HCA - Healthcare Administration

Students in this course will examine managerial concepts and practices as they apply to the healthcare industry. They will learn the importance of developing a culture of continuous improvement, emotional intelligence, and the leadership behaviors that create a vision for stakeholders. Change management and requirements for effective and efficient operations are also discussed. Students will integrate virtuous business concepts into managerial decision-making in healthcare organizations.

This is an introductory course designed to present a broad overview of the U.S. health care delivery system. It examines the organization, functions, and roles of the system. The content explores the historical evolution of the system, including the role of inpatient, outpatient, and long-term care services, and effects of external factors on the healthcare delivery structure. The influence of government and public health is discussed.

Students in this course will establish biblically consistent policies and procedures that respect human dignity and patient wishes in end of life situations, ethically prioritize decisions concerning patients receiving scarce or expensive medical procedures, and evaluate medical information security for compliance with ethical and legal standards. Students will integrate a biblical perspective into policies and procedures that guide medical research, experimentation, and healthcare delivery. Students will design networks that support effective and ethical patient-provider relationships.

Students in this course will explain information technology as a transformational science in healthcare, compare and contrast the functions of business management systems and health information technology in healthcare organizations, and summarize the importance of controlled vocabulary in health information management. Students will identify risks associated with the privacy and security of health information, apply principles of knowledge management to the clinical decision support process, and model virtuous business concepts in the management of health information and technology.

Students in this course will apply the Pillars of Excellence model (quality/safety, finance, growth, patient experience, and workforce engagement) to leadership and governance of highly reliable healthcare organizations. Students will assess governance structures and performance outcomes for alignment with mission, vision, values, and goals. The impact of changing regulatory policies and marketplace dynamics on healthcare organizational governance and structures is discussed. Students will examine the influence of legal structures on governance systems and organizational design. The relationships between governing bodies, facility operations, and executive management are explored. Students will apply concepts of the Virtuous Business Model to the governance of highly reliable healthcare organizations.

This course examines contemporary ethical and legal issues encountered by professionals in the healthcare environment. Concepts and principles of law, health law, public health, and risk management will be covered. Critical thinking skills are developed by examining ethical implications of healthcare regulations and policy. Issues addressed include government regulation of healthcare fraud and abuse, informed consent, negligence, and malpractice. In addition, constitutional issues, patient rights and responsibility, legal reporting requirements, and health information and privacy will be presented. Issues are examined through a virtuous business framework.

This course explores human resource management and issues experienced by leaders in the healthcare setting. Students will examine the basic functions of human resources, including: recruitment and retention, training and development, the cost of turnover, and credentialing and privileging as they relate to clinical, administrative, and paraprofessional employees in healthcare organizations. Cultural competence and diversity, as well as the role of outside factors, such as state regulatory bodies, unions, and other stakeholders are discussed. Application of virtuous business principles to the management of human resource functions in healthcare organizations is modeled.

This course provides an overview of the public policy processes used to address healthcare and healthcare delivery systems in the U.S. The relationship between public policy and financing of healthcare in the U.S. is examined. Federal, state, and local legislative and regulatory processes are studied and their impact explored. A biblical perspective for shaping the development of healthcare public policy is presented.

Students in this course explore the unique financial characteristics of the healthcare industry including the various government and third-party payer systems. The role of the health record, coding, billing, and revenue cycle management in the financial success of healthcare organizations is examined. Virtuous business principles provide the framework for ethical reimbursement practices.

This course provides an overview of epidemiology principles and tools applicable to decision-making in health administration. The content focuses on the application of epidemiology to management functions. Students will critically evaluate factors influencing the health status of populations served by healthcare organizations using clinical and administrative data and applying a virtuous business framework. Topics include study designs, population health, quality management, quantitative measurement, and terminology.

Students in this course examine the impact of healthcare trends and issues on organizations' people, performance, and policies from a strategic perspective. Relevant issues from government policy, politics, and stakeholder priorities are discussed. Topics include cultural competency, physician relationships, workforce engagement, and operational impacts. Students will compare organization strategic alignment with current trends and issues. Skill in examining current issues using professional and scholarly publications is developed. A Christian worldview of the ethical obligations of healthcare administrators, providers, and institutions is integrated and communicated throughout the course.

The course examines the formation and function of teams to improve performance in healthcare organizations. Key concepts include factors designing teams and supporting effective teamwork by understanding group dynamics and the variety of contexts in which teams operate in the healthcare environment. The course will also focus on leadership styles and models for team effectiveness.

Students in this course will recognize the role of quality in the healthcare industry and its importance to patients, providers, payers, and regulators. Students will apply effective quality improvement tools and analyze available data to drive change in healthcare organizations. They will illustrate the use of change management practices to facilitate quality improvement in an organization's processes. Finally, students will relate biblical virtues to quality practices in the healthcare industry. Prerequisite: STA-320

This course introduces the fundamentals of patient safety and the principles, concepts, and activities which support a healthcare organization's "culture of safety". Students will learn to assess the "culture of safety" through evaluation of patient safety and risk management activities, the use of technology to enhance patient safety, the application of safety principles, and utilization of quality improvement tools, and methods for continuous improvement. Virtuous business concepts are applied to patient safety activities and the "culture of safety".

Students in the course will examine the principles and applications of strategic and change management concepts necessary for healthcare organization sustainability. The course provides a structured approach to the strategic management process, including methods of assessing organization environments and competitive situations, approaches for developing strategic plans, and processes for ensuring the successful implementation of strategy within a virtuous business model.

This course presents opportunities for students to evaluate solutions and strategies for complex business problems and opportunities within the health care industry, evaluate personal management capabilities and design a plan for lifelong growth, and integrate critical analysis with healthcare administration disciplines. Students will synthesize ethical standards in decision making and strategy development, create appropriate communication strategies to achieve organizational goals, and integrate a biblical framework into the practice and standards that guides interactions within the healthcare industry. The assessment of technologies for implementation in healthcare organizations will be featured throughout the course. Prerequisite: successful completion of all core courses