This course introduces students to the historical development, current structure, operation, and future direction of the U.S. health care system. The primary topics include public health activity and health care delivery systems, the factors that determine allocation of health care resources, and the relationship of health care costs to benefits. Students learn to assess organized efforts to influence health delivery and policy formulation, the impact of these efforts on leaders of health care organizations, and the role of societal values and individual behaviors on health system performance, reform efforts, and the health status of our population. Class time is devoted to open discussion of these complex and value-laden issues.

The course offers students the knowledge, skills, and personal mastery tools that are a prerequisite to assuming leadership positions in the delivery of health services that improve the health status of the individuals and populations. Building on the perspective of clinical education and practice, the student begins his or her leadership journey, integrating and implementing the key structures and processes leading to clinical process improvement and the improvement of health outcomes. By grounding fundamental principles of organizational learning in experimental activities, this course enhances the student's mastery of the core competencies: setting direction, enrolling participation, quality measurement and improvement, personal and team learning, effective health care design, clinical change and organizational design.

This course introduces students to the concept of continuous process improvement and to the discipline of healthcare quality management. This practical course also introduces the tools to examine, evaluate, and implement the key structures and processes of quality management programs in health care organizations. An integrative approach to improvement and organizational learning is taken, combining topics and methods from diverse improvement approaches in the development of an organization-wide commitment to continuous improvement. Through case analysis and experiential learning, the course emphasizes practical applications that prepare the participants to use the theory and techniques of quality management in situations with complex clinical and managerial implications. Course topics include measurement systems, quality improvement tools, and the design of programs for change management.

Vast amounts of diagnostic, procedural, pharmacy, administrative and financial data are collated and generated within the health care system. To support the financial health, operational efficiency and quality of care, stakeholders must transform this data into actionable information to support decision-making. Students in this introductory graduate-level course will utilize industry standard analytical tools, particularly Microsoft Excel© to analyze large institutional data commonly found in health care.

This course is a graduate-level course that introduces students to a wide range of topics in the area of health law and regulation including a number of relevant statutes. Students learn to recognize potential legal problems in various health care settings, identify the issues and rights that are implicated, and propose solutions or plans of action. They also learn to differentiate between legal problems and problems which can more appropriately be solved in other ways. There is an emphasis on formulating analyses clearly, both orally and in writing.

Health organizations increasingly rely on data-driven decisions, requiring students to analyze and communicate pertinent information to inform stakeholders. HPAM 6300 is an applied analytics course that focuses on data-centered communication by emphasizing best practices in data visualization and storytelling. Students will build on the analytical skills developed in HPAM 6200 by creating key performance indicators and generating dashboards to monitor performance. Students will apply these skills by using cases and data visualization software, particularly Microsoft Excel and Tableau.

The purpose of HPAM 6320 – Managerial Communications is to develop the written and oral communication skills that students will need as leaders to accomplish organizational objectives. To function effectively in complex professional environments, leaders must understand and use different communication behaviors and strategies. Students will strengthen interpersonal communication skills by sharing and receiving feedback and learn how to navigate conflict and other difficult conversations. This course will provide both underlying concepts and skill-building exercises to allow students to develop, improve, and perfect their communication skills

This offering provides theoretical and practical content for managers of health care organizations. The course allows students to learn organizational theory and then to apply it to organizational settings. Broad topical areas include psychological and cultural processes affecting recruitment and selection, factors influencing training and development, the scientific method as applied to health care organizations, theories and practices influencing employee performance, effective management theory and practice, engaging and involving employees in organizational processes, employee well-being, and managing change.

This course introduces basic economic concepts and analytical tools used to address questions concerning the efficient and effective production of health and health services in the context of a market economy. The course emphasizes the application of economic tools of analysis to the management of health-related organizations and to health policy development. Students will study current research on the health care industry and the ways in which economic analysis is employed in the development of public policy on issues related to population health and healthcare.

This course is an introduction to the principles that have evolved governing how private-sector health care organizations report standardized financial information to persons external to the organization (though obviously also available to internal parties as well). The course will emphasize reporting of (a) organizational fiscal posture, (b) organizational activity and performance, and (c) basic interpretation and analysis of the fiscal information reported. The course assumes students have no prior study of or experience in accounting or finance.

The main purpose of the Managerial Accounting course is to expose health management students to managerial accounting concepts within healthcare organizations. Mastering the fundamentals of fixed and variable costs, cost allocation, price setting strategies, budgeting, revenue cycle management and supply chain management will provide students with a foundational knowledge of the business side of healthcare allowing for improved decision making and outcomes. This foundational knowledge of said topics will be achieved through lectures, assigned readings, case studies, group projects and examinations.

This course introduces students to the ways providers of health care services have been, are, and will be paid for the services by private-sector payers and public-sector programs. Knowledge of economic concepts and of financial/managerial accounting will be used to analyze public policy issues as well as implementation and reporting issues. Topics include (1) the macro-economic environment within which current payment systems have evolved and continue to evolve; (2) payment mechanisms for institutionally based care, both acute and sub-acute, and for ambulatory care over a range of settings; (3) regulatory processes determining payment for services in entitlement programs; (4) the policy objectives furthered or impeded by public-sector and private-sector payment mechanisms; and (5) analysis of provider responses to payment systems incentives.

This course encompasses a body of knowledge, a set of quantitative skills, and an orientation towards managerial situations which provide managers greater insight and analytic opportunities for improving the managerial process.  Focuses on the systematic planning, direction, and control of the organizational processes that turn resources such as labor, equipment, and materials into services and the quantitative analysis that supports these decisions.  In this environment, the processes involve allocation, scheduling, and procedural decisions that result in the effective and efficient utilization of resources for the delivery of health care services.

 Health Market Analysis introduces students to the concepts of market analysis, marketing, strategic planning, and research presentation management; all of which are vital to successful health care organizations. This course integrates knowledge of marketing, statistics and planning. The course also incorporates understanding of the health care environment in the United States and its effect on the development, presentation and use of a strategic plan. This integration is accomplished through the use of cases and the performance of a strategic assessment and plan for a health care delivery organization. 

HPAM 6910 introduces students to leadership and ethics with an emphasis on the managerial application in the healthcare environment. Activities include assessing personal values and biases, examining relationships to personal and professional integrity, and critiquing classic and contemporary leadership theories. Students will generate a leadership platform that will serve as a basis to examine ethical challenges faced in contemporary health care environments. Students will analyze ethical duties owed to patients and stakeholders, social responsibility, and organizational culture and their influence on ethical behavior in organizations. This class will use case analyses and class discussion to expose students to diverse perspectives, challenges, and application of best practices.

Within the context that the healthcare ecosystem is undergoing a profound transformation towards a new consumer-driven market, often with increasingly constrained resources, this course offers students an open learning and design space to foster positive healthcare businesses through human-cantered design of the work of care, while improving patient experience, health outcomes, workforce engagement, and revenue. This leadership focus is on successfully reaching key performance metrics and goals through innovation and improvement, while restoring humanity to healthcare.

This course is designed to provide current and emerging physician leaders the knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal mastery tools, which are requisite to assuming leadership roles in the delivery of health services in the consumer-driven healthcare market. By grounding fundamental principles of individual, team, and organizational learning in experiential activities, simulations, and hands-on learn-by-doing exercises, this course will enhance the student’s mastery of the core competencies: assessment of current reality, creation of shared vision and purpose, understanding systems and complexity, teaching and learning, design thinking, dialogue, authenticity and personal mastery, positive-relationships and culture, innovation, and organizational transformation.

This course offers physician leaders an introduction to strategic thinking within a business planning framework using a case-based and experience based analysis of environmental trends, business models and payment systems. The course helps the student understand and prepare for the continuously changing health care business environment in the US and prepares the student for future strategic planning responsibilities.

This course provides current and emerging healthcare leaders the knowledge, skills, and personal mastery of tools necessary for using human conversation and connection to navigate and positively impact complex systems, structures, and cultures of healthcare organizations. Students in this course will continue their leadership development journey by enhancing skills that allow for stronger relationships with all people present in health and healthcare organizations in order to create and sustain a positive, high-performance culture. By grounding fundamental principles of individual, team, and organizational conversation in experiential activities, simulations, and real-time feedback, this course will enhance each student’s mastery of core competencies in relational communication and professionalism—habits for fostering positive human connection, inquiry, skillful discussion, shared sense-making, empathy, and cultural transformation.

This course explores selected principles of financial accounting, managerial accounting and applied micro-economics (managerial finance) in nonprofit health care delivery organizations. The course focuses on learning and applying key tools and concepts to problems faced by clinicians and administrators. Topics include, but are not limited to: financial statement structure and analysis, cost concepts used in budgeting, approaches to resource allocation including incremental/marginal analysis, assessing economic viability using cost of capital concepts and adjusting for project risk.

This course leverages the organizational mission, vision, values, through student leadership activities to support those who want to bring their core purpose and values into their organizations and communities. The course helps build capacity for sustainable cultural and operational change through the activation of curiosity, the deployment of new design tools and skills, positive-change initiatives through the application of appreciative business practices to real-world challenges, and by assisting in the spread throughout the student's organizations. The course focuses on four key design areas: patient-centered interprofessional collaborative care, humanization of acute/complex/specialty care, consumer-driven digitally supported primary care, and workforce wellbeing and positive culture transformation.

This course introduces students to various aspects (epidemiology, social, economic, cultural) of China's healthcare system. The course will be delivered in China so that the materials learned in the classroom can be observed in the real world through field visits and field observations. Health reform strategies of China in recent years will be critically examined through directed readings, seminar lectures, and a number of sites including primary care centers, tertiary hospitals, public health entities, and research organizations. Financing of health care and system for paying the providers will also be evaluated and analyzed.

There is a wealth of publicly available healthcare, public health, and census data in the United States that can be used for strategic planning, policy research, and advocacy. This intermediate course will teach students to analyze, synthesize, manage, interpret, and communicate these data for decision-making. Students will use publicly available data to evaluate current needs of a patient population and inform decisions on current and future policies and services. The focus will go beyond data from electronic health records and use population level data to analyze social, environmental, and economic issues that impact access to and outcomes of health care.

 Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations will introduce you to strategic thinking, strategic planning and strategic management, which are vital to successful health care organizations. This course integrates students' knowledge of management, marketing, organizational behavior, human resources, finance, accounting, health policy, and economics. The course also incorporates your grasp of the health care environment in the United States and its effects on the development of a strategic plan. Integration is accomplished through the use of cases and the performance of a strategic assessment and plan for a health care related organization.

Healthcare leaders in the new consumer-driven environment require a conversant understanding of macro, micro, and behavioral economics for successful innovations and positive-change. This course content will offer the applicable concepts of economic analysis that applies psychological insights into human behavior to explain economic decision­ making, including utility, engagement, and direct and indirect economic impact of behavioral interventions. Within this framework, key legal and policy implications will be reviewed with a focused on intrapreneurial or entrepreneurial change initiatives. In addition, the underlying relationships of current economic incentives, required transparencies, intellectual properties, compliance, and controls, as well as future economic and social trends will be reviewed.

The healthcare industry now recognizes the key quality outcomes aims – the Quadruple Aim of enhancing patient experiences and engagement, improving the health of the population, reducing costs while offering value and creating the conditions for the workforce to find joy and meaning in their work. This measurement environment requires leaders to evaluate data sets of market-referenced utilization, cost, satisfaction, and quality outcomes. Within the new consumer-driven environment, positive change metrics must be defined, measured, and included in the leaders’ new balanced scorecard. This course offers the necessary analytic methodology supported by business statistics for accountable care, utilizing quantitative tools for causality, pay for performance, quality improvement, and measures of success for innovation initiatives.

Healthcare delivery organizations are complex and often defy reductionistic models offered by much of management theory. While leadership and management training often focuses on enabling better performance through structural alignment, process control, and workforce compliance, human behaviors are the fundamental ingredient enabling positive organizational culture and outstanding performance. This course builds upon individual and team-based skills introduced in Relational Communication and Professionalism (HPAM 6950), and focuses on broader questions of organizational design through the lens of human behavior, narrative, and culture, with an emphasis on creating enabling factors (trust, distributed responsibility, shared mental models, and leverage points for systemic change). Participants will engage with new ways of seeing common systems within their own organizations and will work to redesign them.

Critical thinking skills and data-driven decisions and planning capacities are essential in the complex consumer-driven health care ecosystem. This course supports the leader’s development of decision models to predict future trends and demands, including the application of simulations determining the probability of success, as well as an analytical framework for building innovative business plans. This course has three foci. First, this course will improve physician leader’s ability to analyze complex and sophisticated decision problems and to design models of individual choice behavior, probability, and statistical decision theory. Second, this course will introduce the concepts of market analysis with emphasis on population health management. Third, this course integrates knowledge of data analytics, including statistics and epidemiology.

Students will use a suite of tools based on positive psychology, business models innovation, design thinking, high-performing teams, consumer-driven networks, and the creation and deployment of the organizational learning spiral to develop an organizational strategy plan. By introducing students to a variety of strategy and change theories and practices, with a focus on matching practice to organizational characteristics, the course builds flexibility and agility to ensure solutions are appropriate to the challenge addressed. Examining one approach more deeply, while surfacing commonalities with other models, the course provides a different lens through which to consider strategic options. The course continues to build capacity within four key design areas: consumer-driven care, inter-professional teaming, workforce wellbeing and humanizing care and services.

With the guidance and mentorship of program faculty. building on student course assignments throughout the Masters of Medical Management program, this culminating experience is based on a completed three-part management application paper. which details a proposed innovation and the creation of a positive-change intrapreneurial or entrepreneurial business plan for the prototype. This business plan includes a defined business model, applicable enabling social-change technology, plans for creation of a value network, identified consumer markets, the required inter-professional and inter-organizational collaboration, with deployment plans for iteration, ramp and scale deployment, and potential return on investment. The fully implementable business plan will be presented in an innovation competition to appropriate leaders, stakeholder and prospective investors.

Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations will introduce you to strategic thinking, strategic planning and strategic management, which are vital to successful health care organizations. This course integrates students' knowledge of management.

This managerial economics course bridges and integrates basic economic and financial management concepts with practical application to improve problem-solving skills and inform effective leadership decision-making in dynamic public health and healthcare organizations. Students apply financial management analysis tools and techniques (e.g., forecasting, budgeting, time value analysis, risk analysis) through the lens of common economic principles, including scarcity and choice, risk and uncertainty, demand and supply, and incentives. The emphasis within a market-based economy considers stakeholders (e.g., public, patients, providers, policymakers) and market imperfections, such as third-party payers, regulation, principal-agent relationship, and externalities in a global context.

This is a course on financial management  focused on making good decisions at the institutional level about investments/divestments (primarily real assets) and about the financing choices (raising and servicing capital).

The primary aim of this elective course is to present an overview of health policy in American government, its scope, dynamics, and conceptual and practical dilemmas. It is designed to acquaint students with major issues involved in formulating, implementing, and assessing patterns of decisions established by government. Because the study of policy is essentially interdisciplinary, readings for the course have been drawn from several fields, including sociology, political science, and economics. Specific areas of consideration will be addressed during the seminar through analysis and discussion of the functions of state and local government and various stakeholder groups that attempt to influence governmental action. 

This course introduces economics concepts and modeling tools applied to economic evaluation in health care. Topics include: cost analysis, effectiveness measures, cost-effectiveness, cost-utility analysis, and cost-benefit analysis. The course will use case studies to illustrate the use of economic evaluation. Students will develop skills in software to build decision tree models, and Markov models for economic evaluation. There are no prerequisites but the students should be familiar with basic geometry, algebra and statistics.

In the Health Policy Capstone students identify a health issue with a potential policy solution and then research and advocate for a health policy that addresses that issue. Students will gather research on impacts of potential solutions, develop criteria for judging among the solutions, assess the relative merits of policies, and then advocate for their chosen health policy. In class activities include breaking down the steps of policy analysis in response to selection of health policy applications. In addition to these aspects of the course, students in the Health Policy MPH program will complete the Integrated Learning Experience (ILE) by selecting competencies, developing objectives, and writing the ILE paper during this course.

Masters students and advisor select a topic for independent study and develop learning objectives and the expected written final product.

HPAM 8310 is a required course for doctoral students in the Health Policy and Management PhD program. The purpose of this course is to develop the ability to conduct theory-based research on health care organizations. To foster this development, we will examine theoretical literature along with contemporary empirical studies of health care organizations. Special focus is placed on exploring in depth the link between theory and research exhibited in this empirical work to enable students to develop the capability of using theory to guide their own research.

This course is intended for doctoral students interested in policy analysis. It will focus on when to apply the various econometric methods to panel data. Discussion will focus on how each technique is applied in practice. Techniques will include differences-in-differences, synthetic controls, regression discontinuity, and quantile regression.

The purpose of the course is to introduce techniques of economic evaluation applied to health interventions and clinical decision making. Topics covered include: cost analysis, effectiveness measures, cost-effectiveness, utility measures and cost-utility analysis, benefits of health interventions and cost-benefit analysis. The course will discuss a number of case studies in clinical health economics to illustrate the use of economic evaluation techniques in the health sector. There are no prerequisites for the course but eh student should be familiar with basic geometry, algebra and statistics.

This course develops theoretical knowledge and applied skills in designing and conducting research in heath systems. You will utilize and build upon knowledge gained in prerequisite courses as you learn to carry out each step of the research process. You will study textbooks, and articles, present reports to the class in a seminar setting, and complete a number of assignments with contribute to the experience of research design and analysis. You will develop and understanding of factors which, unless planned and accounted for, sometimes result in serious flaws in the research project.

Doctoral students and advisor select a topic for independent study and develop learning objectives and the expected final product.