Health Care Administration (HCA)
This course introduces the students to the U.S. health care 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 of the system of health care. It also addresses the technical, political, social, and economics forces responsible for these chances.
This course introduces students to law, policy, and ethics that affect the operation of health care organizations. Legal issues related to the delivery of health care including facility licensing, access, medical liability, insurance coverage, patient rights, patient safety and more will be explored.
This course introduces students to quality improvement principles and tools applied to the health care 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 will be explored.
This course introduces students to the financial structure and climate of the health care industry. The primary focus is on the application of financial management tools and financial statement analysis for better decision-making in the health care arena. Students will 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 health care 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. As well, it will address professional behaviors of health care professionals and administrators, including competency, confidentiality, truthfulness and bias. The roles and responsibilities of institutional ethic committees and review boards will also be covered.
Courses offered in special focus areas as needed.
This course explores the operations of various healthcare facilities to meet the needs of patients while being financially responsible. The course will apply concepts of efficiency, quality improvement, safety management into the operations of hospitals, physician offices, clinics, urgent care centers, long term care facilities, and home care services. Students will learn the role of each of these healthcare services within the continuum of care.