Courses

Graduate

Health Administration Courses

  • SPHA–H 433 Industrial Hygiene and Radiological Health (3 cr.)  
  • SPHA–H 501 U.S. Health Care: Systems, Policies, and Ethical Challenges (3 cr.) Study of health, illness, and disease trajectories and the systemic components that mold the health care system. Ideological paradigms predicting utilization and health behaviors are addressed as are guidelines for ethical decision making/problem analysis. Formulation and implementation of organizational and governmental policies and their associate theoretical assumptions are addressed.
  • SPHA–H 503 Principles of Health Systems Management and Policy Development (3 cr.) Explores management roles in public, nonprofit, and for-profit health system environments. Application of management theories, concepts, and principles; development of ethical, professional values; and understanding managerial roles in organizational and public policy development emphasized. Managerial process, resource dependence, population ecology, contingency theory, corporate culture, ethics, and quality management processes examined.
  • SPHA–H 504 Quantitative Health Planning Methods (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501 and H 503. An examination of health planning theory, methods, and techniques, including quantitative and subjective forecasting, determination of health service area, identifying need/demand for health services, health resource allocation decision models, and standards for the design of services and facilities.
  • SPHA–H 505 Health Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 503, H 504, and V 595, or consent of instructor. Study and application of techniques to conduct, interpret, and present the design, implementation, and evaluation of health services programs. Includes collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting information. Emphasis on computer utilization and statistical analysis as a management tool. Field project required.
  • SPHA–H 507 Management of Individual and Group Behavior (3 cr.) This course provides a conceptual framework for understanding behavior in the work environment by introducing concepts concerning effective management of people in organizations. Key theories and concepts in the field of organizational behavior will be introduced. The focus of this course is at the micro level of analysis, addressing topics such as individual theories of motivation; job design; diversity issues; management of work teams; group decision making; managing conflict; and leadership, influence, and power issues.
  • SPHA–H 508 Managing Health Care Accounting Information for Decision Making (3 cr.) P: undergraduate principles of accounting. Provides a user-oriented understanding of how accounting information should be utilized, focusing on balance sheet and income statement and cash flow analysis, budgeting, cost analysis, and responsibility accounting.
  • SPHA–H 509 Financial Management Principles of Health Care (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 508 (Indianapolis only). Provides knowledge of corporate finance practice in health care organizations. Establishes an understanding of the basic elements of financial theory used to address business service expansion or contraction, capital investment issues, developing business plans, and working capital management.
  • SPHA–H 510 Health Services Financial Management (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 509. An examination of cost accounting techniques used in health care organizations, with emphasis on measuring and using cost accounting information for planning, control, and nonroutine decision making. Conceptual and quantitative practice is provided using cases and computer spreadsheet programs.
  • SPHA–H 514 Health Economics (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of undergraduate economics. Examines the principles and application of economic analysis in the health field and the economist’s approach to health care issues. Provides insights offered by economic analysis of specific health issues and problems.
  • SPHA–H 515 Seminar in Health Policy: Special Topics (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 503, or consent of instructor. Exploration of health policy topics from economic, financial, sociological, political, and psychological perspectives. Analytical paradigms are applied to organizational or macro-policy making issues that vary in response to changing environments. May be repeated once with advisor’s approval.
  • SPHA–H 516 Health Services Delivery and the Law (3 cr.) Medical-legal concepts related to hospitals and other health services organizations. Course provides an in-depth understanding of the relationships of the law and the legal processes affecting the health services system. Presentation of the elements of administrative and agency processes, torts, contracts, facilities, physicians, patients, and personnel.
  • SPHA–H 517 Managerial Epidemiology (3 cr.) Examines general epidemiologic methods such as population descriptive techniques, use of health indicators, and secondary health-related data sources. Includes design, administration, and analysis of observational and experimental studies. Emphasis will be on the use of epidemiologic techniques to assess community health, determine community risk factors, and evaluate community-based programs.
  • SPHA–H 518 Statistical Methods for Health Services (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of undergraduate statistics. Study of the quantitative techniques commonly used to examine health-related data. Includes univariate, bivariate, and multivariate techniques. Emphasis is on using statistical techniques to make policy and administrative decisions in a health services setting. Students use standard computer software to analyze data.
  • SPHA–H 519 Environmental Health (3 cr.) This course provides a broad yet in-depth investigation of human interaction with the environment, the major elements of environmental health, and the effects which uncontrolled environmental hazards may have on people’s physical, mental, and social well­being.
  • SPHA–H 521 Management Science for Health Services Administration (3 cr.) Focus is on management science methods, as applied to health sciences administration. Includes treatment of decision theory, constrained optimization, and probability simulation.
  • SPHA–H 523 Health Services Human Resources Management (3 cr.) This course provides the knowledge and skills needed to understand the application of personnel and labor relations techniques to the health services sector, with particular emphasis on human resources management, employees’ benefit programs, and labor relations as applied to the health services delivery organization.
  • SPHA–H 533 Industrial Hygiene (3 cr.) P: One semester each of algebra, organic chemistry, and inorganic chemistry. Survey of technical and regulatory aspects of protecting the health and safety of workers. Topics include basic toxicology; skin, eye, and respiratory hazards; measuring hazardous atmospheres; ventilation systems; fire and explosion hazards; emergency response; occupational hearing loss; radiation; prevention of accidents; cumulative trauma; and personal protective equipment.
  • SPHA–H 601 Hospital Organization and Management (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 503, or V 504, or consent of instructor. Study of the organization and management of hospital clinical, support, and administrative functions. Examination of performance evaluation techniques for health managers. Analysis of special operational problems and administrative ethics. Requirements of the Joint Commission Accreditation of Hospitals emphasized.
  • SPHA–H 602 Mental Health Services Organization and Management (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 503, or V 504, or consent of instructor. Study of the organizations and systems for delivery of mental health services; emphasis on the management and financing of psychiatric services.
  • SPHA–H 603 Nursing Home Organization and Management (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 503, or V 504, or consent of instructor. Study of the purpose, organization, and management of nursing homes and residential care facilities involving long-term, specialty treatment. Emphasis on personal and professional skills necessary to provide a wide range of services and quality care in these environments.
  • SPHA–H 604 Ambulatory Care and Managed Care Programs (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 503, or V 504, or consent of instructor. Study of the organizational and managerial aspects of ambulatory health services delivery. Focus on delivery strategies and organizational models and on the operational issues of financial control, personnel, regulation, and evaluation.
  • SPHA–H 605 Multi-Institutional Systems and Arrangements (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 503, or V 504, or consent of instructor. Students will be exposed to developing innovations in health services delivery structures in both the proprietary and nonprofit sectors. Emphasis will be placed on the organization and management of multi-institutional arrangements such as sharing, mergers, management contracts, consortium, and so forth.
  • SPHA–H 606 Health Services Quality Improvement and Risk Management (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 503, and V 504. Critically examines the concepts, strategies, and techniques related to the improvement of the quality of health service delivery. Addresses the increasing need to enhance productivity given the impact of external and other factors on the workplace. Principles and application of risk management concepts and techniques, including insurance, are emphasized.
  • SPHA–H 607 Public Health Organization and Management (3 cr.) The course provides a broad overview of the history of public health in the United States and an analysis of the structure and function of public health and voluntary health agencies.
  • SPHA–H 612 Marketing for Health Services Delivery (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 503, H 504, or consent of instructor. The course provides a working knowledge and the skills required to market health services. Health institution–based projects are emphasized.
  • SPHA–H 615 Health Care Outcomes and Decision Making (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 502, H 514, H 518. Application of health outcomes measures in decision making and evaluation in various health service settings. Includes designing and implementing evaluation plans of health and social programs. Emphasis on evaluation strategies, measurement of health outcomes, and management decision making.
  • SPHA–H 620 Health Services Seminar (3 cr.) Characterized as the program’s capstone course, this seminar is designed to assist the student in synthesizing and summarizing all previous course work. Course emphasizes “real-world” situations and requires active participation by the students.
  • SPHA–H 621 Management Applications Skills I (3 cr.) P: all required SPEA-H 500-level courses except H 510. A study of the complexities of multi-institutional arrangements and integrated services in the health industry. Topics include the shift to regional alliances, multiprovider networks, integrated physician-hospital relationships, shared risk contracting, and capitated insurance products. This course focuses on understanding the forces driving shifts in the roles of different settings in the health care environment.
  • SPHA–H 622 Management Applications Skills II (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 621. This second of three courses in the management application skills sequence focuses on applying skills to and making comparisons among specific health care settings. Topics include quality assurance, quality improvement, and risk management; cost finding, rate setting, financing, payment, and reimbursement; and human resource management, recruiting, and labor relations.
  • SPHA–H 624 Developing Strategic Capability (3 cr.) An introduction to tools for strategic management and the complexities involved in determining long-term strategies in a health care environment. An examination of the dynamics of the competitive environment, how both the pace and direction of industry change are influenced by the resources, capabilities, and interactions of rival organizations.
  • SPHA–H 623 Health Care Applications of Strategic Management (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 502, H 510, H 521. Students will synthesize the previous course work into their capstone experience. Includes strategic management analytical models and their use in evaluative decision making. Students will gain competencies in strategic and managerial analytical skills through class discussion and practical application through a required interactive group project.
  • SPHA–H 627 Seminar in Advanced Health Finance (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 509 and H 510. An advanced seminar in health services management dealing with cases, problems, and contemporary health finance issues. Student presentations emphasized.
  • SPHA–H 628 Health Care Information Systems (3 cr.) A study of the terminology, technology, and application of information systems in various health care settings. Topics include the gathering, organization, storage, and retrieval of complex data banks, as well as assessment of health service data needs and considerations in developing information systems. Includes many computer-based exercises.
  • SPHA–H 630 Readings in Health Services Administration (1–3 cr.) Supervised readings in selected areas of health services management and policy and planning. For advanced students; open to others by arrangement.
  • SPHA–H 640 Topics in Health Services Administration (1–3 cr.) Selected research and discussions emerging in health services administration. Topics, organized in a semester­by-semester seminar format, will not cover topics available in other courses.
  • SPHA–H 650 Strategies for Career Preparation (1.5 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 502, H 508, H 514. This course will provide guidance in finding and preparing for a summer health care internship. Covers skills necessary to successfully obtain and have a health care summer internship. Skills include interviewing, presentation, resume development, and other work-related skills.
  • SPHA–H 700 Residency (1–6 cr.) Requires the equivalent of 6 credit hours of on-site experience under the supervision of a qualified preceptor and program faculty; students who opt for longer residencies may continue to register for this course each semester. Grading is on an S/F basis.
  • SPHA–H 702 Internship in Health Services Management (3 cr.) P: SPEA-H 501, H 509, H 514, H 650. Requires the equivalent of a minimum of 3 credit hours of on-site experience under the supervision of a qualified preceptor and program faculty. Grading is on an S/F basis.
  • SPHA–H 735 Research in Health Administration (3–6 cr.) P: all core courses or consent of instructor. Field research conducted under the direction of a faculty member. Designed for advanced students and those who elected not to take the residency or internship. Grading is on an S/F basis.

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