Health Care Leadership Courses

HC 6125. Health Systems I (3) Students enrolled in the Health Care Leadership program or focus only. Course surveys the major components and organizational interrelationships of the United States health care system. Students examine the various health care organizations (HCOs), personnel issues, delivery systems, policy, and payment mechanisms. This course introduces students to the public policy and business practice issues associated with access, cost and quality.

HC 6225. Strategic Analysis for Health Services (3) Students enrolled in the Health Care Leadership program or focus only. Course employs finance and marketing methods to analyze situations faced by contemporary health care organizations. Students learn how different management strategies affect financial performance. Through sensitivity analysis, they learn to simulate a marketing business decision. Students employ various techniques for forecasting, to include pro forma and regression analysis, and apply these techniques to business decisions. Prerequisites: HC 6125; FN 3000 or FN 5025; MK 3000 or MK 5025.

HC 6325. Policy and Politics of Health Care (3) Students enrolled in the Health Care Leadership program or focus only. Course examines political issues affecting contemporary health care services by analyzing policy goals, public policy formulation processes, and external environments. Analysis blends the use of managerial epidemiology, biostatistics, political and economic analysis, with an understanding of public health initiatives. Future health care leaders also gain an appreciation for how political structures determine interactions with local and national governments. Prerequisite or concurrent: HC 6225, or approval by HCL program director.

HC 6425. Health Care Leadership Capstone (3) Students enrolled in the Health Care Leadership program or focus only. Course integrates core business concepts and managerial perspectives mastered earlier in the MBA program. Students write, present and critique business plans that define organizational vision, mission, goals, values, structure, systems and strategies for competitive advantage and growth. Student-developed business plans also describe the management processes by which goals and resources allocations will be continuously monitored and adapted. Prerequisite or concurrent: HC 6225. This course must be taken as three of the last nine credit hours in a Health Care Leadership MBA student's program of study.

HC 6525. Health Care Leadership Project I (3) Students enrolled in the Health Care Leadership program or focus only. Course serves as the first of a two-part research experience during which students explore applied research topics associated with specific health care leadership or policy issues. During HCL Project I, students develop a research proposal with a faculty member, review the relevant literature on their topic or issue, and collect data. Students share findings and discuss research issues with classmates and participate in facilitated, on-line discussion via on-line distance learning media. Prerequisite: HC 6325, HC 6425.

HC 6625. Health Care Leadership Project II (3) Students enrolled in the Health Care Leadership program or focus only. Course builds upon research done in HCL Project I by focusing on analyzing data, testing hypotheses, and discussing results. HCL Project II brings the two-course applied research project to culmination with students' completion of a publication-quality research paper. As was the case in HCL Project I, students share findings and discuss research issues with classmates and participate in facilitated, on-line discussion via on-line distance learning media. Prerequisites: HC 6325, HC 6425, and HC 6525.