advanced Core Required Courses | 27 | |
| HCMG 5950 | Healthcare Economics | 3 |
| HCMG 6100 | Information Mgmt.-Health Care | 3 |
| HCMG 6150 | Healthcare Reimb & Fin Mgt | 3 |
| HCMG 6301 | Health Care Marketing 1 | 3 |
| HCMG 6500 | Managerial Epidemiology | 3 |
| HCMG 6650 | Research Statistics and Method | 3 |
| HCMG 6700 | Health Care Policy | 3 |
| HCMG 6850 | Adv Qlty Sys for Hlth Leaders | 3 |
| HCMG 6900 | Stratetic Mgmt of HC Orgs 1 | 3 |
| Electives | 3 | |
| Choose a minimum of one (1) elective course) | ||
| International Healthcare Issue | ||
| Public Health Organizations | ||
| Long Term Care Administration | ||
| Hlthcare Regulatory Compliance | ||
| Independent Research in Health | ||
| Project/Thesis in Hlth Adm. | ||
| Integrative Experiences | 3 | |
| HCMG 6990 | Health Admin. Internship (up to 6 credits) | 3 |
| Comprehensive Examination (two chances to pass) | 0 | |
| Total Credit Hours | 45 | |
- 1
Students must take HCMG 5100 Health Systems Administration-HCMG 5400 Organ. Behavior in Health Care Before HCMG 6301 Health Care Marketing-HCMG 6900 Stratetic Mgmt of HC Orgs.
MHA Management Project
Each student is required to complete a management project and present it as part of the comprehensive examination process.
MHA Comprehensive Examination
Will be Conducted in Conjunction with the Project Presentation or optional Thesis during the student’s final semester.
The comprehensive examination is a means of demonstrating the degree of knowledge, skills and abilities from the culmination of cognitive and effective education provided in the MHA. All students must pass the comprehensive examination within two tries. Failure to pass the comprehensive examination indicates failure in the MHA program. No credit is provided for the comprehensive examination.
MHA Thesis (Optional)
If chosen as an option, the thesis offers the opportunity to
- access and critically review current and relevant literature regarding a specific research question through the lens of a theoretical framework,
- design and complete a research project at the master’s level, and
- determine how the findings from the study will improve health organization practice.
The master’s thesis does not have to be independent or original research, but should involve the new application of ideas. The thesis and the related defense, Oral Thesis Examination, (that will be the Comprehensive Examination) offer the opportunity to demonstrate the ability to write about and to communicate orally the work done in the MHA. The thesis must be article ready, but it is not required to be accepted for publication. See the MHA Program Director for specific thesis requirements.
Health Administration (HCMG)
This course will introduce graduate students to the theory, application and use of computer based statistics. Applications include the use of a standard database that will assist students in the process of developing computer experiments using a statistical software package. The student's computer will be used extensively in this course and students are required to demonstrate proficiency in the use of WebCT, Word or email, as well as EXCEL and SPSS.
This graduate course deals with the topic of health economics. This topic is significant in today's healthcare market. It will be essential to your success in this class that you keep up with the reading assignments and participate in the discussions. The primary goal is to provide both cognitive and affective knowledge, skills and potential abilities in health economics for health organizations. A working knowledge of health econometrics will be a major goal of this course to help prepare for a master's program.
This graduate course is designed to provide the opportunity for students to examine factors affecting the financing and accounting of health care. Current systems of financing health care are discussed along with budgetary concepts, financial management, cost accounting and ratios, and management under rate control and competition. The differences between goods and service industries are discussed. All students taking this course should have proficiency in Power Point, Microsoft Word and access to email for communication purposes during the course. Also, students must have access to EXCEL for ratio analysis.
This course will provide administrative concepts and theories within United States health care systems. The history and evolution of the systems will be discussed and the current state of health care delivery will be analyzed. The political, legal, and financial issues that impact health care will be considered. The course will discuss and assess the different types of health care providers and their roles in the systems.
This course emphasizes the past, current and potential future law issues in health care. An emphasis is placed on organizational and business law pertaining to healthcare delivery as well as social law and the framework of both civil and criminal courts. This course also presents the broad range of ethical domain and issues that arise in health care delivery. Students will be required to critically evaluate regulations, laws, and practices that influence health care delivery.
The emphasis in this course will be on the understanding of the vital nature of human resources in health care delivery. This course will focus not only on recruitment, selection, and training issues, but also on how human resource management needs to be integrated into the strategic planning of the organization. Legal, ethical, and labor issues will be discussed, as well as the use of motivation and power.
The current trends in health care organizations and organizational development will be discussed and analyzed in this course. This discussion will consider the dramatic changes that have occurred in health care delivery over the last century. Particular attention will be given to health care marketing, the relationships between providers and organizations, health care outcomes, and quality.
This course will compare health care systems in different countries and focus on differences and similarities. Attention will be given to systems that appear to work and how the tenets of these systems may be incorporated into the U.S. health care system.
This course will discuss the important interaction between public health and health care delivery. It will also consider expanding the role of public health to make health care delivery more holistic. It will also deal with the history, purpose, and strengths of the public health care system.
This course emphasizes the unique administration issues in long term care facilities. Students will explore the different milieus for both physically and cognitively impaired residents and the impact upon costs and reimbursement (e.g., RUGS). An emphasis will be placed on practicing for the NHA (NAB) licensure exam and preparation for Administrator in Training (AIT) program requirements.
This course is intended to address the unique issues of regulatory compliance in the health care fields, including HIPAA, OIG, NHI, and FDA (GMP and GCP).
Study arranged with an instructor allowing the student to select an area of interest to further enhance their knowledge, experience and options.
This course introduces students to economic principles used to analyze the behavior of consumers, healthcare providers, health insurers and policymakers and their interactions that determine the allocation of scarce resources and the production and consumption of healthcare services. In this course healthcare economics is taught as a discipline to be used as a healthcare managerial tool to optimize resource allocation at both the organizational and health policy levels. Emphasis is given to the uniqueness of the economics of the healthcare sector in the United States. Students are expected to develop an appreciation of the healthcare economics research surrounding pivotal issues in the healthcare sector.
Prerequisites: HCMG 5100
This course will provide an understanding of the different information systems designed to improve health care delivery and their use in the management of health care organizations. Students will examine the current status of information systems within health care and also explore possible advanced uses of informational systems to monitor patient outcomes, financial stability and marketing information.
Prerequisites: HCMG 5100 (may be taken concurrently)
In this course, students will learn how to use the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) to import health data from other systems, and to build health databases with SAS for improved health care analytics, planning, management, and decision making. The Area Health Resource Files (AHRF) from the US Department of Health Services Administration is a comprehensive collection of county, state, and national health data resources drawn from over 50 sources on healthcare professions, hospital and healthcare facilities, population, and environmental data, and the AHRF will be the used as the primary health data source in learning how to use SAS for programming in health informatics, health planning, and health decision making.
An introduction to healthcare reimbursement/financial management principles for health care managers. Core topics include historical reimbursement systems, managed care, budgeting, analysis of financial statements, and general financial management principles.
Prerequisites: HCMG 5100
The crucial issues of marketing in health care will be examined and discussed. The course will emphasize to whom and how health care should be marketed. Consumer behavior, market research, target marketing, and marketing to primary payers will be analyzed
The factors, determinants of health status and collection of pertinent data will be considered within a management frame- work. The student will examine how epidemiological data can be used to determine the impact of illness on populations, to develop programs or interventions to reduce prevalence of illness and to predict populations' health outcomes.
Prerequisites: HCMG 6100 and HCMG 6200
This course will explore the theory, application, interpretation and use of statistical information in health care management and health services research. Students will also master the application of statistical data in the management of health care organizations, (e.g., financial data, patient statistical data and utilization information). Descriptive, correlation and multiple regression methods will be presented and used in multiple projects.
This course will consider current topics in health care policy. Additionally, it will deal with policy and management issues and their evolutions and implications to both domestic and international health care delivery systems.
Prerequisites: HCMG 6100 and HCMG 6200
Provides an in-depth coverage of systems theory and tools for health care organizations as presented by Deming, Goldratt, Senge and of other organizational quality systems thinkers. The purpose of this course is to help the student understand the system and cultural changes necessary to transform a bureaucratic organization into a learning organization. Major emphasis is given to learning the use of the logical thinking tools necessary to accomplish such a complex task in a health services organization environment.
Strategic management concepts applied to healthcare organizations including a discussion of the philosophy, models, and methods of how to effect strategic planning. Topics include mission and vision statement development, external environmental assessment and determination of opportunities and threats, internal environmental analysis and determination of strengths and weaknesses, linking strategy and budgets through business planning, establishing the culture for strategic leadership, and strategic control. Students complete and present a strategic plan for an actual health care organization.
Independent studies to enhance student learning on chosen topics.
Students apply concepts and skills learned in the classroom to the practice of health care management. In the internship, students are expected to complete required hours of experience, including a project in a health care organization related to their career goals. Students may enroll in two subsequent semesters.
This course is a faculty-guided project/thesis that addresses a significant problem or issue in health administration. The project is applied research that synthesizes knowledge and information regarding a management issue and develops, implements, and evaluates a management intervention/solution. The thesis is a theory based research process using primary or secondary data analysis. The project/thesis support the synthesis of knowledge and information from previous courses.
Completion of the thesis and defends the thesis.
Prerequisites: HCMG 6999