Graduate Catalog 2024-2025
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Health Care Administration (HCA)

HCA 401G    Fundamentals of Health Care Financial Management    3 Hours

Basic principles of financial management for health care organizations. Financial ratios applicable to health providers and insurance companies; issues in the healthcare revenue cycle and value chain; recognizing sources of risk in reimbursement; and addressing risk in financial plans.

Recent Term(s) Offered: summer 2023

HCA 520    Statistical Application in Health Care    1 Hour (repeatable max of 3 hrs)

This course covers basic statistical applications in SPSS and MS Excel. Familiarity with personal computers is assumed.

Corequisite(s): PH 520

Recent Term(s) Offered: None

HCA 530    Independent Investigation in Health Care Administration    1-6 Hours (repeatable max of 6 hrs)

Research problems or projects in the area of health care administration.

Recent Term(s) Offered: None

HCA 540    Health Care Organization and Management    3 Hours

Organization and management principles, theories and practices in the health care environment. The U.S. health care system, the role of the administrator, facilities operations and evaluation, and health administration research.

Recent Term(s) Offered: fall 2022; fall 2023; fall 2024

HCA 541    Strategic Management & Marketing of Health Services    3 Hours

Marketing principles, theories, and practices in the health care environment. Structured opportunities to study health care marketing literature and to develop skills in marketing plan development.

Recent Term(s) Offered: fall 2022; fall 2023; fall 2024

HCA 542    Health Care Human Resources Administration    3 Hours

Principles and practices of human resources administration in the health care field. The unique characteristics of professional, technical, skilled and unskilled health care workers explored and emphasized.

Recent Term(s) Offered: spring 2022; spring 2023; spring 2024

HCA 543    Health Care Quality and Accountability    3 Hours

Critical knowledge of health care quality and required accountability within the health care industry. The major topics of quality assurance, risk management, utilization management, JCAHO and NCQA standards, Six Sigma, and continuous quality improvement will be discussed.

Prerequisite(s): HCA 540

Recent Term(s) Offered: fall 2022; fall 2023; fall 2024

HCA 544    Healthcare Systems Design and Behavior    3 Hours

Systems approach to effective and efficient management of health services delivery. Application, analysis and evaluation of organizational design and behavior principles to the health care delivery components. Factors such as structure, work design, operations, and performance that affect decision-making are explored.

Recent Term(s) Offered: None

HCA 545    Managerial Finance for Health Services    3 Hours

Methods of financing the delivery of health services in the U.S. Includes budgetary mechanisms and managerial finance techniques for measuring, monitoring, analyzing, and controlling costs for both the providers and consumers of healthcare services.

Prerequisite(s): HCA 540 and BA 505

Recent Term(s) Offered: spring 2022; fall 2022; spring 2023; spring 2024

HCA 546    Graduate Internship    1-6 Hours (repeatable max of 6 hrs)

Supervised, full-time experience in a facility or in an agency approved by the Department of Public Health.

Recent Term(s) Offered: spring 2022; summer 2022; fall 2022; spring 2023; summer 2023; fall 2023; summer 2024; fall 2024

HCA 547    Global and Comparative Health Systems    3 Hours

A review of global health issues including how systems, policies, and program management influence availability and delivery of health services. Students will learn about the development of health systems and make comparisons of different types of health systems based on different aspects of health and health care such as resources availability, access to care, quality of care and models of care delivery. Issues of global health management and health disparities will be investigated in depth at the local, regional and global levels.

Recent Term(s) Offered: fall 2023

HCA 551    Health Care Jurisprudence    3 Hours

Provides an overview of the American legal system as it relates to the health care industry. Topics include duty owed (patients and organizations), ethics, malpractice, risk management, quality, accountability, rights without obligations (of patients, practitioners, and management), and current trends in health care law.

Recent Term(s) Offered: spring 2022; fall 2022; spring 2023; fall 2023; spring 2024; fall 2024

HCA 555    Healthcare Preparedness and Leadership    3 Hours

Disaster planning, Bioterrorism, other weapons of mass destruction, events, emergency response systems management, federal, state, and local coordinating activities, leadership principles, leadership complexities regarding healthcare professionals, and ethical dilemmas in critical leadership scenarios will be discussed.

Prerequisite(s): HCA 540

Recent Term(s) Offered: None

HCA 556    Ambulatory Care/Rural Health    3 Hours

Explores operational management techniques related to ambulatory care settings identifying dynamics unique to outpatient settings. Special focus is on rural areas and their diverse management challenges.

Prerequisite(s): HCA 540

Recent Term(s) Offered: None

HCA 559    Global Health Service-Learning Practicum    3-6 Hours (repeatable max of 6 hrs)

Designed to provide students in health professions with a global service-learning experience. Integrates student knowledge and skills with practical applications in a global health context, based on the student career objectives and the health needs of the served communities.

Prerequisite(s): permission of instructor

Recent Term(s) Offered: None

HCA 564    Health Systems Informatics    3 Hours

A survey of information use and management in a health care context. Course content includes health information systems, informatics, database design, e-health, and patient privacy.

Corequisite(s): HCA 565

Recent Term(s) Offered: None

HCA 565    Information Systems Laboratory    1 Hour (repeatable max of 3 hrs)

Management of health care data using MS Excel and MS Access. Basic familiarity with personal computers is assumed.

Corequisite(s): HCA 564

Recent Term(s) Offered: None

HCA 571    Managed Care    3 Hours

Overview of managed care and organized delivery systems, including history, organizational structures, financing, cost containment strategies, and policy issues.

Prerequisite(s): HCA 540

Recent Term(s) Offered: None

HCA 572    Special Topics in Health Services    3 Hours

Survey of current topics within the field of health care administration. This course varies in content from term to term and may require field trips to area organizations.

Recent Term(s) Offered: winter 2023; winter 2024

HCA 574    Decision Making in Health Care    3 Hours

Basic decision models and decision making tools useful for managing uncertainty and solving health care management problems. The course is concerned with a wide variety of applied and theoretical archetypes, as well as modeling and quantitative techniques currently used in health care management.

Prerequisite(s): HCA 540

Recent Term(s) Offered: spring 2022; spring 2023; spring 2024

HCA 586    Health Economics & Policy    3 Hours

Economic principles applied to the study of health care facilities, health services and manpower. These 400-level courses may be taken for graduate credit. Students receiving graduate credit in 400G courses will be required to do additional research, readings, or other appropriate assignments.

Recent Term(s) Offered: summer 2022; summer 2023; summer 2024