Health Care Administration (HCA)

This course introduces the students to the U.S. healthcare system and process by which health care is delivered. It includes a comprehensive overview of the health care industry and the changing roles of the components within the system. It also addresses the technical, political, social, and economics forces responsible for these changes.

This course introduces students to the laws, policies, and ethical challenges that affect the operation of healthcare organizations. Legal issues related to the delivery of healthcare including facility licensing, access, medical liability, insurance coverage, patient rights, patient safety and more are explored.

This course introduces students to quality improvement principles and tools as they are applied to the healthcare industry. Students will learn how to develop and conduct audits and inspections that lead to improved customer satisfaction, patient care, and management of services. Goal setting, data collection, analysis, accountability, and continuous improvement are explored.

This course introduces students to the financial structure and climate of the healthcare industry. The primary focus is on the application of financial management tools and financial statement analysis for better decision-making in the healthcare arena. Students use case studies to simulate real-world issues and develop recommendations based on macro and micro issues within both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.

This course provides the philosophical, theological and historical foundations for ethical decision-making and policy setting in healthcare and medicine. It includes the discussion of bioethical issues such as organ transplantation, end-of-life, human experimentation, abortion, treatment of mentally incompetent patients and genetic testing. Professional behaviors of healthcare professionals and administrators, including competency, confidentiality, truthfulness and bias are also addressed. As are the roles and responsibilities of institutional ethic committees and review boards.

Courses offered in special focus areas as needed.

This course focuses on the operations of various healthcare facilities, as they meet the needs of patients while being fiscally responsible. Students will apply concepts of efficiency, quality improvement, and safety management to the operations of hospitals, physician offices, clinics, urgent care centers, long term care facilities, and home care services. Roles of each of these healthcare services within the continuum of care are explored.