Master of Healthcare ManagementCOURSE DESCRIPTIONS

MHM 501
Evolving Healthcare Systems
3 Credits

Prerequisites: None

This course presents an overview of the organization and structure of the U.S. health care system. The core concepts of cost, access, and quality will be explored as well as introducing how healthcare is financed and delivered. The technical, economic, political and social forces responsible for changes in the health care system will be discussed in addition to addressing the management of organizations that deliver health care services such as independent practitioners, hospital facilities, nursing homes and multi-specialty clinics. This introductory foundation will provide students the core knowledge needed to be successful in a diverse healthcare management environment.

MHM 502
Quantitative Methods and Metrics
3 Credits

Prerequisites: GMAT305 or Statistics Course

This is an applied statistics course that builds on a foundational knowledge of basic statistics. Students will apply a sequentially developed group of statistical tests (z scores, t-tests, ANOVA, and regression) to healthcare scenarios. Students develop the necessary skills to identify the unique characteristics of each test and recognize which test to use based on the parameters of the data. At the completion of this course, students will have the ability to perform and evaluate quantitative analysis. Additionally, this course will discuss the quality metrics that are evaluated in contemporary healthcare settings.

MHM 505
Health Care Law and Policy
3 Credits

Prerequisites: None

Health Care Law and Policy surveys the legal environment of the health services industry from a policy perspective. The course exams case law, statutory and regulatory analysis, and trends in health services delivery law to focus on the overall legal relationships among physicians, personnel, patients, and health care institutions. Topics include access to health care, antitrust law, personnel licensure and institutional accreditation, malpractice, professional and institutional liability, cost containment regulation and cost controls in government programs. This course discusses the philosophical and managerial implications of ethical issues including professional codes, resource allocation, and decisions concerning impaired professionals.

MHM 510
Healthcare Information Systems
3 Credits

Prerequisite: None

This course provides a broad overview of the evolving role of information systems within a wide range of healthcare settings, taking into account both patient and practitioner perspectives. Students critique the impact that healthcare information systems have on decision-making, reporting, managing healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes. Legislation and regulatory requirements that affect healthcare IT, such as HIPAA, electronic health records, and healthcare policy are evaluated. Finally, innovations in health informatics are explored and their impact on current practice.

MHM 515
Human Resources Management for Healthcare Professionals
3 Credits

This course addresses the key issues facing the Human Resources (HR) professional within today's multifaceted healthcare organization. Throughout the course, students will compare where human resource management (HRM) for healthcare is now and where it needs to be in the future based upon needed strategic competencies and address ways in which HRM can partner with the organization to meet business objectives.

MHM 520
Managerial Accounting for Healthcare Professionals
3 Credits

In this course, students learn how to use decision-making tools from managerial accounting that promote the strategic goals of various healthcare organizations including hospitals, outpatient services, and insurance providers. Students identify relevant costs and cost pools as they relate to performance measures. Topics are addressed within the context of their effect on patient outcomes, financial health of the organization and ethical considerations. Traditional concepts such as cost behavior, cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis, and activity based costing (ABC) are applied to health care examples and cases. As part of this application, students develop a balanced scorecard that tracks key drivers of organizational performance.

MHM 525
Healthcare Finance and Reimbursement
3 Credits

An understanding of healthcare finance and reimbursement is a driving force behind the ability to survive in today’s healthcare environment. This course addresses key areas for professionals who are working, or desire to work, in this industry. The course begins with a study of the revenue cycle management process, the lifeblood of a healthcare facility. Next, reimbursement models, to include study of emerging trends and processes, are analyzed in terms of maximizing payments to entities. Long-term care facilities, along with physician practices, provide an extension to the acute care model, so professionals are introduced to current financial issues, along with emerging trends, within these organizations. The course ends with an in-depth review of current trends and technologies that are affecting healthcare finance and reimbursement, to include electronic medical records (EMRs) and the increased focus related to the identification and elimination of fraudulent financial practices within the healthcare industry.

MHM 550
Healthcare Operations Management & Quality Assurance
3 Credits

This course focuses on achieving excellence in healthcare operations management and the strategic implementation of programs, techniques, and tools for reducing healthcare costs, improving quality and performance, and improving patient flow, safety and satisfaction. In this course the student reviews the role of operations management in the healthcare industry by understanding the factors that affect operations performance outcomes within healthcare organizations; methods to assess, monitor, adjust, and improve clinical and administrative performance; and management techniques and tools of quantitative analysis of operations and decision support. This course covers the basics of operations management and explains how operations and process improvement relate to contemporary healthcare trends such as evidence-based medicine, lean management, six sigma, capacity management, supply chain, project management, staffing, scheduling, and pay-for-performance.

MHM 565
Risk and Regulatory Compliance
3 Credits

As introduced in MHM501, the regulatory oversight is significant for healthcare organizations and requires advanced compliance management. Students review current federal laws and regulations that affect healthcare organizations and focus on concepts for organizing and implementing compliance and risk management. Students will be able to analyze the wide range of regulations that affect the different areas of the healthcare industry and create guidelines for implementing effective programs to ensure compliance with them.

MHM 570
Long-Term Care in Organizations
3 Credits

This course examines the delivery of Long-Term Care (LTC) within various health care settings. It reviews the implications of longevity found within demographic data, while analyzing the need for further governmental intervention and the allocation of funds required to effectively administer care to an aging society. This course provides an overview of long-term healthcare issues and the healthcare delivery programs designed for an aging population. Topics include the organizational arrangements for providing long-term care, the services provided in long-term care facilities, gerontology and geriatric medicine, social and behavioral aspects of the aging, and the roles of healthcare providers working with the elderly. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to identify the different types of organizations, populations, and services that make up the long-term healthcare system; discuss the impact of the elderly on the healthcare system, and describe the complex needs and unique aspects of caring for elderly patients.

MHM 580
Leadership in Healthcare
3 Credits

This course examines the dynamic nature of leadership in the healthcare and public health contexts. This course uses foundational leadership concepts to develop leadership applications and processes, such as leadership assessment (individual and team), communication improvement, strategic planning, decision making alignment, employee enhancement and knowledge management for use in creating and maintaining an organizational culture that can thrive within its external environment while improving organizational efficiency, effectiveness and efficacy.

MHM 600
Capstone: Strategic Planning in Healthcare
3 Credits

The goal of the course is to have students demonstrate a broad mastery of the knowledge and skills gained throughout the MHM program. This class is a combination of a traditional healthcare strategic management class and a final research project. The project requires students to examine an external healthcare organization and apply healthcare strategic management techniques to support a successful organization and the provision of increased quality of care. Students will identify and analyze specific real-world organizational challenges associated with managing an organization, in light of policy mandates; ultimately developing a research project focusing on strategic problem resolution and effective implementation.