Master of Science in
Healthcare Administration

This non-credit orientation is a foundation-building experience that introduces and refreshes the skills necessary for success in your Graduate Certificate Program. You'll learn how to navigate ProQuest, Ashworth College's online library, and review the distinguishing characteristics of academic journals and other publications. Internet research skills are polished enabling you to identify credible and unbiased Web sites for your research. Emphasis is placed on submission requirements, project structures, and writing formats used throughout your coursework, and APA writing style. The final portion of this course provides you the opportunity to research and explore the various career fields in the world of Health Care Administration.

This course presents the concepts and principles of public health practices within the health care system. It begins by exploring broad principles and then shifts focus to substantive topics and issues within the public health field, including the development of public health practices, the determinants of health status, legal aspects, and the public health information systems. Special attention is given to the tools needed to effectively manage a typical health department and the role of the public health department in a variety of environments.
Credit Hours: 3

This course is a comprehensive introduction to current marketing theories and practices within the health care system. Health care industry applications are featured with highlighted examples from some of the most successful and noteworthy marketing experts at performing this complex function, which is part art, part science, and always somewhat dependent upon a combination of knowledge and wisdom that is nearly impossible to codify or quantify.
Credit Hours: 3

This course is an overview of the various functions of a human resource management department, including staffing, recruitment, benefits, compensation, employee relations, and more. Each area is examined with a focus on current trends and the role of HR as an integral part of the administrative team in health care organizations. The movement of the human resource management function to a strategic level is also discussed. Special emphasis is given to these functions with respect to the dynamics of the health care industry.
Credit Hours: 3

Develop your leadership potential. Discover the qualities, talents, and vision that leaders need to survive and grow in a changing world. You'll examine how today's theories of leadership and motivation have evolved, and how leadership concepts and motivational techniques are applied in a wide variety of business environments. Case studies reveal how executives and other decision makers lead, motivate and succeed.
Credit Hours: 3

This course provides a broad overview of the health service delivery system as viewed by the social scientist. It examines the rich contribution that medical sociological research has made to our understanding of changing professional roles, health care institutional values, and the socio-cultural influences that affect medical treatment of patients. The course introduces the student to socio-medical concepts such as the sick role, socio-medical stress, illness behavior, social control of medical power, and life-style influences in examining the social factors that affect health and the treatment of disease.
Credit Hours: 3

This course examines issues surrounding the security and protection of health care environments. The student will be exposed to the uses and disclosures of identifiable health information, as permitted by security and privacy issues, regulations, legislations, and accreditation standards in the health care environment. The basis for confidentiality in health care systems will be introduced to provide an assessment of physical security requirements, as well as security of databases, networks and systems design.
Credit Hours: 3

Information Management examines the fundamentals of health information management, including the functions of obtaining, managing, and utilizing data for computer-based systems. This course provides the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to implement, facilitate, and coordinate information management activities.
Credit Hours: 3

This course examines the application of economics, finance, and accounting principles to health care organizations. The initial focus of the course involves a discussion of economics, which provides the health care professional with the tools to understand both the behaviors of the major participants in the health care system in the United States and the evolution of the managed care system. Managerial and financial accounting are then described, with a particular emphasis on the budgeting process and financial reporting, followed by a review of ratio analysis. The course concludes with a series of topics of special interest to the health care professional, including grant writing, business plan development, and international health care economics.
Credit Hours: 3

This course provides the basic concepts of Managed Health Care. It is formulated not only for the experienced health care professional who has not worked in managed care, but also for the individual just entering the health care profession. Students are introduced to how managed care has evolved, with a broad look at many of its component parts. The course also examines managed care regulation and offers some predictions for its future.
Credit Hours: 3

Organize teams for achievement. Investigate the theory and practice of project management, culminating in the analysis of real-world examples taken from manufacturing, service, and construction businesses. Learn how to organize and manage effective project teams... how to document and communicate project development within and outside the team... and how to integrate people and technology successfully.
Credit Hours: 3

This course is designed to examine the issues involved in ethical decision making within the medical community. Various historical ethical theories are examined and critical thinking methodologies are applied to ethical case studies throughout the course. Current ethical debates surrounding health care issues are evaluated in light of the student',s critical thinking about ethical theory.
Credit Hours: 3

The American health care delivery system is one of the most heavily regulated sectors of the American economy. Every conceivable element of the system has been the subject of federal or state legislation as well as intensive policy debate during the previous century. As the Capstone Course in the Master of Health Care Administration Program, this course in Health Politics and Policy has a dual purpose. The fundamental purpose is to construct an understanding of public policy and politics as applied to and exhibited through the laws regulating America’s evolving system of health care. The Capstone purpose is to provide for the integration of knowledge from the program’s coursework through the recognition of the importance of health care policy to administrators and their health care organizations.
Credit Hours: 3